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Dave Ramsey (Getting out of debt)

zelo-ca

Member
Who here has heard of Dave Ramsey and is going through his baby steps? I am on baby step 2 and will be completely debt free in April 2019!

He has completely changed my life (I never budgeted at all before). I am planning a trip next year after I am debt free and I am gonna try and get on his show to do my debt free scream!





If anyone is stuck in debt and wants to get out of it I highly recommend his method and to watch his show on YouTube. I watch it every day :)

Here are the 7 baby steps: (you do baby step 4,5,6 all at the same time)

1) Save 1000$ in an emergency account
2)Pay off all debt besides your home using the debt snowball.
3)Bump your emergency account to 3-6 months of expenses.
4)Save 15% of your income in retirement.
5)Save for your children's college.
6)Pay off house early
7)Build wealth and give!
 
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Dunki

Member
In Germany we also have such a guy

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Peter Zwegart
 

zelo-ca

Member
Didn't you say you were a financial planner or something?

I am, I am good at the stock market but not so good at personal finances. With Ramseys help I am getting to the point where I can broaden my business to more than just investments :)
 

Gander

Banned
Saving money is not hard, the people that advise about saving money miss the most important part. You have to make enough in the first place.
 

zelo-ca

Member
Saving money is not hard, the people that advise about saving money miss the most important part. You have to make enough in the first place.

In America right now there are more jobs than people to fill them (aka if you are not making enough you can easily get a 2nd job to up your income!) Watch his videos on this subject.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Thanks man. I highly suggest the total money makeover of you want a good read. :)
I've heard him on the radio, I forgot to mention, so I'm familiar with the bare-bone basics of his stuff. My wife and I have have nearly finished paying our two credit cards which leaves a house mortgage and that's it, but I've recommended him to people.
 

zelo-ca

Member
I've heard him on the radio, I forgot to mention, so I'm familiar with the bare-bone basics of his stuff. My wife and I have have nearly finished paying our two credit cards which leaves a house mortgage and that's it, but I've recommended him to people.

Awesome! I would suggest once the credit cards are paid off to save 3-6 months of expenses as an emergency account :). Helps incase if a big emergency or a job loss.
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Good job Z zelo-ca . My wife made me do the Financial Peace University class before we got married. I spent the $100 (on sale) for the course and listened to all the audio CDs. I had $89,000.00 in student loans. I didn't think I would ever pay it off. This debt was like a ball and chain. After I listened to his classes I downloaded the EveryDollar app on my phone. We did a few things here and there like donating plasma, selling items in the house, doing side jobs like reviews or survey's online, and only spending money in its category. I made a spreadsheet of all my loans and listed them off smallest to largest. The interest to these loans was terrible. My minimum payment a month didn't even cover the interest.

I never thought I'd follow someone like Dave. I use to spend every cent I made. I was not use to making categories for food, fun money, and bills. It worked because I have no more student debt (we didn't do our debt free scream). His program works. There are times where it sucks big time because you don't want to say "No" to yourself because something you want is the lowest price its ever been. It works though as long as you don't quit.
 
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zelo-ca

Member
Good job Z zelo-ca . My wife made me do the Financial Peace University class before we got married. I spent the $100 (on sale) for the course and listened to all the audio CDs. I had $89,000.00 in student loans. I didn't think I would ever pay it off. This debt was like a ball and chain. After I listened to his classes I downloaded the EveryDollar app on my phone. We did a few things here and there like donating plasma, selling items in the house, doing side jobs like reviews or survey's online, and only spending money in its category. I made a spreadsheet of all my loans and listed them off smallest to largest. The interest to these loans was terrible. My minimum payment a month didn't even cover the interest.

I never thought I'd follow someone like Dave. I use to spend every cent I made. I was not use to making categories for food, fun money, and bills. It worked because I have no more student debt (we didn't do our debt free scream). His program works. There are times where it sucks big time because you don't want to say "No" to yourself because something you want is the lowest price its ever been. It works though as long as you don't quit.

Wow dude congratulations. I'll do a debt free scream for both of us :). How far a long the baby steps are you right now?
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
Dave has some good stuff.

I sort of followed his ideals except I didn’t cut my quality of life to do so.

Instead I maintained the same quality of life through several raises/promotions which allowed me to dump a ton of debt.

