Over the last 10 years, I’ve accumulated about $40,000 dollars worth of debt from various sources such as education, yeshiva, credit cards, getting married, and of course – dating. So 2+ years ago i made a huge effort to just pull myself out of the financial rut that i’ve been in. Being broke makes me feel depressed. It means I can’t have the things i want and that i can’t take the risk of quitting a job at will. So what i did was live single – on eating ramen noodles,, not buying new clothes, driving a junky 1989 2 door paintless Ford Probe, and living in a barf green room. I know it’s not the dream life, but it’s worth the freedom that comes with it. I was paying off $1000/month of debt.
Then I started to read a lot of financial education books and budgeting web sites. Great books like “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. I could swear by that book. There is a lot to know. And if one truly wants to be wealthy, they MUST understand how money works and how to manage it.
And now that I’m married, my wife has introduced me to Dave Ramsey and we’ve been keeping a fairly tight financial system. This doesn’t mean that we’re lacking anything. We’re just ‘conscious’ of the money we spend. Also, i told Esther (my love) that I would like to use my own earnings to pay off the last of my debt.
It won’t be long until i get out. I just hope that once we get there, we stay there.