Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

[deanna0976]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

Thanks Diolla. I printed that out and I am putting it in my planner!

[puck36]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

Here is the link to the <a href=http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/cms/index.cfm?intContentID=2867>Dave Ramsey Baby Steps </a><p>

[lillyb]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I didn't mean to infer by my post that it's okay to modify DR's (or any other financial guru's) advice to the point where you're justifing buying a big screen tv or luxery vacation, of course. Just that very few things in life are one size fits all and people need to look at advice given and modify it to fit their own lives without destroying the core princeples of that advice, which in this case is to pay down debt as quickly as possible.

Take DR's advice that you stop retirement savings while you pay down your debt. For a person that is one paycheck away from losing their house, I'd agree with this advice 100%. For DH and I, we can pay off our debt in a short amount of time without having to stop saving (and thus giving up my companies generous match), so we just ignore that particular piece of advice. Why turn down free money (and a signifigant amount of free money, at that!) if we don't need to?

If you are being 100% honest with yourself and your situation, there is no reason not to decide for yourself what works best for you, and what you can skip or change. Obviously bad thinking got you into debt to begin with, but if you are truely changing your thinking, I see no danger in tweeking DR's (or whoever) advice.

I agree with that completely.

[simpleselu]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I am working step #2. I had no income for June and July, and DH is a student with work-study, yet we managed the 1K BEF in 2 weeks (w/ help from scholarship leftovers) and have already paid $300 in debt.

[Broken Arrow]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I guess I'm on step 2? The part where I'm trying to pay all my debts off? I realize this may take years, but to be honest, I'm rather impatient and can't wait to get rid of it all NOW!

I don't think being impatient is necessarily bad in this case though. So far, the "ants in my pants" has pushed me quite a bit of ways to pay it down as much as I possibly can.

[greedy4chips]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

To be honest I am on DR's step #2 due to the cc debt to finance my CDs.

I, however, consider myself on step #6 since the CC debt is earning me money and if any thing happens like no more 0% card offers come our way well then each will be paid off before the point they raise the rates.

I can also say step #1 is hardest of all of them, for us at least. If you have lots of debt and bad spending habits, it is hard to get the plan in action to raise the $1k EF. Once our debt snowball method got rolling though we crashed through the debt fast!

We also started our debt recovery before discovering DR. And yes we were sick and tired of being sick and tired!!!!!!!

I feel all of your pain and can say keep it up, it will be worth all the sacrifices!

[JoyJoy]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

[QUOTE=greedy4chips]To be honest I am on DR's step #2 due to the cc debt to finance my CDs.

I, however, consider myself on step #6 since the CC debt is earning me money and if any thing happens like no more 0% card offers come our way well then each will be paid off before the point they raise the rates.


Step 6 is paying off your home early! Wow congrats on your action plan. I haven't used the credit cards to fund my EF but I know many who do. I would think using the credit cards would lower one's FICO score a lot; however, those I know who do it aren't worried about their FICO score and don't even check it. I am thinking about doing it with one of my cards just to test the water. Suze Orman did state to one of her listeners that 0% cards may be difficult to come by soon so I don't blame you taking advantage of them to make money! Also you're in the position to pay the cards off before the rates go up!

Great post and good luck to you!

[greedy4chips]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I have no clue what my FICO score is and honestly do not care that much since we aren't in the market to buy a house...perhaps rental property, but that has been shot down in the last 6 hrs due to clearer picture.

Anyhow where can one find out what their score is? When we bought our house we were at 780 and 788...wife was higher DOH! She was a SAHM at the time for 2 years too, but all bills were in her name.

[JoyJoy]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

If you're not looking to buy a home or car in the near future, then your credit score isn't really important (so I've been told).

I get all 3 of my credit scores at MyFico.com; that's Equifax, Experian and Transunion.

[greedy4chips]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I just looked at my credit report from Transunion by going thru www.annualcreditreport.com

They charge $5.95 to give me the FICO score so I skipped it. I thought maybe there was a way to get it FOC. No luck...yet.

Only blemish on report was a 30 day late in May of 2005 and I am looking in the filing cabinet to see if that was true.

[meaghanchan]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I am on step 2. I was debt-free, with a 5-month emergency fund, when my job ended. I was unemployed for 7 months, and began using my credit card (that I didn't cut up, which I'm sure Dave would chastise me for) to pay for daily expenses such as food and transportation... even though I still had money in my emergency fund. I was just so scared of not being able to pay rent.

But the good news is I just started a new job, and have done my September budget, managing to earmark about $600 a month towards debt repayment. I only have one card, with about $2500 on it, so with some luck I'll be out of debt in about 4 months. And the chunk of change I still have in my emergency fund that I didn't use just because I was scared gets me a good start on step 3. And with no mortgage, no plans to buy a house in the near future, and no kids, I can move right on to step 7

[JoyJoy]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I just looked at my credit report from Transunion by going thru www.annualcreditreport.com

They charge $5.95 to give me the FICO score so I skipped it. I thought maybe there was a way to get it FOC. No luck...yet.

Only blemish on report was a 30 day late in May of 2005 and I am looking in the filing cabinet to see if that was true.

If you find a way to get free FICO scores, let me know!! I was sent this website, http://www.icetab.com for discounts on myFICO, but I don't see the coupons listed again at this time. You may want to keep checking to see if they will offer discounts for scores again.

[JoyJoy]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I am on step 2. I was debt-free, with a 5-month emergency fund, when my job ended. I was unemployed for 7 months, and began using my credit card (that I didn't cut up, which I'm sure Dave would chastise me for) to pay for daily expenses such as food and transportation... even though I still had money in my emergency fund. I was just so scared of not being able to pay rent.

But the good news is I just started a new job, and have done my September budget, managing to earmark about $600 a month towards debt repayment. I only have one card, with about $2500 on it, so with some luck I'll be out of debt in about 4 months. And the chunk of change I still have in my emergency fund that I didn't use just because I was scared gets me a good start on step 3. And with no mortgage, no plans to buy a house in the near future, and no kids, I can move right on to step 7

Well good for you meaghanchan and the very best to you!!!

[vsjhoc]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

If you find a way to get free FICO scores, let me know!! I was sent this website, http://www.icetab.com for discounts on myFICO, but I don't see the coupons listed again at this time. You may want to keep checking to see if they will offer discounts for scores again.

I have never seen authentic, standalone FICO scores for free. The credit bureaus trick you into thinking you're getting a FICO, but usually you're getting their own version of the score. You can get a free estimate of your FICO score at http://www.bankrate.com/brm/fico/calc.asp?lpid=BKRATE29.

[puck36]

Re: Dave's Baby Steps: Which are you on and is it working?

I guess I would have to say I'm on step 5.5 now. Step 5.5 to me is saving for a down payment. I have step 3 & 4 done and don't have any children to do step 5. I'm hoping to have as close to my 20% down payment by the end of next year.