I'm new here but I have no doubt you folks have discussed this at length in the past. I just read yet another article on the web patting itself on the back for figuring out that Dave's debt snowball doesn't make as much financial sense as paying off your highest interest debt first.


well duh ya brain surgeon!


I simply don't understand why people have so much trouble understanding this concept.

Now I am no Dave Ramsey acolyte, I don't agree with everything he says but I understand why he says it.

If you grasp the effect of credit card interest and comprehend the extra expense you are subject to with the higher rate cards, well then you don't really need Dave's help.

But there are people so lacking in discipline and oblivious to reality that it doesn't matter to them, that extra interest expense isn't "real" because it isn't today. Dave structures things on a behavioral basis rather than a financial one, go after the small balances first because it helps with a sense of motivation and accomplishment and increases your real time available cash. You get recognizable results relatively quickly which is what folks in this situation normally really need. The fact that they would have saved some on interest doing it the mathematically sound way doesn't really matter.

The other problem I see is a misunderstanding of his philosophy as a whole, detractors often cite the snowball as giving people poor practical skills in dealing with debt (mostly because of the disregard for interest rates) but again they miss the point, Dave isn't teaching people how to deal with their debt, he wants it gone, never to return again so recognizing a "good" credit card from a "bad" credit card is a moot point.

Anyway, just got bugged a bit and wanted to babble. Dave and I differ bigtime on many things (I'll never be without my one credit card and I'm still looking for that mythical guaranteed riskless 12% mutual fund he loves so much) but all in all I think he helps a lot of folks and makes a heck of a nice living doing it, you can't get much more win-win than that.

Now if we can just get him and Suze into a celebrity cage match...that would be cool! Someone has to be able to sell that to Fox.