Columnist: Change your life — Make a plan, stick to it

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Jerry Johnson

Contributing columnist

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Your vision will become your reality! Habakkuk 2:2 says, “Write the vision and make it plain.”

If your vision is something you can do yourself, you do not have a big enough plan — a big vision. You will need the Lord to help you pull it off.

This is not about money, as you may think, it is about life, which means your health, your family and your life needs to be planned out.

You say my health? My good friend, John, had a wake up call about 15 months ago. He started working out, eating right, keeping a health journal each day and he has now lost 102 pounds. He looks 25 years younger, has more energy than most 25 year olds, and he is 67!

Yes, John had a written game plan, a vision for being healthy and he has done it.

Now I am a big Dave Ramsey fan and as a result of my reading Dave Ramsey, I have gotten one of my friends to pay off $70,000-plus of credit card debt over the past three years. Credit cards will eat you alive, that is no joke.

He got the vision of having no credit card debt! What you do is really giving off to your children. What they see is a better lesson than what you preach.

So if you have your financial house in order, your kids, Jane and Bill, will do the same as they have seen. Every day I get at least three calls from people wanting a house they can rent to own.

I tell them all the same thing, we will rent you a house until you can buy, but renting to own is like taking a $400 TV, renting it and paying $2,000 in rent and then you own it. Get your credit score up and then buy a house.

People that work make a lot of money over their lifetime. Everyone should pay attention to what they do with their money.

The best in modern times is Dave Ramsey’s books and his talk show dealing with wasteful spending and how to avoid wasting your money. He will teach you to pay on time plus a little extra and get out of debt ASAP.

Do not waste money on late fees and service charges because you do not pay attention. Bottom line — you must look out for yourself every day. That means have some vision of what you’re going to do with your life.

Life is much more fun if you plan what happens instead of letting things happen to you.

Jerry Johnson is president of First Realty of LaGrange.