Chasing the Bull

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My wife and I absolutely love Dave Ramsey. We attended his 13-week Financial Peace University, began following his “baby-steps” program, and began to simplify our lives.

We quickly completed the first baby-step, which was to save $1,000 to use as a small emergency fund. This gave us a place to start. In previous attempts to get control of our finances, we tried to do everything all at once. This always lead to disaster.

We are currently tackling baby-step #2 (The Debt Snowball). Hopefully, if all goes as planned, this step will be completed in 12 - 18 months.

Putting our background behind us for now, last week our Jetta blew up. Of course, the first thing we did was take it to the Stealership to find out what was wrong. The Volkswagon Stealership charged us $95, just to tell us what was wrong with it. Then they proceeded to give us a quote of $1,600. The main thing that was wrong with it was the water pump and the timing belt. How could this cost so much money?

Luckily for us, this all occurred on Friday, so we had the weekend to think about it. A friend from our small group suggested we take it to a small shop where she had previously taken her car, with tremendous success. On Monday, we called and talked with “Tony”, who turned out to be one of the nicest guys I have ever met.

To make a long story short, Tony had our car towed from the stealership to his shop (boy - was Volkswagon mad). After letting him work on it for a few days, we went and picked up our car. The price tag - $1,100. Dang! That was still more than our emergency fund.

Taking advise from Dave’s book, we went to the bank and got out our $1,000 in cash (from the emergency fund). Once we got to the shop, we asked if he would give us a discount if we paid in cash. YUP! And not just a few bucks to appease us. This guy knocked the bill down to $950. We saved $650 by using a local business and cash.

Has anyone else ever had success using cash or by buying from a small, local dealer? If not, I highly recommend trying it. You could end up saving a lot of money.

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After reading Dave Ramsey’s book,The Total Money Makeover, my wife and I decided to do something about our finances. We started attending The Financial Peace University (a friend lent us their copy of the program), made a budget, started quickly, and thought we were off to the races.

We completed baby step #1, which tells you to save $1,000 cash as fast as you can. We did that and immediately proceeded to Step #2 - Start the Debt Snowball by Jabbing (Paid Twice calls it snowflaking). This is the step that we are currently on, and where, the weather turned nasty.

In addition to trying to get our finances in shape, I decided it would be a good idea to get my body in shape as well. As luck would have it, my church was forming a Softball League. What fun, or so I thought. Someone should have reminded me that I am not 18 years old and I cannot do the things I used to do. The first few weeks were not that bad; a slightly pulled hamstring the first game with a sore shoulder thrown in for good measure. Other than these minor issues, things were going well, until Wednesday night.

Boy did I mess things up then! In reaching back to capture my youth again, I decided it would be a good idea to dive on a ball hit up the middle. Wow, did I look smooth! I fielded the ball so nicely, scrambled quickly to my knees, and fired a strike to first base. You should have seen me! Unfortunately, you could have just as easily heard the loud POP coming from my right knee.

Being the hard-headed middle-aged man that I am, I played the rest of the game. I even hit a nice shot into the left field alley and hobbled my way to a long single. I figured that with a few days of rest, coupled with absolutely no physical activity, I would be fine. I could not have been any further from the truth had I tried.

My knee is killing me. I cannot walk up any stairs without wincing and my 30-pound son feels like a champion sumo wrestler. The swelling has gone done, but I am almost sure something is torn. My internist was closed today, and I have meetings all day tomorrow, so I will have to wait until Tuesday to get it looked at.

I am just so upset with myself. If something is actually torn, it will mean thousands of dollars diverted from our debt reduction plan into some doctor’s club house dues (not that I blame the doctors for our current medical system).

Unfortunately, my insurance plan is absolutely terrible. My former employer, a Big 4 Accounting Firm, had the best insurance in the world (IMO). My wife had 2 surgeries and my son, all for the cost of the weekly co-pay ($20). My new insurance (with my current employer) has a higher deductible and a maximum out-of-pocket of $3,500 per year.

We are scheduled to receive our economic stimulus package within the next few days. It should be around $1,500. Should we hold onto this money for a few more weeks to see what happens with my knee, or should we proceed with our plan of playing down our debt with it?

I would love to hear your opinions on this!

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