How I Found Dave Ramsey
August 15th, 2007 by Ana
I’ve decided to just lay out how I found out about Dave Ramsey, since it really is a story unto itself. Let’s rewind back to “Christmas Past” 2006. Actually, let’s go back to “Thanksgiving Past” since it started there. I live in Tennessee, and most of my family lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 421 miles from my driveway to my mom’s driveway. Last fall I was struggling to find money for anything, and that included gas money and fast food money for the drive up and back. So, out came the Chase MasterCard that hubby had gotten approved for right before he left for his Korea assignment earlier in Novemeber, and I filled up the stupid big honking Chevy Colorado truck that gets a whopping 20 miles to the gallon on the highway. Downhill and with a tailwind I can squeeze maybe 24 mpg…and gas was $3 per gallon at the time. I didn’t have to spend any other money than gas and road eats, so Thanksgiving put about $200 on the credit card because the truck has a 20 gallon gas tank.
Then Christmas rolled around less than a full month later, and I still didn’t really have the money again…because just like the previous 33 years of my life I still didn’t know how to manage money or make a real budget. This time instead of just gas money and road eats I also had to cough up some gifts. The most I spent on anyone was $43 at Krogers to make my mom a fancy holiday meal, ready and on the table when she got home from work on Christmas Eve. Dad got a gift certificate to a nice restaurant, and my sister got some little doo-dad that Daddy said she’d like. My son got a kid’s science/chemistry set, because he’s a science and math nerd like his mother, and I like to give kids educational gifts. In all, I racked up another $285 or so on the credit card by the time I got back to my own driveway.
On the way home a funny thing happened on I-65 as I drove through Louisville, Kentucky. I had forgotten to bring more CDs to listen to and was tired of the same 6 CDs I had listened to during the Thanksgiving trip. Around downtown Louisville I saw a billboard with some guy’s face on it, his name and some blurb about interesting entertaining, and relevant talk radio, with the time it was on locally which was 2-5 P.M. It was about 2:30 P.M. at the time. Oh yeah, the guy’s name was Dave Ramsey, and it was the day after Christmas, 2006. I figured it could provide some laughs or rants as I drove with just the dog in the cab. The dog doesn’t say much LOL
Well, this was one of Dave Ramsey’s better radio shows. He had listeners call in and tell about their cash-only Christmases, and also stories of giving. It seemed he gave away a copy of his book The Total Money Makeover or a membership kit to his Financial Peace University at least every other call. He ranted about people putting their holiday on the credit cards…and I winced. He went on about how most people don’t budget for Christmas as if they don’t know that it’s in December every year. Ouch…I winced again. Then he had a new listener call in and ask just how they could plan better for next year. I turned the radio up, and listened to him break down how to do a simple budget that would really work.
The signal started to get staticky about twenty miles out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, but by this time I had realized that Dave Ramsey broadcasts from Nashville, on a Nashville radio staion, so I flipped over and listened all the way home to Clarksville. I’ve lived in Clarksville since 1999 and didn’t even know about that radio station! And his broadcast booth is only 60 miles from my house. Oh, the irony!
When I got home, I hopped on the internet and started surfing around looking for information on Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University, the Total Money Makeover, the MyTotalMoneyMakeover site and of course found the old archives for the Dave Ramsey Show. (They just revamped the website last week and no longer list the archives so I can’t link y’all anymore) I toyed with the idea for two days, read the criticisms of Dave Ramsey, and on the evening of December 28th I joined up. The next day I made my first real budget and got current on all my bills. Since then, I have paid my car off (last two payments), paid off the holidays I put on Chase MasterCard, paid off the loan I took from my credit union to pay tuition from the previous spring term, paid off American Express, and paid off hubby’s AAFES Star Card. No more credit cards, no more loans, no more stressing about how to pay my tuition bills for each term. Dave Ramsey may be extreme to most people, but I have been winning on his plan!
Posted in Uncategorized |
August 15th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Cool story. I’m a relatively new Dave listener(about 2 months now). I discovered him when I watched Maxed Out. I wish I would have discovered him years ago.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Dude, I wish I had discovered Dave Ramsey before the holidays! LOL
August 16th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Good deal, Ana. It’s a great thing that you have found a way to improve your situation and feel better about your money - even good enough to blog about it! Good luck on your goals!
