http://www.daveramsey.com/ Real Life Money Stories en-us Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:02:32 CST 180 Saturday Sunday http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68778 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68778 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:43:58 CST $42,000 Credit Cards (6 cards total) $78,000 Student Loans Last student loan deposited today! Monthly loan amount $500; this payment $3180.90; average monthly payment for the last year $1500. Last year I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and last month, wow, one more month and this thing is done! And now it is over! Did I have friends laugh at me? Oh yeah, and these friends had money problems also! Times were tough for them, but they could some-how afford Starbucks $3-4 coffee. They drive nice cars with nice size car payments. I bought a 1988 Camry for $1700 cash and it does the job getting me back and forth to work and taking my three kids to sporting events and school at 25-30 mpg. I will sell this in a few months after I have a chance to save for a newer car (cash). Are you worth it? Is your family worth it? Yes, you and you family are worth it! That's why you are here reading these stories (I have been in the same place as you, reading these) to give you encouragement that it can be done. Finally, there are great stories and advice here to give you encouragement, but it comes down to you to make it happen. You can send someone to the best rehab place for treatment, but THEY have to do the treatment, no one can make them go thru it. Follow the Baby Steps and if you ever get a chance to see Dave live, do it! Shane 44 years old http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68777 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68777 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:38:03 CST I am SO excited to share our story! My husband and I went through Financial Peace University in the fall of 2010. We started out with about $45,000 in debt (1 car, 2 student loans). As we were plowing through our debt, we decided that we needed to have a baby step 3b-save for fertility treatments. We had been trying to get pregnant for close to 5 years. We had tried multiple fertility procedures covered by insurance, all to no avail. Our insurance didn't cover IVF (in-vitro fertilization), which usually costs in the neighborhood of $15-20,000. We never thought we would be able to save that kind of money, but after starting FPU, we sat down and did our budget together. We realized if we stuck to it, we could be debt free, have our emergency fund and then save for IVF in about 2-2.5 years. We were so excited, and so focused! October 2011 rolled around, and we were getting super pumped as October 21 was going to be our "debt free day." On October 11, we found out we were pregnant!!! With no medical intervention, only prayer. We truly believe that God blessed us for living the way He wants us to, and because of our prayers and the prayers of family and friends. Our emergency fund will be fully funded by the end of February, and we are so excited to be expecting our little miracle this June. God is so GOOD! Thank you Dave Ramsey, for teaching us "God and grandma's way of handling money!" It has truly changed our family tree:) http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68781 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68781 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:24:41 CST My name is Michelle, a 36 year old mother of two kids. I am married to a wonderful man who is or should I say was a Police Officer. We began our journey to financial freedom in February of 2011. I drug my husband to the FPU classes at a local church kicking and screaming. During the class because of taxes and bonuses, we saved $4,400 and paid off $21,492.14 in debt. We left the program at Baby Step 3. My goal was to have 3 months savings by the end of 2011. Throughout the year, we spent more than our budget every month, but never reentered debt. We entered 2012 with only $3,700 saved. We didn't need 3-6 months savings because we both had stable jobs, right? By the end of Febuary with taxes and bonus again, we would have Baby Step 3 done and moving on to Step 4,5, and 6 all at once. On January 23rd the unthinkable happened. My husband lost his job. Our income was instantly cut in half. As devastating as this is I thank God every day for sending Dave into our lives. If this was one year ago, my family would be looking at a financial disaster. But since we have paid off all our debt but our house, and have connected with Dave's recommended companies for investing, life insurance and vehicle insurance, we are going to make it through. The worst thing that is going to happen is that we need to put our house up for sale and downsize to one that we can afford on just my income. My husband can take some time to go back to school and change his career path as the circumstances of his exit has soured him against a career that he has planned since he was 16 years old. Dave, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for saving my family from financial ruin. Your principals are spot on and are making an impossible situation a little better. I don't know how I can tell you how much you mean to me and my family, and I don't know how to repay you for everythiny you have done for us. I know I have never met you before, but I feel as if you are a crucial member of my family. Over the past week between the tears, I have thanked God several times for sending you into our lives. and you will be happy to know that my husband is now just as thankful as me that I drug him to the classes. You are a god send, and I will be forever in your "debt." The only good kind of debt! http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68766 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68766 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:36:22 CST I just completed Baby Step 3, It feels so great to accomplish something so great.. Im only 23 years old and i believe i see a great future for me and my girlfriend. I am a focused young individual. It