Any Dave Ramsey students?

[DRIVEN]

I've listened to him here and there over the years. Really, I grew up with a lot of his "old fashioned ideas". Everybody considered my dad a cheapskate -- and he is -- but it really worked out for him in the end. His basic philosophy was that if you don't have the cash, you can't afford it. We never had new cars growing up, family vacations were camping trips, and our average house was just fine. We hung out with the Jones' but never tried to keep up with them.
I've been working the steps on my own for close to 2 years, although not to the letter, which I know is frowned upon. At this point I have zero debt and a nice emergency fund. My house should be paid off in 2-3 years. Starting to beef up my meager retirement. Mostly in step 6.

My biggest problem is getting my wife to actually get on board. She says wants to get out of debt but something always seems to 'come up' and she just keeps basically paying minimums. There's some credit card debt and student loans that are over 20 years old. She's very good at everything else she's done but has always sucked at money so we've always had mostly separate finances.

I guess maybe I should try to find an FPU class this summer. Might be the only hope because I'm really starting to resent being the only one actually working toward this goal.
I'm technically self-employed so I set aside about 40% for the tax vampires. Yesterday I picked up my stuff from the tax lady and found out I'd have some leftover in my tax fund. I went straight to the bank and paid off the $6k loan balance on her car. When I told her, I got, "oh, thanks", like I'd just passed her the salt.

Sorry about the rant portion.

 

[Turbolq4]

You forgot the pepper...

 

[Injectedcutty]

I've listened to him here and there over the years. Really, I grew up with a lot of his "old fashioned ideas". Everybody considered my dad a cheapskate -- and he is -- but it really worked out for him in the end. His basic philosophy was that if you don't have the cash, you can't afford it. We never had new cars growing up, family vacations were camping trips, and our average house was just fine. We hung out with the Jones' but never tried to keep up with them.
I've been working the steps on my own for close to 2 years, although not to the letter, which I know is frowned upon. At this point I have zero debt and a nice emergency fund. My house should be paid off in 2-3 years. Starting to beef up my meager retirement. Mostly in step 6.

My biggest problem is getting my wife to actually get on board. She says wants to get out of debt but something always seems to 'come up' and she just keeps basically paying minimums. There's some credit card debt and student loans that are over 20 years old. She's very good at everything else she's done but has always sucked at money so we've always had mostly separate finances.

I guess maybe I should try to find an FPU class this summer. Might be the only hope because I'm really starting to resent being the only one actually working toward this goal.
I'm technically self-employed so I set aside about 40% for the tax vampires. Yesterday I picked up my stuff from the tax lady and found out I'd have some leftover in my tax fund. I went straight to the bank and paid off the $6k loan balance on her car. When I told her, I got, "oh, thanks", like I'd just passed her the salt.

Sorry about the rant portion.

It's not a rant when it's your thread!

My dad has always lived by the cash philosophy and still does. It rubbed off on me watching him pull 100's out when mom thought they were broke lol. The total resto on the Cutlass is cash paid and I will not have debt on such a thing. In regards to FPU, we did it last April and paid off two credit cards, stacked some cash, and bought a bigger house than we would've previously. However....the wife got on board which was HUGE!!!!

 

[DRIVEN]

That's why I'm thinking an FPU course might work. She's a teacher and has always been gay for school -- Loves lists and rules. Seems like a good fit.
It's crazy because she makes more than me but is always broke by the 5th of the month because she's trying to catch up from the previous month. I know she's embarrassed but says it's her debt so she feels like she needs to clean it up. On paper we shouldn't have any debt at all.
I'll just keep working my end. Without veering too far off topic and getting political, getting my financial house in order is a very high priority for me. I'd feel a lot better if I was completely independent in 2 years.

 

[69hurstolds]

I've listened to him here and there over the years. Really, I grew up with a lot of his "old fashioned ideas". Everybody considered my dad a cheapskate -- and he is -- but it really worked out for him in the end. His basic philosophy was that if you don't have the cash, you can't afford it. We never had new cars growing up, family vacations were camping trips, and our average house was just fine. We hung out with the Jones' but never tried to keep up with them.
I've been working the steps on my own for close to 2 years, although not to the letter, which I know is frowned upon. At this point I have zero debt and a nice emergency fund. My house should be paid off in 2-3 years. Starting to beef up my meager retirement. Mostly in step 6.

My biggest problem is getting my wife to actually get on board. She says wants to get out of debt but something always seems to 'come up' and she just keeps basically paying minimums. There's some credit card debt and student loans that are over 20 years old. She's very good at everything else she's done but has always sucked at money so we've always had mostly separate finances.

I guess maybe I should try to find an FPU class this summer. Might be the only hope because I'm really starting to resent being the only one actually working toward this goal.
I'm technically self-employed so I set aside about 40% for the tax vampires. Yesterday I picked up my stuff from the tax lady and found out I'd have some leftover in my tax fund. I went straight to the bank and paid off the $6k loan balance on her car. When I told her, I got, "oh, thanks", like I'd just passed her the salt.

Sorry about the rant portion.

