Mo' Money

Time to talk about money again.  I have blogged about money a fair amount, and set a goal last year to teach a money class some day.  Well, that day has come.  We have been teaching the class for over a month now and it has been great.  The class is called Financial Peace University.  Financial Peace, two words that don't go together.  But really, they can.  You just have to be weird.  Never one to worry about that, I have been embracing the weirdness of coming to terms with money for a long time now.

I found my first Dave Ramsey book almost a decade ago.  Financial Peace.  It had a hopeful message and sound principals.  Most money books are hard to read, but not this one.  Hard to do, yes.  But not hard to read.  I read it first back in '02 and got inspired.  We got on the envelope system, started tracking expenses, and worked to live below our means while cutting out credit.  Somewhere between '05 and '07 Kevin shot our last credit card.  Yes, I said "shot".  He canceled the account once it was completely paid off, confirmed that it was indeed a closed account, hung up the phone, and shot the card twice.  Then he mounted it like a deer, with antlers and everything.  It hangs in our living room today.

We got the principals down, but the actual doing ALL of it has come slowly.  Dave does a seven step plan, and we languished on step two (pay off all debt but business and home) for about eight years.  March of last year we paid off my student loan, which was our last personal debt, and we were finally done with step two.  Yahoo!  It felt amazing.  So amazing that I got serious about sharing it with others, and my pastor liked my hair brained idea too.  Kevin was more than willing to go along with it, so through our church we are teaching our first Financial Peace University class.  This has really upped our game, because now we have to do everything for real.  All the parts of the plan, including income planning, asset management, and the dreaded budgeting.  We have half budgeted for a long time, knowing mostly where our cash is going, but not keeping an eye on the income, or planning ahead for future expenses. Christmas has snuck up on us every year.  And we never had a real car repair fund, even though it is guaranteed we will have breakdowns with the age vehicles we drive.  "Let's just hope for the best" ain't gonna cut it any more and we sat down to hammer out a real budget last month and this month.  It was scary at first, but has already gotten easier.  We are finally getting a handle on complete budgeting, and it is actually quite liberating.  Really.  I swear.  It is so liberating we will be doing it every month.  Told you I was weird.  But hey, average means broke, so I am totally going for weird.

And now we are about to knock out step three.  With our upcoming tax refunds we are going to completely fund our 3-6 month Emergency Fund.  We had been worried about whether or not we would get a refund (due to poor budgeting we didn't really know), and then trying to wiggle out of doing the right thing.  But through the complete budgeting process we have seen where we stand, and it helped clarify where we really want to go.  Trips are nice, but life goals are better.  We are going to  complete the Emergency Fund first, then go on to a few little goals with what is left while leaving our budget in good shape for the rest of the year.  Christmas will NOT sneak up on us this year.  We are setting up appropriate savings (like for the car) and now have income goals to shoot for to keep our budget where we want it, and to build it for the future.  We are managing our money and telling it where to go, rather than wondering where it went.   Financial Peace... it really is possible.  Next comes climbing step four, Retirement Funding and planning.  Not as scary as it used to be, and now way less likely to sneak up on us.  Well, that's it from the money desk.  If you have been wondering where I have been, now you know.  Money land.     Happy financing, people!