Testimonies

My Financial Peace University Testimony – January 2011

My name is Jennifer  and I’m married to my wonderful husband Matthew and have 2 beautiful boys.  Matt and I have been taking the Financial Peace University course at St. Andrew’s on Thursday nights and I want to share with you the incredible impact it has had on our financial lives.

I was brought up knowing about the value money and taught good money practices.  When Matt and I were engaged, we decided to pay off his small loan and start saving for a house.  By the time we were married, the loan had been paid in full and we had a small savings set aside for a house.  When we had been married for 8 months, we had saved 10% of our down payment and purchased a modest home in Oshawa.  Our plan was that I would eventually stay home with our children, so in the meantime, my salary went to fixing up our house, and we solely lived off Matt’s income.  We thought we had it all planned out.

When our first son was born in 2007, we thought we’d adjusted to our change in income, but when January 2008 rolled around we found ourselves in a scary place…we had $126 in our chequing account and about $300 in our savings account with our mortgage, property taxes and utilities to pay, not to mention a baby to diaper and feed.  Matt and I had a lot of praying to do, and plenty of lifestyle evaluation.  We turned to God for guidance.  We believed we were to continue tithing our 10% and that God would be faithful to us.  So we did just that – continued to believe and trust in God – and started making better choices with our money.  It was amazing how quickly our position changed for the better once we put our minds to it and trusted in God. Looking back though, even to a few months ago, we were really just plodding along. We weren’t doing anything extravagant with our money, and we do without some perks at home, like cable and takeout meals, but we weren’t really saving as much as we should have either.

When Eleanore told me about this course she was taking with Rev. Issa, I was instantly intrigued and wanted to learn more.  It helped that they were so enthusiastic about the course and what it may do for the people of St. Andrews and the community.  The course is called Financial Peace University and it is hosted by Dave Ramsey via DVD.  We started in November 2010 and now have 8 lessons under our belt.  We get together every Thursday from 7-9 p.m. to watch the DVD lesson for an hour, then break into small discussion groups for an hour.

We’ve been following the Baby Steps we’ve been learning about and are currently working on Baby Step #3, which is to have 3-6 months of expenses set aside in a savings account in the event of an emergency.  Matt and I were so thrilled at our progress, plunking any extra money we had into that account, when last week our washing machine exploded on the inside. Matt was trying to think of any way he could possibly fix it in order to leave our emergency fund which we’d been working so hard at alone.  Fixing the washing machine was not going to be a possibility – the water on the floor and the smoke coming from the machine indicated to me that it was indeed dead.   As frustrating as the situation was, I felt an incredible peace knowing that we had the cash in the bank to go and replace it immediately, and we did! We sought out the best sale price in the flyers – thank goodness it was a Wednesday – and went to Lowes to purchase our new machine.

I cannot express what a positive impact Financial Peace University has had on our lives. It has improved not only our financial position, but our marriage as well.  It has forced us to lay out all our ideas, hopes and dreams, and work out a budget that works for us so that we can achieve our hopes and dreams.  The biblically based principals, combined with financial knowledge and some common sense makes this course one of our best investments.  It’s an investment in our future and our children’s future.

I want to invite you to take part in this life changing course.  St. Andrew’s currently has a Financial Peace course running in the fall of 2011, with weekly meetings on Wednesday evenings from 7 – 9 p.m.  The cost of the kit required for the course is $115 per family which includes singles, married couples, or couples with teenage children – only 1 kit per household required.  Your kit includes the workbook, hard cover book, CD’s of each of the 13 lessons and the envelope system wallet.  I know $115 sounds like a lot, and it is, but it works out to $8.85 a lesson, which is the same or less than you might spend on lunch out once a week. And since the average turnaround in financial position for those taking the course is $8,000.00, this is a drop in the bucket.

You may feel you are beyond this course, but perhaps you have adult children who could benefit from Financial Peace University.  What a great gift this course would be to them – especially if you include babysitting your grandchildren.  It is the gift of knowledge and empowerment.  I’m so excited to see where we go from here!

Jennifer