Well, it finally happened. We just clicked the "pay full balance" button on our credit card and POOF $911.12 went to zero! Oh man, the feeling is quite incredible. We have given up a good amount in our lives. We have even tried riding our bike (actually we borrowed the bike) to save money on gas. Since it's a million degrees outside we aren't able to do it as much as we would like, but we are still trying to make that work. God has definitely blessed us through the jobs we have and the fact that we have paid off $2200 in debt in the last 45 days in nothing short of a miracle.
The thing that we find so amazing is that we are making very little and STILL paying off debt. I listen to stories on the radio of people paying off $50,000 of debt in 2 years, but they make $200,000/year. That is not very encouraging to me. I will never make that much money. I can't relate to that. Full disclosure, Stephanie and I make around $25,000 COMBINED right now and we are still finding ways to pay off debt. Could we be making more and paying off debt quicker? Possibly. But we wouldn't be able to serve at our church and do some of the things we love to do. We have made a conscious decision to make a little less now and chip away at the debt instead of selling our souls for the sake of paying off debt.
The biggest thing for us is the budget. No matter what your income is, please be on a budget. It's amazing the difference it makes in your income and your bank account. At first you will be shocked at how much money you have in your account. It's like you get a raise! No longer are you looking at your account wondering, "Where did all of our money go?" You can have confidence and some peace about the money you spend. It's a very good feeling.
This is short, but thanks for reading! We are excited to move on past this STUPID credit card and begin attacking those pesky student loans. Thanks for all your support!
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Friday, July 25, 2014
Finally Some Movement
It's been a long time since we last paid off some debt. In fact, the last debt payment we made was January of LAST YEAR! When I was working as a loan officer, we had to be very careful with where our money went. I was 100% commission which meant we never knew when the next paycheck would come. We didn't want to pay off debt then regret it later when I didn't get paid for a month and needed that money for bills. We had to put any extra money into savings (instead of towards debt) to make sure we could pay bills every month. It was a frustrating time for us in that regards. We made SO much progress only to have that progress stalled. Well, stalled no longer! Just a few minutes ago, we made a $1300 payment on our debt!
The fact that we can do that is pretty remarkable. My last paycheck was May 15th and I just started my new job at Starbucks last week. However, through budgeting and making extra money with dog-sitting, house-sitting, and some basketball related stuff, we have managed to live within a normal budget. We weren't scraping together money and praying for a miracle in order to pay our bills. We are so thankful that we have been living on a fixed budget since we first got married so that times like this aren't a big deal.
Now that I have a job with a steady paycheck, we don't have to have a large savings. We can stick to the $1000 emergency fund that Dave Ramsey recommends and start attacking our debt. I have to say, it feels great. Not only are we now paying off some debt, but I was hired on as one of the youth interns at Scottsdale Bible Church. This was such a huge answer to prayer for us. So many things were in limbo for the last 3 months and there were times when we felt very discouraged. It feels very good to see God's hand at work in our lives. Not just in providing jobs and the ability to pay off debt, but that He allowed us to go through some struggles. He wants our full devotion and sometimes that only comes when He takes things away.
We are hoping that we can post more and more updates on our debt on here to help encourage other people. Again, we are making a HUGE payment towards debt today even though our income has been very small over the last 2-3 months. While we aren't perfect at holding to a budget, we certainly do our best. If you aren't doing a monthly, written budget please start NOW! It's such a great feeling to know exactly where your money is going and having the freedom to plan out your month in spending. If you don't know where or how to start, Stephanie and I would love to help!
- Brian
The fact that we can do that is pretty remarkable. My last paycheck was May 15th and I just started my new job at Starbucks last week. However, through budgeting and making extra money with dog-sitting, house-sitting, and some basketball related stuff, we have managed to live within a normal budget. We weren't scraping together money and praying for a miracle in order to pay our bills. We are so thankful that we have been living on a fixed budget since we first got married so that times like this aren't a big deal.
