Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University

Has anyone else been through this program, or thought about it? My wife and I are doing it right now and I love it! That's not to say it's easy. But the prospect of being debt free before my daughter gets into junior high is pretty amazing!

We each only have two debts remaining: our vehicles and our mortgage. I am on the fence about selling my Tacoma and getting a head start on our mortgage. I owe about 23k on it, and it's worth about 30k. I figure I could find a used 1st gen for now for 6k-7k and drive it into the ground.

 

Is it like a online program?

 

You can do it online, or take a class normally offered at a local church. You can check out http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu to find a class or to buy the necessary materials.

 

What is your interest rate? If it's low, is it worth the loss on your truck?

FWIW, I'm a big fan of the program. Several years ago, we did the snowball debt reduction and it works well.

 

Thanks

 

2.9%. I just bought it two months ago, then we decided to do the program. We haven't decided anything yet, but it is an option.

 

I have. And I've facilitated one locally.

As he admits freely, there is no magic. It just makes you think about money in a different way that most people do.

At first I thought it was kind of silly, because I wasn't really learning anything new. Not only did I know those principals, I had been applying them for years, including a written budget. I'll freely admit I have my Mom and Dad to thank for teaching me those things.

What I did learn though was how messed up most everyone else was. Sometimes it's due to circumstances out of their control. More often it's consequences of bad decisions. Decisions based on instant gratification primarily. And yes, when someone is a financial train wreck, it's not an easy fix. Because it requires more discipline to recover from it that it would have to prevent it to begin with.

I also worked hard to teach my kids those concepts. While it stuck pretty well with them, they both married less disciplined individuals. Now both in their late 30's, they aren't debt free, but a reasonable mortgage on their home is really it, outside of normal monthly expenses, and both have retirement savings underway that greatly exceed published averages for their age group. And the great thing is I've noticed they are working on teaching their children already (all under 10) which is the time to start!

There will be some come along to poo poo the program I'm sure. And I'll admit, there are a couple of things I disagree with him about, and do not follow his guidelines on. But one of the reasons I can 'get away with' what I don't follow is our own discipline. It's greater than what most people are willing to do, especially in the early years of recovery.

Live like no one else so you can live like no one else. That concept has paid off (pun intended) quite well for us.

Press on. You'll be glad you did!

 

I recently payed off my CC's so that was a step for me, but still have a house and 2 car notes..

 

Run the numbers and decide what's best for you. I'm at 0.99%, so it's worth having the more reliable vehicle.

 

While I do enjoy having a newer and more reliable vehicle, the thought of what I could do with 23k is what has me on the fence. I could put that towards my daughter's college fund, out into a mutual fund, put it towards our mortgage. It is very tempting.

 

I'm not a financial advisor, nor did I stay at a Holliday Inn last night. Therefore I will never, tell anyone what to do with their $$.

Being debt free, minus mortgage is where I'm headed to again, but my BMW and T4R both had high miles and couldn't pass up on the interest rate, as the upcoming maintenance cost on both vehicles (>275k miles) would have cost me more than what they were worth.

 

I'm not suggesting you make the change. Yet.

How much you can and are willing to do DIY work for maintenance and repairs matters on some of the decision making.

However, I will say that when my kids were teens, we had 4 cars going at once. I was able to keep all 4 running on about what one car payment would have been equal to.

I hate debt.

 

a lot of churches have these as home groups. I think Larry burkett was one of the first ones to have courses like these. As far as college is concerned I think it is a waste of money in some circumstances. I know of too many deep in debt with mediocre jobs and a useless 4 year degree. Unless it is in engineering or something like that. I am also old school I don't think it is entirely the parents responsibility to pay for college.

 

I haven't used a CC since listening to his advice the last 3 years now. Good stuff!

 

The more I listen to the podcasts and hear the stories of people becoming debt free, the more inclined I am to sell it.

 

Don't know if it was same program but the tax aspect was interesting regarding home mortgage deduction. Why pay a dollar to have someone give you back whatever your tax bracket was vs just pay the bracket rate and save the rest. Pay a dollar to get back 25 cents or pay 25 cents.

 

I always wondered that too.

 

IMO Dave Ramsey's advice is kind of silly at times. I travel for work and without a high limit credit card I'd be up the creek really quick. There's very few people in the travel industry that likes checks and cash such as airlines, lodging and rental cars. If you pay you card off every month you're not going to have any problems.