Folks think that the rich just have money and just spend it on a whim. No, the truly rich Give to others and think Like No One Else.
Posted on 04/20/2015 3:48:19 AM PDT by CptnObvious
Dave Ramsey always says the phrase "Live like no one else so you can live like No One Else" on his show. And anyone who listens knows it's about eating "beans and rice and rice and beans" and till you overcome the debt lifestyle. But what's not talked about is the other side - where you've made it and are living "Like No One else". What's that like and what kind of thinking happens on that side of the fence?
Having just come back from Two Weeks in Oahu, I was thinking about it. How did I get to this point? What adjusted my thinking from counting every nickel and dime toward debt to saving and having fabulous vacations guilt free?
Well, I remembered thinking after baby step 2 (including killing the mortgage)- "If I'm not careful I'll slip right back into debt", "Something could happen and I'll be right back into that mess". True, I had the emergency fund and saved three months (out of three to six months of living expenses) and seen that work for me. But I knew expenses were looming. The furnace and A/C was 30 years old and so was the house (and you say 'what the heck does this have to do with travel?').
So I opened a savings account I called "Long Term Home Expenses" and fed it with automatic transfers from my paycheck. In a year I had a thousand dollars and saw some results. Then I thought "my wife is an ER nurse" and she needs good vacations; 'You live hard so you play hard' is was what I said to her.
So I started a Vacation Savings Account but didn't have a whole lot of money coming in at that time. So I only made the automatic transfers $5 a month (just to start it). We saved overtime and added the few dollars from this account to pay for a nice meal while there.
When raises happened or I found better ways to budget, I increased the vacation transfers higher and higher. One year we vacationed on nothing but what was saved and I remembered the wife saying "it was a guilt free vacation". In the old debt lifestyle it was all on credit cards; now it was all through savings (Viva La Differonce!).
This vacation for two weeks in Oahu was our 20th Anniversary and we kept throwing overtime on top of full vacation savings to make it happen. It took a couple of years of savings and now "We were Living Like NO ONE ELSE". And what was the secret?
Thank you Dave Ramsey (and thank the Lord above even more) - it was those little saying "three to six months in savings". That's right that little word Savings made all the difference. It's the legacy of the debt free lifestyle that pays off dividends for the rest of your life and your families life.
It's not that you have money all over the place. It is the thinking behind it all that makes "Living Like No One Else possible".
Those $5 transfers to vacation savings was just a dream. No, it was the one of the most powerful things I had ever done.
The power of compounding coupled with the Christian perspective of gratitude really works. The Law of the Harvest is real. Congratulations.
Folks think that the rich just have money and just spend it on a whim. No, the truly rich Give to others and think Like No One Else.
>> No it’s the compounding of ideas - one idea and action leads to another.
Well said. Blessings, and Congrats on your progress.
I call it the 5 year plan.
Where do you want to be in 5 years? Plan it achieve it. That 5 year plan moves ahead every day and you move with it.
You will not believe what you can achieve when you live that way.
Wanted a house by the age of 25 that was payed for. Missed it by 1 year. Built it my self. 2700 square ft and built it out of my pocket as I had it and it took me several years. Worked every shutdown and startup at night and worked on home during the day.
After that complete, financial savings was save, save and save in differet buckets for different family needs (not WANTS).
Now at 58 been retired for 8 years from the “working for the man” world. Wife and I doing what we want after raising 3 kids.
The thing is no one suffered during this time. We did things together but we did not do wasteful spending on crap.
It does work, no? It started for me when I went through my conversion to Christianity and started really tithing (10%). It was slow but steady. I have never made much money but I save and haven’t owed anyone anything for years. We don’t go to Hawaii but then we don’t particularly care to. We do vacation where and when we like, though. We always pay cash for stuff like cars. We’ve never had a new one and we’ve never had monthly payments for one either. No rent and no more mortgage is a big thing, too. I learned how to use a credit card and use it almost exclusively. I don’ pay interest on it because I keep it paid off and it keeps me from dribbling away money buying cups of coffee at the 7-11 or lottery tickets as I used to do.
