Book #2: Total Money Makeover

I am so excited to finish reading this book. It is called The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. JMP received this as a Christmas gift. I knew he wanted it so ordered it for my grandmother to give him. He read through it very quickly. I cannot say enough positive things about this book.

I had heard many things about Dave Ramsey and his book. I really didn't know what all the excitement was about till now I read it for myself! I have always considered us to be pretty responsible and conscious about our spending. We are not frivolous, never have a credit card balance, pay our bills on time, and like to save. This book has brought about a whole new thought process for me now though. It is so exciting to think of the extra money we can have to put into retirement and a college education fund. Then to move beyond that to giving and having fun.

I am pleased to say we are on our way taking the "baby steps" in the book towards a "total money makeover." We established a written budget at the beginning of this month. Since JMP gets paid every two weeks and we're at the end of the first pay period, it is even more exciting to us to see the extra money we have left because we did budget. We had certain categories we used for the envelope system as well. We decided to use some of our savings money to pay off our car loan. We are using the debt "snowball" approach now to work on the truck and then the student loans. It all seems very do-able. At the end of the book Dave gives the reminder of not letting money control you. It is an excellent reminder and something I remember....it could all be gone tomorow and it's all God's anyway.

I've seen what a terrible thing debt can be. It really does create tension and frustrations and takes away peace. Money causes so many issues for so many families. I firmly believe that is not how God intends us to live. We need to be good stewards. I also believe that this book has some key points that can help anyone have financial peace.

If you want to have financial peace I would highly recommend this book to you. If you think you already have financial peace, I think you'd still enjoy reading it. You'll probably learn a lot like I did!
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"Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops." Proverbs 3:9