All it took was me stumbling on a podcast, and my life changed. Before I found out the concept of being debt free, I was struggling – flailing, more like it. Then, the podcast gave me this glimmer of a dream that I could live a life without debt, something I never considered before. I thought debt was unavoidable, inevitable. Here’s the very start of my personal finance journey.

Way back before I began blogging on this site, i had a fairly popular blog where I chronicled my journey as a Christian and also my personal finance journey. I took down the blog, but I still have the content, so I thought it’ll be fun to republish them. Here’s the old blog posts that chronicled that discovery.

Goal: Debt free by June 2006

September 19, 2005

While searching for a podcast to listen to at Odeo.com, I stumbled upon Dave Ramsey’s daily podcast. Wow, what have I been missing the past few years?

Ramsey doesn’t teach people to get rich quick. He teaches people to get debt-free quick. He’s the first person I read that has given me such hope about my finances – I mean, it’s not as if he’s teaching something out of this world. It’s common sense – what he calls “God and grandma’s way of handling money”.

He taught the debt snowball principles that one of my readers, Brian P., mentioned a while back. The interesting thing about Ramsey is that he was once in riddled with debt himself and he got himself out of it. Now, he teaches what he has learned through his radio show (and books, of course).

I love the way he deals with his callers. He isn’t rude or anything. He’s firm. Very firm. In short: he’ll tell you precisely what he thinks about how you’re handling your finances. He’ll tell you it’s a stupid thing to do to get that car when you’re financially over your head. He tells you it’s dumb to use credit cards. Sometimes we need people to tell us that what we’re doing is dumb.

Anyhoo, after listening to podcast after podcast of this guru, I decided to try my luck finding his book. I was 95% convinced it was nowhere in Malaysia. But whaddya know? During my gym stopover at Summit (yes I go to Fitness First there) I dropped by MPH and saw, to my amazement, Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover.

I leafed through the book and was instantly hooked. But I sighed to myself – this book is hardcover, thus, it’ll cost a bomb. I decided to check out how much it was so that I can budget for it next month. To my utter shock, it was only RM29.90 (US$7)!! Books that are current and in hardcover usually cost about RM70 over.

Something was upside down in this world. 😛 Not that I complained – I bought it.

After reading it two days, I sat down and worked out my plan to get rid of my debt. I listed down all my debts, and man, no wonder I always have an uneasy feeling when I think about my finances. I was RM13,390 in debt!! (Credit card, including the 0% installment plans I have, plus my car.)

Thankfully, my company is giving out our arrears and bonuses next month, and I have calculated that I can put away all my credit card debt by December. My car I can put away by April.

I’m psyched. I can’t wait to get my pay to finally be rid of my stupid debts. 😛

Afterthoughts

Dave Ramsey is a controversial figure in the personal finance space. His blunt, no-holds-barred, decidedly-right-winged leanings have rubbed much of the American personal finance space the wrong way. Even I think that he can be woefully tone deaf sometimes and his investing recommendations are outdated.

However, I thank him for starting me on my journey. Without his podcast, I may still be struggling with debt, have zilch savings, investing in nothing and my retirement in peril. I owe a lot to him, but he’s definitely not a saint!