How I Found Dave Ramsey
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!
