The Big Purchases

Sometimes I feel like every financial decision we make is a poor one. I could go on an on about our credit mistakes (which I touched on last post), our car purchase, my grad. school loans & of course, our house.

I have never talked to Dave Ramsey personally, but I have a feeling if I relayed our financial choices to him he would hit us with the "Gibb's Slap" (NCIS reference to those of you non-tv watchers).

I'm pretty sure I knew our car was a bad idea but we went on with it anyway and while our car is still reliable and our payment is certainly not the worst in the world, it is not something we can easily afford and I will jump for joy the day the dang thing is paid off.

When I was going to Grad. School I lived in la-la land. I knew we'd have to pay the loans back but I needed to get my degree. I would worry about that later. I failed to remember that librarians are not paid the best ... especially if you look at the education you have to have to become one.

I think we suffer from not knowing when the best time to "leap" into a big purchase is. We did everything Dave says NOT to do when it came to our house. We aren't exactly "house poor" but we're definitely close. Our credit cards and car loan are really what eat up our monthly income and it wouldn't be much cheaper to rent so when I consider that, I feel less mad at myself for our house purchase but we probably should have waited.

I'm praying that in the future when it comes to large purchases and decisions we really mediate on what the right thing to do it. What is God guiding us to? Should we really be making this decision today or do we need to go sleep on it?