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No longer worried about mailbox monsters

May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
residential mailbox, United States

residential mailbox, United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Financial hardships can affect anyone no matter who they are, what they do for a living, and/or what their zip code is.

When we hit our tipping point of heading towards financial disaster just a few short years ago, we were devasted to find ourselves not being able to afford our monthly bills.

It got so bad with our bills coming in, that we actually would get a physical reaction when we opened our mailbox each day. The amount of bills rolling in was terrifying.

It was during this dark time in our lives, that everything debt-related got tossed into a stack of mail that was banished to a table in the garage. We would stop at our mailbox, park in the garage, do a quick shuffle-through to see what would make it to the trash and what could be tossed on the pile as we scurried into the house. It was as if closing the garage door on debts would make them go away (and we could pretend a little longer). Surely this would protect us from any “bill monsters” that were trying to creep into our lives!

Wow, how our lives have changed since then. Except for our house, we are totally debt free. We no longer have credit card statements, car bills, and/or non-mortgage loan statements hitting our mailbox. The first month we stopped getting our non-mortgage bills felt rather strange. Even today, I sometimes “look” for bills that are no longer exist.

How many people are facing fear in reaching for their bills today? Is this happening to loved ones, neighbors, and/or to your own family?

With over 30% of people today not having an emergency fund and/or savings, it is no wonder that it is common to find people in the same boat we once were.

We’ve been there and can relate.

If you are living this way today, know that there is HOPE!

With faith, perseverance, and a plan to action, people can get out of debt.We were a family that never thought it were possible. If this is you or someone you know, sign up with us at our blog, join our future podcasts, and/or join up with me at one of my future speaking events. Visit our website for some awesome resources and look for our Living Beyond Rich book that is bound to give hope and inspiration to many.

Come join in the Live Beyond Awesome journey by joining our blog and watching for our upcoming newsletter sign ups and future podcasts – be prepared most of all to experience your life transform.

Live Beyond Awesome!

Jen

Motivational Storyteller, Live Beyond Awesome

Author, Living Beyond Awesome  & soon to be Living Beyond Rich (Due out June 2012) – Look for us through Amazon or through our website:

www.fieldofdebt.com – Please consider subscribing to our blog.

Attention Event Planners: Looking for a motivational storyteller?  I would LOVE to serve your needs.

 

 

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Hills and Valleys We ALL Go Through In Our Lifetime – Turning Valleys Into Blessings

January 20, 2012 By 2 Comments

Robbie and Jen - 1st day of diagnosis January 12, 2009

January 12, 2012 marked our 3 year anniversary when our lives changed forever.  It was the day our Robbie was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 7 years old. A day that we celebrate as it was a major turning point in our lives…one that turned out to be a huge blessing to our whole family, however, one of those blessings that didn’t “feel” like a blessing at the time.

Before this day, life is overall pretty darn awesome as I had just finished up completing my first Ironman Triathlon 2 months earlier (our story on that journey is now available in our newest book Living Beyond Awesome which dipped into the Top 100 Books under Amazon’s Transformation category last month). We literally woke up one morning feeling great and by that evening, our world had been turned upside down.

Throughout the next several weeks, it would be some of the hardest times in our lives. We would not only be emotionally devastated, but financially devastated at well.

In our newest book that is due out this year, Living Beyond Rich, we share our journey in the hopes that 70% of Americans who are currently living paycheck to paycheck will gain inspiration, motivation, and hope. Here is a excerpt from the book…a story our pastor told that rings true for all of us:

Our pastor did a sermon that put it in perspective for us when it came to emergencies. He talked about the hills and valleys in our lifetime. It centered bible verse that refers to “WHEN trouble comes your way” NOT “IF trouble comes your way.” He went on to clarify that God never promised that we wouldn’t have troubles, God clearly states that WHEN trouble comes our way to rely on Him.

What? I must have skipped over that part in the bible. I thought if we were faithful followers and did good things, we could avoid pain in our lives…wasn’t that right?

Our pastor illustrated that there were three phases in EVERYONE’S path that centered around where we were at when it came to storms hitting our lives. 

  1. We were either getting ready to head into a storm.
  2. We were in a storm.
  3. We were coming out of a storm.

What an incredible illustration of what our troubles in life really look like. We had never looked at it this way before and therefore felt cheated when emergencies did come our way.

We were letting life happen to us versus us happening to life.

Rather than being intentionally prepared for those storms in life, we were unprepared and our poorly built foundation was now being ripped apart. 

It isn’t fair we wanted to yell! We didn’t ask for our son to develop a lifetime disease. If only this wouldn’t have happened to us, we would be okay.

Throughout the years we seemed to always be waiting on something to fix our problem such as a raise at work, a tax return, some unexpected windfall of money. When we got that promotion, tax return, new job, when we could take out another loan, etc. then we would be okay. 

70% of us have built our financial foundations on poor soil by living paycheck to paycheck. Rather than looking to us as the solution, we are waiting for some lottery type event to happen in our lives. If and when that lottery happens to us we tell ourselves, things will be better. 

We definitely lived with this type of attitude for the first 17+ years of our marriage. Always waiting, but never hitting that lottery. When would it come? We were just sure we would “catch a break” someday. 

