If you are going to talk finances you should go to someone that has made lots of money because they are obviously doing something right. My favorite financial person is Dave Ramsey, and just be warned you will see, Dave says a lot on here. I am not being paid by Dave or any other financial person, the things you will read here are my heart felt beliefs about money and some of my personal experiences along with what I have learned from Dave. I do not have a background in finance but, goodness knows I have made enough mistakes to have learned what not to do.
I like Dave a lot, I like his Christian approach to handling money. He is the only financial person that I have seen that lays out a budget with giving at the top.
I was invited by my friend Beth to go to a Dave Ramsey class and I took her up on that opportunity. It was one night and they were talking about investing, something I did but very minimally. I was intrigued right off the bat and a big thank you to Beth for inviting me, this started my following of Dave with regard to finances. I went to the Library and checked out one of his books, I loved it and I ended up buying it at our local used book store. Notice I did not go out and buy his book without checking it out at the Library first and when I bought it, it was used. It was two years before I took Daves' Financial Peace University class. During that two years I read everything I could get my hands on, from the Library and the used bookstore, about finances. I was very intrigued by Dave's envelope system. That was the first advice I tried and it helped. I only used the envelopes for certain things, we started out with a Christmas envelope. We put $20 a week in an envelope for Christmas. Our first year we did this we got a little late start so we did not have enough money to pay for all of Christmas but it helped. The next year we started earlier and that year we paid for Christmas in cash, with the exception of things we bought online. The next year I was able to officially take the Dave Ramsey class. I was so excited, I was like a kid at Christmas.
One of the first things we talked about in class was a budget, I am ashamed to say I had never done a budget before. We did a "quick start" budget, this catches the major things, paychecks coming in and bills going out. I always thought of a budget as being evil and very restrictive. It is actually, you telling your money where to go rather than wondering where it went. I was a wonder where it went kinda gal for many years. Oh, I wish someone would have told me how to do this sooner. I was actually relieved when I did that first budget and a little surprised at where we were spending all of our money. I will tell another ugly truth about myself, I was not someone that balanced the checkbook either. Now, I do a budget every two weeks and balance my checkbook every time my statement comes in. Yayyy me!! If you are a financial person you may think that is no big deal. To someone that did not do either of these things for so many years it is a huge deal. If you are doing both or just one of these kudos to you, you are already rolling in the right direction. There are lots of places to go and find budget software or budget forms. There are a lot of them on Pinterest. I personally like Dave's forms for budget. Check out his website www.daveramsey.com
Also check out your local used book stores and Library, they are full of good free information and I am all about FREE. Here is something to think about for next Financial Friday: what are some things that you could pay cash for? Groceries, restaurants, clothes, school supplies or barber or salons.
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