By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

Imagine a pack mule or a donkey pulling a trailer with goods and boxes. When the weight of the boxes gets to be too much, the animal can’t pull.

If it’s way too heavy, the boxes pull to the ground, see-sawing the mule or donkey into the air and, with no contact with the ground, the animal can’t walk.

Not going anywhere for a while?

That is the state of finances for the average American family.

If this typifies your household, and if you realize your mule won’t pull, there is a new way to give yourself a chance to ground your donkey.

Financial Peace University, a program developed by nationally syndicated radio host and News York Times best-selling author Dave Ramsey, will be a featured program at local churches and nonprofit organizations beginning later this month.

The analogy of the pack mule is used as a visual early in the program to show how out of whack some American’s finances are. But, there is hope.

Through the program, Ramsey describes his path from rags to riches — and back again to the top. He made millions in real estate in his 20s, all the while lavishing himself and his family with “wants” — and then the bill came due.

“Like my dad used to say, ‘You shot it, Tarzan, you eat it,” he said through his website (www.daveramsey.com). “‘Financial peace’ are two words that don’t go together. Normal is broke. Be weird.”

Ramsey said the program originally came together as he looked for ways to pull himself and his family up after hitting rock bottom and losing many of his real estate holdings, including his own home.

“I didn’t want to talk to young rich people. I’d been one of them, it didn’t work,” he said. “I talked to people and discovered this disturbing thing called common sense.”

The FPU course is all about changing behaviors, he said.

“Weight Watchers has a great weight-loss plan, but they don’t sell magic food. If you’ve got that day looming ahead that you have to step on that scale, you can walk right past the ice cream,” he said.

The introductory lesson of FPU is free, but there is a cost to continue. The topics covered include developing monthly spending plans that work, teaching families how to communicate and teaching their kids about money, truths about credit lines, the power of marketing on everyday lives, explaining what insurance to buy (and not to buy) and how to plan for college so students can graduate debt-free.

“This is not ‘Get Rich Quick,’ this is not easy,” Ramsey said. “It’s tough. Ninety-eight percent of truth is a lie, so you have to align yourself with the truth.”

Local baseball coach Tory Girdner, of St. Cloud, is teaching the course for a second time at Cornerstone Church. After participating in FPU, he felt so strongly about it that he began teaching it.

“In the current economy, what the program does is give people opportunity to use simple tools to get out of debt and have a better quality of life without debt,” he said. “When you finish a class and people say they’ve paid off five or seven or 10 thousand in debt by the 13th week, that opens your eyes.

“We’ve seen it work in our church. Everyone who comes out the other side have made significant improvements and tell about their victories.”

Armed with what he learned through FPU, Girdner said his personal debt has been whittled down to one credit card and his mortgage.

“And once the card is paid off, all debt service goes into the house,” he said. “It’s been significant for me. I have more freedom than I ever had in my life, and I’m living on less income now. People hear the word ‘budget’ and think it’s a restriction, you know exactly where you’re money’s going and you have more peace of mind about it.”

Girdner said that one of the most important lessons of FPU is one of the first taught — save up a quick emergency fund of cash.

“You draw off that, if say, you blow a tire. You draw off that instead of putting it on a credit card,” he said.

While FPU is not a secular program, local churches are offering the program starting this month, and will offer it again this summer. Locations include Cornerstone in St. Cloud, First United Methodist Church, Freedom Life Church and Trinity Lutheran Church in Kissimmee and Community Presbyterian in Celebration.

For a full list of locations and dates, visit www.daveramsey.com.