Now that I have a job with a steady paycheck, we don't have to have a large savings. We can stick to the $1000 emergency fund that Dave Ramsey recommends and start attacking our debt. I have to say, it feels great. Not only are we now paying off some debt, but I was hired on as one of the youth interns at Scottsdale Bible Church. This was such a huge answer to prayer for us. So many things were in limbo for the last 3 months and there were times when we felt very discouraged. It feels very good to see God's hand at work in our lives. Not just in providing jobs and the ability to pay off debt, but that He allowed us to go through some struggles. He wants our full devotion and sometimes that only comes when He takes things away.
We are hoping that we can post more and more updates on our debt on here to help encourage other people. Again, we are making a HUGE payment towards debt today even though our income has been very small over the last 2-3 months. While we aren't perfect at holding to a budget, we certainly do our best. If you aren't doing a monthly, written budget please start NOW! It's such a great feeling to know exactly where your money is going and having the freedom to plan out your month in spending. If you don't know where or how to start, Stephanie and I would love to help!
- Brian
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Doors
There is a story in the book "Love Does" by Bob Goff that really bothers me. He wanted to be a lawyer and in order to do that, he had to go to law school. He didn't have the grades or test scores to get into law school so he tried another approach. He waited outside of the dean's office for two weeks every day saying to the dean, "Just tell me to go buy my books." Wouldn't you know, the dean DID tell him "Go buy your books" and he was accepted into law school.
It's really a great story and Bob Goff does a much better job of telling it. But it bothered me when I read it a few months ago and it still bothers me today. He says, "Maybe there are times when we think a door has been closed and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down." I really hate that quote. I hate that quote because I don't know what to do with it. I think about it and get frustrated. How do you KNOW which doors to kick down and which ones to leave alone? That's very aggravating. I want to know exactly what to do. Isn't that what God is for? Isn't He up there to tell us exactly what to do and when to do it?
I know, at least I think I do, that God will not always give me the answers. But I'm so terrified of failing that I get mad when He doesn't tell me exactly what the next step is. I look at people around me and think, "Man, they have it easy". It creates a lot of jealousy in me. I am not the most talented at anything I do. I am average (at best) at a lot of things. So, if I ever do get anything right, it's usually through a ton of hard, laborious work. Somewhere along the way, I became upset by this. I don't know when it was, but I can see the slow progression in my anger towards God's lack of telling me exactly what to do to have the easiest life. It's silly and stupid when I say it out loud, but it's how I think.
What would my life look like if instead of praying, "God, please close any door that you don't want me to walk through" and instead just started barging through every slightly open door there was? I get easily discouraged and if there is one or two obstacles in my way, I usually chalk it up to the "God must have closed this door" idea. I'm not even sure why we pray for God to open and shut doors. I don't see that idea in the Bible, that's for sure. All I really see is God saying, "Obeying me is going to be really hard. So get ready for a life full of opposition and road blocks." I mean, look at the Apostles. Jesus told them in person to go and preach the gospel and yet every single one of them faced incredible opposition. Or Moses! Holy cow, God spoke to him a burning bush and told him exactly what to do and yet it was still really hard and difficult to free the people of Israel. Then God had them wander the desert for 40 years! If those are the stories in the Bible, why do I think my life will be any different?
Like I said, somewhere along the way I became angry and frustrated at how difficult things seemed to be. Every time I feel God calling me to do something, it's really difficult. Unfortunately, I have become quickly discouraged more often then not and given up only to find myself miserable with whatever easy way out I took. Maybe it's time I start running through doors and praying it's God's will. I love what St. Augustine said, "Love God and do what you please". There is so much freedom in those words. Or like the Keith Green said in my favorite song of his, "Keep doing your best and pray that it's blessed". There is freedom in only focusing on Christ and not worrying about which door to walk through. We already have Christ, anything else is just icing on the cake.
