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WORKBOOK

Lesson One

SUPER
SAVING
COMMON SENSE FOR YOUR DOLLARS AND CENTS
Were not a nation of savers. The typical American could not even cover a $5,000
emergency without having to borrow money. And big purchases? Nothing a swipe
of the plastic cant take care of, right?
In Super Saving, Dave blasts through the hype and reveals the reasons why you
should save money, how to be prepared for emergencies, and how to build genuine
wealthwithout luck or the lottery! More than that, Dave will truly get you excited
about saving. Impossible? Not when you start Super Saving!

TELL YOUR STORY

Week One
What do you expect to be your greatest challenge
as you get started with Financial Peace University?

DATE

THE SEVEN BABY STEPS

There is a process for winning with money over time. No
matter where you are today, whether youre financially
secure or financially distressed, these Baby Steps will walk
you step by step toward financial peace.

Save $1,000 in a beginner emergency

fund. ($500 if your income is under $20,000 per year.)

Pay off all debt (except the house) using

the debt snowball.

Put 36 months of expenses in savings.

Invest 15% of your household income into

Roth IRAs and tax-favored plans.

Save for your childrens college

education using tax-favored plans.

After I got my
$1,000 in the bank, I
finally had some peace
of mind and I didny
feel like I had to freak
out because something
unexpected came up.
It was awesome!
Alicia

America consistently
has one of the worst
personal savings rates
of all the nations of
the world.

For the love of money

is a root of all kinds
of evil.

Pay off the house early.

1 TIMOTHY 6:10

Build wealth and give!

SAVING BASICS

in the bank.

Saving must become a

You must pay yourself

Give, save then pay

Saving money is about

and
.
SUPER SAVING 02

Building wealth is not evil or wrong.

Money is

Christian author Larry Burkett once said, The only difference

between saving and hoarding is
.

Making money is
much harder to do
if, deep down, you
suspect it to be a
morally reprehensible
activity.
RABBI DANIEL LAPIN

It is the Christians spiritual

to take dominion over

money. If we dont, we surrender Gods resources to the enemy!

In the house of the wise are stores of choice food

and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.

PROVERBS 21:20 (NIV84)

WHY SAVE?
You should save for three basic reasons:

fund

building

EMERGENCY FUND
events do occurexpect them!
Remember, we just said that Baby Step 1, the beginner
emergency fund, is $

in the bank (or $500 if your

household income is below $20,000 per year).

months of expenses in savings.

SUPER SAVING 03

A great place to keep your emergency fund is in a

account from a mutual fund
company.
Your emergency fund is not an
it is

Money market
accounts can be opened
at your local bank or
credit union. Be sure to
get one that gives you
check-writing priveledges.

Do not

this fund for purchases!

The $1,000 emergency fund is your

Murphys Law:
Whatever can go
wrong, will go wrong.

savings

priority. Do it quickly!

Dont Drive yourself broke!

One definition of
maturity is learning
to delay pleasure.
Children do what
feels good; adults
devise a plan and
follow it.

LETS SAY an average car payment is $492 a month for 63 months.

WHAT IF you put that $492 in a cookie jar each month? Youd be
able to pay cash for a $4,900 car in just 10 months!
If a teenager takes this to heart early and never has a car payment
throughout his whole life, can you imagine how wealthy he could
become just from this one decision?

DAVE RAMSEY

PURCHASES
Instead of

to purchase, pay cash by using a

fund approach.

FOR EXAMPLE . . .
If you borrow to purchase a $

dining room set, the furniture store

will probably sell your loan to a finance company.

This means you will have borrowed at
month for

% with payments of $

months. So you will pay a total of $

But if you save the same $

per

for that set.

per month for only

months, you will be able to pay cash.

SUPER SAVING 04

Daily decisions make a Huge impact!

EXPENSE

COST
PER DAY

COST
PER MONTH

IF INVESTED AT 12%
FROM AGE 1676

BOTTLED WATER

$2

$60

$7,825,768

GOURMET COFFEE

$5

$150

$19,564,358

LUNCH (5 days/week)

$8

$160

$20,868,640

No discipline seems
pleasant at the time,
but painful. Later
on, however, it
produces a harvest
of righteousness and
peace for those who
have been trained
by it.
HEBREWS 12:11 (NIV)

Is it worth the cost in the long run?

A faithful man will
abound with blessings,
but he who hastens
to be rich will not go
unpunished.

WEALTH BUILDING
is a key ingredient.

PROVERBS 28:20

Building wealth is a
not a

,
.

years of saving $

per month, every month, at

% will build to $

.
withdrawals

are a good way to build in discipline.

