We did not start out being money experts. My wife and I grew up in middle class homes where debt was just a part of life. I (John) never really heard much about money when I was young. We had plenty to meet our needs.  Amanda was raised for many years by a single mom who worked crazy hours to make ends meet for their little family. We still deal with money issues–not the same as we have in the past, but we are simply another family on this path trying to figure out what we are going to do with our money.

For 12 years (since we were married) we have been a middle income family. We have never made six figures and probably never will.  At one time we were a two income family (before kids). We were not very wise back then and spent more then we should have and did not save at all.  We were typical middle class Americans. My wife, Amanda, does make a little income doing a variety of things she enjoys from home. I am the primary income earner and work in retail management at a small store making a single income.

We both went to private colleges and have 2 private college size student loans still hanging around. We had credit card debt coming out of college but figured we should have fun as a young couple eating out a couple nights a week, drinking Starbucks, and generally wasting money. We have learned a few things since then and have twice paid off all our credit cards.

As we work on building the resources and articles on this site, remember we are still living this stuff.  This is our life and sometimes it doesn’t make sense to anyone but us and sometimes we get it all wrong.  I hope that you will find this site encouraging and helpful. Learn from our mistakes so you don’t have to live through them.

Be encouraged. Don’t listen to or try and keep up with “The Joneses.” They are broke too.  They don’t have a plan, they don’t know where their money is going, and they certainly don’t have a plan for the future. I hope through this site you will have all three.