A Dave Ramsey course should be required for all High School students.....and for many others!
I would have liked to have had the knowledge in HS, not sure if I would have listened to it too closely or even understood the feeling of debt. I knew what broke felt like back then, but I didn’t understand the stress and responsibility of debt, so I would have likely forgot the message lol.
I don’t regret the way things happened, I’m not in a pile of debt and have to sell to make payments.
I grew up in the suburbs of Columbus Ohio, the biggest tractor on the street I grew up in was my dads JD 445, I remember feeling proud because he had the biggest lawn mower that went the fastest lol
So I had the opportunity to buy my house at the age of 24, it was a private sale and below market value. I had actually been looking for a house since 22 years old lol, the thought of rent bothered me.
Soon after I bought the house I got chickens, raised them from chicks, built them roosting posts, nesting boxes and was on Backyard Chickens talking about chickens like I have been with tractors
. I have way too much chicken knowledge.
About a year after chickens I was scrolling craigslist, came across a listing for a jersey steer, $300. Messaged the guy and found myself at his house with my truck pulling my dads 4x6 trailer with wood sides all around and a rubber horse stall mat I bought on the way to the guys house. On an impulse bought the steer and brought him home.
The house I bought has a barn with 3 attached stalls (1 was the chicken coop), and had a fenced in 1/4 acre pasture attached to the stall area. I let the steer loose in there. I already had a rubber 25g waterer I used for the chicks. It was around June when I bought the steer.
About 2 weeks later came across an add for two more (steer and heifer) $300 each. Long story short they both ended up in my pasture also
. The funniest part of the story was I noticed balls on one animal, my heifer was a bull! I complained to the shister about it, he offered to take him back but I said nah, he’s a really healthy bull, might as well keep him for that price.
Another two weeks and they start munching down the grass in that little pasture so I knew I needed to get them more pasture. The interesting part about this part of the story was I had the urge to buy up used chainlink fence before I got cattle, never had a set plan for it but knew I needed to buy up fence and chainlink was cheaper. I had rolls of the stuff stocked up. I laid it all out and I had enough to fence in a bigger pasture, I had to add a “L” to existing fence in the back lot. Easiest way I could find to do it was T-Post and a T-Post pounder, I bought up 8ft T-Post at the local rural king and stung out a guide line and hand pounded a T-post 2ft down, every 8ft in June or July, hot, miserable and tons of work. Learned a lot about chainlink though and how to connect pieces together to make all the fence one piece. It was 470ft of chainlink to the 12ft gate (tartar from rural king) I installed.
The chainlink was stretched with my dads JD 445, I did 20-30ft sections at a time till I was done.
Only after all that work and effort, did I buy the tractor. I had 75 square bales in my loft by the time I converted to round bales lol.
The past 2-3 years have been very influential towards my character. I learned how the world really works, was a land owner which gave me a voice (not that I said much), raised animals I never was near growing up, made a lot of memories. I wouldn’t change how I did things. Just starting a new chapter of being debt free. Will focus a little less on hobbies and work at home, more on relationships (friends, fam, spiritual etc). I have been at my job for 6 years, it’s about time for new challenges with better pay, so 2019 may hold a new job lol.
