Maine Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
JL&JL - and other financially conscious ladies
You've mentioned your amazing savings/debt reduction accomplishments in other posts, and I believe you mentioned that you learned this from Dave Ramsey.
Did you read his books, take a class, or anything else?
I'm hearing ads on the radio for his Financial Peace University, and have looked into it a little today. I read his book Total Money Makeover a few years ago, and was definitely inspired, but don't have the means myself to make much of a difference. DH and I are *finally* moving to share money now that the baby is almost here, and I'd love to get him inspired to make a financial difference together.
Any advice?
Re: JL&JL - and other financially conscious ladies
I read Dave Ramsey's book too and I get it and how to do it, I just can't seem to get there. What is working for us, me working a ton of overtime (working from home helps) and making sure that some of his check and some of my check is automatically deposited into savings every payday (and he gets paid opposite me, so we have a deposit into savings every friday).
We are paying off the little stuff first and then getting a new vehicle and then working back on paying off the big stuff. I'm excited to see what the end of this year will look like for us.
Yes, I am a financial nerd!
I read the Total Money Makeover and wanted to do it. Tried to get DH to read the book and get on board. He yeah yeahed me.
So I bribed him. I told him that if he went to Financial Peace University with me every week, then I'd buy him an ice cream after. He can't resist ice cream. It wasn't until we did FPU that he got on board. It rocked our marriage too. We actually got interviewed by Dave and were aired on Dave's Fox TV show. Here's the letter we sent him telling our story (this was in 2008), which likely will answer some of your questions. Feel free to ask if you have more ?s.
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"Debt free by our 2nd anniversary!
We received the Total Money Makeover as a wedding gift. Six months after we got married, I finally read the book. Instantly, I was hooked. We were $51,000 in debt (mostly student loans). My husband and I got gazelle intense. We started a written budget. We signed up for Financial Peace University. We listed to Dave online. We got rid of luxuries like cell phones, cable TV, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, going out to eat, etc. We made our entertainment simply being together for free: going to the ocean, taking hikes, cross country skiing, checking books and magazines out from the library, dining by candlelight at home, etc. (Which this free fun was a bonus-it strengthened our marriage.) We also were hungry for extra money. I sold all of my college books online. We each arranged to do extra hours at work. We also each took on extra jobs. It was a very humbling experience to take part time work that we were overqualified for, but it was completely worth it (especially since we earned an extra $25K between the two of us from working these extra jobs).
Nobody understood what we were doing, particularly since our debt was primarily student loan debt with low interest (the ?good kind of debt to have?-yeah right!). When we were asked the nagging question ?When are you going to have kids??, our answer confused many. We decided along the way that we were going to wait until we were debt free with our fully funded emergency fund before we had kids. More than one person tried to convince us that we were crazy.
With the Lord?s guidance and support, we were able to be debt free (except for the house) just before our second anniversary. We paid off $51,000 in 16 months. We are now 27 and 28 and are praying to have kids once we have our emergency fund fully funded. It feels SOOOO good to OWN our education and look forward to our lives as financially fit parents. We PRAISE GOD for how he has worked in our lives."
I know I've talked to you before about your massive debt payoff, Jacki, but it's so amazing to me to read it again and that you and dh did all that!
I've read Dave Ramsay and one of my regrets is not just working 2-3 jobs to get 100% out of debt once and for all (or at least out of credit card and car loan debt) before we went and got pregnant. I probably could have afforded to be a stay at home mom if it weren't for our debt. I've been thinking about getting a second job to pay some things off, but worry I'll just wear myself out doing something like that now that I'm pregnant. Maybe after baby comes?
I feel good that Dh and I are not putting any new debt on our cards. We have been good about living within our means, so I think that's a good step. I really think after the baby comes I'm going to get "Gazelle intense" as Dave would say about paying off debt...and try my best to get dh on board.
DH and I started using a financial adviser back in 2007. I met him through a job I used to have and his personality clicked really well with us. He works through Northwestern Mutual and receives payment through commission when clients of his purchase services or open accounts through affiliated companies. So, we didn't spend a dime until we decided to purchase life insurance through him about two years after we started meeting with him. He helped us re-work our retirement plans, save for our wedding, a down payment for a house, and plan for our move and leaving our jobs. He helped us live off of DH's salary and save all of mine - something we will definitely plan to go back to once DH finds a job. He is based out of NY, but we still "meet" with him over the phone to keep on track. Luckily, we didn't have a ton of debt going in, but he really helped super-size our savings and helped us prepare for unemployment upon moving.
I totally understand people being leery of FA's that work on commission, but we have never felt pressured by him - I'm sure that's not the same for everyone and you can find plenty of people that just receive a flat fee for working with you. Either way, he has helped us better understand our money and our goals and I can't imagine being where we are now without his guidance.
Dave actually doesn't advise paying off debt before lifetime decisions (like having a baby), so he'd even say we're crazy. You're in a great place now that you're committed to no further debt. Baby or not, it's important to keep your eye on the prize. Every $1 you add to your debt will pay off in the end. Even if you can squeeze $10 or $20 our of your weekly budget, it will add up. I know you can do it!!!
You're right. I do remember him saying that now that I think of it. For the past year I've been thinking we need to be 100% out of debt before I get pregnant, but then I was stressing because I'm also in my 30's, so want to have a baby ASAP. So really I'm happy we had this nice little "surprise" happen. Now after the baby comes we can focus on debt without having a deadline of paying off debt "before I'm too old to have a baby" LOL