Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Let's have a chat about finances....

After posting about paying cash for our new home, a few people were asking about how we were able to accomplish that feat. I am going to start posting on Friday's about how we got to where we are at in our financial journey.
Before we started on our journey we were very much in debt. About four years ago (2010) we became very concerned about the economy and our impending retirement.
First, there is a difference between actually owning something and having something.
The realization hit there is a fallacy in thinking that “we owned our home”. At that point we owned three vehicles, which were paid off. That is what owning something means to me. We had (have a house) a house, which we were in debt on, i.e. mortgage, which actually means the bank owns the house. There is a distinction there.
We had built a “craft room” onto our home, which was where my mother in law lived until she died. That was a wise choice in my opinion. After she passed away we earned additional income by having people live there.


The "craft room" has a bedroom, bathroom, living room & kitchen

We are not rich. Though I often find people never define themselves a rich. Rich is what people are who make more money than you do. We are well educated, but both of us have chosen to work blue color, service industry jobs. DH does several things to bring in additional money to include teaching Utah Concealed Carry courses and fixing vehicles.

Today's focus point is understanding your why?
We realized we really needed to get out of debt. At that point we didn't even have a thought about paying cash for another house. For some reason it finally clicked we were committed to getting and staying out of debt. 2010, that was the year.
Why do you want to get out of debt? Really think about it. How serious are you? What are you willing to give up to attain that goal? Write that reason down, post it on your fridge or carry it with you in your wallet. Wrap it around your credit cards.

We are all at different points in our financial journey. Only you are able to make the decision to change your thought process and take the first steps to get out of debt. You can use any excuse you want to, but the reality is you got yourself into debt (there are few true exceptions), only you can get yourself out of debt.
I want you to feel free to chime in and share your “why” if you want to.
Next week I will talk about how important is your why...
For more information...
10/10/14 I am currently adding more blogs posts to explain a little more in detail about how we got to this point in our journey. These posts are listed here under "Financial"


2 comments:

  1. Because of our life choices, I have little to count on except SS, and hubs had military career and now works for USGov. We are "supposed" to have health care, and retirement by the USGov. But with the way things are going, I am afraid it wont be there, or will be so compromised by the time we get to that age as to make it nearly useless. Hubs has medical issues that will eventually push him into the VA system, (and THAT scares the crap outta me). I would prefer to have our things paid for and money in the bank. So I am looking for a way to set us up to grow most of our own vegetables, find local meat sources, learn to can, find people to barter with, stock food now while income is higher, and hopefully, look to add solar to our energy source. I read about all kinds of reasons to prep, but I am of a like mind with you, I think the economy will be the bigger factor, *sigh* , though the viral and bacterial factors nowadays cannot be ignored.

    KTate

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    1. KTate,
      I hear you my dear. Our planning is to be as self sufficient as possible. Mr. Perky is working beyond retirement and I just can't see SS maintaining its viability forever as we boomers continue to flood the system.
      Know we are on this journey together. Just keep doing what you are able. ~Perky~

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