Erasing Our Debt

As some of you may have heard, read, and/or paid for, there were at least 2 winners of the nearly $400 million MegaMillions lottery on Tuesday night. This game is played in Texas as well as 11 other states.
It slowly climbed to that amount from about $200 from last week.

My debt reduction process is from the "teachings" of Dave Ramsey. He insists to not play the lottery as it is a tax on the poor. I believe this is meant for the people that play for $20 or so everytime there is a drawing (twice a week = over $2,000/year)

I rarely play. When I say rarely I mean at most five times a year. Well I've already played four times this year for a total of $6 + $2 from a lottery scratch off ticket I received as a Christmas gift.

Was it wrong to chance $6 of my dollars to attempt to win over $200 million?

Labels: dave ramsey, lottery

I received a text message from a lifelong friend on Tuesday. He said he was considering a debt settlement company and wanted my input. I preferred to call him to let him know that I thought it was a bad idea.
He recently got married and the attempts to get finances under control with his wife are going for naught. The story I got was that they had both used the same checking account and basically they weren't communicating when each other was spending money. She would write checks unknown to him and they would be low on funds. He felt at the end of the ropes and wanted to use a debt settlement company to get rid of his debt. They told him he could pay about $450 a month for about three and a half years. The total paid was going to be around $15k. And in the process his credit would be trashed. Good thing he just bought a house and a car(not sure if its new or not).
He's a salesman for his current occupation and plans on earning about $50k this year. Not sure on his wife's job but it's probably good to bet she makes at least $15k a year. $65k a year for the area they live in is great money.
I tried my hardest to talk him out of it. I told him repeatedly that he'd only be curing the problem and not the symptoms of what got him into debt. Should this ever happen again, he'd look to do it again as an easy way out.
I've offered to drive up to his house to sit down for a couple of hours to go over his and her finances to get their financial life in order. I've even thrown out there that he should come to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover in Dallas at the end of February.

Does anyone else have any advice I could offer up to him to keep him from making a big mistake??

Labels: dave ramsey, debt, friends

I took my car to the shop this morning at 7am. I almost didn't make it. Around 9am I received a call to let me know what was wrong with it. I needed new sparkplugs and wires. I also opted to go ahead and get my oil changed and the air filter replaced. I expect total cost to be about $300. I just received the call that it was already fixed and ready to be picked up. That was quicker than I was expecting.
I had to transfer the money from my ING savings account so it isn't in my checking account yet. I'm going to have to use a credit card. I really wanted to avoid that as I expected it to at least take 2 days to diagnose and repair. With that lapse of time the transfer from my emergency fund would have been in my checking account. However, as soon as the money is cleared into my checking account, I am setting up an additional payment to that credit card.
If this isn't a good reason to have an emergency fund, I don't know what is.

Labels: dave ramsey, emergency fund

The greatest single source of wealth is between your ears. -Brian Tracy

I get a daily email of 9 quotes or blurbs that I have received for the past 3 or so years. The above quote was #8 on the list on Wednesday.

There is usually a quote a week that sticks out and makes me think. This one doesn't necessarily make me think but rather agree with it. While I do not consider myself to currently have wealth, I am on my way to accomplishing that goal. It wasn't until I decided to use what is between my ears that I figured out I didn't have to be in debt anymore, that I too could become wealthy - financially independent. I think all of us that blog about finances or getting out of debt pretty much came to that conclusion too. We started using our heads and thinking about our situation. We stopped worrying about impressing people. We stopped being normal. But as Dave Ramsey says, "Normal is broke!"

Another thing that really bugs me is something I read the other day. I hopped on AIM and was checking the away messages and someone I graduated high school had something to this effect as their away message: "I am now enrolled in a 401k. I feel like such an old woman". I'm sure they will read this too, but that's ok. Enrolling in a 401k, when it is available, is about of the smartest financial decisions you will make. It's like when you go to college and you received more financial aid than was necessary. You would stand in line for that refund check. That's free money baby!! So when your employer provides a match on your contributions, that's free money too - only you don't have to stand in line. So, my old high school chum, if you still feel like an old woman, I hope you feel like a WISE old woman. sidenote: I get paid on the 15th and last day of each month, and after those days I check my 401k balances and keep them in a spreadsheet. At my new job that I started in July, I have achieved a 7% return on my investments. I guess that's pretty good. My old 401k that I have yet to rollover has returned about $55 after I contributed about $650 and received a match of about $125. I really need to roll that over. Just all the information I have received on how to do it, makes it seem complicated.

Labels: 401k, dave ramsey