me vs. dave

Dave Ramsey and I have a very volatile love/hate relationship going at the moment. For those who might never have heard of Dave before (lucky you!), he's a self-made financial guru who helps people to get out of debt and be debt-free. As I've mentioned before, Keith and I are cheap. Penny-pinching, frugal, cheap. There's no way around that. Now that we have Dave in our lives, things are even more tight.

See, Dave's motto is "Live like no one else now, so you can LIVE like no one else later." Basically, save, scrimp, and plan now so that by the time we hit retirement age, we're set and can do whatever we like. Travel? Yes. Buy stuff? Sure. Not have to worry about how to pay for things when neither of us are working? Absolutely. But my issue is this: Do I want to look back in twenty years when we are financially "free" and say, "Well I'm glad we got here, but boy! Those last twenty years sucked!" ? I don't think so.

I think right now Keith and I need to find a relatively happy medium with our relationship with Dave. I do have to say that things have gotten remarkably better since Dave made his initial appearance, but it's still a work in progress. Sometimes it feels like I'm married to Keith and Dave. And last time I checked, Keith is the only one I agreed to spend the rest of my life with.

So there Dave.