Anyikire: Just Keeping Up

My fellow colleague Chikaod Anyikire shows his Ramsey Roots in the excellent guest post below. I hope to get him to write for us more in the future.

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The American culture has in recent years evolved around accumulating debt. One of the reasons many people have gained so much is because of the age old adage “Just Keeping Up with the Joneses”. Now, it has become more common to file for bankruptcy and depend on credit cards to maintain a financial lifestyle. Now, after a year of bailouts and stimulus packages there is a small group of people who are saying “I just want to Keep Up”. There are many ways to get your life back on track and gaining financial peace. There are so many spokesmen and women, books, and internet sites that provide information about digging ourselves out of the hole we created.

An effective way is to become conservative when it comes to handling financial decisions. A radio host, Dave Ramsey teaches that aggressively paying off your debt, tearing up your credit cards and never using them, and “Living like no one else, so you can live like no one else” are just a few things he teaches through his books and programs. This means making some tough decisions by sitting down and creating a budget, living off of ramen noodles or rice and beans until you pay off your debt, then taking steps to saving up for retirement, education for our kids, and charities. This financial philosophy creates the foundation to live a life full of financial peace where a person has not to worry about debt collectors, garnishing of wages, and liens against where your family sleeps, your home. The benefits outweigh the future stress that would develop without taking steps to paying off your debt.

Let’s hope that this culture of paying off debt and leaving under our financial means thrives in our culture like a once wealthy Babylon, so that we all can achieve financial peace.

More information about Dave Ramsey … www.daveramsey.com