Dave Ramsey course

[hugscot]

Anyone ever go thru the Dave Ramsey course? If so how was it and did you stick with it?

 

[hinodis]

YES! In it right now. I just got the wallet for the envelope system. Whatever it takes to get out of debt, do it. It will make life so much better when you do not have credit card debt. There will be so much less stress on you. I gave the book and the envelope system wallet to my 22 year old son for Christmas. He has never even had a credit card but he does have student loans. He signed up for the 401K plan at work at 22!

 

[4parkers]

I CANNOT believe more people hasn't responded to this! I did not do the course. I accidently picked up a book of his .. Total Money Makeover while looking for books on frugality at the library. I figured what the heck lets try it out.
2 years after that day we were 60k out of debt!!!!! Most of it was accumulated when we lost all our belongings in a flood right after son was born. Some was student loans I accumulated before the marriage.. a few credit cards.
Here we are at 30 and 33 on target to have our last car and mortgage and vacation property paid off in 5 years. I strongly urge you to get on the Ramsey bandwagon and find a friend to cheer you on when you slip up ( and u will slip up! hence our vacation property..lol)

 

[GAGirlInVA]

We didn't do FPU. We read the books and listened to his show. We have some friends that are doing the same thing and that has made it easier because we have someone to cheer us on.

 

[Minnie Melissa]

We did it!!! We are debt free all but our mortgage! It was a life changing experience for us! We highly recommend it!!!

 

[DawnM]

YES! 4 years ago my husband and I took Crown Financial at our church. It changed our lives. We paid off all consumer debt (cars and students loans), and built up a 6 month savings emergency fund as well as continued to fully fund our retirement accounts.

Right now we owe on our mortgage and I wish we didn't even owe on that!

We live with CASH ONLY.

Come join us over at LLNOE.com for a free Dave Ramsey followers forum. We are all *weird!*

Dawn

 

[Leshaface]

YES! 4 years ago my husband and I took Crown Financial at our church. It changed our lives. We paid off all consumer debt (cars and students loans), and built up a 6 month savings emergency fund as well as continued to fully fund our retirement accounts.

Right now we owe on our mortgage and I wish we didn't even owe on that!

We live with CASH ONLY.

Come join us over at LLNOE.com for a free Dave Ramsey followers forum. We are all *weird!*

Dawn

Doing the program, did it take 4 years to pay off all your loans AND make an emergency fund??

The only debt we have right now is Student loans (30,000) and our Mortgage which we've only had for 3 months...wondering if Dave Ramsey is worth it for us since we have no credit card debt or car payments...what do you suggest?? Thanks!

 

[DawnM]

No. It took about 2 years and I forgot to add that we also adopted a child and had some debt there as well.

We owed about $20K in student loans, about $20K in car loans, and funded the adoption. We had 10K for that saved, so we borrowed about 10K. So, $50K total in loans.

We have saved around $30K in an emergency fund and would like to get it up higher, but we also refinanced to a 15 year loan last year and our payments on our house are much higher than we really feel comfortable paying (we would love to sell and downsize and if we had started the program earlier we would have purchased a less expensive house.)

Dawn

Doing the program, did it take 4 years to pay off all your loans AND make an emergency fund??

The only debt we have right now is Student loans (30,000) and our Mortgage which we've only had for 3 months...wondering if Dave Ramsey is worth it for us since we have no credit card debt or car payments...what do you suggest?? Thanks!

 

[Leshaface]

No. It took about 2 years and I forgot to add that we also adopted a child and had some debt there as well.

We owed about $20K in student loans, about $20K in car loans, and funded the adoption. We had 10K for that saved, so we borrowed about 10K. So, $50K total in loans.

We have saved around $30K in an emergency fund and would like to get it up higher, but we also refinanced to a 15 year loan last year and our payments on our house are much higher than we really feel comfortable paying (we would love to sell and downsize and if we had started the program earlier we would have purchased a less expensive house.)

Dawn

Wow! You folks did GREAT!!! Very inspiring I must say!! Perhaps I'll tell my DH to look into it with me!

 

[SassyLassy]

I have no taken the FPU course but I have a few friends who have and they love it. I have been reading Dave Ramseys books for years starting with Smart Women Finish Rich through Smart Couples Finish Rich and a couple others. I am very excited about his new book!

Highly, highly recommend him!

 

[rnorwo1]

Doing the program, did it take 4 years to pay off all your loans AND make an emergency fund??

The only debt we have right now is Student loans (30,000) and our Mortgage which we've only had for 3 months...wondering if Dave Ramsey is worth it for us since we have no credit card debt or car payments...what do you suggest?? Thanks!

