SPIRITUALITY AND FAITH
Article by Francine Houston
Delayed
Gratification
Francine Houston is the author of "Lupus Journey" and she has a number of businesses: Cineik Media, FH DESIGNS , and It Works. Francine is also a graduate of
School of the Bible 2 (2013 ).
Email Francine at [email protected].
I am letting it be known now, I am not a money expert. Instead I started looking for one. I went to Primerica, signed up with Dave Ramsey for help, and even took budgeting, credit repair and debt resolution classes at my job. I was determined to learn more about money. This past week, they were talking about money at church. It was like connecting all the dots. It started when I just challenged myself to save $300, it was like a pre-starter emergency fund. This experiment helped me learn how undisciplined I was with money. I literally didn't realize I use to spend my whole check. I started putting up a portion from each check from my job just to see if I could save the $300. It was like there was an emergency almost every time I got close to the $300. It took months just to get that amount. Now my next challenge is $1,000. This stuff is easier said than done. However, if I can save just $300, I can develop enough discipline to save $1,000. Which I did before and didn't touch the money for a while. It was just rainy days and emergencies back then. Despite all these challenges, I must learn financial discipline.
Dave Ramsey from Financial Peace University teaches 7 “baby” steps
to debt freedom
* The first baby step is to create $1,000 starter emergency savings fund and budgeting.
* Second baby step is to pay off all debt (expect the house) using the debt snowball.
* Third baby step is to save a Fully Funded Emergency Fund of 3-6 months of expenses.
* Fourth baby step is to invest for the Future and Build Wealth by investing 15% of your household income in retirement.
* Fifth baby step is to save for your children’s college fund.
* Sixth baby step is to pay off your home early.
* The seventh and last baby step is to build wealth and give.