BY: Teresa LeNeave - leneave2@comcast.net

Buyer beware. Everything around you is geared toward taking the money you work so hard to make. Department stores have one motive in mind: taking your money. Drug companies (no matter how harmful the side effects are) have one motive in mind: taking your money. Banks have one motive in mind: taking your money and using it to make them more money. As strange as it seems, some of your friends have one motive in mind: taking your money. Amazon, which I love, is geared toward taking our money. So, what do you do to fight against the desperate battle for your money that surrounds you all day, every day?

Almost everyone in America has heard of the financial guru, Dave Ramsey. He says, "We (Americans) are ignorant as to how much effort, time, energy, and money is spent to get our business and thereby our money. While companies spend billions of dollars and hours to sell to us, we sit idly by, getting sold and sold and sold."

Ramsey said if you want to be debt free you must, "figure out what your actual income is and then proceed to live far below that mark." He says you must remind yourself to slow down. Evaluate carefully every purchase because you may be sacrificing your financial freedom for years to come.

Ramsey says if you must borrow money there are two sure-fire guidelines to abide by. First, borrow on short terms and only borrow on items that go up in value. That means, it's okay to borrow for a house that is within your budget, but borrow for the least number of years you possibly can.

I wonder if most American's have more trouble getting out of debt, or keeping out of debt?

He says, "Debt will always get you in trouble. Have you ever lain awake at night wondering which bills were going to get paid? Have you ever wished you could buy something for your children but didn't have the money?" According to scripture debt will bind you and choke the life out of you. Proverbs 22:7 says, "The rich rule over the poor and the borrow is servant to the lender."

The Bible speaks against being impulsive. It says, "He who is impulsive exalts folly" (Prov 14:29).

Dave Ramsey is a first-hand rags-to-riches kind of guy. At 26-years-old, he had a $4 million portfolio, but by the age of 30 he was bankrupt. He has since rebuilt his financial life and devotes himself to helping others who find themselves in the same "mess". This is not an advertisement for Dave Ramsey, but a bell ringer to get our attention in a volatile financial world. I believe God gives us wisdom when we actively try to make wise choices.