Dave ramsey
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Anonymous
| Whatchu all think? |
Anonymous
| Better than Rick Edleman. |
Anonymous
| I follow most of his plan; I'm never going to stop my retirement contributions no matter how much debt I'm in for example |
Anonymous
| Can we agree $1000 as a step-one emergency fund is nuts for people in this area? Particularly if the only debt is student loans? |
Anonymous
I agree for the most part. I think it depends on where you are in life. Just graduated renter with no car? 1k-2500 May be just right. But a parent or anyone who needs a car for work? That’s not going to work. And I agree with the PP about not stopping retirement all together. Don’t give up the tax break and the match. |
Anonymous
| We did the program 2 years ago. Afterwards we paid off our car a year early, paid off all debt ($20,000 + on credit cards, etc), bought a newer used car cash (14,000) plus have saved $20,000 to pay cash for home improvements. Before we lived paycheck to paycheck often having to use overdraft on our bank account. |
Anonymous
Then scale it in a way that makes sense for you. Duh. He's writing mostly for working class families in the Midwest. If a $1K initial emergency fund before tackling other debt works for that scenario but doesn't work for you, simply scale it up to $10K or whatever does make sense for you. Again: duh. |
Anonymous
I think his principles are sound. I doubt he'd argue with someone who lives in a high COL area who felt they needed a larger emergency fund. He actually tells people who anticipate future needs, like a coming layoff or a new baby, to pause their debt repayment and build up their emergency fund. You can still work his plan even if you adjust some of the details. |
Anonymous
| I have read his book and thought he had some really good advice. His savings info was a bit out of date because the interest rates have gone way down, but the rest was sound advice. |
Anonymous
This is a common observation, but if you listen to his radio show, you'll hear a large proportion of callers who are making $150k, $200k, $250k or more. I don't like the idea of foregoing company matching, and I'm not sure that I could ever recommend that. But his plan is really anti-debt, and I think the problem with the common beliefs people are expressing here of "you need more emergency fund, you need more retirement savings, don't give up the tax break" is that you won't ever really consider your debt a major priority. It will always be there, and it will always be an excuse to not focus on building wealth. |
Anonymous
Why? For people, even higher earners making $150+ if they are living paycheck to paycheck, you have to start somewhere. Telling someone who can't save money that they have to have an emergency fund that covers six months of expenses without a paycheck can be overly daunting. That's like telling someone that has a fear of heights that they have to start by climbing up a 50 ft cliff and looking out over the edge. $1K may not be a full emergency fund, but it's a good baby step. It's enough to replace most of the appliances in your house that fail. It's enough for an unexpected car repair. It's enough to handle a small unexpected medical emergency (like needing to rent a wheelchair or buy assistive technology/equipment). After you have that, then you work on increasing the amount in the emergency fund. But for people who don't know how to start, baby steps can help a great deal to just getting over that hump. Later steps will be bigger once people experience and understand what it takes. |
Anonymous
This is exactly right. My first, Dave Ramsey-inspired emergency fund was $1K. My first major emergency was a $750 car repair. Boy, did I feel good about being able to cover that; I was 24 at the time and only making $35/year. So then I not only repaid my emergency fund, I raised it to $1,500. Then I focused on debt, but threw more money into my emergency fund whenever I could from Christmas gifts, tax returns and other "found" money. I will never forget that feeling of being able to cover an emergency. |
Anonymous
| Using YNAB and Dave Ramsey principles (and some tough love from DCUMers) helped us pay off $110k of student loans and a car loan in 1.5 years. We’re now debt free other than our mortgage and have set bigger finanacial goals for our future. I agree with others that following his advice to the letter isn’t necessary (we have 3 kids and could not go down to a $1k emergency fund, nor would we stop contributing to retirement). But we finally learned to make paying off debt a priority and his steps helped show us how we could. |
Anonymous
Awesome! Well done. This is so important, and powerful--to realize that debt is bondage and you don't have to live that way. So many people around here think debt is just a part of adult life, and that's how it goes. It's so great to be debt-free, even though my car has 100,000+ miles and we only have about 3 nice pieces of furniture in our home. |
Anonymous
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We are 10 years debt free because of Dave's advice. My husband listened to his radio show on the morning commute for 3 years. We put a plan into action and within a year we paid off $30k in credit card debt. We then paid off our new home in 7 years using his method. Structure your plan to best fit you.
Not saying it wasn't a sacrifice but it wasn't that bad. A few months ago I got a new car, paid cash. Retirement taken care of, massive emergency fund, never have to sacrifice anything. Try it. It will only work if you set your mind to it. And if you have a spouse they need to be just as determined. Good luck. |