Top Ten Tuesday: Financial Peace

Today (actually, last night, but the beauty of WordPress is that if you forget to do Top Ten Tuesday until Wednesday, you can backdate the post and noone will be the wiser) was our 3rd week since beginning Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.

If you’re not familiar, FPU is a 13 week long course that teaches you how to “Live like noone else, so you can live like noone else”: How to get and stay out of debt, save money, invest, retire with dignity, and give to others. Good stuff.

I’m so excited about doing this, especially with hubs. I thought I would share my top ten reasons why.

Top Ten Reasons I’m Excited About Financial Peace University

1. I am excited about getting a solid financial education. We don’t learn this stuff in school. Why is it that we graduate knowing algebra (something few of us will use in our daily lives), but most adults don’t know how or don’t know why to balance their checkbook? We don’t know how to “do money”, but it affects every single aspect of our lives, every single day.
2. I am happy to be helping my hubby with this stuff. I’m the “nerd” in the relationship, and he’s more of the “free spirit”. We are a good team because he’s better at making the money (no problems there) and I’m good at creating the budget, doing stuff that involves paper and being organized. Since hubby is also self employed, he was never able to figure out how to budget since his income is variable month to month. FPU is giving us the tools we need to make that easy.
3. I want our family to experience the freedom and joy of NO DEBT. There’s nothing like it.  I want that peace for my husband.
4. This stuff is good for our marriage. Working together and being on the same page with money eliminates one of the biggest sources of tension and anxiety in a marriage. Not to mention, going to the weekly classes together is a peculiar sort of “date night” that is fun and productive.
5. I want my kids to get their money right. I’ve been preaching the message of “don’t do debt” all their lives, but once again getting this education means I’ll be able to teach my kids proper principles around money. I don’t want them to make the same dumb mistakes I did.
6. Class ends right before my due date. A nice way of keeping me distracted, helping to pass those last few weeks.
7. I just love Dave Ramsey. I have listened to his radio show for years and always enjoyed his style. I read his book The Total Money Makeover and was totally inspired by his message.
8. I want to be able to give more. We already give money and time to our place of worship and I give to a non profit that is close to my heart, but I would like to be able to help individual people more.
9. Divorce does a number on your finances. My current husband and I have both suffered financially as a result of divorce. So have our exes. It’s just a reality. It’s time for us to dig out of that crisis and create something better.
10. I have 6 kids! I have to have my crap together. Enough said.

How I Got Out of Debt

How to Deal with Falling Income