August 16th, 2007 at 11:24 am
[…] I was on track to do to hubby what my ex-husband had done to me…until I found Dave Ramsey that is![…]
August 17th, 2007 at 4:23 am
Ana - that’s a great story. I found Dave by accident in the library a few years ago. I ran across a copy of “The Total Money Makeover” on CD and checked it out. I was tired of dealing with the stress over money - but had no idea who he was. The radio show wasn’t carried in our area. After 6 months, we paid off $16K in debt and become debtfree. He helped me erase 20 years of poor money management. Since then we have led two FPU classes at our church and are now about to take a week long cruise. (Paid for in advance with cash!)
Is this process easy? No. But does it work? Yep!
///Sid
December 26th, 2007 at 11:25 am
[…] I was in a totally different place financially! For the full story, take a look at my story about how I found Dave Ramsey. Most Ramsey fans I tell it to call it providence or “meant to be.” That post has […]
January 16th, 2008 at 10:34 am
[…] learn how to really WIN with money. I just didn’t know how or who to listen to…until that drive home and that fateful billboard (which doesn’t seem to be there […]
January 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I don’t think my story is as interesting as yours but I wanted to share it with you. It was the summer of 2005 and my wedding was six months away. My friends were buying houses and it seemed like everyone had an opinion about when my fiancé and I should buy a house and how we should pay for it. I was cautious enough to know that we shouldn’t jump right in with an 80-20 loan, especially when we had about $40,000 of debt between us. I had already paid off my credit card, so I had some financial smarts (I was watching Suze Orman on teevee), but other than that I was clueless. So I took my Borders gift card out and headed to the bookstore in search of a personal finance book. The only thing I was looking for was for someone to answer the question “When should we buy a house?” Dave Ramsey’s book The Total Money Makeover was the only one with the answer. That wonderful baby step 3(b). All the other gurus talked about how important it was to buy a house and to even save a downpayment of some size but none laid it out in any type of order. So that’s what sold me on Dave.
We will pay off our last debt on February 7, just a couple weeks before our two-year anniversary. We’re still renting, and you know what, we may keep renting for a while. We like how cheap it is and we’re not sure this town is where we want to live long-term. Plus, when you finally get debt-free, who wants to jump into another six figures of debt?
February 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I had read a lot on personal finance and investing and business and accounting and entrepreneurship and etc. etc. etc. but only DR could get me fired up about reducing and eliminating my debts, and for doing a cash flow plan each month (instead of just paying bills first and frittering the rest). He’s really entertaining and motivating for getting some things under control that have to be in place before moving on to what the rest of the personal finance/investing world has to offer. He’s even better with people in financial trouble. (My situation never got that bad but some people’s situations are heartbreaking–and his compassion for them is very moving.)
Sometimes I guess it’s safer to be challenged on one’s stupidity from a radio host than a real family member/friend in real life, because of that relationship. I don’t think anyone could have told me otherwise. I guess a radio host calling me out isn’t personal and I can save face. LOL
March 15th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Hey,
I found Dave Ramsey at a Ranger’s Conference in Georgia. I was an intern at the park that was hosting and found myself lucky enough to sit in on a few sessions. One of the sessions was a personal finance session and they played a recording from one of his live events. They also gave a free copy of Total Money Makeover to everyone who attended. The book was fantastic, I actually did not hear his radio show until very recently (a year or so later). Personally I like his books better, but that is just me.
Here I was, close to graduating, realizing that I needed to organize myself, and I luck into this.
March 15th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
[…] I saw that billboard and turned my radio to a talk show (which I used to not listen to) and found ou….” I started to follow that other way of handling money, and fourteen months later my […]
March 21st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Dave Ramsey was a prayer answered. Really. Our home group was praying over goals for the new year “07″. I wrote down financial freedom. I didn’t know what that was, but it sounded good. That same week I ran across Dave’s web site. I haven’t looked back since. We should be debt free by this year. It really is amazing. I “Tithe” and handle money Gods way, and….well release to increase. 2 years ago I would never give ANYTHING and I was broke. Now im a cheerful giver and god blesses. Praise God!!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Buying gifts for the family can really make a big hole in our budget but what can we do, we love them and they deserve anything. I remember selling my phone, iPod and old laptop in order to et enough money to buy my boyfriend an expensive phone. We broke up the next month but at least I made him happy that day.