In 2008, Will and I moved to Nashville after a two-year stint in Chicago.
One thing pulled us away from a city we genuinely loved: my mom. She was ill, and I wanted to be closer. Once we made that decision, another came: I was going to work for Dave Ramsey.
My first job out of college was with the Department of Veterans Affairs, where I met Rob, who’d been following Ramsey’s Baby Steps for years. In his early 40s, he was well down the path to a nice retirement. And so Rob, understanding that Will and I were young and not very money-savvy, encouraged us to get on a plan—specifically, Ramsey’s Baby Steps.
At some point, we grabbed hold of the idea and took off with it. Will and I never had a lot of debt, but there were some lingering student loans, a small car payment, and some minor credit card debt. Nothing egregious, but paying it all off and being debt-free certainly sounded like a good plan, especially since we hoped to buy a home at some point in the future.
Rob was our cheerleader, checking in with me often at work to find out where we were in the payoff. And we were grateful. In just under two years, we paid off every bit of the debt and breathed a sigh of relief.
When something changes your life, you often want to share it with others, and so I became passionate about the Baby Steps, telling friends about it (who usually didn’t care) and thinking about what it might be like to work at Ramsey’s company.
So when we decided we were leaving Chicago to head back down South and Nashville would be the city, I decided I wanted to work for Ramsey. I wouldn’t have a job in Nashville yet, and Will was transferring his, so might as well shoot for the stars, right?
And I did. I applied, and to my surprise, I had a phone interview, was brought in for an in-person interview, and I did not get that job.
But I was hired a couple of months later for a different position, and yes, the interview process was rigorous—and, in hindsight, should’ve been a red flag. (If you want to learn more about what working at Ramsey Solutions was like, check out Amy Fritz’s podcast, Untangled Faith.)
Despite some of the oddities and peculiarities of the place, I walked away with some relationships that influenced my life in very positive ways. I also walked away with knowledge about what I didn’t want in a job.
I left RS in 2015, which means it’s been more than a decade since I walked through that company’s doors. In that decade, a lot of information has come out about the company that I wasn’t aware of while I was in it, primarily due to the “no gossip” policy Dave himself implemented. As a rule follower, I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to break it, so I was in the dark about a lot.
Will and I followed the Baby Steps long after I left the company. They worked, and if it’s not broken, why fix it?
Around 2018, when we needed a new vehicle, I began to realize how restrictive the steps were. Living on one income with two small kids, money was often tight. We made it work, but saving money for a vehicle felt impossible. So did we continue to shovel money into the old car we had when it needed it, or did we suck it up and take on a car payment that we could pay off? Or did we use up the savings we had to buy a car, taking a chance that we wouldn’t be able to rebuild those savings?
Despite the guilt I felt (yet another holdover from my Ramsey days), we took out a car loan and bought a different car. While I hated making that payment every month, I was not sorry about purchasing a new-ish car that I could safely transport my two young kids in.
It was my first inkling that personal finance didn’t have to be so restrictive. And it felt … freeing. I’d followed the Baby Steps nearly my entire adult life, and now, here I was, breaking the rules and nothing bad happened!
Fast forward to 2020. My mom passed away, and I had to make decisions about where to place the small inheritance I’d received. Cue more guilt about spending any of it on anything except what followed the Baby Steps. I resisted the temptation to do “what Dave would do,” and I spent a small amount on myself, using the rest to fund our kids’ 529s in honor of my mom’s long career as a teacher.
The more that we did what we, as adults, felt right with our finances, the less Will and I began to follow the Baby Steps to the letter.
In 2022, ready for a different car, we again opted for a car loan, using the proceeds from the previous car to make a large down payment. This time, I didn’t feel any guilt. I was happy, buying the car I wanted and fully prepared to enjoy it. And why shouldn’t I? Will and I worked hard for what we had, we didn’t have any other debt except our mortgage, and buying a nice car outright? It would take years to save for.
Maybe that sounds a bit like an excuse. Maybe it is, but we’d lived so restrictively for so long that I really just wanted to live—especially after losing my mom.
And that brings us to Spain.
Despite a touch of bitterness or disdain on my part regarding my old job, the truth is that, without those money lessons and learning that discipline, moving would’ve been nearly impossible. If we’d had as much debt as many American families do, we would still be in the “wait until retirement” scenario. Instead, because we limited our debt-to-income ratio, after selling nearly everything we owned, we had cash in hand for our move.
My mom always had a saying that I never grasped until I was past my Ramsey Solutions days: It’s not what you make; it’s what you do with it.
The lesson was always there, but I didn't pick up the thread until I spent nearly seven years of my life working for Dave Ramsey. I am forever grateful to Rob for the influence he had on my life and his introduction—maybe more of a wake-up call?—to something I didn't always want to hear. My mom had a healthy skepticism for all things Ramsey. She frequently told me, "Jennifer, it's just common sense."
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Ah I thought this was going to be the financial guru you were talking about. I’ve always heard that DR is good to follow if you’re in debt but not once you’re out of debt. Glad you found a more livable system!
I was never a true Ramsey convert, but I did use the baby steps after my divorce to get myself out of debt and I'm still debt free ten years later so it served me well! And like you, it really paved the path for my move abroad. My dad tried to tell me all this when I was younger, but had to learn the hard way haha!