You Can't Buy a Farm if You're In Debt

 This metamorphosis of my own life and our family's lifestyle began more than five years ago.  I am pretty certain the catalyst of all this change was when my dear daddy died in 2008.  It was in 2008 when I just up & quit my corporate public relations job, decided to look at money differently, and even remarried my ex-husband (yep, but that is a story for another day!)

Five years ago, my husband and I took the Crown Financial Ministries Bible Study / Class at our church.  It changed my life forever.  The primary gist of Crown is that debt is a sin, spending more than you earn is bad, saving & investing is critical, giving is good, and that financial freedom is actually possible!  We didn't know it at that time, but the journey to become debt-free with the ability to be more generous with our time and money would be key to being able to purchase a farm of our own one day soon.

It was difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel in those early days.  I am nothing if not optimistic, systematic, and determined when I set my mind to do something.  After taking a good hard look at our financial picture, developing a solid plan of where each dollar will go, and a few other administrative housekeeping things - we saved our $1,000 emergency fund!!  We had never saved that much money in our lives and the feeling was incredible!  If we can do that - think of what else we can accomplish!! YAY!

Paying off the credit card debt was our next goal.  That did seem remotely possible, but likely to take a long time.  This past spring, I crossed that finish line and paid off the final card!  The next few months I spent socking away every extra penny, nickle, or dime I could find and grew my family's emergency fund to about six months living expenses.  The emergency fund is for true emergencies that you can't cover with cash - the fridge dies, the car blows up, unexpected medical bills, etc.  It gives me a peaceful feeling of security to have that in place.

Now the focus is on retirement funds, the children's college funds, and annihilating the small home equity loan I have.  I am so ready to knock that payment out and put the full force of this gazelle intensity to abolishing the home mortgage loan.  I hope to find "The Farm" and sell my current home within the next two to three years so that would eliminate the current mortgages and any profit from the sell would be a big help in the down payment on my big farm (wherever it is - I don't yet know).

If you want to change your financial life and forecast, you can.  It takes dedication of putting systems and programs into place to help you stay on track.  I'd be happy to help anyone who wants to figure out how to stop living paycheck to paycheck start on this road to financial freedom - just email me!  I think I may need to volunteer and facilitate a Dave Ramsey or Crown Financial class one of these days....