Seth Godin on personal finance

I'm a big fan of marketing guru Seth Godin and I've read a number of his books and tried some of his marketing ideas for my side business (www.mystaffarranger.com).

I was catching up with some of my favorite blogs yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised to see some sound personal financial advice from Seth. Boy, he sure sounds like a Dave Ramsey fan!

Check out Seth's personal finance post here.

Great post, Seth. Hope your a Dave fan! If not, your advice is awesome anyway. It's time for America to wake up and get out of debt as quickly as possible, especially with America's current financial challenges.

The effect of money challenges on the family

Over the last three years, our family has accomplished amazing goals in the area of personal finances:

1. Sold our house at a good price before the housing dip. This enabled us to pay off almost half of our debt right off the bat!


2. Over the next 18 months, we were able to pay off the remaining debt. We became completely debt free on June 15, 2007!


3. My side business (music arranging/typesetting) had its best year ever in 2007. This enabled us to quickly pay off our remaining debt and start saving a larger emergency fund.


4. Paid a large chunk of taxes in April 2008 - fortunately we were able to cash flow this through our larger emergency fund. This completely cleaned us out, though, financially!

Even though we have accomplished these amazing goals, I have found myself completely and utterly frustrated with our financially situation. I know I should feel blessed and excited about the future, but with inflation occurring in food, gas prices, and the overall rise in the cost of goods and services, our dollars are not stretching as far as they did 2-3 years ago! I feel stuck on moving forward with our financial goals when the money coming in is not going as far as it once did.

OK, so with all of these frustrations weighing on me on a regular basis, little disagreements on spending between my wife and I have been occurring more and more frequently over the last several months. Unfortunately, these disagreements are happening in front of our children.

Over the last two years, my wife and I have seen disturbing behavior problems in our oldest daughter. These behavior problems have escalated to the point that we have sought family counseling to intervene in our situation. I know that I'm personally responsible for my daughter's issues right now, especially in my possibly obsessive compulsive patterns regarding our finances. I believe the more I can relax in these areas of personal finances, I will communicate a more relaxed household.

I'll be working on this area of my life for the next several days, weeks, and months to come!

Financial Peace University Update (Session 4)

On Sunday afternoon, we had our fourth session of Financial Peace University. Session 4 is probably the longest DVD in the FPU program, 100 minutes, on the topic of "Dumping Debt." This makes sense, though, since dumping debt is really Dave Ramsey's signature topic and what has made him a multi-millionaire.

Here's what Dave Ramsey's organization has to say about this fourth session of FPU:

Dumping debt is one of the most straight forward lessons, but it is usually one of the most difficult. Debt has only become accepted as normal in America over the last 20 years. The key to eliminating debt is remembering that it is only 20% head knowledge and 80% behavior. Remember that you always spend more with plastic- cash hurts more! Make a commitment to never use credit cards again. This is the first and most important step to dumping debt.

Because we have accepted the debt myths that society has taught us, many of our families, churches, and even government institutions have been handcuffed by debt! It's time to lead a money revolution and push back against what "normal" is now. As Dave talks about, I want to be weird! I'd rather "look" poor right now, and be a millionaire by my 50s and 60s so that I can live and give like no one else!

Larry

WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEEE! - more of the Jones' Family Story

On Friday, June 15, 2007, my family and I finally became completely debt free! It's a powerful feeling of release to be out from under the thumb of the banks that you owe money to!

Getting to this point, though, has taken some sacrifice, especially in our culture of buy now, pay later. First we sold our house. We had to be on a strict budget and monitor our cash flow on a regular basis. Part of the debt we wracked up was due to starting and launching my business, so I had to put the business on hold and place it on a slower growth track, while I back tracked to clean up our mess!

Now moving forward from this point, we have more available cash flow to sink into the business to make it more profitable, plus we have more cash flow to work on Baby Step 3 - large emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses.

You know, being debt free really is a spiritual issue. Here are the ways I believe becoming debt free is relevant to our spiritual walk:

1. It shows the Lord we are good stewards of what He has given us.


2. It helps us grow in our reliance and faith in Him to provide for our needs.


3. It breaks the god of materialism in our lives.


4. It frees up more available cash flow to give to your church, the poor, and to those in need.


5. It makes us wise, according to the book of Proverbs.


6. It teaches us patience and self control (fruits of the Spirit).


7. It teaches us to be on the same page with our spouses on family finances.


8. It places us in a better place mentally and physically because we are no longer stressed out about having enough money to pay the bills!

I'm sure I could list even more, but you get the idea. Being debt free is awesome. As Dave always says, just get gazelle intense about it and create a plan to win with your finances.
For more information on Dave Ramsey and becoming debt free, visit DaveRamsey.com.