If there was a time machine to take me back, I would have a conversation with my younger self and become the educated person I should have been at the time.

When I was young, I didn’t follow the common sense money advice that I would get (not from my family however, they did a good job of being economically sound – my parents were.  They just didn’t think they needed to sit down with me and really talk about how money works.) This lack of common money sense followed me through my life into my early 40s. That’s when things changed, painfully at times, ingited by a divorce.

No, the divorce wasn’t due to our financial state, it was on a much deeper inter-personal level. It was going to happen one day or another, and I felt that I needed to move on… you only live so long and I wanted to give my sons an education about relationships that wasn’t riddled with constant fighting and a total lack of any affection, the only passion we had for each other was a negative passion.

BUT, THAT IS OVER and HISTORY.

Yet, I carry debt from that relationship which has been like a stone around my neck.  It’s not that I couldn’t keep up with the payments on the debt, nor qualify for a mortgage…. I could. It was just the fact that my money in my checking and savings accounts were like a gas tank with only fumes. I had a 15 minute account for as long as I can remember. (A 15 minute account is where you deposit the check from work and then 15 minutes later the funds are gone to pay things off!) And funny enough, the one time I get almost all my credit paid off, my ex and I have to purchase a new van, and use the credit cards for a down payment. How stupid was I? Very.

Now these days, I spend my time finishing paying off this awful debt, and figuring out how to get some very important points across to my children about the dangers and hobbling effects that debt has on a person, and their families.

I just wish I never started down that path to providing someone else lots of riches… Here’s to working to pay it all off and to save save save!

The motto during those years was “That’s what life insurance is for” when I complained about how much debt we were accruing!  Well, it might just be, but it really put my cash flow in a bind…

Go forth, be well, and spend thoughtfully, save diligently!