7 Money Rules for Life by Mary Hunt informs us that managing money is a vital life skill that many of us never really learned. But you can still learn how to get out of debt and manage your finances like professionals with these seven guidelines.

There are seven rules for managing your money that will let you live free from financial worry.

Many people in America don’t know much about their finances, and many are also in a lot of debt. The combination of these two is deadly and creates a great amount of stress, anxiety, and confusion for Americans. Simply put, most of us never really learned the skill of finances. We didn’t figure out how to use or manage money, and it really hurts our overall emotional health and lifestyle. Being in debt is bad. Not knowing how to balance a budget and handle our finances is also bad.

From Mary Hunt’s Seven Money Rules of Life, we can pick up the basic financial principles that we need to get out of debt and begin to succeed financially. We can find hope for even the massive amount of debt that we might have and learn tricks to save, spend smarter, and build a bright financial future. Finances are a big journey that we go on. And while we don’t have to become an expert today, we can start today and make big and lasting changes in our lives that will benefit us significantly.

In this summary, you will learn:

  • the seven principles to financial health;
  • common mistakes that lead to debt; and
  • how to overcome crushing debt and build good credit.

Financial literacy is a critical life skill that many lack – but can learn.

There are rampant levels of financial illiteracy in America. John Adams is famous for remarking in the nascent days of American independence that many of the problems encountered by American citizens were not a result of vices or lack of willpower but mostly from ignorance of finances.

Financial illiteracy is so widespread and negatively impacts the quality of life of millions of people in drastic ways. There has to be a better way. We need simple financial education that can put our checkbooks, bank balances, and lifestyles back on track.

How much money do we expect to handle across our lives? If we make around $50,000 a year for about 45 years, we can expect to make over two million dollars in earned income over the course of our lives. Perhaps we don’t make $50,000 a year, but then again, we may make more than $50,000 a year some years, so it all might balance out in the end.

What should we do with this money? How should we handle it and spend it over time?

Even if your financial life has been broken thus far, God can take those broken financial pieces and make them whole again.

Money isn’t just about money. Money affects every area of our life, from how we live to the people we are friends with. A healthy financial life is a great start to a healthy life in every other area. Money is important.

We are becoming more and more financially challenged as there are more and more draws on our income. We may be called upon to manage greater amounts of money as we get older, and it will become important to know how to handle it.

If you won the lottery or were given a lot of money, would you know what to do with it?

To rewrite the rules of money in our minds, it’s important to get the bad behaviors and incorrect rules out of our system. When organizing a space in your house, it is important to drag everything out and then only bring back into that space what makes sense there. We’re going to do that with the money practices and financial rules of our lives.

The first rule of money is spending less than you earn.

This may seem completely revolutionary in a world that loves credit and overspending. We are a generation of excess living in a country that encourages it. Because of this, many of us may have never learned or seen modeled the basic truth that it is vitally important to spend less than whatever we earn.

The other six rules we will take a look at don’t matter even a little bit until we truly learn to live by this first one.

When we are told we should spend less than we earn, this is different than being told not to spend more than we earn. We should have a little bit left over. Studies show that 77% of households in America live paycheck to paycheck. We want to spend less than we earn so that we don’t have to do this.

Living on exactly what you make is a great way to sign yourself up for a bunch of financial anxiety and sleepless nights. Making way more than you spend is a great way to put yourself on a path toward financial peace.

Of course, the most important skill we will need to spend less than we earn is our attitude. Our attitude controls how we make decisions, especially the way that we decide how to spend money.

As we work more and gain more experience, our income generally increases over time. This allows us a greater window between the amount of money we earn and the amount we spend.

Or so it might.

But in some cases, spending increases and inflates to fill the disposable income we have. The gap closes.

Our attitude determines if a raise means more savings or more spending. If we begin saving early enough and save enough of our income, we will begin to grow investment earnings over time.

Financial freedom occurs when our investment income exceeds our spending. Then, even without a job, we make enough of a passive income to make ends meet. We need to learn to get over our own entitlement and discern between needs and wants to retain this extra income and to save it…

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