Chris and I took Financial Peace University in the spring of 2016 and those nine weeks have changed our entire life. Today I’m sharing why you should take Financial Peace University, even if you’re not in debt!
This month, Chris and I are small group facilitators for our seventh round of Financial Peace University at our church. It is our eighth time, technically, to go through the material together, but the seventh time that we have led other couples through the class and sent them on their way to financial freedom.
I can’t explain to you all the ways that FPU changed our lives and our marriage, but I do want to share a few reasons why I think everyone should take it, regardless of whether or not they have debt.
Contrary to popular belief, Financial Peace University is not just for those who find themselves as we did: in a mountain of debt, without a penny to their name, and no idea where to turn or what to do next. Rather, I think there is something for everyone who goes through the class so let’s talk about a few of those lessons, mmmkay?
Why You Should Take Financial Peace University
Financial Foundation
Chris and I both came from homes that did a pretty good job managing money. However, no matter how much wisdom our parents passed on to us when it came to money, there are just some things that we HAD to learn for ourselves in order for it to really stick.
Chris and I were as normal as they came – we had student loans, car loans, medical debt, credit cards, etc. We were participants in lots of different types of mistakes when it comes to money. But no matter what our parents told us, we ended up having to learn some of the hard lessons on our own. That is the first lesson we got from FPU: a solid financial foundation that gave us a firm footing in our future when it came to money.
From the moment we walked in to that first class up until the moment I’m writing this blog post, our entire viewpoint on money and the handling of it has changed. Whether you’re in debt or not, having a good foundation on which to grow your financial future is essential and FPU provides that.
The class doesn’t just cover how to get out of debt, it also teaches you what kind of life insurance to buy, how to invest your money, how to shield yourself from marketing tactics, and how to budget and set up your household for success every month.
This foundation set up by all of the lessons within FPU has given Chris and I somewhere solid to start which is such a good feeling!
A Common Language
When it comes to couples, especially when it comes to talking about money, each person in the relationship tends to speak their own language. Some of us are nerds, some are free spirits. Some are spenders, some are savers. And we each bring our own history and perception of money into the conversation which can make conversations about money stressful, frustrating, and honestly, useless. In the end if all you can do is disagree about what to do with your money, you will get nowhere fast.
FPU gives a couple common language to use when talking about finances and encourages setting goals and talking about them together in order to foster this new language together. Before FPU, Chris didn’t really understand why it was so frustrating to me when he would take a church member out for lunch randomly. He didn’t understand that I had already paid all the bills for the month and we didn’t have money left to do that with, and it sounded controlling and petty when I told him it messed up my whole system when he did it.
The bottom line is, Chris should be able to take someone out to lunch as needed – we were just unable to communicate that fact without either of us getting our hackles up before going through FPU together. Once he saw how stressful it was for me, and I understood better how important it was to him, it was an easy fix without either of our egos getting destroyed in the process.
Now all of our financial decisions are made together, literally all of them, and because we have this new common language to use, we have come a long long way in the past five years!
Repair Your Relationship with Money
I’d be willing to bet that you have an unhealthy relationship with money.
Maybe you grew up in a household that spent freely with little regard for budgeting and you don’t see the importance of having a plan. It’s just money after all. Or maybe your parents were very rigid with their spending, turning you into a miser. Maybe your parents had very little but always gave you what you wanted, so when you spend money now you feel guilty. The point here is that there are SO many ways that our relationship with money can be formed, and FPU helps you start to unpack and heal that relationship a bit.
There is absolute right or absolute wrong way to handle money. But there is a better way – and that is to make a plan with your money so that you can do it without the guilt, or curb your spending a bit, or spend without worrying about overdrawing your account. It helps you see that money is a tool, and you can use it without the emotional ramifications that have controlled your habits with it thus far.
Sure, Financial Peace University is great for people who do have debt, but I get the question a lot from people who don’t: “Why should I take that class? I don’t have debt!”. Dave Ramsey’s name has been synonymous for years with “no debt!” but there is much more to the class that I feel is healthy for everyone to take away.
There are many other nuances that have shown why FPU was so good for our marriage and relationship with money, but these are the main three that are good for every couple or individual who takes it.
Tell me in the comments – have you taken FPU? What did you think of it?
I couldn’t agree more! FPU gave us a roadmap with checkpoints along the way to ensure we were making progress. The strides we’ve made in the past 5 years are incredible… if only we had started 15 years sooner when we were newlyweds! 😂
Yes!!! That is the thing I tell pretty much everyone – I wish I had done it so much sooner in life!!