Tag: dave ramsey

We are DEBT FREE!!

HastonHelpingHands6 Comments

Dear Readers, I am delighted to tell you that after 3 years of hard work and sacrifice and budgeting my husband and I are very excited to share that we are completely and utterly out of debt! 11/16/2015 – DEBT FREE DAY!

We have both worked extra hours, second jobs and paid careful attention to how the dollars and cents were spent, but mostly, we were intentional with our money and the ways we directed it to work hard for us and moving towards this goal of being debt-free.​

Here it is by the numbers– 3 years, over 30K– 🙂

Started November 2012- Ended November 2015

0.00 REMAINS!!!!/ 36,945.91 PAID OFF

DEAD CHEETAH!! We are DEBT FREE!!

Why is this important? Well for one thing, when you are out of debt, you have the ability to take the money that was previously funneled to car payments, student loans and credit card payments you can save that money and possibly even invest it. This is not new advice, in fact its what your grandmother teaches you if you are lucky enough to have smart and savvy grandparents. It is nicely packaged in the program presented by the Ramsey Solutions Team in Nashville.

Five years ago, my good friend Keely Locke and I were brainstorming about how to plan my upcoming nuptials on a budget. My fiance and I were in debt in the single life but we did not want to go into further debt to get married. She gave me a book called “More than Enough” by Dave Ramsey and it seemed like a good idea but I didn’t really think we needed it since we weren’t super heavy in debt but I did think it was a good book and wanted to continue down the path we were on which was not adding debt to our respective totals. Later in the planning, I realized how expensive things were going to be and heard about a live event happening in San Antonio so went in the car and went to the event. Dave Ramsey is an excellent speaker, and whether you agree with his politics or not, what he says makes a lot of sense. I found myself wired and fired to GET OUT OF DEBT— after this event

If you are unfamiliar with him and his programs, take a look at this website for the Baby Steps-

http://www.daveramsey.com/baby-steps/?snid=start.steps

This post is not about his program but hey if it interest you, you are welcome for the introduction, The main thing this post is about is the major hard work and dedication my husband and I have done to pay off 37,945.91 *to be precise* in 37 months.

We gave this speech at our Toastmasters club on 12/1/2015

It takes Communication, Organization and Dedication- Those principles can be applied to anything that takes hard work but in specific to this situation it looked like this.

Communication- We talked about what we wanted out of life and why we didn’t want to be in debt, we talked about how we would accomplish this goal and how long it would take. We discussed the sacrifices (time together while doing extra jobs and hours at work) and the steps it would take. I gave up buying movies and shoes (which was super hard because I LOVE SHOES!!!) I am planning to celebrate with a debt-free shoe shopping trip in January– (stay tuned for the blog post about that one)- Communication also comes into play when you have setbacks and trust me, we had plenty, Right there in the homestretch, we had several car repairs but because we had a plan and were patient, it wound up working out.

Organization – We had a budget, and truth be told, its a saving grace, because I really like to spend money, and having a plumb line to tell me “NO” was a good thing. We also had a rule that anything at the 50.00 or above mark MUST be discussed before a mutual agreement to purchase.  We also had our own spending money to be spent on whatever the other wanted, no questions asked (keeps you sane for sure).

Dedication- Unquestionably, that has been the hardest part, when we decided we were going to do this three years ago, I delivered pizzas part-time, was a hostess at a restaurant, and finally an office assistant. All in aid of putting a little more away to help fund the debt reduction plan. The most exciting thing that happened was I discovered and created my business Haston Helping Hands (my personal coaching business) and that hustle has really taken off, in fact one of the clients I had this past year really helped move the needle for us to get the finish line even faster.

As I sit here typing this, our new dog, Cachet is sitting on my lap and its a feeling of utter happiness to be out of debt and with a dog (we wanted a dog for five years, but knew that we needed to be financially responsible before getting one) on my lap. Delayed gratification at its finest.

DebtFreeCollage

 

 

Directions and Baby Steps

HastonHelpingHands4 Comments

whirlwind of a weekend!!

Friday afternoon, I drove to Dallas for a business trip (more on that in a bit) and usually road trips are stressful for me because despite being a good director, historically I have been bad at following directions.

This started when I would drive the 9 plus hours to New Orleans and I would contantly panic at the 610 split, is it North or South? Once I got to the signs saying “Beaumont” I knew I was okay and on the right track but the panic would constantly grip me at the worst part of the trip, when I had to choose left or right?

I am delighted to tell you, dear readers, that with three separate destinations, I did not get lost once which opened my eyes to the notion that maybe it hasn’t been difficult at all but rather my thought process about it that made it more difficult.

Bolstered by my hat trick, I headed to the Smart Conference featuring prominent speakers on career, marriage and parenting. I volunteered to attend for free and met some like-minded people who are working to get out of debt and happy to serve the organization for the day.

I could do an entire series of blog posts on all things I heard so I will just hit on a few quotes from each speaker and tell you that I learned so much and am filled with a renewed sense of motivation and purpose about living intentionally.

“A good test of a relationship is how a person responds to the word no.
Love respects no, control does not”
-Dr. Henry Cloud-

“Giving is the antidote for selfishness” -Rachel Cruze-

“Be open to the idea of being known
and knowing someone-
-Dr. Emerson Eggerichs-

“Outrageous Generosity is a character quality of people
who win with money”
-Dave Ramsey-

“You can’t please people. You just have to speak the truth.”
-Dr. Meg Meeker-

“Nobody really cares how you feel. They only care how you act”
– Andy Andrews-

Then after it was over, I drove home and then this morning I walked/ran 3.1 miles. I have a great support team, not the least of which is my husband who came to support me and some good friends cheeered me on, it was fun and tiring mainly because when I work out on my treadmill I am insulated from having to find a place to run, or avoiding people in front of me walking really slowly likely because they just stopped running and were cooling off themselves. My running buddy told me later that when I ran I was going really fast more than when we have jogged together. I was not prepared for “hitting the wall” since I have comfortable going 3.5 miles every time I run my treadmill. It was shocking to find myself ready to quit so close to the end. Susie Gidseg was AMAZING! “Just take it nice and slow” “30 seconds from now, you are going to hit that finish line and feel amazing” “you are doing great”

I really wanted to quit, and would have but for my partner. Once again, I am learning, the baby steps matter, one builds on another and you get there one baby step at a time.

