Dave Ramsey’s advice: By and large, 70% to 90% of you wanted something to be done to calm the economy, but you didn’t want $700 billion in new debt to bail out Wall Street. The stock market has had record declines since then. What’s going on?

You need to remember that you need to take control of your life. It’s disturbing that people in government totally disregard what the people tell them to do. It’s disturbing that the market goes down and the media panics about this. It’s disturbing that greedy banks made loans to people who couldn’t afford to repay, and people signed up for the trip when they couldn’t afford it. It’s disturbing that Washington ignores its constituents and takes huge strides toward socialism.

All of these things are disturbing, but none will cause this great nation to cease to function. They are not the beginning of the end. But the most disturbing thing is some people’s reactions. Don’t react based on fear or panic. Another negative reaction is that you are looking to Washington to fix your problems. They have never fixed your problems, and you want Obama or McCain to fix things. There has never been a president who can fix your problems. They always say they can and they never can.

YOU are in charge of your destiny. YOU are in charge of your life. When you look to Washington to solve your problems, we’ve got the seeds to destroy this country. It’s time for you to change your life. It’s not Washington’s job to fix what’s going on with you. If you are waiting on Washington to change something, you’ve got a very long wait! It is YOUR job to take care of you. Don’t sit around and watch TV and panic and think you can’t do anything. I’ve made and lost money, and every bit of that had to do with me being smart and diligent or stupid.

Quit blaming Congress or looking to them to fix you. YOU have to fix you! When you wait on the government to fix your life and wait for money to be taken from others and given to you, that’s a spirit of envy. The only system that works is capitalism functioning under moral restraint. Go be somebody!

From: The Dave Ramsey Show blog

Josh and I have both been through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. We took it last summer, at a local church, and since that time have been following through by doing the Baby Steps.

1. $1000 emergency fund.
2. Pay off all debt using the debt snowball.
3. Save 3-6 months expenses in an emergency fund.
4. Invest 15% of your income for retirement.
5. College funding for your children.
6. Pay off your home.
7. Build wealth and GIVE!

We are about to finish baby step #2 and become totally debt free! I’m really excited about it, since we both graduated in 2006, and at that point had close to $68K in debt. Thank God for the power to get out of debt and be able to save our money for better things than interest payments.

How did it happen so quickly? Josh and I have been living on a budget. We use cash for most purchases, to keep within our budget. Also, Josh works two jobs, and I work, and we live off of only 2 of our paychecks a month (out of 4+freelance). I sold my car, so we got rid of those payments, it’s maintenance, and insurance.

We could have finished earlier, but we have a penchant for travel, and took an expensive honeymoon… but we don’t regret any of that. It keeps us sane.

Should be debt free by mid-September… I’ll keep you posted!