My sweetie and I have not always seen eye to eye on financial needs, wants, or goals. A few months ago I read Rave Ramsey's book, "Total Money Makeover", Tom and I watched a few you tube videos together and decided when we could we would take the class, "Financial Peace University", given by many churches - a nine week class, we bought the kit and we have now been to 5 of the classes. I really have to say if you have not been as good with money as you would like to be, if you have debt, if you never were taught by your parents how to save and manage money you really should think about taking the class.
Tom and I do not have that much debt in our lives currently, we had a pretty good amount a few years ago after we finished the cabin (on top of the morgage), but we have worked pretty hard on our own have had that paid off for a few years. When we started the class our total debt not including our house was $7,200 - I am very happy to say it looks like we will have that paid off about the time we finish the class.
We feel the class is awesome, would be helpful for many people. I have never done a zero balance budget - where you figure out where every last dollar will go, and as Dave says, "tell your money where to go". We have been able to find money we did not realize we had. The program is sound gospel principles, and we have prayed a lot to ask God how we should manage his money. Our next step will be to work on our emergency fund, then pay off our home as quickly as we can, to invest and prepare for retirement. Our only regret is we did not do it sooner.
