Like No One Else

I just discovered some sound, inspirational quotes I copied back in March 2010, about two years before we actually got serious about this problem. We had just bought the book 365 Ways to Live Cheap[ly]. I think we maybe, kinda, sorta thought getting out of debt was a good idea to do maybe, kinda, sorta some day, but we didn't have a plan or any knowledge about how to practically do that. So thankful that now we do.

I had written: "May we live our lives differently, within our means, to be a testament to ourselves, to others, and to our future children about how to handle our money in order to have a secure financial future. May we use or finances to the glory of God." I'm pretty sure that was my pre-Dave Ramsey way of saying, "May we live like no one else so later we can LIVE like no one else!"
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When advised to budget, most people respond: “But I just don’t have enough money.” In fact, most of these individuals have a lot more money than they think; they just lack control of it. Making more money is not the answer. The sad truth is that if you’re out of control, no matter how much money you earn, you can figure out a way to spend it. … Bad budgetary habits, when applied to twice as much money, simply create twice as much havoc. – Unknown (I would add that sometimes when the income is around or below poverty level that income is part of the problem.)

But the thing is, [debt] is worse than obesity, because this is a problem that you can hide. It’s a problem that you can deny that you have. You can have a big fat lifestyle, and you can pretend you’re making a lot of money because you can just finance it and pretend that you’re going to pay for it tomorrow. So who needs this diet? Anybody who is not saving anything, anybody who is living paycheck to paycheck, anybody who is fighting with their spouse about money, and anybody who wants a better financial future tomorrow. — Jean Chatzky, as told on Oprah

The problem with Americans is that they act and spend as if they are rich before they actually ARE rich. — Economist interviewed in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance