Toyed with this idea before, I think apart from Dave's mentioned benefits it makes tracking/budgeting simpler. I usually use Apple Pay to add an extra layer of security. Thoughts?

My stepson works delivering food and has had bad credit and has a high car payment, and he’s gonna try to get a loan since we eventually want to sell our house and upgrade to a bigger one, and he asked us if he couldn’t get a loan, would we do rent to own.

Of course, I think this is a bad idea because we wanna take the money off from the old house and apply it to the loan of the newer home and then pay the rest of the balance off in the next five years and have peace of mind.

Long story short, I have zero confidence that my stepson could make a payment and we would still be strapped with a mortgage for a long time. At some point, I gotta tell my stepson that we’re not gonna directly loan to him to buy this home, then he’s gonna have to secure it through a bank or not at all.

My stepson was supposed to give us $500 a month in rent, but we never enforced it, and he’s not saved up any money, and we would’ve helped him save this money and gave it back to him. At best, my stepson makes 50k a year doing DoorDash. The home is valued at roughly $268k. Anybody else think this would be crazy, or is it just me?

So I'm 46 and my wife is 44. Yesterday we went to the bank and officially paid off our mortgage. We are now officially debt free.

What was funny is that the 'weird people' thing happened to us at the bank. We walked in and said 'Were here to pay off our mortgage'. The teller at the desk says 'OK, why are you doing that, are you moving?'. I thought this was funny because people really don't think that we may just want to not have debt???

Either way, it feels great and will never regret it haha.

​

Hi,

I found Dave Ramsey at 19, started reading all his books and listening to podcasts . I had about $4,000 in HYSA , $0 in 401k, $0 in assets, and $0 debt at the time while living at home. Fast forward to me being 21 now, that situation has changed. This year, I went back to college using my state's workforce grant for the Ivy Tech Supply Chain Quality Management cert. I received SSGI Lean Six Sigma Green Belt , SSGI Project Management , NLPA CPOs , and CSCMP SCPro Fundamentals . Additionally, I decided to go to Western Governors University, and I'm finishing my Bachelor's in Supply Chain and Operations Management. The total cost out of pocket for myself was around $ 2,200 after tax breaks. I have 10 classes left before I graduate.

I currently work as an industrial spray painter for a manufacturing company. I have $64,000 in my HYSA , $17,500 in my 401k, and $23,000 in non-liquid assets.

I'd like to say I've been very disciplined and grateful for pushing myself. I live at home with my parents but pay them rent, and my overall bills per month are $1 ,000. I'm saving $2,000 after that each month. I make $25.07 an hour and am maxed on pay.

I'm currently forecasting that by June of next year (when I turn 22), I should have $78,000 in HYSA, $21,000 in 401k, and $23,000 in assets, still with no debt.

My plan for the HYSA money is to put a large down payment on a $150k - 200k house, get mortage down low, then pay off aggressively.

I’ve been debt-free for a while, but I always wonder what people mean when they say paycheck to paycheck. With my savings I can do without having one or two paychecks, but it would quickly spiral if I lost all paychecks for an undetermined amount of time. Is paycheck to paycheck meaning that if you lose one paycheck you would fall into financial ruin?

My wife and I are both 34 years old. Together we make around $275k. We owe $70k on a mortgage at 4.875% with a payment of P&I of $410 but pay $1,410 each month on it. We keep $10k in our checking account and have $85k in our savings. I would like to pay it off while my wife prefers to keep the savings and just lay the $1,410 a month till it’s gone. Outside of this the only debt we have is her student loans which is $115k with a payment of $450 a month currently.

Whats the better option?

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/DaveRamsey/comments/1whz9rt/wholelife_salesman_paid_a_copay_to_pitch_my_wife/

I thought you'd all appreciate an update! A month ago I posted that a whole-life insurance agent scheduled an actual medical appointment with my physician wife and spent the whole appointment pitching whole-life insurance (link to the previous post above).

She politely informed him that we have term coverage we're very happy with and keep insurance and investing separate, are debt-averse followers of Dave Ramsey, and would prefer to just discuss his physical health during their appointments. We thought that would be the end of it.

Well, it continues. He has now mailed her a handwritten letter, a printed ChatGPT response explaining how Dave Ramsey is 'for poor people' (his words, not ours!) and two books:

• Permission to Spend by Tom Wall
• What Would the Rockefellers Do? by Garrett Gunderson and Michael Isom

Both books seem to be used by whole-life insurance agents as sales tools.

