Freedom

What a beautiful word. Freedom. To each of us it means something different but we all have a big picture of what freedom entails.
I worked with Mitch who from time to time would throw back his head and yell FREEDOM.  All of us in the shop knew that he was working on getting his own business going. I assumed that, as he listened on his headphones, he was dreaming of the day he would quit.  One day when I was in the front office he yelled out, the boss was irritated and asked who kept yelling.  I played dumb. Bob had no idea what Mitch was yelling or why. Looking back now it is likely he probably was listening to Dave Ramsey. For those who aren't familiar with Dave he has a national radio show and advocates getting out of debt.

I have been very fortunate to have mentors in my life who strongly discouraged debt. Mom and Dad of course laid a foundation. They never really got into trouble with debt so could not provide personal testimony about the true perils debt can have. For that I had to learn from a teacher I'll call Mr. G.   Mr. G was easy get off topic in class. one day Me. G. got off into how he and his wife were not really paying attention as they should and ran up (a fairly small) debt. The next day he did not even teach the lesson plan but gave out some of the materials they used to get out of debt. I still have those papers. Recently I had the opportunity to drop him a note and let him know how he had impacted my life by that. Thanks facebook. The next person who came along was some money guy on PBS. He did not say anything I had not heard but repeated and reinforced what I knew. The main thing he said that I took away was to live within my means. Having said all that I have on two occasions bought cars on notes.

So what is my point?

Since sometime in 2004 I have been completely debt free. After I bought my house I had such a good experience with the real estate agent I recommended him to everyone. Most people who I talked to had messed up credit and were nowhere near close to buying a house. Still I persisted in preaching the gospel of frugality. Within the last few years I discovered was instructed to listen to Dave on the radio. At first I felt he was preaching to the choir but have come to realize that not only does he believe the same sort of things about money as I do, he has a way to help people out of debt. I have bought and given away 5 of his Total Money Makeover books.
Not having to worry about debt gives me the FREEDOM to travel to Africa for six months and see my family.  If you did not have debt, is that what you would do? I doubt it. Your freedom looks different than mine. I would just like to be that person who repeats and reinforces what you probably already know. Whether you buy Dave's book or not your road to freedom will be uniquely your own. Start today.

Blogger wants me to monetize this blog but so far I have not gotten around to it. If you follow that link I don't make a penny.