hasnt been easy these past couple years for me but i feel that i broke all the ropes and chains and got thru it.. Dave, I really want to thank you for what you have done in my life. My family tree from now on is going to completely different because of you. http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68747 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68747 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:17:45 CST My wife and I have been married 19 years. We have lived paycheck to paycheck that entire time. We learned early on about the dangers of credit cards and we did away with those long before we heard of Dave Ramsey. We did use credit for major items, (you will always have a car payment). A couple of years ago we attended a TMO class at a local church, and knew that we "should" do is program. We worked on it half heartedly for the next couple of years. We only had $1500 left on a student loan but $20,000 on a new car and $22,000 on a new van, plus $100,000 on a mortage. We got serious and paid off the student loans and some small medical bills, then snowballed the car, paying it off early. Last October the van started having problems and my son's truck (long paid off)just died. The next week the washer went out and I was unable to repair it this time, It was 15 years old and I had kept it running against it's will for some time. Then the next day we had our first cold snap and when we turned on the heat, it would not work. needless to say there went the emergency fund plus some. It took the entire $1000.oo for the vehicles and heating, The washer is still waiting to be replaced. (Thank God for inlaws living close enough to allow us to use there washer every week). The van has been in the shop on several different occasions, and it is running but not sure about complete dependability. I will admit that we looked more than once at trading in that van and buying something else, but a disturbance in our spirit wouldn't let us. We continued to make due with one car and finally decided to do something we weren't sure Dave would agree with. We took out another loan. We used that loan to finish paying off the van. To explain, we had a 13% intrest rate on the van loan and we took the new loan out at 3.75%. We paid off our high intrest loan and replentished the emergency fund. it lowered our monthly payment but fit right into the snowball where I will pay if off in 4-5 months instead of 13. I believe I later heard Dave state this is one loan he could understand but only if it lowered the intrest rate and cut time off the loan. I may be mistaken but that was what I interpreted. Move forward to the present. We had struggled through Christmas and the new year but here we are. we have continued with our debt snowball and were still struggling with the vehicle situation. This week a relative called and asked if My wife and I could drive her across town to a dealership, She was buying a new car and needed to be driven down there. We agreed and we very much enjoyed the day. I cannot describe the joy of watching someone buy a car and pay cash. I told my wife God had set this up so I could see that it could be done. I was now a believer in Dave's 100% down plan and knowing and seeing someone pay cash for a car was a eye opener. I would love to say this ended the day, and if it had what a blessing it would have been. As I expressed how blessed I was to have witnessed that to my relative, she said she wasn't done. She then told us that the reason she had asked us to take her was so she could give, Free of charge, her old vehicle (I had wondered why she wasn't trading it in). It is over 10 years old and has less that 100,000 miles. it is still in perfect shape and very dependable. God impressed on me that He had been listening to our prayers and he was strong enough to provide. The Heat is fixed and the vehicle situation taken care of. I go this week with some of the overtime money to purchase another washer. All I can say is WOW. If you just depend on God. Dave, Thank you for showing the way. We just outlasted Murphy. http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68764 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68764 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:05:51 CST I am a 34 year old single mom. My daughter has impairments that require much time and money. I know that this may be the first baby step but, I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going through the process of divorce. Even though this is a challenging time, even though I'm sleeping in my mother's living room, even though life has been tough, I DID IT! I've NEVER before saved more than $500. Even when I did Murphy followed me like a shadow. When Murphy wasn't around something else was... After taking FPU, then later teaching it, I discovered that even I could do this! Thank you, Dave Ramsey, for making this a real possiblity to me. I've taken other classes, worked a budget and anything else I could think of to gain control of my life, my money. Money always had the upper hand. Until now... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! baby step 1 - check! http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68746 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68746 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:40:55 CST In 2002, my wife and I were in a downward spiral financially. After 28 years of marriage,we were borrowed up to our necks with credit cards, school loans for our daughters, car payments and home mortgage. And, of course, we didn't have enough left to tithe. In October of 2002, our church sponsored FPU, which my wife signed us up for. The night before the class started, we even went out and bought a new TV, on credit of course. After the first class, we knew changes had to be made. Unfortunately, we were so stretched that it took us until March to even get our $1000 in the bank. The first thing we knew that needed to be changed was our attitude on tithing. We determined that it was not right for us to expect God to get us out of this mess if we were not going to be faithful to him. Once we became faithful, I