Well, I’m not exactly blazing it up on the “Post More” of the 12 for 12. I regret this, but the one that I really regret is that I’m not getting anything done on the “Play More Golf” front. The fact is, we’ve had an unreal schedule for the first part of this year which will calm down here in another couple of weeks. I’m hoping to get my first round of golf in when I return from Indonesia later in March. Further, I hope to provide a few good posts while visiting our staff in Indo.
Now that we’re well into 2012, I’m glad to say that we’re having some success with what I’m posting today – Working Dave Ramsey’s “Baby Steps.”
We love Dave Ramsey. We love his sage advice and we love the fact that he’s been broke personally and climbed out. We love his warm voice on the radio, his clear and direct yet compassionate advice given to callers. And, more, we love the fact that he’s a represents a very normalized expression of Christianity.
Kymra and I have been slowly working our way through Financial Peace University. It is interesting, when you submit to a process like this; it actually does bring peace to things! As we listen to Dave walk through his principles we find ourselves in complete agreement – we were actually in full agreement going in but find the process necessary. It has been a very healthy process. The fact is, when you walk through a common-sense teaching together, you are coming to the exact same conclusions at the exact same time. It makes the actual process an incredible tool since there’s not a lot to negotiate.
Here are the Baby Steps as presented at www.daveramsay.com:
- $1,000 emergency fund
- Pay off all debt with a debt snowball
- 3 to 6 months expenses in savings
- Invest 15% of income in Roth IRA’s and pre-tax retirement plans
- College funding
- Pay off your home early
- Build wealth and give
We’re making our way through. We have some reasonable goals for 2012 and it has us hopeful that we can realistically get to steps six and seven someday down the road.
I should say that wealth for our family is a relative term. We don’t want for much and would probably find ourselves personally defining it by what we could someday give. This is coming from someone who’s dream car would be a used Toyota Prius.
