Credit Debt Cures
Did any of you take Dave Ramsey Finical Peace University?
Finical Peace University was great, but we haven't been so great about following Dave Ramsey's advice, but what we have followed has helped. Have you taken the class? Did you love it? Are you out of debt? Do you have an emergancy fund?
Public Comments
- I haven't attended the Financial Peace University but I have read the Total Money Makeover book and it has changed our financial lives. We are at a point where getting out of debt is the most important thing right now. All of our credit card debt is paid off. This year we will be able to pay off a Fidelity loan and a car loan, about $18,000. In the next two years after that we will pay off all our student loans. It will be a great feeling to be debt free.
- I have not gone through Financial Peace University, but followed a similar structure. I "snowballed" my debt payments. I first went through Money Management International (www.moneymanagement.org) to get my interest rates lowered down - this did not cost me a penny in fees at all and got my one of my visas down to 6% from 25.7%. Tell them you cannot make a monthly donation (if you cannot afford to, of course). I put everything I had in extra money every month (also scaled down my expenses and stopped eating out) and paid off my $45k in debt in about 24 months. I like the priciples that Dave Ramsey proposes. Another great method is John Cummuta's "Transforming Debt into Wealth" or his "Debt Free and Prosperous Living" course. You can get these on eBay for a fraction of the price. Also, go to eBay and search for "debt software" to get an inexpensive program to map out your payment structure and to know exactly when you will be out of debt. I have no debt, other than my 5% 15 year fixed mortgage and several thousand dollars in the bank for an emergency fund. I also have a HELOC (home equity line of credit) with a zero balance just in case of emergency as well.
- I have not. I have read his book the total money makeover. Cut up and canceled All our credit cards and stopped worshiping the fico score. payed off around $20,000 in credit card debt last yr. This yr we will have $30,000 in car debt payed off and most of our 6 months expenses for an emergency fund. Next yr we hope to have the house payed off and be debt free. I also listen to his radio show every day during the winter months.
- We took FPU. I was gung ho and my spouse was dragging. FPU allowed us to work on our finances weekly for 13 weeks and have someone else facility the discussions so neither of us argued, etc. We haven't fought about finances since FPU. We loved the class and recommend it to everyone! We now discuss the needs/wants as adults and if we get stuck, we pull out the FPU or TMMO book out and see what Dave would advise and let Dave "settle" the disagreement. Takes the "bad guy" off us :-). We are not out of debt, yet but we are making big progress. We have A LOT of debt. When we took the course we knew we were in for a 4 year plan of debt snowball. (We have done stupid with zeros on it.) We are also expecting another child so that is a blessing but slowing us down until we know everything is fine with everyone after the birth. Because of the debt snowball amount we put on the debt, all our emergencies after the first 4 months of starting this program have all been taken out of our monthly budget by using the debt snowball money. Example- my brakes went out on the van, so that month we didn't pay the normal $500 extra on our smallest debt, we paid cash for the brakes.
- I haven't taken FPU, but I have read The Total Money Makeover and have seen him live. Reading his book and following the baby steps has changed our lives. We started the program last January and have paid of $30K of our debt. We still have a good bit to go, but should be debt free by September 2010, and we can't wait. If you follow his advice it will work wonders.
