Discovering Dave

  • Published
  • By Lt Col Stacie A. Rembold
  • 436th Communications Squadron
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Twenty-eight years ago, when I first joined the military, I didn’t think twice about spending money or about saving for the future. I also didn’t think twice about buying a new car and applying for a few credit cards to build up my credit. My thought was “why shouldn’t I if I had a stable income?”. After all, I had a guaranteed paycheck that came in on the 1st and 15th of each month, and I felt that I’d always have this stability throughout my career. I was in denial!

When I was a young Airman, this of course got me into a little bit of a bind. I can remember a time when I was living from paycheck to paycheck; it was a horrible feeling. I still wanted to do all the things my friends were doing, and I did this through the use of credit cards. My financial life was snowballing out of control, getting deeper and deeper into debt. As I made rank and more money, I would move a little out of debt, but never completely out of debt. I still continued to use credit cards and always seemed to trade in my 5-6 year old vehicle for a newer model.

I continued this cycle for years, still not really putting too much effort into my finances. When my husband, Terry and I married, we created a pseudo budget, but that was really only to make sure we were paying our bills on time and had enough money to cover them each month. Anything extra, we just spent. We aren’t exactly too sure what we bought. We just know that by the time the next payday rolled around, we were ready for more money to be deposited into our bank account. Stationed up in Alaska at the time with double income, we literally spent a couple thousand dollars a month … on who knows what! We really didn’t have anything to show for it.

Then it happened … we discovered Dave!

February 2014 was the month and year that changed our lives forever. My husband stopped in a book store to buy me a birthday present, and he came across Dave Ramsey’s book, “The Total Money Makeover”. Terry purchased two books that day, but for some reason, I can only remember Dave’s book … it made that much of an impact on our lives!

We read Dave’s book together and if we weren’t reading the book, we were listening to Dave’s podcasts. We sat down and created a real budget for the first time and once we started sticking to a written budget, we actually felt like we received a pay raise. We tracked every dollar and where it went. As Dave would say, we were “gazelle intense” on becoming debt free.

It took us another month before we completed the first of seven baby steps outlined by Dave Ramsey. We stashed away $1,000 meant for true emergencies and then proceeded to the next baby step. We sold things we didn’t need and budgeted for everything! No more credit cards … we paid cash for everything from car repairs to Christmas gifts. It took us another 14 months to get completely out of debt, but we did it and what a great feeling that was!

To this day, I wish heard about Dave’s money principles back when I was a young Airman. Fortunately, we discovered Dave early enough to recover from our past financial carelessness, but it could have turned out so much worse if something catastrophic happened in our lives or careers that we weren’t prepared for…or if we didn’t discover Dave at all!

Whether it’s Dave’s baby steps or a plan from another financial consultant, being debt free with an iron-clad budget, along with savings and investing will equal a well-balanced financial plan that could establish a legacy of financial freedom for you and your family.