r/DaveRamsey

Recently heard this on the news. Heard the same thing 3 years prior ($1k more then…), that we are spending $650+ more a month compared to 3 years ago.

We are maybe spending a couple hundred more a month compared to 3 years ago but no where close to $650+. We’ve just become smarter shoppers and have been cooking more at home.

The biggest cost increase I’ve observed over the past 3 years is with home and auto insurance. About to start shopping around.

I wonder how much of these supposed increases come from families spending more on car payments and other splurge related items.

Dave has often cited that one of the largest demographics of self made millionaires are teachers, which financially is pretty similar to my position (pay, benefits, retirement).

I'm a government employee.

My salary is dictated by the state budget, so I know for a fact that I won't be getting even a COL adjustment for at least 2 years (until the next budget is passed).

There is zero over time.

There are zero bonuses.

There are zero performance incentives.

There is zero negotiating salary.

All positions at other locations have same salary (since dictated by the state), so moving to a "competitor" isn't an option.

There is nearly no room for promotion (my organization has 4 steps, top 2 are just 1 guy each. Only realistic promotion is to a supervisor which people typically hit after 15+ years on the job. Some of my peers have been working for 25+ years and are at the same station / pay grade that I am).

I keep a VERY tight budget, I've been a 'rice and beans' guy my whole life, I drive a decade old Honda - etc etc. My only real expense and debt is my mortgage, which I assume Dave would say "you can't keep the house". But if I can't make more money in my job, and I can't really cut any expenses - where is my out? How do I get ahead?

Right now the only thing I'm considering is getting a 2nd job part time, but those are typically only paying $12-14 an hour and won't move the needle much in exchange for never seeing my family.

Here's my scenario and thoughts. Not sure if this has been covered by Dave before. I've been going through old videos but haven't seen this yet.

I live in a HCOL area but dont make a HCOL salary. Have a large down payment sitting in a money market account getting 3.5%. I contribute 15% to retirement and have no debt. Biggest issue is that after retirement contributions, child support, and bills I have a margin that isnt enough to pay the monthly cost of owning a home in this area (which I can't move away from). I will also likely inherit a small condo so I don't actually need to buy a big house here,

I want to invest in real estate but basically cant afford it here. Here's the options that I've found:

1. Invest in a turn-key property somewhere in the south, like georgia or the carolinas. There are several management companies that I can buy though fully in cash, and they'd fill and manage. Low cash flow due to fees, but it would be debt free if i pay in full upfront.

2. Invest in a real estate portfolio firm. They find, buy, and manage properties for 5-8 years before turnover. They use the contributions of the portfolio holders as the fundraisers for these properties. Then the portfolio holders get a % of the gathered monthly rent as well as part of the sale proceeds when the property is flipped. Rinse and repeat.

3. Just skip the physical real estate and invest all this money into REITs and other real estate ETFs to get the monthly dividends instead of rent.

Side note - I already have my work retirement funds going into growth focused etfs. This saved cash has already been ear marked in my mind specifically for real estate so I can diversify.

Hola!

So I've been going out with my gf for 1.5 yrs now. We are brown living in Canada.

We both work in tech and earn 80k, with potential of going up to 100-120 k in the next few years. The problem is that her parents are continously ask her for more and more money.

About them: they are retired living in southeast Asia and aren't that well off. That's not a problem in itself but they are naively nice and regularly give their money to people in need, and have been scammed up to 120,000 CAD with 2 ppl just last year alone.

Currently she gives them 1200 (brought down from 1500) for rent and some grocery, pocket money for her mom and roughly 200CAD for her sick aunt.

Now im personally fine with this but the problem is they keep asking her for more and more money, either for investing (yet another friend who could scam them potentially). They do not realize that she has to build her own life incl masters, house, car etc, and see her as an ATM machine. On top of that they refuse to openly talk about finances, something very common in my family.

The situation is likely not gonna change her soon despite me telling her to set boundaries etc. Question is, is this too much liability I shouldn't get in to with my life patner? Im afraid this could weigh us down, especially since I would have to take care of my parents too at one point. I. Fine with both of us contributing 1200-1500 CAd to our parents each (whoch already significantly is a big hit for buying our first home etc), but in an emergency or them always demanding kore im afraid it'll financially choke us.

Any advice?

So I'm 57 and my wife is 50. I'm a nurse and she is a crossing guard at a local school. Combined income of about 115k. I've got a roth IRA with 61k and a 403 b with 11.5kand contributing about 6k to 403 b yearly w artial match by hospital. . Retirement at 67 seems unlikely. We have a home worth 410k and owe 138k at 3.5%. in year 5 of mortgage. No CC debt. Owe 25k on a used minivan for wife n kids. 5 yr​ car loan ​at 6.48% I drive the same car I've had since 2011.

