I'm really into saving money right now, but I'm terrible at it. I've been joining these money challenges in hopes to pay off my student loan as soon as possible, and so far I've failed all of them.
So instead of spending my Sunday afternoon ice skating with my friends, I've been reading other frugal/financial blogs. There's a name that keeps peppering the posts: Dave Ramsey. The first time I ran into Mr. Ramsey, the blogger was encouraging its readers to buy his books. I quickly dismissed it as a scam or a quick buck for the blogger.
But he popped up again. And again. Finally, I clicked on a link to read something he wrote about budgets. And he made me feel better instantly about my recent failed attempts:
Give it three to four months to start working. It won't be perfect the first time you do it.He reminded me that it's normal to fail. That I should keep going regardless of my seemingly pathetic budgeting attempts. He flipped my lingering guilt around in seconds.
This guy is kinda cool, I thought. So I
I'm probably not going to buy his books and attend his classes just yet. But I do want to take his seven baby steps into account:
- $1000 to start an Emergency Fund.
- Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball.
- 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings - expand the emergency fund.
- Invest 15% of household income into IRAs and pre-tax retirement.
- College funding for children.
- Pay off home early.
- Build wealth and give!
He calls these baby steps - I'm not sure if that's the right term, since these steps will see me through the next seven years (probably). I'm also not sure if the steps were built for me, I don't own a house nor do I have children to start a college fund for! But it's a neat little framework that I'll return to after I finish up step number two.
Dave Ramsey, let's see what you can do.
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