I'm exhausted and its only Tuesday. Tyler spent the weekend with his father. Unfortunately, I had to work all day Saturday in order to complete a project that was due today. I worked 12 hours yesterday and went in to work early today. I planned to cut the grass when I came home this evening but it's just not going to happen. I'm tired, my tattoo itches, and i just want to vegetate for the rest of the evening.

I try my best to find small joys that keep me motivated. I'm a HUGE follower of Dave Ramsey's plan for personal financial management. He has a 7-Step system to get to what he calls "financial peace." 

1. Save a $1,000 baby emergency fund.
2. Pay off all your debts (except the mortgage) from smallest to largest and "snowball" the payments.
3. Rebuild the emergency fund to 3-6 months of expenses,
4. Fund 15% of your gross income to a retirement plan.
5. Fund your child(ren)'s college savings.
6. Pay off the mortgage
7. Build Wealth.

I started this process about a year ago and to date I'm on step 3. By November, I will be on Step 6. Yay! What is thrilling to me is that I started this process with $30,000 in debt and in 10 months (and with A LOT of S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E!!!) paid it off. When I started, I had every expectation to wait 2-3 years to pay off my debt. But I prayed about it and committed to the process. That meant not spending my tax return, taking on a second job, and reducing my expenses.  It is my dream to have my mortgage paid off. Not because I hate debt. But because not having a mortgage will give me the latitude to do more of the service-type work that I want to do. If I could sit on a mountain top and preach debt freedom, I would. There is nothing like not owing a credit card or car loan company. On the other hand, I realize most people don't want to go through the short-term sacrifice to get there.  But this blog entry isn't about other people. It's about the joy I'm feeling for know that I can fund my son's college savings and it won't cause me stress. I've promised myself that I will start doing more for myself. I think I deserve to treat myself. Hopefully, one of the things I'll be able to do is go on a mission/service trip to India with my father's church early next year. More details to follow....