Any thoughts?

I’m 43f, my husband is 54m. I need some advice on how to wake him up! Neither one of us have been able to start saving for retirement. I had an account and needed to use it to fund an expensive divorce a few years ago. He had a 401k and him and his ex-wife used it for new cars and a Harley. Now that we’re married I’m bitter he has nothing. I at least have 300+k in home equity and make $85k/yr. He brought nothing but a low salary to the marriage, 36k. I’m panicking regularly. This burden is too heavy. There are 5 kids between us and I feel bitter about having so many dependents, even tho his are grown. Yes I knew this going in so please don’t rub my nose in it). I need advice on how to navigate this. How do I get him to see he needs to take a higher paying job even if it isn’t his passion? His current job offers no 401k at all. When I ask him about retirement, his response is “ he never plans to retire”. Which is absolutely ridiculous. Given the age difference, I feel I’m his retirement plan. I’m so aggravated. Anyone have experience getting their spouse to wake up?!?! Without completely ruining his ego. Thank you.

My wife and I (35M/34F) have been following Ramsey principles since 2019. Paid off over $200k in student load debt, saw our HH income grow from $150k to $350k and now today became NW millionaires with $800k of that being broad market mutual fund investments. As an immigrant to this country who grew up relatively poor, this is a huge milestone. Every sacrifice was worth it. Now to pay off the mortgage!

So I’ll keep this as short as possible while still providing the details needed(let me know if I missed any) I’m a couple years out of college(25M) and my first car that I got when I was 16 is about to die. I have been making good money since. About 145k total comp now and very grateful for it(Engineering).

I have been very frugal my whole life and never really bought myself anything over a couple hundred bucks. My total monthly expenses are a little under $2500 right now (LCOL city in Midwest with roomates)

My dad taught me all about investing from a young age so I have about 100k in retirement accounts and another 100k in savings/brokerage accounts.

I want to spend around 40k on a car I love but not sure if this is a good idea(obviously I know financially it’s not) but I feel like I have the money for it and would keep it for 10+ years. It would be a Kia stinger which have good reliability and much lower maintenance/repair costs compared to a German car.

Obviously I don’t need the car and the saved money would grow over time if I got a cheaper car. I’m just not great about ever enjoying the money I do have as I was raised never to spend money.

Would appreciate any/everyone’s opinion here. Thanks!

P.S. I thought about getting the same car 6 months ago, then backed out, and here I am again wanting to buy it

Edit: I appreciate all the replies. Aside from most people being confused why I would spend 40k for a Kia which is besides the point lol. If anyone cares it is the top end trim in a limited color/interior package.
Something like this: https://www.carfax.com/vehicle/KNAE55LCXP6125778?no_ul=1

Family of 3 and in grad school, currently on BS3. We don't have a ton of money and expecting another child. With a budget of $10K I was really hoping to get a used minivan but these prices are outrageous.

My dad has a '96 Toyota Previa that's been sitting in his driveway for the past 8 years. It will definitely need some cleaning and probably repairs, but has less than 130K miles on it.

Does it make sense to spend my budget getting and repairing the Previa? Or should I just keep looking for a cheap minivan? Thanks!

Will keep this short and concise.

I’m 26. I have over 45k in investments, I’m also a homeowner. I budget well, overall very frugal, have an e-fund. That sort of thing.

I have a 2024 Tacoma. I owe $21,100 on it. Carvana just offered me $34,800 for it. 5.24% APR, payment is $460/month and insurance is $50/month full coverage (dirt cheap, I have good history and LEO which gives me discount).

My thought is- I take that $13k and some change pay off and buy a 10k used Honda Accord. Throw that $3k into my Roth.

Is there ANY reason I shouldn’t do this? It gets me excited thinking about it. I could be down to just a montage. I see this as an opportunity.

Additional info that I talked about on the PF sub: I have a work-issued vehicle (cop) that I commute in. I never have to use my personal vehicle for work, ever. My personal vehicle sits in my garage until I’m off duty and it gets used for those purposes.

I will make around 85k this year. LCOL. I don’t feel strapped for cash necessarily but I’m definitely not wealthy. I’m doing fine for my age.

Please help!

So I'm 57 and my wife is 50. I'm a nurse and she is a crossing guard at a local school. Combined income of about 115k. I've got a roth IRA with 61k and a 403 b with 11.5k.im contributing about 6k to 403 b. Retirement at 67 seems unlikely. We have a home worth 410k and owe 138k at 3.5%. in year 5 of mortgage. No CC debt. Owe 25k on new 5 year car lone at 6.48%.