So true. While I've never actually subscribed to his plan (which I guess saves me even more money), I knew someone who did and reviewed their materials. I do follow some of his principles and listened to his radio shows often and watched him on TV. Not every principle, but some. Like one thing he always says is to combine accounts. Trust factor thing. Well, the wife and I never combined our accounts and we're both perfectly happy with that. She's a diligent saver too, so I don't know why we just didn't. We do have a hefty combined "household" checking account together though that we each contribute to. We have about 3 months of emergency funds stashed in a remote secret location in case major sh*t around the house breaks or we have to bug out, a 15 year mortgage being paid off in 9 (this August will be the last payment), no credit card debt, although I put almost everything I buy on the BP Visa card and pay if off every month because they give me a lot of free gas doing it that way. Right now I have about 120+ gallons of free BP gas coming my way and already have cashed in about 60 gallons this past winter. It's only good for a year so I have to start using it. You pay 10.9 cents per gallon and your credits apply to the rest up to 20 gallons at a time. I have a GMFamily credit card too that gives me money back in cash or apply it to my GMFamilyfirst new car purchase discounts. My credit rating is stellar and it's near the top of the scale consistently,

Admittedly, I don't chase every penny the way Ramsey does, but his plan may be just the ticket to turn some people's bad situations around. The snowball method is so simple even a caveman can do it. It simply takes discipline, and the baby steps to get started. Once you actually realize you can actually grab the "debt bull" by the horns, and take back control, the only thing in the way of being debt-free is yourselves. Money diets suck, but sometimes that's what it takes. Over the years the wife and I saved and saved and saved in our 401k's, and she retired at 59 and I retired at 57 with enough money to pay us more than our working monthly salaries up through our 90s. And if there's any social security when we get that age, it'll be that much sweeter. But I'm not counting on it. When we get into our mid-90s, I think then we'll have to cut back some. Plus, I have a lot of dividend stocks moved into an IRA which pays enough to maintain us not touching the retirement fund principals, at least for now (But then you have to pay regular income tax on IRA dividends!- Sure, at my rate of 12% up to $75K which is better than the normal 15% dividend rate- at least for a few more years. ).

We didn't retire because we had to, but because we WANTED to, and because we were financially secure enough to be able to. Looking back, we could have retired even sooner. Got my hobbies and she has hers. We've never been extravagant spenders, but we donate to charities without having to think about it, and we just don't worry that much about money any more. The only drawback I've seen doing the Ramsey-style method is that when you DO get where you want to be, or as close as you can, you have a tendency NOT to want to spend any money. After so many years, your cheapness will be automatic and even spending money wisely is going to be affected. Who knows that cheap-*ss old dude in his 80s living in a 700 square-foot house eating Spaghettios and driving a 20 year old car, and then passes away to find out he'd been sitting on several million dollars in cash?

We have no kids, so I don't know why we want to sit on a huge pile of 401K money. And when we get to our final living space, we're going to do that reverse mortgage thing to the max. Ain't leaving anything to anyone if at all possible.

If only our governments would subscribe to the debt snowball method, our economies would be through the roof more than they are now.

 

[ssn696]

If you are lucky to have a 401K, pay yourself first. Better yet, if you have employer matching, make sure you Max that out. It's like a pay raise, tax-free (for now). After a while, you forget you are saving because you never see the money. Avoid taking a loan from your 401K - you have to pay yourself 4% interest, but you may be missing out on a 12% return from the market.

The alternative is an IRA. I understand that most people get tired of hearing about this when the bills are due. I don't know anything about the Dave Ramsey program, but anything that opens your eyes to what you need vs. what you want or what Google tells you to buy, is a valuable educational experience.

I recently knuckled under and paid a dealer to fix my car. Ow! But it was a safety problem and I did not have the tools to do it myself. A Gbody is a good investment if you manage your expectations. How fast is fast enough? What's more important is teaching yourself how to be self-sufficient. Zen and the Art of Gbody maintenance. You'll never see the money back again that you dump into your car project, but if your beer money can drive you a cross town, maybe that's a decent investment.

Soft rant over.

 

[69hurstolds]

That's why I'm thinking an FPU course might work. She's a teacher and has always been gay for school -- Loves lists and rules. Seems like a good fit.

Did you post using an iPhone with that gawdawful spell check that makes you sound like you're saying something different than what you meant? Or am I behind the times on the new jargon?

 

[DRIVEN]

Nope. I typed what I meant.

 

[DRIVEN]

We have no kids, so I don't know why we want to sit on a huge pile of 401K money. And when we get to our final living space, we're going to do that reverse mortgage thing to the max. Ain't leaving anything to anyone if at all possible.

You do it because that's what responsible people do...just in case. Personal responsibility and self reliance are dying traits. Seems so many just expect .gov (taxpayers) to pick up the tab. My mother in law, being a prime example, retired the minute she was eligible for social security without a penny to her name, a crappy car that she was upside down in, and no housing. She's been sponging off of relatives ever since. I don't even want her to visit and made it 110% clear that she is never moving in.

I too use a credit card for work expenses but pay the balance 1-3 times a month. Never carry a balance over to the next month. I know Dave always says to cut them up and use a debit card but I use a cc for security reasons. Anyone who has ever had a debit card hacked can probably understand why.
My credit is outstanding but it doesn't really matter because I never plan to tap it again.

 

[L92 OLDS]

I highly recommend the Dave Ramsey program. My parents (now wealthy) lived through the great depression and taught us kids many of the Ramsey principles at a young age. As a result I began investing in mutual funds back in the early 80's. Most of it is common sense but I am always baffled at the general public's stupidity, lack of fiscal responsibility and poor spending habits. If you don't have the money for a big ticket item then don't buy it. A house is an exception. As noted above, getting your spouse on board is huge and probably one of the most important things you can do financially and for your marriage. I have been blessed with a wife that I can trust and shares my goals. Most of the time she has a hard time spending anything on herself. I think a shared account will enhance your marriage. Working towards the same goals and communication before spending more than $100 on anything is key. Many of our friends are on their second marriage and have separate accounts for everything. I always see this causing problems.