 Well hello and welcome to another Financial Friday. I am wearing the same shirt that I wore on the last Financial Friday because I am pre-filming some things because it feels good to pre-film you guys, it feels really good. But today I wanted to talk about kind of a controversial topic. This is something that really inhibited me from starting the Dave Ramsey program was religion. If you guys have been watching my channel for a while, some of you may know, some of you may not know. I am not a religious person. My mom is Christian. My dad is not. My dad is nothing. I am nothing. That's the religious household I grew up in. I did go to Sunday school. I was also confirmed as a Lutheran as well. When I was, uh, I don't know how old I was, maybe like 15 whenever they did the confirmation. So I learned, I learned all about Christianity and decided in my adult years to go my own way. And my own way was no way. And I think that religion is great. I think religion is an amazing thing for people that feel called to one specific religion, but it's just, it's just not for me. So please don't hate in the comments about it. If you guys don't want to talk about religion on a broader scale, please just click out of the video. But anyone that wants to hear what I have to say about the Dave Ramsey program without religion, stay tuned. All right, so I had been listening to the Dave Ramsey podcast for about a couple of weeks before I actually picked up this book. This is the Total Money Makeover. Dave Ramsey makes no qualms about being a Christian and having Christian principles and all of his materials, which I think is fantastic. However, I was kind of worried that this would be a book all about God and it really isn't. There are definitely major undertones of Christianity in all of his work, but it's not like in your face. It's not the way I thought it would be. I thought it would be more of a, if you don't believe this year wrong. I know he has said that on his podcast before and that's fine. I feel like anyone of any religious background, whether it be no religion or Christianity, Muslim, Judaism, anything can really take what he has to say about money and apply it to your life. There is the issue of the tithe and let me put this down and we'll talk about tithing. So tithing, as much as I know about religion, which is like very, very little with my Sunday school and confirmation days, I didn't really know what a tithe was until I started hearing it on the day of Ramsey's show. I'm like, what's a tithe? What's a tithe? And a tithe is a 10th, a 10th is really what it means. And they talk about that in the Bible, a lot of tithe of 10% of your income going directly to your church. And that's essentially like the offering plate going around, you know, you're putting about a 10th of your income, which is what in the Bible, Jesus said. So anyways, when you talk about the tithe, there are other ways for non-religious people to tithe. I have done this in the past and I'm going to share my experience with what I've done with you. This past year, I decided to go back to my local high school and donate a bunch of funds there. I did a couple of different things. I actually donated some products. So I donated some stuff to an organization called Cody's Closet, which is essentially personal care items for children that don't have it. I shouldn't say children because they were teens. So they're basically almost adults because it was my high school. So you donate like soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, stuff for your hair, lotion, deodorant, like any personal care thing that you can think of, they will take. So I donated a bunch of that stuff. Also, I donated some money to the food program. So the kids that didn't have enough money for a lunch ticket that day would essentially go on a list and then have to pay that back. And I went there a few times and wiped out all the debt for the children for the month. So, and that, you know, that felt good for me to give in that way. So you can give in other ways. You just need to find out what you're passionate about. You know, if you're passionate about like pets or clean water or something, you can find an organization that you truly believe in to give some of your money to. And tithing, I feel like works well for everybody because I feel like I got more out of it than the people that it may be affected to be completely honest. I really enjoyed giving schools not in session right now. So I really can't do anything. But once school starts up again, I will start doing more stuff with the same organization and my same contact over there. And it's not a set amount. I just donate what I feel is appropriate for me and it's not actually a tenth of my income to be completely honest. But I think it's just the act of giving. So if you take away the tithe in all of Dave's books and you talk about just donating or giving it in some way, even if you're in the Starbucks line and paying for somebody behind you, I know that that's such a small minute little thing. But it's something that makes you as a human better, I feel. So I really enjoy that part of it. And that's one of the religious aspects of the Dave Ramsey plan. Also in a lot of his books, there is personal experiences. So there's personal experiences from a lot of the people that have like gotten out of debt and stuff in this book, like essentially like letters from them. And some of them are very, very religious and others are not. But it's always really interesting, I feel like, to hear everybody's story of how they got from being in debt to how they're not in debt anymore. And some of it is very religious based and others is not. It's just, hey, we got it. We were sick and tired of being sick and tired and we got on a plan. And this is what we did. So I really enjoy everyone's different perspective on things. And also the last thing I want to talk about with the Dave Ramsey plan was Financial Peace University. I took financial peace this past winter. I will leave my money talk playlist below, which has all of my financial peace videos in there. It was nine weeks long. So I've got, well, I think we skipped a week or something. It was, oh, the home buying one they didn't want to do. And I was like, dude, hello, I'm going to buy a house soon. And they were like, no, it doesn't really pertain to anybody in the class. And I'm like, yes, it does, but