My wife and I have set out on a new adventure that we hope will bring us closer together, closer to God and closer as a family. This began from frustration at just being broke all the time and feeling like we weren't getting ahead even though we were making plenty of money. I picked up Dave Ramsey's book "Total Money Makeover" and we set out to 1. set up a budget and stick to it and 2. become financially set using Dave's principals.

We don't carry that much debt, I paid off my credit card each month and only used it for paying for school and then paid it back using the VA GI Bill money. I paid it off and canceled the card. It was a Capital One Double Miles card, after passing a lot of money throuth the card, I could barely afford a one way ticket from Columbus, Ohio to Seattle, Washigton. So it wasn't worth the yearly fee. So now we are credit card free.

That left Becky's Tahoe and I took money from my trading account and paid it off. So now all we have left is the house. So in Dave's book he say that we should be saving for a rainy day fund. After we have 2-3 months of expense money saved in the rainy day fund, we should be putting 10% into giving, 10-15% into savings (IRA, investments and savings) and after we pay out bills, we start putting extra on the house.

At this point we should be jumping up and down and socking the money away. I have fifteen apartments and a single family home that seem to need tons of maintenance and then people stop paying their rent for some reason so I end up paying people to live in the apartment for a month or two until I can get them out.

I have the rentals for sale and have most of them rented. I think that I am on the downhill side of some of the maintenance that I should have done and not put off. I am hoping that I can contribute less to them and more to my own fund.

Enough whining about me going into debt to get rich by taking mortgages to fund my purchases. The main goal is to get out of debt as fast as we can so that we can both get on to do what we want, when we want. That mainly is traveling.....

I have ambitions of traveling the world on a sailboat seeing every reef, wreck and ocean through the lense of my dive mask and then switching from water to dry land and spend time traveling the world on the back of a motorcycle around the world. My wife rolls her eyes when I talk about this. Maybe I can convince her to hit every state with a ski slope in US and Canada. Our son would be happy about that! We both would like to get a camper and travel around the US seeing all the beauty that we have here.

We have asked God for his favor as we embark on this journey and pray everyday for his blessing to be with us. I pray for everyone out there who is on the same mission. We are all missionaries for God and for financial responsibility.