The Lessons We Forgot

There are so many things we forgot

The life lessons I should never have forgotten are too numerous to count. The ones I intend to cover here can be broken down to three:

1. Never spend more than you make
2. Bigger isn't always better
3. "If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else"

That last one was a quote from Dave Ramsey. My husband and I learned that one early on in our marriage, but had forgotten it until now.

We took the Financial Peace University course at our church a couple of years into our marriage. We loved it and jumped on board. We started budgeting and stopped using credit cards. This drastically altered our marriage in wonderful ways. We got our spending under control and paid off the credit cards and were able to help worthy causes, then life happened.

In 2009 we were having breakfast in our suburban home when we looked out the kitchen window to see police surrounding our neighbors house. The neighborhood had started on a downward slope and we could not see it getting better. We decided to sell the house while it still had value. We loved that house, we had completely over-improved it beyond what the market could bear. At the time we didn't care because they were things we liked, whole-house tankless hot water heater, two-stage furnace and a/c, ventless fireplace, and the list goes on.

We sold our house in February in about 2 weeks. They were willing to close in April. We saw tons of houses. We saw tons of horrible houses. We went through three real estate agents. We were a couple of weeks from closing and we didn't have any place to live. We panicked and bought a house we ended up hating. It had some of the things we wanted, but too much of everything.

We had no idea how much work 2.3 acres was to keep up. We had no idea how much 8 flower beds were to keep up. We had a house that had 3600 square feet of living space and had no idea how much it took to clean it. Worst of all, we had no idea how much money this would take. We, once again, have credit card debt. We have been sucked dry.

That is where you find us today. We have made the decision to "Super-Downsize". We are selling our house and buying a townhouse. We will be remodeling on a budget. We will be selling, donating or otherwise ridding ourselves of stuff. We'd love for you to join us on this journey.