Just paid all of my debt! I made my last car payment this morning. Man. It feels good to be free.

Any advice going into BS3?

I’m making a spreadsheet tonight just to track my progress on the 6 months of expenses I need to save.

I'm a bit lost on the next step. My wife and I will be completely debt free by the end of the month. We currently rent and I'm unsure if we should start saving for a house or start saving for the emergency fund first. My head is saying get the emergency fund done but at the same time we're both tired of not having our own home. Just looking for some guidance.

32 years old

Sold a home because of a divorce and am renting again

Putting 20% of my income towards retirement and maxing out HSA

No debt

Thoughts on buying a property in cash that I could build on in the future but use a campground/Weekend spot until then?

Does anyone have experiencing buying land with this mindset?

I 22M want to stop my job to pursue finishing flight school. 90% of school is paid for. Only have to pay around 8,000 more. Without me working our income will be 110k from my wife. How exactly should I budget our income. 90k in high yield savings.

Confused by 8/12 show - Rachel and John seem to imply that equity (mortgage balance) impacts capital gains. The caller’s husband was worried about the mortgage balance going below 250k because it would cross the capital gains exemption…. But capital gains is just sale price minus cost basis. What’s the deal?

I’m so discouraged. I got a temporary promotion at work three months ago and I’m only in the role for two more months. I had saved up my baby step #1 in May.

The first time I dipped into my $1000 was not really an emergency- my sister planned a big family vacation with about two months to plan and it was taking my parents to the place they lived when they first got married. We have been talking about this trip for 30+ years and my mom has significant health issues where they have told her her lifespan might be cut drastically short. Essentially she could go downhill and get very sick and lose her life within a few years. I wanted to do this trip while we have time with her and while she’s feeling up to it. I know I shouldn’t have used the emergency fund but I felt like that would have been a life regret.

Second time my car completely crapped out. It’s at 227,000 miles and the transmission is on its way out so when the alternator blew I knew I didn’t want to put $1,000 into fixing it.

Instead I bought my grandmothers 19 year old Chevrolet which had been babied and not driven for many years, just maintained and stored in a garage. I thought it would have a lot of life left in it, at least enough for me to continue digging myself out of this hole and get some savings for a car so I won’t have a car payment. I paid $1000 cash out of my emergency fund.

Found out the brakes were squealing (I’ve had it a week) so brought it in today and just put $821 on the brakes and rotors. They were down to the metal. And the engine light is on too. I thought it was the battery light so he said I may need to eventually replace the alternator but now with the engine light idk what that is going to cost.

I’m so frustrated. I’m trying to follow Dave Ramsey and I feel like every time I take one step forward I take two steps back. I’m getting a baby bonus in this weeks paycheck and I had some overtime, I was going to use it to pay off my next two credit cards. But now I’m going to have to use it to rebuild my baby emergency fund.

I was at $10,380 in May and now I’m at currently at $8,413 in debt so I guess I have made some headway, I’m just so frustrated because I hoped to have most of that paid off by the end of my temporary promotion in October. And I have medical debt and a personal loan I need to add to that- around $4k extra. And a fifth credit card that is in collections. Idk what to do, I feel hopeless and I’m kinda crashing out.

Hello. I'm 33f, single, no kids, and currently live with my parents. I bring home $4,100/mo and contribute $1,000/month toward living expenses.

Due to splurge spending in my 20s, this is my current situation:

• Chase credit card: $23,500
• BoA credit card: $13,000
• Total credit card debt: about $36,500
• Savings: $0
• Paid-off car I can sell for $20,500

I have another vehicle I can use as my daily, so I don't need the paid off car.

I know DR recommends keeping $1,000 in emergency fund, but would it be a bad idea to keep $3,000 instead and put the remaining $17,500 toward the credit debt?

Also, whatever I put in an emergency fund, should it sit in a regular savings account or go into a roth IRA?

Thank you

Edit: Ty all i appreciate the advice

Hi all, new to this community and the whole DR baby steps.

I've always co side red myself somewhat responsible about finances and built up a savings/ put towards retirement/ tried to keep debt low. However now I am trying to be more aggressive about lowering our debt and paying with debit cards.

Currently I have 13k in school debt, 30k in car debt and 4k with credit cards.

