Edwards Family Empowerment

 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 ...

When we were in college, we applied for credit cards and thought we hit the jackpot when we got approved. They started off as small approval amounts, $300 here or $500 there. We would make small purchases here and there, pay our minimum payment on our bill on time, and slowly the amount we owed grew. What eventually happened after making so many on time credit card payments, the credit card companies would increase our credit limit and the cycle would start again. We would celebrate with spending more. We were facing one of the biggest issues that most Americans face and that is credit card debt. As of mid-2019, Americans have 1.08 trillion in credit card debt. Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover are the most popular cards to have. We used to be proud of the credit cards we had. Now the goal is to pay off our credit cards and to have a healthy savings account.  I’ve talked about the snow ball-effect, which Ramsey is known for. You know, arranging your credit cards by t...