Dave Ramsey. Everyone in the financial world has an opinion when his name comes up, one way or the other. People love him, or dislike him and his entire approach to finance. ME? What do I think? Aw, well I’m so glad you asked.
As I prepare to go back to college for the fourth time, I’m still no more financially intelligent than I was the first time. Maybe because of my upbringing, maybe because of my lack of desire to learn it, or the people around me just didn’t care much about finances.
I graduated from high school and went to college. I did actually choose my school (which I ended up hating) based on cost. It was by far the cheapest college around, even though it was a private school. However, I’m sure I could’ve gone to a different school for cheaper if I had even for a second thought about applying for any scholarships… Sounded like a lot of work though.
College, huh? I guess I hadn’t really put much thought into it throughout high school. It wasn’t something we put much emphasis in my family. I didn’t know much about grants or scholarships. I wasn’t even really sure how to apply for college. I was graduating from high school and had no plans for my future. I truly just lived in the moment without much thought for where I wanted my life to go.
You generally don’t wake up with $147,000 in debt without buying something awesome, but that’s exactly what seem to happen to us. We woke up and were $147,000 in debt, working as servers in a restaurant and with nothing to show for it. We were one financial accident away from homelessness.