Edwards Family Empowerment

Lela Houston This subject is very close and dear to me because this is the person who raised me and my brother like she was our mom. After my mom and dad got A divorce, I was around 5 years old, and to be honest it was not a good place for any child to be. Needless to say, things were tough for us.  We stayed with our mom from time to time, but she was never really stable.  We often never stayed in any place longer than a few months. My sister, Sand, helped to watch over us along with her son while we stayed in Matthew Lane.  For the most part, those were good days, even though we got by on the bare minimum, but I was a child who kept company with myself. My imagination just blossomed in those harvested fields that surrounded our home. I don’t know why exactly, but my dad took us to A’ Lela’s house.  We would go there often to visit, but never stayed more than a few hours at a time, then one day we packed our clothes and was told that we would be staying with A’ Le...

 4. Your spouse isn’t on board 5. You aren’t consistent 6. You aren’t tracking your progress Your spouse is not onboard. Finances are one of the biggest causes of divorce or even simply arguments in a relationship. Doing the debt snowball is a lifestyle change, a very big one. Your spouse might not be a huge, Dave Ramsey fan. The debt snowball may not seem like the perfect idea to solve your debt issues to them. This was the case with me. Renardo, is not a Dave Ramsey fan. Sometimes it takes patience and a lot of frank discussions in order to get your spouse onboard. One thing that worked for me in swaying him is walking him slowly through the process. I did the legwork in getting all of our bills, student loans, car notes, mortgages, and credit cards with their respective annual percentage rates (aprs), monthly payments, and remaining balances using the Dave Ramsey snapshot tool or the Debt Snowball Calculator. I approached him with this and after a few attempts was able to sway h...

 You’re not budgeting You’re not 100% focused on your lowest balance Your income and expenses are remaining the same Your spouse isn’t on board You aren’t consistent You aren’t tracking your progress This is the step that I struggle with. The Debt Snowball. It would be easier to pretend like I didn’t have issues with this, but I am not. Most wounds don’t heal unless exposed. After Renardo and I remarried, we began budgeting, saving, and hustling for our dream…owning a home. We managed to obtain our dream only to slide back into old habits. After obtaining our home, we generated more debt. We recently bought a new house, a new car, among other things. We were sensible in our purchases, and can afford everything we bought, but we did not go in the direction that was most beneficial to us. Debt reduction. A lot of the pointers that Dave Ramsey espouses, we did not follow. So, I know the struggle is real. Step 2 is the step that I struggle with. One of my goals is to one day overcome o...

 So, this is the part of the Dave Ramsey plan where people fall out. They give up. They claim they can’t go on. The debt snow-ball. I am saying this because it is true for me. Dave Ramsey says that I am not alone. Many others struggle with this step. I have been on this step for quite awhile now. I haven’t given up, and I haven’t fallen out, but I seriously understand. My goal is to complete this step and move to step 3. Why is this part so hard? It requires a lot of self-awareness and self-sacrifice. Dave Ramsey says, “Personal Finance is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge.” So, what is this monster that I am asking you to tame? What does it require of you? It’s simple to explain but requires a lot of change in spending habits to put into effect. This is doable though, with a lot of determination and elbow grease, you can live the life of your dreams later, by making changes to your bill paying now. First, you make sure that you have your budget and your emergency f...

   It’s no secret, I am a big Dave Ramsey fan. I’ve decided to talk about his game plan to become debt free.  Dave has seven steps to financial freedom. It’s a journey that I am currently on that I believe will benefit my family and I encourage you to look into it for yours. Dave calls the steps baby steps toward financial freedom. Before a baby learns to walk fully, there are small tentative steps they take before they begin walking. These are the steps you take before gaining financial freedom. THE 7 BABY STEPS Step 1: Save $1,000 for your starter emergency fund. Step 2: Pay off all debt (except for the house) using the debt snowball. Step 3: Save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund. Step 4: Invest 15% of your household income in retirement. Step 5: Save for your children’s college fund. Step 6: Pay off your home early. Step 7: Build wealth and give. In the upcoming months I will talk about each step. This month, I will talk about the importance of h...

 I have decided to create a vision board for our family. I encourage you to create one for your family or yourself as well. Everyone has dreams or an idea of what they want their future to look like. A vision board is supposed to be a way of capturing your dreams, goals, or the desires of your heart into a snapshot and placing them on a board.   A vision board can be made on a poster board, a cork board, or a computer screen are some suggestions. Pictures from magazines of the home the dream home that you want to live in. Stock images from the internet. Printed words of the things you want to get better at…growing closer to God, getting a better job, getting a Play Station 5, again it’s your vision board, you can put whatever you want on it.  It can be for the year, or your lifetime goals. It’s your board so you get to choose. Prayer and visualizing what you want, along with a little elbow grease, are how you achieve your dreams. The good thing about creating one eac...