Baby steps?! Are you kidding me?

Disclaimer: Hubs is an English teacher, not me, so if there are grammatical errors and run on sentences, please just don't kill the blogger.

The next couple posts are going to try to catch us up to where we are in the Financial Peace University.

On June 24th we, hubs and I, attended our first Financial Peace University (FPU) class. The first night of class you are supposed to bring with you your total debt not including mortgage written down on a piece of paper. So to get ready for class we sat down and listed out our debt. I sat there for a while and looked at the number. It could be worse I guess. Hubs actually said he thought it would be worse. I just know that whatever that number is currently it is what is standing between us and our dreams and I'm tired of it! I'm not ready to share with your how much that number is, but I will give you the percentage breakdown. It is about 55% car loans, 25% school loans, and 20% credit card debt. (sigh)

So we go to class. Get our (FREE) materials. People watch all the other people in our class; wonder who is worse off then we are.

The class begins. The instructor/facilitator asks us to share why we are there. I don't remember what I said anymore but I am sure it was something like we need to figure out how to get rid of our debt so we can retire and our kids can go to school. Ultimately we were all there for the same reason, to get out of debt and stay out.

The facilitator pops in a DVD and it begins. Our journey really begins. I think I started to sweat. That might be because it was 100 degrees outside and we were sitting in a room full of windows, or it could be that I was scared to death of what I had gotten us into. At first I was a bit miffed at the fact that we were watching a DVD. Really? A DVD? Because I don't think that is really an effective adult learning strategy. But then Dave Ramsey appeared and began talking. While making me feel like an idiot for getting into needing his help, he also made me feel human and able to laugh at the stupid things we had done which lead us to his door step.

Dave (I call him Dave now because anyone who knows your financial information so intimately should be called by their first name) has a wonderful sense of humor and an ability to make you feel like he knows you, knows your struggles and he's only talking to you. How he does this through a DVD or his live presentations I will never figure out. Dave says there are seven baby steps to becoming debt free. Baby steps. Right! If they were baby steps don't you think we would have already taken them. Baby steps are easy peasy not life changing, or are they?

Hmm, baby steps. Lets think about a baby learning to walk. (On a side note, my baby B is learning to walk, so I should get this, right). First they have to learn to stand, next they have to be able to steady themselves, then begin to take steps. They fall down more then they take steps, then finally learn to take steps waddling as they go. So maybe this will be more like taking baby steps then I realized. I'm sure Dave meant it was like taking small steps not learning to walk, but I like my analogy better.

Wait until you hear what baby step 1 is! Save $1000 as fast as you can. If we could do this, why would be here????? It seems that there is never money for saving, because there is never enough to pay what we owe. How can we save if we are paying what we owe? Really Dave this is the best you can do for baby step 1?

The $1000 is for the beginning of an emergency fund. It is not to be touched unless you have an emergency. ( I wonder if forgetting my lunch is an emergency) The DVD goes on to share examples of people who have saved that money and how great it is and blah blah blah. I'm still struggling with how to make this $1000 appear out of no where. I understand the need. Having $1000 in the bank, in case something happened to our house or car or child or whatever, could definitely save us from adding on to our debt. And that is the point, most people have emergencies and typically they are less then $1000. Wouldn't it be a game changer if you had the $1,000 in the bank instead of feeling the need to resort to a high interest credit card or even worse, ask a family member to borrow the money.

Following class we strategize how we might be able to put this $1,000 away and what the timeline might look like. Within a couple days I'm thinking, holy crap we might actually accomplish this baby step within a couple weeks. Rock on us! Fast forward 2 weeks. Guess who's car battery died before we got the $1,000 put together (well or any of it to be honest), that's right, this girl. So once again we found ourselves in need of using the plastic and cursing all the way. I had bought into the idea of baby step one before this day, but this really solidified it for me. We have to get this money together. I think it will be the first big clue we received that is going to make life much more peaceful.

Half a babystep forward, 2 babysteps back.