As I drove home in my little 3 cylinder, 14000lb. Geo Metro., home last night, while being blown almost off the road by a semi-truck first and then by a large SUV. I decided to pop in a CD that a friend burned for me of a recent episode of the Dave Ramsey show. As it started to play I thought to myself, "..How much longer will I have to drive these kinds of cars, and
work two jobs? Can I ever truly be debt-free, including my house?". It was obvious after hearing the first call that I was listening to one of Dave's, "Debt Free Friday" shows. For those not familiar, this is when Dave accepts calls from those who have either paid off all of their debts including or not including their house. Some of the calls:
- Curt has paid off $48,600 in 13 months and is now debt free. He had many garage sales and makes $85,000 a year.
- Ronnie is debt free, having paid off $34,000 in 12 months. They paid off the house as well.
- Brett is debt free. He paid off $30,000 in just over 4 years, and was only making $24,000 a year.
- Mike paid off $49,000 in 34 months and is now out of debt. He makes $95,000 a year.
Sometimes things seemed to be taking so long, and they seem to be so hopeless but when I hear testimonies like these I can't help but be motivated.
24 comments:
I've tried listen to that hick, and strongly disagreed with his logic. He tells people that becoming debt free is mostly emotional and not math? He tells them that they should tithe no matter how much debt they have while they are in debt!?
Just another Hick!
I love hearing stories of people who have paid off thier debt, it reminds me that it iS possible and encourages me when it seems to be getting difficult.
It is not really a topic that I would want to discuss with many people offline. Without my blog and the other pf bloggers I would find it difficult.
I've listened to the Dave Ramsey show and found him to be very flawed in his personal financial advice.
* Ramsey has been criticized in financial circles for offering simplistic solutions to financial issues.
* Many people criticize Dave Ramsey because they find him arrogant, right-wing or generally wrong in the financial advice he teaches.
* In 2004 Dave Ramsey's column was dropped from The Tennessean and four other newspapers owned by Gannett, Co. after it was discovered that the identities of those seeking help were falsified in several of his columns. Ramsey accepted responsibility for the error and offered refunds to the newspapers affected by the error.
Josh must be listening to some other hick--Ramsey is very clear that tithing is something HE feels compelled to do but it is NOT an issue of salvation. He says this every time someone asks.
Sigh. Am I the only one who gets jealous hearing those Friday Payoff stories? Am I the only one who wonders HOW these folks paid as much as they did on their debts? (Sometimes, I think Dave wonders, too, because he often asks if something got sold, and it turns out a house or a car sale contributed to the debt reduction.
It's clear to me that I am in this for the long-haul--I'll call Dave when I'm debt free, but it's gonna be a few years down the road!
Grace, you either need a big shovel or a major sacrifical sale. One couple I had heard of who paid of $300k in debt, did so by selling their home and renting. Would I do that? Honestly no, it's a hard place to start again in your 50s rebuying a house. But they made a huge sacrifice, but honestly they might have made an error that could cost them a lot during retirement.
Sometimes being debt free at the expense of looking at the whole picture is bad. Like selling the house and having to a buy a new one, it could price someone out of the market they were living in.
A good dose of Dave is most always a reenergizer!!!
Josh....is calling Dave a hick the best you can do? You come off sounding like much more of an ignoramous. Give me Dave's clear cut advice any day of the week.
Agree with him or not, Dave has helped a lot of people. I don't think any financial guru should be placed up on a pedestal. I certainly don't mindlessly follow Dave's principles, but I do find a lot of common sense in his teaching and have been able to gain focus in my financial life as a result of his show.
Dave would not say that I'm following his plan, but I do take what works for us from his teaching and apply it. Some of his principles are appropriate for our situation, some are not. Hakuna matata. :)
JW, I'm glad that your finding motivation from Dave Ramsey. Even though I'm not a huge fan of him, I still see that he helps a lot of people get out of debt.
Dave is a great motivational speaker, it is easy after listening to him to feel being debt free is an attainable goal. But I do agree a lot people who do it his way do make sacrifices. We made a mistake and bought a brand new mini van a few years ago-Kia Sedona--so it is a practical low end brand-cost was around $20,000-I now owe around 17000, yet I could only sell it for around 14000. So sure I could sell my cars, get personal loans for the difference and buy a clunker to haul my four kids in. Or I could stick with my car, know it is covered 100% till it hits 100,000 miles, pay it off in 3 years (or sooner) and learn from my mistake to never buy brand new again. I would much rather take the latter. Now if I was single, sure I would bite the bullet, but hauling four kids and finding myself stranded on the road cause it gave the engine blew is not really appealing. Those people got out of debt so fast because of huge sacrifices. I am working on it, but I guess I would not qualify as "gazelle intense" But I admire those who are!
Although I'm not as opposed to Dave Ramsey as Josh and Chris I do have several doubts about the legitimacy of his callers claims on "Debt Free Friday".
"i'm grace", makes a very good point regarding HOW these callers are able to pay off huge sums of debt without having a substantially large income.
JW's blog in my opinion is more indicative of the obstacles that the average person faces when trying to become debt free.
If you listen to Dave's program, sometimes he simplifies it too much. It not as simple as having X number of dollars in debt, minus X number of dollars in income, equals X number of months or years until debt freedom, because "LIFE" occurs in the middle of this process.
Additionally, it is not difficult to see that $100k annual income doesn't equate to $100k annual take home pay.
JW, its good that you found a source of motivation but, I would give too much credibility to those callers you hear on Dave's "Debt Free Friday" show.
