Financial Peace University Kit and Membership: A Relationship Saver

The Financial Peace University Kit and Membership is the one thing, above just about everything else including my laptop and TIVO, that I could not live without. It has literally changed our lives, our financial futures and our family tree.

Two years ago, we purchased the Kit and attended the course in order to spend some time with friends of ours. Financial Peace University is a program put out by Dave Ramsey and the Lampo Group. It is a thirteen week program designed to help families learn to budget, to become debt free and to change their lives and the lives of their families forever.

The Kit comes with the book Financial Peace Revisited, a workbook, the 13 lessons on CD, a CD-ROM with budgeting forms and other useful information, an envelope system for organizing your cash funds, and a lifetime membership to the University. The lifetime membership means you can attend any of the sessions anywhere, anytime - either taking the whole course over again or just a single lesson here and there to brush up.

The thirteen lessons are:

1. Super Savers - the importance of saving money and how to get a good return

2. Cash Flow Planning - the dreaded budget made simple and fun

3. Relating With Money - working together as a team, relationships and money

4. Buying Only Big, Big Bargains - how to negotiate and get great deals

5. Dumping Debt - how to get, and stay, out of debt

6. Understanding Investments - teaching the difference between different kinds of investments

7. Understanding Insurance - what kinds of coverage are needed and what kinds are ripoffs

8. Retirement and College Planning - how to best fund your retirement and your child's education

9. Buyer Beware - how to develop power over purchases

10. Real Estate and Mortgages - best ways to buy and sell a house, the best way to finance a home

11. Careers and Extra Jobs - the importance of doing what we love

12. Collection Practices and Credit Bureaus - how to check and clean up credit records and deal with creditors

13. The Great Misunderstanding - the importance of being a good steward of what we're givenOne thing I would like to see is the course updated. We currently coordinate the class at our church and this is our fourth time through it. In the first lesson, Dave makes a comment about the Crocodile Hunter. Given the unfortunate accident that took his life, the comment was edited out and new DVDs sent to coordinators who asked for them. This is a wonderful thing. However, the Retirement and College Planning lesson in particular could use a bit of updating. I am sure the information was current when the DVDs were recorded, but that was in 2001. Things have changed since then and updated information would be great. Even if it took the form of a handout or short video to play at the end outlining some of the changes, it is greatly needed.

We learned from the Big, Big Bargains lesson. We needed a new washer, dryer and refrigerator when we moved. We shopped around at the big name stores. We went to a local showroom/supplier. We went to a mom and pop shop or two and did some research online. We knew what we wanted and we knew what retail price was. The retail price was nearly $4000 for all three products combined. Many of the places were lower - one was on sale, or a multi-item discount or something. The cheapest ticket we had, including setup and delivery, was about $3600. My husband went in with $3200 in cash to the mom and pop store, pulled out a wad of 100s and offered the evening/weekend manager $2800 for all three. The manager's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped. After talking with his boss on the phone, they countered with $3000 and we had a deal. They were the easiest to work with out of the ones we had talked to [the most accommodating on delivery, etc.] and gave us a great deal. Every time my husband walked in there for the next three weeks or so until we moved, this guy dropped everything to help him. We ended up giving them the [brand new] stove from our new home in trade towards a different stove and over-the-range microwave - which we also got a great deal on.

If you take the course through your church, the Kit is generally about $96.25 with shipping and handling. The actual retail price is $219 on the Dave Ramsey website, though it is almost always on a special of some kind or other [the special through the end of April is $139 on the website]. You can also purchase the DVDs for home study. Once a member of FPU, you can purchase the DVDs at a discounted rate.

This program has changed our lives. It has changed the lives of some of our friends. It will change our family tree. Our children will grow up to be better money managers than we were at the beginning of our married life and, hopefully, will learn from our mistakes. We communicate about money. It is not just that we communicate better, but we communicate at all. I paid the bills because I am the 'nerd' in the family. My husband had no clue where our finances were. He would get paid and the next day there was no money. He'd get upset and frustrated. Now, there's still more times that there's no money left after pay day - more than we would like - but at least he knows where it goes and why and we are working together as a team to get out of debt and provide for our future and the future of our children and grandchildren.