Daniel, a fire-proofing superintendent, went from paycheck-to-paycheck with $100,000 in debt to debt-free in three years using Dave Ramsey's method: budget, build an emergency fund, and adopt a cash-only rule. Half of Canadians carry roughly $100,000 in debt, which tanks their performance and mental health.
Right now in Canada, 50% of the population have an average of $100,000 of debt. There's a good chance when you went to school, they didn't teach you how to do finances well. Then you go to university and all they do is teach you how to mismanage your finances. When I was a new boss, I used to think having my guys under a little bit of financial stress, well, that was a good thing. But what I found out is that guys that were drowning in debt just struggled with work. The pressure financial debt puts on our people, their work-life balance, their mental health, their relationships, all of that is huge. And today we're gonna sit down with Dan, who talks to us about his school of hard knocks and how he got in control of his finances.
My name's Daniel. I'm the fireproofing superintendent here at Beyond. I've been here roughly 7 years now. I started out installing here and made my way up top. Some of the toughest financial moments I've had, uh, we had 4 girls and, uh, and my wife was a stay-at-home mom. There's a lot of mouths to feed and clothes to buy. It was, it was, it was a bit stressful, man. It's a lot on your shoulders. It's, it's a mix. Like, you're, you're stressed out about it, but you're also enjoying What you're providing for and creating.
So, did making more money help with the financial pressure?
No, making more money did not help with the financial pressure. It seems like the more you make, the more you spend, and until you can learn to budget and finance, it doesn't really doesn't matter how much you make. It was about three years ago I learned how to budget and finance. Through a Dave Ramsey video that the Beyond Foam company provided. Budget, budget, budget.
That was your kind of school— one of your school hard knocks lessons today? Like, school doesn't teach you how to handle money?
No, not at all. Somewhere along the line, you need to be shown how and what to put where. Yeah, I don't, I don't think that— I don't think even life does, because, you know, you're young and you're You're blowing money like crazy, and then you have kids and you want to blow money like crazy on them, and really not realistic stuff. You just want to spoil them and not worry about tomorrow. Meanwhile, you're living paycheck to paycheck. So yeah, until you— until somebody shows you or guides you, I don't think nothing really shows you until that happens.
What was the most helpful What was the biggest lesson of financial management that you learned, and do you have a budget now?
Yeah, we have a budget now. Um, that's probably the biggest thing, lesson that I got out of it was learning how to budget. Um, when we watched the Dave Ramsey, it, uh, showed you how to make an emergency fund and And gather up 6 months of living expenses. When you get that built up, a lot of stress comes off right there. You have that freedom in the background. If anything happened, if you get hurt, or God forbid you lose your job, or I mean, anything that could come up in life. But having that here is— it definitely feels good. The other huge piece of financial information that I learned was if you can't afford it cash, then you just can't afford it. You just can't have it. Like credit cards and leasing vehicles and yeah, they just set you back and just financially bury you. Compared to where I was 4 years ago, I was, I was in the hole. I had max credit cards. I had a truck payment. My wife had a car payment. Today, I'm debt-free. I have my 6 months security in the bank, my 6 months of all payments, mortgage, bills, food. I have that security in the bank now. And then some.
What would you say to someone who's struggling to get their head above water with finances?
Get rid of the credit cards. Get rid of any payments that you got. Try and pay them down as quickly as possible with everything you have. Don't go out for the dinners and the movie shows if you can avoid it. And just sock everything to that and get out of that. It's been a long road, and I think, I think we're getting there. We're figuring it out. We're going on trips. We're doing holidays 2 or 3 times a year. It's finally working out.
Our employees, they're like family to us. We care about every aspect of their life, how they're performing at work, how their family's going, and especially their financial life. Because we do believe that financially stable people perform better, are happier, and those are the kind of people that we want to hang out with. If you like this content, we would love for you to like, subscribe, and follow us. And if you want more information about Dave Ramsey and his financial freedom, just comment below.
