topic Re: Dave Ramsey in General Credit Topics

Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 12:39:56 GMT

I keep hearing people mention Dave Ramsey and his financial advice. What do you think about this?

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:16:31 GMT

If you are in debt up to your eyeballs, I strongly recommend Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. It's great and it works.

Re: Dave Ramsey

Tuscani — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:09:21 GMT

He is well known and respected.

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:21:56 GMT

Dave is right on the money. If you've never heard his radio show you'll be introduced some some concepts that will probably be refreshing. They were for me. I especially like how he shifted my thinking about credit. For instance, we get so caught up in materialism and having nice stuff and keeping up with the Jones's that we start to actually believe we need, want or deserve to have things. He simply says, "you deserve it when you can PAY for it." In other words, quit acting like a spoiled brat, work hard and scrimp and sacrifice until you can pay cash. He notes that this was the predominant way of thinking for our parents' generation. Now, we are conditioned to accept debt as a way of life, and it just doesn't have to be that way. I think the dude is brilliant. I am in the Dave camp in principal. But in practice...well, I'm still working on that!

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:42:01 GMT

I have a copy of his Total Money Makeover, and I haven't totally bought into his line of thinking, but apparently his system seems to have worked for alot of people. He is indeed highly regarded. A couple things that I haven't bought in on yet are like his opinion on driving an older vehicle rather than buying a new vehicle. I am coming around more and more to his way of thinking, but old habits die hard. Don't be surprized if you read it and think "no way I can do that". My recommendation would be to see if your local library has the book in its collection. If it doesn't, and you are in a major metro area, you can usually ask that they purchase the book for their collection. If the book is considered to be useful to others, they will likely order it. I know for a fact that works in my area. Anyway, try to borrow it, read it, and take notes. If you think it is worth continuing with, buy it. It is one of those books that you will find yourself going back to if you want to follow his system step by step. I just bought it outright and I have gone back to it several times.

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:55:03 GMT

Yeah it goes for around $25 at the bookstore but you can buy used ones on Amazon for about $10. Yeah I agree with the past poster, there are some things he is a weird on such as living totally with no credit and such. That part I think he's a little over the top, but for getting out of Debt, IMO there is no one better. It's hard program but getting yourself out of debt is never going to be easier. His methods make you discipline yourself and puts alot of emphasis on savings, which seems to have become a forgotten notion in this country. STRONG RECOMMENDATION.

Re: Dave Ramsey

MM1234 — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:14:20 GMT

I agree with all these posts cause they all offer good points.

I have Total Money Makeover and read it complete and it DOES offer some Great concepts that you can use or modify to your levels. The concept is to give you an Awakening and show you what you can do NOW to help you for later. Im not a follow "all" the Rules type of person. I tend to Follow the ones I can and understand about the ones I need to follow later when I can - or - how to modify them to work for me.

The SnowBall Debt idea can work for all. Personally I use Quicken for all my finance tracking and they have a similar one you can use.

I too like to have some of the finer things in life while im younger so this is why I can relate to how some of Daves ideas are great but can easily be modified so Im happy now and STILL paying off and Saving. If a person really needed a car loan I wouldnt get a car loan thats going to lessen your ability to paying MORE on other debt. Also - I would personally would never get a NEW car. Get at least 2-3 yrs old.

As long as you are getting inspired and most importantly, Informed... what the Total Money Make Over is, you can at least be armed with some knowlegde and tweek it to your life and then follow it 100% later on when you can.

Message Edited by MM1234 on 05-11-2007 11:14 AM

Re: Dave Ramsey

MM1234 — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:16:33 GMT

Oh - let me add on to...."about a Car Loan "...

I mean that if currently have VERY LOW debt and all your other Emergency funds and Finances are in check and you dont have the money to pay cash....then, you can consider a smaller loan for the amount you really need.....Maybe like 6-12 month loan and still try to pay that down as fast as you can.

Sorry - I didnt mean to sound like I endorse having a car loan without having all other finances in check.

Message Edited by MM1234 on 05-11-2007 11:16 AM

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:07:40 GMT

It is hard to buy his "no credit" philosophy, but if you know the logic behind it it makes total sense. Really he's advocating not being in a position where you need credit to bail you out, thus the notion of having 3 to 5 months of living expenses in the bank. Very hard to do, agreed, but if you can pull it off then you are your own backup plan, not Visa. As far as driving an old car, I think he's right. Again, you have to get the entire logic behind anything he says, you can't make judgments based on face value. Here's his logic. An average car payment of $350 paid perpetually (as most people upgrade or trade in before a vehicle is paid off) from the age of 25 to 65, placed instead in a good mutual fund, would make you a millionaire. As he says....hope you like the car! He's not saying to go out and drive a 1977 Pinto. He's saying to buy what you can afford to pay cash for. Here again creeps in the notion that we work hard, therefore we deserve nice shiny pretty cars. I drive 800 miles a week and did so for many years quite comfortably in a 10 year old Accord that was perfectly safe, reliable and not bad looking. And I paid cash for it used. I even have a big gas guzzling SUV for the family, but instead of buying a $45K Tahoe, I bought one that was 8 years old that is just as nice in my estimation. I know this scenario is unrealistic for a lot of people, just wanted to give a little more insight for the benefit of those not familiar with him as to why Dave advocates ditching credit. I think MM1234 is right. If you can find a happy medium then you're doing well. I want a good FICO so I feed the credit monster, for now at least.

