Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Financially Responsible Post

This week we started our newest {married couple} endeavor. Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Have you ever heard of it? Several people on Instagram mentioned attending the class and loving it. Even before hearing that, we were pretty excited. Ryan has been listening to Dave Ramsey pretty much his whole life (his parents are Dave followers). I started listening to him on podcast while I lived in Louisville, and then started sporadic listening habits after moving to Nashville. Dave is actually based here in Nashville, so his radio show is on every single day It's an awesome reminder and great motivation!
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Of course we talk about our finances all of the time....a TON over the last few years, actually. "When we get married" we said! We didn't combine finances until after out big day, so it made sense to wait. Well, there we were, married and sharing finances! It was decided...we were jumping in with both all four feet.

Dave's class is about learning the ropes of budgeting, getting rid of debt, and planning for the future. We have a little experience with a few of the topics, but the last one really stood out to us. We wanted to learn how to plan for our future! We hope to start our lives off together on the right financial foot!
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The class is about managing your dollars and cents...but in reality, it's mostly about dollars and SENSE. Dave wants you to develop good common money sense and learn all about tools you can use to help yourself succeed.

Here are some of the details...
1. We spent around $100 for the materials and to sign up for an in-person class. It's already been fun to meet other couples (remember--surround yourself with people with a like mind/similar goals!) and to have 2 "coordinators" there to guide the class and help us with any questions we may have.
2. We are attending the class in a church. Dave is religious and believes that handling your money in a godly way will benefit you the most. There are things that you can take from the lessons (religious or not), and there are things that people (even our coordinators) decide they are okay doing without. We are all there to learn financially responsibility, and learning in that environment is perfectly fine with us. Plus, the church we are attending the class in is literally right across the street from our home. Funny how things like that work out...
3. We are attending one class a week, for about 2 hours each class, and the whole program lasts 9 weeks. We are set to finish the class up a week after my 25th birthday. Happy Birthday to me!
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Have you ever participated in a FPU or another type of financial planning class?



All opinions are my own!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

12 by 2012 Update

Do you guys remember when I told you I was participating in the 12 by 2012 challenge?
Well, I updated the list today. Check out my progress HERE!

Hope you're having a fabulous Christmas week : )

Monday, December 5, 2011

Photography Inspiration

With the holiday colors, the beautiful decorations and lots of family activities, I have plenty of reasons and motivation to get the camera out and use it this season! Lately I have been trying to further develop my technique and expand my abilities, so I've been following tutorials and reading lots of websites. Once I pick up the camera I use many things as inspiration: my surrounding, colors I love, people (strangers and friends), and a lot of random items. Mostly I use what means the most to me. I loved taking pictures of the cotton field a few months ago. Why? I've always been a huge fan of history and cotton's a big part of the south and it's history, so it felt magical to me (corny, I know!). I've always known about cotton, but it was never RIGHT THERE for me to see...or touch...or photograph! I guess my imagination took over and I used that to motivate myself to take those photos. It may seem silly to some, but it worked for me!

If you remember, one of my 12 by 2012 goals was to complete one photo session with PEOPLE. Although I really enjoy taking photos of nature and stationary items, I definitely want to take more photos of people. There's so much to learn about capturing people and what better way to learn than to DO?

I'll admit that I'm definitely a little scared that once I try, I won't be able to capture those important, sweet moments that other photographers are able to capture. And I know it takes practice to get to that point, but I would feel goofy if I didn't think I was capturing at least SOME of that right from the beginning. Hopefully one day I'll get to know a professional photographer so that I can learn more from them and ask lots of questions! A girl can dream big, right?

Here are some photos that inspire me to get out there to take more photos and to practice.
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What's something you'd like to get better at? Do you practice a lot?

P.s. If you read through my recent posts, you'll see that I've been making Christmas wreaths lately. Because they're becoming popular with people I know, and I've been making a bunch, I thought I'd offer to make them for anyone who might be interested! If you are interested, check out my NEW etsy shop!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ampars01