*The Dave Ramsey 'Baby Steps' Thread*

[WinterSolider]

Just wondering how you calculate your House's Value? Assessed Tax Value or go with Zillow/Realtor Value?

Assessed tax value has absolutely nothing to do with reality. My $1 million house has an assessed tax value of $400,000. Counties and municipalities have their own complicated formulas that include things like homestead exemptions that are specific to that jurisdiction.

The most realistic value would be the average estimate from at least three different real estate sites, minus the 6% commission you'd have to pay to a realtor to sell it.

 

[barkley]

I work for county govt too. Part B required, govt insurance is the supplement. While I'd have to pay for it, not grandfathered for free (25 years awhile ago) it's a lot better than most supplement.

dh is retired fed. he has the option to take part b. if he does, than his Fhlbp has no deductibles or co pays. if he doesn't take part b he would. so have to figure cost of part b (which is high because I'm still working) vs savings

when I retire have to figure if better to pay for my govt insurance and part b vs going on dh as spouse. his is cheaper but out of network coverage not as good. and my 1 prescription would cost $350 per month vs 0. and whether to take part b if I go on his.
it's crazy

you know how every year during employee open enrollment you get sent paperwork that says 'save this for your records' and it details your coverage for if/when you apply for Medicare? SAVE THOSE SUCKERS!!! because after I retired I had to stay on my employer's plan to keep the kids insured, when I decided to just go pure Medicare I had to prove my previous prescription coverage met some kind of criteria or be penalized for every month from the month I became Medicare eligible (and it was a good number of years). I was so thankful I had hoarded all those yearly papers away b/c you would think if you had the same insurance carrier/same plan for over a decade that it would just take someone in hr or at the insurance company printing up a verification but nooooooooooooooo-because they would change their plan name by a smidge or rearrange the name from Healthnet plan A to Healthnet A plan (and back again the next year) they claimed there was no way to trace the information down.

HOARD YOUR PROOF OF COVERAGE

 

[MattB2G]

Assessed tax value has absolutely nothing to do with reality. My $1 million house has an assessed tax value of $400,000. Counties and municipalities have their own complicated formulas that include things like homestead exemptions that are specific to that jurisdiction.

The most realistic value would be the average estimate from at least three different real estate sites, minus the 6% commission you'd have to pay to a realtor to sell it.

Yeah, since my bank will give me a loan of 80% of the assessed tax value without an inspection, I will just go with that.

I would not trust Zillow's valuations, they are starting to get unreliable in my area because things are really slowing down.

 

[Turn the Page]

Ugh. Our dryer died. Not what i wanted to spend my money on right now but we had the cash available so we didn't have to put it on a credit card and we managed to hit a "Black Friday" sale (if appliance stores really have Black Friday sales anymore) so....whatever. yay for an emergency fund.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Yeah, since my bank will give me a loan of 80% of the assessed tax value without an inspection, I will just go with that.

I would not trust Zillow's valuations, they are starting to get unreliable in my area because things are really slowing down.

Zillow also shows sold homes so you could estimate by looking at recent comps.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Question a question about the Every Dollar website. How do you change the dates of the month? We get paid every 4 weeks, so I want to work off a 4 week budget based on our paydays. I don't want to use the first and last day of the month cause that's not how our checks fall. Don't think it matters, but I just have the basic thing.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

https://www.reddit.com/r/everydollar/comments/17sc05j/yall_have_everydollar_questions_ask_away

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

It's the Annual Giving Show!

One of the things I love about the Baby Steps (and that is missing from other financial programs) is the emphasis on giving, no matter your financial situation. I think it's important to include Giving as a planned item in your budget and to also look for additional ways to spontaneously give. I personally believe there is too much need in the world for anyone to keep 100% of their income for themselves. We can all do something to help someone else!

 

[Tygerlilly]

While I'm not 100% following Dave, I do like multiple points he makes and including giving in the budget is something I'm including next year.

I want to include a budget for stocking little free pantries once or twice a month, provide holiday meals for those who need it, angel tree shopping as much as I can, back to school sponsorships, etc.

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Happy New Year!

--Ran all of our numbers for end-of-month and end-of-year. This final week of December was disappointing for investments, but overall, still climbing for the month and year.

--It was an extra paycheck month, which helped us have a little fun for the holidays. We paid for the next semester of college in full, which means we have finished cash flowing the first three years of college. Over a year ago, we started taking the cash from our wallet at the end of a month and putting it into a paper envelope. This year we only pulled from it once and ended with almost $800. So, we took $500 of that and put it in our recently-started Annual Expense fund, and the rest we rolled over to start next year's end-of-month cash envelope. Since the system is working, I upgraded the paper envelope to a basic wallet from the Ramsey store (along with some other goodies like Jade's new book and another year of FPU All Access/Ramsey+, which came with a free physical workbook and contentment journal).

--Looking ahead to 2026: our paychecks will be less due to increased deductions, but many expenses loom on the horizon. We recently had our rear brakes done and still have thousands of dollars of other repairs and maintenance to schedule. We have another child starting college, plus we will eventually need to upgrade our home computer, add a laptop for college, and replace three cell phones.

--No real goals because the Baby Steps always tell you what you should be working on! For us, it's continuing to try to find more margin to increase our investing. Oh, and probably reduce the almost 30,000 emails I have in my inbox (half of which are unread)!

January budget is set!

 

[Cfabar1]

--No real goals because the Baby Steps always tell you what you should be working on! For us, it's continuing to try to find more margin to increase our investing. Oh, and probably reduce the almost 30,000 emails I have in my inbox (half of which are unread)!

