Debt-free is the way to be!

I feel safe to say that no one grows up with dreams of living a life of debt. It’s just something that most of us fall in to without really noticing until we are deeply consumed in debt. I remember the feeling when my husband and I received our first credit card. It was with a local retail store in our hometown. We thought we were something special! But this is where it all began to fall apart. At first, the payments were easy to make. Unfortunately, what was just a little debt turned into a lot of debt.

All of sudden we began receiving credit card offers in the mail. We were preapproved! But, the devil is in the details. The interest rates were unbelievably high and the minimum payments only covered the interest. The principal balance just kept increasing even though we were making payments. We just couldn’t seem to dig our way out of the hole of debt!

Then we both needed newer cars or so we thought. The new car smell was gone on the other cars so it had to be time to purchase another one. Sound familiar to you? So here we were with credit card debt, 2 car payments, and a mortgage. It was difficult just to stay afloat. Living paycheck to paycheck was a stark reality. I began to realize this was not the life I had dreamed of and I decided it was time to turn things around. I began reading all I could find on getting out of debt. I didn’t know if it would really work for us, but I felt we had to give it a shot.

Budgets weren’t familiar to me so I basically had to learn everything from the ground up. This is one of the reasons I am so passionate about helping you take control and get out of debt. There is so much information out there to help and I want to make it easy for you.

According to an article on www.Moneycrashers.com, only 40% of families in America use a budget. In other words more than half of all American families don’t use budgets. Over the next few blogs, I intend to break the budget down into doable steps. We will walk through the process together.  A good article to read with a graphical breakdown of the average American budget can be found at: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/how-the-average-american-family-spends-their-income-and-how-to-trim-it/.

Remember there isn’t a quick fix for getting out of debt. Commit to making the changes in your spending and saving habits that are necessary to turning your financial situation around for the good. You are in this for the long haul. Short bursts of energy may seem good at the time, but it is the finish that is important. You can and must finish this debt-free marathon! You owe it to your family to leave a strong financial legacy!