I have been frustrated lately by some people I know. My frustrations come from the fact that these people complain about the state of their lives but are too lazy to actually do something about it!

For example: I know one person who states that she is in so much debt that she doesn't even know how much she owes. I offered to set her up with some weekend sitting jobs so that she could earn an extra couple of hundred dollars per week to pay off her debt. Her response? "No, I don't work weekends." This is maddening to me. Why would a person, if they were in such insurmountable debt, refuse to work to solve the problem? Instead, this person eats out for lunch nearly every day, makes 2 Starbucks trips per day, and shops frequently for new clothes, which she doesn't need. All the while, she complains about how she has no money. Well, she obviously has $10 per day for food and coffee, and whatever she spends weekly on items she has no real need for. She isn't willing to take on anything that she considers an inconvienence to herself. It just frustrates me. It is not that hard to get yourself a financial education. There are websites galore that will walk you through a financial series if your parents for some reason didn't teach you how to manage money. (Or maybe they tried, but you weren't listening)

Those who know me are aware of my extremely strong work ethic. I work my full-time job (45 hours per week) in addition to working 25-35 additional hours on the weekends with other families. I'm about to open my own business that provides overnight care for infants here in the Atlanta area which will double my income. This means that there will be 2 nights per week that I might not get any sleep. Slightly inconvienent, no? People wonder why I do this but all I have to do is show them my house and inform them that every piece of furniture they see has been paid for by my "workaholism". Every picture of Ethan and I taken in some international locale has been provided for by our hard work outside of our regular jobs. People actually think we finance everything. No. We pay for it outright. Our house will be paid off in less than 15 years. Imagine the financial freedom we'll have after that! And we'll be in our late 30's! Looking at the big picture and the long term outcomes makes our hard work now worth it. Sure, there are some weekends when I wish I could just sleep in and not work at all. But when I remind myself of what hard work provides, I'm more than happy to get out of bed and get to it!

Perhaps this comes from the fact that I once found myself in debt before marrying Ethan. I fell victim to the balance transfer idealogy. I would just transfer card after card to new cards, and soon found myself with about $8,000 in debt. The good news was that I (a) never missed a payment and (b) always paid more than the balance due. The bad news was that I had allowed my spending to get out of control and now had to figure out a way to pay off this debt. So, you know what I did? I buckled down and made scarifices and had it paid off within a year. I didn't go to Starbucks. I didn't shop for clothes. I didn't go on vacations. I took every possible job that came up and worked my butt off. Every cent (after paying my absolutely necessary bills such as car insurance, health insurance, etc.) went to paying my debt off. In less than a year, it was completely eradicated. I have never let myself fall into that trap again, and I never will.

The one thing that stayed with me during that experience was that working more led to having more free cash flow and more ability to save for the future. In these economic times, saving certainly isn't the worst idea. So I continue to work my butt off, and apply the extra money that comes in towards things that Ethan and I want but that aren't necessary to our quality of life. Things like sushi dinners at our favorite place, vacations to the beach, a houseful of Crate & Barrel furniture, a gym membership, etc. All the people that complain could have this too... if they would just stop their griping and be willing to work hard to solve their problems. What happened to a sense of pride in personal accomplishments? What happened to being ashamed of owing people money? Now it's just taken for granted that every American will have an average of $12,000 in credit card debt. That's just horrifying (and sickening) to me!