When you get an opportunity consider the Ric Edelman show. Ric Edelman is the author of five books on personal finance, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth, and the personal finance classic, The Truth About Money. He is also the host of "The Ric Edelman Show" heard on the ABC Radio Networks, and writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column for United Media. For more of his advice, visit Ric online at RicEdelman.com
Just wanted to say that I'm finding your blog very realistic - I've seen a number of debt repayment blogs written by younger people who just don't take "life" into account. What you describe is much more like my journey - two steps forward, one back.
I've subscribed to your RSS feed, and will be following your blog with interest.
Good luck and many blessings!
Annie
wow. I totally needed that motivation!!! great post! you will be a sucess story soon!
I've been reading your blog for a while now and I'd have to agree with Mr. Edelman.
Simply put, you can't believe everything you hear. I wouldn't put too much faith in the testimonies that you mentioned in this post.
If you really want to be motivated just focus on your own goals and aspirations. Your goals alone will motivate you enough.
Write down your goals and put them up high in a place where you can read them on a regular basis. I promise this will motivate you.
In India we don't have anything on radio or television similar to this but, it is only in the last ten years that upper middle class people have had access to credit cards or credit debt.
I like Dave Ramsey but I could never live without my credit cards, I am addicted to them... if you can control the debt its OK to use them... and I love the rewards, my discover card has 40.00 cash back waiting for me to claim and I pay it off every month... I am actually making money off the credit card and all cashback I put in emmigrant direct at 5% interest!!!! how can dave not like that???
RANI- Be careful with credit cards and debt in India... learn from Americans!!
What would motivate you to stop giving 450$+ a month to your church?
All that money could be put toward your debt repayment... 450$ is a LOT of hours working at Subway for minimal wage...
We paid off $19,100 in 13 months. Yes, we did sell a car (about $6,000 of the 19,000) But the other 13,100 was from our income. We were not even super intense about it, and when we started off we only made 60,000 a year. I would venture to say that most, if not all, of those stories you hear on Fridays are true. When you get sick of your debt, you make a way to get out of it really quickly. We also cash flowed $2500 in tuition and over $1000 in plumbing catastrophes. For the record, I have not called in but that's because I would be too nervous to do so.
Keep on going! At least some of those stories are true!!!
Debra
I agree. When I looked at your budget and saw the $450.00 that you've allocated to tithing.
Sometimes we have to think for ourselves. Its not important what Dave Ramsey, your pastor or anyone says.
Pay off your debts first.
I just know that some of those people calling in on Dave's Show are lying.
I listened to the archive from last Friday and one guy in the third hour claimed to pay off $121k!!?
I don't follow Dave Ramsey's advice. But then again I never needed to. I never ran up my credit card deft and have always lived beneath my means.
But for the large number of people out there for whom the basic idea of "spend less than you earn" is like brain surgery, following Dave Ramsey's advice is not the worse thing they could do.
As far as tithing, I generally agree with the other comments on the issue. I don't tithe, my siblings do. I'm doing well financially, my siblings are struggling. Is tithing the only reason? No, but it sure makes a difference.
Your family will be better off with you at home instead of working extra to pay tithes. And it will make no difference to you in the afterlife.
I like Dave Ramsey for the most part but don't follow him to the T. The 1k emergency fund is great to have when something happens there's some liquidity available to handle it instead of feeling broke at any point. I don't agree with him regarding stopping any retirement contributions and company match available. If you stop saving for retirement to pay off debt, you'll become debt free with nothing saved for retirement. Plus you're passing up free money which is more stupid than what he calls stupid tax.
The debt free calls are interesting to hear because very few of them seem authentic and others do. Sure people could be lying but it's all about ratings and what sounds good for his show. The people who pay off a lot of debt over a number of years, those are people who really had to work at improving their lives.
I find blogging more motivational than his show because the tracking of progress is more consistent. People call Dave when they have a problem or when they are debt free, there's never a progress calls. If you go to his website it's mostly filled with marketing to sell his products. At least his radio show and archives are free.
He gets stuff wrong sometimes too and doesn't correct it. Someone asked him about Bank of America's Keep the Change program, which is a savings account that rounds your purchases on your debit card and deposits the remainder in the account. BoA also matches this amount in full for the first 3 months and a percentage after that. He thought it was some kind of charity thing and basically blasted it without knowing what he was talking about.
Dave does bring something out in people though. He tends to tell people up front how it is. Now his solutions, like selling cars, are not always the best thing to do to fix a problem. If it works for you then that's all that matters.
Long time reader, first time commenter. lol
Love the blog...in fact love it enough that I put you as one of my 5 blogs in celebration of Blog Day!
At present I feel disappointed I haven't paid off more. In fact feel that I am going no where on my debt. Motivation seems to be something I need as well.
Since my job transfer, I only get to hear Dave one night a week, if I am lucky twice a week.
Overall I think Dave's show does some public service but, if I remember he didn't become debt free and rich by working two jobs and driving a Geo Metro. If I'm not mistaken the first thing he did was declare bankruptcy (that should have cleaned up all of his debts, which you don't have the advantage of doing JW). At the point of bankruptcy Dave Ramsey became DEBT FREE. Then, he started his current business.
Taking nothing away from him, It's my opinion that we wouldn't be writing about this if his business hadn't succeeded.
Remember JW, you and most of the other debt-free bloggers out there are starting off at a great disadvantage.
For advice on how I can help you expedite your debt elimination plan please contact me Toll Free: 888.293.2882
JW another good source of motivation can be found at forums like; Living Like No One Else.
I was able to get some very good advice there regarding our budget and motivation reading about those who have progressed in their debt elimination plans.
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