Originally posted on Facebook HERE

Everything in life is amazing to me… everything. I lost a toenail recently and a new one is growing in its place… it’s a crazy process to watch. How does this even happen? It just does it. Incredible. But, today I’m going in a much different direction and talking about a subject I don’t often breach in these writings…

Money.

As a financial advisor, I’m dealing with money and investments all the time. It’s basically every single day of my life, really. But what I’d like to talk about today is an aspect of personal finance that has had a huge impact on my wife and I, and might be of help to others as well. Because money is fraught with emotions, too. And because of my position as a financial advisor, people might think I’ve always been great with money and just sailed through life — this is certainly not the case. When Laurie and I met we had a negative net worth. Many people in the United States have a negative net worth. The people who sell credit in this country are very good at what they do. We didn’t know how to save. If we wanted to donate to something — it created anxiety because we were that tight with money giving even $20 felt like something we couldn’t afford to do… I know what this feels like, and I’m glad I had to go through it myself. It helps me understand the emotions that go along with having lot of debt and little or no savings. I have absolutely been there. Many people in the US are there right now.

We needed to change. Around that time I started listening to Dave Ramsey who had a radio show on that played when I was coming home from shows with my band Road Trip Band. I bought his book Financial Peace. I have read hundreds of books on money and personal finance, and I think his are among the best. I do believe it’s the only book my wife and I ever read together. I remember reading from it on our couch years ago, and just crying together because we were such a mess…

There’s a lot of great stuff in that book. The debt snowball for one. But here’s a couple things that are constant themes in many of the books on personal finance: save 10% of everything you make and give away 10% (often called tithing). Live on the remaining 80%. Yeah… great in theory, but…

We couldn’t do it. At least we couldn’t see ourselves doing it. We were having trouble getting by on 100% of our income.

So I devised a plan. We’ll just set a small goal at first. I think when we started it was $25/month. It might have actually been $5 at first. An amount that wouldn’t make us think “we can’t afford to do this”. The point is — when you’re used to doing nothing, just get started. Whatever the amount is doesn’t matter. Instead of looking at 10% into each and just walking away thinking “no way”, do what you can. Even if the amount seems ridiculous.

Because this is more about training your emotions around money than anything else. Let’s say it’s $5/month. You could use actual money or start a couple new savings accounts for this. If using actual cash — two separate envelopes. “Emergency fund” and “To give away”. Money that goes in the emergency fund account hopefully never comes out, except in an emergency. The giving account — everything that goes in must be given away in a way that makes you feel good, whatever that is.

The emergency fund — you get paid, you take whatever you can afford at the time and put it aside. You tell yourself “this money is for me — I am more important than my bills”. It comes out first.

The giving fund — same amount goes here. And when you put it in you think “I have more than enough”. This money should never be used for personal expenses. Give it all away. At first it might not be a lot, but here’s the thing… when you have a fund you know you’re going to give away, and the opportunity comes up to donate or gift money somewhere — there won’t be any emotional issues involved. You can give freely whatever is in that account because you have more than enough, and if there’s nothing in the account at the time you either wait or walk away.

In both cases the goal is to get each to 10% of your income at some future point. It took us years — many years, actually, to get it to 5% each. And I justified it by saying — you know — we are putting 10% aside, right?…

And then as I was rereading a Dave Ramsey book in 2013, and had read about the magic of doing 10% into each of these accounts in other books well — I decided to just go for it. I was super scared about it, too. But I figured if it didn’t work out we could always back it off. And I’m not sure how or why 10% is the magic number, but for us it was. It will never make any sense on paper. It will make all the sense in the world when you start to see what happens. It took about 15 years to get to that point for us, too. But we kept doing it, raising the amounts, etc…

You will feel different when you have no debt (except for a home) and $10,000 in the bank. You paid yourself first. You used the debt snowball (which I’m not discussing in detail today). You are more important than your bills.

You will learn to love the giving account. It will become your favorite account. Many of you reading this have benefited from ours in some way. When we see a person in need, a go fund me that hits our hearts, a family member struggling — we can give freely. Because we’re giving it all away anyway. And you can do really fun things with this money, too — grab a $50 or $100 bill out of the account and wait for the Universe to give you a person to give it to. The Universe will always oblige. You have more than enough.

Start today. I know there will be people reading this who do not have these issues at all, but those two accounts have made a huge impact on our lives. The most important thing is to get them going. Bump the amounts up over time. Maybe it’ll take 15 years to get to 10%. Even if you never get there, you’ll be further ahead than if you do nothing.

Wherever you’re at, know you’re worthy. Internally. Know your value. Yes, you. You have great value. We all do. Sometimes we don’t let ourselves see it. You have more than enough. Internalize that. And please — give yourself a break. Take time to be grateful. Allow yourself to be overwhelmed with wonder and awe. There is an ocean of love within us. Tap into that. Often the giver receives more than the receiver. As always, I wish you well on your journey. We’re all in it together.