August 22, 2006
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No Sweat No Debt
We hosted a seminar two weekends ago called No Sweat No Debt. A guy named Steve Diggs spoke to our church Sunday morning and really touched the hearts of many people. Then he hosted a seminar Sunday night and Monday night on finances. We had 176 people show up Sunday night and 150+ show back up on Monday night. This is a large crowd of people to take time to go to a seminar on financial matters. Most people don’t want to admit that they could use some help on the financial matters in their lives so we were very pleased with the attendance.
This was the 206th seminar that Steve had done and we booked him a year ago to come and talk to us. Needless to say the message he had was biblically based and touched the hearts of everyone in attendance. My family less the ones in Florida attended. The things he said were the things that we needed to hear. He does not preach the no credit thing but showed us how debt owns us when we are borrowing for the wrong reasons.
Finances are something that most people don’t want to talk about and at the same time they know very little about what it takes to manage the money that we get wisely. I can remember when I was making 30K per year thinking that if I only made 50K how much easier it would be to get by. Little did I know that the more I made the more I would spend. When you are making enough to meet the bills, the lie is that a budget is not needed. When you don’t plan how to spend your money, it gets spent on whatever suits your fancy and getting ahead becomes a pipe dream.
I have often wondered how people were able to retire at 60 and not have to work. There is really no magic to doing this, there is planning that can make it happen with little effort. When you fail to plan how to spend your money, someone else is planning on how you should spend it on their stuff.
I figured out a long time ago that all that I have is a gift from God but never really looked at how I could spend and save what he gave me in a way that would get me out of debt. Steve has an awesome ministry and has a way of getting people motivated to make a difference with the financial gifts that God provides.
We had 21 families sign up for a follow-up 13 week seminar that is designed to get us on a road to no debt. I will be leading the first group through the material. That puts the spotlight on my finances and I am honored to get to do this task. I really expect this to make a difference in the lives of the people that go through this workshop with me and my better half. I have already started putting some of the steps into process by listing my “extra” motorcycle on the market. He said that one of the ways to get out of debt is to become a “ninja” at selling stuff. Those are my words but the principle is his. We will be having a garage sale soon and there will be much extra stuff that will be sold. Twenty years in the same house has allowed us to accumulate much stuff that is depreciating daily that we hardly if ever us.
Meanwhile, I am watching every single dime that I spend with a renewed vigor. Funny thing is that you can drink water with a meal and not spend $1.25 each day. I already figured out how to not spend money when buying gas, you just use your credit card at the pump and don’t go into the store. One of the keys to this is to pay off the balance of the credit card every month. We have been doing that for almost a year now. We only have one credit card that carries a balance and the interest rate is only 1.9% until the balance is paid off.
The key to this whole No Debt thing is to NOT spend more than you make. Society has set it up so that it is so easy to spend more than you make and owe your soul to the company store for the rest of your life. I can actually see the day when we are able to have absolutely no debt. It may not be real soon but we will have a plan to make it happen before the follow up seminar is concluded.
This is something that everyone can do but there are some decisions that have to be made in order to do so. I am moving into the phase where it doesn’t matter what others think and where I am taking responsibility for my finances. HMMM, I am sure glad that my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of being debt free. I just wish that I had been exposed to this kind of data 20 years ago.
Well, better late than never!
Comments (3)
It was a good seminar. I really got a lot out of it too. I realized that we have pretty much already used up our “new” money. Funny how two brand new cars can do that to ya’! Oh well. We’ve been waiting and hopefully they will be paid off sooner rather than later. We really haven’t had any debt besides a car payment a balance on our Best Buy card (0% financing). Now, we have the most debt we have ever had. My goal is to get it gone as fast as possible!
RYC: You are such a sweetie! I had many people comment on waht was he like before so I wrote another blog that actually has a couple of pictures. I do pray for the man…you know me so well. I also actively encourage the connection between the two in spite of the pain it causes her. I continue to pray that someday he will realize how much he hurts her and start loving her again instead of punishing her to hit at me.
I’ve been working on this for the last six years. I have my student loan and my parents left…then I’m out of debt. Got to get that job…LOL Still working on it. Had another friend tell me some things about how I could make my writing start paying for me so am going to work on that plus have actually made a tiny bit of progress with the state regarding teaching licensure. Baby steps! Every time I think about your comment on the job…I think it must have something to do with writing since you posted it to a story blog. God will provide…as long as I can get off my butt and help myself too.
HUGS!!!!!
I have always found that the easiest way to save money each week is to have it withdrawn before I get the paycheck. I have put away $100 a week for about 18 years now. I don’t notice it because I am used to living without it. I don’t touch it either. It is strictly for retirement.