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| Here are the Certificates of completion and also a special recognition from the class leaders for our "FPU attitude, paying cash for a new car, and being an inspiration" |
We started this class mostly wanting to know a smart way to invest our money for our future (ie. starting a family with me staying at home, retirement, paying off our mortgages). We learned so much more! the first of the 3 main things that impacted us was the way you view money and how you spend it. Normal these days is to be in debit and lots of it and the challenge is to commit to "live like no one else, so you can LIVE like no one else." this means that if to be normal is to be in debit then we dont want to be normal. We learned that if you dont put a name on every dollar you earn then it doesn't fulfill its purpose in your financial goals, you must manage your money or else it will manage you. This is why a budget is essential in managing your money. tell your money what to do! Not the other way around. Also instilling "old fashion values" of money like if you dont have the cash DONT BUY IT till you have saved up the money. We were able to do this with our new car. (dad taught me that one tho!)
The budget was also instrumental in managing money but also help within our relationship. Kevin and I like so many couples would bicker about money and finances almost weekly. He has always been great with saving and budgeting but I never wanted to spend the time on it and didnt always feel i had any input on where the money was going. This put a lot of pressure on Kevin to make sure we weren't overdrawing our account and that our bills were paid along with everything else he does. The class taught us our personality types and how we can better communicate with each other and do the budget together. This allowed me to have a say in where the money flowed which made me more on board with the budget and sticking to it. And Kevin didnt have to do it alone anymore as long as his budget meetings lasted 15 min or so and not a whole weekend! My budget attention span is very short! Since we got the basic budget hammered out (which took about 2 months to really work for us) we were then able to figure out what "baby step" we were on in the program, and set goals for our finances. After all if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time! We are on step 3! First baby step is $1000 emergency fund, second baby step is "debit snowball" where you pay off all debit except your mortgage (on average this can take 1-2 years but a couple in our class have been doing it for 4 and will be debit free next month), Third baby step is 3-6 months of expenses saved in an account. Once we get that then we start working on putting away 15% of our income into retirement(mutual funds, 401k) and we are 3/4 of the way of getting there!
Ultimately our goal is to be debit free so that our household income can be free do what we want as well as give to those in need, and support Missions and sending teens from our church on missions trips each year.
Later in life when we retire we are going to use our retirement for ourselves to go on missions trips and travel if it is in the Lords plan.
Our last lesson today was about Us being managers of Gods money and that "stuff" doesn't fulfill you, you need to give of your wealth to those in need. Imagine your monthly income, and then imagine you only had to tithe and pay for utilities, now imagine what you could do with what was left over! I long for the time that i can just write a check out to someone in need right then and there on the spot! My heart is for kids and missions I would love to support an orphanage in Africa, or help people who need help with the costs of adopting a child. Just something to think about.
Anyway I really hope that you will check into what FPU is all about and hopefully start your journey toward financial peace. Here are a couple videos to get you started:
Have a blessed week!
