"Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom."
Patrick Henry
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."
Thomas Jefferson
"In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent Measure should be taken to ward off the impending Judgements... All confidence must be withheld from the Means we use; and reposed only on that GOD who rules in the Armies of Heaven, and without whose Blessing the best human Counsels are but Foolishness--and all created Power Vanity...."
John Hancock
Watching people spend money for a lifetime, I know that I am entering an arena people don't particularly want to hear about. Spending over twenty years as a mortgage broker and as a Supervisory Committee Chairman for a Credit Union, I was privileged to see on paper the financial conditions of hundreds of people. The only people who ever asked for advice were already in financial trouble. Almost all those that I worked with were good borrowers that qualified for home purchases. Despite that, much like me for a good portion of my life often made purchases of wants that exceeded their financial comfort zone. One consistent financial problem most Americans seem to have is going over their head on is purchasing wants rather than things they truly need.
For those of us who have been blessed to have conquered the debt challenge, we can easily say that we never want to go back there again. I only wish I knew then what I know now. Mary Hunt has written a series of articles that would be of value for any of us: Intelligent Borrowing or Stupid Spending,
Semi-Intelligent or Semi-Stupid Debt,
and Stupid and Beyond-Stupid Debt.
She also has an article:
Getting Out of Debt that may be helpful.
I found these articles to be right on target. I am not only sending them to the men on my e-mail list, I am sending them to my family members as well! With the many new financial challenges our country is facing, having healthy practices in our personal spending will provide strength to our country and blessings to you.