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Anyone a fan of Financial Peace with Dave Ramsey?

debt snowball software

i'm following Dave Ramsey's baby steps now, and I am looking for a good debt snowball software (free) for my MacBook Pro (version 10.5.8). Anyone know of one that is decent??
 
I am a recent graduate of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and I have to say it has been quite a life changing experience. After years of being unhappy with my finances and feeling I was wasting time in my life with the bills piling up and my retirement fund going nowhere, I finally had a moment where I had enough and knew I had to make a change.

This change has been amazing. In my opinion I was not in terrible financial shape, but knew it had to change. With our mortgage, student loans, cars and credit card bills, my fiancé and I were around $200,000 in debt at 27 years old. Now that we have adjusted our lifestyle and got our mind right this last February, we have knocked out around 30,000 in debt from selling a car, tax returns, and moving all the money from our savings except our Baby Step 1, $1000 emergency fund.

The best news is that due to eliminating that debt, selling things, and sticking to our spending plan, our debt free date except the mortgage is June of 2014!! This will free up $2000 a month of our money to start sending to a 3-6 months of expenses for an emergency fund, retirement fund, and paying off the home early!

It is crazy how just a few months can improve someones happiness in life so much. Now we are just counting down the days until we can be debt free!! I encourage all of you even if you have a small amount of debt to go through his program. It will give you, and has given us the peace of mind in knowing that if we follow these steps, can retire when we want, on our terms, and how we want to. That is truly financial peace.
 
The overall ideas he teaches are good, but he goes too far on a few, such as:

People who take out student loans are morons.
No dave, not everyone wants to spend their college years getting 4 hours of sleep a night because they have to work 40 hours on top of their school and homework in order to "cashflow" college. Not everyone wants to live like a homeless person for the best years of their lives.

There's a biblical answer for [insert financial question here].
No dave, there isn't. The bible will tell you "treat others the way you want to be treated" and a few other things that some basic empathy and rational thought would also tell you. But when you try to relate a car loan to a bible verse, you sound to devout christians like a great guy (which is why he does it), and to the rest of us like an idiot or a panderer. We want your financial advice. If we want to hear your preaching, we'll go to your church.

Credit scores are not important and getting credit to raise your credit score is stupid.
He actually goes so far as to say that you can lease an apartment or get a mortgage with no credit score, by showing them paystubs, employment history, and bill payment history. You know, because apartment managers and loan officers are fine with spending hours on your paperwork, and going out on a limb for you based on data they aren't used to working with.
And the whole not getting credit to raise your credit score thing– he asks "why would you go into debt in order to raise your credit score so that you can go into more debt?" Well dave, if you do it right, you don't go into debt. I've got an awesome credit score that allowed me to buy a house at a very low rate because I opened a few credit card accounts year ago, and use them for everything, paying them off in full every couple of weeks.
 
chaos86 said:
The overall ideas he teaches are good, but he goes too far on a few, such as:

People who take out student loans are morons.
No dave, not everyone wants to spend their college years getting 4 hours of sleep a night because they have to work 40 hours on top of their school and homework in order to "cashflow" college. Not everyone wants to live like a homeless person for the best years of their lives.

There's a biblical answer for [insert financial question here].
No dave, there isn't. The bible will tell you "treat others the way you want to be treated" and a few other things that some basic empathy and rational thought would also tell you. But when you try to relate a car loan to a bible verse, you sound to devout christians like a great guy (which is why he does it), and to the rest of us like an idiot or a panderer. We want your financial advice. If we want to hear your preaching, we'll go to your church.

Credit scores are not important and getting credit to raise your credit score is stupid.
He actually goes so far as to say that you can lease an apartment or get a mortgage with no credit score, by showing them paystubs, employment history, and bill payment history. You know, because apartment managers and loan officers are fine with spending hours on your paperwork, and going out on a limb for you based on data they aren't used to working with.
And the whole not getting credit to raise your credit score thing– he asks "why would you go into debt in order to raise your credit score so that you can go into more debt?" Well dave, if you do it right, you don't go into debt. I've got an awesome credit score that allowed me to buy a house at a very low rate because I opened a few credit card accounts year ago, and use them for everything, paying them off in full every couple of weeks.
Click to expand...

I 100% agree. My parents had set up a college fund for me since I was a kid. Unfortunately that didn't cover the ever-increasing tuition costs. I could have worked more hours at work, went out with friends less, and studied instead of sleeping. But that is not real life. 🙄 It just doesn't happen that way.

