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futuremrstarter
member
Tell me your Dave Ramsey success stories...
futuremrstarter
member
And give me hope that we'll be able to get out of the ridiculous amount of debt we have incurred.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Tell me your Dave Ramsey success stories...
Butting in.... I was looking online at his website the other day and have some questions too. Is it just a book or is it some sort of online program as well? Thanks and sorry for butting in!
I did not use Dave Ramsey. His method was not for me. But there is hope. We did it in 2 years and bought a house, paid for our wedding, put ourselves through college paying for it all alone, and had the baby. It is possible. We just are down to the mortgage, one car payment, just bought a new car with cash, and my student loans for 2 years of my bachelors (if everything goes to plan they will be paid off this March along with our other car) . That is it!!! We are consumer debt free. We busted our butts and don't have a brand new LCD TV or anything so there were definitely sacrifices. All the consumer style money spent is on stuff for the kids and that is it. We wiped out 17k in credit card debt and my student loans from my associates degree in that small amount of time and we paid off the one car sold it privately then turned around and bought our new car with cash from that and a little savings.
My secrets are avoiding going shopping I limit where how and how many times we go, coupon clipping galore, attacking on bill at a time, and this was the key we bought a house that we could afford with a lot of money left over. After doing that I set us up a plan to keep us with money in our pockets but not too much and I funneled as much as I could every month at one bill. After it was paid off I moved to the next one. During this time we did not acquire any new CC debt at all. I didn't do the smallest largest Dave thing I did the one with the highest interest. It is possible!! You just have to really work on your budget every month and know where every penny is going. I use mint.com it has made it so easy and it is free. In this time all kinds of unexpected things came up like child support increases and costly car repairs you just have to make a lot of tough choices with what is needed and what is not.
GL!!
He offers a class that you go too also. I don't know details but a guy in church last week was telling everyone about the class he and his wife took and said the majority of their debt is gone. He was really encouraging everyone to look into the class if it's offered in your area. He said if you can't afford the class, then you can get help to pay for it.
He offers a class that you go too also. I don't know details but a guy in church last week was telling everyone about the class he and his wife took and said the majority of their debt is gone. He was really encouraging everyone to look into the class if it's offered in your area. He said if you can't afford the class, then you can get help to pay for it.
I 2nd mint.com! DH and I have "budget" meetings every Sunday morning so we know how much money we have to spend that week and what bills will be paid. It really helped me since I'm a SAHM and wasn't really paying attention to what I was spending.
We don't carry our CC in our wallets anymore either. We've paid off 2 cards since January and only have 1 left and we set a goal to pay that off by the end of this year.
My DH and I have worked his program for three years now. We paid off $25,000 in 2 years, saved up a 6 month emergency fund. Now, I get to SAH and we are paying cash to finish our basement. To get started, I rec reading the Total Money Makeover. It does a good job of explaining the program. If you know you are going to have a hard time sticking to a plan, take the class as well (Financial Peace University) - it will provide lots of additional info as well as accountability.
Here are the steps:
1. Get current
2. Save $1000 beginner emergency fund
3. Pay off all your debt (except your mortgage) by working the debt snowball and doing a writing a new budget for each month
4. Save 3-6 months expenses emergency fund
5. Save 15% of your income toward retirement
6. Save for kids college
7. Work on paying off house
8. Save and invest in mutual funds, etc.
No we do not both work. I quit my job in January. We started this process and plan two years before before we had DD.
I have a few other secrets to share. Everything we do is joint period. This works for us. We have no separate accounts. When we did DH was not paying things off fast enough to get where we needed tohave DD. So I took over everything and he has not even looked at the balance in our checking account in 2 years. That is what works for us. Might not work for everyone.If we need to buy a present for eachother or something we just do cash. Knowing where every single penny goes has been what made this possible.
Also the Army. They pay DHs student loans off every month up to 40,000 they will pay. He is under that so we will never pay a cent for his bachelors degree. This was student loans from before he joined back up to go to officer school so it doesn't matter if you already have them when you join. They are paying for his tuition to get his master's degree now, and we get the GI Bill with kicker every month for him just going to school. On top of all that for his 3 day drill a month we get that officer pay. So all of that on top of DH working full time. It is not the choice for everyone but it is what he chose. We are paying an insane amount of money in alimony, daycare (for his boys), and child support so this was the only way we were going to move on with our lives and get out of debt. For people who are swimming in debt and don't know where to turn there is the answer. It doesn't work for everyone but it is what worked for us.
The other reason he joined again was he had 4 years in the Navy and that gets added in towards retirement. If he does 14 more years in the reserves we will get free healthcare and a officer or higher retirement. So not only are we planning short term we are planning retirement. This all goes along with maxing out his 401k at work as well. I just did not want to be wasting all the 401k money on health insurance when we are old. There is no way anyone will retire if there is still a health care issue then and social security runs out.
We basically went from rags to riches in two years that way. He was seriously in bad shape after the divorce and only having 3/4 of his paycheck every month after the ex took her share. It just takes a lot of planning, scrimping, and tough choices. It is a gamble with him being in the reserves but that is how it works I guess. You have to gamble to win.
We paid off $36K in debt in 14 months. ?On a part time salary. (mine) ?We basically watched every dime we spent. ?I have $100 a month to spend on me and that's it. ?When it's gone it's gone.
We have a 6 month emergency fund and am contributing 15% to 401(k). ?
And I'm a SAHM.
You can doooooo it!!!!!!?
You used just your salary to pay off the debt? DH's money is used for living?
Yes. ?My part time job was $35k a year (sales).
DH's money is used for living and investing.?