It was always my life’s dream to go to Hawaii. Ok, so now I’ve been (4 times) My son was a flight attendant, I flew over there for free, what can I say?????? haha.
You did good. I admire your diligence and dedication to saving. And I admire your choice of vacation/honeymoon spots!!!
Sure, there’s not a lot of compounding at today’s interest rates but Ramsey is not based on the effects of compounding on savings but upon avoiding the effects of compounding on debt. Today’s savings rates are low but today’s interest rates on debt are still high.
BTW, congratulations. We started Ramsey about 20 years ago.
The things you can achieve following Ramsey are truly impressive. We’re retired now and are living very well.
After we paid off all the credit cards, the difference was like night and day. Most of the money was paying for interest. Now we pay them off every month, so the total bill is just for what we actually bought, no interest.
Your right about tithing. It is another secret to being wealthy and giving.
It disciplines the mind and keeps one from being too tempted by debt and advertisements. It makes one budget and plan through savings. Although budgeting, planning and savings are not things exclusive to folks of faith; tithing accelerates all of these things in ones life. You become more thankful and grateful and perceive how to be more graceful toward others.
One thing in this 20th Anniversary Vacation was that I prayed my wife would have a great time and that I would be able to see her needs. This seems to have been answered in abundance. For when I focused on giving to her, the Lord seemed to give back to me. God, amazingly, is a God who cannot be outgiven.
Being Wealthy and Giving, is so much more than money. It is about shifted attitudes and servanthood. For there, we find true wealth.
CO
I meet too many Ramsey followers who don’t follow Ramsey. I have one friend who keeps $6000 in his BS1 account while they are going through BS2. He was complaining about the low interest it was earning and I told him “I know where you can get 18% interest on $5,000 of that money. PAY OFF THE DISCOVER CARD!”.
People who lived on credit cards and never had savings suddenly grow a large security glands when they start TMMO. It’s amazing.
For most people it is simple : Start treating your savings account like you now treat your credit cards and treat your credit cards like you now treat your savings account.
“After we paid off all the credit cards, the difference was like night and day. Most of the money was paying for interest. Now we pay them off every month, so the total bill is just for what we actually bought, no interest.”
Some people, like my ex-wife, will never understand that not paying 18% interest is almost like getting an 18% pay raise.
“I meet too many Ramsey followers who don’t follow Ramsey. I have one friend who keeps $6000 in his BS1 account while they are going through BS2. He was complaining about the low interest it was earning and I told him “I know where you can get 18% interest on $5,000 of that money. PAY OFF THE DISCOVER CARD!”.”
Of course, Ramsey would say: ‘pay the cards off and burn them.’
We’re not ‘pure’ Ramsey since we do see a place for credit cards. We do pay them off every month but Dave says that you should just pay cash and you will spend less. I’m sure he’s right but we still find a place for them. (Ever had to book a transatlantic flight at 2 AM for departure at 8AM?)
Your right about tithing. It is another secret to being wealthy and giving....Being Very serious, To whom do you tithe?..To a Church that pays themselves (for the building fund?) To the poor that make as much as you on UI, WIC, etc? Whom should I tithe to? How about tithing to myself for purely selfish reasons? I started putting $5.00 a week away in 1988 into a deferred comp fund with no employer back up. I upped it every time I got a raise. I gave money to UWay every year (which I quit, they are crooked as a Clinton or Al Sharpton) and ended up with $300,00 from Def Comp. when I retired. As well as my pension. As well as my SS. TO WHOM DO I TITHE?
Fellow FReeper gives a testomonial of success! Keep up the hard work and you will someday be able to “Live like No One Else!”
Dave Ramsey Ping List (not very frequent anymore...)
;-)
“The power of compounding coupled with the Christian perspective of gratitude really works. The Law of the Harvest is real.”
BUMP! and AMEN!
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