As stated in my previous post, we are almost out of debt. We were shooting for the end of March as our final date but it looks like freedom is coming a little sooner than expected. Some of you may know I have been faithfully calling the IRS Tax Offset number in anticipation of being taken off the list for people having their tax returns intercepted. Well, Monday I heard one of the best things I have heard over the phone in a long time, "Our records show that you do not currently have any debts which will threaten your tax return."
HORRAY! As soon as I found this out, I hopped on the computer to file my taxes. Turns out, with the tax return that is coming to us (within the next 7 days), we can pay the remainder of our debt off AND buy our new furniture. This will be my first time as a debt free person in my entire adult life. This got me thinking, how many Americans are actually in debt?
These statistics were disturbing.
Some facts I found interesting
The average debt of households with credit card debt was $15,799
Total U.S. Consumer debt was $2.43 Trillion
That's roughly the GDP of the entire United Kingdom.
Oh and one more statistic I found funny - Only 2% of undergraduates reported having no debt. That's probably because almost nobody can get through college on cash these days. Even if you can, the schools strongly "encourage" you to finance for college. I should know. School is the whole reason for our credit woes.
In the end, paying off debt comes down to 2 words - Self Control. If you can master control of your spending habits, your debt will slowly trickle downward. It may be exceedingly difficult, especially in the beginning but, after a while, you will begin to notice the end goal becoming ever closer every month. Keep working at it guys. It's hard but not impossible.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tithing Works
Since we have gotten our financial affairs in order, Christy and I have been vigorously paying down our debt. As of February of 2011, we owed about $14,000 to various school loans and hospital bills. To some of you, this may seem like very little but seeing as how we made a combined 40,000 dollars last year, that's 35% of our yearly income for 2011. With 90% of our income going to bills and expenses, we had no way to pay off debt.
In July, that all changed and I attribute it to tithing. Around July of last year, Christy and I made a decision together to start faithfully giving 10% of our income to God. If you think about it, that's not much. Considering, we brought in roughly 1800 a month in income, 180 dollars wasn't much to ask. Within a month of tithing, Bonnie offered to let us move into the upstairs portion of her house and pay a much lower rent than the place we were at before. We decided to take her up on her offer and our living expenses dropped by half.
Then, in December, a real miracle happened. I was contacted by a hiring agency (yeah, I wasn't too thrilled to work for a middle man either but you take what you can get). They informed me of an available job for a large software company. I figured I would give them a try and surprisingly enough, I was hired within a few days. Not only was the job full time but, it paid more hourly than I had made at any job in the past.
2 weeks into my new job, I made the ultimate decision to quit gaming. I won't go into details but if you know me at all, you will know that gaming was my LIFE. You can see my post about quitting gaming here.
By the start of January, our debt had dropped from $14,000 to $5,000. Now we are down to 2 bills left. One for a federal school loan and one for a hospital bill I incurred back in 2006. The total comes out to about $2,500. We have devoted every extra cent of income to paying these bills off and have been on a Ramen noodle budget for 3 months now. Our goal is to be completely debt free by the final week of March.
Let me just say, tithing works. Within 6 months, we have gone from poverty to plenty. Not only do we tithe 10% (more like 15% actually) but, we have gotten into the practice of tithing our "first fruits" which basically means, giving your tithe before you pay any other bills.
I think the reason the church is suffering so badly financially (I refer to the church of the body of Christ) is that, people have grown into this welfare/survival mentality of "this is all the money I can make and I need every bit of it to survive".
If we can't learn to trust God with a little bit, how can he trust us with more? Christy and I are just beginning to learn this and as a result, we have been blessed with double our yearly income and half our living expenses. I leave you with this verse. Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
In July, that all changed and I attribute it to tithing. Around July of last year, Christy and I made a decision together to start faithfully giving 10% of our income to God. If you think about it, that's not much. Considering, we brought in roughly 1800 a month in income, 180 dollars wasn't much to ask. Within a month of tithing, Bonnie offered to let us move into the upstairs portion of her house and pay a much lower rent than the place we were at before. We decided to take her up on her offer and our living expenses dropped by half.
Then, in December, a real miracle happened. I was contacted by a hiring agency (yeah, I wasn't too thrilled to work for a middle man either but you take what you can get). They informed me of an available job for a large software company. I figured I would give them a try and surprisingly enough, I was hired within a few days. Not only was the job full time but, it paid more hourly than I had made at any job in the past.
2 weeks into my new job, I made the ultimate decision to quit gaming. I won't go into details but if you know me at all, you will know that gaming was my LIFE. You can see my post about quitting gaming here.
By the start of January, our debt had dropped from $14,000 to $5,000. Now we are down to 2 bills left. One for a federal school loan and one for a hospital bill I incurred back in 2006. The total comes out to about $2,500. We have devoted every extra cent of income to paying these bills off and have been on a Ramen noodle budget for 3 months now. Our goal is to be completely debt free by the final week of March.
Let me just say, tithing works. Within 6 months, we have gone from poverty to plenty. Not only do we tithe 10% (more like 15% actually) but, we have gotten into the practice of tithing our "first fruits" which basically means, giving your tithe before you pay any other bills.
I think the reason the church is suffering so badly financially (I refer to the church of the body of Christ) is that, people have grown into this welfare/survival mentality of "this is all the money I can make and I need every bit of it to survive".
If we can't learn to trust God with a little bit, how can he trust us with more? Christy and I are just beginning to learn this and as a result, we have been blessed with double our yearly income and half our living expenses. I leave you with this verse. Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
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