MONEY MATTERS

October of 2000 found our young family preparing for a life-changing move.  We packed all we had into a 24-foot Ryder Truck, complete with car trailer; and my husband, 6-month old daughter, and I made the 4-day journey from Provo, Utah to Manassas, Virginia.  It was our first job out of school and we were excited for the adventure.

After we arrived and got settled, we sat down together to devise a new budget and determine how to pay off our debt.  We had credit card debt from our move, a car payment, and student loans.  Even before we were married, we had determined that debt was not something we wanted to live with.  We had read One for the Money before, but this seemed like a good time for a review.  The debt-elimination calendar seemed so simple!  It jumped out at us, a so we put into reality.   Paying off the first item felt like it took forever, but once we made financial decisions to really get rid of this debt, we were able to pay it off faster than we anticipated.  Years later I heard about Dave Ramsey and his "snowball effect" with paying off debt.  I was sure he had read Elder Ashton's pamphlet!  This one decision to use the debt-elimination calculator has been one of the best decisions of my life...seriously!

I challenge you to take time this week to read section 3 of One for the money and study the debt elimination calculator.  Think about how to reduce your level of debt and how to meet your financial goals.  Remember to talk it over with your husband and the rest of the family so everyone knows how to help (and not to hurt) this endeavor.

Being out of debt propagates freedom.  J. Reuben Clark has been oft quoted, “Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours; it never has short crops nor droughts; it never pays taxes; it buys no food; it wears no clothes; it is unhoused and without home and so has no repairs, no replacements, no shingling, plumbing, painting, or whitewashing; it has neither wife, children, father, mother, nor kinfolk to watch over and care for; it has no expense of living; it has neither weddings nor births nor deaths; it has no love, no sympathy; it is as hard and soulless as a granite cliff. Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.” (in Conference Report, Apr., 1938, p. 103.)

Over the course of paying off our debts, I heard a few bits of wisdom that we put into practice:  (1) use a bonus, raise, tax return, or other un-budgeted-for financial addition to help pay off your debt.  Use half to pay down the debt and put the other half back into the budget to help the family.  Doing this small thing really helped to propel us out of debt.  We even used this advice to pay down our mortgage.  (2) Reward yourself!  When you have paid off  one of your debts, plan to purchase something fun.  When we paid off our car, we bought our first DVD player.  It helped me to look forward to wiping out that debt.  It also taught me self-control to wait for an anticipated item instead of making an impulse purchase.

Resolve today to lesson debt and to prevent from entering into it.  I end with wise words from  President Heber J. Grant "If there is any one thing that will bring peace and contentment into the human heart, and into the family, it is to live within our means, and if there is any one thing that is grinding, and discouraging and disheartening it is to have debts and obligations that one cannot meet"(Relief Society Magazine, May 1932, p. 302).” (In Conference Report, Apr. 1979, p. 56; or Ensign, May 1979, p. 39.)