Dave Ramsey - Really that good?

[natale1980]

Does his program really help? How does it help? Does it just create a budget?
I'm thinking about joining his website and just was wondering what the deal was from real people.

Thanks!
nat

 

[rebeccamil]

Dave Ramsey has been AWESOME for us. It uses an envelope system, so you budget for all your monthly costs...bills, groceries, gas, everything you can think of. Then you put the cash in your envelopes and you never use your credit or debit card. We've paid off four credit cards since October and it has been eye opening regarding how much we spent on non-necessities. We are going to Disney next week and it is all paid for in cash and it is such a relief to know that none of it is on a credit card. Good luck!

 

[Princess Nancy]

Dh and I have been doing DR for over a year.
His course is called Financial Peace and all I can say is that the name is PERFECT. The peace I feel in my life over finances is amazing!

I told my sis she had to do it! She called me last week after a year on the program and said, I need to thank you. We went from living paycheck to paycheck to...$1200 surplus a month. (that is after she quit her part time job during that time frame!)

I strongly recommend Dave Ramsey to EVERYONE!

 

[lynnanddbyz]

Dave Ramsey is awesome, AWESOME, AWESOME!!!! We are finishing up Financial Peace University. It is sooo much more then budgeting. It is truly life changing. He gives you a totally new way of thinking. In his own words it will not only change your life but it will change your family tree. If you can take classes(locations are listed on the website) I HIGHLY recommend them.

 

[MissMet]

My parents are debt free, they have 6 month emergency savings (incase of layoffs) & there house will be payed off in 5 years!!!

It's worth every penny! If the University is too much money than buy the Total Money Makeover Book & workbook, that's what I did. I can't say enough about it! And now I'm starting the University in June.

I'm only 23, if I stay on the plan set by him I will be totally debt free, house paid off & have 4.5 million dollars cash by retirement & that's if I only make what I'm making at 23 for the rest of my life!!

Read the book!!!!!!!!!! He's awesome!!!!!!!

 

[disneyluvnmom]

Dave Ramsey is the best thing that happened to our family. If you want some motivation before you buy the program on the website, go to the libray and check out his book, "My Total Money Makeover". You will be so motivated!

 

[DVCBELLE]

I don't think I have ever heard anyone who uses the Dave Ramsey program regrets it or thinks it doesn't work...I totally agree it is the best thing my family ever did!

 

[Girldreamer02]

My husband and I LOVE dave ramsey. Being on his plan allowed us to get out of credit card debt before we got married this past july! I went from having eight credit cards down to zero and all paid off! We just use our debit cards or cash now...spend a lot less that way too! My car is almost paid off and then we'll be throwing all our money at my school loans, which shouldn't have much longer on them either. It may seem hard at first, but dave knows his stuff and his plan works!

 

[Lexie]

There isn't anything special per say about Mr. Ramsey. He just puts common sense budgeting into an easy present format and charges you for it.

Here is a free spreadsheet that will show you the effect of a debt snowball (which is a big part of what Mr. Ramsey preaches):

http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html

 

[stemikger]

Dave Ramsey is great for getting people motiviated and his plan is a good one. Having said that DR is a very strict plan meaning, you have to do his plan to the letter. I never liked to budget and I always equated it with staying on a strict diet. You can only do it for so long before you fall off the wagon and eat everything in site or get sick and tired of budgeting.

I have devoted the last 15 years my life to reading personal finance books. Long story short, I became a personal finance junkie after watching my mother lose everything she owned after my dad died.

Here is my recommendation. If you do Dave's plan, it will work. However, I do not reccomend his investing advice. It is too agressive and does not diversify with different asset classes.

Out of all the books I have read, there is one that I can wholeheartedly recommend that is much easier and basically fool proof. It is called The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. It takes the budget out of the equation and has everything happening at once on autopilot. Other then his investing advice David Bach teaches everything Dave Ramsey does.

Having said that, I mostly follow Bach's plan but do a little bit of Ramsey when it comes to the mortgage reduction. Bach basically tells you to do a bi-weekly mortgage and that is where it ends. In my opinion, that is a good start, but not agressive enough for me. Other then that I follow Bach's plan and I never had to budget.

I'm 44 years old and I have six figures in my 401K, a six month emergency fund, 2 years left on my mortgage and 0 credit card debt.

