Friday, September 26, 2008

At church Ryan and I are taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University seminar. Each week we watch a DVD with the lesson, then have a discussion with a group of about 20 people. During the week there is "homework" to do. We have only taken the class for 2 weeks now, but I have realized how blessed Ryan and I are when it comes to money. Don't know what we are doing right, but we must be doing something right. The class talks about baby step #1 is to set up an emergency fund of $1000. Ryan and I have never not had at least that amount in the bank. We have never had to live paycheck to paycheck.There are people in the class that say they don't even know how they can save $1 a month to put towards the emergency fund because every penny goes to bills. That's insane to me. But on the other hand, there is probably one thing they could find that they could do without for that month. Ryan and I have lived a lifestyle where if we want it, we get it. Now I'm not saying that is good. We want to be able to manage our finances so we have a lot saved up for retirement, emergencies, etc. I'm not saying I don't want to not spend my money on anything fun anymore. We just want to be good stewards of our money, so we will be putting ourselves on a budget each month. It'll be hard for me to get in that mindset again. We had an "allowance" in college. If I wanted McDonald's at the end of the month, but only had $1 in my allowance, yet we still had money, no McDonalds. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging here, but it has made me greatful.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

For a while, Amy and I were doing this, based off of the Dave Ramsey thing. Her parents were doing that Financial Peace University thing, or whatever it's called. The same thing as you. Anyway, I think we both found it to be very useful, and now that I've got a regular income here, I hope to get something similar going. Good luck with it! Also, don't forget to put a "Sharjah" envelope around so you, Ryan, and mom can come out here and visit!