Having goals is really the most important thing to start with for the living on less person. We knew that we were walking down the aisle into temporary poverty when we got married. My husband was in his last semester of undergrad and I had yet to find a job. Yet we had agreed on three things before we got married:
1. We did not want to get into credit card debt EVER. (We did not come into the marriage with any.)
2. We wanted to have a house by the time we were 30.
3. We wanted to save as much as possible.
The first two things really guided us during our lean days. Wanting these two things helped us stay disciplined when the going got tough. We each had credit cards, and let me tell you, it was mighty tempting to pull it out "just this once."
It was really hard! At the time we had friends who were living it up on their credit cards, taking trips, inviting us to do all sorts of cool and fun things...and really, spending $60 "just this once" on a card did not seem so bad. Yet we knew that when that bill came, we would not be able to pay it. Because we had the goal of not getting into credit card debt, we did not pull out that card. I think that this one goal has saved us more grief than any other goal we've had in our marriage to date. This goal was achievable because of our second "best practice" in our marriage: We worked with what we had, without question, without assumption.
Tomorrow: Attitude!
What were your personal money goals when you entered the working world? If you are married, what were your money goals when you entered your marriage?
1 comment:
Kudos to you for sticking to your guns and not spending money that you didn't have even when your really wanted to!! That is a hard thing to do!! Too many of us don't make that choice.
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