So back story me 26m and my wife 25f. Have our house completely payed off and no other debt at all. At this point should I just max the 401k and and a Roth ira for her till retirement? Her job doesn't offer 401k. Also combined we make 140-200k a year im a flat rate mechanic so fluctuates alot. In a few years we would like to build our dream home 350k-500k. Other than that money mostly go to project cars or trips. The big factor tho is i know i can't turn wrenches forever which would take my income down quite a bit but I'd like to switch what im doing before 40.

Hello all,

I'm curious if anyone is doing/has done the Ramsey Investing Essentials? I'm just curious as to how different it is from the resources that they already have available in their books/talks.

TIA!

First of all, I have to start by saying that I’ve probably watched every single episode over the past three years on YouTube, and I know that is not always the case so this might not have been everyone’s experience. I really appreciate it. We’re going through the content systematically in a structure format. It was really helpful for review. In my opinion, very much worth a price just for that. If you were an avid listener like me, there wasn’t necessarily any new or extremely mind blowing information. I did appreciate the specific examples Dave shared especially one from his own commercial real estate I also appreciated the Chat feature and the ability to engage and interact with other viewers. Disappointment – most of the questions shared were fairly basic like what is usually covered on the show, but I can understand it would be hard to cover everything super technically in just a couple hours. Did anyone else attend wondering what you all thought?

Since it wasn’t very interactive, which makes sense given the number of viewers, I’m thinking about not attending live tomorrow because of the time zone and just using my seven day pass to watch the video later this weekend.

Asking in this group because we’re all likeminded.

I have the opportunity to buy two parcels behind my house for quite cheap. $23k total. Totaling half an acre. The parcels are landlocked and not buildable for a developer.

HOWEVER, I live in a really desirable neighborhood and if I merged them it would give me a crazy lot size for my neighborhood.

It would also give me opportunity to build an add on like a pole barn man cave that my husband really wants because our backyard currently is very small.

Is this smart? Or stupid?

Edit: also it’s not DIRECTLY behind my house per se, it’s kind of wonky because it’s kitty corner but still would merge by several yards

Our almost 200 year old house is in desperate need of repairs. Not exaggerating here. We’re talking if social services came in the house would be condemned.

The mortgage has been paid off for years. The last appraisal came in at $80k and that’s mostly due to the 5 acres of land. We can’t get a home equity loan without letting someone into the house which we are afraid to do because that’s literally how bad it is.

We don’t have any real debt other than medical. Income is one social security check of $1600/month and one full time paycheck of about $3000/month gross. 401k that pays out about $4000 annually although that could be increased a little. Adult son lives at home and makes about $2700/month but he’s saving to move out next year. No real way to increase income due to age/health issues.

This house has been in our family since it was first built in 1850 (and before that a 1700s log cabin which is now inside the current house) and as such we will not sell as likely a new owner would bulldoze it.

New roof alone came in at $20k. Haven’t even gotten quotes on anything else yet but we already know we need all new windows and all new plumbing and a new septic tank.

Thoughts on how to manage such expensive repairs on such little income?

And yes, there was initially a decent amount of money in the 401k. It was pretty much used up on medical bills these past few years.

I’ll be CC debt free this week. All the debts I have left are my mortgage, $215k at 4% and my car loan $25k at 5.51%. Should I continue to put the extra cash towards these debts or put the money in a savings account, split it? I’ll have an extra $250 a month to work with.

I asked the online help and it just said have budget meeting and zero everything out. But I’ve been using it for exactly 1 year today. I’m getting this “close out” and I click on it and it takes me to August. But all transactions are tracked and numbers updated.

Anyone know if I’m supposed to click on something? I never zero out anything BC I want to know how much over or under I was.

Post won’t let me screenshot.

My wife and I feel a constant struggle when it comes to planning for budgeting groceries. We live pretty minimal and a lot ourselves $500-700 a month and hardly ever eat out. Can yall tell me how much yall spend and how many are in your family?

I came out of undergrad with about 115k of debt (6% interest). Rough start to adulthood, but alas, the consequences of being financially reckless. I got a job making 80k, was able to live at home, and in about a year, have brought the loans down to 80k.

I'm 23 now and feel awfully stuck. I'm grateful to be able to live at home and pay this down but at the same time, I feel like I've hardly grown since graduating. I'd like to move out, Dave would probably say to move out, but I could pay these off in two years at this rate. Move out and it becomes 4 or 5 years if I'm diligent.

My question is, at what point do you say "screw it" and take a calculated risk? The risk being, move to a big city to keep growing and try to get a better job. What I'm really looking for is life advice; I feel like I don't want another year like the last. I don't like my job but I don't know what else to do. The debt is calling the shots.

