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Exclusive Video Preview of Financial Peace University
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Financial Peace University takes the head knowledge from the books and the radio show and turns it into real action. FPU is a 13-week, life-changing program that empowers and teaches you how to make the right money decisions to achieve your financial goals and experience a total money makeover. Over 250,000 families have experienced Financial Peace, now it's your turn.
Find a class in your area now.
Get free shipping on FPU kit - Ends April 30
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Let's face it, getting older happens every day. We all have thoughts of retiring one day and taking that big vacation or sipping lemonade on the front porch swing. But so few of us prepare for retirement the right way. It isn't by relying on Social Insecurity, and it darn sure isn't by waiting for Ed McMahon to come knocking at your door! It's your responsibility! The days of working for an organization for 40 years and it taking care of you at retirement are gone. It's up to you!
If you keep fooling yourself into thinking the government will take care of you and that you'll be able to handle the bills that come with old age, consider a recent article that SmartMoney.com ran about health care costs. It quotes a report that says a 65-year-old couple that retires today can expect to spend about $200,000 during their retirement on health care (everything from premiums to prescriptions). That's huge! And you need to be ready for this huge deal.
If you had to come up with $200,000 in disposable income over the next 20 or 25 years (the duration between retirement and death), could you do it? Probably not; that's while you're working and generating income. You need to prepare! The more you invest today, the more you can smile when medical bills are coming 20, 30 or 40 years from now. Why? Because you will have prepared.
Here are some steps to help you prepare NOW:
1) Pay off all debt except the house and have a full emergency fund (3-6 months of expenses) in place.
- The reason it's so important to knock out the debt first is because once you've paid off the student loans and other debt, you'll have freed up a considerable amount of income to invest. And the more you invest, the better off you'll be in the long run. You shouldn't work hard and earn money to throw it away at 18% interest to American Excess. That's bad math. Make the numbers work for you instead of against you.
2) Put 15% of your earnings into retirement savings, which will ensure that you retire with dignity.
- If your workplace offers a 401(k) with company match, start there, but don't count the match as part of your 15%. If something happens (you change jobs, the company quits matching, etc.), you know you're still putting in what you should. If 4% is matched, put in 4%. Any time your employer gives you free money, take it.
- If your company doesn't offer a match or a retirement plan at all, start investing in a Roth IRA. If you are married and both spouses are working, you both should take advantage of this powerful wealth-building tool. The best part of the Roth IRA is the interest and distributions on it are tax-free. If you put in $3,000 a year for 30 years in a growth stock mutual funded Roth IRA averaging 12% (the 70-year stock market average), at the end of the 30 years you will have invested $90,000 but it will have grown to $873,000 with no taxes to pay!
- Currently the contribution limit is $4,000. In 2008, you will be able to put up to $5,000 in a Roth IRA. If you are 50 years of age, you can put in an extra $1,000 on top of the limit to "catch up." Take advantage of this if it's applicable to your situation.
One more thing. If you start this process early enough (and you should start as soon as possible, regardless of age), hopefully you'll know how to swim because you'll be swimming in money.
Source: SmartMoney.com
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I Financed a Puppy
By Andrea Reed-Bingham
About two years ago my fianc� and I were at the mall. We walked past the pet store and I begged him to go in to see the puppies. I found the cutest beagle puppy that I had ever seen! After nagging my fianc�, he finally broke down and said we could buy the pup. Well, she cost $1,300 so we financed her. After reading Dave's book The Total Money Makeover, we paid off the loan on the dog and my credit card debt.
Needless to say, during her puppy years she ate five oleanders, one palm tree, 10 flowering plants, and ruined my carpet in the hallway. That $1,300 cute puppy ended up costing $2,350! Thanks for the life lesson, Dave! Never finance anything! Save your money and pay cash or don't buy it!
Read other Stupid Tax stories
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Simply stated, your home is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Many people think there is a magical formula that, when computed by a realtor, will spit out an exact value of their lovely home to which they are so emotionally and personally attached. I say it this way because it is emotion and personal attachment that so often cloud the senses of a prospective seller when they learn the news of their home's "assessed" value as stated by a realtor (through a Comparative Market Analysis) or an appraiser.
