Financial Peace University

We began a Financial Peace University class at our church last Monday. Tonight is class #2. (I have to admit - I'm not Dave Ramsey's #1 fan...but I know he's got a lot of things right.) I am...VERY...excited. I am a penny-pincher, a number-cruncher, and a self-motivator. Every time I make a loan payment (I am anxiously awaiting my last payment to post), I spend hours calculating our new pay-off date. Recently, an ancient Quicken program for mac os 8.6 has been helping in that process. I also spend hours figuring out what our new daily interest accumulation is (the last three payments have lowered our daily interest by $0.06!), how much our total interest will be if we continue at the rate we're going, and how much it would be if we quit paying ahead and paid only minimum payments from here on out. I like comparisons. Dave likes comparisons, too.

I listened to his podcast for the first time today. He is very enigmatic. It gets on my nerves a little bit...but at the same time, he is so encouraging. If you've never heard Dave Ramsey's radio show, one of the things he loves to do is take callers who have gotten out of debt. He gets them on the phone, asks them lots of questions about how much debt they've paid, what they make and how long it took. Then he says okay, are you ready? And they count down, and yell at the top of their lungs "WE'RE DEBT FREE!!"

Its kinda cheesy. I was surprised at how moved I was when the first caller filled his lungs with air and yelled. It was like David running naked in the streets, or the crowds of Obama supporters when NBC finally made the announcement. It was a perfect expression of the giddy peace and joy that guy was filled with at the prospect of never having to send another check to the creditor. It is stunning how powerful it is to be in control of your money!

I honestly can't wait until the day I can email Dave Ramsey and say "we paid $XX debt in X years, on $XX/year income, and we're debt free!" (You wouldn't catch me for one second screaming it at him on his show...I'll just put it in print.) It will certainly be a day of new horizons for us and our family.