Busted the Bag and Dave Ramsey

It’s been a pretty decent week so far. Workouts have been good, wife is feeling much better, Monkey’s fine…all’s well. I was in my school earlier this week and have added bagwork back into my workout routine. I must say that tracking my workouts has made a huge difference, and I’m feeling better than ever at this point. I’ve been truly inspired since my last Shang Wu Association meeting, and I’ve seen dramatic improvement in my productivity in all areas of my life. I’m managing my time better, my business is improving, I’m keeping up with household chores better, and I’m in the process of using Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover to get a handle on our cash flow issues. More on that later.

But first, a word on Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia. GO RANDY!!! What a fight! We had a group at my home watching the UFC last weekend, and WOW…there were some good fights on. Rich Franklin is back on the winning track, as is Matt Hughes, but the fight of the night was Randy vs Tim. With his first punch, Randy put Tim on the mat! Is was all downhill from there for the bigger man as Randy proceeded to bully and manhandle him for the rest of the fight. Tim’s left eye resembled an eggplant by night’s end. Now, THAT was a FIGHT!

OK, back to the money stuff. You know, it really is amazing to me that we’re not taught more about how to handle our money. My Mom and Dad are actually pretty solid in that area, but I know they’ve had their share of tough times and used to carry far more debt than they probably should have. Like most of us. And I didn’t really learn that much about handling money at school or at home. It’s odd, but our culture is not about doing the right things to build true wealth…it’s usually about ‘Bigger, better, faster, more…’ and keeping up with the Joneses.

Now that I’m running my own business, I really feel like I need to do more than that. I need to provide for my family in a much more concrete and reliable way. That means no debt, making and using a budget, and slowly building a financial foundation that will allow us to build a new school on our own land, buy a house with some land around it, send Monkey to the Rodeo Clown school of his choice, and retire well.

DR’s plan isn’t rocket science. It’s just about being disciplined, diligent, and patient. Here’s a nutshell version:

1. Get current with your bills. You’ll have to make an honest, detailed budget. Ouch.
2. Put away $1000 for your Emergency Fund.
3. Use the Debt Snowball concept to eliminate your outstanding debt.
4. Finish your Emergency Fund (3 – 6 months of living expenses).
5. Get busy putting money away for retirement!

I was inspired to look over this material last year by a dear friend who has used it to become totally debt free and financially SOLID. I admire him greatly, and started to work with this concept. For one reason or another (OK, I just messed it up and didn’t follow through with it), it didn’t work that well for me at the time. Well, as the samurai said, ‘Fall down 7 times, get up 8.’ So I’m attacking this plan again with renewed vigor. For more info, you can hit www.daveramsey.com.

In other news, I had a big macho moment this week…I kicked one of my school punching bags hard enough to bust it open. I didn’t realize what I had done at first, but I was working front kicks, and after a couple of shots, the bag rotated around so I could see the opposite side…it had split open like a wide grin back there. Don’t worry…I’m not getting a big head about it. Every student in my school has beaten the crap out of that bag, and I just happened to catch it the right way, I guess. Even so, it did make me chuckle at myself.

My Sifu and a fellow instructor are coming to town tomorrow, so we’re planning to get a ton of work done. Physical training, goal setting, business planning, as well as the fun camaraderie that we share, are all things that I really enjoy when we meet. Sifu is doing a fan seminar this weekend, in addition to the intensive training that Izzy and I will receive. I don’t know what the ‘theme’ for the weekend will be, but I’ll be sure and jot it down. On Sunday, we’re planning a group trip to watch the movie 300, and there’s a chance that I might have a lacrosse game right afterwards. Man, I feel badly for the opposing team members…I’m most likely going to be HUGELY fired up from the movie, and I’m gonna hit some folks!

OK, I’ve got work to do! More later!