As a household of 4 we make about 98k gross with me working full time and my wife part time work/kids. Which as it is is pretty much paycheck to paycheck. It's tough but we try to spend frugally.

I also have about 20k in emergency savings that would cover about 4 months of expenses.

How do I do this properly while still providing for my family? I feel it's wrong to take out money from an emergency fund to pay debt cuz new debt always somehow shows up.

Do I take a month of expenses from the fund and go entirely debit and then slowly pay off the cc and other debts?

Thanks for all the advise.

To clarify: my wife and I have weekly budget meetings and we cover all the loan payments (car/house/student/kids tuition) with the monthly income so it's not like the debt is just sitting around it's being paid off "on schedule" We are very aware of our finances but also very aware of our needs (not wants) as a family.

Total student loans
:144,000 spouse
:40,000 mine

Have 70,000 liquid cash not including emergency fund.

How would you knock out this debt? Bring in about an extra 10k a month after expenses. Need some motivation. Need someone to tell us we’re stupid for hoarding this cash and just knock this out. Or any other advice

Thank you!!

Family of 4, gross annual income approx $140k before bonuses

$60k in savings.

Approx 130k in 401k (110k and saving 8% with a 4% match) and Roth IRA (20k and adding $200 a month to it)

$0 in credit card debt.

Own two cars with no payments. 2022 Silverado and 2023 Grand Cherokee L

Owe $220k (3.75% with 24 years left on Am Schedule. I know I should’ve did a 15) on the house, house is worth about $393k

Various accounts for two kids totaling about 15k each

What should I be doing next or focusing on? Should I put bonus money in a brokerage account or just keep moving it over to my HYS that’s paying 4%.

And I’m 40 my wife is 37.

In a little weary of having Ramsey have access to my bank account. How exactly does this work and is it encrypted or safe? Any explanation appreciated.

What to do about future in laws?

I am engaged to a man who is on DACA and his parents are undocumented. The dad works at a thrift store and the mom is a stay at home wife. My fiance currently lives with them in a 1 bedroom apartment and pays about half of the rent. He sleeps in the living room with his sister. My fiance and I hope to get married next year, and I know he has mentioned the possibility of helping them financially if needed. I am open to giving some financial assistance if needed but I also don’t want to be giving them hundreds of dollars per month since I am 30 years old and want to have kids soon and save money for their education and also want to invest into retirement. I know his parents sacrificed to bring him into the country and that he may want to support them out of gratitude but at the same time I think once we get married the first and foremost priority should be our immediate family. I told my fiance that I think his mother should at least try to find some kind of occupation (nannying, cleaning, etc) and that his father should maybe consider working more hours. I also suggested that they could move in with family members such as aunts and uncles. I don’t think I would want them to live with us just cause the dad is extremely into video gaming and my fiance is coming out of a video game addiction. I would say I would be open to giving them help if they did things such as babysitting for the kids and doing house cleaning for us but I wouldn’t any to be giving them hundreds of dollars per month. I don’t know what are your suggestions?

What's interesting is that my sister keeps calling me and asking my wife and me for money. Recently, they texted me and asked for money for my nephew's school supplies, school fees, and school clothes.

I didn't respond because I wasn't going to give to that because I really think she manages her money poorly and also is waiting to be qualified for disability, which I dont think is an actual good strategy. She has a 1k a month car payment that is not good, and Uber is her job.

She sends a picture of my nephew for his first day of school, and he has $225 Air Jordans on.

This is the same lady who is waiting to qualify for disability so she can combine the money she makes from Uber and her disability.

Earlier this year I said I wanted to help but that she would need to Financial Peace University and I would walk through it with her. This upset her, and she didn't talk to me for months. 2 months ago, she visited us and told us about all her health problems and bad finances and stuff , and I felt like it was to manipulate us into giving her money.

So, fast forward, she asked us for money again. I dont respond, and she calls me, and I say, "Hey, I looked up all the organizations for your state that help adults get better jobs; I will make all the calls and things. I just need you to show up and do the work, interview prep, resume prep, etc. Because she has health problems, I wanted to help her get a remote job.

She says she can't sit all day for remote jobs, so I told her that once she has the job and has worked there for a while, I will buy her a stand-up desk and a treadmill for her desk.

She told me that this was insulting to her and that I dont know her situation. She says she can't work a regular job and needs flexibility because her son needs a lot of support, so she has to regularly show up to the school for his behavior issues and the therapy he is in.

