Good morning everyone!

Summer is less than one week away and I can’t believe this year is flying by so fast. I am getting so excited about the summer. One of the reasons I’m so excited is because we are starting a whole new semester of Financial Peace University at our church. This class has truly impacted the way I view and interact with money. Dave Ramsey’s material is practical, fun, and most importantly, biblically driven.

Dave teaches that personal finance is 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge. Taking contra of your finances is more about what you do than what you know. FPU helps with both of these aspects in order to challenge you to use your money God’s way.

Last Fall, Dave’s team released an update to its FPU material. Our new Member Kits arrived this week and I wanted to show you what you get when you register for Financial Peace University. There is some great stuff in these new kits!

When you open the box you are greeted with an awesome reminder: Your Story Begins Today. That’s right! You have decided to do something different. When you choose to start using your money and finances according to God’s Word, it will impact your future. It will change you. It will change your kids. It will change your family tree. FPU really does change your story. Let’s take a look at the tools you’ll be using to write that new story.

The first stop is to unpack the Start Here box. Inside you’ll find a handful of goodies including stickers, bookmarks, and some old school “budget tools” (aka: A pencil and an eraser. What, no abacus?) The most important thing you’ll need is your Online Member code which will give you access to a dozen or more online resources, forms, and articles. This really is an invaluable tool and as an FPU student, I’d encourage you to take full advantage of everything available online.

Next, you’ll find two books. The first is your Workbook. This will be your constant companion and the the thing you must bring with you to class each week. This new and improved workbook still provides you with an outline  and fill-in-the-blanks for each lesson but it is much more user-friendly than its predecessor. There are more forms, more articles to help you understand the concepts, and I believe the contents is just presented in a much more concise and engaging way.

The second book is Dave Ramsey’s Complete Guide to Money. This is a brand-new book created specifically for this material. It is the supplement text to everything you’ll be learning in FPU. The previous version of the kit came with Dave’s Total Money Makeover. That book focused more on the 7 Baby Steps where as this book really is a companion guide for the class.

If you have been a part of FPU in the past, you may know what that blue case is. It isn’t a check book. It’s your Envelope System! The Envelope System is introduced in Lesson 3. Basically, you fill each envelope with the cash that you have allotted for it in your budget. Then you are free to spend from the envelope but when it’s gone, it’s gone. It is a basic tool but a game changing one as well. This latest incarnation comes with plenty of envelopes for the future and the ledger on each envelope has more spaces for you to record your activity on.

There is another blue case in the kit. This case houses all of the Audio Lessons from each session. Since we are teaching a summer session of FPU, I know that you are bound to miss at least one of the lessons due to traveling for the summer. That’s ok! You have all the lessons at your fingertips. These 9 discs are the audio from each of the video lessons we will watch at FPU. You can listen to them around the dinner table and fill out your workbook. You can listen to them in the car. You can put them on your iPod and listen during your workout. I love having access to these lessons so that I can go back and be reminded of something from class or get some clarification on something I may not have understood. In fact, this is my favorite part of the kit.

So there you have it! The new Financial Peace University Member Kit not only looks great but is filled with some many great tools to help you start using money God’s way. I have a couple of these kits left for you to purchase at $89. Once these are gone, the price increases. Sign up today and get ready to change your life!

Our class begins on June 20th and I hope you will be a part of it. You can click here to find out more details about the class, time, and location.