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I would estimate that as many as 10% of the emails I receive from readers reference the books, classes, or radio shows of Dave Ramsey. For those unfamiliar, Dave Ramsey hosts a weekly radio show on personal finance topics and focuses on straightforward but tough plans for handling personal finance challenges.

The centerpiece of Dave’s philosophy is what he calls the “seven baby steps.” The “baby steps” form a step-by-step framework for people to move from living a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle (usually with lots of debt) to a lifestyle of financial independence.

It’s a solid plan to follow, but I see lots of emails from people who are struggling with particular aspects of the plan, so I thought it would make sense to walk through Dave’s “seven baby steps” and offer up some thoughts on each step.

My three year old son loves to cuddle with me first thing in the morning. He’ll climb into bed, find a warm spot next to me, and then lay there for a while. He’ll whisper things in my ear and squirm around, but he mostly lays still and sometimes dozes a little bit.

I’ll see Sarah brushing her hair while looking in the mirror, so I’ll sneak up behind her and put my arms around her for a moment. She looks at me in the mirror and smiles.

My daughter is in the basement practicing her musical skills on our old keyboard. I can hear her struggling to make chords and then, sometimes, succeeding. Even if she’s playing something melancholy, her beginner’s style and enthusiasm makes it seem brighter and happier.

I’ll curl up on the couch with a library book and get lost in a new idea or a story. Reading works like yawning in our house; within fifteen minutes or so, everyone else will be in the room with a book in their hands.

The process of moving from spending all that you earn (or more) to spending significantly less than you earn is an absolutely essential part of gaining control over your finances – and it’s not easy. It involves upsetting a lot of the habits that you’ve established in your life. At the same time, you also have to establish new routines as well. Some of them seem difficult at the start, but it’s easy to see the long term rewards.

If you stop spending money on non-essential things, you’re going to have money left for more important things, but establishing new routines with less spending can be really hard, especially at first.

Maria writes in:

Do you ever write about the political and social implications of frugality? When you choose not to spend and instead invest your money, you’re either supporting the banking industry or brokerages. Every dollar you have makes some sort of statement, even when you choose to save it.

Maria makes a good point. As long as we live in a society where money is used for goods and services, our dollars are going to have an impact. Every dollar we spend affects the products that are available, because products that do sell will take up more of the marketplace and products that don’t sell shrivel away. Even when you invest, you’re still buying a product, one that theoretically has the ability to return money to you.

It’s worth asking ourselves what that actually means.