I have been mentioning Dave Ramsey a lot lately, both on Facebook and in real life, so I thought I needed a blog post to explain it all. We went to see Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover Live Event" in Salt Lake on May 16th. For people who don't know him, Dave Ramsey is a financial guru who writes bestselling books, has a talk radio call-in show, and is broadcast on the Fox Business network. His whole premise is called "Baby steps to financial freedom." He has 7 steps that, if followed dilligently, will ultimately lead to wealth and freedom. Okay, so, we've been trying all year to be more conscious of our finances and Mike has decided to actually get involved for the first time in years. But, now after going to Dave Ramsey, we have a concrete plan and some very tangible financial goals. We also bought a 13 week course called "Financial Peace University" which is giving us all the tools and motivation we need to finally do this right. For those of you who are interested the baby steps are:
1-Get $1000 into an emergency fund
2-Pay off all debt (except your house)
3-Get 3-6 months of expenses into a "fully funded" emergency fund.
4-Invest 15% into retirement accounts
5-Save your children's college tuition
6-Pay off your house
7-Build wealth and give
You focus exclusively on each step until you get to #4, then 4, 5, & 6 can all be worked on at the same time. How quickly you move through the steps depends pretty much on one thing--DISCIPLINE.
So, we have a very strict budget (something we haven't done in years) and we are literally watching every dollar! I am cracking down! Me and Mike are both super motivated and excited about the whole process. (It's hard to get excited about budgeting, so when you do, you have to ride that momentum as much as you can.) My brain is thinking constantly about "Where can I save more?" and "How can I make more?" I have been selling stuff like crazy. But, I'm still not sure what I can do to bring in more money. My motivation right now is that I really want a bigger house--either cash to remodel this one, or a big down payment for a bigger one.
Right now it feels like a money "diet." I'm feeling the deprivation (especially because I really want some new clothes for summer.) But, we haven't been at it that long, so I'm really hoping that it can become a lifestyle change that starts to come a little more naturally after a few months.
I'm also open to any brilliant ideas or tips anyone has on how I could bring in some money or how I can save more? Please share.
4 comments:
Way to go! I can never get past the motivation part. I do great till it's a bad day and I just want mcdonalds for dinner ( can you call it a bad day when you feel this way 5 days out of the week?)
Budgets are fantastic - but a little hard at first because you do feel deprived. Stu and I set up a budget 3 years ago and at first I felt like I could never buy the clothes I wanted or go out to eat with the girls. But after we stuck to it, we have totally reaped the benefits of our diligence. This year was one of the first years in awhile that I have been able to buy new clothes without worrying how much money I had budgeted because we had actually saved up enough money in our individual clothes budget to feel comfortable! Good luck!
I've been having these exact same feelings. My friend in I in June are on a quest to see just how little we can live off of. I'll report. I just re-read Elder Scott's conference talk from April, and it left me feeling very motivated as well.
You are - once again - my hero. This is something we need to get more serious about.
I was awesome at saving in the months before our cruise. Whenever I was about to be impulsive, I'd ask myself "Do I really want this? Or would I rather use the money on the cruise?" Really helped having a tangible goal.
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