could see Him working in our lives, both spiritually and financially. Long story short, it took us almost 7 years to pay off $185,000 and become debt free. I received several good pay raises during that time and mowed lawns to help get rid of the debt. In 2009, my wife and I went on a 2 week vacation and cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 35th anniversary and our financial freedom. It was the best vacation we have ever had because it was paid for before we left. We are truly grateful for this time together -- this past June she was diagnosed with terminal gall bladder cancer. Because of our efforts our finances, we are able to face the burdens of this disease and prognosis without worry financially (yes, we still use a written budget every month). I even had to take a different job 2 years ago with a 50% cut in pay, but it has not affected us negatively one iota. We have an adequate emergency fund, medical and life insurance to cover our needs, and retirement benefits that are actually more now than when working. I look back and realize that God was preparing us for this event. Yes, there are expenses and difficulties with the disease, but we know 2 things for certain: 1.) Naomi's eternity with God is secured, and 2.) financially there is nothing to worry about. My many thanks to you for your program - may God bless you in your ministry. http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68730 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68730 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:17:37 CST In spite of your advice, we bought a house with a 30-year mortgage and had to pay pmi because we only put 10% down. We just paid the minimums for 16 months, but a year ago we got serious! Our goal was to pay the prinicipal down enough to get rid of the pmi- another 10%, or what I thought would be $16,000. We started to make some progress when I found out it was actually $20,000 we had to come up with (because it was 78% loan-to-value we had to pay it down to, not 80% like I had originally thought). Sometimes I wondered if we were crazy, paying $20,000 just to reduce our payment by $100 a month. But I also knew we would save on interest by paying down the principal so much. Every time we wanted something- new furniture or to take a vacation or fix something around the house that wasn't urgent, we'd just say "next year". We put it on the "next-year list" Just writing it down felt good and we knew we could put our wants off for just one year to reach our goal. By September of 2011 we had paid our down $20,000 and had a "gazelle party" with a few families who are also Dave Ramsey fans. I even made a cake with a picture of our house on it and wrote "78%" in frosting. In the process of playing around with a mortgage amortization table to see how much interest we had saved, I made a fantastic discovery- with interest rates lower than when we had bought, we could refinance to a 15-year mortgage for only $40 more a month than we had been paying. We saved up closing costs and a little more principal (to get our payment where we wanted it) over the next two months and closed on our new loan in November. Talking to loan officers was funny. They would say "Will this be a cash-out refinance?" and I would say "No, a cash-in refinance." The total interest savings over the life of the loan will add up to over $100,000. I can't believe that paying $20,000 we were going to have to pay anyway, but paying it earlier, is saving us $100,000. That's half the value of our home! Of course I don't think this mortgage is going to be hanging around for another 15 years- our goal is to get rid of it in 8 years to be mortgage-free by the time we're 40. http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68703 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68703 Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:33:52 CST Yesterday in Atlanta my life was changed because I attended Total Money Makeover. I'm a single Dad of 3 Teenagers/Young Adults. I called a family meeting afterwards and performed Plastic Surgery, cutting all my credit cards, including the Kay Jewelers card that is "Doghouse Prevention" for my girlfriend. My Emergency Fund will have to be just a little bit larger to cover the inevitable times in the future when I'll do something stupid, and have to make a jewelry purchase in order to stay out of the doghouse. Today I put a Security Freeze on my Credit with all 3 Credit Reporting Agencies so that I'm protected against Identity Theft, and prevented from ever again making stupid impulse Credit decisions. Thanks to you and your whole team, tomorrow is my 49th Birthday and I'm taking the Baby Steps necessary to get out of debt and live the second half of my life debt free. And through the beauty of Social Networking I have been spreading the word to all of my Friends and Family on Facebook. I want everyone I know to learn how to live debt free. http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68702 http://www.daveramsey.com/articles/articleList/category/100424/storyid/68702 Sun, 22 Jan 2012 07:03:56 CST Dear Dave, GOD IS GOOD! This is our “debt free scream” and I have to share how good GOD is! 31 months ago we got serious about your program. We had a HELOC and bought a boat (we’re serious fishing people) we owed quite a bit on. In 30 months, with lots of sweat-equity & after $53,216.64, we became debt-free (except for the house) on Christmas day! During this & while we had NO $, the car broke 4 times, then had a major accident totaling it out & emergently having to buy a new car, the house A/C went out, the house water heater died, and we really felt “Murphy” had moved into our basement. This week I received our first paycheck that goes 100% into savings! Yesterday the (new-to-us / used) car broke on the way to work - estimated $800 was repaired for only $368! We then came home from work to a freezing cold house - furnace died. Thought we needed a whole new furnace, but repair guy fixed it for a mere $300! WE HAVE THE SAVINGS TO COVER BOTH OF THESE!!!!! THANK YOU!!!! AND THANK GOD!!! Grateful & debt free in Grand Rapids, MI, Chris & Amy