Debt Journey
By Quilter
@fatragu (677)
United States
June 18, 2023 1:24pm CST
Are you on a journey to financial freedom and peace?
What are some books you'd recommend?
Do you have any words of advice for someone who has no idea what they're doing?
Everyone I know is in debt to their eyes and sees nothing wrong with it.
I'm trying to end generational poverty for myself and hopefully my kids and I need all the help I can get.
I know some people say go through Financial Peace University but I don't have the money to do that right now so I am doing it the old fashioned way of budgeting and paying cash for almost everything.
I can't pay cash for everything because I have 4 bills I can't pay cash for. Thankfully one of those is my car payment and it is taken out as soon as my paycheck hits the bank so I can't accidently not pay it. 2 I can only pay with their app and my garbage sends a link to your email to pay.
I would love any and all advice I can get.
4 people like this
4 responses
@yukimori (10145)
• United States
18 Jun 23
Honestly, everything covered in Financial Peace University should be available online for free. There's really no need to spend your money on it when it could be put towards more important things.
Make a budget and stick to it. Contribute to retirement accounts, at least up to the amount that your employer will match. Build up at least a $1000 emergency fund. (I'd recommend looking at Fidelity for that; they have a product called Bloom that gives you both a Spend and a Save account. Deposit $25 and they'll give you a $50 bonus. They'll also match 10% of your first $300 in savings per year. What I'd do is just set up a small direct deposit to go into the Save account from every paycheck. You can immediately move it to the Spend account and use the debit card they send for an emergency. )
The biggest thing that I've learned, though, is it really doesn't matter how frugal you are. You can scrimp and save all you want, but the real ticket out is going to be increasing your income. Once you can create a bit of breathing room, then everything starts falling into place.
1 person likes this
@yukimori (10145)
• United States
18 Jun 23
Some other resources I've found helpful (with advance apologies because some links won't work, just copy and paste to your address bar if needed):
https://community.babycenter.com/groups/a48205/debt_free_journey
https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics/
https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index/
https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/
A free EveryDollar account might be helpful for budgeting. I always used YNAB, but it's not a free service.
@leighnyork (1880)
•
18 Jun 23
That's nice mostly I usually seek the advice from the experts in there forum
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (92864)
• United States
18 Jun 23
The only people I know who give financial advice that are extremely successful doing it are Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman. They have had successful TV shows, and books, although I don’t know the names of them.
Would they help you personally? I’m not sure, but it would be worth looking into if you haven’t already.
@jstory07 (139725)
• Roseburg, Oregon
18 Jun 23
The only thing I can think of is buy only what you need no extras. That will save you some money.