Well today marks our one year Dave Ramsey Financial Peace anniversary! Hooray, what a difference a year can make.
We enjoy our new life just as much.....no more, than our old life we just enjoy different parts of it and appreciate so many things so much more. It's simpler, its calmer, there is less stress, there is more unity, there is more VISION. No we aren't living in utopia of course. The key to all that we have done is putting our long term goals together so we are on the same page and keeping those in mind first and putting aside all of our instant gratification quests.
Oddly enough this has taken off in many circles we travel. Given recent economic climate it just makes sense to save for a rainy day, think differently, and have a plan. For US its definately not the flavor of the day and I pray it is not for others either. We have made many new friendships through having the same values, goals, and lifestyles and we meet more people all the time who are interested in it.
Having a plan has eliminated any money issues from our marriage, we never fought over money but there was definately conflicting views, priorities, and subsequent tension and discussions. I left Jared holding the bag to worry over the money and what to pay and only got involved when I wanted something which was not fair to him. I figured since he liked doing the bills that it was 'ok'.
We only found out after taking these classes that money problems are the #1 cause of divorce in america and also interestingly enough it takes average marriage ~7 years (though some are overachievers wink wink) to get themselves into a real pinch (we werent there yet but I could see us headed there) and hmmm that made me think does that in any way correlate to the all infamous '7 year itch'?
Last year we:
had two doctor bills and a dentist bill we were paying on
had two credit cards with all time high (for us) balances
had TWO huge student loans to the tune of almost $60,000 *cringes*
mortgaged to the brink of what our house was valued at (which now = overmortaged by LOTS)
had no set way of doing the bills/money together
had no definitive goals aside from the normal vague 'want more money & less debt plan'
Now our anniversary marks:
zero bills we pay everything ahead
no credit cards
1 huge student loan (very low interest being left for last)
as of end of 2008 we had paid off 45.6% of our debt snowball
have paid off ~15% of our mortgage and have about 5% more we plan to pay off shortly
we have a written budget, defined roles as to who does what, and both are involved in process
we have specific goals and mini-goals that we regularly revisit and re-calculate keeping us both in the loop---headed for the same spot. Having common goals/visions for our future has been HUGE!
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