What BS Are You On?

Ms 99to1percent

Blogging about Personal Finance along with a little touch of humor. Immigrant who started from the bottom and now I’m here…to tell my story, inspire and learn from others. Paid off $40K in student loans before graduating. CPA. Saved a $100K emergency fund in my 20’s. Hopping to pay off $500K+ mortgage within 5 years at 39. Hopping to become financially independent at 45. Happily married. Mom of 1.

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36 responses

  1. Cubert says:

    I have to admit I’m not a huge Dave Ramsey fan. Though, I do need to take the time to actually READ HIS BOOKS. I love that he’s all about personal responsibility with debt. And his snowball strategy makes sense, for the most part.
    That said, we’ve amassed huge debt to support our real estate business. Subscribing to the school of “other people’s money” to make it happen. We do plan to pay off our home mortgage, but not the rentals. Some debt is good debt, after all.

  2. That is a very informative article. Well done!

  3. I’m not a fan of DR. I think much of his advice is sub-optimal. The debt snowball method is inefficient. Paying off a mortgage early is not right for everybody. Investing in high cost mutual funds seems like criminal advice to me. I have so much respect for DR due to the number of people that he has helped. His motivational abilities to get people to straighten out their financial lives are impressive. I just hope the people that start out on his path realize that there is a better way sooner rather than later.

  4. That’s good steps, encouraging people to reduce debt, save and improve financial life. Each individual is different. Their levels of risk tolerance vary. As long as people are doing things that are the best to themselves, it might be okay. I guess there is no universal step-by-step approach, you have to tailor it to suit yourselves.

  5. Cory Swain says:

    Nice blog title! Definitely caught my eye.
    Dave has bee great for me and my family, but once we started earning more, out of debt and needing more investment advice he’s not a fit any more.
    Great article outlining his process to get out of debt though!

  6. Dave’s advice works – but it’s perhaps not the best mathematically all the time. Still, he needs to speak to the masses, so it’s tough to really put forth a message to such a broad audience. His advice is simple and actionable.

    For starters I think his $1k emergency fund is too lean. I understand wanting to be uncomfortable as a motivational tool, but the reality is that $1k will not go very far in the event of a job loss.

    Other than that I think his 15% benchmark for retirement savings is insufficient before paying off the mortgage. Aiming for something higher will obviously mean less money to use on paying off your mortgage but I think far too many people are ill-prepared for retirement, and saving 15% is better than 5%, but still doesn’t make me comfortable.

    Happy that, as a childfree couple, we get to skip a step 🙂

  7. I’ve noticed Dave gets a lot of hate, but I actually think a lot of his advice is financially sound and I love his hardcore advice for getting out of debt – cutting expenses drastically, eating out less, etc. I like all the steps here, but I think the 15% savings rate could be even higher for people who are serious about achieving financial independence quickly.

    Great article, thanks for sharing 🙂

  8. Samantha says:

    I don’t subscribe to everything Dave Ramsey says but I am working on steps 2 and 3 with a vengeance. Thanks for the article to keep me focused and motivated in this holiday season where the norm is overspending!!

  9. Go Samantha Go! Rooting for you! Keep us updated and let’s motivate each other to move through the steps as fast as we can!

  10. I think Dave is great at inspiring and helping people get out of debt and find their footing. However, I can’t say I am on the same page with him when it comes to investing. I do listen and respect him for where he is today, I just think a bigger portion of his wealth has come from selling things rather then investing. Great post I am on BS #6 and am paying off the mortgage while still investing more heavily then recommended in this plan.

  11. Kris says:

    I’ve listen to Dave Ramsey’s podcasts a few times and he is very inspirational in getting people out of debt. I am familiar with his baby steps creation and how it’s great guide to be debt free and build your wealth.
    We are on BS6 and may be stuck on there for a while since we haven’t bought a home yet but hopefully once we find one we will plan to pay it off as early as we can. We are also doing half of BS7 where we keep building our wealth. Since our rent is low, we take advantage of it buy saving aggressively and invest in index funds so that wealth will increase gradually.

  12. craig says:

    I listen to Dave Ramsey quite often, admittedly I have not applied but a few of his steps. I hope you do think I am spamming the comments section but this article https://lifeguider.com/how-to-avoid-buying-things-you-do-not-need would definitely apply to step BS0 to stop buying things and stop occurring more additional debt.

  13. Jennifer says:

    Dave Ramsey has a simple program that works. It’s better to have a simple program that helps a lot of people, than a complicated program that helps no one or just a few people. And you are going to get haters wether you are Dave or MrMoneyMustache.

  14. Hey, Jennifer, yes, you are absolutely right. Whether you are DR or MMM or any personal finance blogger. Hey, we have only been blogging for 2 months, and we already have a couple of haters 🙂

  15. 1st, nice job on being on step 6. we’re older than you but had a ball with 15 years of low earning fiscal irresponsibility in adulthood. i was just looking at an old spreadsheet from 2009 that still had student loans and a car loan and mortgage on it. with a little motivation those things are gone and it really is like a snowball, including on the black side of the ledger when savings and investments start to snowball! so, step 7 feels really good and with regards to paying off your house early- we paid ours off about 4 years ago and have slept better ever since. zero debt is very relaxing.

    p.s. thanks for the feedback on the blog. i kinda knew something was wrong with the comments section and some of the other parts that i could not edit. i think i finally got this straight so amateur hour can resume. happy holidays.

  16. I listen to Dave Ramsey from time to time. I think he great at motivating people to get out of debt. I also think his Baby Steps provide a good framework that you can use to take control of your finances. I do think, though, that he can be a bit too rigid in his application of the Baby Steps. I actually have an upcoming post about this.

    We are currently on BS #6, but we’re also tackling BS #7 at the same time. Figured I could pay off the mortgage and build wealth simultaneously.

  17. I really like to listen to Dave Ramsey on YouTube when I need motivation and inspiration. He doesn’t beat about the bush, and tells things we don’t want to, but we need to hear. Great article 🙂

  18. JoeHx says:

    I’m doing both baby step 2 and 4 right now. I’ve done baby step 3. I know Dave says don’t invest until all the debt is gone, but I can’t ignore the opportunity costs of the tax-advantaged accounts (only so much can be done a year, so after I’m done with debt, I can’t suddenly put in more than what I’m allowed per year in those accounts.)

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