Been watching a lot of Dave Ramsey clips on YT the past couple months. With my current job and a lot more fiscal discipline I could retire pretty comfortably at 60, possibly much earlier. My main goal right now no matter what else happens is to get my mortgage paid off.
Just a heads up; Ramsey is a joke in the financial world. He pushes an agenda and gets paid. It’s not smart planning.
That's fair. I was aiming to pay my mortgage off before I started listening to his stuff anyways. I get that he is selling his app and books and shit, but I have enjoyed hearing the stories and I do think at a broad level his program is relatively sound and matches what folks in the stonks threads have been saying for years. Spend less. Save more. Pay off high interest debt first. Then lower debt. Then fun IRA 401k. Then house. Etc.
Yes, spend less, save more. Just be careful of the rest he talks about. He - and the advisors that follow him like a cult - make their money on AUM (assets under management). The more a person does nothing but that, the more those advisors make. And trust me, it is a cult with them.
I don't mind if people hate on him. Doesn't really matter to me either way. I was looking into FIRE a few years ago, and started to at least get some education on things. I don't have any CCs, learned I am not responsible enough for those when I was in college. Got in way over my head. Got all of that paid off 20 years ago. I own my car. I haven't been living paycheck to paycheck for a long ass time, but I do still have a few bad habits to fix that would allow me to save a lot more.
I didn't know much about ramsey until tucker interviewed him. I'd heard the show once or twice and it was all about getting out of debt and I was cool with that message. But he said some truly stupid shit during the tucker interview. I don't remember all of it, but I do remember he says anyone should be able to buy a house in their 20's with no credit score without taking out a loan. Why? Because he did it. I mean, like he didn't do it in his 20's, he did it after bankruptcy and after he became a success, but dammit anyone should be able to do it too somehow.
I work for the credit card department of a large bank, and I would say it's almost 60/40 with Revolvers and Transactors respectively for the calls that I handle at least. It does surprise me, personally, that people are able to pay $10k statement balances every month, but I'm practically poor lol. For every person paying that couple of grand, there are people who are barely paying their minimum.
I never pay attention to these guys. Credit cards give cash back and other rewards. Free money is free money. Well, free to me paid for by the people who make minimum payments every month.
From work, I had a personal AMEX that I used for work stuff that I paid off 100% (no choice with AMEX) and got in the habit of that. When COVID hit and shut down, no one would take cash any more. Me & the wife were almost 100% CC by then so it then became 100% total. I bet I don't have $10 in cash in my wallet. Haven't used cash in forever. We have 2, one that gives cash back on shows & restaurants & one that is Amazon which gives 5% on purchases from there and I think 2% on gas. That's it and they are paid off 100% every month. This month due to my hospital stay in August and Xmas , they are about 10K but still paid off 100%. Don't know who this Ramsey person is but sounds like he's full of shit.
