The poor are always ruled over by the rich,so don’t borrow and put yourself under their power. - Proverbs 22:7

Today we are witnessing the United States of America go from the greatest lending nation to most in debt nation. The sad thing is most Americans are following right in the same footsteps. We have went from a country of savers to a country of spenders. We have been fell into the trap ourselves. The neat thing is we found a way out. I grew up in the 80's with family that saved and payed cash for about everything. Somewhere along the line I developed the mindset of wanting nice things before we were able to pay for those nice things. By my mid 20's I had a business, home, 2 cars, and much more financed out on payment plans. After all that I remember walking in and looking at a boat and thinking about putting one of those on a payment plan as well. Crazy how far we can wander from the original path. The awakening happened in 2008 when the stock market took a dive and our income went down a bit and we were not able to keep up with the payments. Perfect positioning for a opportunity to arise. We had joined AdvoCare and loved the products about a year before and decided to take look at the business side. We went to an event in Dallas, Texas and saw what we were apart of. A company that stood for all those things that made America great, and our families great; Faith, Family, Integrity, hard work and many other noble things. We also heard people get up and talk about being debt free and having time to invest in things they loved. We heard families saying they were working from home raising their kids and leading in areas in life that were important. Heard men get up and talk about paying cash for cars and things they bought. We came home with a heart full of hope and 1 year later we had earned an extra $33,000 on a part time basis working AdvoCare around 5 hours a week. By 2010, our 2nd year the income had doubled to $66,000 working about 10 hours a week part time. This is when we put AdvoCare's Free DebtBuster plan to work and started to pay down some major debt. We began by paying off all credit cards, then we went on to Jenna's student loans and eventually began to put a larger plan into place to get totally consumer debt free, cars and all. As the income continued to grow on a part time basis we used all that extra money to pay down debt, sometimes $4,000 to $5,000 a month going towards debt. After 7 years of working the plan and following a Dave Ramsey budget alongside we have the freedom to choose how we spend our days, begin investing and earning interest rather than paying it. We get time to raise the kids, involve ourselves in ministry, lead bible studies and all the other passions we enjoy. Enjoy going to the gym mid day when no one else is around. We have found the most joy in showing other families how to follow this same path and bring change to their families future for generations to come. Sometimes for things to change, we must change and I am thankful we made that change back in 2008. The future for our kids will better on account of these choices we made. The values we are able to teach them today because of the change we took back in 2008. Everyone says they love their kids, but the question is..... are you willing to change for them? A wise man named Solomon once said these words. " A wise man leaves an inheritance for his children's children." We hope and pray #1 to leave an inheritance of values, and #2 and inheritance financially. The ability to leave them with a blessing for the next generation and the one after. As Ronald Reagan once said: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." And to think the journey started for us with a sample of spark, a home based business and a free debt-buster program...Who would of thought?

Wishing you and your family a great 2016!