The Foundation

In 2006, my mom gave me the best gift she could have EVER given me.  As I said in a previous post, she had been attending the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church and let me borrow the CD's of the lessons she was going through.  

 

At first I thought, what is this guy going to be able to teach me about money, and I was certain it would be a boring, monotone lecture like I was used to from my college professors.  I listened to the first CD on my drive down I-75 from Rossville, GA back to school in Marietta, GA.   To my surprise, these weren't academia type lectures at all.  They were funny, entertaining and most importantly to me based on God's game plan.  So I listened to the other (12) discs by the end of the week.

 

You see, I had never thought about reading the Bible to learn how to handle money.  I mean, yeah the Bible is were you go to learn about Heaven and Hell, Love and Jesus, but money?  Why would God have a plan for my money?  I was shocked to find that there are over 800 versus that deal with how to handle money and possessions...that's more than all the versus about Love, Heaven and Hell put together.  Apparently, God knew that this would be an important issue/struggle in all our lives.

 

The process laid out in FPU made so much sense to me and allowed us to focus on one step at a time to intentionally walk toward the goal of managing the money God has blessed us with, His way.  And I have found over and over again that His way WORKS.

 

Due to the process I learned, my wife and I have been able to achieve the following in the past 6 years...

• Pay off Student Loan Debt of $12,000 in 60 DAYS 

• Build our Emergency Fund to 6+ Months of Expenses 

• Put $30,000 Down on Our First Home

• Invest 15% of Our Income For Retirement 

• Save for Our Children's College

• Buy 2 Cars with Cash  

• Put $62,000 Down on Our Second Home 

   

  NEXT GOAL: Pay off house within 5 years

 

Having NO DEBT (except for our home) for the past 5 years has been an experience I can't explain in words.  Brittany and I have so much PEACE when it comes to finances and we almost NEVER have even the smallest disagreement when it comes to money.  

 

It all started with my Mom and I thank her for that.  The gift she gave was and is more important in our lives than she ever could have known.