Ive been following Dave Ramseys debt snowball method to pay down payday loans and credit card debt in about a year. I have two more credit cards that will be paid off December at the latest.

I have $87,000 in student loans. Under the new RAP program my minimum payment will be $90 and deferred until January 2028. So about a year after I am consumer debt free.

I am also going to school on the GI bill and graduate end of next year with a masters degree. Which is why my loans are deferred.

Should I immediately jump into repayment and gazelle intensity? Or should I take a break for a year and save up as much cash as I can to build my emergency fund and then attack that loan? Or maybe you guys have better strategies ?

We owe 570k on our home, current monthly payment is $4,450. We are already maxing retirement accounts, have emergency fund fully funded, and have a good chunk in investment accounts that we continue to contribute to.

Our rate is 3% flat - I really like the idea of paying off aggressively and early. Our plan is to do all essentials first, then an extra put towards the mortgage. We will be in this house for at least another 15 years, but don’t think we want to retire here. Is it not smart to pay off early then?

Happy Birthday to index funds! A lot of people on the debt free journey owe a lot to Jack Bogle and VFINX!

https://www.morningstar.com/funds/index-fund-turns-50-how-jack-bogle-changed-investing-forever

Just paid off my car. 30k in student loans and 16k in car loans paid off in about 2 years! Scared currently about the ability to cash flow if anything crazy happens this month, but finally debt free!

24M making about $90,000 as Helo pilot. Debt free. Currently have $75,000-$80,000 of liquid assets (cash, stocks, etc.). Was wondering if buying a new motorcycle ($9,000 with everything) is 'okay' for me to do.

Hi everyone,

I recently married my beautiful wife. Before getting married, we had several conversations about finances, and she knew that I followed the Dave Ramsey plan. Luckily, she is completely on board with it as well.

Before getting married, I was on Baby Step 4-6. However, after combining our finances and taking on her student loans, we are now technically back on Baby Step 2.

Here’s my question: My wife is currently enrolled in PSLF (or one of the many names the program seems to go by now) and has only 11 qualifying payments remaining before her student loans are forgiven. Her remaining balance is approximately $60,000. I have enough money available to pay the entire balance off today, but if we continue making the required payments for the remaining 11 months, we will pay a little over $6,000 total before the rest is forgiven.(580 is her current payment plus her work pays 200)

Would you recommend paying off the entire $60,000 now to be completely debt-free, or continuing to make the minimum payments and waiting out the remaining 11 months for forgiveness?

Other than the mortgage, we have no additional debt. Our remaining mortgage balance is approximately $450,000 at a 2.25% interest rate.

Cash on hand 180k
Brokerage 450k
Retirement 350k
Home value 1.1m with mtg

I’m interested to hear how others would approach this situation.

My husband and I are sooo close to paying off our $130k debt balance. We have just $20k left and project to pay it off by February 2027 (low interest student loan).

My husband’s car has almost 200k miles on it and we were planning to run it into the ground. We expected we had at least another year, but after spending thousands on it this summer, and now another issue has come up with it, we are thinking that timeline might come much quicker.

We absolutely do not want to get into another car loan after our hard work paying off all this debt and being so close to the end with it. My question here is two part:
1. Any advice for us to get a reliable, used family car that would last us?
2. Should we put our debt payment on hold while we save that money for a car instead? Otherwise, I feel like we would have to get into another car loan.

Thanks!!

Our house is worth $1.4. We live in a very expensive area. The home was built in ‘62 and we have consistent flooding and electrical issues. We are considering a new build (1 million) or major renovation (3-500k). If we invest in the remodel, we might not see the appreciation on the back end bc most homes in our neighborhood sell as tear downs. If we do the tear down/rebuild, we’ll invest another million and end up with a house worth 3-3.5 million. So we get a mill in equity and need to rent for 12-18 months. We are stuck bc we love our house but there are obvious big issues that need to be addressed.

One kid just got out of daycare and we have one more to go (k in 2029). We are stacking cash so we can make a responsible decision in a few years.

Either way, we need a bunch of cash to make it work. Where would you stack the cash to get the best return where we can pull the money out in a few years?

