Financial Peace can be found in these troubled times!

Financial Peace can be found in these troubled times! Yes I know it sound odd, but it is true. My 401k may be suffering like everyone else', but that doesn't mean that my family is suffering during this financial crisis in the market. In fact, the opposite is the case. We are doing better now that we were one year ago! We have no credit card debt. We have no car loans. We have no furniture that we are renting to own. All we have left in our debt category is just over $10K and our house. We have eliminiated well over $30K in debt over the last year on less than $55K of income. If we can do it you can too. Just create a budget and live your financial life responsibly.

The place we find ourselves in this troubled time is actually a peaceful place. We can pay our bills and this year like last year as the holidays approach will not be a time of dread, due to the mounds of new debt that will be taken on for Christmas. I can testify to you all that there is hope if you are on the edge or even if you are already in the icy waters. That hope is in the form of the Seven Baby Steps that can be found in Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Make Over".

Do your family a favor this day go find a copy of this book (at the library, a bookstore or online) and begin to read it. You will be greatly blessed if you do! I know we have been. Join us in rejecting the failed policies of living in debt! Discover the joy and the peace that can be had when you no longer live paycheck to paycheck due to the money you have already spent. Learn the principles that will free you from the bondage of debt. There will never be a better time than today to step forward and take control of your financial life.

CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR WAS WONDERFUL!!!

If you are dreading the coming of the credit card bill for Christmas 2007 or worse yet you still haven't paid off 2006 yet... This may be a bit of lemon juice in the paper cut, but it isn't meant that way.

This is the first Christmas that we have celebrated without using any form of debt. It was wonderful! It was really quite liberating! It is true that I got carried away and bought a few extra gifts than originally budgeted but that is just the way I am with Christmas. The important point I wanted to stress was that it didn't bugger our finances.

This is proof that you can live through Christmas with out VISA or Master Card! I even did some shopping online, using PayPal's new virtual debit card and it worked well. I am so grateful for the Financial Peace that is in my family's life now.

DAVE IS RIGHT!!!

I have been working the Baby Steps now for just over three months. The net results are very respectable. What's more I haven't paid some scam artist to help me get out of debt either! Which was a temptation I successfully avoided nearly five months ago. AND what is even more impressive is that the Debt CON-solidation loan on our house which we didn't qualify for in the end was totally not needed. That is a serious revelation folks! We were convinced by the ads and everything we were told by real estate folks that this was the route we needed to go. Well, they were wrong. THANK GOODNESS we were just enough out of balance to not qualify for that scam a second time.



So how did I solve the nearly $800 deficit that my family had on a monthly basis? I took a second job at one of the Schuck's Auto Parts Stores. I knew the manager and knew he needed the help. I was right and thus I got the job. It has not been easy or fun working 65 hours or more a week but I am seeing the value of what Dave calls "Working Like NO ONE ELSE..."



I knew my friend the manager was in need of Dave's plan as well. So I gave him the book on CD. He and his wife are now working their own Total Money Makeover and they are succeeding! WOW! It is such a simple plan and there are no MLM gimmicks or gotchas. I have to say that I am still very much sold on this TMMO plan of Dave Ramsey's.



We are going to be able to pay off our only credit card in five days! This is a major way point for us on our path to personal financial peace. We got this credit card shortly after we got married and we thought it would never carry a balance; for a few months this was the case. Dave loves to say when you play with snakes you are going to get bit. He was right! We had a few medical emergencies and an incident with our car and boom we were carrying a balance. Now nine years later we are going to be RID of the snake FOREVER!!! What a GREAT FEELING!



I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I know it isn't a train! It is the blessed light of FREEEEEDOOOMMMMM!!!! WOW! I used to think that I would have to find some business opportunity to get the G.O.O.D. life. Now I know better. It isn't how much you make it is how you use it.



Dave is right!

The Seven Baby Steps...

For those who are interested here are the Seven Baby Steps to Financial Peace in your life, that Dave Ramsey has laid out. These are the steps that I am following to become debt free. I am at step two and have shreaded my credit card and am gald of the clear path out of debt.