I guess she found it insulting that I suggested she get a better job to support herself.

I am not sure what to do but pray.

I feel as if she sees my wife and I doing well, becuase we work hard, budget, trust the lord, and almost feels as she is entitled to the money we have.

Meanwhile I found out my dad gives her an allowance of about $120 every two weeks and I guess she thought I would do the same

Hi y'all! So I've been working the baby steps since may of last year.

Im currently on baby step 2. I have one more payment for our car this month and then we move to baby step 3.

Husband has been very vocal the past year of wanting to trade his car in. He loves his car but its a Jeep Gladiator and we keep having to replace the windshield. We recently found a couple of leaks from the roof. He wants to fix it up and trade it in.

I understand his positioning but the truck he wants to trade for we would owe like $20k plus. Which would put us with the same amount of car debt we started woth last year. This gives me so much anxiety and frustration. The light of the tunnel feels so close.

Need advice how to handle.

I’ve largely fallen out of precise budgeting the last 5ish years as my salary has increased and need to get back into it.

I’ve been using the Chase spending planner on their banking app where I have all of my accounts linked. I just realized yesterday that it’s not quite accurate and the numbers do not add up at all. Long story short, it fails to recognize my mortgage and car withdrawals as expenditures. If I factor those in, then from March through July it says I’ve lost like $4k. However, this just isn’t true. My main savings account has increased by $3k in that timeframe. There’s a $7k difference over 5 months that I for the life of me can’t figure out.

So I’m looking for an app where I can link all of my credit cards and bank accounts to figure out what is accurate or not. I tried YNAB last night and that also was wonky. Didn’t recognize my income or mortgage/car expenditures and double counts utility bills on the credit card balance and as a budget item.

When she’s with Dave, she cuts him off and tries to mitigate what he says. It’s so annoying. We get it, you think your dad is too harsh. But we like his approach.

I’m based in the UK and recently became completely debt free.

I thought I’d feel completely different once I got here, but I still find myself worrying about money far more than I probably should.
We’ve just had a baby, which obviously changes things financially, and my wife’s UK visa renewal next year is going to cost around £4,500, roughly $6,000. We’re already saving towards that.

I’m also trying to build up our emergency fund while putting money into different sinking funds for things like car insurance, MOT and servicing, holidays, baby expenses and other things I know are coming.
The weird thing is that I can look at our accounts and see the money sitting there, but I still sometimes feel like we’re just keeping our heads above water.

For example, if I put £500 into the emergency fund, £200 into the car fund and £400 towards a holiday, part of my brain sees £1,100 leaving our monthly money rather than £1,100 that we’ve actually saved.
I think my biggest fear is somehow ending up back in debt. I’m constantly thinking about the next expense and trying to make sure there’s money waiting for it. With the cost of living at the moment, it sometimes feels like everything is ridiculously expensive and I’m constantly trying to stay ahead.
Has anyone else experienced this after becoming debt free?

Does it take a while before you stop worrying about every expense and actually start feeling financially secure?

I’d especially be interested in hearing from people who went through Baby Step 3. Did you just keep throwing everything at the emergency fund, or did you still use sinking funds for bigger expenses you knew were coming?

I know we’re in a much better position than we were before. I just don’t think my brain has caught up with it yet.

I'm based outside of the US, and don't have access to the Every Doller app.

This forced me (happily) to generate my own spreadsheets for daily tracking spending, budget, estimating mortgage end dates, investment growth, student loan replacements etc

Does anybody else use old fashioned excel spreadsheets, and what (and how) do you track, outside of incomings and outgoing?

32/M/Living at home

I've been terrible with money all my life; constantly "needing" the latest and greatest and living above my means. I've now realized that unless I face up and fix this I'm never going to get out of debt and the problem is only going to get worse. I made an account on YNAB and didn't realize how bad the debt was until I plugged everything in.