The valuation of a home is slightly more of an art than a science. A host of subjective factors play into the value of any given piece of property that ultimately determines what a buyer will pay. Having said that, there are standardized methods used by realtors and appraisers to come to an approximation (estimate) of what price you can reasonably expect your home to sell. Is it a guarantee? By no means. Could you get more than the assessment states? Absolutely. Our Dave Ramsey Endorsed Realtors see it happen every month in some markets. The bottom line is, when determining the value of your home, it is always important to think of value as a RANGE, not a down-to-the-penny, set-in-stone, take-it-to-the-bank, absolute number.
The most common way a home is given an approximate value is a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). Most real estate agents will do a CMA as a free service for any prospective client. The CMA is determined by pulling comparable properties in your general area that have sold in the past 4-6 months. The properties are assessed for selling price, time on the market, improvements, square footage, and other variations that are then used to give an approximate value of your home. Because real estate markets change rapidly, a CMA can be out of date in a few months in some markets. It is always important to have a current CMA when considering the sell of your home. CMAs, while based on data, are still very subjective. When looking at comparable properties it may be hard to account for things such as curb appeal, desirability of the home's architectural style, etc. This is where the agent's experience can help you. It is VITAL that you first find a good agent, and second, that you take their advice when they give you an estimated value on your home. Agents are not emotionally or personally attached to your home. You, as the owner and occupier of the home for years, are most certainly! If you watched your kids grow up in the home, celebrated birthdays there, had family gatherings, and painted the walls bird-egg blue 10 years ago, you definitely have value in this home that cannot be expressed in dollars. That value, while priceless to you, has no worth to a prospective buyer. That is why YOU should never attempt to price your own home. Let someone who has no attachment to your property take on this task. That is, unless you want the home to sit and languish on the market for much longer than necessary.
Remember, the market will ultimately determine the value of your home. Your job is to get as close as possible without going over in order to minimize your time on the market. I recommend a good agent to help you do this. Agents have their pulse on the local market because they sell right in your neighborhood every day. They are the most likely professional to give you the best mix of data-related facts and well as subjective, gut-level estimations on what you can cash that house in for on the open market. Find a great agent in your neighborhood that was hand-selected by Dave Ramsey and his staff.
Points to Remember:
- Your home is worth what someone will pay for it.
- Value is subjective and should be determined by someone who has no emotional or personal attachment to the property.
- Work with an agent in your market who's been around the block a few times and knows the CURRENT pulse of your market and individual neighborhood.
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COMPANY INFORMATION |
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Military Armed with Financial Peace |
On Monday, March 6, Dave and Sharon Ramsey received special recognition for their partnership with the National Guard and Reserve. Major General Gus L. Hargett, Jr., Colonel (Retired) Bruce Jones, and Joseph C. Thomas of the Tennessee Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve honored Dave and Sharon with the Seven Seals Award. This award honors the unselfish and outstanding support of the men and women who serve America in the National Guard and Reserve.
Dave and Sharon received the Seven Seals Award for their partnership specifically with the soldiers from the 278th in Williamson County, Tennessee who had served in Iraq. In a special presentation on November 29, 2005, Dave honored these men and women who courageously serve us.
But the relationship with the military doesn't stop there. Countless military personnel have gone through Financial Peace University on their bases and are debt free today because of the life-change that took place through the class. Check out Brad and Sandy Richardson's story at Fort Carson in Colorado.
"My wife and I attended your Financial Peace University at Fort Campbell, KY through our chapel two years ago. We applied your lessons, and today we paid off our last bit of debt. All totaled, we paid off $30,000 in credit cards, $20,000 in student loans, and $20,000 on the car: $70,000 in two years!
At first, it didn't seem mathematically possible, but it worked. And now we are no longer slaves to our lenders. It feels so good!
Thank you for sharing your talent with money and teaching. Thank you very much for making your program affordable to the military."
Whether it's partnering with the Guard and Reserve in our own backyard or reaching out to military personnel around the nation and the world, Financial Peace University is bringing financial freedom to the men and women who lay down their lives for our freedom everyday.
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BAM!! Good-bye, Debt!
By Jimmy Griener
We are debt-free thanks to Dave and my boss!
I used to be a "Yes" man. I have 8 kids, so I was always saying "yes" to what ever they wanted. I once bought a $130 Barbie and one week later her head was off. Looking back, that was stupid. So after saying "yes" so many times, I would have to go to my boss and borrow $500 which was a never-ending cycle. I could not learn to say NO! As I was saying "yes" to everyone, there went the power bill, cable bill, and everything else.