Any thoughts?

Bought a car last summer and I still owe about $18,000. Interest is 4.99%. $518/month for 48 months with 40 months left on the loan. I have been paying an extra $400 instead principle for a few months but stopped recently. I hate paying it every month to know I can save an extra $518. Also planning on buying a house this year or by next year. I have less than $100grand saved up. I make about $6k a month. Should I dip in that savings to pay off the car or at least a small portion of it even though the potential plan on owning a home?

If you have a business you could reasonably sell for a million dollars, does that make you a net worth millionaire?

Do you subtract debts?

Is it subjective?

https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritair/comments/1t1syme/credits/

For those not aware, Spirit Airlines ceased all operations 9.5 hours ago. Anyone holding rewards with them is (as far as we redditors are concerned, anyway) unlikely to ever see anything from it in bankruptcy court.

I got introduced to Ramsey about 3 years ago, and I think his methods for the most part really help the average person get a grasp on things. I have been able to slowly get my wife to follow along with some things like combining finances and building up to an emergency fund. While we are technically on Baby Step 2, we are building out our emergency fund first as we are able to comfortably afford our bills every month. I fully understand the purpose behind the order at which the baby steps are in. Limit the amount of debt you pay because that money can make you interest instead. But I don't necessarily agree with Dave that you're doing it wrong if you do them in reverse.

My wife (28F) and I (28M) only have car loans (~65k) I paid off the remaining $16k of student loans last year (finally!). We have a 2 year old and another on the way we just found out about last week, they will be here Nov/Dec. We save about $1,600 a month not including what we put away in our 401k each paycheck and will have a full 6 month emergency fund by the time baby #2 is here ~$50k. When #2 gets here we will be having to drastically reduce savings to less than $300 a month for a while as we will have 2 kids in daycare. If I will still be able to save, albeit very little, while 2 kids are in daycare, is it not the right thing to do to save up my 6 month emergency fund first before dumping extra money into loans?

Or

Would you pay off the loans as fast as possible and try to build back some sort of savings after?

Edit: Adding income and monthly costs.

Gross Income combined is about $175k

$2,500/month mortgage

$900/month groceries

$750/month 1/2 day daycare

$400/utilities and Internet

$650/month gas

$1050/month 2 cars

Hello all, I accepted a position in Grand Prairie Texas.
I have a situation I bought my new house 3 years ago for $259,000. The House is now worth about $270,000 - $280,000. I owe $249,000.

My real question is should I sell my house or keep it and rent it as a real estate asset?

I have been filling the baby steps and eliminated cc debts, next are my auto and student loan debts. New position would pay a salary of $125,000. Wife makes about $45,000

As a follow-up to my last post where I got approved for a mortgage without a credit score, I am now on vacation and rented a car without a credit card. It's a cope to think you need a credit score. Next argument please

I can sell my Delta sky miles for 1,200.00$ and throw them into my debt snowball. It’s a pretty raw deal when you look at what they are worth when buying flights, but I’m not gonna be going on vacation anytime soon.

I’m 99% sure Ramsey would say yes, just wanted to double check here.

I wouldn’t be surprised when I cancel the card that they will take the miles anyway. Currently the card is cut up with no balance and not on my Apple Pay but I haven’t canceled it.

Mid 40’s married couple.

We have over $800k in 401k or similar accounts.

$80k in savings

Annual income is $200k

Rental home has a balance of $55k at 3.5%

Primary home has a balance of $260k at 2.75%

Both loans are year 6 of a 15 year mortgage.

No debts besides the houses.

Question for the group: Do we pay off the rental today and or make extra payments to pay it off in a year so we don’t lose our savings?

After the rental is paid off we put that money towards the primary home

Should probably add that I have a great pension on top of the investments as well. But I don’t figure that in usually.

I attended West Virginia University where my state tuition did keep it from being even worse, however $23k still stuck with me long after graduation. I remember saying that I would worry about it later and later became more and more delayed and nothing came close to a move, problems with my car and just a bad month of income at work. Had to lock in around two years ago.

I quit thinking that the minimum payment was enough and started using everything I could afford beyond that. Sometimes I put in an additional $200 and sometimes $600, kinda depended on the situation. I have some savings from roulette on sidepot us so this wasn’t a move made out of desperation but I also knew that this balance wasn’t vanishing anywhere. I took on extra projects outside my job and directed most of those earnings directly toward the amount. Today I paid off the loan completely, like jesus cant even believe I'm saying that. The final figure was $284.I spent a couple of minutes refreshing the account page repeatedly until the balance reached zero lol because I had to witness it with my eyes. Now on to bigger things but thanks guys for also helping out indirectly :)