Lessons learned from Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover Book

I just finished listening to the Total Money Makeover audio book by Dave Ramsey; I like what he says about managing our finances. The eternal optimism he injects into his readers throughout the audio tape is fascinating. All of us have been in those situations: where our impulses take over our wallets and vanity our common sense. That is not the end of the journey; it’s just the beginning because it’s from these precipitous falls we raise to great heights. These experiences teach us life lessons which help our minds to continuously probe into our past and help us make sound decisions in the present. It’s always good to know what the outcome of a bad judgment would be. Some are wise enough take those lessons from others mistakes and some are smart enough not to repeat them.

Dave talks about being “gazelle intense” – Gazelle is a small swift antelope from Africa which escapes 99% of the time when being preyed on by a leopard: an analogy that he uses to describe how unrelenting our efforts should be towards attaining financial independence. The basic underlining statement is that –Don’t buy stuff unless you can pay for it. Sounds very simple and straight forward, then the question comes- Why we do we fumble? Each of us has our own reasons; mine was that – I deserved to be happy. Little did I know that delaying those gratifications could have kept me happy for as long as I could live. Like Dave, I am an eternal optimist too, I believe in giving and taking second chances. I believe that people are always willing to work towards a better life except that some need big kicks on their behinds and some a jerk on the knee.

So, no matter if we are 18 or 28 or 39 or 56 years old we can always start NOW, start making wise choices and most importantly – BE HAPPY.