Little by Little

I have been reading some other financial blogs that interest me. They have me very motivated to write this post. Many of them have the theme of getting rich quickly and making your money now! I am living proof that it is a terrible way to chase your dreams of wealth. I have chased the money in my career and it lead to unhappiness.

Now I have finally figured out how it is done! I have figured out how to attain wealth and stay happy and balanced at the same time. Hence the post title, Little by Little.

Spending the last 10 plus years trying to climb up as high as I can at a major telecommunications manufacturer, gathering all of the money that I could get for us, led to unhappiness. A few years ago, the lovely Dawn and I decide we were going to take a new approach. We were going to attain wealth little by little. We were going to eliminate all debt ( including the house) and put money away little by little. Well, we have been successful so far. We have had nothing but a house payment for the several years and soon will be rid of that house payment. This wasn't easy. We made some major lifestyle changes. We moved from our large nice house to a smaller older house that needed some work. We were talked about by our friends and our family. They thought we were nuts and had gone of the deep end! If only they could see our bank account grow like we see it, they would not think we were so nuts.

Getting rid of the other debt has allowed us to get rid of the mortgage (little by little). Soon, when the mortgage is gone, we will be putting that money away (little by little). I won't put exact numbers here, but do you have any idea how quickly little by little adds up? We are living proof that it adds up very fast. We will have our house paid off after three years of living there. This even includes all of the improvements that we are doing to it. After the mortgage, we will fully fund college for all six kids, little by little....Maybe they will be able to spell better than me with all of that education!

This little by little thing has relieved so much stress in our lives. There is not as much pressure on me to keep making more and more money to support our lifestyle. Guess what, I even enjoy my job more since we have taken this approach. I was even discussing this with my boss one day. He was telling me how his kids were telling him that they did not want a job like his because of the pressure and the hours. He even wants to find a less stressful career! I cant' blame him. Right now I am happy where I am.

We have even expanded our family little by little, now Dawn is about to give birth to our sixth child!

The little by little plan takes time, but your odds for success are very high! I'll post more of the little by little stuff to come.

Christmas Time.....

Christmas time... A time of celebration of Jesus' birth. It is important not to forget what Christmas is about. That is why we do something special on Christmas. Instead of going out and buying a bunch of toys for each of our five (soon to be six) children, we buy them three gifts each. This is what the wise men brought to Jesus at his birth (gold, frankincense, and myrrh). It is a good theme, we decided to stick to it. Not only does it keep Christmas spending in control, but it helps the kids learn the real "reason for the season".


We still buy them trinkets for the stockings in addition to the three gifts, but we are sticking to three main gift packages for each child. Please leave some comments on how you make it financially through the Christmas season.....


Sorry for the longtime between posts....