One of the biggest things this book teaches is that no matter what size your income is, 10% of it is yours to keep. Another is that debt is an enemy to conquer, not a necessary evil. One of the families in the story did this, and had to pay rent on top of it. We have long realized that renting and paying interest on a mortgage is about the same. Michael and I came up with a spending plan that allots 20% of our income to actually paying off our debt, and we will be completely debt free in 9 years, and in that time we will also have allotted 10% to savings. 10% of our income goes to tithing as well, so this gives us 60% of our income to live off of. But we took that figure and created a plan based on that amount. We're not going to starve on that figure.
This plan gives us less money for other things that we're used to buying, and starting out we realize that we're going to have to sacrifice to make this work, but we figure that now while our family is young is the best time to establish these habits. To be completely debt free with our home before we even have teenagers will be a powerful thing. We just need to focus on this master plan.
This book was highly motivating for me, and I recommend it to anyone who ever uses money.