When Kristi first told me about Dave Ramsey and the "Total Money Makeover" I wasn't sold. I thought that all the debt we had was "good" debt. I had some debt on credit cards, but nothing crazy like the people I always see on TV or hear about in the news and on the radio with $10,000+ in debt on credit cards. I didn't have crazy personal loans or lots of financed toys like motorcycles, but I also didn't really have any plan. I didn't know I needed one.
Before this time I was working for the Oregon Social Learning Center and the University of Oregon doing psychology research. The pay wasn't great but it was a fun job and I enjoyed what I was doing. After a while though the hours began to dwindle and the fun evaporated. I started looking for jobs more in line with my degree in Biochemistry, but I lacked the relevant lab experience and my overall job hunt effort wasn't great. As my job satisfaction and income decreased, my debt increased and I became aware of my definite lack of savings and future plan.
By this point Kristi and I were engaged, we had discovered the Good Neighbor Next Door program which allowed us to buy our first home, and I was still unhappy with my career. I was thankful that I had employment, such as it was, considering the high unemployment rate and the declining economy, but I knew it could only last so long given my deteriorating happiness and paychecks. In May of 2010 I found a posting for a sales/chemist position at Optimize Technologies. I applied and had 2 interviews with the company before I was told that they had hired another person who had more experience in the lab. Since I had 0 work experience in a lab, I could hardly blame them. Still, it was a very low point for me since I thought I had the job locked up after I gave a great set of interviews, in my opinion. However, life had chosen to bless me in other ways as we moved into our new house in June of 2010 and we were less than a year from our wedding date.
After that low point I began to work closely with Paul, a close friend who had gone to business school and done the job hunt circuit before. We worked on my resume, focused my job search with clear and defined goals, and he held me accountable each week for my progress. I had a few interviews for other positions, one of which I turned down because I knew the company wasn't a fit for me personally and another that wasn't a fit for me financially. As the search continued my hours were cut down to a point at OSLC where I was no longer getting benefits, and it was at this point that Kristi mentioned Dave Ramsey. When she mentioned the plan I was skeptical to say the least, but honestly I was simply afraid that my meager income wouldn't be enough to put a dent into our student loans and help us. I was scared that I would be a failure and put our soon to be marriage at risk because I couldn't hold up my half of the bargain. My greatest fear in life is to be helpless, and in all honestly I was feeling pretty helpless at this point. Nonetheless, I agreed that we should give it a try, but I was never totally committed to it. In fact, shortly after we started the program we bought my truck and took on a car loan. Not an auspicious start, to say the least.
However, life has a funny way of working itself out if you roll with the punches. Shortly after the dawn of 2011 I received an email from Optimize Technologies asking my to come back and interview again for a new position that had opened up. I was ecstatic, but I was also guarded because I didn't want to get my hopes up to high and then end up disappointed again. After the email I searched high and low for a public posting of their newly open position and couldn't find it anywhere. My guard began to lower and I grew excited about the interview. I practiced with Jeff and prepped for the interview by buying a new suit (on credit, gasp) and studying. I interviewed for and was offered the position the same day, and I took it happily.
My income more than doubled with my new position considering it was full time employment with a higher salary, and the heavy burden of not being able to help with the finances was lifted. Since January of 2011 we have paid off more than $10,000 in debt, but still I wasn't committed wholly to the plan. I never made saving a priority and we spent money that we didn't need to spend on various wants and desires.
Flash forward to last week. I realized that we hadn't hit any of the goals we had set when we got back from our honeymoon. First of all, it was entirely possible for us to have had the truck paid off by September, but we had fallen woefully behind. In fact, we hadn't really made a large dent in our debts in the last two months. We looked at our budgets and saw that our money just went here and there on it's own, we didn't have a plan to spend it wisely so it left on it's own accord. We were no longer in control of our money as we had been when we cruised through 10K in debt even as our wedding approached. Something had to change, and that something was me.
I read the Dave Ramsey's book, something I had been procrastinating for too long, and I realized that I was guilty of a lot of bad money behaviors. I wasn't saving, like I've said, and more importantly I wasn't being careful with my money. It seemed to walk away 5, 10, 20 dollars at a time to things I didn't need. I was tired of seeing our plan at the beginning of the month go totally by the wayside at the end of the month. There always seemed to be too much month and not enough left in our cash budget, which made us use the debit card, which dwindled our debt snowball fund. Most importantly, I realized, as Ramsey says, "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired!"