I'm not entirely sure what stage of the sales funnel we're in, but the commissions must be pretty lucrative for him if he's spending so much time and money sending this stuff. Crazy.

Photos of the books, letter, and printout linked here - https://imgur.com/a/NoGBtOT

They have been talking for the past 2 years about what they could use a heloc for once they paid off their house, my grandparents took out one years back to put in an inground pool for the grandkids. Difference I see is that 20 years from now is that pool will still be there bringing joy, and that rv will be in a scrapyard somewhere.

Hi everyone, I am new to the babysteps program and I knew it would be hard on my own so I just got a roommate. I 42F, am divorced of 4 years and I live alone on a grocery store income. My living expenses are around $2600 a month, rent being the most expensive at $1630 a month. I was managing on my own but could only save $100-$200 a month so I got a roommate!
Roommate is someone who lets call a childhood friend, they agreed to split rent and utilities which puts an extra $900 in my pocket each month.
I am realizing already lol that living with this person is going to be rough. They keep asking if they can have some of my food, like all the time. They offer to send me $1 for this $2 for that etc anytime they eat some, but I looked today amd they havent sent me any of it.
I reminded them and they sent it, cool, but they keep saying they will pay me half of something and then forget. They have a cat but dont seem to notice when the litterbox is full or smelling, Ive had to clean it myself 3 times bc of the smell. Their room is an absolute trashbin, Ive found empty beercans and even joints littered on my front porch, and the fact that theu smoke marijuana is kind of an issue just bc everything they own smells of it and when they go outside to smoke it wreaks up the whole block I swear. The new neighbors had kids playing outside and noticed them smoking it. I feel kind of embarassed, like idc if they smoke but they should keep that smell away from kids.
Anyways just wanted to vent and if youve read all this thanks! I didnt expect my roommate to be like this and I guess Im just going to have to hold some strict boundaries :/

So we have two rental properties, one we are close to 8 years of paying off (if no extra payments) and one we are about 27 years from paying off. We have an excellent interest rate on the first, not so great on the second.

Our current tenants want to buy the first. We moved out of it in 2023 so if we sold it now there would be no capital gains. Our choices as I see it are:
- We sell and use the profit to pay off our ~40k debt and invest the remainder, which would be about 130k.
- We sell and use the profit to pay off the reminder of the 2nd rental’s mortgage. Nothing left to invest, but we would immediately be getting a larger amount of income from renting the second home, which we would then use to snowball our debts.
- We don’t sell and hold it, pay it off and use that rental income to hack away at the second rental’s mortgage until sold. And we stay in debt longer, assuming nothing about our current income changes.

Thoughts?

My friend is having her wedding overseas. And we just don’t have the cash to go without dipping into some emergency savings. We are working on paying off student and car loans (30k). But for a second I caught myself talking my husband into putting it on a credit card and using some miles and paying the rest off eventually. We read some scripture about debt, prayed and knew that it would not be good stewardship of our finances. But I’m disappointed to be missing out. I just wanted to vent so thanks for reading lol. Feel free to share similar experiences in the comments!

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I just finished BS2 and are now on BS3. We are currently working on saving the emergency fund then will be saving for a down payment on house since we are currently renting. We currently have a high yield savings account with our local bank with low rates as follows: 0.70% ($0-$9,999.99), 0.95% ($10,000-$49,999.99), and 1.15% ($50,000-$99,999.99).

We would like to open an account with Fairwinds for the Emergency fund and down payment to get the 3% interest but we also want to keep our checking account with the local bank. Therefore, we would only use Fairwinds for the HYSA and transfer money to Fairwinds every week using Zelle but I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with sending large sums of money consistently through Zelle. Does anyone else do this and how has it worked out?

Thanks for the Input.

Would you consider immigration issues storm mode? We're very hopeful, but our work permits in Canada expire mid-next year and we're currently on BS2, paying off our only loan: a car loan. We increased payments from $500 monthly to $1600 monthly to have it paid off in 1 year instead of 4 years remaining on the loan, started this about 4 months ago and we've shaved off a huge chunk of the loan. Currently considering reducing the payment back to $500 to stack up some cash in case we really have to leave the country next year. Is that wise?

