Live poor in your 20's and 30's, you wont regret it. Drive a piece of crap car, save as much money as you can, work hard and eliminate all bad debt. It's not hard, just have to set goals and expectations then go for it.
Dave Ramsey-Financial Peace University
- Thread starter HardcoreClone
- Start date
Is it bad that this thread is making me glad I’m not married?
I can honestly say that I could have retired at 35 if I stayed single forever. Wouldn't give away my kids now though.
Regarding the OP, it sounds like you don't really need budgeting advice, but just investment advice. If you need investment advice, below are a couple of options.
1. Find a financial advisor to help you with your investment and retirement accounts. This may be the most costly option, but you at least have a face to talk to if that brings you comfort when trusting your money with someone else.
2. There are investment companies called robo-advisors. These are firms where you deposit money into an account, and they use computerized algorithms in order to rebalance your portfolio. They would also find the investments for you and make sure that its a diversified portfolio. I deposited $500 into an account at a company called Wealthfront that does this and profited $71 in less than a year. There is another company called Betterment that performs the same service. The idea with robo-advisors is that they will replace a traditional financial advisor or broker.
3. You can pick up some books, read bogleheads, or something else and learn how to invest your own money. I take this approach myself, but I also have a degree in Finance. My investing strategy for my retirement accounts is to buy dividend-paying stocks. I use this website as a guide (https://www.suredividend.com/8-rules-dividend-investing/) when helping make my investments. There is a list of stocks called dividend aristocrats in which I am trying to build my portfolio from. I currently have a balanced portfolio of at least one stock from each category and have a portfolio yield at around 2.6%.
1. Find a financial advisor to help you with your investment and retirement accounts. This may be the most costly option, but you at least have a face to talk to if that brings you comfort when trusting your money with someone else.
2. There are investment companies called robo-advisors. These are firms where you deposit money into an account, and they use computerized algorithms in order to rebalance your portfolio. They would also find the investments for you and make sure that its a diversified portfolio. I deposited $500 into an account at a company called Wealthfront that does this and profited $71 in less than a year. There is another company called Betterment that performs the same service. The idea with robo-advisors is that they will replace a traditional financial advisor or broker.
3. You can pick up some books, read bogleheads, or something else and learn how to invest your own money. I take this approach myself, but I also have a degree in Finance. My investing strategy for my retirement accounts is to buy dividend-paying stocks. I use this website as a guide (https://www.suredividend.com/8-rules-dividend-investing/) when helping make my investments. There is a list of stocks called dividend aristocrats in which I am trying to build my portfolio from. I currently have a balanced portfolio of at least one stock from each category and have a portfolio yield at around 2.6%.
They say everything has its price. I would peddle the wife first though
Speaking insurance, my wifes plan is so expensive for a family, that its cheaper for me and three kids to buy their our own and let her go individual at work.
Its suprising how many people are hand to mouth and thats probably why people are saying married disrupts financial planing. Now you have two people you have to blend goals on. I know my wife had no financial understanding what soever. I had megafunds before marriage, my wife had mega loans before marriage, I paid off here debt when we got married. She has no interest in learning either so I handle it all and have to work around here style.
Entered baby step 4, 5, and 6 about 4 months ago after getting two new to us cars paid. With our cars being owned with and at least 6+ years life in them (knocks on wood), the mortgage has been officially declared war on The day we own our house is the day we become above average, maybe even wealthy.
The day we own our house is the day we become above average, maybe even wealthy.I am not sure what people are investing in. There have been some years as high as 35% return and some years as low as a 2% percent return. Over the past 15 plus years I have been above a 12% average. It can be done with mutual funds based on what Dave gives you as a framework for investing.
As low as 2%??? Using dave's framework of holding would have you having some negative years in there. Some well into the negative double digits.
I think some dave Ramsey stuff is good.
But his followers come off like members of a cult. And,for some reason, I have issues with churches peddling this stuff.
But his followers come off like members of a cult. And,for some reason, I have issues with churches peddling this stuff.
My advice for OP is to take out his saving and invest in mutual funds or a solid companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. Don’t try to make quick profit. Stay for a long term. Investment is like marathon not 100 meter run. During my 30’s, I invested in some risky companies and lost lots of money. I also had Google, Apple, and other bank stocks but I didn’t make money because I was too impatient. If I held on to those stocks, I may be able to retire now at age 49. I am still in good financial shape as my mortgage is paid off, no other debt other than a car loan, and own stocks and mutual funds. However, I still think about “what if” I invested in solids companies (which I did but did not hold on to it) and held on to those stocks.
I agree with invest and hold. That is why I was confused when the other guy was saying he never had a year with a loss. Over the course of 10 years, you will have a loss. Especially over the last 10-20 years of the market. Just have to be patient.
I view the Dave Ramsey stuff like I do somebody who goes on a specific diet - Atkins, Paleo, Low Fat, High Fat, whatever. It works for people who stick to it mostly because they're given a framework and they stick to it. He doesn't say anything profound and honestly his advice isn't always optimal (If you have decent credit getting a no fee 2% cash back card is trivially easy, for example, so not having and using a credit card is throwing away money even if you ignore the other benefits. Same for "always paying cash for a car", with decent credit you can get car loans that are below inflation and make better use of that money elsewhere. And so on). But most people don't care about optimization. They just care about having a framework and something to give them direction. Just like you'll lose weight if you stick to any decent diet, even if it is a little hokey, you'll see positive results from following Ramsey, even though his advice isn't always the best.
That said, Ramsey is like the Crossfit of financial planning. Anyone doing it wants to make sure they tell you about it.
BOOM. Nailed it. Save all your money and scrimp and cut until you reach the ultimate big daddy step of giving it all away.
My wife and I took the FPU class. I went into it skeptical as I can do math on my own. The parts I found most helpful were those that focused on my wife and I getting on the same page with financial decisions, like what things are most important to her and myself financially and then deciding what of those things should be most important to both of us. It certainly isn't a magic bullet, but in my own marriage and in observing others, it seems financial marriage problems usually come from one thinking the other is spending money foolishly. We took the suggestion of having a slush fund for each of us in our budget, just to put it in the budget how much money either of us should spend on ourselves, that has been the biggest help from the class for us.
My biggest issue and I don’t know that it is Ramsey himself is the people who seem to insist it’s for everyone. This thread has been pretty good but usually it seems people are calling anyone who doesn’t subscribe to it stupid. I’m anti debt to but I think from what I know he goes to far. The whole no credit card pay cash thing to me is asinine. I’m sure there are people that need it but with a little self control it shouldn’t be any different. Heck I have a hard time spending money even when I know I have it in my budget. Hard rules are dumb because everyone’s situation is different.
I would have to agree with this. Isn't the leading cause of divorce finance related? If you can make your life work financially separate more power to you. The class and baby steps are one thing the "homework" discussions with your significant other is just as if not more important than that IMO. I know us going through it as a young married couple it has significantly helped us to this day be able to discuss our finances and what not.
Stock tip.....invest in marijuana penny stock in Canada young man. It's being legalized in July I believe.
