Who is Brian?
Experienced. Certified. Supportive.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.