Edwards Family Empowerment

Let’s talk investing. The last four steps can be done simultaneously, but I am going to address them separately. Baby Step 4 involves investing. You should invest 15% of your gross household income into Roth IRAs and tax-favored retirement plans. Why 15%? You can work on the last 4 of the baby steps simultaneously: pay off your mortgage, save for college for your kids, etc. while investing at the same time. 15% is a safe rate to invest. Once you have paid off your home and your kid’s college fund is fully funded you can always increase the amount that you are investing. One thing you should check on is whether your company offers a Roth 401(k) option. Companies sometimes offer matching funds for your 401(k). What this means is that for every dollar that you put into your Roth 401(k) your company may match that amount. This is free money. If you are on this step, you should be maxing your 401(k) option. Invest your entire 15% here. The best part about this is that the dollars in...

3. My third major career decision was to remain devoutly focused in the face of adversity. Failure was never an option. I leaned heavily on 2Corinthians 12:9, as I still do. I worked there for a year, it was third shift working at night, but I was always stopping by campus every week to read all the job postings. I desperately wanted to be in pharmaceutical research and on the biologics side. And finally one day, I saw what I was looking for and finally got into The Upjohn Company as a Research Associate. My first salaried position with benefits and paid vacation. It was here that I learned many surgical techniques, on many different species. I was even doing angioplasty on pigs & delivering nanoparticles to reverse plaque narrowing in arteries (atherosclerosis). I also got to write many technical papers and get published in professional journals like the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology. 4. My fourth major career decision was to take a job doing what I didn’t ...

I am the son, and only child of Willie Dean (Edwards) Turman, and Eugene Coker; both of Selma, AL. I’ve only met my biological father a handful of times, but my mother married Henry Turman in 1976, he adopted me, and he raised me and loved me throughout the rest of his life. We lived in Detroit for a few years after that, but left east Detroit as the city began to rapidly deteriorate. The Detroit of my youth was a grand and beautiful place; I miss it. It was at the end of summer in 1978 that we made our way to the small, quiet farming community of Litchfield, Michigan, and that is when this city boy began to learn how to do many things working our small produce and pig farm. In preparing to write this bio about the various careers I’ve had, I instinctively fast forwarded to all the things I’ve done since graduating from Western Michigan University, but life has a way of sometimes leading you back across paths you’ve already walked, and I must admit, many of the skills I learned on...

Congratulations on completing your debt snowball! Now it's time to move to Baby Step 3. Baby Step 3  is where you put 3-6 months of expenses into savings or a money market account as a fully funded emergency fund. Rachel Cruze, Dave Ramsey’s daughter, says that a good rule of thumb is: “ The more stable your income and household are, the less you need in your emergency fund.” The three-month guideline is mostly for those in salaried positions who have a secure or steady income. So, if you are in a two-income home and or have been at your job for more than three years, then a three-month emergency fund is ideal for you.   If your income is not stable, i.e. if you have an one income home, you’re self-employed, you earn straight commission, if you have an irregular income, or you fear that there is a possibility you could lose your job in the future, you should consider trying to save six months’ worth of expenses. If someone in your home has a chronic medical condition that re...

Lela Houston This subject is very close and dear to me because this is the person who raised me and my brother like she was our mom. After my mom and dad got A divorce, I was around 5 years old, and to be honest it was not a good place for any child to be. Needless to say, things were tough for us.  We stayed with our mom from time to time, but she was never really stable.  We often never stayed in any place longer than a few months. My sister, Sand, helped to watch over us along with her son while we stayed in Matthew Lane.  For the most part, those were good days, even though we got by on the bare minimum, but I was a child who kept company with myself. My imagination just blossomed in those harvested fields that surrounded our home. I don’t know why exactly, but my dad took us to A’ Lela’s house.  We would go there often to visit, but never stayed more than a few hours at a time, then one day we packed our clothes and was told that we would be staying with A’ Le...

 4. Your spouse isn’t on board 5. You aren’t consistent 6. You aren’t tracking your progress Your spouse is not onboard. Finances are one of the biggest causes of divorce or even simply arguments in a relationship. Doing the debt snowball is a lifestyle change, a very big one. Your spouse might not be a huge, Dave Ramsey fan. The debt snowball may not seem like the perfect idea to solve your debt issues to them. This was the case with me. Renardo, is not a Dave Ramsey fan. Sometimes it takes patience and a lot of frank discussions in order to get your spouse onboard. One thing that worked for me in swaying him is walking him slowly through the process. I did the legwork in getting all of our bills, student loans, car notes, mortgages, and credit cards with their respective annual percentage rates (aprs), monthly payments, and remaining balances using the Dave Ramsey snapshot tool or the Debt Snowball Calculator. I approached him with this and after a few attempts was able to sway h...

 You’re not budgeting You’re not 100% focused on your lowest balance Your income and expenses are remaining the same Your spouse isn’t on board You aren’t consistent You aren’t tracking your progress This is the step that I struggle with. The Debt Snowball. It would be easier to pretend like I didn’t have issues with this, but I am not. Most wounds don’t heal unless exposed. After Renardo and I remarried, we began budgeting, saving, and hustling for our dream…owning a home. We managed to obtain our dream only to slide back into old habits. After obtaining our home, we generated more debt. We recently bought a new house, a new car, among other things. We were sensible in our purchases, and can afford everything we bought, but we did not go in the direction that was most beneficial to us. Debt reduction. A lot of the pointers that Dave Ramsey espouses, we did not follow. So, I know the struggle is real. Step 2 is the step that I struggle with. One of my goals is to one day overcome o...

  So, this is the part of the Dave Ramsey plan where people fall out. They give up. They claim they can’t go on. The debt snow-ball. I am saying this because it is true for me. Dave Ramsey says that I am not alone. Many others struggle with this step. I have been on this step for quite awhile now. I haven’t given up, and I haven’t fallen out, but I seriously understand. My goal is to complete this step and move to step 3. Why is this part so hard? It requires a lot of self-awareness and self-sacrifice. Dave Ramsey says, “Personal Finance is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge.” So, what is this monster that I am asking you to tame? What does it require of you? It’s simple to explain but requires a lot of change in spending habits to put into effect. This is doable though, with a lot of determination and elbow grease, you can live the life of your dreams later, by making changes to your bill paying now. First, you make sure that you have your budget and your emergency ...

It’s no secret, I am a big Dave Ramsey fan. I’ve decided to talk about his game plan to become debt free.  Dave has seven steps to financial freedom. It’s a journey that I am currently on that I believe will benefit my family and I encourage you to look into it for yours. Dave calls the steps baby steps toward financial freedom. Before a baby learns to walk fully, there are small tentative steps they take before they begin walking. These are the steps you take before gaining financial freedom. THE 7 BABY STEPS Step 1: Save $1,000 for your starter emergency fund. Step 2: Pay off all debt (except for the house) using the debt snowball. Step 3: Save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund. Step 4: Invest 15% of your household income in retirement. Step 5: Save for your children’s college fund. Step 6: Pay off your home early. Step 7: Build wealth and give. In the upcoming months I will talk about each step. This month, I will talk about the importance of having an emer...