Financial Wellness

by Melissa

I am not a numbers person.  I hate math. I don’t understand it and I sure as heck can’t stand spending hours looking at spread sheets, numbers and calculations.  One thing I do love: money! Not in the sense that I need to be filthy rich, but more in the sense that I like to feel like I have enough to get by and enjoy my life.  Enter: Dave Ramsey.

A few months ago my brother-in-law started going on and on about Dave Ramsey.  I had heard of him before, and knew that he had answers to finding money within my own budget, but never gave his process a serious chance. After listening to my brother-in-law talk about how simple saving money and paying off debt could be, I knew I had to really give The Dave Ramsey Podcast a listen.  And boy am I glad I did. 

I encourage you to listen to the podcast and even purchase his book, Total Money Makeover. I wanted to share a few things I have learned from listening and reading so far, but I will also tell you that I am at the beginning of my journey, so I am no expert, just someone who is really excited to pay off any and all debt, and NEVER have debt again! My husband and I also set a goal to be millionaires before we turn 45!

If you take a listen to the podcast, you will hear Dave say it is the podcast where “Debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage takes the place of the BMW.”

Top three things I have learned:

  • Make a budget every month, no matter your income, and stick to it. Assign a purpose to every dollar you have coming in, even if it is just spending money.  https://www.everydollar.com/ is a great place to start your budgeting.
  • Lists your debt in order of smallest to largest not including a house payment.  Begin to attack the first one with everything you have while paying the minimum on everything else.  Once you have finished paying off that smallest payment, then apply whatever you were paying on that to your next debt. For example-Let’s say I pay $100 a month on a hospital bill that is $400 total. I have a car loan that is a total of $3,000 and am paying a minimum payment of $150 a month of a car loan.  Once I pay off my hospital bill, I then begin paying $250 on my car loan.
  • Use cash and use an envelope system! Instead of swiping a piece of plastic to purchase things, we began taking all our budgeted cash out of the bank and putting it in assigned envelopes! Trust me, I think about spending $5 at Starbucks a lot more when I am about to hand over $5 cash of my $50 budget for eating out!

Financial wellness is for everyone! If you have a loan, this is for you.  If you are debt free, then this is still for you! Dave talks about wealth building and becoming a millionaire, and I have never thought about how possible all of this is because in our society, debt is normal.  I don’t like to be normal, so I am going to do everything I can to never have to borrow money again in my life! As Dave Ramsey says, “you have to live like no one else, so that you can live like no one else.”

Check out daveramsey.com for more information and to get started on your path to financial wellness.

 


Share this article:


Related Posts