Dave Ramsey | Favorite Friday: These are a few of my favorite things…

I first learned about Dave Ramsey about a year ago. Our church was having all the small groups go through something called Financial Peace University. I wasn’t really sure what the course was about and how it could help us, but a lot of people said it was amazing and our church was even willing to pay for 1/2 the class for anyone who went through the entire 13 week course without missing a class, so I figured that we should do it!  Thankfully the course was mostly a video course and was really quite interesting. It really made my husband and I think through how we were living and challenge us to fully get out of debt. The things that Dave Ramsey was saying made so much sense that it was frustrating because we were wondering why we were just now hearing all of this in our 30’s.

We decided to apply the principles that Dave talked about to our life. We created a pretty tight budget and started living on a cash based system, meaning that we don’t use our credit card and only use the cash allotted to us for the week in a certain category. Was it hard to do? A little, but it’s been a really good challenge.

Dave talks about a debt snowball meaning you pay toward one of your smaller debts and focus on that debt as much as you can, throwing as much extra money as you can toward that debt, then once it’s paid off you take what you were paying on that debt and throw it all towards the next debt. You keep going and going and going until you are totally 100% out of debt. You then take that money that you were putting toward debt and start throwing it at savings and investments. When you think about it, most people are putting over $1000 or more toward debt each month, if you count your house and your car, you could be well over $4-5000. Just think if you were investing that much money consistently throughout the years of your life how much money you would have to live off for retirement? It makes total sense!!

Jamie and I have been using the Dave Ramsey theories for the last year, and while I wish I could say we are totally debt free and throwing money at investments, we are not there yet. However, we have almost paid off all of our debts except for our house and student loans (which are a little ridiculous and might be the death of me). I am so proud of us and it feels so good to say we are almost debt free!

Dave also teaches businesses on how to lead and be a great business person. The principles he teaches are amazing and inspire me to be a better boss and business owner.

The last year has been an amazing year and a very hard year as well. It’s kind of crazy to say, but in all that i’ve gone through Dave Ramsey has kind of been there as a guidance through all his wisdom and truly helped me personally and in my business.

I told Jamie the other day, after we had just finished listening to Dave speak, that if I were to ever quit my job as a photographer, the only other thing I would want to do is move to Nashville and work for Dave Ramsey. In all honesty, I really don’t even know what the people for Dave do, but I want to work under this man and his wisdom.

So… in thinking about today’s “Favorite Friday”, I thought that I would share a little about a man who has become a major part of our lives in the Jarman household.

My question to you is how many of you are doing the same thing and what has it done for you? Has it changed your life?