Drum Roll Please for Financial Peace University
“Live like no one else, so that way later you can live and give like no one else.” — Dave Ramsey
About a month ago, Brianna was on the phone with her cousin from Indiana. One of the topics that happened to come up was this thing called Financial Peace University. We both were familiar with what the bundle was, but what we weren’t familiar with was the success that went along with it. One of those success stories included one of Brianna’s other cousins. I won’t get into specific numbers, but it grabbed both of our attention after hearing her accumulated amount of savings and debt payoff. Instantly we came to the conclusion that we needed to take the leap and buy the Financial Peace University kit.
After the past few weeks of doing FPU, we both have noticed drastic differences with ourselves. We view money completely differently. We use cash only. I never would have imagined walking into stores with a little blue envelope to pay for our things, which leads to my next point. We now go by the envelope system when it comes to the variety of different categories of spending we have: entertainment, food, traveling, envelopes for our envelopes (just kidding, although at the rate we’re going I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened one day).
The major benefit of it is that it restricts you from overspending. One of the things Dave points out in his training is the notable differences between using a credit card and using cash. With cash, you feel it, it’s there in your hands. On the other hand, with a credit card the cash is there, but you can’t physically feel it. At first I thought that was ridiculous and that it wouldn’t make a difference. I humbly will admit that was one of the dumbest things I could ever think. I’m sure it’s not the first time he’s heard it, but Dave was right. There becomes a strange attachment when you are paying with cash. What you’re paying for becomes more personal to you. I talk about it as if it’s bizarre to pay with cash, I mean, after all that was the only way to pay at one point.
Brianna and I would agree that FPU has created benefits even beyond our finances. We get to come together on Friday nights and build our covenant, which any opportunity at that is just instant awesome. It’s helped us work together in tackling not only my student loans (our goal is to have those bad boys paid off a year & a half from now), but also our day-to-day expenses. We get to grow together in wisdom and better ourselves for the day ahead.
I can’t emphasize it enough, but the main benefit is that we get to do this journey together. We’ve only been married for a little over 7 months, so I’m no veteran by any means, but one thing I’ve learned is that it truly is so valuable to spend time with your spouse. I’ve said we have Reason A and Reason B & C for doing FPU, but the best thing about it is getting to spend valuable, 1-on-1 time with my beautiful bride.
We believe money is a blessing the Lord grants us with, and it’s our responsibility to take care of it. It’s our calling as Christians to do so. Before FPU, Brianna and I budgeted, we saved, but FPU has revealed to us that we can go a step further in handling our finances. Our prayer is that we can be a light with this topic, not for our sake, but for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