It's really a great story and Bob Goff does a much better job of telling it. But it bothered me when I read it a few months ago and it still bothers me today. He says, "Maybe there are times when we think a door has been closed and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down." I really hate that quote. I hate that quote because I don't know what to do with it. I think about it and get frustrated. How do you KNOW which doors to kick down and which ones to leave alone? That's very aggravating. I want to know exactly what to do. Isn't that what God is for? Isn't He up there to tell us exactly what to do and when to do it?
I know, at least I think I do, that God will not always give me the answers. But I'm so terrified of failing that I get mad when He doesn't tell me exactly what the next step is. I look at people around me and think, "Man, they have it easy". It creates a lot of jealousy in me. I am not the most talented at anything I do. I am average (at best) at a lot of things. So, if I ever do get anything right, it's usually through a ton of hard, laborious work. Somewhere along the way, I became upset by this. I don't know when it was, but I can see the slow progression in my anger towards God's lack of telling me exactly what to do to have the easiest life. It's silly and stupid when I say it out loud, but it's how I think.
What would my life look like if instead of praying, "God, please close any door that you don't want me to walk through" and instead just started barging through every slightly open door there was? I get easily discouraged and if there is one or two obstacles in my way, I usually chalk it up to the "God must have closed this door" idea. I'm not even sure why we pray for God to open and shut doors. I don't see that idea in the Bible, that's for sure. All I really see is God saying, "Obeying me is going to be really hard. So get ready for a life full of opposition and road blocks." I mean, look at the Apostles. Jesus told them in person to go and preach the gospel and yet every single one of them faced incredible opposition. Or Moses! Holy cow, God spoke to him a burning bush and told him exactly what to do and yet it was still really hard and difficult to free the people of Israel. Then God had them wander the desert for 40 years! If those are the stories in the Bible, why do I think my life will be any different?
Like I said, somewhere along the way I became angry and frustrated at how difficult things seemed to be. Every time I feel God calling me to do something, it's really difficult. Unfortunately, I have become quickly discouraged more often then not and given up only to find myself miserable with whatever easy way out I took. Maybe it's time I start running through doors and praying it's God's will. I love what St. Augustine said, "Love God and do what you please". There is so much freedom in those words. Or like the Keith Green said in my favorite song of his, "Keep doing your best and pray that it's blessed". There is freedom in only focusing on Christ and not worrying about which door to walk through. We already have Christ, anything else is just icing on the cake.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Changes!
Wow, it has been a LONG time since anything was posted on this poor little blog. Fortunately, that is all about to change! The reason we haven't been posting anything is because we have made ZERO progress on our debt. I became a mortgage loan officer for Stewardship Mortgage back in September. That dramatically changed my income. My pay was 100% commission and that was tough for us. We battled and battled, tried to make it work, but in the end we knew that the loan officer job just wasn't in the cards for me. It wasn't for a lack of trying, our hearts just weren't in it. In order to be successful in that line of work you have be passionate about what you do because your pay is based entirely on how good you are. Because I wasn't very good at that job, I didn't make a whole lot which meant we couldn't pay off any debt.
In April, Steph and I decided it was time to move on from Stewardship and seek a new job for myself. It was hard to leave Stewardship, I loved my co-workers and loved the mission and heart of Stewardship. However, I had to be honest with myself and realize that being a loan officer just wasn't in my skill set. That was a tough pill to swallow. We sacrificed a lot for me to get my loan officer license and went through a lot with the income change. I was struggling with the decision until one night Steph said, "I don't want you working there anymore". She could see how miserable I was doing something I wasn't good at and didn't have a passion for. I'm so thankful she said that to me!
