Legacy Journey with Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruz

I had the opportunity once again to hear from Dave Ramsey during a live event here in San Antonio. You probably already know that Kevin and I attended a Financial Peace University class (by Dave Ramsey) while I was working for Pape-Dawson in 2007.  And I have probably already also let you know that attending that class and using principals taught and encouraged by that class changed our lives. Really changed our financial focus and our attitude about money and spending.  

And then if you already know all of that, then you know that one thing led to another...we met with our Dave Ramsey endorsed local provider at PAX financial group, Joseph Schuetze, to begin college investments for the kids-->Joseph encouraged Kevin to learn about investing-->Kevin started working at PAX in 2008-->WE LOVE PAX -->Kevin was recently promoted to VP and is a PAX partner.

Taking that class led to a major change in our life and not the least of which was Kevin's career opportunity and my opportunity to leave Pape-Dawson to stay home with the kids and be a Laura homemaker/homeschool teacher/ career wife and mom.  I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey for how his practical and logical principals really blessed (and I try not to use that word loosely) our life and our home.  So he was in town last Thursday (March 6) and I was very excited to go see him talk and present the Legacy Journey with his daughter Rachel.  

I am NOT Dave Ramsey and I doubt my blog will be nearly as much of an encouragement to any reader as he is.  It is really crazy simple that he teaches people to be intentional with their spending, to be opposed to personal debt with intensity, to live within your means and to invest and win with money so you can give like crazy and change your family tree and eventually change the world.  I know I really kinda simplified it, but that is the gist. It really is simple,but sadly so many people are slaves to their finances because they are not in control.  People who budget know where their money is going when the income comes in because they have a plan.  People who don't budget wonder where it went when it is all gone and the lights are off.

 "When you spend your money on paper and on purpose each month with a written budget, you'll actually experience more freedom than before!" Dave Ramsey

So I am really going to try to avoid a teaching here.  If you aren't already free from financial worry and are curious about Financial Peace University you can check out his website for a class near you.  

The Legacy Journey was more of the same in a way.  His teaching is what it is, so he told his personal story about how young marriage with a toddler a baby on the way and bankruptcy.  He shared how his view of money was when it was wrong and how it is now. 

"When you hit the bottom so hard financially there is no bounce back, only a splat. You have an "I surrender" moment and begin to rebuild with respect for money." Dave Ramsey

Here is a healthy perspective Dave learned and shared that is a great one to adopt:
PRIDE says Wealth is from ME
POVERTY says Wealth is Evil
GRATITUDE says Wealth is from God.
A prideful spirit says I did it, it's mine and I am not sharing.  I am skipping commentary on poverty. Gratitude, a grateful heart, knows that financial wealth can be fleeting and that sharing everything you have and developing community is life giving.

I did want to share these stats that I have learned from Dave.
Did you know that 88% of American Millionaires are first generation rich? and that 70% of American billionaires (that's 1,000 million) started from nothing?  And with few exceptions they are great gargantuan givers. They worked hard to get to where they are and they are giving graciously because they want to change their world.  Me too! How about you?

So this starts at home and that is where the Legacy starts. The Legacy idea is now that we are free from financial stress, lets pass this down.  Let's teach our children to what's going on here.  Let them learn with their own earned commissions for work around the house when they are small and then maybe tasks in the neighborhood as they grow.  Teach them that the three things we do with money are spend, save and give away.  And then model responsible behavior.  Let them know that there are some things we do or don't do so that we are living within the means of our own income.  And encourage them to love something and be the best at it.  Again, I am not the teacher here so please don't take my oversimplified paragraph to mean that I have recapped and entire 3 hour presentation.  

If we can get our finances in control so that we aren't paralyzed by checking the mail, we can work our way into being a better financial role model for our family, we can change their life and our community.  AND if we can set our kids and our family to succeed too and this just snowballs!!!! then we can change the world.  THAT's the legacy.  


Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel Cruz have co-authored a book "Smart Money Smart Kids".  Learn how to raise money-smart kids in a debt free world.  The book will go on sale next month and when it hits the stands, the price will be $25.  It is available now at the website SmartMoneySmartKids.com for the pre-order price of only $20 and get a bundle of SmartmoneySmartKids and Legacy items worth over $50 for free.  Includes audio book and e-book.  

Wednesdays with FPU

It is Wednesday. For most Wednesday evenings for the last year the Force family is at Journey Fellowship to lead others to financial peace in the Financial Peace University program by Dave Ramsey, yeah that dude on the radio from Tennessee. And if you can't get past his accent, search for his paid for in cash home on google and tell me then if you think he MIGHT know what he is talking about when he leads people to live like no one else.
We are 8 weeks into this class period. I love seeing people travel in thought about how they relate to money as they listen to these lectures. The first lesson is basically and introduction and overview and the word budget is thrown around loosely. After that class people seem like they just got to the front of the line of the newest, scariest, curviest, upside downiest roller coaster in the park and they know they are about to buckle into a commitment that will make them uncomfortable but will probably be worth it.
We always worry a little if people will try to jump off too early. Not necessarily dangerous but definitely without full value and there is tremendous value here. Our last two sessions have been smaller but every family stayed and we have watched people move from heels dug in to fully committed to getting out of debt and being intentional with their income and giving and saving like no one else so they can live like no one else. Anyway, it is why we still volunteer to lead this class. I love watching people grab on and walk into financial peace. The following is one of my favorite quotes. There are many
"If you move into a home with any debt and no money down, Murphy will move I to your spare bedroom and bring his three cousins, Broke, Desperate and Stupid" Dave Ramsey, FPU- Lesson 8, REAL ESTATE and MORTGAGES
The attached photos are completely unrelated to the post, just photos from today. Emaleigh asked me to take the one of her in black and red.

