I LOVE this man! This is Dave Ramsey. Around the Stevens household he's affectionately known as "my buddy Dave." We've been loosely following him for the past year but we've decided to re-enlist our efforts and really go for it! We want to be debt free. The goal is debt free but the house in 5 years. It's quite a lofty goal for us. So to help us understand what we're in for, we've started Dave's course Financial Peace University. The second lesson in FPU is called Cash Flow. Cash Flow, it turns out, is a really fancy work for an icky word, budget. We have to write out a...budget... before the month begins and tell every penny where to go or it will get sucked into the black hole of unnecessary spending. Living on a strict budget is like death by stretching. After 26 (okay almost 27) years of life I've never ever lived on a budget. My bank account makes that blatantly obvious. So I've decided to lock me and my family in the rack and throw away the key. So far budgeting is...well honestly, its hard. I've never realized where our money goes, and I don't like where its been going! Dave has made me realize that impulse shopping and buy whatever I want is not fun and spontaneous, its stupid and childish. $200 in overdraft charges is nothing to be proud of! Saving and planning are the new action words for our money. So while budgeting and saving can be painful, I will do it until I love it. Its already having a positive side effect. Although we've only been doing this for 4 months, Bob is already less stressed and we aren't constantly worried about bills. While Bob and I have never fought about money, we no longer have to talk about bills like this month is the last one of our lives. Its refreshing and I think it will only get better from here!
"Debt is dumb, cash is king. We will live like no one else now so that later, we can live like no one else" - Dave Ramsey.
2 comments:
Good for you guys! I've seen some of the classes and they are powerful. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Yay! I heart Dave too! My MIL gave me 'Financial Peace' shortly after we were married so, luckily, we've been following Dave our whole marriage. I read 'Total Money Makeover' a couple years later and now I listen to the FPU CDs during my commute! It's really tough but it's so nice to be in control and making progress toward where you want to be. Keep it up!
Post a Comment