If I am to be completely honest, my heart is in youth ministry. I battled with that for a long time. A few years ago I was a junior high director at a church and I got pretty burnt out. I bit off more than I could chew and came away from that experience a little bitter. It wasn't anything the church did, I just wasn't spiritually ready for that experience. I said to myself that I never wanted to get back into youth ministry, but I just wasn't being honest with myself. That is a tough thing, self-honesty. We are SO good at talking ourselves into and out of different things. We convince ourselves we believe one thing when, in reality, the opposite is true. I have such a hard time admitting different truths in my life. I convinced myself I didn't want to be in church-centered youth ministry because of my own frustrations. Once I shed some of those lies I was feeding myself, I realized where my heart truly was.
As of today, I have taken a job at Starbucks to help pay some bills so we can pursue a life in ministry. This will allow us to be more involved in the youth group at our church and allow me to coach without worrying about missing work or having to balance that out. While this job and the ones to come won't allow us to make a ton of money, we are excited for this new chapter in our life and marriage. Thankfully, we will actually be able to chip away at our debt since the paychecks will be steady!
We have been through a lot in our first 2 years of marriage. We have had a total of 9 jobs between the 2 of us, lived in 3 different places, attended 4 different churches, and a million other changes. We understand that the life God gives us here on earth is short and we need to do all we can to impact His Kingdom. We have also come to realize that we probably won't live in the same house for 30 years or have one "career". All we are trying to do is focus on God and grow closer with Him. That is what we are trying to keep as our only goal. Debt, jobs, family, and whatever else is will be taken care of. God does not want us to worry about that. Our joy will not come from paying off debt or making a ton of money (or even doing a bunch of good, moral things). Our joy will come ONLY from knowing Him and keeping our eyes fixated on Him and His goodness.
- Brian
In April, Steph and I decided it was time to move on from Stewardship and seek a new job for myself. It was hard to leave Stewardship, I loved my co-workers and loved the mission and heart of Stewardship. However, I had to be honest with myself and realize that being a loan officer just wasn't in my skill set. That was a tough pill to swallow. We sacrificed a lot for me to get my loan officer license and went through a lot with the income change. I was struggling with the decision until one night Steph said, "I don't want you working there anymore". She could see how miserable I was doing something I wasn't good at and didn't have a passion for. I'm so thankful she said that to me!
If I am to be completely honest, my heart is in youth ministry. I battled with that for a long time. A few years ago I was a junior high director at a church and I got pretty burnt out. I bit off more than I could chew and came away from that experience a little bitter. It wasn't anything the church did, I just wasn't spiritually ready for that experience. I said to myself that I never wanted to get back into youth ministry, but I just wasn't being honest with myself. That is a tough thing, self-honesty. We are SO good at talking ourselves into and out of different things. We convince ourselves we believe one thing when, in reality, the opposite is true. I have such a hard time admitting different truths in my life. I convinced myself I didn't want to be in church-centered youth ministry because of my own frustrations. Once I shed some of those lies I was feeding myself, I realized where my heart truly was.
As of today, I have taken a job at Starbucks to help pay some bills so we can pursue a life in ministry. This will allow us to be more involved in the youth group at our church and allow me to coach without worrying about missing work or having to balance that out. While this job and the ones to come won't allow us to make a ton of money, we are excited for this new chapter in our life and marriage. Thankfully, we will actually be able to chip away at our debt since the paychecks will be steady!
We have been through a lot in our first 2 years of marriage. We have had a total of 9 jobs between the 2 of us, lived in 3 different places, attended 4 different churches, and a million other changes. We understand that the life God gives us here on earth is short and we need to do all we can to impact His Kingdom. We have also come to realize that we probably won't live in the same house for 30 years or have one "career". All we are trying to do is focus on God and grow closer with Him. That is what we are trying to keep as our only goal. Debt, jobs, family, and whatever else is will be taken care of. God does not want us to worry about that. Our joy will not come from paying off debt or making a ton of money (or even doing a bunch of good, moral things). Our joy will come ONLY from knowing Him and keeping our eyes fixated on Him and His goodness.
- Brian
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