So the last time I went to my boss I asked him for $1,000. He told me to sit down and listen to Dave's radio program. Now mind you, I never listened to talk radio before in my life, but since he was paying me, I said, "Okay, I'll listen." At first I thought all the people calling into Dave's show were fake, but then people from all over the country began calling in to get his advice. There was one call that really touched me - a woman bought a $350 car out of a Wal-mart parking lot, drove the car one year, and then gave it away!
So I went home and put every bill in front of me. My wife came home and ask what I was doing. I told her about Dave's show and how I was making a BUDGET and asked her if she would like to help me with this project. Since then, we've been on the same page, and it is so much fun! I even made a game out of it - every time I paid some thing off, I would yell out "BAM!" and my wife knew there went another bill out the door! Dave, your plan really works; we even made a poster-sized budget and put it on the fridge so the kids could see it. All my friends have made fun of me, but now all of them are asking questions on how I did it!
To every one who reads this, stick to your budget!! It's hard at first, but it will be a game at the end! I'm 44 years old, and there were times when I would sit at my desk and cry because the budget was so hard to stick by, but the harder you work, the harder your money works for you!
Related links:
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Ex-Circus member teaches Financial Peace @ Work |
It's not every day that you get to meet someone from the circus, but that's precisely what happened for about 200 employees attending Financial Peace @ Work classes. Kate Blocher is a 13-year veteran of the high-wire act for the circus. She no longer works for the circus, but she occasionally practices her tight-rope walking skills so as not to lose her talent.
Shortly after Kate got married, she and her husband, Ryan, joined a Financial Peace class at their church. They decided to facilitate the next class their church offered and saw first-hand how many lives were changed through the program. Kate decided to become a Certified Workplace Trainer and a Certified Counselor. She went through the necessary training and was asked to facilitate a Financial Peace @ Work class for a large manufacturing company in northern Indiana. She ended up leading four classes for the company to accommodate schedules and the number of people taking the class. A total of about 200 employees signed up for the program. Kate facilitated three larger classes of 60-70 employees and another smaller class of about 15 employees. She wanted the smaller class to have more interaction and closeness among class members.
"Throughout the course I witnessed a huge change in perspective for the class members. A lot of people don't consider home or vehicle payments debt, but this class was very eye-opening for some. Before the program many people didn't have a plan for their money and now they do," Kate said. She also saw marriages become stronger with couples opening up and communicating with one another. She watched as employees became excited about investing for the future. She saw numerous employees apply the envelope system and budgeting forms to their lives.
Once all four Financial Peace @ Work classes were finished, every single employee stated that they felt more confident with their finances and learned something from the course. All of the employees expressed gratitude to their company for offering the course. One man "told me that he felt like the smartest man in the world! It was the first time that he had control of his life, and he had Financial Peace @ Work to thank for it," Kate said.
As a parting thank-you gift, one class member found out about Kate's tight-rope walking skills and built her a high wire to use in her backyard. He created a 400 pound, 16 foot long and three-foot high steel high-wire platform. "I was so humbled, flattered, and excited about the gift," Kate said.
Offer Financial Peace @ Work to your employees! or call 1.888.227.3223 to learn more today.
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EntreLeadership Testimonials |
EntreLeadership Announces New Date - December 3-6, 2006
Whether you are starting from scratch or in the middle of the journey, this intense three-day experience will give you insight gained from years in the trenches developing business strategies - insight that will provide you with a fresh perspective on moving your business in the right direction - business strategies that have resulted in a profitable multi-million-dollar company.
Exclusive Interview with Dave
EntreLeadership team leader Daniel Tardy interviews Dave one-on-one. Find out why Dave created EntreLeadership and what you will learn in the course. Dave also answers the questions people ask most before attending the conference.
Watch interview now.
One Year Later
My name is Carl, and I own a small aviation business. I had the privilege of attending your EntreLeadership event in February 2005. I just wanted to say thank you for the event! It was intense, exciting, and fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Most importantly it was worth every penny that I spent on it. Looking back a year later I would say we have already made back 10 fold on the investment we put into it! Thank you so much for the direction that I received from the event!
Daily Use of Lessons
Hi! This is Eric with Platinum Services based out of Iowa, and I attended the EntreLeadership event back in February of 2005. I encourage any business owner or management personnel that leads people in any way to take advantage of this event. I've used a lot of the processes that Dave and his team organized for us while we were there, particularly in the pre-hiring process, as well as having a more refined organization flow within our sales force. I've learned a lot and have been utilizing it on virtually a daily basis.
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