I am planning to do this again, till I am able to run it from start to finish and will continue working intervals and slowly, steadily make my way to the next goal. What are you working on?
What baby steps are you taking?

Could you, would you give up your IPhone? Guest Post by Tami!

HastonHelpingHands2 Comments

I first heard of Dave Ramsey from my “work mom”.  She has listened to him on the radio for years!  When I would worry about money issues, she always said “you should listen to this guy Dave”  I actually Googled  Dave Ramsey and discovered Financial Peace University.  I also discovered it cost almost $100 to take the course!  As a single mom, I had no idea where I would find the money, so I brushed it off.  Whenever she mentioned him again, I would say “Yeah, but who can afford to spend money to learn how to deal with money?”

               Fast forward to 2012, I was married and we were really struggling to organize combined income and combined debt. .  The debt was overwhelming me, and we were fighting all the time.  Often times, we were going on outings we shouldn’t, and spending money we didn’t have because the financial communication was non-existent.   It went like this… Everyone was having fun and enjoying themselves, then there was me:  with a scowl on my face because I was so worried about how I was going to shift the money around to cover the “fun” we were having.  I felt like the kill-joy of the bunch…

I prayed that God would show us the way!  At church the very next Sunday, it was announced that Financial Peace University would be held at our church for the first time in 3 years!  I was like whoa!  Get this, there was financial aid available!  And God said “I got your back Tami!” I tell JR “Hey honey!  I want to take this get out of debt course on Sunday mornings, and you have to come with me or we won’t get the scholarship” Of course he came along and our journey began!  I ran some basic calculations and got him excited about how fast we could get out of debt.

               Before class started, I read a few chapters of the book and became proactive to make sure we could get the $1,000 BEF saved.  I cancelled my contributions to the deferred comp plan, reduced my Federal withholdings to zero for the rest of the year, and we managed to save the $1,000 two months early!  We were so excited to be in BS2 before the end of class!  We cancelled our cable a few months before we heard of the class, but I shopped around our insurances and we cut our food budget to cut back on expenses.  Christmas that year was an all cash experience which hadn’t happened in many, many moons… Credit cards were cut up and accounts closed.  We were well on our way, and even shaved a few months off our Debt Free Date!   

               Since then, I decided I wanted to take the class again (it IS a lifetime membership after all) However, there were none available in my area… that’s how I became a facilitator!  I now co-facilitate FPU at our church, and our next session will begin this October.  I am very excited and I love sharing the program with others who are struggling.  Their excitement feeds me, which in turn feeds my husband. Of course there are times though when he says “honey there are other things in life besides Dave Ramsey and you need to talk about them too!”

Our most drastic change to date has been cancelling our iPhones… That is a whole experience in and of itself!  Our Total Money Makeover journey is continuously changing as our attitudes and self-discoveries evolve.  Our DFD has changed again, but the opposite direction.  Some past issues came up that need dealt with, but we are dealing with them together.  My husband and I are both eternally thankful for the knowledge we gained through Financial Peace University.  We are both certain that without taking FPU, our marriage would be in crisis.  We will get through this mountain of debt, and we will do it together!

 

Like this post? Read more from Tami about getting out of debt and her sacrifices for financial freedom here

at http://iquitmyiphone.blogspot.com/

Debt and Life-Balance- Guest Post by Sunny!

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Today’s Guest Poster is Sunny!

She blogs about living on a budget and getting out of debt with the help of Dave Ramsey* at http://www.debteliminationexperiment.blogspot.com/.

My husband and I have been on the Dave Ramsey plan since the summer of 2012, we got married in April of 2012 and were doing well budgeting but wanted some insight into paying off our loans quickly. If we had not taken student loans we wouldn’t have any debt because otherwise we live very frugally. On the flip side, if we hadn’t taken out student loans we would probably be working minimum wage jobs for the rest of our lives. We are from a small mining town in Missouri where there are more people than jobs.

He moved to Chicago to study Computer Programming and Design, I moved to Tennessee to study Sign Language and Theatre. We now reside in Knoxville, TN.           

We bought into the notion that “student loan is good debt, it’s an investment in your future.” Which I guess is partly true but we “did stupid” in that we chose to go to private (very expensive) colleges. We both worked a few hours a week while in college but not nearly enough to offset our student loans.

We are now living like no one else, in a tiny ugly apartment, driving 2 cars that are old enough to be in high school, and throwing 45% of our monthly income towards our debt. That is unless Murphy comes knocking!

Sometimes we don’t follow the program exactly, we did go on vacation this year. It’s going to take us 3 years to get these loans paid off so we budgeted one of our snowballs to go to the beach. Since we have such a long time to go we don’t want to get burnt out and just give up entirely.

Overall on the program we’ve learned a lot and still have a lot of learning to do I suppose! Our families think we are weird, I bring my lunch to work in my Doctor Who lunchbox almost every day. I’d say we’re moving in the right direction!

Like this post? Sunny blogs at: http://www.debteliminationexperiment.blogspot.com/

*Dave Ramsey is the national talk show host who talks about “Common Sense for your Dollars and Cents-

Want to know more about him or getting out of debt?

http://www.daveramsey.com/home/