This past week I watched Dave Ramsey’s kick – off meeting for The Great Recovery and wrote a post sharing my thoughts about the event with readers. As a reminder, The Great Recovery is a movement to recover the economy one family at a time.
Dave Ramsey -
We believe that by helping our own families out of debt and into a life of saving and wealth building, we experience a personal recovery . Our giving increases and our churches benefit. Our spending increases and our communities benefit. It’s an upward and positive cycle happening in towns all over this amazing nation.
I stand behind the movement because our mission here at One Money Design is to help people achieve true financial freedom to be more generous with their money and time (from the Crown Money Map). This blog is here to help us all through this journey and to make sure we’re learning to be better financial stewards of God’s money along the way.
So, what can you do to help bring about the great recovery and participate in this movement? It’s important to figure out what you’re next steps are going to be as an individual or family.
Here are some of Dave Ramsey’s suggestions and some of my own ideas:
Get Educated
Dave tells us the most important thing you can do is to become educated in order to get your finances in order. They offer the Financial Peace University class. My wife and I took the Crown Life Group Study class. Finally, Compass also offers a small group study class called Navigating Your Finances God’s Way. The point is to find one of these classes and learn about managing your money better which includes setting up a budget, creating a plan to get out of debt and actively managing your spending each month.
Use Practical Tools
As you become educated more you’ll find you need some practical tools to help manage your money better. These tools might include following the Baby Steps, Crown Money Map, starting a budget and debt plan.
Money Map
We’ve been using the Crown Money Map for years now which is similar to Dave Ramsey’s baby steps. The 7 destinations to achieve true financial freedom are easy to understand and help you prioritize the financial goals that are most important to achieve first along your journey. It also has a scripture supporting each destination so you can understand how the map aligns with God way of managing money.
Starting a budget is also an important step to managing your money more wisely. It helps you plan your spending and insure you don’t spending more than you have available each month. Such planning helps you avoid covering expenses with a credit card. Personally, we’ve found having a budget is key to reducing financial stress and insuring we’re on the same page with our finances each month.
Get Out of Debt
The other thing you can do is take action towards getting out of debt. This may start with changing any spending behaviors that got you into debt in the first place. It also requires you to organize your debt and set up a debt repayment plan.
In the spirit of The Great Recovery, I’ve created two guides that will help you start a budget and get out of debt:
Share
The Great Recovery can’t become a growing movement unless you’re willing to share it with others. Probably the easiest way to do that is to share it with your friends on Facebook or Twitter. You can use promotional materials (some free and some you have to purchase) such as website banners, yard signs, bumper stickers, t-shirts, etc. If asked, you can explain what the movement is about, why you’re behind it and what you’re doing to participate.
What Are We Doing?
I’m thinking about how I can participate through this blog and Money Map Coaching that I do from time to time. We plan to continue posting practical tips to help people become better financial stewards and learn about God’s way of managing money. This movement is also a great opportunity for me to be more prayerful about the direction of the blog and what God wants us to do to help others. On a personal level, we have a budget we use each month, but I want to do a better job of educating my children about finances. The Great Recovery isn’t just limited to singles, husbands and wives. We have to teach children about money and equip them to one day manage money God’s way.
Have you signed up for The Great Recovery? If so, what steps are you taking to bring about the Great recovery and participate in it?
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