Patience Is a Virtue

Over the last few years I certainly can say I have been no saint when it comes to making financial decisions, shocking right? Even being in the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace program you would almost say its safe to say you will never make a financial mistake again? This is VERY untrue. Learning about money does exactly what it was designed to do which is teach. Unfortunately they didn't put "wisdom not included" on the packaging. I believe over the last 2 years I have paid about 10,000 worth of stupid tax between, buying stuff I couldn't afford even though I had cash, and then flat out spending money on things I knew wasn't going to later bring me a return.

Now days I try to limit my stupid but hey as a growing adult you just can't help it sometimes. That is why when a good friend of shared with me that she had purchased a new fleece I didn't faint! Did I want to faint? Oh yes but hey I have been there so what could I really say about it at the end of the day. If anything was to happen regarding her new car it was to teach ME a lesson about patience. You see just shy of a month ago my friend turned in her old leased car and based on some wisdom I had given her she had decided she wasn't going to fleece again and would be fine with a beater car. She was getting around fine and later her father shared with her that he would GIVE her his old car as soon as he brought a new one. Now we all know parents can be procrastinators at times but I would hope had a free car been involved I would have waited as long as it wasn't super inconvenient for me to do so. Well my friend got tired of waiting..... She says her new honda has payments OVER $300 and that does not include insurance. I am just gonna come out n say that was STUPID! It kinda hurt that she didn't stick to my advice but really its her money not mine and it hurts HER in the long run not me.

However through her example I was able to take away some lessons:

1. Patience will make you wealthy - Buying things you can't afford will surly give you instant gratification now but later you will reap the consequences of that choice. Am I money hungry ? No? but I am working on leaving wealth to my children not debt, and surly when you don't master patience you are risking your future.

2. Patience keeps you in a humble place - I have asked God for a few things, one of them being a husband. I have realized that God has been breaking me down to a place to where when that man comes into my life there will be no room for bragging (even though I believe there will be much to brag about) but it will be a time to just thank God and give him glory because it will be nothing short of a miracle (ummm hmmm i said it)

3. Patience brings free stuff - Recently my mom just got me a couch that she got for free. It isn't new but its definitely more than I had before and it didn't cost me anything. As Im typing this I also see that these things are only temporary and when I do have the financial means to have more I will, but until then I enjoy the little things that God blesses me with and take care of that which he has provided me with.

I am so thankful for the lessons I can learn through others, and lessons others can learn from me. I am happy I am 27 and that life gives me a chance to recover from stupid and also grow.

So have you ever done something extremely stupid with money SINCE you came into the knowledge of weath building? Are there any regrets from past stupid money mistakes?

My Stupid Tax 2009

Welcome to the first Divine & Debt Free's stupid tax edition. Today I am going to share with you one of the stupid things I did in 2009 that I wish I hadn't. Hopefully this will inspire you to A. share your stupid money stories and B. learn from other folks mistakes including my own.

So here is the story.....

It was a cold day in.....March and me and my now ex boyfriend (stupid thing A.1 lol) had been dating for several months. We had been talking about new cell phones for at least a month at the time and we thought it would be absolutely cute to do those "couple phones". Now don't go laughing at me because I know a few of you people (won't name names) who have done silly things to symbolize a mile stone in a relationship..... but I digress.....

His contract on his phone was going to be ending soon and I had a 1 year old ratty t-mobile phone that was falling apart by the second. He agreed to put me on his account (stupid thing A.2) and we would "share" the bill. So we get into the AT & T store and as soon as I walked in I saw it..... yes I had one of those moments where you see something and a beam of light shines over it like it feel straight from heaven? yea thats it. It was the newest version of the Iphone and I just had to have it. So I agreed to pay for his phone which was $50 bucks with a new 2 year contract and my phone was $200. I think I spent almost $300 dollars that day (No I wasn't budgeting for this either)

Needless to say we break up 2 weeks later (don't laugh we really did). Due to my better credit rating I was able to actually get the phone in my name so I did (stupid thing A.3). So here I am with a brand new Iphone and what seems to be a bill that keeps spiraling out of control. But did I stop there?? Hecks no, I had decided that after sooo much sacrifice (an exaggeration on my part) that I deserved this phone and I was going to keep it no matter what the cost.

Fast forward to 3 weeks ago....

after going through way to many hoops and loops with AT&T I decided to dump the phone. Turns out the only thing I was doing on it was getting in trouble at work from playing on it so much!! But thats not all, I looked at my spread sheet (cuz im a nerd) and looked at the year end total for cell phone use and it read a whopping 1,743 dollars!!! Yes you read right, almost 2,000 on a stupid cell phone(just one) !! I was so mad at myself I could have just passed out. You do realize all that money could have gone towards my debt don't cha......

Today, I am sitting here with my lil Tmobile phone with NO bells or whistles what so ever and welp I haven't croaked from boredom yet so I guess its ok. The bill is a LOT less and I still get to do what I love which is talk. I feel so bad for what I did and ever worse that I let it get out of control, but hey I said I was getting out of debt, I didn't say I was free from stupid lol.

So what are your stupid stories for 2009? Please share so I can feel better!!