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    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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Maturity, discipline,a written plan, and counsel : necessities for achieving Financial Peace

In Week one of FPU: Super Saving,  Dave stresses the importance of discipline in the success of building wealth. The aspect of maturity as it relates to finances is expounded. Discipline and maturity are something that I struggle with financially. This hasn’t always been the case, but it certainly is so now. I’ve gone back and revisited the Super Saving lesson a few times because it’s another example of “it’s so simple, it’s stupid”. Of course we should have a written plan! Of course we should follow it! Part of my New Year’s resolutions, months before Financial Peace, I decided to stop spending money frivolously. My biggest vice was Starbucks. On average, I spent about $20 a week there. There is no justification for that, even IF I were debt free. It’s wasteful. Sure, it’s a nice treat every once and a while, but no one NEEDS to go to Starbucks every day. Anyone who does has no discipline and is immature with his/her money.

I try to watch The Dave Ramsey Show on Fox Business as often as I can. If I could only watch 1 day, it would be Friday’s. Callers call in on Debt Free Friday’s and share their stories and scream “I’M DEBT FREE”. Dave probably won’t receive a call from us, because I haven’t the patience to try keep dialing, however, the shows are motivational.

Tonight Dave said that:

Part of achieving any goal is being willing to say no to things that are going to keep you from achieving [that goal].

It takes maturity to say no and discipline to keep saying no. Today I had the opportunity to practice several of the tips that J and I have gathered from our weeks at FPU. We have our cash flow plan (what we now call our budget), and if it isn’t “cash flowed”, it isn’t bought. If we NEED it, it comes out of the emergency fund. I have to plan to go to get my haircut. We’re planning for him to go to the men’s retreat at church. I got an email from Old Navy today that there is a Baby Sale. The kids NEED fall and winter clothes. I love on-line shopping. We’ve been so good, you see where I’m going with this. I was making excuses to fill that virtual shopping cart. So, I called Jason and had him talk me down. In the past, we’ve been enablers, but he said that we could go to Old Navy- cash in hand, if I still wanted to do so…. tomorrow. Now that the urge is past, I’m absolutely content to sit and wait until next week’s consignment sale. My kids have way too many clothes anyway. Clothes that typically goes unworn, although there is never a lack of laundry to fold.

I’m learning power over purchases through: maturity, discipline, a written cash flow plan, and seeking the counsel of my spouse[if you aren't married, Dave suggests getting an accountability partner]- all lessons that I have learned through the weeks during FPU. It’s nothing magical, even Dave says it. It isn’t remarkable. I’m sure there are people out there who know this stuff without Dave, but I suspect that most of us are the average American who wasn’t born wealthy; we believe that we’ll never have it if we wait until we can pay for it with cash. We believe that credit card debt is a necessary evil in our lives, or that we’ll always have a car payment.

This week will be our last week of Financial Peace. When we started we were behind in our mortgage, possibly facing foreclosure. One of our vehicles went into repossession. We had no communication in our marriage and J was struggling to hide our true financial situation with us. Deep down, I knew we were living beyond our means. It would have been simple to pull our credit reports, or even check our mailbox from time to time, but the truth is, I was scared to do so, and willing to let him struggle, all the while, self- righteously blaming him for the problems I’d help create. Sure, the death of our daughter and her medical bills played a big part of what we owed, but in the end, it doesn’t matter how we got in debt, just that we are in debt.

Our marriage was close to an end, and it is so hard to look back to that couple 13 weeks ago and realize that it was us. We’ve gotten rid of both of our vehicles and now drive two Dave Cars that have only liability insurance. We’re caught up on our bills. We have a written plan and we follow it. I don’t buy things that we don’t need, even when I convince myself that I NEED it. I know that it isn’t forever. We continue to tithe to our church, which is a big deal to us as Christians, and that feels good. Prayer really does work. I believe God led us to our church, we came to FPU through our church. So much has happened in the last 13 weeks that I can only imagine the wealth and peace that we will have in 13 years.

~Manda

September 5, 2008 | Filed Under Dave Ramsey Financial Freedom, Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University (FPU), Financial Freedom Journey Pep Talk, Financial Goals, Financial Peace Baby Steps, Financial Peace University 

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