Financial Peace

by Dave Ramsey

As I STOOD PUTTING GAS in my Jaguar, the cold damp January wind chilled me and seemed to dampen my spirits even more. I hoped the attendant inside would not run a telephone check on my gold card. If he did, they probably would turn me down. Then where would I be? “This is ridiculous,” I murmured. “Only in America could you drive a Jaguar and not have the money to put gas in it.” I wondered where the arrogant young man from a few years ago was. There I stood in the cold, a man in my twenties, knowing I was in the process of losing virtually everything I owned. It had not always been that way. After college I hit a couple of minor bumps in my career, but I found a niche in foreclosure bargain real estate. With a formal education in finance, a family background in real estate, and a burning desire to succeed, I had a head start on life. As my real estate business grew, everything I touched seemed to turn to gold. I began to collect rental properties, as well as buy and sell bargain properties. I was very good at it and made money quickly. By age twenty-six, I had a rental real estate portfolio worth more than $4 million. I had built a team of people to manage this growing company and everything was moving perfectly.