By Bill Pemberton
A few years ago my wife Amy and I took our first Financial Peace University class. At the time we were in bad shape, both financially and personally. We fought all the time about money–we fought about not having enough, who was spending it on what–you name it, we argued about it. We had fallen down the credit card hole and couldn’t see a way out.
We had fallen down the credit card hole and couldn’t see a way out.
So, Amy signed us up for this class called Financial Peace University, and I was a little skeptical going into our first class. I thought, “How can this possibly help? We are in such rough shape.” After the first class, something previously unimagined happened. We began to talk about money in a different way.
Our previous discussions were usually a bit louder and only happening when we needed money that we didn’t have. Our first after class discussion was calm, civil, and pretty pleasant. Then came more classes and more discussions. We were talking budgets, savings, the future, and not fighting about it at all.
We began to talk about money, in a different way.
Looking back, I think the best thing that came out of our classes, aside from the stability of a financial plan, was the sense that we could do this: we could beat our credit cards into submission, and I had a partner who was right there with me ready for the fight.
We still have little arguments about money, but NOW they involve what we are going to do with the EXTRA money we’ll have once the cards are paid off. Our last credit card payment will be in April of 2015!
“Debt is normal. Be weird.”- Dave Ramsey
Financial Peace University begins Wednesday, September 10, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Luke-Ann Arbor. This nine-week class will be part of the Wednesday night evening education program. Find out more information and register for the class.
