Any Dave Ramsey fans?

[DoeWDW]

Just wondering if anyone else has followed his baby steps to financial freedom? Did you start and then quit or have you stuck with it?

Thoughts?

 

[Anewman]

When I get enough money I am going to pay for all his books and tapes on how to save money.

 

[RitaE]

you'll find many fans over on the Budget Board.

Dave Ramsey is not about how to save money.

His steps go like this

Save a Baby Emergency Fund
Pay off all your Debt
Save a 3 to 6 month Emergency Fund
Save 15% for Retirement
Save for Your kids College
Pay off Your House
Live Debt Free

We paid off all our cards and then saved an Emergency Fund. Never went to the point where we completely do without Credit Cards, but we use them sparingly. My son is going to college debt free this year, we paid cash. We do not follow his advice on how to invest our money, but we do follow his advice on what we should save money for rather than borrowing money.

The Country would be in much better shape today if more people listened to Dave Ramsey.


edit to add: There is no reason to buy anything. There are tons of Free Dave Ramsey resources available. You can buy his book used for about $8 or get it from the library.

 

[UGAFan0829]

The DH and I are Dave fans. We completed the Financial Peace University earlier in the year and really got a lot out of it. We got a quick start on baby step 1, and are trying to get baby step 2 out of the way. I really do like Dave, and think his teachings make a lot of sense!

 

[Aisling]

When I get enough money I am going to pay for all his books and tapes on how to save money.

I like Dave Ramsey. I got his book when I got us into some serious credit card debt last year, and his ideas really helped a lot. I don't agree with everything he says, but following his plan worked for my family.

 

[Biscuitsmom31]

I'm working on baby step 2. In his book, it appears people are able to pay off their debt very rapidly. Mine is going much slower, but it's going.

 

[1rockinmamato2]

When I get enough money I am going to pay for all his books and tapes on how to save money.

I am tired of him wanting to charge me for his advice while he sits in a $1.5 million home.

 

[SeaSpray]

I am tired of him wanting to charge me for his advice while he sits in a $1.5 million home.

What do you mean?? There's no need to pay a penny. He has a tv show on every single night, he has a radio show that's on every day, and there's a FREE web site where you can get every bit of his "wisdom"; it's www.livinglikenooneelse.com Enjoy!

 

[tonilea]

I'm working on baby step 2. In his book, it appears people are able to pay off their debt very rapidly. Mine is going much slower, but it's going.

We were able to pay off our debt quite a bit sooner than originally projected. We thought it would take two years, but we were able to do it in 15 months. Once our snowball really got rolling, it was amazing how it picked up speed.

We are big DR fans. We feel like it has really changed our lives.

I do disagree with DR on one thing. He maintains that those of us who are debt free don't need a FICO score. Unfortunately, unless you are as rich as Dave Ramsey, you do need a good FICO - even if you never go back into debt. My MIL recently tried to get dish TV.... we had to put it in our name. She is completely anal about paying her bills - pays them well before they are due. She hasn't had any debt since the seventies, so she has NO credit file - not bad credit, NO credit.

 

[tonilea]

I am tired of him wanting to charge me for his advice while he sits in a $1.5 million home.

I have to say that the $100 we paid to take the Financial Peace University class was some of the best money we ever spent.

It is kind of funny that people expect millionaire financial gurus to dispense advice, give away books, etc for free, but would never expect the same of a millionaire lawyer or some other wealthy professional.

The truth is, you don't HAVE to spend a dime to follow the DR plan. Books are usually available at local libraries, his web site provides lots of free information and advice, he has a column carried in many papers, yahoo groups and even a television show.

 

[Biscuitsmom31]

We were able to pay off our debt quite a bit sooner than originally projected. We thought it would take two years, but we were able to do it in 15 months. Once our snowball really got rolling, it was amazing how it picked up speed.

You must have been in a better position than us. We have tons of medical bills to pay off and considering we've only been sending them 10-20 apiece (before the snowball), paying them off isn't freeing up much cash. It's going to take a long time before our snowball starts to grow significantly. Right now we're throwing approx. $300 a month at our debt. Considering how much debt we have, $300 a month isn't going to pay it off quickly.

It's hard to decide what all to give up. I don't want to deny my kids the opportunity to play sports - and that is costly. I have completely stopped buying useless things. Eveything I buy, I have budgeted for. However, when you budget in Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. there isn't much left for the snowball.

 

[asta]

I think that Dave Ramsey gives good common sense advice on not running up credit cards but I'm not sure that he is qualified to give investment advice. His career is an entertainment show built around his experience with going bankrupt. Investment bankers and stockbrokers go through a lot of training and must be licensed to offer their services. I don't think that Dave Ramsey has done this.

On another note, I live in the same area that Dave Ramey lives in and our local paper won't even carry his column because of what they considered dishonest practices. They discovered that he was making up questions and passing them off as letters from readers. This was several years ago but they still will not carry his column. It is probably too complicated to go into here, but my daughter had an experience with one of his daughters that made me think that they were pretty opportunistic. Just one of those situations that would make think twice about wanting to be involved with them.

 

[tonilea]

You must have been in a better position than us. We have tons of medical bills to pay off and considering we've only been sending them 10-20 apiece (before the snowball), paying them off isn't freeing up much cash. It's going to take a long time before our snowball starts to grow significantly. Right now we're throwing approx. $300 a month at our debt. Considering how much debt we have, $300 a month isn't going to pay it off quickly.

It's hard to decide what all to give up. I don't want to deny my kids the opportunity to play sports - and that is costly. I have completely stopped buying useless things. Eveything I buy, I have budgeted for. However, when you budget in Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. there isn't much left for the snowball.

We were able to find lots of extra work. DH was able to get OT, we sold quite a bit of stuff - even a few guns from our collection and we sold alot of scrap metal - once we were committed, we were able to find things (that had always been there, but we hadn't been able to "see") to make extra money.