I sell real estate for a living. It pays for my bills, life and family. I've thought I was always going to sell real estate well into my retirement age (I still have 25-30+ years to go) but something happened after I paid off my debt. While I still love and enjoy the business and don't plan to go anywhere for the next couple of decades, I'm beginning to toy with the idea that I may not do much of real estate in my retirement years (even to manage my brokerage).
I'm beginning to walk in shoes I have never been. What does paying off every single debt means in my life now?
It means I can now put my head up, and look around those near me that I can now help, because I can.
My husband and I choose to continue to live a very humble lifestyle. Around $50,000 per year while we have "buckets" we fill when business prospers.
This past Summer, for the first time in my crusade in telling and helping people get out of debt, I facilitated Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (FPU) to a group of Realtors during "regular" work hours. Something I have never done before in the last 6 years of faciliatating this class.
While I didn't have any "high" expectations of the class attendance, I was pleasantly surprised that I have the highest retention rate of the past 16 classes we have ever facilitate. 16 out of 21 attend *most, if not ALL classes!
It helped me put in perspective the time and sacrifice I make during my business hours and Why I am doing What I am doing.
This morning, I watched a great interview about Kenguru - the first electric car for wheel-chair users. In the video, Stacy Zoern - the owner of Kenguru received an angel investor of $400,000. That investment struck a chord with me.
Can you imagine if you have $400,000 discretionary funds to participate in this life-changing project?
But how does one do that?
It is when you don't have debt hanging over your head, when you have your retirement and college funds set up, when you have take care of your household, can you then put your head up and look beyond your needs and desires and try to do good for the community around you?
If you have debt, it will take you a while to clean up the mess you started. That's why we teach Dave Ramsey's 7-Baby Steps. Along your debt-free journey, you will learn about contentment, what you have versus what others may need. It will change your whole life and put it in a different perspective.
This is Christmas season. I often see gift-giving, spending on credit. Doing these things that do not have eternal value. Would you tell yourself, beginning this Christmas, that you would begin to look at money differently and find ways to get out of debt, and look beyond you and your household?
I dont mean buying blankets or socks for the homeless. I really do mean cleaning financial house so you can make a difference.
Please watch the video. I hope the video will inspire you to be the Salt and the Light of the Earth.
Scripture of the Week:
Go and make disciples of all the nations.
Matthew 28:19
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