October Chief's Perspective

I have been listening to Dave Ramsey and his team on my short 56-mile trek one way to and from work. If you don’t know, he started out in real estate and got in over his head at a pretty young age and ended up filing for bankruptcy. Now thirty some years later he has built a company around helping others get out of debt and invest wisely. On his program he takes calls from people with questions about their finances and periodically throughout the program he does what is called a debt free scream. They are enjoyable to listen to at times to hear what that particular person, couple or family went through to become debt free. After talking about their journey, they count down and do the debt free scream. Every once in a while, though I will hear a call that upsets me. I can hear the hopelessness in the person’s voice. Many times, it sounds like the person has just hit rock bottom and the only thing they could think of to do was call into Dave’s show and try to get some help to figure out a way forward.

 I have known about Dave Ramsey for a while now. But up until this last year or so, I returned to listening to his program more and more. I end up getting a little bit of helpful information out of just about every show. The reason for my newfound interest was due to one of our First Sergeants here at McEntire, sending out a promotional code for membership to Ramsey Solutions. Once I signed up, I found an abundance of tools on his website to help with all things money related. What I quickly realized, after some rooting around the Ramsey Solutions website, was not only are there tools for managing your money, but also leadership and mental health.

According to CNBC.com, 77 percent of Americans feel anxious about their financial situation. 58 percent feel that they are controlled by their finances and 52 percent have difficulty controlling their money. Some of the impacts that financial stress is attributed to are fatigue, difficulty concentrating at work, trouble sleeping and stress on relationships just to name a few. Its easy to go on the “Google machine” and find many articles on the best ways to manage your finances. You can get on YouTube and find countless videos on the best ways to financial freedom. Or you can go to Ramseysolutions.com and find all the tools you need in one place. Millions of people now have followed Dave Ramsey’s 7 baby steps to paying off debt and are living debt and stress free. You will find that if you listen to or read what these 7 baby steps are you will think “well that’s simple”, but for some it isn’t as simple to employ these simple steps. Do not be confused by any means that I am one of these people yet. I am learning everyday working everyday to do better with my finances. Like everything it takes a complete mind change if you are not accustomed to it. One of the resources you will receive as a member is the Everydollar app. This is a great budgeting tool. If you have never used a budget before, guess what? They have videos and articles to help with that. Check out his website if you’d like more information.