It’s Called Currency

I used to think “what do I know?” when it comes to money. As it turns out, I know more than I thought. I’m not some bigshot millionaire who’s looking down on you from a pricey mansion. I’m just an everyday person living in the US of A and working to figure out how money works and how we can make it work for us. I’m willing to share what I learn as I learn it in the hopes that my epiphanies will save you some of my struggles (or pull you out of yours).

I am a graduate of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University which basically means that I spent (along with my husband) a number of weeks attending classes where a group of people watched video segments of Dave’s workshops on money. He covered all the basics and helped us to start looking at money as something we could actually control ourselves, consciously, rather than something we were always short on. I really like some of Dave’s philosophies and I feel strongly that a solid foundation in basic education is necessary if anyone is going to learn to move beyond the “paycheck to paycheck” cycle. Why is this stuff not included as basic curriculum in our high schools?!

I’ve actually conducted a few workshops in my own home with some friends and friends of friends. I didn’t think much about them until one of the attendees showed up unexpectedly to show his appreciation for all that he had learned. He hadn’t completely fixed his money situation but he was well on his way to paying off his overwhelming debt load. He and his wife had split up by then, and he didn’t get custody of the forms we’d given them, so we gave him another set. I was amazed to see that the hours we’d spent talking with him had impacted his life so thoroughly.

Knowledge is power, and my goal is to empower people with knowledge when it comes to money. In this world, we’ve got to use money in little ways each day to live, and in bigger ways each year to build our future. May we all find that the current flows in our favor.