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SPRING 2020

HOMESCHOOL IOWA 11

my husband and I had good jobs, we didn’t

havemuchmoney in the bank. It didn’t make

sense. I thought I was good at handling mon-

ey because we could make all of our pay-

ments, and we didn’t have any “credit card”

debt.

The reason I have “credit

card” in quotes is that I didn’t

consider it credit card debt

because I wasn’t writing a

check to Visa, Mastercard, or

Discover. The bulk of our debt

was in vehicle payments, but

we had also bought a house,

and then there were all of

those store cards I mentioned

earlier. In my mind, none of

those were “credit cards,” but

that’s exactly what they were.

The payments were draining

us. When we sat down and

added it up, we had accumu-

lated $64,000 in debt. I am

embarrassed to say, we did

it unknowingly. We had no

idea how much debt we had

gotten into because we were only looking at

the payments.

We got on a plan, got embarrassed and

mad, and went to work about getting out of

debt. We figured out the correct way to cre-

ate a budget, or spending plan. This was one

of the most instrumental things we did in

gaining control back. I didn’t realize you had

to make a plan BEFORE the month started.

What a concept!

I wish I could say that we were committed

and intentional about our get-out-of-debt

journey, but we wandered for a while. We

didn’t take on any new debt during this time,

but we took vacations and still did a lot of un-

necessary spending. We have now been out

of debt for 5 years. We drive a 2007 Chevy

Impala and a 2010 Chevy Traverse, both with

over 170,000 miles on them. I can tell you

that I wish we would have been more inten-

tional about getting out of debt. Actually, I

wish I would have listened to my parents

in the beginning. Getting out of debt has

changed our lives, our marriage, and our out-

look on life!

I find that many people are in the same boat.

We wander into debt because, in all honesty,

that’s what society tells us to do. We aren’t

looking at the big picture, just the small bite-

sized snapshots advertisers tell us to look at.

We are trained not to ask about how much

it costs, but instead, how much is the pay-

ment. We are told that of course we deserve

the big house, the nice car, and all the things

our hearts desire. I am not here to tell you

that you don’t deserve them. I think you do. I

AM here to encourage you to approach these

purchasing decisions with patience.

My parents modeled fiscal responsibility

and patience, but those are two lessons I had

to learn on my own. Patience is one of the

best lessons we can learn when it comes to

managing our money well:

Patience to save up for what

we want, patience to know

that where we are spending

our money is where we truly

wanted it to go. Learning pa-

tience as a principle of money

management helps us avoid

buyer’s remorse the day after

a shopping spree or the next

month when that first pay-

ment rolls around.

Patience is easier to learn

when we are shown why it

is valuable. Looking back, it

would have been so helpful

for me to have had some in-

tentional training in money

management to showme this

before college, a course that

would have prepared me for the decisions

that I would have to face, a course that would

have shown me the consequences of mak-

ing those decisions, decisions that seemed

harmless at the time, but ended up having

long-term consequences. My parents were

great examples and they talked with me

about money, but I still entered adulthood

ill-equipped to deal with the sales pitches I

encountered every time I shopped, to sign

up for a store card in order to get a discount,

to go ahead and finance that car that’s a little

more than I should spend and lock myself

into a 6-year payment plan, or to “buy now,

pay later” to get the living room set I wanted.

The older we get, the harder it is to make

changes. The deeper in debt that we get, the

longer it takes to dig ourselves out. I chal-

lenge parents to not only take control of

their own finances and model good finan-

cial management, but to also make sure that

their kids are taught financial management

in an intentional way. Teach your kids to shop

for groceries with a list and a budget. Teach

them about utilities, and explore ways to re-

duce your utility usage. Talk about howmuch

time and money interest adds to a loan. Look

for money management courses for your

teens that teach them about the value of

budgeting. Help set your kids on a path for

financial success in the long term by being as

intentional about their financial education as

you are about teaching them to read.

Emily Barber, Financial Coach with Take Control Financial.

Learn more at

www.takecontrolfinancial.com

b

Patience is one

of the best

lessons we can

learn when it

comes to

managing our

money well...

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