Do I still wrestle with money? Absolutely!
\nDo I still have days where I wonder where it all went? For sure!
\nDo I still often think it would just be easier to buy the nice things I want and let the future sort itself out? Embarrassingly, yes.<\/p>\n
Getting our financial house in order has taken a lot of work. And recently, when my car died and my wife’s car needed some costly repairs, it wiped out nearly every cent we had saved.<\/p>\n
**Nine months of hard work, gone in an instant.**<\/p>\n
It was devastating to see all of our hard saved money evaporate into a new car. Sure, it’s nice to have a new car that runs well and has air conditioning, but we weren’t planning on spending the thousands to make that a reality for a couple more years. It just goes to show, you never know what life is going to throw at you, or when. And it pays to be ready.<\/p>\n
I have learned a lot since we paid off our credit cards, got student loans under control, made a plan to pay off medical bills and started savings a large part of our income while donating another sizable portion every month.<\/p>\n
It’s been a long road and it’s nowhere near over.<\/p>\n
Financial control is a journey, not a destination. There is never an end to the struggle and saving. There is never a point where the money starts replicating itself tenfold and all your worries are gone.<\/p>\n
Keeping your finances under control is an ongoing endeavor and one I’m happy we’ve done.<\/p>\n
There is an amount of peace and security that comes from saving for the future. I’m a calmer person knowing there is money going into savings every pay check.<\/p>\n
I am happy to contribute to my 401k and pay Future Carl. He is going to appreciate the efforts of Present Carl one day.<\/p>\n
I am happy to be able to pay down our debts and student loans. I am happy I know we have the money to live comfortably while making this happen.<\/p>\n
I am happy we’re able to donate 10% of our monthly income to the church because I know it goes for good things. I don’t care where you stand on religion. I’ve been on both sides of the debate in my life.<\/p>\n
But for now, I am happy where I am. I feel the religion I am living is mostly in line with my views. I am part of one fo the largest humanitarian aid organizations in the world since the church has a worldwide network of people and communication in place ready to act and serve when the need arises.<\/p>\n
I didn’t think there was any way we could contribute to a 401k, put aside money in savings for ourselves and donate to the church every month. <\/p>\n
But we do. We can. We are.<\/p>\n
And I feel better because I know where my money is going and I know what it’s being used for. Can I afford to buy myself new gadgets, games and other toys at will? No.<\/p>\n
But I know the difference I am making in my life as well as the life of others is well worse the sacrifice and hard work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do I still wrestle with money? Absolutely! Do I still have days where I wonder where it all went? For sure! Do I still often think it would just be easier to buy the nice things I want and let the future sort itself out? Embarrassingly, yes. Getting our financial house in order has taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[105],"tags":[383,399,232,149],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thought-about","tag-church","tag-giving","tag-hard-work","tag-money"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peroty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}