I've been a fan of his books and radio show for the last couple of years, and in fact used his "Total Money Makeover" to help get our finances in order. It's a fantastic program, but, I'm telling you FPU takes this to a whole new level. First of all, Dave is a fantastic communicator who keeps the class moving. When you couple that with the fact that he's offering practical solutions that you can use NOW, it creates a passion for doing the right thing. Thanks to Marc and Talisha for offering the class at their home. Marc is the FPU moderator at Boise First and they have been using the program for 2-3 years themselves, so being able to hear how God has used the program in their lives is pretty awesome. Being able to share openly and candidly with friends about the realities of who and where you are is huge. I've found out that if there's one area that people tend to gloss over and try to paint this bright and rosy picture, it's finances. Our egos must be tied to our money. Admitting that we don't have it all together when it comes to money apparently makes us feel like losers, so we fake our way through life, no plan, nothing concrete, continually losing the financial battle just because we can't be honest that we have a problem. I've made up my mind I'm not going to live my life like that. Lori and I have credit card debt that is going to be gone (GONE!) by the end of next year. The facade is crumbling, the charades game is over. If that's where you are, get over your pride and put a plan together. I do highly recommend Financial Peace University. Instead of working with a icepick to knock down this mountain of debt, they give you tools, a jackhammer if you will, to get the job done. Have any of you guys gone through the program? What was your impression? How did it help you?Ironically, Pastor Dave just started a series on money "Financial Peace for Troubled Times" at Grace. He had told me several months ago to start working on some promo material for the October series, but he had no clue about the financial crisis that would perfect set up the series. You'll have to listen in as they upload the sermons (not quite sure why Sunday's sermon isn't on there). Dynamic material!
5 comments:
Shane and I "graduated" from FPU a few months ago (classes were held at our church). It was fantastic! We have only Shane's truck to pay off, so by next year, we are on track to be debt free! Hallelujah! I like the fact that Dave gives you simple, easy-to-understand ways to tackle your financial burden. I would highly recommend him to anyone.
I love his radio program but Mark and I haven't been able to go through his class yet. I have some family that has completed the program--rave reviews!!
Love your post title!! :-)
Haven't done the class yet but have implemented the program. We have paid off $33,000+ in car and credit card debt since starting about 3 years ago. It's the best thing we have done for our marriage and finances. It forces you to deal in terms of reality and to work through things--COMMUNICATION! What a novel idea! We have encouraged many others to get started, too. We have a small amount in personal loans that will be paid off in the next few months or so. What got us started? Our stove died and we didn't even have the cash on hand to replace it with the low end new one! It was like a milestone for us. I was determined not to buy a new stove until we could pay cash. We went without a stove for a full year! We survived with the toaster oven and microwave. When we were getting into the swing of the Dave Ramsey plan we set some money aside for a stove. I found my dream stove on clearance at a local store--it was far more stove than I would have dreamed of having but I am grateful. We frequently have a houseful of company so the double oven comes in handy.
Sorry this is so long but it's an another area that I am passionate about. Oh yes, we are able to give more than we ever have before, too!
We've done FPU at our church several times and its been highly effective! When you work it, it works. We love Dave's style too. Darrell even put a Debt Free bumper sticker on our car - definitely not part of our prenuptial agreement - the bumper sticker thing, that is
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