Building your savings is one of the most important steps to achieving financial stability.This is the first of our series on getting back to financial basics. I watched a baseball movie recently, Trouble With The Curve with Clint Eastwood, and it reminded me of how important it is to practice the basics. It doesn't matter how good a professional is, they constantly need to practice the basics. I believe the same applies to our financial lives. While there are very sophisticated (and complicated) strategies-and I have learned many of them over the years-if you stick to the basics, you will do very well.Give Your Finances the Time and Effort They DeserveMy wife and I lead Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class at our church. If you ever have the opportunity to take this class, I highly recommend it. Even if you are doing great financially, it will enable you to refine and improve what you do. Remember, even the professional baseball players must focus on the basics every year, month and day to stay on top of their game.Our class focuses on the basics. But don't think that practicing the basics is going to be easy. For most people, working on financial basics will take much time and perseverance. However, if you follow along with us, we will help keep you motivated to change your family's life for the better. Following these basic rules will:Get you on track for an incredibly successful retirementReduce the stress of not knowing if what you are doing is rightReduce fights with your spouse over money (really)Eliminate debt in your life, foreverEnable and empower you to spend less, thereby freeing up resources for living and givingEnsure you are well-protected from calamity and mishapsHelp you take care of your family and children with less financial stressAllow you to save for your children's educationEnable you to give like never beforeread more
