Your Financial Peace Starts with the Right Plan and Vision

Right after Christmas in 2013..(which was the year Kristin bought me a new motorcycle for Christmas....(on credit) she asked me;  "What are we going to do about our future?"  Well since I am a geeky spreadsheet guy, I had a fancy plan all laid out.  Remodel the kitchen, put up a new fence, clean the garage,...she stopped me...."NO, I mean like our retirement plan."  I said, "I don’t know, I never really thought about it...let me Google some stuff and I’ll find a book on Amazon or something."  The Monday after that weekend, I was driving home from work and turned on the radio.  This new guy was on the station I always listened to talking about money...he sounded a little corny, but down to earth and funny. The more I listened to him the more sense he made, and then it hit me...this guy has the answers to the questions Kristin had for me about our financial future. I get home and am all excited to tell her about him and she said “I think that's the guy that Roy at work was talking to me about”.  She sent Roy a text and he tells her to have me go by his desk the next day and he will give me a book to read….which was The Total Money Makeover.  I started reading it that night and couldn't put it down. I got through it in 3 days and found a Financial Peace University class to sign us up for. Kristin wasn't as excited as I was, but agreed to go to the class.  We didn't feel like we had big money problems.  We could make all of our payments, had a little money in savings, gone on some nice vacations, and pretty much bought what we wanted.

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Before Kristin and I had met, I was going through a very difficult and expensive divorce that caused me to lose just about everything I had ever worked for, had my house foreclosed on me and had to file for bankruptcy. We both had good jobs in IT and didn't feel like we were living paycheck to paycheck, but when we looked closer at the numbers, we realized we were spending just about every dollar that we were making….and then some.  I thought I had a pretty good handle on finances and had spreadsheets to prove it.  Kristin wasn't thrilled about spending the next 9 Thursday nights with people we didn't know, in a stranger's home talking about something very personal, but after the 2nd week she was more excited about it than I was and totally on board.  Until we added up all the accounts, we were shocked to find out we were over $84,000 in debt - not including the mortgage.  We had car payments, credit cards, 401K loan, motorcycle payments and attorney fees to name a few.  We dove right into our class and started to follow the 7 baby steps outlined in FPU.  It took us 33 months to become debt free, but had some delays due to selling and buying a home, having a baby, and not exactly following the plan the way the class outlines it.  (Also known as Dave-ish).  It totally changed our lives and not just our financial future but the future of our children.  FPU had such an impact on us, we wanted to pay it forward and teach others so we became FPU coordinators and led three classes out of our home, and a few at our church.  It isn’t easy and takes sacrifices and changes to the way you handle money, but it was worth it!  The biggest surprise was that we both got out of FPU was that it brought us closer together in our marriage and helped us learn how to talk to each other about money and work better together as a team.  Even though it has been almost 10 years since we completed the class, we still have a monthly budget that we track and use the envelope system (cash).  You have probably heard Proverbs 22 V7 before and Dave mentions it a few times in the course:  The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave to the lender.  That really stuck with me and made a huge impact on us when we took the class.  Now I am hoping to help those that need one on one coaching with everything that I learned over the last 10 years.  I have recently completed the Ramsey Financial Coach Master Training course and am now a certified Ramsey Coach.  How can I help you change your financial future and obtain financial peace?  Click on the button at the top of this page to schedule a free 30 minute consultation.