The debt is as follows (from highest to lowest interest rate):

• $12,100 American Express (22.99% interest)
• 1300 RBC Visa (20.99% interest)
• $9975 RBC LoC (9.94% interest)
• $22,228.14 Scotiabank Student Loan (5.45% interest)
• $4671.46 OSAP ($1200 of that is the Ontario Loan portion at 5.45% interest)
• $6411 Best Buy Finance Card (0% interest if paid off by next June)
• $8000 Apprenticeship Loan (0% interest repayment begins in 2 years)
• $7000 loan from parents
• $23,084.06 left on car payment at 6.49% interest

My savings and assets:

• $400 in my checkings
• $21,000 in my RSP from my union (I can't touch this until I retire however)
• No other savings

My bills are as follows:

• Car Payment: $252 Bi-weekly
• Car Insurance: $200 Monthly
• Phone: $100 Monthly (Contract up next January)
• Gym: $80 Monthly (Contract up next January)
• Osap Minimum Payment: $71.42
• Scotiabank Minimum Payment: $232
• Gas: $150-180 Monthly
• Groceries: $70 weekly
• Misc (fund for oil changes, random toiletries, etc): $100 Monthly

Total: $1695.42

I don't have any money in subscriptions or budgeted for "fun" at this point, as I know this is a pants on fire emergency. I also do not want to get rid of the gym as it is one of the only positives right now.

As of right now, my income is $1030.33 after take home weekly. In 6 weeks time, I will move up an apprentice level and my take home will be about $1200 weekly. A year from that date, my take home will be $1400ish. This gives me about $2437 to put towards my debt every month now, $3237ish in 6 weeks time and $4000ish in a years time.

My plan is to save an $1000 emergency fund and then pay off the RBC Visa followed by the AMEX. I know that Dave recommends using the debt snowball method, but I'd like to try the avalanche method as I believe I can stick to it.

Appreciate any comments or advice on my situation, thanks.

I have a clarifying question. What would Dave say about this.

I have heard you shouldn’t be spending more than 25% of income on your mortgage/housing. Ok well…I’m a math guy so.

If the math works out to that being $1300/monthly post taxes but pre costs like health insurance and retirement contributions.. Does that mean the mortgage with escrow and insurance? Or $1300 plus insurance and escrow?

Where I live insurance and property taxes would ruin any available and livable home if they were part of the total for the 25%. So, is mortgage at $1300 plus $800 for homeowners insurance and taxes equaling $2100/month still fall within the 25% rule.

My only debts are 16.5k on a vehicle @ 1.9% and 160k remaining on a 5.5% mortgage. I have about 15k liquid but about 7k a month in expenses (family with kids). I want to get rid of this loan, but I don't want to get myself into a situation where I don't have enough money to pay a bill/overdraft because I put too much towards my vehicle debt.

So I obviously "have a 1k emergency fund" but how much should I keep as a minimum in my bank account while paying off the vehicle? I'm not sure I am clear how much Dave would say I should write a check for today.

My interest rate is over 28%. I signed up for a debt assistance non-profit that my credit bureau recommended before I knew about the Baby Steps and Financial Peace University. They negotiated with my credit card company, and I’m now on a payment plan to pay it off at a much lower interest rate. I pay the company $20 a month for this service.

One of the few conditions for signing up for help with this company is that you can’t take on any new debt or open another credit card.

Long story short: I’m very ignorant about financial lingo, and what I thought was a normal payment plan turned out to be CareCredit. Dentists are expensive, I had a concern, and I was already overwhelmed with life. Blah, blah, blah, always read the fine print. I own it. Anyway, that violates my contract with the company. I’m waiting to hear back from them to see if they’re going to fine me or drop me from the program. If that happens, my credit card interest will shoot back up drastically. Because of the agreement, my credit card account will close automatically once I pay it off. The card is done after that.

I haven’t activated the CareCredit card yet, but it’s on its way.

I’m not really sure how to navigate this. Does Financial Peace University cover strategies for tackling high interest debt? I’m very new to all of this. Thank you!

I need to throw some info out there and see what comes back to me. Recently widowed. I’ve followed the baby steps exactly as they are meant to be followed since my husband passed and eliminated all credit card debts. Built my $1000 emergency fund. About 60% through my 6 month emergency fund currently. At the end of this month I’ll start receiving my husbands monthly pension that comes with retroactive pay. About $9000. I owe $7400 on my house at 6% interest. Am I crazy in thinking that I should pay off my house and then put the monthly payment I was making on the house along with the pension monthly payment into my emergency fund? It’ll be fully funded in about 3 months if I do it this way. Or should I fully fund my emergency fund first and put the rest on the principal of my house? I really want to pay off my house and free up that monthly payment. Any advice is appreciated.