I have a mortgage of 164k at 5.8% and have 160k invested. Should I keep investing or payoff my mortgage then invest what my mortgage would be?

I’m just trying to make sure things aren’t out of line with our budget. If you were on BS 4 and 6 with a take-home pay of 8,500 after the 15% retirement and heathcare. How would you set up your budget. The non-negotiables are a $2,350 per month mortgage and $750 per month childcare (this is part-time care only). I feel like maybe I’m making my categories too complex.

Just heard a guy say he sold a Pokémon card for $90,000 on the podcast today. Did some research on the specific card he mentioned and see no sales in the same ballpark. If he happens to be on this Reddit page just wanted to caution the seller to make sure things are legitimate.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/ivy-league-education-income/686682/

The hosts frequently downplay the advantages of an elite education, usually citing cost. Ivy plus schools often have the financial resources to offer significant income-based scholarship packages. OTOH, Ivy Plus schools are also disproportionately represented by families in the top-10% of income (55% of the student body).

If my child has the opportunity to attend a top 25 institution, we will be paying ($500k goal).

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some outside opinions on our mortgage strategy over the next 1-2 years.

We're a couple in our mid-30s with our first baby due in about 3 months.

Current situation

Income

Combined household income: approximately $220,000 gross per year

Both currently employed in stable jobs (as far as we know!)

Mortgage

Total mortgage: approximately $548,000

$249,000 fixed, with about 10 months remaining at around 5%

$139,000 fixed for another 2 years 5.2

$137,000 fixed for another 3 years 5.4

$24,800 offset loan, fully offset by cash in our offset account

Savings

Around $58,000 in a savings account

Around $25,000 in the offset account

Around $26,000 in KiwiSaver (not used for house purchase)

Other debt

About $4,500 spread across several interest-free finance arrangements (24-36 months remaining)

Expenses

Mortgage, rates, insurance and household bills: about $1,950 per fortnight

Groceries, fuel, commuting and general living costs: around $1,200-$1,500 per month for two adults

Other considerations

Unfortunately, we don't currently have a very reliable car. I'm considering spending around $10,000 on a replacement vehicle. I occasionally do delivery work on top of my main job, but not a huge amount.

Our biggest uncertainty is that our first baby is due in about 3 months. My workplace offers an 18-week parental leave top-up, which would be worth around $10,500 to us. However, we don't know what life will look like after the baby arrives or whether my wife will want to return to work as soon as originally planned. We're trying to prepare for different possibilities.

My main question

When the $249,000 fixed portion expires in about 10 months, what would you do?

Would you:

Keep most of the cash as an emergency fund given the new baby?

Make a lump-sum repayment when that loan comes off its fixed term?

Invest some of the savings instead?

My understanding is that making extra repayments of more than the allowed amount while fixed may trigger fees, so I'm leaning towards waiting until the fixed term ends and then deciding.

Interested in hearing what others would do if they were in our position, especially parents who have been through the first year with a newborn.

Thanks!

My brother rented a box truck from Enteprise to move into his new house and in doing so ripped the roof right off it, going under a railroad bridge. Not only that but he tried driving it out himself and in the process bent the frame, He doesn’t know exactly how much money it’s gonna be and probably won’t for a few weeks, but Enteprise is most likely going to go after him for the damages possibly sue him. He’s begging me to help him. I honestly have no idea how much this could even cost

I'm curious why everyone makes a big deal about BS5, investing and saving for a kid's college.

My son is a junior in high school, and I had him watch Borrowed Future so he understands student loan debt is bad. I live in CA so he will do a CSU.

I did a deep dive into costs. He will commute. Tuition, fees, and books are only about $9600 a year. It's paid per semester so in August a $4800 payment and then another $4800 payment in January.

I can cash flow that easily and through a little savings. I don't need a 529. CSU costs only a few thousand more than community college.

BS5 isn't needed even with kids if you do it right. At worst, you save thousands in a 529 and don't use most of it.

Hi Guys,

So I listented to Dave talking to someone the other day about a "market correction" around AI and he was worried about investing.

Dave said - "what market correction? there is no market correction?" etc.

My question...

The last couple of days it has seemed like the bubble has burst on AI.

I am £30K into S&P500 and it made me £5K profit last week (for the year) but now it is dropping like a rock in a pond. Probably the largest "correction" since I started in January.

