Don't Love Money, But Don't Hate It Either

Money, having it, dealing with it, moving it around... I despised the process and execution, so much so that I used to try to get rid of it as quickly as I could. If there was any left at the end of the week, I found somewhere for it to go, church, homeless person, gifts for my kids, eating out. I figured if it was in the account, God wanted me to use it to be a blessing, so off it went. The love of it is warned as evil, and I took this warning as a reason to detest it.

This caused me to ignore the needs of my family. Yes, we almost always had food covered, and the mortgage always seemed to get paid, but expenses we should have saved up for instead were "emergencies." This is when we whipped out the credit card. We had rental property, and each had a loan against it. When something broke at any one of our 5 houses, it was always put on credit. One time we bought three refrigerators in one day!

After a few years of this, we found ourselves in over $100,000 worth of credit card debt. At first the available credit and the debt was more of a comfort than having money in the bank. It felt "safe" to have a place to  run when the money ran out. 

Far from being safe, the credit card was a noose. Our credit score was in the 800s, and the banks just kept handing us more rope to hang ourselves with, and as the debt grew, I started having trouble sleeping. I soon had to face the reality that we just couldn't pay this debt.

My husband and I decided to consult a bankruptcy attorney. I was hoping to get a truthful opinion of our situation, but as Dave says, "asking a bankruptcy attorney if you should file is like asking a dog if it is hungry." We went through bankruptcy, and far from it being a solution, it was just another web of complexities that tied us down for years afterward. 

After the fog cleared, we decided it was best to "build our credit" again by taking out a car loan, then a credit card, then another. Soon we found ourselves back in $25,000 in debt again!

This is when I called the Ramsey show. In the past, my husband and I had read his book, and another book from Robert Kiyosaki. We had tried to do a "Ramsey-ish" plan in the past, and only having "good debt."

That didn't work. When I talked to Dave, I told him my hate-hate relationship with money, and he helped me to see it was not the money I should fear. I needed to control my money, instead of letting it control me.

He gifted my husband and I Financial Peace University, and we faithfully met with our instructor and went through all the material meticulously. It changed me, it change my husband, and it changed our relationship with money, and each other. In a year and 2 months, we had all our debt, except for our home, paid off. We closed all debt accounts, and we are not looking back.

Now we have money in savings and the bank is paying us interest instead of the other way around. We have started saving for retirement, and although we are a little late to the game, we should have enough to retire.

I started The Money Mom to help those who are in desperate situations, like we were, find a path out. If you need help paying off debt, learning how to save, making a budget, or changing your money habits, contact me at themoneymomfromramsey@gmail.com.

You can do this!

Christine, The Money Mom