Five Minute Friday-Real

We sit in a circle.

Waiting.

Watching.

Worrying.

Wondering how real we can be.

Wondering how real others will be.

As facilitator of the group, I jump in to break the ice.

They’ve heard some of our story, how my husband and I have done a lifetime of stupid.

Of how we ran arm in arm, pellmell, down the road of financial foolishness.

I know they have had trouble believing it because we just don’t seem to be the kind of people who would do stupid.

Oh, my.

How amazingly good we are at hiding things from one another.

I start with the stories of big stupid in our life, as Dave Ramsey calls it.

Of the time we took our baby girl and drove our car-which we had just paid off-to the dealership just to check out vans.

Because we might need a bigger car to haul around all of our daughter’s friends.

That would be the baby girl’s friends.

Uh huh.

We drove away from the car dealer in a brand new leased minivan, towing a big payment and having virtually nothing to show for the cream puff of a car we left behind.

Then there was the time we got caught up in the fever of “The rates are so low that you just HAVE to buy a bigger, nicer house RIGHT NOW!”

We found ourselves in a bigger, more beautiful home, with a much larger, longer mortgage and higher property taxes to match.

We shared about how the little stupid was what really brought us to the brink.

The five, ten, twenty dollar purchases that turned into hundreds and thousands of dollars just dribbling through our fingers.

Buying “something shiny” that just caught our eye.

Purchasing “something fun” that would be great to have.

Ordering “something important” that we was sure we would need eventually.

Uh huh.

Just as small amounts of money invested over time compounds into mighty millions, small amounts of money spent over time compounded into a shaky financial footing for our future selves.

I saw the heads nod in agreement, the small smiles of been there, done that, the knowing looks of oh, they have been there, and they climbed out and up.

Slowly, other folks begin to open up and share, now and in the nights to come.

They celebrate small victories, inquire about better ways to get to a goal, ask for encouragement to move beyond a real rough patch.

They begin to see that Financial Peace isn’t just the name of the class, or a catch phrase.

It’s something very real and achievable, and it just requires they be real and accountable in return.

Follow the link above to read and be encouraged by what others have to share. We’d love to hear from you as well, so feel free to leave a comment today. Thanks for coming by!

Postscript: How I love the Five Minute Fridays, and how I also find them to be a regular source of consternation. Often I struggle with the message that appears at my fingertips and how to balance that against the minutes that tick away too quickly. More often than not, the message wins out, and I go a little-sometimes a lot-longer than my 300 seconds. For that, again, I ask forgiveness.

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