Have any of you done this course? How was it?
do it. follow it. live it.
I did class one (of nine) and was not impressed. There was average advice.
He cuts up credit cards? Why not just learn how to be responsible with credit cards, and do everything to improve your credit and raise your line of credit? He just suggests cutting them up. Does not sound so smart.
Then he says to put all your savings into Roth IRA’s. Do those still pay out as well as they used to? Probably not. There is risk involved with Roth IRA’s…
Right?
The typical person handles credit like an alcoholic handles booze. You need ro follow his teachings. Now just like if you know how to handle your booze it’s ok to drink, if you can handle debt it’s ok to have it. Even Ramsey says that (although he won’t admit to saying it). He says taking out a loan to buy a house is ok. For a guy that says debt is dumb it’s like being a little pregnant.
Bluemoon, can you clarify your response?
Right now my education is self directed. I order books from my public library. The books are about real estate, personal finance, sales, understanding people and body language. Every night I go to the library and read a full book, usually not word for word, and I write down notes and key points from each book. In the process I decide what to incorporate into my to-do list and my goals.
So my time is valuable and Ramseys course is nine weeks long. I need to decide if it is worth for me to spend the time learning his ideas or not. After the first class i was not impressed. It seems really slow and gear towards lazier people then me. Sure he did have a few good points but the course felt sluggish and heavy tones of being an infomercial and self promoting himself as a guru.
Dave Ramsey has a good program but it is designed for everybody. It has to be really basic. It is like kindergarten. We are like college. He teaches you how to get out of the hole. Then you are standing on the ground. We teach how to climb the mountain.
Listen to yourself.
I use to live in the woods. Dave Ramsey never did that.
I can follow that much.
The first thing I noticed about Dave Ramseys story is that he was never frugal at all in the beginning. He had everything the generation before mine had: easy college degrees, he already had a great high paying job, he already had a great house, a wife came easy for him, and kids. Everything, The guy was living the American dream, he was just lazy about finances and he was spending way too much on junk. Dave, and many others from his generation, came from oddly privileged middle class backgrounds. That middle class does not exhists anymore except for people in Daves generation who magically are still living lavish middle class lifestyles, somehow.
I say it is oddly priveledged because they annoy me. There is a difference between actually very wealthy people (old money), and these average working class rich people. I like the ultra affluent and how screwy their behavior can be. Its interesting. Its different with these average Joe’s who were just ordinary workers and were paid phenomenal salaries and benefits that are lasting them through Decades of retirement. It was never normal for ordinary people to retire and golf everyday for the last four decades of their lives, and they never read investment books, because they never had to (their companies handed them everything for just showing up for work).
I am so resentful about it all. Almost everyone in REIA groups are from the generation before mine. My biggest question for each individual person at that group: where did you get the money to get started? They are very haughty and snickery if I ask that kind of question because most of them were given everything on a silver platter by just “working hard” whatever that means to them. They grew up during a time of upward social mobility. Its different today, for people of my status at least.
The second thing I noticed is that I do not like the music at this church. It is christian rock & roll. I might not know much about making money yet, but one thing I can say for sure is that christian rock & roll sounds awful.
OK, I now understand. The reason why Rando, me and Gold River are beating ourselves senseless with RedStar and Ear’s post is that these two people are females.
It’s taken me a while, because they’ve both done their best to disguise their sexes on this forum, but women are the only ones that talk this much, do this little, grouse so often, and blame others to this degree. I mean, wow.
They’re both like my ex girlfriends. I’m not sure they aren’t.
Graduated from FPU in December 2015. At the time I was over $8000 in credit card debt., Now, I am $1440 away from being completely credit card debt free. Still have student loans and a car loan but I am much better off than I was a year ago. I look at money, debt, and credit so much differently now. Loved the class and love listening to Dave on the radio. I never thought I could actually enjoy budgeting let alone paying for things with cash.
Thanks for the report MaggiN. I am in week two right now and keep pushing through. The church people are almost all married people. I have learned that modern day church is a harsh and even strangely abusive climate for single men, and single women too. The ecosystem of the Christianity I am experiencing today is heavily judgmental towards the unmarried, like I am a disease compared to the married population, and that is the only serious complaint that I have found about Dave’s program. Nevertheless, some of the things that Dave Ramsey has taught me thus far have been helpful and I continue attending the sessions.
Just an update
Im still doing FPU at the church with the church people. Our group is a total of 25 people. It is one dozen married couples, and me. Ive heard that at bigger churches they have humungous groups of people, including single folks.
Anyways. Im using these envelopes for tracking my expenses. Im still trying to get a handle on my cash flow budget. Its coming along. When i bring my envelop in for purchasing groceries i get weird looks when i tabulate the purchase and keep track of every penny right then and there. It only takes five seconds to write it down. The people working at the register must not be used to people managing their cash so meticulously with envelopes, and saving receipts. Im liking the envelope system so far.
The program itself is antiquated back in the old days when banks were giving people 12% or more interest on their savings accounts. Today you move the decimal point three spaces to the left (0.012% interest is typical). Big big difference i dont care what you say.
The workbook was first published in the 70’s and for some reason Dave Ramsey is still living in the era when interest rates were at phenomenal rates. The program was never modified for the new economy so theres a lot of “Old Economy Steve” traits going on.
Another thing is Dave suggests just saving $1000 quickly, like everybody still has easy high paying jobs and $1000 is simple to come by. In this day and age that amount is not as easy for most people to save a grand when rents are going sky high and salaries are not rising, and increased competition for jobs worldwide, etc.
Overall i like his program. Im on week four or five. I dislike my church group, being the only one in the class without a wedding ring or a lifelong partner. Its obnoxious.
Look on the bright side. You don’t have a husband to convince that you should not spend this or save that. You are in total control of your success.
Nah its just when I notice something is off balance I speak up about it. Its church people too. Im meeting them slowly its just like this married-peoples cult.
Anyways people in georgia are a whole lot more coy and shy even, compared to NYC we just say it like it is without a filter. People are shy like that in florida too.
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Regardless Im headed into FPU class again today.