Break on Through to Baby Step 7

If you’re on the Dave Ramsey plan—the Baby Steps—then you know all about Baby Step 7. It’s the ultimate goal—to build wealth and give. When you’re struggling to build a $1,000 emergency fund or just starting on your debt snowball, Baby Step 7 may seem like it’s a lifetime away.

But that’s why Dave calls them “baby steps.” For most people, the process of wealth-building is a journey. It doesn’t happen overnight.

Many people who have reached Baby Step 7 had to work extremely hard to get there, paying off thousands in credit card debt, student loans, and mortgages. Some even had to work an extra job or two along the way.

It may seem like you have a long way to go, but everyone who reaches Baby Step 7 has been exactly where you are. Until you get to that final step, your motivating factor will hopefully be the promise of how different your life will be once you get there.

And that’s the million-dollar question: What will you be able to do once you reach the final baby step?

Browse through the “Seven is Heaven” forum on MyTotalMoneyMakeover.com, and you’ll find people who are reaching all sorts of milestones:

• Deleware_Jen: “I've been stalking my retirement accounts all week to see if the total would cross over 100K and it finally did!”
• UnityGrapevine: “We are cash-flowing the kids to private school, making major contributions to the 401(k) and Roth IRA, and making bigger donations.”
• Crimson_green: “We’re buying a brand-new van in a month or two and getting rid of our 13-year-old vehicle! We’re also traveling to Miami, Hawaii and France in the next few years!”
• Mom2-2boyz: “We just booked our 10th anniversary trip to Maui for later this year. The only things we will be bringing home are suntans, smiles and a gift for our boys.”

Hopefully, these stories are motivation for you to keep working your way toward building wealth and giving like no one else. It’s easy to think, Woe is me. I’m never going to get to Baby Step 7.

And if you think that way, you’re probably right—you’ll always be in debt. Remember, it will take discipline, and it’s not always going to be easy, but you will get there. If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.

Need encouragement to keep sticking to the Baby Step plan? Connect with others who are working through the steps, too! MyTotalMoneyMakeover.com is Dave's online community that helps you do just that and much more!