Sunday, April 7, 2013

Celebration of Financial Freedom


Today I attended a closing ceremony for our “12 Steps to Financial Freedom” class at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens. The participants in the class started their journey in January and every Tuesday for 3 months night they met together for 75 minutes discussing the principles, strategies and commitments for financial freedom. The textbook was “dfree: Breaking Free from Financial Slavery.” I was the instructor. Although I wrote the book and the workbook, this was a life changing experience for me.

dfree® class January - March 2013
As I listened to the testimonies from the participants, it became even clearer to me that financial freedom has less to do with money and much more to do with emotional, psychological and mental transformation. Of course, having financial resources is important. But person after person described their changes in attitudes toward money, their improved discipline in general and their having overcome certain fears that were holding them back financially. One person reported that the class had helped them gain the courage to open years worth of unopened mail that they had accumulated. Another couple said that they were now able to communicate with each other better and to cope with their challenges. A few people described how they had called their bank and were able to secure reduced interest rates on their mortgages. One person completely paid the $14,000 balance on their car loan. It was a moving ceremony.

While it is true that we started #dfree® to help people get out of debt, the #dfree® movement is much more than a debt reduction campaign. People seem to be catching the vision of freedom from debt, delinquencies and deficits to deposits, dividends and deeds! As I say in my book, we really don’t manage money – we manage our lives and then we use our money to help us reach our goals. #dfree® is a strategy that motivates people to define their life goals and then to use money strategically rather than spend money emotionally in order to reach those goals.

I am more motivated now than I have ever been before to grow this movement. I am grateful to my church members that have been so supportive and enthusiastic. If you and your church or organization would like to join the #dfree® movement, connect with us at www.mydfree.org or www.billiondollarpaydown.com.  

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