Personal Responsibility

I love Dave Ramsey! I’ve learned so much from him! So it frustrates me to see his words being misinterpreted and slammed in the media – once again – by people who are too caught up in emotion to look at the facts.

Here’s a link to the article I’m referring to: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dave-ramsey-is-against-stimulus-checks-because-if-600-or-1-400-changes-your-life-you-were-pretty-much-screwed-already-11613073471?mod=home-page.

The headline reads: “Dave Ramsey is against stimulus checks because ‘if $600 or $1,400 changes your life, you were pretty much screwed already’”

We can take this to mean that he’s heartless, or we can realize that this is a fact, get past the emotion and use the realization to change our lives. It’s really up to us. Is he heartless or does he care enough to speak the hard truth that will jolt people into waking up and taking control of their own lives? I’m going with number two.

I happen to agree. If someone is in dire straits right now, $600 or $1400 is, as he put it, “like peeing on a forest fire!” It can only pay rent or put food on the table for a short period of time. Then what? If that could fix the problem, our tax refunds would bail us out forever!

Our government cannot take care of us, no matter how much it says it can or how much some people believe it should.

I choose to step up and find a way to care for myself instead. If my income is not enough to meet my expenses, I need to reduce my expenses and/or increase my income. It’s simple math, nothing more. It may not feel good or sound good and it may mean hard choices are in order, but it is reality.

Math doesn’t lie, but it also can’t tell us what we want to hear. That’s a good thing, because denying reality keeps us mired in a problem that only we can fix.

This doesn’t mean we have to struggle forever. It means we live below our means and use the difference to build a solid financial foundation, so we can cover emergencies, so we can contribute to retirement, so we can buy a car or go on vacation without going into debt, so we can build up to living the life of our dreams.

It’s not fun to say no when we want things, it’s not easy to swallow our pride and accept a helping hand, but if we can discipline ourselves to make financial decisions that will benefit us in the long run, instead of just filling our want in the moment, we can have what we truly want – and we can provide it for ourselves, instead of relying on someone else for a hand out.

Things happen, bad times befall every single one of us – it’s how we choose to deal with those bad times, and how we plan for bad times when things are good, that makes the difference.

If we take back personal responsibility, we can lead much happier, more fulfilled lives – on our own terms!

Agree? Disagree? Let me know! Bobbi@centsablechat.com

And check out the “Financial Prison Break” episode of my podcast for inspiration.