The Average Millionare drives a 3 year old car & clips coupons ~ Dave Ramsey (apparently I am right on track)

I've been putting off writing this because I know it will be long, but our background is important in understanding why I endorse this program so much - bear with me - not all my posts will be this long winded...

So my husband and I finally decided we were old enough that we needed a 'real' budget.

We do OK - things line up every month, we've never been late on any bill ever, have a little saved for retirement, have a little in our savings account, in general we don't believe in carrying a balance on credit card.  And our thoughts were if we were able to live within that kind of balance on one income in this economy, then we weren't doing so bad.  And we had plenty of people tell us just that, that even before we tightened our belt financially that we were not enjoying ourselves enough and giving us lousey financial advice -If broke people are making fun of your financial plan, you’re on track. Dave Ramsey I wish we had read this quote and internalized it before we let a couple people get into our heads.....

But here's the thing - we save alot of money, but we waste alot of money, just because we were comfortable enough to do so, we didn't live 'month to month' - there was always enough money - but the savings account didn't seem to be growing, and we were really just one unexpected expense away from starting to rack up a credit card bill.  Well, in our case it wasn't one unexpected expense - but a few....

Here's the background - in Sept 2009 we had NO CC debt, and hadn't had any in over a year (the only reason we had any at all before that is because we had several unexpected expenses associated with our son's adoption 2 yrs ago (long story)) - in the course a few months the following happened - lost two freelance clients due to their businesses closing, bought a fancy camera we didn't really need but REALLY wanted (dumb), went on a family vacation that was planned for - but not well & we ended up overspending (also dumb), laptop was ruined on vacation (which the resort eventually replaced by the way) - needed new laptop AND lost TONS of clients work inside the laptop, and a little celebration our family likes to call 'Christmas' ....spiral spiral spiral to January 2010 - and we were pretty much on par with the national average as far as credit card debt is concerned - a few short months earlier we had NONE - ugh! The most frustrating part about it is that year between paying off our credit card and then starting to rack it up again we just got comfortable - we weren't saving for anything eminent so we just bought what we wanted - we shopped frugally - but if we wanted to go on vacation, or out to dinner, or shopping, or get something fancy for the computer, etc we just bought it - I mean, we weren't putting it on the credit card - we had the cash to do it, so what was the big deal? uh - the big deal is we didn't realize it was a problem until we had dug ourselves a little hole that we didn't really need to dig.  Half the stuff that happened in those last months of 2009 we couldn't have prevented - but the other half we could have.

So we signed up for 'Financial Peace University' a program run by Dave Ramsey- essentially like boot camp for your finances - AWESOME - hard core, not alot of fun - but awesome!  There is nothing weird about it - just a step by step plan on how to pay down debt and eventually build wealth (with the intention of using it for the greater good) with integrity the old fashioned way - one step at a time - don't use credit, don't get caught up in stuff you can't afford, save for everything.  "You can't work three hours a week and make $100,000. Get rich quick doesn't work. Crock pot mentality always defeats microwave mentality!" Dave Ramsey

It's a 12 week class. Long story short in that amount of time we paid off our only car that had a loan (a little over $4,000) and paid off  $6,000 on the credit card AND put an additional $1,500 in the bank - what?! I know - we are awesome!  In 12 weeks we had a financial shift of over $11,500!  Now if we weren't so intrenched in our 'Dave Ramsey' plan I know so much of that money would have just been blown - we would have paid down some debt, but we probably would have had alot of fun with it too, and a few months later we would be wondering where it had gone. God willing - June 15, 2010 we will be (except the mortgage) completely debt free! *side note* February was an exceptional month - we had a royalty check come in that was fantastically bigger than anticipated that really helped roll some of that debt away - but we would have blown if it were not for our plan.

To answer everyone's first question - YES we did get rid of cable - we now have BASIC cable - it's like 18 channels and half of them aren't even in English - but we are surviving. And to answer everyone's second question - NO Dave didn't 'make' us get rid of it - we just decided it wasn't necessary & if we could save nearly $40 a month we might as well. But as Dave says 'The average millionaire can`t tell you who got thrown off the island last night.' I can't tell you who was thrown off the island, but I can TOTALLY tell you what is going on on 'The Biggest Looser' - so I know I still have a ways to go.

Our motivation for growing up finanically, we want to adopt again & we REALLY want to do it without any debt - that year after we brought our beautiful little boy home was really hard.  Having that CC debt when we were living essentially on one income made things really stressful. Travel and legal fees for an adoption are expensive, but it is just something our family is really committed to doing - so right now we are really just trying to stay motivated to save, save, save and live below our means.  There is nothing that makes me sadder than to hear people say 'oh that is nice that you guys adopted, we would, but we can't afford to.' It's all about choices. 

So there in a nut shell is our personal experience with 'Financial Peace University' - we HIGHLY recommend it - for anyone! We are in our early 30's and really could have just used it as a 'quick fix' diet of sorts to just run off that debt quickly, but it will be a lifestyle change for us - there were people sweating in that class already at retirement age with no savings, upside down mortgages, with loan sharks calling them - not one of them said it was worth it in the end.

Check out http://www.daveramsey.com/ for more info - there are lots of free tools on his website as well as info on the next class sessions.  We go to North Coast Church in Vista - I know they will be hosting another FPU in the fall - again - I cannot recommend it enough - no matter where you are in life!

Kate