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Isn’t it weird when someone calls you by your father’s name? I mean, for example, when a restaurant hostess says, “Mr. Oakman, follow me to your table,” I look around and think, “My father’s not here.” Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that I am the grown-up. Life as a kid is so blissfully easy—no household to take care of, no worries about what’s for dinner, and no broken appliances to figure out (getting my dryer fixed as we speak).
But, here we are. So, I’m going to list a few items I feel are really important for adulting. I know there are much wiser individuals out there, but I’m the one writing this blog.
1. Get on a budget.
a. Work at getting out of debt. Don’t let the weight of debt hang around you. Read Dave Ramsey’s “Baby Steps”.
b. Write out a written budget on the last Sunday of the month for the upcoming month. Every penny needs to be assigned to a spending category so you know where your money is going. It puts you in control. It also ensures that your top priority items get funded. For us, that has always included tithes and offerings. More on that later.
c. Find a budgeting tool or app that works for you. I use www.pocketsmith.com and find it to be wonderful. Plus, it’s headquartered in New Zealand, so I can make jokes with the people I interact with about being “down under.” They love that.
2. Get a will/living trust.
a. The Will/Living Trust will help transfer all of your money and assets, should something happen to you. Setting up a trust gives you the peace of mind that your family is protected and will have what they need.
b. The price tag on this is worth the investment. You want to be able to contact your lawyer if you ever want to make any changes to this. A cheap one that you’ll never hear from charges $500, and the respectable ones will charge between $1800-$3000, depending on your situation.
c. True story, I wanted to title our living trust, “The Plan of Death” but my wife quickly stopped that from happening.
3. Get a Financial Planner
a. Have I mentioned Dave Ramsey yet? We used his ELP program and were hooked up with someone great. He has the mind of a teacher and walks us through where our money is going and how we can achieve our financial goals .
b. Side note, he’s even helped us with big projects that we’ve needed to save for, like starting a family, replacing a car, and getting a new roof (see, isn’t adulting so much fun?)
4. Get Life Insurance.
a. Again, we follow Dave Ramsey and went with a 20-year term policy. It costs about $35 a month, but if one of us dies, the other one will be well provided for.
b. Make sure your financial planner and living trust lawyer know about this policy so that when you’re facing the hard reality of loss, they will take care of the nitty-gritty.
Honorable Mention: Read The Total Money Makeover, Richest Man in Babylon.
Being a responsible adult is hard. Know when to enlist the experts and don’t put these things off.
Vaya Con Dios