Good Luck. If you do follow Dave Ramsey's plan, you should buy the Lazy Person's Guide to Investing by Paul Farrell to replace his investing advice.

Oh and I almost forgot. Through this entire process. In my 17 years of marriage, I never missed a vacation and most of them were our annual 11 day Disney trips. And I am not a high income earner.

 

[LoriKutchey]

I too love David Bach, as I've matured in my financial life. He is now the one that I stick with. Starting out though I truly liked the Mary Hunt books and Dave Ramsey. I think it all depends what stage of the game your in.

 

[MrsPooh]

I think that part of what makes Dave's plan good is the motivation he provides. The other part that makes people successful is the step by step plan. Yes, a budget is part of it. If you are a person with strong self control you can do well without using the budget plan but most of us who are in debt go that way because we didn't ever really use a true budget before.

If you are trying to become debt-free I would not pay to join Dave's website. Check out LLNOE.com. The members there all follow the plan but are a bit more - shall we say - relaxed about it. Best part - it is FREE.

I do think it is worth paying for the class or at least the book and joining a support website.

We are slowing working the plan but dh is unemployed again so we're on a bit of hold.

Good luck.

 

[Pigeon]

There's really no reason to pay a cent for Dave Ramsey's plan, unless you completely lack self-discipline. Just go to your public library and check out his books, and use the free online resource posted above.

 

[sgable]

My husband and I did FPU and loved it. There were a few things we had not thought about, but for the most part Dave was just a motivator. That was just what we needed to keep us on the right track. We listen to the cd's in the car over and over again. I highly recommend his classes!

 

[Chicago526]

No need to pay for his plan. You can get his books for free at the library. I like to own books that I know I'm going to go back and refer to or even read over, so I did pay $20 for Total Money Makeover new, but I hear you can find used copies for less online. So it can cost you nothing or very little to get started.

I do think he's got the best "get out of debt" plan and the best motivation out there. Like the others have said, his program only works if you stick to it. You can tweak it here and there but if you don't stick to the bulk of the plan, you aren't going to get anywhere. I couldn't use his plan in full as my DH wouldn't agree to it, but I've follwed as much of his advice as I can, and hope to be consumer debt free in about a year or so.

 

[PinkRhombus]

Does it just create a budget?

"It" does not "do" anything...except give you the proper tools, guidance and encouragement for you to get your financial house in order.

You still have to do all the work yourself....

I love his radio show. Gives you a little daily boost. He has a nightly (at least during the week) show on Fox Business News.

But even after you get yourself out of debt, there are SO many people who call into his radio show that are looking for investment and estate advice...always something new to learn.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Yes. Give it a try, if nothing else it will help you pay attention to how much money you are spending.

 

[natale1980]

So I guess you guys like him.
Thanks for all the posts! You have me sold! He has a 30 day free trial on his web page so I guess I'll start there.

I really want to pay off our credit cards and have done OK on our own but any thing that will help would be great. I am not a spender at all... I am actually one of those people who never gets gifts because no one can figure out what I want. And it's not because I have everything. Even growing up my parents would take us to the toy store and my brother would pick out some $200 remote control car and I would carefully choose a $3 my little pony. The one thing I can't live without is my DISNEY!!! And it's a lot easier for my to spend money on other people then myself (its gotten even worse since we had kids).

So thanks everyone! I can't wait to get started!!!
-nat

 

[KelleyD]

Dave ramsey has $10 books and cds and stuff on his online site right now...

 

[minnie1928]

FWIW, I read the books and my DH listed to the cd in the car during his commute to work. You do NOT need to join his website in order to utilize his methods. I agree LLNOE.com is a great forum & free (what's not to love about free!). This was by far the best thing we ever did for our finances.

While I generically follow his advice, I've found that it doesn't work for us 100%. While we were paying down debt we did not stop funding our 401k's...we dropped down to the minimum needed to still get the maximum of our employer match. I wasn't about to let free money sit on the table. We also still use credit cards in order to get rewards. But, credit cards were never really our problem to begin with...

We've paid off 2 cars, 2 DVC contracts, various home improvements paid in cash and now have more cash than we've ever had in our savings account. Our only debt is our mortgage and it feels wonderful.