Dave Ramsey

I started taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes at my church. I thought it would be very informative both personally and professionally. So far, I concur on both levels and I am just on week 3 of 13.

Personally, I now realize how much money I spend on frivilous crap every week. Don't get me wrong, I have become very frugal in my old age, but I still found many holes in my methods once I put a microscope to it. Dave's approach is very straight forward and very logical...eerily so.

Professionally, the whole Dave Ramsey money logic is a paradigm shift in most Conventional Wisdom business theories. Which of course got me thinking about our current economic situation and how politics affect the before and after solutions.

What got me thinking about this was the Leased car discussion yesterday. I will be the first person to admit that I rely on professional advice for things I am not well versed on. I remember back in the day when my company was Leasing cars instead of purchasing them because of "tax benefits". So did that mean that the government was incentivizing companies to make bad money decisions? Because let me tell you, after Dave Ramsey's class yesterday, Leasing a car is the LAST thing you should be doing.

So now I start extrapolating. What other policies are being passed that incentivize companies to make bad money decisions? Is that where the debt-is-good business lobby comes in? Can't you see a well connected and convincing lobbyist telling a harried group of politicians that their product HELPS people, we just need this one little clause to make that happen. Sounds relatively innocent and then Voila, another layer of hell added to the broken system. I guess that is why I get freaked out when our legislators are "at work". I always think "How many more layers are we adding this year". No wonder I fear more government in our lives.

I don't have the answers, but I do know that Dave Ramsey's message speaks to me on many levels. It reminds me that we need to get back to basics, both personally and professionally. We need a paradigm shift.

Dave Ramsey for President!