Financial Peace, Jr.
Last Sunday was our third Financial Peace University class. I’m really enjoying the classes and the books, but most of all, I’m SO thankful that we’re learning these very important financial principles while we still have time on our side. We still have over thirty years before ‘retirement age’. However, if we do exactly what Dave Ramsey says, we can put our middle class money to work in our favor and be millionaires a few times over by the time we’re 55….not to mention having lived most of our adult life completely debt free. That makes me very excited. Even more exciting: we have the privilege of teaching our children these principles NOW so they don’t make the same mistakes and bad choices that mommy and daddy have.
Dave Ramsey encourages the envelope system and it’s really quite simple for children. They have three envelopes: Give, Save, and Spend. Anytime they receive money, they put some of it in all three. We’ve decided to start them out at 10% in their giving envelope, 10% in savings, and the rest in their spending envelope. Joshua is almost seven and he already has a clear understanding that he is responsible for his first vehicle. That is what his “savings” envelope is for. However much he has saved by the time he is 16, Josh and I will match that and he can use it to purchase his first car. Ramsey said his third child really grasped the fact that Dad really did match what the children saved, so by the time his youngest turned 16, she had saved $8,000, and was able to buy a $16,000 car WITH CASH at the age of sixteen!! How awesome is that!?
Joshua emptied his wallet and counted it all up.
Grand Total: $5.49
He created his three envelopes.
And placed $.56 in “Give” and “Save” and the rest went in “Spend”.
I had to go to the grocery store, so Joshua asked if he could bring his spending money with him and buy himself a “Color-Shifter Hot Wheels” car.
I knew they cost about $3, so I said ok. Ramsey says it’s very important to let them purchase things by themselves, with their own money. It just doesn’t quite have the same effect when you allow them to give you their money and then you just throw their purchase onto the counter with yours and you pay for it all with your money. It affects them differently when they hand their hard-earned money to the cashier in exchange for what they chose to buy. Joshua LOVES games. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that before. My kids are GAME FREAKS. After Christmas, we re-organized the game closet and tallied a total of 26 games. Well, Joshua found a ‘travel’ Battleship game at the store, for $5.97. I specifically told him, “You have tons of cars at home. Why don’t you wait until next week, after you’ve had a chance to “work” for Nana and Grandpa and earn a few more dollars, then you can come back and buy Battleship instead of a $3 car.” He decided against it and I had to accept that.
He’s completely satisfied with his $3 hot wheels car. They are pretty cool. 🙂
On another note:
OOOOUUUUUUCCCCHHHHH!!! I am SO stinkin’ sore this morning!! I was so incredibly out of shape the first time I did my Jillian Michael’s video. I took so many breaks, I don’t think I did enough to even get sore. BUT THIS TIME. OH. MY. GOODNESS. It hurt to get out of bed this morning. The muscles in my back and surrounding my ribs hurt, so it hurts to take a deep breath, laugh, or even cough. On top of all that, our church is fasting this month. Everyone has chosen different ways to fast. Our pastor said, a “true Biblical fast” is giving up food, so Josh and I have worked gradually into our fasting. The first two weeks we gave up breakfast, the third week Josh gave up breakfast AND lunch, but I stuck with just breakfast. However, we’re in the final week and we have a big worship event coming up on Friday with Lindell Cooley.
So we’ve both taken the FULL plunge this week. I haven’t had a bite of food since Monday. I think I’m getting over the worst of it and have been drinking lots of Naked Juice, so that has helped with the cramping and hunger pangs.
All that to say, yesterday was probably NOT the best day for a hard core workout. I will rest today and work out again tomorrow. My lunch meeting at noon today should be interesting. It is with ladies that I go to church with, but obviously they plan to eat lunch because we’re meeting at a new restaurant in town. I’m afraid if I eat even a salad, it will make me sick. I’ve had some intestinal issues **IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN** as a result of the fasting. Clearly I’m in a serious detox mode right now and I’d rather not make it worse, so I will bring my little bottle of Naked juice to lunch and hope they don’t make too much fun of me.
I’m SO excited about this weekend! The boys are heading to my parents’ house on Friday. We have Lindell Cooley Friday night, a day in the country on Saturday, Josh’s annual company party Saturday night, and dinner with friends on Sunday night. We haven’t had a weekend this exciting in a long time. 🙂
Eight more days until we find out about the girls. Please keep praying!
~audrey