A journey with a friend has been started this evening....

I have chosen to help a friend who is more like a sister that I never had. She is a lifelong friend of Sneakers and her and her family took me in like I had been around forever which is pretty cool to me.

Anyway, she is currently where a lot of humans, me and Sneakers included have been at one time or another in our lives. She is in a BIG financial nightmare. It is not as bad as it could be but not as good as it should be; the good news is that it is something that can be fixed within the next 4 years. Yes I know that sounds like a very long time and if you count the days it is quite frightening to think that in roughly 1460 days from today she will be out of debt except for her mortgage.

That is enough to scare anyone who has less than 1/2 a brain. However, the good news is that Friday, in TWO DAYS she will have one debt paid in full. Sounds small but the journey must start with the first step right? Any journey must start with the first step and her first step started this evening and took 3 hours on the phone.

This is going to be a very long, hard, frustrating yet satisfying journey for her as well as me I'm sure. Sneakers and I have already been through this with each other and I went through it on my own before Sneakers was part of my life and at times we still struggle because of circumstances when "Life Happens".

The end result is going to be quite satisfying and will be here before she knows it, the discipline to get there is where the hurt comes along. It is very hard to look at yourself in the mirror and know that you should have done better, you could have done better and you would have done better had you known then what you know now. My answer to all of that ----------

PULL UP YOUR BIG GIRL PANTIES AND MOVE ON.

It gets better as long as you want it to get better and do the work to make it get better. Most humans do not have anything handed to them. Sure there are those few who are born into wealth but even the wealthy have their own set of issues. Personally I cannot even imagine what it is like to be wealthy but from what I understand "Money does not buy happiness".

I'll take happiness anyday no matter how hard it was to get there. My wealth does not come in money. It comes in love, friends, peace of mind, satisfaction with life, love of self, love of GOD, love from GOD, helping others as much as I can. It is my own belief so I am not preaching I am just stating what works for me.

So tonight was the first step on this journey I have chosen to take with my friend and I look forward to teaching her what I can and learning from her a few things along the way. She is a teacher you know.

I'll write about this in the future to update things as they are going and we shall see together ( if you choose to follow) how far we get when we get there.

Several things I know already from taking this journey before that I will pass along, keeping in mind this is what I know as it applied to my particular situation.

When you use cash and run out you are out so maybe next time you think you need that second beer at darts and two days later you are out of money and cigarettes, maybe you really did NOT need that second beer.

Dave Ramsey has a really good program that is easy to comprehend, easy to follow and tough to start when you are overwhelmed and just don't know where to start. It is called "The Total Money Makeover". He has a book with that title and a website with lots of help, hints and the absolute place to start.

Last and most important to me is this:

I KNOW without doubt or hesitation GOD has me wrapped in his embrace and will without hesitation provide me with what I NEED. It may not be what I think I NEED but it is what I NEED. Maybe not what I ask for, maybe not what I desire but definitely ALWAYS WHAT I NEED..........nuff said!!!!!