When you've lost a business, or gone broke, both positive things and negative things will result from those experiences. Such has been the case for David and me after going broke in the late 1970s when we owned Lockie Excavating. We learned about variable rate interest loans when our interest went from 9% to 21%. Should we have anticipated that? Well, yes, but that's part of education. From that experience 37 years ago, David and I have become very conservative in how we spend money.
I always told our kids and anyone else who would listen (not that our kids always listened), that just as a coin has two sides, our personalities and circumstances can have two sides as well. Typically, one is good and one is not so good. Being conservative has helped David and me to avoid a lot of money problems and debt; the good side. It has also caused us to toggle things together instead of getting them fixed, and to "make do" when we probably could have afforded to do something new and saved ourselves the hassle of "making do". Like the numerous times we've remodeled or moved the office when we should have made it a reasonable size to begin with. Hindsight is a tricky thing, however, because we really don't remember what the circumstances were when we made some of the decisions that we are now shaking our heads about.
As I see the 2017 blogs, Facebook, and Dave Ramsey posts on how to make your money stretch, I am grateful for the things that we've learned on both the positive and negative sides of the coin. It gives us grace to deal with the mistakes we've made and helps us to be grateful for the wise decisions we've made, not because we are wise, but because we have asked God over and over for wisdom in our business and our lives. It helps us to extend that grace and commendation to others as well, knowing that most of life is education, and we will all spend much of our time trying to figure out what to do next.
As we begin a new year, we wish the very best for you who read this blog and who have made our success possible by your encouragement, interest, and investment in our business and our lives.
James 1:5 "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."
Happy New Year!
I always told our kids and anyone else who would listen (not that our kids always listened), that just as a coin has two sides, our personalities and circumstances can have two sides as well. Typically, one is good and one is not so good. Being conservative has helped David and me to avoid a lot of money problems and debt; the good side. It has also caused us to toggle things together instead of getting them fixed, and to "make do" when we probably could have afforded to do something new and saved ourselves the hassle of "making do". Like the numerous times we've remodeled or moved the office when we should have made it a reasonable size to begin with. Hindsight is a tricky thing, however, because we really don't remember what the circumstances were when we made some of the decisions that we are now shaking our heads about.
As I see the 2017 blogs, Facebook, and Dave Ramsey posts on how to make your money stretch, I am grateful for the things that we've learned on both the positive and negative sides of the coin. It gives us grace to deal with the mistakes we've made and helps us to be grateful for the wise decisions we've made, not because we are wise, but because we have asked God over and over for wisdom in our business and our lives. It helps us to extend that grace and commendation to others as well, knowing that most of life is education, and we will all spend much of our time trying to figure out what to do next.
As we begin a new year, we wish the very best for you who read this blog and who have made our success possible by your encouragement, interest, and investment in our business and our lives.
James 1:5 "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."
Happy New Year!
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