Who is Brian?

I'm a fully certified Ramsey Master Financial Coach.  If you do not know what that means, that is ok, but let me just tell you my story.

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I'm in my 40s and have worked in the same company since I graduated college. My wife and I have been married for 20+ years and we have 3 wonderful boys that keep our lives busy.  I'm a coach or assistant coach for many of my kid's teams, a leader in my company, and try to lead and direct my family together with my wife according to Biblical wisdom.  

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All was going well in life until the middle of 2021when I nearly lost my job.  When that happens you go through a range of emotions, but one of those that I was not expecting was fear.  I realized quickly that I had a car loan, furniture loan, some credit card debt that I normally paid off monthly, and then your general upcoming plans, you know like your oldest son going to college.  Immediately I began to look around for options and I ended up going for a job at Ramsey Solutions.  

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The interview with HR was fantastic and I fell in love with the company, but I was not quite in a position to take a pay cut, plus move my family 10 hours away.  Instead, I dove into Financial Peace University to understand more about the company and began to work on the plan.  My total debt was only about $23,000, plus almost nothing in an emergency fund and no college savings account set up. 

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As I worked through the plan I realized I had a few blessings.  First, I was unknowingly in a whole life insurance policy for the last 10 years, so I extracted the savings portion of it, which turned out to be enough to pay off my car loan. I paid off my credit card, as I normally did monthly and we locked in our budget to stay on track.  Following that I sold off some stock that had built up over time, funded my emergency fund, and put some money aside for the kid's college.  Wow...yes, I know that seemed pretty easy, but I was unsure, hit a bit of luck (along with some wise past decisions), and thankfully over the years had tried to manage our money a bit.  The good news in all of this was that in March I sold off a large portion of debt that had weighed us down, an RV.  That loan was $63,000 and thankfully we sold that before I started this whole journey.

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Now, what I learned through all of this was that I stumbled into some decent decisions, got past some dumb mistakes, and made a few wise choices  After I refinanced to a 15-year mortgage at the end of 2021 I decided it was time to go into financial coaching mode and went through the Master Training. During this time I also started coordinating Financial Peace University at my church.  I stumbled along a fairly safe path, but I know many out there need this teaching.

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My goal is to help you reach financial independence no matter what your age.  Teach people of all ages and walks of life about financial wisdom. I believe anyone can change their stars and reach their dreams, change their legacy, and live a wonderful, blessed life.