I am excited once again about some new directions my life is taking this year. Because a nice friend (thank you very much Carrie) sent an email coupon for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, I decided to give it a go. It was on my to-do list, but I really wasn't going to tackle it until the Fall. But, after I bought it online, it showed I had only 16 weeks to finish the course. Crap! So now I'm in whether I like it or not. It will end up being a good thing since I always work better under stress though! Don't we all? I've already done lesson #1. I'm suppose to be journaling so I am starting a special category for my thoughts on money. I am also suppose to find a "buddy" or "buddies" for accountability and encouragement so if there is anyone who wants to be my buddy, let me know!
Right off the bat, in lesson 1, I got depressed. I had heard most of it before, years ago from Larry Burkett, and it seemed sad that I had to be relearning this information. What really got me was the compound interest segment. That is amazing! One person saving 2,000 per year between age 19-26 (a total of 8 years @ 12%)equals 2,288,996 at age 65. Second person saves 2,000 per year between the age 27-65 (a total of 38 years @ 12%) equals 1,532,166 at age 65. What a difference! When I was younger, it seemed so hard to save a little and I thought for sure that there would be years to save etc... Now, years later, I'm not that much better off. Frustrating! Dave is right when he says things WILL happen and they can be devestating when you're not prepared. He also said it's never too late so I'm going to go with that. I know I will regret it 10 years from now if I don't work on it now and I'm trying really hard to stay away from pity parties. They get so boring after awhile!
So here I go on yet another adventure towards my future. I have decided to quit waiting for my ship to come in and start canoeing my way out to the sea of financial peace. If anyone cares to join me, it would be a good, good thing. Remember, a small bit out of a tax refund invested in this course would pay for itself with the moneywiseness (my own imaginative word) you would come away with!
You're SO welcome! If you're looking for an accountability buddy, I'll be it! I'm taking the class by myself while Jason is at work.
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How did FPU go for you guys? We did it online a few years ago and learned so much. We didn't have a lot of debt: just 2 girls' braces and about $600 on a credit card--but we got those paid off and only have our house payment now. The nice thing is that once you go through it, you are a "graduate" and can jump into ANY class locally and go through it again for free (I hope you downloaded all the audio's, workbook, and forms) since you own the workbook. We are probably going to go through it the next time our church offers it, which they do about once or twice a year. I like Dave Ramsey because he approaches it with such a great sense of humor! Also he has a teen finance course that doesn't cost too much to buy, that you can use with your high schoolers.
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I did it last year but am not technically a graduate since I missed 2 lessons during the 16 week time limit I had online. That is usually the way with me though. I start lots O' projects and don't ever quite finish them. Quite the downfall to my character and the reason why my blog never gets updated! I did download the lessons etc... I have been on baby step #1 forever because as soon as I get it, it needs to be used on something. We only have one set of braces and one small card, nothing giant. We used to have a ginormous car payment because we had it in our heads we NEEDED a diesel, leather seats, all the bells and whistles Excursion. While it gave my ego a boost to drive the thing, the payments made me wince. We sold it a few years back and paid cash for our big, green machine we have now. Humbling to drive at times but I LOVE not having a car payment! We visited Real Life the other week and noticed they hold the class there also. My friend, Carrie, leads the classes at her church down in Atlanta where she lives. She is one crazy gazelle! They're planning on going up to Dave's place and yell that they're debt free! Gotta love that! :-)
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