by Hope
I can’t remember if I shared that I signed up for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University at my church last fall. It cost $25. I remember when Beks wrote about it many years ago, but really never thought it was for me.
Of course, after 10+ years blogging here, I’ve learned more about it. Gotten pretty familiar with the construct of “baby steps“, at least 1 and 2. Now I’m taking the 9 week course.
It’s in person, 2 hours a week, with homework, small group support, and a year’s subscription to their app EveryDollar.
As of writing this, we are on week 2. There are over 200 people taking it with me. I don’t know a single one of them. Last week was all about creating a zero based budget. This week was about the Debt Snowball Method. I am learning so much.
Two Major Concepts
In reality, the concepts aren’t really new to me, I guess, but hearing them taught this way is really making an impact.
There are two things I am really thinking through right now…
- Proverbs is full of financial guidance. What? How come I’d never heard that before. And I’ve been reading Proverbs for years. Just never looked at it that way.
- Can I live without credit cards? Cash only.
No More Credit Cards
Last night, they had a “plas-ectomy” (sp?) where they invited people to come up on stage and cut up credit cards. Boy, that’s scary to me.
For the longest, I’ve leaned on my credit cards: 1) to carry me through when I had low income; and now 2) as kind of an emergency back up/what if?
But I’m really thinking about it. It would be a HUGE leap of faith for me. Maybe not faith, but big mindset shift. Whatever you want to call it.
Last summer, I closed alot of my accounts. But I still have 4 open. And in Dave Ramsey’s video at class last night, he addressed all my reasoning…security, rewards/points, etc.
Can I do this? Can I close all my accounts and go cash only?
Proverbs as a Finance Lesson
As I teeter on the edge of this BIG move. I’ve decided I’m going to read through Proverbs, one chapter at a time again. And each day, I’m going to write down all the “finance” lessons or guidance I find in that chapter.
I’ve always read Proverbs as a book of contracts, not financial guidance. Let’s see what looking at it from a new perspective gives me.
Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.
But life has a way of rewriting your plans.
A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.
Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.
Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.
She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.
