Solutions To Financial Problems

Today, I watched a video on YouTube titled, Kingdom Solutions To Financial Problems. It was truly life-changing...

This was after watching another video from the YouTube channel, The Financial Diet, on lazy ways to earn money...which was also life changing...7 Extremely Lazy Ways To Make More Money

In a small way, the two videos contradict each other. One promotes hard work and discipline (but mostly money management), the other is talking about, well, lazy ways to earn money. To be fair, the latter video is not meant to show you ways to earn a living, but rather, supplement the income you already make from working.

Anyway, the first video really opened my eyes to the ways in which I've been blocking financial growth, and it's entirely due to how I have mismanaged money. I mean, I've heard this in sermons for years, "How can God trust you with much when you can't handle the little He already gave you?" (or some variation of that), yet it never really clicked in my brain until watching that video. It really solves the mystery of living paycheck to paycheck. I highly recommend it to EVERYONE, Christian or not.

As a result of both videos, I decided to open an investment account today. That's something I've never had the courage to do before...but it's time.

For the last two and a half months, I've been reckless with my spending. Eating out two to three times a DAY, buying clothes, polish and whatnot. In fact, my husband and I added up how much we spent on eating out together in the last 24 days, and the total came to $698. THAT'S IN-FREAKING-SANE!!!!! The state of my financial and physical health have suffered the consequences.

Let's be honest: we have debt. We want to be debt free. So, what we've done is made a pact that when we get the urge to eat out or to buy anything that we really don't need, that we tell each other what it is and the amount, and then put that money toward bettering our finances instead. For example, I wanted to buy the China Glaze OMG collection from eBay...added it to my cart and everything. But instead of going through with the purchase, I put the money toward my new investment account.

I envy grownups who have parents with homes big, loving and welcoming enough to allow them to return should they need a break from huge living expenses. We just spoke to the son of a pastor whose church we were attending who told us that he, his wife and child were moving back home to save money to buy a bigger house for their growing family. What a huge blessing that is! - and smart, too.

People make fun of the Latino culture where there's like 20 people living in a house (exaggerating) but I tell you what, those households tend to never be short on cash. Everyone works and everyone chips in and nobody's broke and nobody's in debt. That has been my experience.

I can't live with a bunch of people because of I'm an introvert and terribly antisocial to boot, but if I had parents I could run home to for help, I absolutely would. The rent and utilities saved would actually make us debt free within a year. It's crazy but it's true...

I want to have that kind of home for my kids in this lifetime. I'd like to have a safe and loving home big enough to take them in if they wanted to return...if I'm honest though, it wouldn't matter the size of the home. If they're law-abiding and working, they're always welcome, whether they have to sleep on the floor, an air mattress - whatever! But I digress.

I really do hope you'll watch both videos if you're having financial problems. They're game-changers.

Until next time, BE BLESSED!

XOXOXO - Jess