You Do What You Can
November 2nd, 2007 | by Molly's Brother |I was at a party the other night (fun time, thanks for asking). I met a friend there who I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. We talked. The normal chit-chat back and forth and before we knew it, he brought up Dave Ramsey’s name. Turns out, this guy is a huge Dave Ramsey fan. I almost choked on my food. Few people in my world know Dave Ramsey (although I think that may change if Fox’s fiancial news channel takes off). We shared our affinity for Dave and his Total Money Makeover.
I asked him how he got turned on to Dave. He said that he was interested in Dave about 4 years ago…right before he declared bankruptcy. I inhaled and clenched my teeth.
Bankruptcy? Wow. I have a personal philosophy: No matter how bad things get, I will never declare bankruptcy. It just seems bad and unhelpful every which way I look at things.
In response to my thoughts, he said to me, “Yeah. But I was X amount of dollars in credit card debt. And my payments just kept going up and up. I thought to myself, ‘Do what you can to get out of this.’ I did. And I changed my life.”
His entire life. He now saves aggressively and has cut down his spending drastically. Although he likes Dave’s theories, he still has his credit cards (for emergencies). But he hasn’t charged them or run them up like he had before.
Great conversation. Glad it worked for him. I couldn’t do it though. Bankruptcy is an incredibly tough choice.
