Money, Part 1

A few weeks ago, one of our children was in a fast food restaurant with Kevin. I don't know exactly where they were (in line or at a table) but the child said (loudly), "Dad, if you didn't have SO many children, you'd be rich!"

We chuckled about that.  From the perspective of many of the world's citizens, we ARE rich. We have a roof over our heads, money in the bank, and we've never missed a meal.

But I'll admit I don't FEEL rich.  Rich, to me, is being debt free, and we are not debt free.

And I hate debt. I am just one of those people that really dislikes being in debt, ANY debt.  The distaste is to the point of being illogical, because sometimes a debt will allow us to do something that is right and sensible.  Scripturally, I don't think that all debt is bad.  It is good to get OUT of debt when possible, but debt isn't inherently evil or sinful.

I've lived with debt for 13 years now, as it was almost exactly 13 years ago that we moved down to Ohio and bought a house.  Yes, our ONLY debt is our house and it is (I hope) worth more than we owe on it.  So in the grand scheme of things, we are doing fine.  We are doing well.

I think a lot about about personal financial matters. I am a born saver.  I have my areas of weakness.  I find myself stressing out quite a bit about how to spend money because I want to use it wisely.  I tend to hoard money instead of using it as a tool.  As Kevin says frequently (and he is right), money is a TOOL.

I think too about our children. We live in a culture which gives us a million options in terms of spending. Now if we can't go to the store, we can order things online!  And we can use credit to buy things that we really can't afford yet.

How do we teach our children to use money wisely?  I pray a lot about that because I know I have my hangups about money and I want to give godly, wise advice...not advice based on personality or fear.

The big thing I'm thinking about these days is that for us, money matters are all about lifestyle choices.

We are fairly well off.  Kevin makes a lot.  We are in that enviable place of having enough money to supply all our needs and quite a few of our wants. But we can't have EVERYTHING we want.  We say "no" to our desires every single day.  I'm a saver, but I still see a lot that I want that I can't or choose not to get.

We have a big house.  A really big house. It is about 3500 square feet PLUS we have a big basement!  Of course, there are 10 of us!  So having a big house is really nice for our family because we can spread out and have room for personal space and items.

The house is expensive.  It takes a substantial portion of our income.  We don't have any trouble "making the mortgage" but we've said no to some things that other people put a priority on. We don't have cable TV.  Our cell phones are simple Trakfones that are very bare bones.  We don't have Ipads or Kindle Fires or neat gadgets that let us check the internet when away from home.  We go on cheap vacations, or don't go on vacation at all.

I'm not complaining about those things.  I have a friend who said they chose to live in a small home so they would have more income to do fun things outside the home.  I totally appreciate that they thought through that decision and decided it was best for their family. For us, having a big house with a big yard with a swimming pool has been a good investment for our family.  We are "homebodies" and being home is a good place for us to be.  I find taking the kids anywhere to be quite a project and I am thankful that our home is big enough and entertaining enough that we are fairly content at home.

I think I'll write a few more blog posts about money in the future, but for now...a baby needs me :-).