Not sure if it's a success story yet...

[mrslavespere]

I was raised by my single mom. We were never financially stable...always struggled. That classic 'single mom raising three kids story' is completely mine. To be 'ok' is such a foreign concept to me...

My husband and I got married last summer. We're under 25 and don't have any children yet. Our first year has been hard in ways...we got married while I was unemployed after being laid off for not having my Master's degree. Since then, I started working again as a sales clerk at a local store I worked for while in college.
We aren't by any means rolling in the dough, but we found out last fall we MAKE more than we spend! We know that's SUCH a blessing (especially at our age) and are VERY thankful for it. The only debt we have comes from my private school education (about $17K) and the house we're still trying to officially buy but have been paying the note for (about $30K left on it). When we found out we were actually ok financially, we weren't at the time seeing monthly growth in our savings so we knew we needed to do something. Since then, we've gotten into living by a monthly budget and 'actively paying' into our savings. A few months ago, I found christianpf and have become a nerdy financial fiend! We've gotten such solid, great, Biblical advice and are loving it!
So I guess for our success: last fall we started paying more on my student loan so that every third payment, we've made one extra payment; my husband drives a dependable old Chevy and I drive a sort of young but not new Mazda and they're both still in great shape...we don't have notes for either of them, so we've just started making 'hypothetical notes' into an interest drawing savings account through ING so that in about five years, we could have enough to just buy a new car outright! We have other accounts set up so that things like car repairs, potential medical surprises, vacations, and starting a family in the next few years!...don't come out of our immediate income.

We know we're blessed and excited to continue on this exciting journey He's set out for us! Thank You Jesus!

[garyatk]

It sounds like you are getting a GREAT start! Many of us learned these lessons the hard way, and it took many years to turn the ship around. Keep it up!

[4jacks]

Sounds like you are in Darn Good Shape! And still young too! Very good Job!

[mathewstuart]

Considerably a good job. You have to move easily with this bright start.

Keep it up

[Edward Smoth]

A great idea is not to have kids until you are completely able to afford them. It helped me and my wife a lot

[Jonathan K]

A great idea is not to have kids until you are completely able to afford them. It helped me and my wife a lot

Please define "completely able to afford them." I thought kids were always great blessings that cost a ton. My wife and I are about to have our first child. We've saved enough to pay for the doctors bills upfront. However, when is it ever enough?

[4jacks]

Well they say kids cost close to a million dollars to raise them.

I personally don't believe that since the median income is only around $43k and there are lots of kids running around.