Beating Broke

A Review of Dave Ramsey’s Revised Financial Peace University & New Speakers

December 3, 2012 By MelissaB 3 Comments

Dave Ramsey has changed thousands, if not millions, of lives with his Financial Peace University. Now, he is looking to improve on that formula with the newly revised Financial Peace University. While this latest version of Financial Peace University has all of the benefits of the old version, some of the material has been changed, and there are new speakers added to the mix.

The revised Financial Peace University kit includes a workbook; Ramsey’s book, The Complete Guide to Money; a welcome guide that includes a pencil, sharpener, and eraser; an envelope system; a laminated Financial Peace University Progress Chart; a folder for Financial Peace forms; and most importantly, 10 audio CDs containing Ramsey’s lessons.

The 10 audio CDs cover the following topics:

CD #1: Super Saving: Common Sense for Your Dollars and Cents

CD #2: Relating with Money: Nerds and Free Spirits Unite!

CD #3: Cash Flow Planning: the Nuts and Bolts of Budgeting

CD #4: Dumping Debt: Breaking the Chains of Debt

CD #5: Buyer Beware: The Power of Marketing on Your Buying Decisions

CD #6: The Role of Insurance: Protecting Your Health, Family and Finances

CD #7: Retirement and College Planning: Mastering the Alphabet Soup of Investing

CD #8: Real Estate and Mortgages: Keeping the American Dream from Becoming a Nightmare

CD #9: The Great Misunderstanding: Unleashing the Power of Generous Giving

CD #10: Dave’s Story: Learn How Dave Found the Peace He Was Missing

There are three major changes I noticed in the newly revised Financial Peace University.

1. The course has been shortened from 13 weeks to 9 weeks. Some may say that this time frame is too short, but I think it is great. Ramsey is such a motivational speaker, that after hearing him speak for one class people are fired up and ready to get their finances in order. Shortening the course to 9 weeks allows them to make quicker progress and begin working on their financial situation sooner.

2. Content that wasn’t relevant to everyone has been moved to the website. Some content, while useful to those in a particular situation, isn’t applicable to the majority of people. For instance, Ramsey skillfully explained exactly how to deal with harassing bill collectors in the original Financial Peace University, and that information is essential to those in that situation. However, since the majority of FPU participants are not in that desperate situation, that content has been moved to the website.

3. Ramsey has brought in three new speakers–Rachael Cruze (Ramsey’s daughter), Jon Acuff and Chris Hogan. Fans of Ramsey will probably have mixed feelings about these new additions.

Rachael Cruze has the hardest job. Ramsey is a dynamic motivational speaker who makes his job seem effortless. People will naturally expect the same of his child. In reality, Cruze is young and new at this business. She is definitely not as polished as her famous father, though truthfully very few people are. However, she offers the voice of a person who has been raised following Dave Ramsey’s principles and hearing her success is encouraging.

Jon Acuff shares Ramsey’s sense of humor, but his jokes don’t go over quite as well. However, his tips on negotiation are good, and readers can definitely learn from him. A few more years of working with Ramsey, and he will have the natural, relaxed attitude as Ramsey does.

Chris Hogan is the most charismatic new addition. While he is not Dave Ramsey, he is a natural public speaker. He gives important information about buying a home, but his lessons are peppered with humor that naturally engage the listener.

My husband and I both listened to the CDs, and I didn’t mind the addition of the new speakers and know that Ramsey is probably adding them to prepare to eventually hand over his dynasty. However, my husband did not like the new additions and felt that most of the speakers were simply reiterating what Ramsey always says.

Overall, Dave Ramsey’s newly revised Financial Peace University is an improvement on the first version and can inspire participants to pay off debt and improve their financial situation once and for all.

The Cost of Civic Duty

November 30, 2012 By Shane Ede 5 Comments

As this is posting, (thank you scheduler) I’ll be arriving at my local court house to perform the civic duty of jury duty. It’s an interesting civic duty; one that’s is both afforded us if we are ever persecuted, and one that we must perform for those that are. But, what is the cost of doing your civic duty?

Jury Duty Summons In the letter I received, it states that I’ll be paid $25 if my service is four hours or less and $50 if I’m there longer than $50. I’ll also be paid $50 for each day after the first day. My employment cannot be threatened due to serving on a jury (that’s good), but my employer doesn’t have to pay me for time spent away from work while serving on a jury.

In a very basic math sense, the cost of serving on a jury, then, is my pay for however many hours of work I miss minus the fees I’ll be paid for serving. Different employers have different policies for jury duty as well. My previous employer’s policy was that you could serve on a jury and be paid your wages provided you turned over your jury duty check to the company when you received it. That’s a pretty good policy. My current employer allows for unpaid time off to serve on a jury only. Not as good of a policy. I can take vacation time during that time so that I don’t lose any pay if I have it available.

As it happens, I don’t really have any vacation time to use. So, I’ll be going without pay for as long as I have to serve. It’s not exactly ideal. But, I do get something for it at least. Unfortunately, if I’m there a full 8 hours, it’s far less than minimum wage. A token amount, really, to help offset the lost opportunity to earn my wage.

Have you served on a jury? Is the pay the same everywhere, or does it differ by location?

img credit:zzpza, on flickr

Using Youtube for DIY

November 28, 2012 By Shane Ede 6 Comments

When you think about DIY, it’s not very likely that the video site, Youtube comes to mind right away. If you’re thinking anything video related, you’re probably thinking about television stations like HGTV or the aptly named DIY Network. Youtube, however, can be the best friend you’ve got when it comes to DIY.

This new age we’re entering where information is super duper easy to disseminate means that we can hop on the internet and find just about whatever information we need. And that includes how-to videos on just about any DIY project you can imagine.

When I was working at a computer repair shop last winter and spring, one of the things that I did on a regular basis is search on Youtube for the steps to replace a part on a computer. Each computer manufacturer makes their machines a little bit differently. It’s very evident in their laptop models, so often, what will take one apart will break another. Faced with a new model, the easiest way to figure out what you’re doing before you end up replacing it for a customer is to do a quick search for a repair video. Just about every time, you’ll find a video of a technician doing the exact same repair that you’re about to do.

Armed with that knowledge and experience, one of the first things that popped into my head when our clothes dryer stopped heating up two weeks ago was to see just how hard it would be to replace the heating element. A couple of videos later, I was reasonably confident that I had the skills necessary to make the repair myself. I ordered a new heating element and a new non-resettable fuse (just in case that was the problem and not the element) from Amazon. The parts totaled less than $40.

Once the parts arrived, I was able to make the repair to the dryer in about 45 minutes. Probably a bit longer than a technician that repairs appliances all the time, but for me, a pretty reasonable amount of time. Once the new parts were in place, and the dryer was put back together, I hooked it back up to the vent and the electrical and gave it a test spin. And it heated up! I win! 😉 For less than $40, and about an hour of my time (if you include the time spent watching the repair video), I was able to successfully make the repair.

I don’t know how much it would have cost to have the local technician come and repair the dryer, but I can guess that the part alone would have cost almost twice what it did for me to order it. Even if I guess conservatively, the labor would probably cost me about $50. All told, it could have cost me about $100-$150 to repair the thing. We bought it used, for about $200, so that wouldn’t have been a very smart thing to do. And, if it had come down to having someone repair it, you can bet I would have looked at the cost of a new, to-us, used dryer first.

It’s not the first time that I’ve used a Youtube video to learn how to repair something. Remember when I repaired my iPad myself? Guess how I learned how to do that!

Have you ever used a Youtube video to learn how to DIY something?