Thread: Dave Ramsey ended my modding.

Well, my wife has me on this debt elimination thingy with this big famous guy Dave Ramey. This basically means I cant spend any money on anything.. I am going to have to go cheap from here on out regarding mods. .. Damn,,,, Well, I was spending alot of money on stuff that I really did not need anyways. .... I guess I will have to find a new hobby,, or find a good alternative to do this.. Any suggestions?

looks like youre going to have to disassemble everything and do your own porting of the throttle body, blower, lower intake, and heads.

have fun!

sounds like u need 2 make those mods something u DO need then!



"hunny, a speedbump ripped my muffler off................."

i say get a new wife... haha... but for real... if shes a shopper or into jewelry, just add up all her purses, shoes and jewelry and show the difference in her "hobby" prices and urs!

sounds like u need 2 make those mods something u DO need then!

"hunny, a speedbump ripped my muffler off................."

this is so true..lol... Never thought of it like that.... Nah, she does not shop at all, she is very serious about all this,,,, I guess I can work a little OT and use that.. but then again that may be concidered cheating... I mean all the (extra) is supposed to go to all things owed..

tough stiuation it sounds like i havent started the credit card **** yet but soon i will its scary lol.

Well, I dont know how bad the situation is, but you dont need someone to get you out of debt. The solution is so simple and has worked for eons. Its called the snow ball debt reduction.

Step 1: Make a budget for everything you have to pay every month. Food, gas, utilities, everything, I mean EVERY LITTLE THING. That that toal and divide it by the total number of paydays you have in a month. If you and your wife are paid bi-weekly and you get paid on the same days, you get two paydays a month so divide that amount by two and thats what you have to set aside for bill and obligations.

Step 2: Once you have the budget done and know what you have left over, no matter how little an amount it is, pick the smallest bill, or the one you are closest to paying off and take your extra amount and add that to what you are already paying each month on that particular bill.

Step 3: Continue this until that bill is paid off. Once it is, take that amount you were paying to that bill and apply it to what you already paying on the next bill you will have paid off soonest.

Continue this process until you have all the bills/debts paid off. At first it goes kind of slow, but after a couple debts are paid off, it takes off. Snowballs, which is where the name goes. Take a small ball of snow and start rolling it in the snow and it grows bigger and bigger. Same simple principle applied to your bills.

I started this process not quite two years ago and I should be nearly if not completely debt free sometime next year. I do put a little aside each payday, the VERY first thing I do each payday to have a little cushion in case of emergencies. No matter what debt reduction plan you are on if it does not advise you to pay yourself FIRST, I would be reluctant to follow it.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. You dont necessarily have to suffer because you want to be out of debt. In certain worst case situations that may be needed, but its not the case very often.

^see, it does work.

Scooty,,, This is basically what Dave Ramsey preaches,, he uses the term snowball effect also. I really thank you for taking the time and writing such a detailed outline. I have just started and boy is it tuff.. i mean really tuff.... My wife graduates next May from Nursing school, so that should help tremendously with bills and getting out of debt. but for the time being, being that I am the only earner, it is not so easy.. thanks again..

Chris.

Yeah i dont have that problem yet with the whole wife deal yet. Thats just more of a reason to mod my car before it does happen.

Door.

Use it on your way out.



Thats my solution.

Originally Posted by scoobyydooooooo

Scooty,,, This is basically what Dave Ramsey preaches,, he uses the term snowball effect also. I really thank you for taking the time and writing such a detailed outline. I have just started and boy is it tuff.. i mean really tuff.... My wife graduates next May from Nursing school, so that should help tremendously with bills and getting out of debt. but for the time being, being that I am the only earner, it is not so easy.. thanks again..

Chris.

Not a problem. Good luck to ya. Just keep in mind you dont want to be so sacrificial that you leave yourself no room to move in case of something unexpected. I have talked to numerous young couples trying to pass along what I have learned from my own mistakes and I cannot stress it enough that you MUST, HAVE TO pay yourself first. Even if its a louse $5, put it in savings at least every payday and forget about it.

The system does work and it works really well. If you get through the first couple of bills it starts to move really fast, but the first bill or two it will be kinda slow going.

I dont like to talk about personal finances on line with regards to actual numbers, but I will say this; we have nearly, in just one year alone, paid off one of our biggest debts that amounted to nearly a new car. I should have it paid off around Feb/Mar of next year if not sooner. That money that we are using to pay that down will then be turned to the Grand Prix and it should be paid completely two to three months after that.

The system just plain works if you stick to it, dont acquire new debt after paying some off. If I had not had to use my bonus from work this year to buy a vehicle for me an my wife I would have been done with this spring of next year. But, instead of buying a new vehicle we both got used vehicles we could pay cash for. I got a 95 Isuzu Rodeo, she got a 97 Jeep Cherokee. They are solid vehicles for the most part, so we shouldnt have to worry about them any time soon but are far from what we wanted. I wanted my GP back on the road she wanted something newer. But instead of giving into that, we sacrificed a little now to have be in much better position down the road to afford what we want.