I fully committed to the plan. I made a spreadsheet with all of our debts and realistic targets for paying off each one if we contribute every spare dollar and cent we can find to paying them off. The truck will be paid for in November, and other small loans will follow shortly after. I believe we can be debt free in 2 years, except for the house, if we can attack the debt with single minded focus and resolve. I'm ready, Kristi is ready, and we're both on the same page and committed which will make all the world of difference.
Before this time I was working for the Oregon Social Learning Center and the University of Oregon doing psychology research. The pay wasn't great but it was a fun job and I enjoyed what I was doing. After a while though the hours began to dwindle and the fun evaporated. I started looking for jobs more in line with my degree in Biochemistry, but I lacked the relevant lab experience and my overall job hunt effort wasn't great. As my job satisfaction and income decreased, my debt increased and I became aware of my definite lack of savings and future plan.
By this point Kristi and I were engaged, we had discovered the Good Neighbor Next Door program which allowed us to buy our first home, and I was still unhappy with my career. I was thankful that I had employment, such as it was, considering the high unemployment rate and the declining economy, but I knew it could only last so long given my deteriorating happiness and paychecks. In May of 2010 I found a posting for a sales/chemist position at Optimize Technologies. I applied and had 2 interviews with the company before I was told that they had hired another person who had more experience in the lab. Since I had 0 work experience in a lab, I could hardly blame them. Still, it was a very low point for me since I thought I had the job locked up after I gave a great set of interviews, in my opinion. However, life had chosen to bless me in other ways as we moved into our new house in June of 2010 and we were less than a year from our wedding date.
After that low point I began to work closely with Paul, a close friend who had gone to business school and done the job hunt circuit before. We worked on my resume, focused my job search with clear and defined goals, and he held me accountable each week for my progress. I had a few interviews for other positions, one of which I turned down because I knew the company wasn't a fit for me personally and another that wasn't a fit for me financially. As the search continued my hours were cut down to a point at OSLC where I was no longer getting benefits, and it was at this point that Kristi mentioned Dave Ramsey. When she mentioned the plan I was skeptical to say the least, but honestly I was simply afraid that my meager income wouldn't be enough to put a dent into our student loans and help us. I was scared that I would be a failure and put our soon to be marriage at risk because I couldn't hold up my half of the bargain. My greatest fear in life is to be helpless, and in all honestly I was feeling pretty helpless at this point. Nonetheless, I agreed that we should give it a try, but I was never totally committed to it. In fact, shortly after we started the program we bought my truck and took on a car loan. Not an auspicious start, to say the least.
However, life has a funny way of working itself out if you roll with the punches. Shortly after the dawn of 2011 I received an email from Optimize Technologies asking my to come back and interview again for a new position that had opened up. I was ecstatic, but I was also guarded because I didn't want to get my hopes up to high and then end up disappointed again. After the email I searched high and low for a public posting of their newly open position and couldn't find it anywhere. My guard began to lower and I grew excited about the interview. I practiced with Jeff and prepped for the interview by buying a new suit (on credit, gasp) and studying. I interviewed for and was offered the position the same day, and I took it happily.
My income more than doubled with my new position considering it was full time employment with a higher salary, and the heavy burden of not being able to help with the finances was lifted. Since January of 2011 we have paid off more than $10,000 in debt, but still I wasn't committed wholly to the plan. I never made saving a priority and we spent money that we didn't need to spend on various wants and desires.
Flash forward to last week. I realized that we hadn't hit any of the goals we had set when we got back from our honeymoon. First of all, it was entirely possible for us to have had the truck paid off by September, but we had fallen woefully behind. In fact, we hadn't really made a large dent in our debts in the last two months. We looked at our budgets and saw that our money just went here and there on it's own, we didn't have a plan to spend it wisely so it left on it's own accord. We were no longer in control of our money as we had been when we cruised through 10K in debt even as our wedding approached. Something had to change, and that something was me.
I read the Dave Ramsey's book, something I had been procrastinating for too long, and I realized that I was guilty of a lot of bad money behaviors. I wasn't saving, like I've said, and more importantly I wasn't being careful with my money. It seemed to walk away 5, 10, 20 dollars at a time to things I didn't need. I was tired of seeing our plan at the beginning of the month go totally by the wayside at the end of the month. There always seemed to be too much month and not enough left in our cash budget, which made us use the debit card, which dwindled our debt snowball fund. Most importantly, I realized, as Ramsey says, "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired!"
I fully committed to the plan. I made a spreadsheet with all of our debts and realistic targets for paying off each one if we contribute every spare dollar and cent we can find to paying them off. The truck will be paid for in November, and other small loans will follow shortly after. I believe we can be debt free in 2 years, except for the house, if we can attack the debt with single minded focus and resolve. I'm ready, Kristi is ready, and we're both on the same page and committed which will make all the world of difference.
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