When I left home for college, it was important to me to find a church where I could attend regularly and it felt like home. I attended the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, FL (#GoBulls!) and I eventually became a member of a church in a small city nearby. It was a great church and certainly felt like home. The members were kind and rallied around me as if I were part of their family. It’s exactly what I needed as a young adult away from home. One of the deacons of the church was a wise man with a mild-mannered personality and he would always talk about the importance of having a “rainy day fund” for unexpected expenses. I’ve always been frugal and saved money, but I didn't have the financial literacy or understanding around a “rainy day.”
When I graduated from college and landed my first job, I was very independent and didn’t plan to look to my parents for any financial support. BUT...one thing I quickly learned is that college had not taught me about “adulting.” I went from college living with a roommate and shared bills to having to figure out health insurance plans! I didn’t know anything about all those acronyms like HMO, PPO, etc.! Lol
My first salary was very low, but I loved my job! Then one day, adulting happened and my car started acting funky! I was introduced to -- who my dad called -- a “shade tree” mechanic who was unlicensed and fixed cars at his house (I know, red sirens should have gone off at that point! lol). Boy...was that a mistake! I had to use the little savings I had to fix both the problems that the car already had and the new problems the shade tree mechanic created!
I realized that I had gotten the college degree, but it was wise insight like saving for a rainy day and other financial wisdom that helped me on my new adulting journey.
Part of personal wholeness (wealth) is financial health and literacy. In short, I’m quite sure that you are rarely happy when you are broke and hopefully, having debt utterly disgusts you! I believe that you were created to live abundantly in every area of your life including your finances. I was listening to a financial podcast the other day and the hosts stated, "Being debt free allows you to OWN your time." Yet, when you don’t have a
financial strategy, you can get stuck in a rut of feeling like you never have enough. You may have an immense amount of debt or your finances may seem too limited for you to start a “rainy day” fund now, but I learned that one of the first steps to financial wholeness is to live beneath your means. Figure out how to cut costs and eliminate your debt. Learn how to say “no” and be okay with doing things like cooking instead of eating out and staying home instead of going out (especially as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic)! There are many financial resources available to help you with budgeting, slashing debt, and other seemingly complicated financial activities like investing, retirement, life insurance, etc. I use resources from financial experts like Talaat and Tai McNeely from His and Her Money, but you can start with what’s best for you so that you can stay on the path to live richly every day.
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