Thread: Hello from Albuquerque, NM

Hi all, new here and excited to get my hands on the book. I was checking in on amazon.com and saw the book in the suggestions and I was hooked. At first the title was a bit of a turnoff since there is no fast money secret, but the reviews got my attention. After reading the teaser chapters I felt like I had found something substantial. I'm not a businessman (yet), but my last three book purchases have been business related. I am a bit of dreamer when it comes to business but without a trigger finger to launch into anything. You could definitely put me right smack in the middle of the slow lane, but I'm left uninspired by the status quo, watching my contributions disolve in my 401k, and hoping that my savings can keep up with inflation.

A little about me:
My wife and I married in 2005 and up to that point we had lived seperate financially aimless lives. As a married couple we operated like everyone we knew, which was deep in debt and stressed without even realizing the cause of that stress. We were "normal". We were stuck on the sidewalk with nothing but problems to show for it. Then in early 2006 while on a 10 week job assignment I had plenty of time to read and reflect. I happened across Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and it changed our lives forever. About the time I found that book was the time we started planning on a family. We had a two year debt free plan. When my wife told me that we were expecting, my first words will probably leave her deeply scarred for life... "We have 9 months to get out of debt!" Within a nano second I realized my mistake and expressed the excitement that I was feeling. She understood though since we both wanted her to be a stay-at-home-mom.

A little about us: We are disciplined. We put the debt free plan in overdrive and within 7 months we eliminated $34K in debt and by the time our daughter was born we had saved another $15K. That year was the most important year of our lives because we realized that working together with a common goal that we could accomplish what everyone else says is impossible. We haven't had a credit card since 2005 and while we don't follow Dave's advice to a T, we are financially disciplined and a much stronger couple for it. The elephant is no longer standing on our chests and we have a happy marriage without it.
We have two children now. My daughter is nearly 5 and my son just turned one. My wife is still home with them with the goal of going back to work when our son is in school. Our plan is to have our house paid off within 4 years of her going back to work using the same principles we used to get out of debt in the beginning. Having 100% equity and no house payment in my mid 40's would be an ideal time to start a business, but frankly, that seems like far too long in the slow lane. While I have a fantastic job with excellent pay and benefits, I am always longing for more. Not necessarily a better life since I am very happy with mine. More like longing for a purpose as if I am not doing what I was made to do.

Anyway, that is me in a nutshell. In the few pages I have read on amazon I feel that I am connected to this book in the sense that it all makes sense to me and border very close to my own personal beliefs. I hope to garner more knowledge from this book and others in the meantime as well as learn from this site and maybe become inspired to finally pull the trigger. I'm looking forward to the journey.

Thanks MJ! I'm about halfway through the book now and it is incredible stuff! Great job. I love your writing style too. Occasionally I find myself making excuses. "I can't do that" or "I don't know how to do that" and I stop myself with a mental kick in the nuts and think, "I can't do that yet!" and "I don't know how to do that yet!"
Thats the ticket to the fastlane in my opinion. Stop making excuses that weed everyone else out and make goals to develop the skills needed to move forward. I'm ready to trade in the civic for a 4WD that can handle the potholes in the fastlane instead of getting stuck and turning around!

Thanks for the inspiration my friend!