Helpful Documents

I Googled excel spreadsheets for Dave Ramsey's zero-based budget and found these two particularly helpful resources on someone named Chris Hoffman's blog.

First, the Allocated Spending Plan (download zip file; enable macros in Excel).

He also linked to a Debt Reduction Calculator which you can use for your debt snowball.

These are in addition to the Gazelle Budget on the Member Resource Center site at DaveRamsey.com.

$6 million and counting...down

I admit I was surprised. With 20 index cards counted, GT's inaugural FPU course was staring straight down the barrel of $6,000,000+ in debt!

Now, I know that we have homeowners in one of the most expensive cities in the country. What surprised me that NOT ONE CARD had $0 on it! Not one!

We've got our work cut out for us!

I know for me, debt like student loans and credit card balances seem to never go away. I totaled up what we're paying every month - and we're being aggressive - and yet I still feel like we're digging in quicksand sometimes.

Looking forward to next week's lesson! How about you?

Who's got a plan?

I remember it like it was yesterday. New job, new salary, new dreams. Danielle and I, fed up with our current bank, walked into our local "Stagecoach Pulled by Horses" branch to open a new account (names have been changed to protect the innocent). We even had some savings to deposit!

"Welcome to the family." The super-friendly and unassuming personal banker greeted us. "Let me ask you a few questions to make sure you get the products you need."

I should have stopped her right there. I should have gotten up and said, "Hold up. We just came in to open a checking and savings account." But I didn't. My ego was sufficiently stroked as she asked us what our gross monthly income was and, oh, did we know that they offered a free consult with a wealth manager for clients like us.

You can guess what happened next. We walked out of that bank with the largest personal line of credit we had ever had! To top it off, it was already open and we left with checkbook in hand...for emergencies, of course! At least we passed on the free consult.

If you couldn't tell already, the most convicting moment for me in today's Super Savers lesson was Dave's well-told story of the marketing machine I had just fed with my $500 savings account deposit. Who had a plan? I thought I did but clearly the bank had a better one.

Driving by those billboards on 101 I always thought that I would be riding in the stagecoach, not pulling it. Two and a half years later, my nearly tapped out personal line of credit suggests otherwise...

Got a story to share prompted by today's lesson? How are you planning to get to Baby Step 1?