Things You Should Know About The Author Of This Blog: I drive a 1998 Lincoln Continental with a torn headliner–and I like it.

And here’s why…

Yes, it’s true, this isn’t a car that reflects my personality, but I’m very grateful for our Lincoln. A few years ago someone close to me sold it to us at a spectacular price, a price so low that we could afford to pay cash for it. And that’s the key, because we’re believers in saving and spending as opposed to borrowing and spending.

“…the borrower is the slave of the lender.” we’re told in Proverbs 22:7.

It goes against the grain of our culture but you’ll be happier if you live this way. In their book Well Being, Tom Rath and Jim Harter write about the science of happiness, and one of the keys to contentment, peace of mind, and happiness is this pattern of saving and spending, as opposed to borrowing and spending. You probably already know this from your own experience. If you’re carrying debt you’re probably already aware of the feelings of pressure caused by the burden of that load. The  pattern of borrowing and spending makes you a slave, not just to the lender but you become a slave to a kind of background anxiety too. The weight of debt causes generalized feelings of apprehension and uncertainty. You might make a quick purchase by borrowing but there’s a cost beyond the interest you pay to the lender. There’s a cost to your happiness.

Dave Ramsey teaches this pattern of saving and spending in his Financial Peace University trainings, a course I highly recommend. Kathy and I went through it a little less than a year ago. One of his recommendations is to not borrow money to buy a car, but to save until you can purchase something inexpensive, with cash. The idea is to drive that inexpensive car until you have saved enough to purchase something more comfortable. Some people call that first inexpensive vehicle their “Dave Ramsey car.”

That’s our Lincoln. It’s our “Dave Ramsey car.”

So if you happen to see me driving by in an old Lincoln, with a torn headliner, and I have a smile on my face, now you know why I’m in that particular car.

And you also know, why I’m smiling.