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  • Budgeting Works!

    To gain financial freedom you must take control of your money, plan for the future and Stop Borrowing Money!
    Two families striving to gain financial freedom share their experiences.
    Blog Author Mona Weathers (monawea)


    Co-author, Manda C.

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Dave Ramsey- Cult Leader? Going Against the Societal Norm of Being a Debt Slave

My friends call me Manda. If I had to describe myself, I’d say a little outspoken, and a lot broke. Before FPU, I didn’t even know that I was broke. I have a house, clothes, a lot of crap I don’t need, and a huge amount of debt. My husband and I are about halfway through our FPU Bootcamp. We started the course with several other members of our church. Whether you’re religious or not (I am), I love the verse that inspires Dave’s “Gazelle Intensity”

Proverbs 6:5
Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter.

I’m not the fastest gazelle in our herd. I’ve watched, with a teensy bit of jealousy, as one couple embraced this intensity and have- with that intensity- dumped and ran from their debt screaming “CHEETAH”. They’ve been accountable for their bad past judgment, have sold so much stuff that their kids have honestly probably feared that they were next. They’ve dumped their Lexus and are now proud owners of a “Dave car”.

J and I funded our emergency fund by taking the piddly “college fund” we’d been saving for our 2 year old and renaming it our “baby emergency fund”, and then celebrating the completion of our first baby step. We hadn’t escaped our hunter, but managed a graceful leap in the correct direction. The next day, or very soon afterwards, we discovered that the finance company for our van had tired of our constantly late payments and decided to start procedures for repossessing our van. We hadn’t been caught up in months. With the aid of my husband’s mother, (yes, I know 30-somethings should never have to run back to mommy and daddy) we kept the van, but only for the short term. We only wanted to avoid paying the repo fees, so the van is on the way out (more about that later in the discussion of dumping debt). That crisis diverted, no matter how temporary, we prayed, re-grouped and then got hot. The heat pump on our 16 year old air conditioning unit up and went kaput. Bye Bye emergency fund.

If it is one thing I’ve taken away from the first few weeks in doing Financial Peace, it is that when you’re in the dirt- kicking, screaming, and bemoaning your luck in being unable to “get ahead”, you should really just focus on getting out of the dirt. Ahead will come later. Ahead will come after diligent execution of a specific plan of action. What’s ahead can be used as a source of motivation. I love using financial calculators to look ahead at what our Financial Peace will look like. We can be debt free, with a fully funded emergency fund sitting in the bank, with our home payed off by 2014. Ahh, Financial Peace. It doesn’t happen magically after just a few weeks of soaking in the humor and simplistic, common sense insight of Dave Ramsey. It takes action. It takes “sacrifice” I use quotations, because living your wage isn’t truthfully a sacrifice. It’s reality for those who want to achieve Financial Peace.

To get Financial Peace, one must wage war. J and I have perhaps taken this too literally and set our sights on one another as targets. We’ve just this week celebrated our 3rd anniversary, and I can promise you that we have fought more in the past 6 weeks than in the previous 3 years. Why? We’re big babies. We want to blame the other for our financial problems. We’re (mostly he.. ha) are not so quick to give up the lifestyle that has gotten us in the trouble that we’re in. We’re the couple that celebrates a $300 a month raise with a $400 a month car payment. Most Americans do, but it doesn’t make it right. Additionally, in February of 2007, our family suffered the death of one of our 9 month old twin daughters. We engaged in what some call “retail therapy”. Being accountable for our spending meant that we, I mostly, could no longer deal with our grief by buying stuff. It was, and still is, difficult for me. I’m an on-line shopper and lived for my mail to be delivered.

So here we are now. Thankful that we’ve wised up sooner than later. Before Dave, we could “afford” something if we could make monthly payments on it for the next 5 or more years. Now we know we can afford it if we can pay cash for it. We haven’t yet escaped the hand of the hunter, but we have gazelle intensity; we’re just not the quickest in the herd. We’re still running. Our baby emergency fund is again funded. Our *ahem* $550 a month van payment will be gone soon as we finalize its sale and start to look for our “Dave car”. We’ve sold our very little used jet ski, and are trying to sell the hot tub we bought ourselves as a wedding gift. J is looking for a 2nd job, and I am looking for part time work that will help us on the rest of our Debt Snowball.

Instead of whining about our bad fortune and giving into that temptation of “realizing” that we can’t get ahead and resigning to the seeming futility of living in debt , we were instead thankful that we had the baby emergency fund to help pay for a new air conditioning unit, and we looked forward to the days ahead when such a “crisis”- isn’t such. We’re excited about learning to invest, about being able to educate our children, and to plan for the future instead of hoping we’ll find a way to manage some how. Security is such a wonderful thing. We’re looking ahead to it. My husband was explaining Financial Peace our our long term goals to his brother, and his brother responded by suggesting that we may have gotten ourselves involved with a cult. Hilarious when you think of it. One must be crazy to go against the societal norms of being prisoners to debt. Over the next few weeks, I’d like to talk about what we’ve learned in our FPU lessons, budgeting, menu planning, habit changing, just to name a few. Thank you Mona for the opportunity to write about this journey.

May God grant us the wisdom and tools needed in gaining Financial Peace

~Manda

August 8, 2008 | Filed Under Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University (FPU), Financial Peace Baby Steps, Just Whatever 

One Response to “Dave Ramsey- Cult Leader? Going Against the Societal Norm of Being a Debt Slave”

  1. Nicole on November 15th, 2008

    Wow thank you so much for sharing your story. I know it is not always easy to admit your faults and past mistakes. I listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show often and he is an amazing man! I’m so glad he has helped you. Reading your story was very inspirational to me as I have un-needed debt too. Thanks for sharing.

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