By the time I was 14 and had my first job I lived like Shiri – key point “Oh, I’ll worry about it tomorrow, etc.”” And when I bought my first term life ins policy at 26, I really started to live a ‘material’ life b/c I knew the life insurance money would be there to pay off my debt if anything happened to me. 12 yrs later, “the borrower is slave to the lender” and these lenders are getting heavy.

I recently read one sentence that has stuck in my mind … “live on 80% – save 10%, give 10% away”. I think if someone had told me that by age 14, I would have stayed away from debt. Even a 5th grader knows how to figure 80% of a number.

Today, I will be ‘changing my family tree’ by teaching my daughter how to manage her money. Thanks to inspiring words from Glbl guy and Dave Ramsey, I am “living like no one else so later I can live like no one else”.

I can’t say for sure if I’d have avoided debt altogether if my parents had been more transparent about their own finances, but it sure would have been nice to have internalized some of the principles I have learned in the last year: give away (some of your) money to others, plan ahead for expenses you know are coming, save money for a rainy day (because sooner or later, it will rain), live on less than you earn.

My parents told me all these things at one point or another, but they never showed me how to do it, or how they were doing it. These all seem so basic now but for some reason I didn’t get it when I was younger.

Ultimately, like you, I had to hit bottom (actually, like Nancy, I had to hit bottom twice… ) before I was truly ready to do things differently, take responsibility for my own financial well-being and grow up.

I think this was God trying to tell me that I needed to make a change in the way I managed my money . . . I used to live a frivolous paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle and I would buy lots of things I didn’t need . . . CDs, video games, clothes . . . you name it. I mean, I am a very financially educated twentysomething, I just didn’t take heed of the advice. I was all, “Oh, I’ll worry about it tomorrow, etc.”

I made a lot of changes in order to save money and get out of debt quicker . . . the largest of which was giving up my car permanently and taking public transportation. It’s been hard but it is my sincere hope that I will reap the benefits of my sacrifices in the future.

Thanks again!

Watching a family member hit rock bottom was what stopped my bad financial habits. Someone close to me had to file for bankruptcy. I watched him deal with creditor calls, avoid creditor calls, have to rely on family for financial support. It was awful. I sat down and took a hard look at my financial situation and realized that I was barely squeaking by, and if I didn’t do something ASAP, I was going to be in the same boat. I haven’t used a credit card in two years, and I’ve been working to pay off my credit card debt.