I still owe on my mortgage and my new car but I’m not concerned with paying them off as quickly now that I have a lot of financial wiggle room.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Wow dude congratulations. I'll do a debt free scream for both of us :). How far a long the baby steps are you right now?

Thanks! Step 3. We are now saving 6 months of expenses right now. When we got out of debt we had nothing in our savings because it all went to debt.
 

zelo-ca

Member
Dave has some good stuff.

I sort of followed his ideals except I didn’t cut my quality of life to do so.

Instead I maintained the same quality of life through several raises/promotions which allowed me to dump a ton of debt.

I still owe on my mortgage and my new car but I’m not concerned with paying them off as quickly now that I have a lot of financial wiggle room.

Good to hear :). Do you have 3-6 months in an emergency account?
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Fantastic :). I'll be there in April. How does it feel to have the shackles of the student loans gone?

Its fantastic. It was a huge burden going into marriage. At first I was afraid to tell my wife about how much student loan debt I had. Its such a huge relief to be debt free. I didn't know what I was going to do at first. I couldn't invest in a home or a new car (Dave Ramsey doesn't speak highly about buying a brand new vehicle). It took about 1.7-2 years to pay it all off. Those times were hard. We made ourselves sick by donating plasma every week. We would hit our bonus donation and get an extra $50-$75 a week. In the end, it feels real good.

A lot of good things came from listening to Dave Ramsey. I now have life insurance for my family. It's a huge relief to not have anymore Federal and Private loans. I went to ITT-Tech back in 2006-2008. An associates degree alone was close to 40k. I didn't know what I was doing. I went on and got a Bachelors degree while wracking up debt. It didn't hit me at first. I called the debt hotline and they said I could put myself on the income-based repayment plan. I did that for over a year. For a while I didn't make a lot of money, so my payments were 0. That didn't last for very long, so I got a notice saying I had to start paying back my loans. I knew nothing about Dave's program. I'm grateful that my wife knew about it and got me started on it. Otherwise I would still have debt gathering interest every single day.
 

zelo-ca

Member
Its fantastic. It was a huge burden going into marriage. At first I was afraid to tell my wife about how much student loan debt I had. Its such a huge relief to be debt free. I didn't know what I was going to do at first. I couldn't invest in a home or a new car (Dave Ramsey doesn't speak highly about buying a brand new vehicle). It took about 1.7-2 years to pay it all off. Those times were hard. We made ourselves sick by donating plasma every week. We would hit our bonus donation and get an extra $50-$75 a week. In the end, it feels real good.

A lot of good things came from listening to Dave Ramsey. I now have life insurance for my family. It's a huge relief to not have anymore Federal and Private loans. I went to ITT-Tech back in 2006-2008. An associates degree alone was close to 40k. I didn't know what I was doing. I went on and got a Bachelors degree while wracking up debt. It didn't hit me at first. I called the debt hotline and they said I could put myself on the income-based repayment plan. I did that for over a year. For a while I didn't make a lot of money, so my payments were 0. That didn't last for very long, so I got a notice saying I had to start paying back my loans. I knew nothing about Dave's program. I'm grateful that my wife knew about it and got me started on it. Otherwise I would still have debt gathering interest every single day.

Dude you're an inspiration for me and anyone else who wants to get serious about paying off our debt :)
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
Good to hear :). Do you have 3-6 months in an emergency account?

The safety net has always been rough for me. The trick is finding a place to put the 6 month that isn’t tempting for the family. My savings account is just too tempting for the family so i went with a bit of a different strategy to help build the nest egg.

Almost have the 3 mark in a brokerage account. If needed I could sell positions and withdrawal it.

A bit more risky than a CD ladder but it has the potential to grow faster assuming I give it the attention it needs.
 

zelo-ca

Member
The safety net has always been rough for me. The trick is finding a place to put the 6 month that isn’t tempting for the family. My savings account is just too tempting for the family so i went with a bit of a different strategy to help build the nest egg.

Almost have the 3 mark in a brokerage account. If needed I could sell positions and withdrawal it.

A bit more risky than a CD ladder but it has the potential to grow faster assuming I give it the attention it needs.

I would suggest an online savings account and both you and your wife sign a contract stating that it is only used for emergencies. It sounds pretty drastic but it keeps both of you accountable.
 
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