I borrowed the CD set from a friend and listened to every one of those CD's. A lot of it is common sense (emergency fund, car loans/financing, saving and living beneath your means...etc.).

Also the Bible incorporation was unnecessary. I am a religious person, but the constant insertion of random verses was actually annoying.

What I really hated was what he said about credit scores. 😡 Ridiculous. You can't do anything with a bad credit score. I don't care if you have thousands of dollars in a brief case with you. If you go to rent an apartment and have a bad credit score you will not be accepted as a resident (at least in my area). Having a credit card does not equate to having debt. If you do not manage your finances correctly, even if all you carry is cash and a debit card, you can still screw yourself up.
 
Nabooly said:
I 100% agree. My parents had set up a college fund for me since I was a kid. Unfortunately that didn't cover the ever-increasing tuition costs. I could have worked more hours at work, went out with friends less, and studied instead of sleeping. But that is not real life. 🙄 It just doesn't happen that way.

I borrowed the CD set from a friend and listened to every one of those CD's. A lot of it is common sense (emergency fund, car loans/financing, saving and living beneath your means...etc.).

Also the Bible incorporation was unnecessary. I am a religious person, but the constant insertion of random verses was actually annoying.

What I really hated was what he said about credit scores. 😡 Ridiculous. You can't do anything with a bad credit score. I don't care if you have thousands of dollars in a brief case with you. If you go to rent an apartment and have a bad credit score you will not be accepted as a resident (at least in my area). Having a credit card does not equate to having debt. If you do not manage your finances correctly, even if all you carry is cash and a debit card, you can still screw yourself up.
Click to expand...

He doesn't say have a bad credit score......he says to have no credit score. I've never seen a place that will deny you based on having no credit. They generally require a higher deposit and/or references from a previous landlord. But it is not a deal breaker in any situation I have ever encountered.
 
Well its been a good 5 months since the course ended, surprisingly I remember everything he said. That's probably the most memorable class I've been in. All his teachings might not be spot on, but the way he delivers really makes it stick in your mind.

As for the "unnecessary" bible verses, that's just his way of spreading Christianity. The bible says to spread it however you can, so that's why he does that. If its annoying just don't listen to that part! 😛
 
ugahairydawgs said:
He doesn't say have a bad credit score......he says to have no credit score. I've never seen a place that will deny you based on having no credit. They generally require a higher deposit and/or references from a previous landlord. But it is not a deal breaker in any situation I have ever encountered.
Click to expand...

In today's age no credit school cam hurt you getting a job. Cost you higher insurance rates and so I.
 
MegamanX said:
In today's age no credit school cam hurt you getting a job. Cost you higher insurance rates and so I.
Click to expand...

Where are you applying for jobs and insurance where this comes up? Any hiring manager that doesn't hire a qualified candidate based solely on a credit score without asking why is just doing his/her job poorly.

I don't agree with Dave Ramsey on everything, but on this he is 100% right IMO. The world tells us that we need credit in order to function. We have to have it or the pleasures of life will pass us by, like our FICO score is somehow the gateway to happiness. It's all just BS.

Could you lose out on a job because your refuse to have credit and thus have a zero FICO score? I suppose it is possible, but would you really want to work somewhere that is that shortsighted? That they are so robotic that a number on a page is their determining factor in the hiring process?
 
ugahairydawgs said:
Could you lose out on a job because your refuse to have credit and thus have a zero FICO score? I suppose it is possible, but would you really want to work somewhere that is that shortsighted? That they are so robotic that a number on a page is their determining factor in the hiring process?
Click to expand...

It depends.

For some jobs (e.g. in Finance), you want to see credit history to see if people are responsible with their personal money, and if there are potential problems that would lead to unethical behavior down the road.

For public companies, doing that kind of "due diligence" when hiring employees might have nothing to do with shortsightedness or being robotic, but all about minimizing risk and minimizing exposure to later law suits and such.

-t
 
I like Dave Ramsey and agree with some of his principles which are common sense so really not his:

Be debt free
Don't use credit
Have certain types of insurance
Don't lend money
Etc...

That said. He is too rude, opinionated and redundant. I use to listen to his podcast everyday on my commute but it's nothing new:

Caller 1: I have a car and...
Dave interrupts: sell it, get a beater.

Caller 2: My brother said...
Dave: he's a doofus..

Being debt free is the way though.
 
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