Anonymous wrote:Dave Ramsey is terrible. His advice is bad, and his attitude is bad.

So you came into the thread to say this??? Sorry YOU feel this way but me and countless others don't.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, those baby steps seem rather self explanatory. Why do you need a book or class? It all comes down to discipline.

I have great discipline in financial matters but I can't seem to eat less even though I know how to do so, and as a result I am 20 pounds overweight. Even people with discipline in some areas can lack it in others. Plus, some people weren't raised to understand the benefits of discipline, and it helps to explain it to them.

Understood. Just curious how a book provides accountability. You can read all the diet and exercise books in the world, but that won't get your butt out of the kitchen and into the gym.

There are many people who spend like some overweight people eat. There are those who think nothing of getting coffee at Starbucks. Then there are those who think they are saving enough just to get their coffee at McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts because it's cheaper. The problem is that it is still fiscal snacking. There are those who think that shopping at Target twice a week, and buy extra impulse buys because they fall victim to the marketing team who knows how to place products in the aisles and checkouts to encourage impulse buying. And they don't understand how this all affects their bottom line. Dave Ramsay provides a set of guidelines for those people who either don't have the disccipline or don't understand the basic concepts of frugality and where it leaks into their daily lives.

Glad that you have fiscal discipline, but there are many thousands out there who do not. Think of Dave Ramsay as a support group or counselor for fiscal snackers.

Anonymous wrote:Dave Ramsey is terrible. His advice is bad, and his attitude is bad.

Maybe to you, but not me. Helped us get out of about 15,000 worth of debt in less than a year with his snowball method. Love him!

Dave Ramsey is terrible. His advice is bad, and his attitude is bad.

I really enjoy the millionaire hour of his show. That's really inspiring to me.

Anonymous wrote:How does Ramsey provide motivation, specifically?

He resonates with me in general, plus he features people who have followed his plan and he lets them tell their story on the show. THAT is inspirational to me!

He's not going to be for everyone. He's not going to be motivational for everyone, just like Tony Robbins is not "motivational" to everyone.

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Anonymous wrote:So funny! I came to this forum this morning to search old threads on Dave Ramsey. I used to listen to him years ago, and just found him again on Sirius!

The Dave Ramsey on Sirius XM thing is weird to me, because Dave Ramsey would never recommend to the people who really need to listen to Dave Ramsey to pay for Sirius XM.

that's backwards thinking PP.

I doubt that's what he's trying to do by putting his show in Sirius! He's simply smart enough to realize that more and more people are starting to listen to satellite radio more than AM/FM, so he made his show available on Sirius like any smart entrepreneur would do! at the end of the day Dave is a smart business guy, period. I'm already a subscriber and have been for 6 years, and will never go back to AM/FM. I for one am thrilled I can now listen while driving to work.

We didn't read the book. My husband listened to Dave's show going to work every morning when Dave was answering call in questions.

He came home one night, wrote us up a plan that fit our life and the debt we had, from there it was on.

Simple plan

What we took home
What we paid out
What was left over
What to save
What we were going to pay down first

The biggest hurdle was honesty. We kept an actual ledger, all receipts turned in put into an envelope. Weekly financial meetings. LOL, our date nights. We still laugh about that. It was worth it.

If you both don't do it together it doesn't work. There's your discipline and your motivation is to be debt free. How bad you want it depends on you.

Going to bed every night without that financial noose around your neck is worth the sacrifice no matter what that sacrifice might be.

The basics are:

1) Take a good look at your current expenses/income, and make a budget.

2) If you have no savings, quickly save $1,000 for a baby emergency fund.

3) Once you have that $1,000 emergency fun, go after your debt with "gazelle-like" intensity. That means be AGGRESSIVE toward paying down that debt. Like, you're not ordering pizza, you are taking the $25 it would take for pizza and soda for your family on a Friday night, and you are using that $25 to pay down your debt

4) Once your debt (excluding mortgage) is gone, you are beefing up your emergency fund to be about 6 months of expenses

5) After that, you are beefing up your retirement savings