The Foundation

In 2006, my mom gave me the best gift she could have EVER given me.  As I said in a previous post, she had been attending the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church and let me borrow the CD's of the lessons she was going through.  

 

At first I thought, what is this guy going to be able to teach me about money, and I was certain it would be a boring, monotone lecture like I was used to from my college professors.  I listened to the first CD on my drive down I-75 from Rossville, GA back to school in Marietta, GA.   To my surprise, these weren't academia type lectures at all.  They were funny, entertaining and most importantly to me based on God's game plan.  So I listened to the other (12) discs by the end of the week.

 

You see, I had never thought about reading the Bible to learn how to handle money.  I mean, yeah the Bible is were you go to learn about Heaven and Hell, Love and Jesus, but money?  Why would God have a plan for my money?  I was shocked to find that there are over 800 versus that deal with how to handle money and possessions...that's more than all the versus about Love, Heaven and Hell put together.  Apparently, God knew that this would be an important issue/struggle in all our lives.

 

The process laid out in FPU made so much sense to me and allowed us to focus on one step at a time to intentionally walk toward the goal of managing the money God has blessed us with, His way.  And I have found over and over again that His way WORKS.

 

Due to the process I learned, my wife and I have been able to achieve the following in the past 6 years...

• Pay off Student Loan Debt of $12,000 in 60 DAYS 

• Build our Emergency Fund to 6+ Months of Expenses 

• Put $30,000 Down on Our First Home

• Invest 15% of Our Income For Retirement 

• Save for Our Children's College

• Buy 2 Cars with Cash  

• Put $62,000 Down on Our Second Home 

   

  NEXT GOAL: Pay off house within 5 years

 

Having NO DEBT (except for our home) for the past 5 years has been an experience I can't explain in words.  Brittany and I have so much PEACE when it comes to finances and we almost NEVER have even the smallest disagreement when it comes to money.  

 

It all started with my Mom and I thank her for that.  The gift she gave was and is more important in our lives than she ever could have known.

The Wife

Who can find a can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; and he will have no lack of gain.  Proverbs 31:10-11

As I sit here at 5 am after an early morning feeding of our now 2 month old baby girl Kylie, I'm thinking about how lucky I am to have met Brittany in college and kept her attention long enough to convince her to be my wife.  You see, even though she got almost no sleep last night, she still fought me when I "volunteered" to take this feeding.

 

 Since our daughter was born, Brittany has all but refused to let me spend weeknights tending to the baby's needs (while she's on maternity leave).  She understands that I will perform better at my job if I am well rested.  I tell her all the time that taking care of a baby all day and night is MUCH harder than my job could ever dream of being, but she still insists.

 

 TALK ABOUT A VIRTUOUS WIFE. She is unknowingly fulfilling the Proverb allowing me the ability to perform diligently at my job...therefore having NO LACK OF GAIN.

 

 I do however take for granted the part of the Proverb, "his heart safely trusts her" more than I should.  I am VERY bad about keeping things inside until the emotions are ready to explode.  There has almost never been a time that Brittany wasn't right in helping me sort through whether something was a good or bad idea.  She believes in me and supports the good ideas without fail and helps me realize that all ideas are not necessarily great.  I don't know why I'd ever take her for granted in this area, but it's something I am and will continue working on.

 

 I have been blessed by God with a virtuous wife...and He has been faithful to us.  He has proven this Proverb as we have had "no lack of gain."

 

 I LOVE YOU HONEY!

The Why?

When starting on a new journey it's always good to start with the Why?. 

 

From 2002-2006 I attended Southern Polytechnic State University (long name I know).  I dated a smoking hot girl (now my wife) for most of my college career and she had a credit card.  My mom had always been against credit cards and never allowed me to have one, but I was a MAN now.  And as a MAN, I couldn't be without a credit card while my girlfriend showed me up.  Luckily, there were always companies on campus that were more than happy to give a broke college student with student loan debt a credit card...AND A FREE T-SHIRT OR WATER BOTTLE.  I signed on the dotted line and got a credit card JUST for "emergencies" and a free t-shirt.

THANK GOD they only gave me a $1,000 credit limit.  My "emergencies" turned out to be things like a new surround sound system.  Keep in mind, I lived in the on campus dorms, but I had a sound system that could shake the walls 10 doors down.  Real "emergency" huh?   I maxed this credit card out with "emergencies" so quickly I didn't even know what happened.

In 2006, my mom attended a crazy class at church called Financial Peace University by some guy named Dave Ramsey.  Financial principles based on Biblical truths.  She thought I could benefit from the material offered in this class so she gave me the audio CD's that came with her class kit.  I listened to all 13 discs in a matter of days and was hooked. 

Long story short...I paid off my credit card and cut it up.  My wife took a little more convincing, but once she saw it was working she followed suit.  When we graduated college in December 2006 we had a total student loan debt of $12,000 (all my debt).  We got really focused on eliminating this debt and paid it completely off in 2, yes 2, MONTHS.  We were DEBT FREE!

We then saved up a 6 month emergency fund and saved 20% to put down on our first home.  We are currently in the process of moving into a larger home since our family of 2 has become a family of 4 over the past 5 years, and our next goal is to pay off our home early and be COMPLETELY DEBT FREE.

I believe in this process so much that I trained with Dave Ramsey and his team in January 2009 to become a Certified Financial Counselor.  I have since worked with dozens of singles, couples and families 1 on 1 to better their financial situations. 

My WHY? for this blog is to be able to get the message out to a larger audience.  God has a plan for your money that works. 

Most of what you'll find here are Biblical truths about money and life, along with my opinions and stories about the same.  Thanks for reading and I hope you come back.

Proverbs 22:7 - The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.