Michael & Liz are Bloggable

I should just create a tag in our blog called "Finances" and file this post under it, because finances are becoming a theme with me and the blog lately. Personal Financing has become a passion of mine. Maybe not an obsession quite yet, but passion makes it sound a little more light-hearted. Because of that, Dave Ramsey is my hero and I'll tell you why.

Back in March when we visited Scott and Hillary in Colorado, they introduced us to this guy on the radio. People call in with their financial problems, some much more horrendous than others, and Dave talks them through what they should do. My philosophy when it comes to the radio is that if you aren't singing, you aren't entertaining. I can't listen to NPR or anything on AM and I really don't know why. So while it was good to listen to him while we were there, I didn't actively hunt for his Raleigh-equivalent radio station when we got back.

Then in May when we went to Arkansas, as a groomsmen gift for being in Annie and Jacob's wedding, Jacob got me 2 of Dave Ramsey's books and 2 videos as well. I immediately dove right in because the subject and author intrigued me. I've been hooked ever since. I've read both books twice and I wish he wrote 20 more. I went to the library to find out too.

Then this past weekend I made an amazing discovery. He has a TV show. How did I not know this?!?! Maybe it's because I don't watch news programs on TV. For anyone who is awesome, it's on Fox Business Network at 8PM and 12AM (DirecTV channel 359(I don't think I know anyone who has DirecTV other than Matt and Meg, so that was a plug for them(Matt) to watch it)). The show is awesome. A lot of times he has themes like last night was the "small business questions" and those aren't as interesting because I don't have a small business and I certainly am not a stay at home mother who is looking for a business venture to help the family. But the program is just like the radio program. It's amazing the situations people get themselves into but it's even more awesome the way Dave puts them on a plan to fixing the issues. A lot of the times though, he can't do anything other than throwing up his hands and saying "you need more income, get another job, learn a new skill, get off your butt and work as hard as you can". Those are for the people who call in with a 15K a year job and asking why they have 30K in credit card bills.

Why is he my hero? Dave is smart, always calm, cool and collected and just a flat out nice guy. He never responds as if the people who are calling are the problem, no matter how crappy the situation is. He always says "you've been engaged in dumb situations" but he never calls people dumb. I also really love getting the feedback from the show that no matter what situation Liz and I ever have financially, there is always someone who has it worse. There has been a few times this week when I just looked at Liz and said "we've got it good", because... well... just watch one episode and you'll find out why.

In what ways do I think Dave is wrong? In his "Total Money Makeover" plan he says you should stop all 401K contributions and take out all other saving except for the 401K and $1,000 and pay off debt. In following his plan, we are not doing this. I think it would be a very dumb thing during this time of the stock market to stop 401K contributions, and he said so in his show today. He also recommends this no matter what your company matches on your plan. He's assuming that the motivation of getting more money is more valuable than what you'd get during the company match. I disagree, I'd rather just leave my contributions where they are which is why I've ignored that part of the plan. I'm pretty much following his plan acting like we have no savings and what we get after taxes and savings is all we have to live on.

So for the last week, I have thoroughly enjoyed his show and I hope I don't get tired of it like I got tired of the one-week-wonder in my life called Ninja Warrior. It was an amazing Japanese TV program where people would go through obstacle courses and wipe out miserably. We watched it during pretty much every minute of free time we had that week and it was awesome. It soon got repetitive and stupid.

Notice how in the title I said "my" and not "our". So while I love the show, it isn't Liz's favorite. So every now and then I have to suppress my love of watching The Dave Ramsey show and maybe that will be enough to sustain my interest for more than a week.

*DISCLAIMER*: If I violated some sort of copyright by putting the book picture there, I apologize. Dave Ramsey wrote it, not me. The book is awesome. He is awesome. Please don't sue me.