passion |ˈpa sh ən|noun1 strong and barely controllable emotion• an intense desire or enthusiasm for something • a thing arousing enthusiasm
Lately I have been thinking about what is my passion? Mostly because I am planning on going back to work next year. Teaching is my chosen profession. I spent a great deal of time and money in the schooling for my chosen field. I like teaching, but I am not passionate about being an elementary school teacher. I like photography and scrapbooking (as a social activity), but I am not passionate about these things either. The light bulb came on this week for me and so of course I must share.
I think my passion has been staring me in the face for years. I just now starting to see how I can use this passion for good and not evil. It is a foreign world to most and a huge burden that has to be dealt with often by others. I can't read enough articles on the subject or articles relating to the subject. If any of you know me well you will not be surprised at all by my revelation of sorts. I love the world of budgeting, saving money, and long term money saving goals. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT! Some are not surprised at all. My poor mom gets most of my soapbox talk. Bless her she listens and contributes to the conversation too.
I just had a revelation the other day that instead of boring my mom to death on the subject I should really try to help others that want help in this area of life. I do like Dave Ramsey and although I don't follow his plan 100%, I do value his underlying point. Live like no other, so you can live like no other. With financial freedom he encourages you to give. I think the debt free live style goes deeper than that of giving of your money, but in giving of your mind. (I will blog about that some other time.)
Let me just say I am going to preach what I practice. Mark and I not only worked hard to have good financial standing, we plan it. Planning financial success is called a budget. It also didn't and doesn't come without sacrifice. Some out there might be rolling your eyes because as the outsider looking in we have a lot. I am blessed, but we do make sacrifices. I have a prepay old school cell phone which we budget $100 a year. We have not had cable TV for five years (almost six). Both our cars are used and payed for. Without "things" we have had a freedom which I am so thankful for. Almost 100% debt free. We have one major debt hanging over our heads which we have a plan to tackle, our mortgage. I must say that this didn't happen over night we have had goals for years.
Mark and I plan on paying off our house in the next five years (three is our crazy goal, but gave us room to wiggle). Sounds crazy! I think we can do it. Here is why. I have been a stay at home mom for 7 years almost 8. I am going to go back to teaching next year and that income will almost 100% go toward the house. We have chosen not to raise our standard of living until this feat is complete. Two things that will help us reach this goal is when we moved we could have moved "up", but we took out a home loan much less than we could afford or even qualify for. Why? Because we had a goal of paying off this house and had that goal in mind when buying and also if I didn't go back to work it is a house we can afford on one income. We did get a much bigger house, but not without sacrifice. Don't get me wrong my house is lovely. We purchased a house that was "investor priced" is what our realtor told us. It was investor priced for a reason.
I can see the life of being 100% debt free and that is an awesome feeling. A mortgage payment that you get to keep each month! HOLY SMOKES! I dream of the things we can do, not to mention the money we will save on interest by paying the house off early (almost $200,000). It makes me sick the interest we give to a bank to own a house it is almost as much as the house itself. Do a mortgage calculator on your mortgage and know what you are paying the bank (Dave Ramsey has a good one). I will gladly sacrifice the iphone, cable and new car for a life of 100% debt free. Seems so worth it to me in the end. I have big dreams for our reward to ourselves in the end.
I just did a mortgage calculator on us paying an extra $200 a month (which we have done from day one) and if we did that over the life time of the loan we would save over $65,000. Who can argue that saving $65,000 is not a good thing? I could go on FOREVER for this is my passion!
I will have to harness this excitement and do it in more organized fashion. I am thinking a new blog is in order! I am going to tell our story in hopes that I can help others reach a debt free life and most importantly help us teach our kids the value of saving which takes sacrifice. Even if the sacrifice is short term.
Lately I have been thinking about what is my passion? Mostly because I am planning on going back to work next year. Teaching is my chosen profession. I spent a great deal of time and money in the schooling for my chosen field. I like teaching, but I am not passionate about being an elementary school teacher. I like photography and scrapbooking (as a social activity), but I am not passionate about these things either. The light bulb came on this week for me and so of course I must share.
I think my passion has been staring me in the face for years. I just now starting to see how I can use this passion for good and not evil. It is a foreign world to most and a huge burden that has to be dealt with often by others. I can't read enough articles on the subject or articles relating to the subject. If any of you know me well you will not be surprised at all by my revelation of sorts. I love the world of budgeting, saving money, and long term money saving goals. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT! Some are not surprised at all. My poor mom gets most of my soapbox talk. Bless her she listens and contributes to the conversation too.
I just had a revelation the other day that instead of boring my mom to death on the subject I should really try to help others that want help in this area of life. I do like Dave Ramsey and although I don't follow his plan 100%, I do value his underlying point. Live like no other, so you can live like no other. With financial freedom he encourages you to give. I think the debt free live style goes deeper than that of giving of your money, but in giving of your mind. (I will blog about that some other time.)
Let me just say I am going to preach what I practice. Mark and I not only worked hard to have good financial standing, we plan it. Planning financial success is called a budget. It also didn't and doesn't come without sacrifice. Some out there might be rolling your eyes because as the outsider looking in we have a lot. I am blessed, but we do make sacrifices. I have a prepay old school cell phone which we budget $100 a year. We have not had cable TV for five years (almost six). Both our cars are used and payed for. Without "things" we have had a freedom which I am so thankful for. Almost 100% debt free. We have one major debt hanging over our heads which we have a plan to tackle, our mortgage. I must say that this didn't happen over night we have had goals for years.
Mark and I plan on paying off our house in the next five years (three is our crazy goal, but gave us room to wiggle). Sounds crazy! I think we can do it. Here is why. I have been a stay at home mom for 7 years almost 8. I am going to go back to teaching next year and that income will almost 100% go toward the house. We have chosen not to raise our standard of living until this feat is complete. Two things that will help us reach this goal is when we moved we could have moved "up", but we took out a home loan much less than we could afford or even qualify for. Why? Because we had a goal of paying off this house and had that goal in mind when buying and also if I didn't go back to work it is a house we can afford on one income. We did get a much bigger house, but not without sacrifice. Don't get me wrong my house is lovely. We purchased a house that was "investor priced" is what our realtor told us. It was investor priced for a reason.
I can see the life of being 100% debt free and that is an awesome feeling. A mortgage payment that you get to keep each month! HOLY SMOKES! I dream of the things we can do, not to mention the money we will save on interest by paying the house off early (almost $200,000). It makes me sick the interest we give to a bank to own a house it is almost as much as the house itself. Do a mortgage calculator on your mortgage and know what you are paying the bank (Dave Ramsey has a good one). I will gladly sacrifice the iphone, cable and new car for a life of 100% debt free. Seems so worth it to me in the end. I have big dreams for our reward to ourselves in the end.
I just did a mortgage calculator on us paying an extra $200 a month (which we have done from day one) and if we did that over the life time of the loan we would save over $65,000. Who can argue that saving $65,000 is not a good thing? I could go on FOREVER for this is my passion!
I will have to harness this excitement and do it in more organized fashion. I am thinking a new blog is in order! I am going to tell our story in hopes that I can help others reach a debt free life and most importantly help us teach our kids the value of saving which takes sacrifice. Even if the sacrifice is short term.
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