Message Edited by devhip on 05-11-2007 11:07 AM

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:24:23 GMT

Great. Seems we all basically agree. I was afraid I was going to be viewed as the negative voice in the forest, and that surely wasn't my intention. The last few posters but their thoughts in words better than I was able to do this time. Like any advice, it need to be studied to be sure it make sense for you, but Dave Ramsey's book is definetely worth reading. His thoughts on getting back into savings has really taken root in me. I took my tax refund of $3000 and put it into a new ING account. Then I changed my deductions so I will get no refund (or a much smaller refund) next year and I have the extra money that was going to the taxman for their use going into my ING account and drawing me 4.5% interest. I also just opened an Offer 170 account through TDAmeritrade and I will be putting the minimum $50 a month in to get the 4.5+% interest and a $100 bonus at the end of a year. Next I will be boosting the amount I put into my ING and then boosting it again when the CCs are paid off and then once more when my car is paid off in Nov. The moral here is that if you buy into the theory (even a little bit), it can be like a fever that spurs you on to do more. You may find yourself stopping before that next impulse purchase and saying to yourself "Hey Selk, that's $50 you could be drawing interest on in savings".

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:35:26 GMT

Great job Kev, awesome ideas. I think too many people spend more time building their FICO portfolio, (while assuming more debt, just to try and get more and more boosts in their score, again adding more and more debt to their lives) rather than building their own financial portfolio's.

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 19:46:14 GMT

Not that I am trying to advertise for them or anything, but I love my ING account. Gotta love that interest rate. Of course there are other internet banks offering the same or higher interest rates. I liked the ING interface. My only problem now is that I have the bug and I get impatient with myself, wishing I could pay down the last of my remaining debt quicker. I COULD pay it off, but I do like to take the kids on a vacation each year (using the cash from refund). As it is, I am applying more towards debt than I am savings, but as this summer goes along, that trend will start to reverse itself. BTW, if anyone is interested. I saw this on Suze Orman's show. There is a TDAmeritrade account that you can sign up for that is called Plan 170. You put $50 a month in for 12 months. That money is put into a standard money market account and is supposed to draw 4.5%+ interest. You can pull out at any time, but if you put in $50 "every month" for 12 months, on the 13th month, Ameritrade will put in $100. Only downside for me is that I have to send an electronic transfer each month instead of doing a DirectDeposit from work. I figure I drink $50 worth of sodas each month, so what the heck. But PLEASE, investigate these things for yourself before entering into anything. I only mention them to demonstrate how I have caught this savings fever and offer details in case anyone else is interested.

Message Edited by KevKaos on 05-11-2007 12:46 PM

Re: Dave Ramsey

MM1234 — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:00:21 GMT

KevKaos - your ING account is a great thing to share info on. I personally know people that use them and love that 4+% rate too!! And its Secure !! They've been with them for years and never had problem. Good deal. I need to look into that too.

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:03:49 GMT

Love my ING too. Also what is great about it is, it can take up to three days for a withdraw from the Ing to hit your bank account, so no careless withdrawing and foolish spending and if you change your mind and decide not to withdraw you can cancell it within the time frame. It's like babysitting, for some of us that need it.

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:28:18 GMT

Nice to read some posts from those who want to improve their total financial picture, including limited use of debt. Dave Ramsey's ideas for money management may , on the surface, be too simple and many quickly dismiss his ideas as "simpleton thinking".

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:39:37 GMT

I have to check out that book. It's sounds awesome. Just wanted to add my 2 cents, cause I'm pretty obsessed with saving myself. HSBCdirect (www.hsbcdirect.com) has an awesome online savings account 5.05% plus they just added an online account for bill pay that earns 2.5%. It's a pretty awesome deal and their customer service is pretty good too. Just wanted to throw that out there in case anyone wanted to shop around for a good online savings account. Definetly give it two thumbs up.

Re: Dave Ramsey

fused — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:42:05 GMT

I don't like him and don't listen to him!

Re: Dave Ramsey

MidnightVoice — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:54:38 GMT

I diagree with some of what he says. But I do agree on used and old cars (12 Toyota Corolla driver here, with no intention of replacing with a brand new car)

Re: Dave Ramsey

e123 — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:10:15 GMT

I know the older car part is hard to follow but I have to tell you I have done just that. I drive a 1995 Lexus ES 300. I looked for a couple of month's before I found the car. The car is in perfect shape is a high end looking and driving and I paid 5600.00 cash. This week I am going to pay the property tax on the car : 20.00. My insurance is cheaper, no payment, no worries. With the money you save buying used you could buy two or three cars if you wanted to. I have owned many new cars and I might buy new again some day but not until I can pay cash.

Re: Dave Ramsey

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:53:40 GMT

I'm still champ!!

1980 Mercedes Diesel wagon - 297,000 miles!