whatever. The person that led the class let me take home the DVD and watch it. So I don't know. I mean, it was fine, but I really wish that I would have been able to discuss it with other people that have purchased homes in the past in the class because that was kind of the whole point. So anyways, it's nine weeks. And I really enjoyed it. My biggest qualm was that it was at a church. And I thought it was going to be very, very religious based. And I was going to feel extremely uncomfortable at the actual FPU classes. It was given obviously through the church and I signed up for it, but I signed up for it on the Dave Ramsey website, which was just fine. I got my kit in the mail and then I went. The first day, the person that was leading it talked a little bit about the church and also said, if you're not a member, feel free to come and see me. And if you would like to join or if you have any questions about the church. And then that was it. Like they didn't talk about really religion any more than that. People in their own stories kind of at the end of the class and we were in discussion would bring up religion and talk about how it's helped them and things like that. And that was fine because that was just people's personal experiences. However, the only person really bringing up religion was this guy here, Mr. Ramsey, um, when we were watching the videos. So we would watch the video and the videos I think were about an hour or so and then we would have like a small group discussion. And that was fine. I mean, but most of the DVDs that you do watch in FPU don't really have much to do with religion until the very, very end. I think it's the last one where it's, it's like essentially all about giving is what it is and really talks about the power of giving and you can take that in any way you want. So I thought because I didn't practice that same religion that I was maybe going to get judged or not feel welcomed or something like that. And plus obviously I didn't know anybody there because I didn't attend that church. So I was kind of like, I don't know how I feel about this. It's just that uncomfortable stuff of the unknown. I mean, I'm a pretty outgoing person. I can feel a little bit hermit like once in a while though too and just feel kind of introverted. I don't know. I have a really different personality, but I just, I wasn't sure. So I told myself if I don't feel comfortable after the third class that I wouldn't go back and I would just listen to the audio CDs and then I would be done with it. But I did feel comfortable and everything was fine. And in my own mind, I was kind of like, that was my issue. So if you practice any other religion besides what Dave Ramsey practices, like don't feel like you can't go. I was actually listening to his podcast the other day and there was a gentleman caller and I believe that he was Jewish and he was talking about the tithe and that's a little bit different in the Jewish culture is from what I understood from the call. I don't know. I'm not Jewish. It was just very interesting, you know, that someone that's predominantly Christian is getting a call from other people that are in different religions. And I think that's awesome because you can learn so much financially from Dave Ramsey regardless of your religion. So really the moral of the story is don't be scared about Dave Ramsey's religious point of views. You know, his religious point of views are really just be a good person. And that's a lot of what Christianity has to offer. Like I said, my mother is in the Christian faith. I have a lot of extended family in the Christian faith. I learned about the Christian faith through my Lutheran upbringing. And you know, at the end of the day, it's just be a good person. That's really what I remember from my teachings. There's some other things that go along with it obviously, but there is no reason regardless of religion to steer clear from the Dave Ramsey program. It's worked for me in a non-religious way and it can definitely work for you regardless of your religion. So anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the video. I've gone on and on a little bit too much on this topic, but if you have any questions, feel free to put them in the comments below and I will get back to as many of you as I can. I feel like this video might get a lot of comments just because of the topic, but I am an open book. Feel free to be nice to everybody down there regardless of their religious views and don't be too judgy. Okay, the internet's already judgy enough for everybody, but I always just like an open dialogue in the comments below. So if you've gone through the Dave Ramsey program being in a different religion than Dave Ramsey, I would love to know below. You don't need to get into too much detail if you don't want to, but let me know if it worked for you and if you guys are still on the plan or just anything about it to say what your experience was, whether it was just be reading the books or listening to the podcast or if you went through Financial Peace University, I would love to know because I was so nervous about it and I couldn't find any YouTube videos talking about Financial Peace University without the religious aspect, so it took me several years to actually go, but now I'm really glad that I did and I did learn a lot and I actually learned a lot from the other class members as well. So anyway, I am going to jet. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. If you like the video, make sure to give it a thumbs up. I am here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with new content for you at 9 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, Fridays, I typically do a Financial Friday, so something finance-related, not always, but most of the time, and then if it's your first time here or you're a long-time lurker, I like my lurkers, feel free to hit the red subscribe button so you don't miss out on any future content. Right now, I'm in the middle of doing a Vlulai, which is vlogging every day in the month of July. I also did June when I purchased this house, so day one of June is actually me closing on the house. So if you would like to watch either of those series, I will put the playlist down below for you guys. But thank you guys so much for watching. I really, really appreciate it and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye guys.