I’ve jumped off the deep end and am chugging the Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid. Hell, I stayed up till 2:30 am reading and finished the book today. Overall, I’ve realized that my parents did a really job teaching me about money; I just did a bad job of learning. Hindsight, thou art a heartless bitch. I also wrote an amazing version of this post last night and managed to DELETE it. Torture.
When I was 17, I thought I was smart and knew about money. I worked during high school and felt a sense of pride making and saving money. I decided to attend Virginia Tech and to finance out-of-state tuition with student loans. I was pre-med and expected to finish medical school making five to six times my $20,000 per year loans. It wasn’t all bad: I met my best friends and my husband in college.
But I changed. I changed my major three times in four years, the pre-med dream ended freshman year, and I met Mac junior year. We decided to move in together after I graduated. Mac was debt-free because of his ROTC scholarship, while I took a job with a $35,000 salary in a weakened job market and almost $80,000 in debt.
We were different than most military couples: childless with two incomes. I lived off my own salary while Mac was deployed. I paid my bills but didn’t make any sort of headway in savings. He saved most of what he made, but we financed a wedding a few months after he got back. I would say that we’re not doing too shabby financially. But I did walk away from a steady paycheck because the money wasn’t worth the misery.
Obviously, we can do better. We spend the “American” way, according to Dave. Our paychecks arrive, we pay the bills, buy what we want, and wonder where the hell the money is at the end of the month. It clicked last night that you can spend your paycheck by moving it to your savings account right away. I always thought that it was better to have $100 in checking the day before payday than to have it in savings. Ultimately, I would end up spending that $100 because it was there.
Now that I’m earning an “irregular” income, we’re going to plan our budget off of Mac’s income and use mine as a supplement. We just need to take a hard look at our finances and be tough on ourselves. We don’t carry credit card debt, car payments, or a mortgage. I want us to pay off my student loans (or reduce them dramatically) and start retirement investments before we have kids. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, and we’re not trying to become instant millionaires.
We can do it. I have a sense of empowerment that my debt won’t control our future. We can buy a house and plan for retirement. My piece of advice: get a copy of Dave Ramsey’s Complete Guide to Money or enroll in Financial Peace University (if it’s offered on your area). You won’t regret it!
