Oh no...not a BUDGET!

Keith and I been attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church. First, let me say that if you are ever given the opportunity to join one of these classes, you should. You should dispel the notion that only broke people take FPU and similar classes. Yes - there are certainly members of the class that are struggling financially. There are others, however that take the class to learn to be better stewards of their finances; to learn to help others, etc. Keith and I want to learn how we can apply these principles to business finances. Whatever your reason, the knowledge gained and the camaraderie of others with similar intentions is invaluable.

About five years ago, after reading one of Dave Ramsey's books and hearing him speak on talk radio, I was inspired to start to chip away at our personal debt. The first thing I did was to create a budget. Amazingly, this was the first budget we ever had. What a difference this budget made on our finances and our lives! I managed to pay off several thousand dollars of debt in a short period of time and even started to save! Wow, what a notion!

I have lived religiously by my budget all these years; I can't imagine not having it. It was a special blessing to me when I was able to set up a budget for my daughter and her husband and to see how it immediately transformed their finances and their impression of their financial situation.


I woke up several months ago and asked myself what I wanted to be when I grew up. I ended up choosing to seek my "second career"- a move that had major implications on our personal financial situation. Our budget was more important than ever.

Keith and I are starting to apply our knowledge to paying off business debt. This will be a challenge - particularly in a slow economic period - but it's not impossible. We learned so many of our lessons the hard way. The hardest part is making that first step toward living responsibly.

I'm not a financial adviser; I don't have much of a financial background to speak of. I just know what works for me (and I feel will work for others) and I know how it feels to breathe more easily when things look a little less bleak.

Check out the survey below.