Dave Ramsey...

[momofthree]

Did a little Google searching, seems he filed in 1986. Don't know that Pacer goes back that far, so I think its probably not worth the $ to try to find it. Oh well!

I accidentally did a search of my attorney without checking the "open cases" box, and had $10 worth of pages come up that went all the way back to 1983, so yes, Pacer does go back that far!

[KAKRN97]

If I were to get a second job in my line of work or worked overtime at my current job..I'd be likely to make a mistake and possibly seriously harm someone and then lose my license to practice nursing and goodness knows WHAT else? I already work 40+ hours a week. I need a day or two off to decompress after the stress of being an RN in a small community hospital ICU where you do EVERYTHING yourself!! And I mean EVERYTHING! I even have to clean the floors in the middle of the night because the housekeeper leaves at 10pm!

[frogger]

I listened to him for a few minutes last week. Had a caller that was 100K + in cc debt plus other debt, and good ole' Dave explained to him how he should do this, that, and the other to pay it off instead of filing for bk and getting a fresh start.

What Dave advised was complete and total b.s. for this guys situation.

Makes me wonder how much BOA, Chase, and Cap1 are paying him each month........

[feelingnutsy]

Hey---Frogger---I like the thoughts of DR's working on commission---LOL.

[hofsky123]

Daves advice is good but flawed, I like how he tells people with 60k incomes to just live on half and the 30 k debt will be gone in a year, sure, considering after deductions for savings plan, retirement, medical, dental, charitable "voluntary" donations, etc, etc, 30k is all that is left!

[Amadan]

I recently read his book at the advice of my lawyer. I did find lots of good stuff there, but it was mostly common sense. I have always believed in keeping an emergency fund of $1000. This was taught to me by my grandfather. The envelope budget system seems to be working great for us so far. We have gone from panicked "deer in the headlights" to being able to sleep nights again. Since my wife and I both get paid every two weeks, we get a paycheck deposited every friday. Right now we are dealing strictly with cash only, but once we get the routine I hope to start just using the debit card again. EVERYTHING gets tracked in MS Money software. We have a budget lined out for the next five years - thru the end of the BK13. I tried to even account for variable expenses and increases in cost.
Anyways, the rest of the book was pure BS in my opinion. The debt snowball wouldnt have a chance in hell of working for our situation. Or the current situation of most of middle class America. We also have no toys or luxuries. I drink cheap coffee I make at home and I cut my own and my kids hair.

Like most of you, the creditors left us no choice. After 15+ years with most of the cards, never missing a payment, they decided to raise our rates and minumum payments to the max allowed. That combined with my wife having to take a huge reduction on salary just to keep her job left us with no other option. With the current economy I feel no shame in the decision we were forced to make.

I think that if Dave Ramsey wants to stay topical and keep HIS job, he needs to get a grip. His solution may have worked at one time for the upper middle class. I dont know, maybe it still does for some. But for the bulk of the middle class its antiquated advice from simplier times.

But thats just my 2 cents. YMMV.

[feelingnutsy]

Hey---Amadan---I couldn't agree with you more about that last part.
It's a whole new ballgame now---not like in the 90's when he filed BK.