I swore I'd never....

like Dave Ramsey. He's not hugely popular in the north. He's not hugely popular with business men. There was never a single mention of his name in all of my growing up. But then I married. :) Dave Ramsey this and Dave Ramsey that. I was given the book. I grew increasingly frustrated and defensive. "Babe, if he was really all that good, don't you think my father, who was a FINANCIAL ADVISOR, would've at least mentioned him ONCE!?" You can't get anywhere in the world without credit. You need a credit card to establish credit. You have to spend money to make money. I pleaded my case over and over again. I just wouldn't back down! And this coming from the girl who asked the question "what is your accountant's name" after a month of being married. I was unaware that people actually did their own taxes. :) Folks, I was just raised differently. My dad was self employed and successful and asked us to meet him at the country club for lunch! What an eye opener it was to be related to people who put cash in envelopes and owned their cars for more than 3 years! I was still 100% against it until the day my mother uttered a few simple words. "Meg, don't you think business owners should handle finances differently than non-business owners?" Hm. I was stumped. And of course because it was my mother who thought it was perfectly acceptable for a "normal" family to follow Dave Ramsey's rules, I quickly thought it was acceptable as well. :) And so I am now doing something that I swore I'd never do. I'm reading the book. And guess what? I love it! Why is it SO appropriate for our culture to live in so much debt? I'm not talking about politics. Don't even get me started. But just the regular ole you and me. We automatically assume that everyone has school debt and car loans and credit cards and mortgages. Right? That's normal! That's expected! That's okay! What about where the Bible says "owe no man anything but love"???? You think to yourself "how can you afford to live without debt? how can you afford to buy a house, or pay for a car, or go on vacation without involving credit scores and interest rates????" But how can you afford not to? We are no where near being debt free, but we have been really convicted lately to start trying. Listen to this excerpt, taken from Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover": "Imagine you buy a $130,000 home for which you take out a $110,000 mortgage at 7%. The final cost after all is said and done and paid would be $283,520 after 30 years." Sheesh! Isn't that incredible? Now don't get me wrong. I am a FIRM BELIEVER that you have to have "credit". I married the man without a lick of credit to his name and I even had to sign papers to let Verizon sell him a cell phone!!! :) We have vowed to make sure our boys are prepared to buy cars and houses and cell phones. But I've got to tell you, it's way better than marrying someone who's already $50,000 in the hole! Can you imagine a life where all you had to pay was the electric bill??? Honestly, I can't. But it sure is worth working towards. We think we can't afford to live without debt and credit, but really, how can we afford to?