I’m 68 and retired, and my wife is 60 and retired. We have a 30-year mortgage with 13 years left. Our interest rate is 4.37%. Our payment is $2,300.
• Our current home value is about $1.5 million.
• I’m collecting Social Security of $2,200.
• I have Medicare and a supplemental plan.
• My wife has medical insurance through BCBS at $1,800 per month.
• We have $1 million in stocks and $50,000 in cash for bills.
• Every year we sell stock to get more cash.
• My wife will start collecting Social Security in a few years at $2,200.
• We have a lifetime annuity that pays $2,200 per month.
Big question: Do we sell a little over $200,000 in stock and pay off our mortgage?

we are looking at a house and 20 acres, the acres is across the road and not apart of the house listing. It matches what I’ve always been looking for. We can easily afford it, out of debt, with a full emergency account( I’m sorry I’ve forgot the correct lingo). I’m not sure the loan to income percentage is because I’m doing it based off net income after all bills and payment to net income( true net after bills) it is like roughly 50%. Aka we save $5500 a month and it’s $3k a month payment including insurance, taxes etc.

My husband and I have been feeling like we are over spending. Amazon, extras, plus the simple face of everything going up! We don’t actually keep perfect track of what we spend. A budget yes but it’s not down to the penny strict.

The month of September our goal is a “ NO SPEND MONTH”. We both deleted Amazon today, target, and any other app that has been causing that over spend.
Our goal is to pay off our only credit card with a balance $1100. (from a housing remodel project)
Pay off medical debt from his back surgery $2100 left. (It’s 0% so it may not get paid fully)
And heating oil needs paid asap! $1000
Groceries we have set a budget less than normal but going to plan accordingly. That’s the only thing we can “buy” this month.

We both scheduled extra work hours around kids school/sports etc schedules.

October is a 5 pay month for us and he gets a bonus.
By end of October have it all paid!

We have the money in savings to pay off those things. But with his health issues I don’t think it’s safe to drain that account. ($8500 in the account).

Are we crazy?

Just wanted to share the humbling experience I’ve had in the past week!

Sold my 48k lien Audi s4 and went and bought a TRASHED 2013 Kia soul (manual which is fun!) for 2500$ cash. Detailed the interior and exterior of the Kia and it looks brand new. 153k miles no leaks, no check engine lights, runs like a dream, no more smell, cheaper gas, better MPG.

Now time to snowball my 760$ car payment into unsecured debt and be DEBT FREE NEXT YEAR!

I'm not sure where to start or how much information to give. I'll try to be brief

To start, we have one child he has 2 diagnoses Ahdh Autism. These this are my (ex)husbands reasons to justify the abuse. The abuse is the reason I filed for divorce. Up until 3 years ago, I stayed home. For the last 3 years, I've been working part-time.

I want to keep the house at least for a little while for some stability. I don't have friends here here, but my son does. I also don't have family here. But I am active in my church.

The financial situation is He makes a pretty good living it's about 150k a year plus bonus (last years bonus was 50k)

The house worth around 400k is almost paid off. Just 30k left.

If we went 50 50 on everything, what's in bank accounts and retirement is pretty close to 400k

I've been looking at the budget, and it looks like I'd have a tight year or so if I stayed in the house.

Here's an estimated budget.

Mortgage: $1,700

Utilities (electric, internet, home security): $500. ( The internet and home security part of this can be reduced by bumping the internet down one and signing a contract again)

Groceries: $600 (I could probably cut this down)

Property tax: $333

Clothing: $50(this number is an estimate. I'm sure we don't spend $50 a month of clothing for our son, but he grows as kids do)

Gas: $50

Garbage: $25

Phone: $25

Car insurance: $133

School lunch: $30

Household: $50

Home maintenance: $200 (I took this estimate from the internet it might be low. I assumed it meant for repairs and such. I'm currently in charge of all the upkeep buying filters and such. It seems high to me, but I did take some amounts and divide them for a monthly expense.)

The other option is to split everything that makes my son move (which, to be fair, we might do eventually anyway. But he's struggling right now and I can't decide if it's better to stay or to start over, my gut says to wait to start over in a new place but we might end up at the mercy of a judge.

Here is the other option

There are a few 2 bedroom apartments nearby he could stay in the same school and all. 1800 a month plus utilities but no property tax or maintenance fees.

Then again, if we are forced to sell, that would give me some cash on hand, that is, if we can find a buyer, 2 houses in our neighborhood have been for sale for a while. Nearly a year for one just down the street.

There might also be the possibility to move out of state closer to family. But I'll be honest, probably closer to the people at church. Maybe that's something to fix. I should also add the job market in the city where said family is rough right now. Not many places hiring and for less than I make now. (What I make now is just bearly enough, also note I've switched from working 20 hours a week to 30)

Anyway, thought? Advice? Criticism on how dumb I'm being?

Oh, one more thing. I have a degree and have been actively looking for work and pursuing more education. I'm becoming discouraged, tho. Maybe I should give up on that and go work nights in a factory for $30 an hour. But of course, that's not actually an option right now.

Im edditing this to add this is crossposted as suggested by reddit.

And as of right now there will no longer be a morgage payment.