The point is, dont go out and finance more debt while you are in this process, you're just shooting yourself in the foot if you do. Once you are debt free there should be little you should ever have to finance again. Just be careful, plan everything you can. Find creative ways to stay around the house and have fun or find events and activities around town that are free or very little cost. Dont be afraid to reward yourself either. When you reach certain milestones, like paying a particular debt off, go out and enjoy yourself. Go out to eat, go buy yourself something (cash of course, no credit cards), etc.

Life doesnt end because you are working to be debt free, it does scale it back considerably but you can still enjoy yourselves. In the end its all worth it. Want a shot of encouragement. Figure up how much you are now paying for things like credit cards, loans, stuff like that. Add all that together and that is how much extra money you'll have left over if you were debt free now. For most, most people in America it usually adds up to a nice sized house payment.

Scooty, i really like getting advice from someone that has been there and is there.. This really helps me prioritize things and really focus my attention.... Like you have said, it is soooooo slooooowww right now, still seems like we are getting nowhere. But we are on a budget and trying to stay on it.. I dont even spend eating out anymore, I am brown bagging it to work. (I am an RN in a little hosp just up the road).

I appreciate how you are putting some of your personal stuff out there like that to give me a little insight. I Have been bitten by the debt bug in the past and have done ignorant things,,, I bought a Brand new Honda VTX 1800 (financed). A good 10G in credit cards. and my GTP is still not paid off. But for some reason until now, I thought it was a normal and expected thing to do as an American. I was raised that everyone had debt and there was no escape.

I am 33 and my wife is 22, I am happy that I did not wait till I was in my 50's to open my eyes. THere are Nurses at work who are 60 years old and have to work overtime every week just to make it.... I DO NOT want to be in that situation. I find it very hard to "pay Myself" first as you have mentioned. I know that I have to do this, but at times it seems that there are just to many bills to do so, and that everything I have goes to that.. RIght now my wife does not work, she is a full time student, she graduates early next year. That will double our household income.. I am sure with the new insight, that this will ensure our future...

If it had been just a year ago, and she graduated, I am sure that I would have just bought a new bigger house, better car (G8) and just spent it without regard to our future...

Morris,, I am going to try this as well, I am going to set an allowance just enough for gas and maybe protein shake after working out in the morn. Darn, why cant we just be born rich.... lol....

Again, Scooty I really appriciate you keeping my head on and eye on the ball... Tell me what you think of my personal situation... Is it workable, dooable? just seems like at times it is not... thanks...

Christopher

This darn hurricane did not help things...

I think, from what I have read, you definitely have a great chance at getting all this taken care of. It will just take a little discipline and mental retraining to get out of that thought process that debt is a normal part of life and the American way. It may seem that way and many will cry out about credit ratings and all that, but I personally do not see debt as a normal part of life. Careful budgeting, fiscal responsibility and planning will do everything that debt will and cost less and not be a burden should there be an upset in the finances such as the changing of a job or as you mentioned, a hurricane.

This is a prime example of why you MUST pay yourself first, however much it is, pay yourself FIRST. That way when things happen that are unexpected or take longer to get through, you have a cash reserve that will help keep you from diverting from your debt elimination plan. The more debt to income ratio you have the harder it is to get through this but the sooner you start the better off you will be.

I too am glad you did not wait until your 50's to take this on. I think my original debt reduction plan had me out of debt around 2010 maybe 2011, I'll have to dig that one up again to be sure. But once we got started, a few months afterward, they re-evaluated my job and compared it to market standards and realize I was severely underpaid and so I got THE biggest raise since I started working anywhere. Nearly all of it has gone to our debt reduction and so has accelerated somewhat the process.

Once you find a workable budget that is solely focused on debt reduction, be disciplined enough to put any extra money you make into this process. It will just make it accelerate that much faster. When your wife starts to work, factor any of her student loans into this process and get them taken care of. If you can make it now without her income then you should be able to do so when she does start working, keep that in mind. So when she starts working, the majority of her income should also go to clearing debt and to putting money aside (paying yourself first) for savings and such.

Many people make the mistake of getting a bonus, raise or otherwise more income and do not adjust their plan to take into account that extra income and they blow it or waste or otherwise misuse it and start that path back down where they came from instead of using it to further their debt elimination.

Im not saying starve yourselves or sit at home and twiddle your thumbs all the time, I am saying take every penny you can comfortably do without and put it towards the plan. By all means treat yourself once in a while. When you clear a debt, go have a dinner out and celebrate or something like that. My wife and I call them freedom dates. Everyone we get to go on we know we are that much closer to being free.

Again, you are welcome to PM me or email me if you have any questions and such that you would rather not discuss on the forums.

Originally Posted by Morris 04 GTP

I have the easiest budget out there. my paycheck gets direct deposited into our account on thursday. My wife gives me an "allowance" of $50 a week. I have to spread it out on my gas for the week and whatever is left is spending money. luckily I only have a 16 mile round trip for a commute everyday. She takes care of all the bills and anything money related. Makes my life that much easier. all I have to worry about is figuring out how to make more money. This is probably why my car is completely stock. If the money had to go through my hands to get to her i'd be skimming off the top to do whatever I wanted with my car. This being my daily driver and my number one transporter of the wife and kids, I don't mind being stock. Just having the supercharger adding that little bit of excitement in my commute is fine for now. Thats why i'm working on getting a bike for my fun.

how the hell do u live off $50 bucks a week on spending cash...
Crazy!