This was one of my goals as well. A few things that have worked well for me:
Every time I see an email from a vendor, I scroll to the bottom and click "unsubscribe". I don't need to devote the mental energy to those emails every time they come through.
I've started using a second email address for any and all online shopping, a couple exceptions - important accounts like property taxes, etc. but generally it means I can look through my other email address when I want to find a promo code, but am not looking at this stuff all the time. This is not the same as "hide my email", which still forwards to my inbox, it is a completely separate email account only for online shopping.

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Every time I see an email from a vendor, I scroll to the bottom and click "unsubscribe". I don't need to devote the mental energy to those emails every time they come through.

Thanks! Agreed. I recently started unsubscribing instead of just ignoring. Most of my emails are homeschool, college, and charity related, so I always felt like I needed to see what comes through. But homeschool is winding down, college is decided, and I can always add charities back if I miss their updates. I recently turned on some retail emails for the holidays, but have already turned them back off. Now, it's a matter of mass deleting some and picking through the rest to file away.

I once saw this graphic and had to laugh:

 

[Tygerlilly]

I once saw this graphic and had to laugh:

View attachment 1034774

I am definitely person #1 and you people #2 make my eye twitch.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

For sure that would give me agita.

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Here's a refresher of the Baby Steps!

Has the first week of the year been a success or struggle? If finances have already gone sideways, the Baby Steps make it easy to get back on track! Just find the lowest step you have already completed and then work up the ladder from there.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Here's a refresher of the Baby Steps!

Has the first week of the year been a success or struggle? If finances have already gone sideways, the Baby Steps make it easy to get back on track! Just find the lowest step you have already completed and then work up the ladder from there.

The first week has been a success for us, I believe. I'm in baby step 0 (trying to stop late payments). We've gotten caught up on internet and electric, and we're trying to get caught up on car. I should have an exxtra check this month, so I will be able to make an extra payment. And I've raised $200 toward the late fees. Started a weekend PT job (made $90 this past weekend), and I've sold a couple of odds and ends from around the house ($50). So using that toward the late fees. We've slowed down our eating out. We were spending $900/month on that. We shifted our budget to allow $400 for that. And through the first 7 days, we've spent $103. So on track for that. So that's what's happening. So, as I said, I think it's been a success (stopped 2 late payments, working on stopping another, cut way back on expenses).

 

[FreeTime]

The first week has been a success for us, I believe. I'm in baby step 0 (trying to stop late payments). We've gotten caught up on internet and electric, and we're trying to get caught up on car. I should have an exxtra check this month, so I will be able to make an extra payment. And I've raised $200 toward the late fees. Started a weekend PT job (made $90 this past weekend), and I've sold a couple of odds and ends from around the house ($50). So using that toward the late fees. We've slowed down our eating out. We were spending $900/month on that. We shifted our budget to allow $400 for that. And through the first 7 days, we've spent $103. So on track for that. So that's what's happening. So, as I said, I think it's been a success (stopped 2 late payments, working on stopping another, cut way back on expenses).

You have made some strides. Great to see this! As has been suggested many times you have to cut the extras. $900 a month on dining out is huge!! For two people it is crazy ridiculous. In your current state it should be $0. There is no way your dining out after church and one required work lunch should cost this much. From what I recall you do not live in a high COLA. In my household, in a moderate cost area, we dine out on less than 1/2 that with 3 in the house. And we didn’t dine out at all for years!

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

You have made some strides. Great to see this! As has been suggested many times you have to cut the extras. $900 a month on dining out is huge!! For two people it is crazy ridiculous. In your current state it should be $0. There is no way your dining out after church and one required work lunch should cost this much. From what I recall you do not live in a high COLA. In my household, in a moderate cost area, we dine out on less than 1/2 that with 3 in the house. And we didn’t dine out at all for years!

Correct. We're not in a high COLA. We're in Dallas. And i agree, $900 has to stop. Getting caught up on bills is the biggest goal this month. The next biggest is to cut that eating out way, way down. Like we went to Chick-Fila-A on Saturday, and it was $23 for just the 2 of us. AT CFA! That's how ridiculous it's gotten. We went to Texas Roadhouse Sunday after church because I had a free appetizer. DW got a meal, I used the free app as my meal and we both had a tea, and it was only $29 out the door with a tip. Said thing is CFA was almost as high as a nice sit down place. And I've asked my employer to keep the meals out at 2 per week. They were wanting to do more. But I told them I couldn't afford that (I just hope that doesn't lead to me losing my job).

 

[barkley]

$900 a month on dining out is huge!!

that is more than I have budgeted for the entirety of our 'household budget' line item for an entire month for a household of 3 (that includes groceries, toiletries, cleaning products, scrip co- pays and any eating out which granted-we don't much do).

though I still don't understand how an employer can require/mandate working lunches out that the employee is required to pay for out of pocket I would be keeping track/receipts so I could write them off my fed taxes (and if I had to drive to wherever it was held you can be sure I would be keeping track of my mileage-at the IRS 2026 72.5 cents per mile even a trip 3 miles down the road and back could tack on another $500 in write-offs).

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

that is more than I have budgeted for the entirety of our 'household budget' line item for an entire month for a household of 3 (that includes groceries, toiletries, cleaning products, scrip co- pays and any eating out which granted-we don't much do).

Our grocery budget includes anything we get at Walmart (toiletries, paper products, detergent, food). That's why that line item is so high (about $600/month for the 2 of us). And we do meal plan on Sunday before going to Walmart on Monday to buy stuff for the week. But the goal is to cut down to $400/month eating out. That's the second goal this year behind getting caught up on all bills.