Dave Ramsey
| The Dave Ramsey Show is about life, love & relationships— and how they all happen to revolve around money. It is not about right or left, or the “he said, she said” of politics. It is not about Wall Street or the latest headlines. You see, this show has always been about one thing … life. And life happens everyday on the radio. Dave is spreading his message of debt-free living. Each day, he offers callers life-changing advice on how to beat debt, build wealth, and change their family trees forever. Vist Dave Ramsey's Website Here |
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We're debt-free, except for our house, and that's on a 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage ...
Paying it forward
My husband and I were nearly done with baby step 2 last Christmas and a friend asked us how we did it. We got her a TMM book for her Christmas present and this year she has no credit card debt, almost paid off her car and ready to tackle her student loans. She is finally moving back into a place of her own (after living with family for the past 4 years) and bought a new couch set and dining room table in CASH this weekend. She's not Gazelle intense (honestly we weren't either) but it's such a good feeling to know that through our own journey we've inspired someone else and they're really getting it. Plus seeing each other's successes keep us both going on our own steps. Thanks Dave!
Great feeling...thank you Dave
My wife and I started Total Money Makeover in July. We had been married for 4 years, and we both brought some debt into the marriage, but our goal was to pay it off as soon as possible. We had credit card debt, car loans, student loans, and 401K loans.
In July I told my wife I was tired of waiting for this debt to be paid off and I wanted to be more aggressive in our payments. She emailed me Dave Ramsey's website. I read the Baby Steps, signed up for the yearly program, received My Total Money Makeover book, and read it in a day. I was hooked.
I shared it with my wife, and she was hooked. In July we started. We put $1000 in savings quickly, and moved right to Baby Step 2. We were able to pay off a student loan in one month, and move to the 401K and credit cards. The Lord opened a huge door of blessings, and we paid off a credit card and the 401K loan in a month. We will make our final credit card payment in January 2013, and we will only have the debt of the house.
In February we are going to celebrate this freedom we have not experienced ever in our marriage. We have learned a lot through this program, and it has changed our lives. We look at a lot of things differently in regards to finances and debts.
I thank God that He put it on Dave's heart to do what he does. I pray God continues to use Dave to help others and to bless Dave. Thank you Dave
Our son is graduating from high school next spring ...
Sharing the paydown
I guess we're a little ahead of the game on the steps since we have kept our emergency fund over $10K for 12 years, and I've maxed contributed to my 401K for 6 years, my husband for 3 & have a small stock account I'm learning how to manage. We have an RV that we use alot so we carry a mortgage on it and we have a house won't be paid off because we're selling it. One car payment (thanks dork for wrecking the our truck for us) but it was a dealer model that they had put a dent in the bed, so I got a 35K truck for a total of 22K, put down the 5k we got from insurance and financed 17K for 1.9% for 4 years (1/2 way there now!). Using the Debt Snowball plan has made a huge difference on how we view and payoff our debts. Since actively engaging March 2012 we have removed almost $16000 from our consumer debt! We are currently readying the house for the market (using ONLY cash and DIYing as much as possible) and will rent for less money, plus no property taxes and only personal property insurance. Any profit & the excess will go into our emergency fund and stock account. Our plan is to buy a small business in a tax friendly state and get out of this welfare tax & spend sinkhole called Maryland!
A wonderful Christmas gift
We're debt freeeee! Paid off our mortgage today 12/7/2012. We have been debt free with everything except the mortgage since 2009 in which we had paid off about $30,000 in car loans and credit card debt in about 24 months. We took out a 20 year mortgage for about $130,000 in 1999. To knock out the mortgage early we refinanced to a lower interest rate and made extra payments along the way. We had some extra savings so we decided to totally knock out the mortgage before the end of this year. We want to give all the praise to God for his supernatural provision and to Dave Ramsey for his wisdom and counsel with the Total Money Makeover. It is the best feeling in the world to "owe no man anything".
Under the elephant
My husband and I have NEVER dealt with our money. We tried in the beginning (14 years ago)but could never agree so we gave up and just didn't deal with it. Along with a few really bad business decisions we ended up under the elephant. We found ourselves jobless, homeless, and living off the dole out of necessity. It was awful. We are smart people who just made dumb decisions. Thankfully we had enough support that we did not get into the credit card game. Even so when you are under an elephant that keeps eating it does not matter if you take one bite or two bites at a time. We had to find a way to move the elephant over. My wealthy parents woefully bailed us out they finally said "If you won't believe us then we insist that you go to Dave's class-maybe you will listen to him"
So here we are 9 weeks later. We have $1000 in savings, we have had two months of NO BANK FEES!!!!! And we start our debt snowball this weekend at our weekly budget committee meeting. I am really tired from working two full time jobs to get here. It has not been easy. But neither was living the way we were. This is by far the best Christmas present we could ever give ourselves, our daughter AND my parents. I am really proud of what we have accomplished so far and looking forward to a really great future with my truly great husband and living debt free.
In my book you are the mouse that made the elephant move over! It's always the little things.