Dave Ramsey isms

I listen to Dave Ramsey a LOT. If you don't know who he is you should. He is blunt, tough, but effective. Chris and I have been following his baby steps and they WORK. 

• Baby Step 1 – $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
• Baby Step 2 – Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
• Baby Step 3 – 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
• Baby Step 3b- Save for a down payment for a home
  
• Baby Step 4 – Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
• Baby Step 5 – College funding for children
• Baby Step 6 – Pay off home EARLY
• Baby Step 7 – Build wealth and give!

Chris and I are on Baby step 3b! We are proud of what we have accomplished in about 5 years of Marriage. We have no car payments, and Chris' student loan is GONE. We are so grateful for Dave Ramsey and his podcasts! If you have any debt at all, you NEED to follow him, listen to him and do the baby steps; it comes with some sacrifices (mostly social, no eating out, etc) but it is SO WORTH IT, and SO freeing! 

Things I've learned along the way:

• Saying no. As much as I want to, I have had to tell myself no a LOT. And my friends No a lot.
• Selling things we don't need on Facebook Marketplace, online yard sale pages etc. 
• Being more mindful of the things we buy and bring into our home! This saves us a lot of money!
• Working on being a minimalist (needing less, which in turn means spending less)
• Working with what we have and making it work, repairing it, re purposing it, etc.