Blog Posts
Over a year ago, I wrote the fourth article in this series. I have been avoiding the fifth step, because there have been lots of other articles to write and I wanted to experience what it felt like to pay off the house early. I haven't reached this point yet, but we have done a lot in over a year. We have paid down over $25,000 in principal on our house and we are working towards paying off our house early.
Last year, I was celebrating the fact that we were debt free in early August. By the middle of August, we had officially purchased a house and were once again in debt. I don't necessarily believe that everybody needs to take out a mortgage to buy a house, but it is the one debt that I accept. It can be okay to take out a mortgage, because a house is an investment. Now, this doesn't mean that you should go and put yourself into 30 years of debt. I am personally a fan of the 15-year mortgage, because I prefer to get debt out of my life as fast as possible. Due to this belief, my wife and I took out a 15-year mortgage and have been making extra principal payments.
Clothing can be a very touchy subject in some families. In most families, the guys could care less about getting new clothes and women want new clothes much more often. This can lead to arguments about how much to spend and when to spend money on clothing.
I continue to hear that America has a student loan crisis. In all reality, it is a crisis. The student loan debt, in America, has now reached $1.3 trillion dollars, with millions of students in default or behind with payments. Some suggest that a way to relieve the student loan crisis is to make college free. Others believe that it would be best to spread the loan payments out over longer terms.
As a soon-to-be father, I have been interested in the importance of parental guidance and I have even written a couple articles about this topic. Since, we can't count on the schools to teach our children how to handle money, then we have to be the ones to teach them. Therefore, I am writing this article to put down strategies that I want to use to teach my children about finances. I hope that you can find these strategies beneficial, and you will try to use them with your children.
