FINANCIAL PEACE

I LOVE MY JOB! Well actually I LOVE MY JOBS, since I have several. I love painting furniture for folks, capturing photos to last a lifetime, creating cool stuff out of junk, taking care of my house and family, being a teacher, and BEING A MOM. I LOVE THEM ALL! One thing that I am so fortunate to have done is go to college and get a degree. NPayne was not that fortunate....honestly it was due to many things....but he wasn't really motivated enough, his mom couldn't help him pay for it, and he had to work to help his mom pay their bills. I'm not suggesting that you can only go to college if your parents pay for it....believe me I was fortunate enough to have my parents cover my college expenses....but many people I know paid for it all by themselves. I have no intention of paying for all 5 of my children to go to college. NPayne and I will help them, and we have discussed offering them an incentive....."you get a scholarship, we'll match it", "get all A's and B's, we'll cover your tuition", etc. But honestly we can't afford to send all of our children to college, and even if we could; we wouldn't pay for all of their college. That's a decision we made a long time ago....it may not be right for everyone....but it's right for us. Anyhoo....NPayne wasn't afforded the luxury of college....as I said partly due to circumstance and partly due to his own decision. He doesn't want to seem hypocritical when he tells our children to go to college, and he would like to really love what he does, so he has been contemplating going to college. One thing that he has told our children....over and over and over....is to go to college, so that hopefully they will have a choice in what they do for a living....hopefully they will love what they do. You see NPayne doesn't! Don't misunderstand, he has a good paying job that we are extremely grateful for; and he doesn't hate his job. BUT....he's not ecstatic about it, and he doesn't have a great or even a good working environment. However for the time being that's where he is staying, because honestly we need his income. I have offered to go back to work full time, so that he could get a lower paying job that he would LOVE; but he wants to stick with our decision that we made a long time ago....that I would wait until all of our children were in school. We started Financial Peace 3 or so years ago, and it has been the hardest but best thing we have done! I'm telling ya....living on a cash only diet is HARD for us, but it's so great to know that we aren't adding anymore to the outrageous debt that Americans have. Again don't misunderstand....we have debt....but we are slowly paying it off. In a few years, when Elliot is in school....our house will almost be paid for in FULL...YAHOO; and I will be working more. Then we plan to kick that debt's booty! We have some friends....who started Financial Peace about 6 months before we did....and with them both working 2 jobs....they paid off $85,000 in 3 years. They are my motivation....it can be done! It can be done, and we are going to do it too....not in 3 years....but not over our entire lifetime either! As challenging as it is to live on such a tight budget, I feel like it is a reward as well. Living on cash only has made us really pick and choose what we spend money on....besides the usual living expenses. It has made us realize that we don't "need" 1/10 of what we use to think we did! I really encourage anyone, who has debt of any amount or uses credit cards regularly, to check out Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. It may not be the easiest change you will make, but it will change your life.