It's A fINaNCiAL ReVOLuTIoN!

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We are in the process of a financial revolution in our household right now- and it's pretty freakin' exciting!

Starting in January, I got the tip from a cool friend of mine, Marissa, for the website You Need A Budget.

Little did I know at the time that it would be the first step on our path out of financial ignorance. Practically everyone who knows us has heard us talk about how AWESOME their budgeting software is. For the Non-budget-y out there, it truly is a gift like manna from heaven! Since I started using it, I have been for the FIRST TIME in my ENTIRE life, including our almost 12 years of marriage,

* tracking our expenses to the penny-

*Budgeting our money out every month

*Saving more than ever

*Paying off more debt than I EVER HAVE

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And to top it off, I also have this awesome history of the past 6 months budgets, to see where our money has been spent- and feel more control over it than I ever thought possible.

I am truly more grateful to my Heavenly Father for this- because I am feeling SO empowered. Before this- I have always been in "charge" so to speak, of our finances. My inability to budget, do MATH, and figure out where we actually were each month was just a sad fact of life. Looking back I think I was just hoping upon hope that SOME day some THING would come along and it would click for us, for ME. I would be able to know how to be a responsible adult and manage our finances like a BIG GIRL would. Not a shoe loving- clothes obsessed Girlie Girl high on VISA crack. (Seriously!)

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Then the next big eye opener happened. My sister started reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. She let me borrow her copy and told me to read it. I think it sat in the same exact spot where she left it for over a month. Every time she saw me she'd ask, "Did you start it yet?" and I would sheepishly reply, "Ohhh, yeah- I am getting to that...." Then one weekend I decided to read it. I think I read it in about 2 days. I pretty much plowed through it- and THAT was the NEXT BIG THING for me. I realized that I did not HAVE to be in debt for things... even normal things that everyone "assumes" you need to be in debt for- car, house, loans,... I realized that we could acheive financial indepedance and maybe even some future hope of wealth building!! That's when I started going intense and paying off debt at a much faster rate than I ever had. I am continuing to do that right now.

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The MOST RECENT fantastic light bulb awesome moments came just a few days ago. We are in the process of refinancing our house out of some rather bad loans we started with. Our mortgage guy tipped us onto a new system of paying off a mortgage that ACCELERATES your payoff... and amazingly when you realize the power you can have by going turbo and paying your mortgage of WAYY EARLY- you can SERIOUSLY SAVE MAJOR MONEY. (If you watch some of those informative videos you can start to get what I am talking about.) And, you can in turn snowball that money into retirement accounts that can SET YOU UP for retirement. Which is exactly what we need, given the fact that we are self employed and QUITE under prepared in the whole retirement side of things. I have researched it a bit now, and I will say that I don't believe you HAVE to purchase the software from one of these companies to accomplish this.

HERE you can download a basic calculator system that can really help you plan out how to pay off your mortgage early. My one sister Millie and I have been obsessing over this the past few days, and I think they are going to go this route to manage, plan, and pay off their mortgages (they have a rental house as well) early. We haven't decided yet how exactly we are going to go about it- but I am SOOO EXCITED to know how much we are going to save in INTEREST on our house by paying it off early!! Have you ever seen the FINAL payoff amount on your house if you have a 30 yr loan? It's like nearly TRIPLE the purchase price of the house. SCARY!!

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Anyway... I am SOO HAPPY about it- I'll keep updating with how it goes and what we decide to do. I had to write about this because I have been thinking so much about it- and I wonder WHY have I not heard more people talk about this? Do most people just assume you buy a house and pay the payment for the full 20 or 30 years and that's it? I am wondering if more people realized the power of compounding interest, and how FAST they could actually pay off thier homes if they tried.. would not more people do it? It seems like as Americans we are just accustomed to the "traditional" ways of doing things, even if in the process the banks are making off with every cent we have. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX PEOPLE! I am totally open to that, and I hope that by so doing it will eventually really pay off.