We have a winner!

We have a winner! Woop Woop!

I wrote the names down on pieces of paper and then my poor kindergartner (who is home sick today) drew one name from our star basket.

The winner of her very own Financial Peace University kit is...

MONICA G!!

She found us through the LLNOE.com message board that's stocked full of Dave Ramsey fans (including myself). Congratulations Monica!

Listen to all of the great things that Monica would do with a million dollars:

If I had a million dollars, here is what I would do. We are just
now getting into BS5, but it is slow going for right now. So I would
probably park $200,000 per child in a mutual fund to be used for college
expenses. After that, I would pay off our mortgage. With the remaining $, I would make charitable gifts to our
church, my college alma mater, DH's college alma mater, a few other
charities and invest the rest. Then with our income, we could take our
girls to Disney World! :) ** this was edited slightly for privacy

For those of you who are not familiar with Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps, being at Step five is a HUGE accomplishment! This means that Monica's family has:
Step 1. Completed their Baby Emergency Fund of $1000 in the bank
Step 2. Payed off all of their debt
Step 3. Saved up a Fully Funded Emergency Fund of 3-6 months worth of expenses
Step 4. Funded their retirement (ongoing)
Step 5. Save for their kids college education

They only have two steps left to go!
Step 6: Pay off their mortgage
Step 7: Build wealth and give a lot of it away!

Way to go to Monica and your family - what an inspiration you are! Even though you are already so far in the baby steps there is a wealth of information that you will find in the Financial Peace University class - enjoy!

Of course, our son needed a turn at the drawing so we have a second winner!

Brian A!!

Here is the email that Brian sent me listing what he would do with a million dollars:

first, this is a very cool idea - giving an FPU kit away. i saw your post on LLNOE and linked out to your website.

second - we're in BS6 now, so if i won i would likely give the kit to our church, which offers FPU once or twice / year.

on to the big question what to do with [Dr Evil voice] ONE MILLION DOLLARS [/Dr Evil Voice]

first - and most important, make sure i put enough aside to cover the tax bill. no use going to jail! (and yes, i know you're not really giving $1M away in cash. just answering as if you were). assume $300K for this (will follow some good tax/fin planning advice to reduce the bill down to this level. i hope). $700K remaining

second - finish paying off the house. it will be a very "peaceful" time after we finish BS6 (currently about 10 yrs away), but WOW - to move that up to now! this will take appr $250K $450K remaining

third - put some aside for our 3 kids. maybe as a future home downpayment, or a college fund for (eventual) grand kids: $50K x 3 kids = $150K. $300K remaining

fourth: give some away, likely to church and a few other charities that we currently support. this would help getting the tax bill down as well. $100K, $200K remaining

fifth: big time "blow $ envelope." this would likely include a "trip of a lifetime," maybe to Australia or somewhere we'd likely never be able to afford (or justify). $50K, $150K remaining

sixth, and finally, the $150K would end up boringly be set aside for retirement. we're 15 years away, with plans on having a paid off house & $2M to retire one. not having a mtg would also give $$ to save for retirement over the next 10 yrs.

btw, my friends would encourage me to "buy some capital letters for my emails"

Congratulations Brian, especially on reaching step 6 - that's incredible! And thank you for passing along the FPU kit to someone who might need it!

We're going to make this giveaway a habit so even if you weren't a winner this time around you might be next time! In the meantime, make sure to check out Dave Ramsey's website for more information.

(I promise this drawing wasn't rigged to let LLNOE'ers win - it was purely coincidence)