Got Financial Peace!

Lemme tell you a little story about a young Texas couple, we will call them Kevin and Laura, and their financial peace.  It certainly didn't start that way. And if I am being honest, I don't really want to talk about it. It certainly didn't start out peacefully. 

Before they...I can't continue to refer to myself in third person so SURPRISE!!! It is about us.... Before we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class when it was offered through Pape-Dawson Engineers when I still worked there, I couldn't imagine the words "financial" and "peace" in the same sentence.  The thought of talking about finances or money made me ill, defensive and sometimes terrified.  We were a mostly one income family and our priorities about how we spent our money were not in line.  To discuss it usually led to a not so civil debate about the value of poker night, NFL network and extra tech compared with dinners out, nice cars and nice clothes.  This might scare you, but it turns our we didn't need any of those things and decided that until we could pay for everything with cash, we needed to stop spoiling ourselves. 

We didn't deserve that break.  What we did deserve was four walls and a roof over our head (with utilities), food to feed our family, clothing (not necessarily fashion) and transportation(not necessarily a car).  When we took the class we were at the end of an era where we were paying for everything on our credit card to collect reward points and "paying off the balance" at the end of every month.  But that plan wasn't really a plan.  It was a way to not address the problem.  We had credit, so the card ALWAYS worked even if the check at the end of the month didn't cover it. Little by little our debt racked up and in the meantime WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! Yay us! right?!

Not including the house, we had over $30,000 in debt.  Ours wasn't the highest in the class and the class total debt to begin was over $1,000,000 for 40 families.  It was a good place to start, with a real interest to improve a real problem with a room full of other financial delinquents. After just one class I knew our life would be different forever.  After two classes we had money in a savings account, you know for emergencies.  It was the first time we had any plan for an emergency rather than to just put it in with all the other debt on our credit card.  Are you surprised?  Did you have us pegged, as people who are good at math, to be people who should have been better about balancing outcome vs. income?  Well we are human and chances are so are you.  THINGS are so tempting.  And also STUFF.  We liked stuff and we like to go out to eat more than we liked to eat at home. 

Things changed.  Again I don't know what really turned it around the most.  Was it the fear that we would never start a college fund for our kids, or never be able to stop working to death or were we just ready to finally grow up.  The Dave Ramsey baby steps are simple.  His presentation is both intelligent and hilarious!  His fame is not because he is smart.  In fact I bet you already know 80% of the things he teaches that pertain to getting out of debt.  He is a riot of a speaker.  I still laugh every time I listen to him at FPU or entreleadership and I have heard both spiels multiple times.
If you practice what he teaches it take the average family between 2-3 years to get out of debt everything but the house.  Can you imagine that? Kevin and I are exceptional so it took us 5 years.

We facilitate the class together at Journey Fellowship.  It is a volunteer position.  No Dave Ramsey does not pay us nor have I been paid to write this or fill the class.  This is just my personal testimony.  The class changed my life and perhaps saved our marriage and I highly recommend it even to people who aren't in debt.  You can register for the class by clicking here and following the directions there.  We have had many great friends go through our class and have made more great friends as facilitators.

So now my (not necessarily) The Top 6 reasons you should sign up for the Force led FPU class at Journey Fellowship this Fall:
6. If you and your spouse ever fight about money,
5. If you regularly pay for things with Visa, Mastercard or American Express,
4. If watching an episode of Hoarders prompt some frightening self reflection,
3. If the word "budget" terrifies you,
2. If you want to understand why and how to invest for your retirement and lastly,
1. If you are ready to live like no one else so later you can LIVE like no one else and also GIVE like no one else.

And finally, as a somewhat related aside.  I never gave up my desire to get nice things.  I just really redirected my expectations and now I find what I want on a regular basis at Texas Thrift Store on 99 cent Mondays with a 30% off coupon.  If I buy items that are the color of the Monday which is generally blue I get them for 99 cents.  If they aren't blue I get them for 30% off of the thrift store price and then kids books are buy 4 and get 1 free and the 30% off coupon works for them too (regular price is 69 cents).  Look what I scored today.  These are just a couple of photos I thought I would share.  I also got gymnastics leotards for both girls and a few small plates because I liked them.  I still like stuff.  This purse was less than $5

And then I got all of these books, 15 of them for $5.76