One of our favorite pastimes used to be watching Suze Orman on Saturdays at 9PM on CNBC.  The “Can You Afford It?” segment was a favorite of ours.  Saying “show me the money,” Suze would ruthlessly evaluate the caller’s finances (income, expenses, savings, and debt) to determine if they can afford that trip to Disney World with the family or a new handbag.  Sometimes even asking the callers, “Can you afford it, girlfriend?”  Ending the call with either “You’ve been approved, girlfriend” or an outright “Denied, denied, denied.”  We loved Suze’s sassy attitude! And the finance tips weren’t so bad either.

Suzy Being Sassy 

Suzy’s quotes soon filtered into our daily life.  When asking my mom if I should buy a pair of shoes, go on a trip, etc. she’d always reply, “Can you afford it, girlfriend?”  Sometimes my answer would be yes and other times a sad no.  But Suzy kept both of us on track and informed on how we should be handling our finances and even offered a point of comparison.

Now that Suze Orman’s been off the air for a few years, we’ve made the transition to Dave Ramsey for daily personal finance motivation.  Dave is kinda hardcore; preaching a debt-free lifestyle and getting “gazelle intense” living like no one else today so later you can live and give like no one else tomorrow.  Dave encourages people to accomplish this with 7 Baby Steps.

1. Save $1,000 to start an emergency fund
2. Pay off all debt using the debt snowball method
3. Save 3 to 6 months of expenses for emergencies
4. Invest 15% income into retirement accounts
5. Save for children’s college fund
6. Pay off your home early
7. Build wealth and give

All of his Baby Steps make perfect sense!  Worth mentioning, is program is also based off biblical financial concepts. Other financial advisors would say student loans and houses are good debt, but if student loan debt was really “good” debt why do I feel so bad about the student loan debt I have?  No one I know is happy to have student loans or a mortgage.

In transitioning to Dave Ramsey and working further on my own personal finances I recently completed the Financial Peace University program.  This includes 9 weeks of topics to change your thinking with others and a coordinator who often has completed the program themselves (mine completed, paid off all debt, and her house).  This gave me a support system of others willing to give up something today for a better tomorrow.  Making the decision to change your finances is really a psychological change.  And change is known to be traumatic for some.  Going through the program step by step helps make sense of paradigm shift needed to occur.

One of my favorite parts of Dave Ramsey’s shows is the Debt Free Screams.  Once people have completed Baby Step 2, paying off their debt, they can arrange to come to the show or call in to tell their story and literally scream, I’m debt free!  Even if you aren’t into Dave Ramsey, these are uber motivating.  Hearing stories from people making nearly nothing to those with big debt and bigger shovels makes anyone say, “Hey, I can do this too.”  So that’s what I’m doing.

I’m doing it while trying to not be such a crazy Dave Ramsey person, but you will see me pull out my cash envelope to pay for food.  It’s been a process and will continue to be a process that I’ll share with you over time! If you haven’t checked it out, I encourage you to do so. Who knows, maybe you’ll join the Dave Ramsey crazies.

What are your favorite personal finance tips or gurus? Questions about how I make the Dave Ramsey program work for me? Share in the comments! 

-ME