Can you believe it, Tish and I will be leading our 12th Financial Peace University Class with our great friends Andy and Kara Scott. The class will be held in Mt. Orab at Resonance Church. Leading Financial Peace University allows us to share the process for how we kicked debt out of life, started planning for the future and had hope again. Planning for the future is hard when you’re still paying for the past! There’s a better way! Join my Financial Peace University group, and we’ll learn how to beat debt and make a plan for the future . . . together! Interested? Sign up at Resonance’s Group site and buy your kit on our class site via Dave Ramsey’s website. If you have any questions feel free to contact us!
Debt
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Choosing Freedom from Debt using HOPE
We had the privilege on Sunday October 15, 2017 to share our journey to financial peace with Connect Christian Church. We talked about “Choosing Freedom” from debt and shared an acrostic for HOPE explaining how we chose freedom in 2009 and how you can choose freedom from debt as well. Check out the sermon video below:
The keys to finding financial peace and kicking debt out of your life is recognizing you need to be Honest with yourself, understand you have Options and Opportunities, have a financial Plan (aka a budget) and Execute your financial pan.
H – Honest with yourself
O – Options and Opportunities
P – Plan
E – Execute, no Excuses
We would love to do this more often and share our story with other churches. If we only encourage one person to choose freedom it is worth every minute. Feel free to contact us if we can help/serve your church or business.
Our debt free scream with Dave Ramsey
Lao Tzu is credited with saying, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Our journey to financial peace started in 2009 when we were introduced to Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University. Our journey was not about a place to travel to, but a destination of freedom. Financial Freedom!
When we began our journey, we were slaves to our debt. But then (we love but then!) a friend shared his story and we found HOPE. If you want to read more about our journey here is our story…
Check out the video of our interview and debt free scream on the Dave Ramsey radio show and Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel. Make sure you spend a few minutes to watch and share this article. We hope it inspires you and others to never give up. You can find Financial Freedom!
Our goal at E3 Financial Coaching is to help others find Financial Freedom just like we did. If you’re ready to have HOPE, submit a FREE financial consultation request today.
Behind the scenes of our debt free scream
First lets start by saying what a great experience it was. Dave’s team was fantastic and you can tell everyone enjoys what they do. Tish and I planned our debt free scream for October because it was also our Anniversary. What a great way to celebrate our life together; screaming at the top of our lungs “We’re DEBT FREE!!!”. We showed up at the studio an hour early, can you say we were eager to meet Dave. We got to talk with a Dorothy and other Ramsey Solution staff members but the best part was talking with our family friend Vanessa, who works for Ramsey Solutions.
Little did Tish know I had been working with Vanessa on a surprise. When we paid off our house, Tish was disappointed that there wasn’t any balloons or confetti. So I was determined we would have confetti for our debt free scream. Vanessa, Ashley and the rest of the SmartDollar/Financial Wellness team at Ramsey Solutions were awesome. I was able to smuggle confetti poppers from Cincinnati to Nashville without Tish catching on. Vanessa had a great plan. Ashley would distract Tish with outstanding conversation and charm while I helped Vanessa get something “heavy” from “her” car. Once Vanessa had the confetti poppers she distributed them and organized the team of “confetti makers” flawlessly. As you can see at the end of the video Tish was totally surprised!
The Interview with Dave Ramsey and some things we wish we could have said
The interview with Dave Ramsey was amazing. 
Once he started asking questions it felt like we were just having a conversation with a friend. It also felt like it was only a minute or two but it was actually 9 minutes long.
While we got to say a lot during the interview there was a lot that we didn’t get a chance to say.
- We wanted to let everyone know that anyone can do what we did. No matter your income level or situation. We have seen it first hand through coaching.
- We wanted to let people know digging out of debt takes short-term sacrifice but results in long-term gains.
- When we were in baby steps 2 and 3 we were gazelle intense and gave up everything; texting, cable TV, eating out, vacations, extra-curricular activities and etc. What is funny is now we don’t even want many of those things back.
- We also sold so much stuff our kids and our dog thought they were next.
- Most importantly wanted to share how eliminating debt from our life has freed us to be more generous givers to our family, friends and strangers. Not having debt payments has enabled us to write checks to help whoever we want instead of writing interest payment checks to our lenders.
Enabling us to be more generous givers has made all the sacrifice worth it! Tish and I wouldn’t trade it for anything and we would do it all over again just so we could keep giving more of what God has blessed us with away.
Why financial goals are important
We have always known how important setting goals and writing them down are to our success but earlier this year we were reminded of the wisdom spoken by Earl Nightingale.
People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.” Earl Nightingale
Paying off our house was one of our major financial goals. That was our focus and vision; pay off our house debt and be 100% debt free! After paying off the house there was something that just didn’t seem right. [Read more…] about Why financial goals are important
What does every Mom want?
Every mom wants to know her kids are exceeding in life and one measure of success is being successful with your finances. It was a great feeling for Tish and I to call our moms and tell them we paid off our student loans and then call and tell them we were completely debt free! We could feel the excitement across the phone and it was such a great feeling to make our moms proud. So how do you pay off our student loans early so you don’t end up like the old man in the picture above? [Read more…] about What does every Mom want?
Over 60 and student loans
Many believe student loans are only a problem for college age students but after reading a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau we’ve determined student loans are becoming a big issue for Americans over the age of 60. According to the CFPB report entitled Snapshot of older consumers and student loan debt the number of consumers age 60 and older with outstanding student loan debt quadrupled from 2005 to 2015. These 60 and older Americans in 2015 had on average $23,500 in student loan debt compared to an average of $12,100 in 2005. In total, Americans over the age of 60 owed $66.7 billion in outstanding student loans in 2015.
What might surprise you is most of these student loans are not [Read more…] about Over 60 and student loans