Never Forget the Tough Times

Most people have gone through financially and personally tough times in their lives. We certainly went through a tough few years:

• Failed Business Venture
• Main income earner out of full-time work for more than 15 months
• Mortgage going up instead of down (up $20K)
• Credit card max’d out for over 2 years at over $10K
• Accumulated line of credit personal debt of $25K that took 5 years to clear
• Personal health of myself and my husband became very low.
• Bouts of depression – we tag teamed on that one
• Caring for a young child throughout – kept us focused on what really mattered in life

I don’t mean for this to be a depressing post and I want to show the great points that have become part of our lives as a result of the life challenges we faced five years ago. Here are some of them:

• We learned to manage our costs really well
• We bought in bulk and cooked in bulk
• We cut wants such as cable TV and focused on what we really need
• We focused on developing a really tight budget that was easy to use once it was made
• We focused on legally minimizing tax liabilities for the higher income earner
• We looked at alternate sources of income apart from our main jobs such as online businesses with residual or passive incomes
• We sold unwanted or unnecessary items on eBay and the local fairs and markets
• We eliminated several high fee bank transaction accounts by consolidating into one transaction account
• We focused on paying our highest interest debts first
• We changed our spending habits looking first for value and quality rather than just low cost
• We cleared most of our debts excluding our mortgage debt and now focus on the mortgage as our pseudo-savings account (we have a redraw facility)
• We focused on improving our physical and mental well-being
• We spend more time together as a family

We focus on enjoying our lives now with each other and our families but we never forget the tough times because we prefer the better times :)