What I've Learned So Far?

Intriguing question. I'm sure you're already hooked and HAVE to read the rest of this blog. Because based on my previous blogging history, I'm full of wisdom. Right? Right. I'm glad we agree.

If you don't agree, close this window now.

Ahem.

And just a warning... this isn't one of my funnier blogs. Sorry.

About a week or so ago I blogged about the 'Financial Peace University' class that we're hosting with a group of people at our house. My friend Amani posted a good question - "What is one of the most significant things you have learned?"

I can't really answer that in one answer. So let's pick my top 3. Is that okay? #3 will be my top one... I can't give it up right away. It takes away the suspense... you know?

1. Relevance: Literally every couple (or single) in the group is in a totally different place. We have a long married couple in their 50's all the way down to a newly married couple in college with no kids and lots of variation in between. And you know what? We're ALL getting tons of good stuff from the class. So I think the first thing I'm getting from the class is that no matter where you're at in life, this stuff is relevant and can make a BIG, HUGE difference in your life.

2. Budgeting: It's amazing how much a GOOD budget can change your marriage. GASP! I'm not exaggerating. We've had a budget for our whole marriage. By budget, according to how we worked it... was a loose categorization of how we thought we might want to spend our money. And then we'd not really follow it. Except I think for a little while in the first few years of our marriage.

We've kind of taken turns doing our money stuff and just sort of let the other one know what we'd done for the month. Not a very good plan since our lives and our futures are really one and the same. We had to do a VERY detailed budget (it's provided) TOGETHER in this class and STICK TO IT. And it's so much easier to do that when you do it together. And you know what? We had our first real money fight. Don't worry though. It was a good thing!

You know how money is considered "the least" in terms of importance in the Bible? Well, it's not the least, like don't thing about it or be responsible or do anything with it. There are 100's of verses about money... so it must actually be important. But what we're figuring out in our relationship is that when there is order in the financial area of our life, Luke and I have so much more emotional and spiritual room to deal with the more important areas of our marriage and relationship. Does that make sense? There is peace in an area that should be "the least" instead of chaos which can make it front and center in our lives.

And we're not the only ones feeling this way. Every married couple in the group will vouch for this. It's awesome! It's actually changed a few marriages BIG TIME!!! I'm including Luke and I in this statement. Weird that a budget can do this, huh! Usually you think... marriage counseling or a marriage retreat. But money is such an intertwining part of our lives and so many of us have no idea how to actually "do" this part of life... you know what I mean?? And every single person in the class had some kind of negative connotation with the word "budget" but now we're all realizing how freeing it is. I know that when I spend the money I'm spending, I'm allowed to spend it. It's not supposed to be going somewhere else. It's a good feeling.

3. Debt: Believe it or not, Luke and I didn't have any debt other than a very small mortgage and a pithy car payment (which was a bad idea) until we'd been married over 3 years. Then we graduated from college, started making money and did what most "adults" do. We borrowed money because we thought we "deserved" the stuff we were buying, we could "afford" the payments, etc. How wrong we were...

And we've been trying to clean up this mess for quite awhile. And we haven't been succeeding.

This class has taught us HOW to clean up our debt mess in a totally simple, but not easy, way. Simple and easy are not the same. It's simple because I can't really get confused on how the process works. It's that simple. But it is SO hard. We've had to change everything that we've been doing in our lives and we're living like we're broke and killing our debt like crazy. Even though we have income every month, we kinda are broke... all that debt puts us in a negative net worth. Huh.

But we're actually making a big dent in our debt and we have such a different view on debt. Dave Ramsey says normal is broke... so who wants to be normal? And you know what? I really don't anymore. And I'm willing to go the distance and do the work to be weird.

And so...

That's just a few things that I've loved about this class. I actually read 'Total Money Makeover' first and I'd recommend that because it's an easy read, really entertaining and kind of gets you on a fast track before the class starts. The class is much more detailed and I've learned so much. Why don't they teach this stuff in high school or college? It's way more relevant than every single thing I learned there... plus, we laugh so hard sometimes over the classes that I'm worried we'll wake up Hudson... so it's fun too!

He never does but isn't it always just the worst when a sleeping baby is woken up by the dog or loud construction or... or... whatever it is... it's just the WORST. And with that, I'm going to go and clean up the mess from last night's group while Hudson is still asleep.