I did not go thru FP but have read his books and watched his show for quite awhile (in addition to a few other financial experts, like Suze Orman.) We paid our student loans off very quickly using those principles, and we should have our mortgage paid off in about 4 years (we've had it for 7), and we have never, in 12 years of marriage, paid one cent in interest on a credit card. Reading and watching things like this keep us motivated to keep going on our track, even when family and friends make fun of us for not buying things until we have the cash. So I don't know that I would spend the money on the class, but definitely get the books (from the library, LOL), and hopefully it'll help you to get out of the student loans and mortgage much quicker!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Doing the program, did it take 4 years to pay off all your loans AND make an emergency fund??

The only debt we have right now is Student loans (30,000) and our Mortgage which we've only had for 3 months...wondering if Dave Ramsey is worth it for us since we have no credit card debt or car payments...what do you suggest?? Thanks!

I did not go thru FP but have read his books and watched his show for quite awhile (in addition to a few other financial experts, like Suze Orman.) We paid our student loans off very quickly using those principles, and we should have our mortgage paid off in about 4 years (we've had it for 7), and we have never, in 12 years of marriage, paid one cent in interest on a credit card. Reading and watching things like this keep us motivated to keep going on our track, even when family and friends make fun of us for not buying things until we have the cash. So I don't know that I would spend the money on the class, but definitely get the books (from the library, LOL), and hopefully it'll help you to get out of the student loans and mortgage much quicker!

The bolded part is the advice I would also give you. You can also go to www.llnoe.com; it's not his official site, but a free one that follows his baby steps principles. It will help keep you motivated as well as educate you on his philosophy without having to spend any money.

 

[mrodgers]

Wow! You folks did GREAT!!! Very inspiring I must say!! Perhaps I'll tell my DH to look into it with me!

Note that depending on your income, it can be inspiring or depressing. It is quite depressing trying just to make ends meet and work the budget when you are reading posts about TMMO that people are paying $30-40,000 worth of debt off a year. If that is more than you bring home, it does becomes depressing to read when it will take you 5 years to pay that much off.

They keep telling me that Dave Ramsey is all about us folks who make very little money, but I just can't see it when everyone tells me to cut down the cell phone, cut out this and that, quit eating out, etc, etc, and I already have none of that stuff, nor have I ever had that stuff.

 

[DawnM]

Just be VERY AWARE that it is WORK.....it stinks going through the process....just like a diet and cutting back on food and saying no to things you love stinks, but it is SO WORTH it on the other side.

If you work the program and get the most out of it, you start to view things very differently.....suddenly that 2002 paid for car that still runs great isn't nearly so "boring" as you used to think. That Frappaccino can be made for .20 cents at home in about the same time you would stand in line for the $4.50 one....

Dawn

Wow! You folks did GREAT!!! Very inspiring I must say!! Perhaps I'll tell my DH to look into it with me!

 

[Beka]

Anyone ever go thru the Dave Ramsey course? If so how was it and did you stick with it?

DH & I did it in 03? 04? We still stick with it, though we did get the Disney Visa for our most recent trip, but are now more disciplined & have it paid off by the end of the month. Our major debts (house & student loans) are not paid off yet, however, his system allowed me to go to nursing school & not have to work (and we had just had a baby! Conner was 4 weeks old on my 1st day of class!)

 

[englishteacha]

We did it, and paid off a lot of student loan debt. However, as a previous poster mentioned, we did it while making about $30k a year. We didn't have a lot to cut from our budget to begin with. We haven't been as good about sticking with it. We don't have debt, but we really should have saved more.

Edited: By age 26 we were debt free except our home. We're very proud of that.

 

[mickeynminnie08]

I have not taken the course, but my exhusband and his wife took it about 3 years ago. I would definately say it depends on the kind of person you are (responsibility wise) and how committed you are to Stay debt free.
They followed the envelope system for about 6 months, and now they are actually Worse than ever. They do not have a car payment, but they do have a mortgage (way too high imo) and Several payday loans. Oh and every piece of furniture is through a RTO company.
If you are the type of person who sticks with something and sets goals for oneself then you should do great, if you are a procrastinator when it comes to bills and the such you need more than just the course.

 

[MissNurse]

We are starting it now. We are halfway through baby step 1 (saving $1000 emergency fund). We can't wait to be debt free and take our next disney vacation completely debt free!!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

My DH and I did the class two years ago and got off to a great start, however, we fell off the bandwagon pretty quickly. We had no discipline, and after we worked hard to save up the $1,000 emergency fund, we ended up spending it on crap. We actually just committed to re-starting the plan, however it seems that saving up the $1,000 isn't as easy this time around--especially since my DH got hurt on the job a couple weeks ago and may not be able to return to work for another couple weeks. Unfortunately, Workman's Comp doesn't cover what he would be making if he was working. It's times like these that I'm kicking myself in the butt for not sticking with it, as we'd definitely be a lot better off right now.

 

[Leshaface]

Thanks for all the encouragement

DH doesn't seem to think we'll be able to pay off his $30,000 student loans in two years....I don't see why we couldn't try especially since that's all our debt right there!

Perhaps I'll just read the book by myself and clue him in on what's going on...

all of your stories are inspirational! Thanks for the link also!