Starting Our Total Money Make Over

Do you think you are good with money? I thought I was and sadly, I probably did know more than most due to having parents who knew enough to teach me. Maybe it’s my pride thinking I knew it a lot about finances at an early age or a change in circumstances (heck it is probably both), but regardless of education, experience, and circumstances, our family is now starting our Total Money Make-Over.

I want to set the stage because I believe it is essential to understand that although I would like to consider my family above average, we are not. We are ordinary people who face many of the problems others our age (and maybe even you) are facing when it comes to Finances. Before giving you the background (because let’s face it, some of you don’t care) here are the main points I have learned and hope to share to help others:

• Do the best with what you can, and don’t be too hard on yourself in the future
• Live your best life, don’t compare yourself to others
• Be grateful and happy even in the tough moments
• Consistency is Key
• Doing things halfway will only give you half of the results.
• Lastly, there is no better time to make change happen then today

With that, I hope you look forward to reading about the origin of our Total Money Make Over and hope you follow us on our journey to Financial Freedom and Family Happiness as we blog about our journey. Better yet, I hope you join us on the journey as well and read “The Total Money Makeover and share your thoughts and success with us as well!

Our Total Money Make-Over Origin Story

From a young age, my parents taught me a lot about financial literacy. When I was 14, my dad paid me to write a book report after reading “The Richest Man in Babylon” and “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” All of this information was great, and even without following each point, 100%. I did well I graduated college debt-free with a good job, all while being able to do many of the things I enjoyed. However, all though I kept myself to a budget and saved and invested when I could but principles like “Paying Yourself First” started to slip away. 

I didn’t realize this at first because well, compared to those around me, I was doing so well for myself. Little did I know these savings were going to be crucial in the next few years, and my goal and plan to find that perfect girl was going to change my financial status and complicate my goals of traveling the world and early retirement. 

Marina then came into the picture, and we quickly started talking about marriage, and we got married, which included not just her dogs and in-laws, but Marina’s spending habits, student loans, credit card debt, and cello. 

We have been married for a short time, and through many tough and emotional conversations, we have both improved. Marina is a lot more frugal, and I am less of a tightwad and a lot happier. We did well with our money, but like most still have many financial burdens. Although we did well on our own eliminated the credit card debt, we also took on more financial responsibility. We started adding responsibility by welcoming a baby to our family. We decided that Marina would stop working to better care for him and me due to the long hours I was putting in at my sales job that would be okay.

We knew a baby would cost a lot, but we didn’t realize just how much–especially when it came to how little time we would have for our hobbies and side-hustles. It was at this time I read The Total Money Make-Over by Dave Ramsy and thought it was (in theory) good and that we were already doing most of those things for the most part. That should have been the first red flag. 

An opportunity and a need arose for us to buy a house. Although we had been saving for a down payment, we were not to 20% down. We knew this opportunity would be a better choice for our family in the long run and the short term looked doable.

It is just after the holidays and into the New Year, and we are still in that short term phase. Things, however, are a little tighter than we thought. Due to some unexpected vet bills, maintenance for the house, and an extra bill we were not planning, we are forced to embrace our new reality. 

Our savings is now at an all-time low, and redoing our budget brought us to the realization that we are trending to be living paycheck to paycheck if something doesn’t change.

Luckily fear is a good thing, and with reviewing our budget and a new dedication to the total makeover, we know things won’t just turn out okay but will thrive.

We are ready to embrace our challenge and share our journey with the world in hopes it will hold us more accountable as well as help others who are not just working towards financial freedom, but more importantly, a happy life with the ones they love.

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