Compound interest is a mathematical

.
You must start

SUPER SAVING 05

ory
T he S t

of

R
U
H
T
R
&
A
BEN
An d

er of
w
o
p
e
th

und
c o mp o

t
i n te r e s

Ben
Invests

Age

Arthur
Invests

Total

2,000 2,240
19

0 0

2,000

4,749 20

0 0

2,000

7,558 21

0 0

2,000

10,706 22 0

2,000

14,230 23

2,000

18,178 24 0

2,000

22,599 25

2,000

27,551 26 0

30,857
27 2,000 2,240

34,560
28 2,000

BEN STOPS
0
SAVING!
0

Ben starts saving money at 19 years old.

Total

ARTHUR
STARTS 0

0 0
0 0

0
4,749

38,708
29 2,000 7,558
43,352
30 2,000

10,706

48,554 31 2,000 14,230

54,381
32 2,000

18,178

60,907
33 2,000 22,599

68,216
34 2,000

76,802
35 2,000 33,097

85,570
36 2,000

95,383
37 2,000 46,266

0 107,339
38 2,000

27,551
39,309
54,058

0 120,220
39 2,000 62,785

He saves $2,000 a year until age 26, a total

of eight years. After that, he never invests
another dime.

0 168,900
42 2,000

Arthur starts saving money at 27 years old.

0 211,869
44 2,000 124,879

He saves $2,000 a year until age 65,

almost his entire life.

0 265,768
46 2,000 161,396

At the end of the story,

Ben, who invested only $16,000, ends up

with $2,288,996! But Arthur, who put in
$78,000, ends up with $1,532,166.

0 134,646
40 2,000

72,559

0 150,804
41 2,000 83,506
95,767

0 189,168
43 2,000 109,499
0 237,293
45 2,000 142,104
0 297,660
47 2,000 183,004

333,379 48 2,000

207,204

0 373,385
49 2,000 234,308
0 418,191
50 2,000 264,665
0 468,374
51 2,000 298,665
0 524,579
52 2,000

336,745

0 587,528
53 2,000 379,394
0 658,032
54 2,000

427,161

0 736,995
55 2,000 480,660
0 825,435
56 2,000 540,579
0 924,487
57 2,000 607,688

Just because he started early,

Ben came out

ahead by over

$ 700,000!

0 1,035,425
58 2,000 682,851
0 1,159,676
59 2,000 767,033
0 1,298,837
60 2,000 861,317
0 1,454,698
61 2,000 966,915
0 1,629,261
62 2,000 1,085,185
0 1,824,773
63 2,000 1,217,647
0 2,043,746
64 2,000 1,366,005
0 2,288,996
65 2,000 1,532,166

$2,288,996

$1,532,166

EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
The rate of return, or

rate,

is important.

If riches increase, do
not set your heart on
them.
PSALM 62:10

$1,000 One-Time Investment

No withdrawals, age 2565 (40 years)
$1,000 @ 6% after 40 years $10,284

$1,000 @ 12% after 40 years $93,050

$1,000 @ 18% after 40 years $750,378

If you do the things

you need to do when
you need to do them,
then someday you
can do the things you
want to do when you
want to do them.
ZIG ZIGLAR

Make all you can,

save all you can, give
all you can.
JOHN WESLEY

ONE-MINUTE TAKEAWAY
What jumped out at you in this lesson?
How can this affect your story?

SUPER SAVING 07

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
True life-change happens when you open up and work through
this material with others. Talk through the following questions
with your spouse or accountability partner. Be honest with your
answers!

1.) If you follow the plan outlined throughout FPU, the next
nine weeks will change your moneyand your behaviors with
moneyforever. However, if it were easy, everyone would have
financial peace! Talk about one or two things you are worried
about having to deal with or something you are looking forward
to achieving as you work through the program.
2.) American families typically save far less of their income than
those in other countries. In what specific area(s) could you be
or would you want to bemore diligent about saving?
3.) Dave says, Im positiveemergencies are going to happen!
Talk about a financial emergency youve had over the last few
years. How would the situation have been different if youd had
an emergency fund specifically for these types of expenses?
4.) Dave recommends building sinking funds into your budget
to cover big purchases and future expenses. Talk about some

ANSWER KEY
$1,000
PRIORITY
FIRST
BILLS
EMOTION
CONTENTMENT
AMORAL
ATTITUDE
DUTY
EMERGENCY
PURCHASES
WEALTH
UNEXPECTED
$1,000
3-6
MONEY MARKET
INVESTMENT
INSURANCE
TOUCH
FIRST
BORROWING
SINKING
$4,000
24%
$211
24
$5,064
$211
18
DISCIPLINE
MARATHON
SPRINT
40
$100
12%
$1,176,000
PRE-AUTHORIZED
CHECKING
EXPLOSION
NOW
INTEREST

expenses youve had in the past that could have been less
stressful with a sinking fund.
5.) The time has come for all of us to start dreaming bigger.
Imagine yourself debt free with an emergency fund in place,
fully funding retirement and college investments, and writing
the check to pay off the house. What are some things you cant
wait to do with the moneyand freedomyouve secured for
yourself?
SUPER SAVING 08