How I've been Stupid with Zeros...My Story (Part 2)

In yesterday's Part 1 of my story, I mentioned that three years ago, something major happened that caused my world to be rocked and helped me rethink the direction my family was headed. That event was a church split!

Since my primary vocation is music ministry (I'm the instrumental music director at a large church), I grew deeply concerned about how this church split was going to affect my primary source of income and even my position itself! I started listening to Dave Ramsey's radio program on a regular basis and taking a hard look at our finances, possessions, and debts.

Given the church's situation, I convinced my wife that selling our home would accomplish two purposes:

1. If my position was terminated at some point in the near future, we wouldn't have the added stress of selling a house while trying to transition to another ministry position.
2. We could get a lot of traction immediately on our debt load. With the small amount of equity in our house, we could still pay off half of our personal debt very quickly.

So, we sold our home back in October 2005, moved into a rental house, got on a lean budget, and begin paying off the remaining debt we had as quickly as we were able. My wife even got a part time job for 6 months that helped us get out more quickly. My part time music arranging and typesetting business (www.mystaffarranger.com) started doing better as well, so we had 3 income streams to knock this debt out really fast.

Fortunately, I never lost my position over the church split and the church is slowly healing over the devestation a lot of people caused. the Lord has been kind and gracious to me and my family. I feel that we have actualy prospered during this "lean time" in the life of our church. We went from a net worth of approximately negative $90,000 to a positive $70,000 in only 18 months. That folks, is an incredible turnaround!

So what did we learn through all of this:

1. No consumer debt is good debt. My wife and I would still like to be homeowners once again in the near future, but we plan on doing it the Dave Ramsey way with an emergency fund in place and a healthy down payment for a new home. Then do a 15 year mortgage, and pay that off as quickly as we can.
2. Be focused on the goal! Freedom from debt is definitely achievable. Have a plan in place, and work the plan!
3. Trust in the Lord through the tough times, and He will see you through it.
   

Larry