Staying out of debt requires money management
Another General Conference has come and gone, and once again we were bombarded (in a good way 
) with the mantra to “stay out of unnecessary debt.” With each General Conference you can pretty much count on being counseled on staying away from three latter-day vices:
Avoiding debt
Avoiding pornography
Avoiding addictive substances
When discussing the avoidance of debt, our leaders generally suggest that debt is really “ok” in only 3 or 4 circumstances:
1. A mortgage for a modest home
2. Loan for a practical car or cars
3. Loans received for the pursuit of higher education
4. Emergencies, i.e. health related, etc.
Outside of the aforementioned areas, LDS people are strongly encouraged to live below their means and stay out of the grasp of debilitating money problems. Many people live by these words and are better off for it. However, I believe that there are many other well-intentioned individuals who cannot seem to avoid gathering debt, although they are truly trying.
One of the reasons many of us have such a hard time with this concept is we almost never receive any formal training in money management. High School curriculum is all but void of budgeting skills, colleges and universities rarely address the subject, which means you really have to be a self learner when it comes to finding and effectively using a budget online planning tool.
Fortunately, there are many types of household budget software systems out there. I have found that I am a real fan of the envelope budgeting system. In days of yesteryear, families would actually put a number of envelopes on the wall and label each for a different expense, i.e. mortgage, groceries, tithing, etc. Today, you can set up virtual envelopes and assign a budget to each of these spending areas. The software links up with your bank account so that every expenditure is automatically tracked via the envelopes. This makes it very easy to see where you are overspending on a daily basis. I find that this daily spot-checking allows my family to make spending adjustments before we completely blow the budget.
I will probably post on this subject again next April, after a friendly reminder from our Church leaders!
