Hey John, ( and anybody else who cares to listen) 🙂
This picture caught my eye the other day and I wanted you to see it.
I wanted to plant a financial seed in your minds eye if I may. 🙂
It is the home of Dr Lebron Lackey, still standing after a 250 mph hurricane. Notice his neighbors…
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When I was studying early Iowa history one of the things that struck me, (and we never covered in school), was the number of other recessions and depressions that had taken place.
All I had ever learned about was The Great Depression of 1929.
We never talked about the Panic of 1837, that lasted until 1843 – (6 years).
“The Panic of 1837 was one of the longest and deepest depressions of the 19th century. It was a period of pronounced deflation and massive default on debt.”
Then came the the Panic of 1857 that didn’t really turn around until after the Civil War – (7 years).
“…the years immediately preceding the Panic of 1857 were prosperous, many banks, merchants, and farmers had seized the opportunity to take risks with their investments and as soon as market prices began to fall, they quickly began to experience….. financial panic”.
Or The panic of 1873 that lasted until 1879 (6 years).
Since you didn’t bring this topic up, I am kind of reluctant to get too preachy, but knowing what I know, it would be just wrong of me to not say something.
Back in January of 2014, I was at my wit’s end (financially). To use a word picture at the time, I felt like I was flying a 747 and we were about 10 to 15 feet above the ocean.
Yes we were still in the air, and yes we were still moving, but the waves were lapping at the wings, and I was tired. Being self employed, my income can vary a lot from year to year…as much as a 1/3. I sat down, crunched some numbers and realized we had been spending $700 a month more than I was making for a couple of years. Our budget was based on the incomes of better years. Those extra expenses were going fun things like heating bills, medical bills and medical insurance.
We’ve never been big on going out to eat, yada, yada….
So there you go, and it was right in the midst of that craziness that I came across the book by Mary Hunt called Debt Proof Living.
Within a month of reading it, I had hope. Finally had some practical ideas on how to get some distance between myself and the water.
Our income hasn’t change all that much, but (knock on wood) we’ve been able to pay off all of the credit card debt, our car loan, a line of credit loan, and the loan to build that little extension on my shop. Over $30,000 worth of debt, on the same income…we switched medical health insurance coverage that saved us $400 a month, and replaced the 20 year old furnace/ shut off the heat to the 2nd floor of our home and whacked another $300 a month off expenses.
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So when I see that picture of the house still standing when the neighbors have all been blown away, I see someone making different financial decisions than the rest of the culture.
Pop culture says, debt is just a normal part of life.
I say we are living in a fools paradise.
Historically, things go in cycles.
We are way past due for another financial $@#% storm.
Get out of debt and stay out of debt.
It is possible to raise a family on one blue collar income.
You can take that to the bank.
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