The lottery did come our way, but certainly not how we pictured it would come.

If you are waiting on that lottery in your life to happen, join our blog and follow along our journey. We were once in the shoes of the 70% of Americans that live paycheck to paycheck. If getting personal finances in order seems impossible, you are visiting the right blog!

Many blessings and remember to sign up to receive our blogs as they post.

Live Beyond Awesome.

Jen

Field of Debt

Living Beyond Awesome

Author, Debt Elimination Coach, and Inspirational Storyteller

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Filed Under: Attitude, Blog, Hard times, Ironman, Perception, Who We Are Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Desperately Broke and Being Ashamed – School Comes Through With An A+

January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Being in debt can feel like you are living on the edge sometimes. It is a lonely, shameful, and scary place to be for some.

It use to be very humiliating and embarrassing when we first started on our journey to admit we were broke. We were $100,000+ in debt and trying to pay for our son’s medical research visits to help find a cure for his type 1 diabetes. During our first month on our budget, we were $1,000 behind after things were cut out – it made our tight budget even tighter. In addition, we would come to have medical related expenses that were running ~$15,000 a year.

During this dark time in our lives, any little extra out of the ordinary things that came up would sometimes set us over the edge. One example of this was special events.

Dress clothes was were considered frivolous on our priority list…food, shelter, paying off debt, and medical care were our focus. I use to cringe when events such as weddings, school concerts, etc. would come up that required nice clothes. The line of not going into debt had been drawn and nothing was going to make us go over it. The feelings of  embarrassment, guilt, and stress over it many times made us say just forget it, we are not going.

I am not writing this blog today to make you feel sorry for us. I wanted to write this blog because many times we don’t always know what people are facing in their lives. Sometimes realizing that people are under extremely stressful situations can help paint a picture as to why people act and look the way they do.

Knowing what it “feels” like to be in a desperate situation, it made me all the more prouder to brag on what the kids school did recently. Here is a recent quote taken out of their upcoming announcement:

On the night of the concert, remember one thing: Comfort is key. Students should wear nice clothes they already own. Don’t feel the need to go out and buy an outfit. Clean tennis shoes are fine. This is a change from years past for economical reasons.

The note ended with “I can’t wait to see all of you at the concert.”

I think of the families that are struggling right now and  it almost makes me cry reading this kind and thoughtful note. To know that places like our wonderful school are going out of their way to ensure all are welcome no matter what is just heart warming.

So great job out there to all the other schools, churches, etc. that are following suit by welcoming all, no matter what.

Thanks for reading and God Bless.

Live Beyond Awesome,

Jen

 

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A painful beginning to our finance journey

August 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

I remember when we were in the realms of despair when we first found out about our son Robbie being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and then being crushed by where we were financially.  Those first few weeks/months were emotionally very hard! 

One such memory was so very painful at the time. Bob and I loved to give gifts and felt that it was almost rude not to show up with something in hand to someone’s house (i.e. flowers, coffee, etc.).  Shortly after we made a commitment to start the plan, we had our first wedding invite for my cousin. It was a lovely affair that involved a sit down dinner.  We were short on our budget by quite a bit and still needed to save up for Rob’s first airfare to Denver for his research study.  We were scrimping by – we had a plan and were following it to where we needed to go, but we felt like we were clawing our way in the desert with no water as far as trying to make our budget work.     We promptly sent our decline invite back. Do you know what happened?  My very sweet, but persistent aunt called me wanting to know the reason we sent in a decline and was insisting that we go.  Afterwards, I found out that my mom had told her about our finances and my aunt was determined we were going.  I politely said no thanks and we hoped they had a great wedding.  She is a tough lady and wouldn’t give in.  Finally, after trying to change the subject MANY times, I told her it was ridiculous that our family of five would be a financial burden to the new couple’s marriage, we couldn’t bring a gift, we had no dress up clothes for the kids, and that was outright RUDE to not bring a gift and definitely NOT okay with us.  She won’t hear of it and would NOT take no for an answer.  She completely wore me down and with a heavy heart, I finally agreed to go.

We went to the wedding reception full of anxiety.  When we pulled up to the very elite reception, my anxiety grew as I looked at our kids who were not dressed up and was upset about not having any gifts to bring.  We walked in and my very kind cousin and his wife sought us out (I just wanted to sink in the woodwork for the whole reception).  They gushed over and over that they were so happy we were here and were excited about Robbie’s research trips that were coming up.  I was too choked up to talk much. I just hugged them and wished them well…that was ALL we had to give them. 

That was definitely one of the more humbling times in our lives.  We had NOTHING to give and it felt AWFUL, hurtful, and horrifying, however I was proud that we were firmly committed to not to stray away from our plan like we would have in the past.  I look back and think it was a painful lesson for us to learn, but really, it isn’t the gift that matters and that the more pride you have, the greater the pain.

In the end, it was wonderful to be able to share in their wedding reception and it ended up to be a great time.  Our family showered us with love that day…we could feel it.  I am grateful to my very sweet, but very tough insistent aunt who wouldn’t take even a maybe for an answer!

Thanks for reading and God bless.

Jen

www.fieldofdebt.com

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