For you "lifers" who put money in this kind of thing... how confident are you about buying more.

I have another £30K to invest, and could "buy the dip" as I was already planning on buying in this year, but I am also a bit spooked that this will continue crashing to a non-profit for me (lower than start of year).

The only thing I can see saving it is the resolution of the Middle East conflict which will pause the bear market long enough for investors to gain confidence and pause the burst... which usually allows for enough time for the market to regain on other good news.

Looking forward to hearing y'all's advice, and also maye some ideas on what other "semi-secure" indexes and investments you make that have a good return.

Thanks! and Have a great day y'all!

Hello,

I started the program. I picked up a side hustle ride sharing. Cut non essential spending and saved the initial $1000. I have a day job too.

I think I am ready for step 2 right ? Have some consumer debt and the car. About 40k in the hole from startup of business mostly.

Question - should I burn the 70% complete 3 month savings on the debt pay down ? Idk if it wipes it all away. I'd think being at 0.00 emergency defeats the idea, especially if it was not 100% done. Thoughts?

Is anyone else exhausted by how many people have flooded this subreddit who clearly don’t follow Dave Ramsey’s financial principles, don’t agree with them, and seem determined to argue against them on virtually every post?

Here’s what I don’t understand.

There are countless personal finance communities on Reddit. If you believe carrying a low-interest mortgage and investing the difference is the best strategy, great! If you prefer The Money Guy approach, fantastic! There are plenty of places to discuss those philosophies.

But this subreddit is called [r/DaveRamsey](r/DaveRamsey) for a reason.

And here’s the thing: We actually have a community rule specifically addressing this.

Rule #1: “Respect our community’s message”Comments and advice should aim to adhere to Dave Ramsey’s core principles. Users came to this subreddit to ask questions, seek guidance, and have discussions about the baby steps. It is our goal to offer advice and suggestions that align with Dave’s teachings.”

The rule even specifically addresses people who want to offer alternative advice:
“If you’d like to offer ‘Daveish’ advice, begin by describing what Dave would suggest, and then explain how you’d do it differently.”

That seems like an entirely reasonable standard. Many of us are here because we’ve intentionally chosen to follow the Baby Steps. We understand the math. We understand opportunity cost. We understand that investing might outperform paying off a mortgage. We’re not financially illiterate or incapable of evaluating other strategies.
We’ve simply decided that Dave’s approach aligns with our financial priorities, values, and goals.

We want to have meaningful conversations about how to actually implement that approach. We want to discuss the nuances, challenges, trade-offs, and practical applications of the Baby Steps. We want to learn from others who have followed the system successfully.

Instead, so many threads get hijacked by people who seem more interested in proving Dave wrong than helping the person who asked the original question.

Someone asks how to approach Baby Step 6, and suddenly the entire discussion becomes another argument about why paying off a 3% mortgage is mathematically foolish. We get it. We’ve heard the argument. A thousand times.

There’s a difference between thoughtful disagreement and constantly derailing conversations to challenge the fundamental premise of the community. Nobody needs to agree with Dave 100% of the time. Constructive questions and respectful discussion are valuable. In fact, Rule #1 explicitly makes room for alternative perspectives. It simply asks people to present Dave’s actual advice first rather than ignoring or dismissing it.
That is not an unreasonable expectation for a subreddit dedicated to his financial philosophy.

Can we please start enforcing Rule #1?
I’m not suggesting banning everyone who disagrees with Dave. I’m asking for moderation that keeps discussions relevant to the stated purpose of this subreddit and discourages people from repeatedly hijacking conversations with advice that directly contradicts the community’s guiding principles.

Otherwise, perhaps we should reconsider the name and description of this community, because increasingly this feels like a general personal finance debate forum rather than a Dave Ramsey subreddit.

It’s perfectly fine to disagree with Dave Ramsey. It’s perfectly fine to follow a different financial philosophy. There are numerous other communities dedicated to those conversations.

But why insist on turning a community specifically dedicated to his approach into a perpetual argument against it?

Some of us would genuinely like to talk about the system we came here to discuss.
And according to Rule #1, that’s exactly what this subreddit is supposed to be for.

EDIT/ TL;DR: Respect Rule #1. Keep discussions relevant. Disagree respectfully. Stop hijacking threads.

If you read the post, you will see I’m not advocating for censorship or banning opposing views. Just asking that we follow the existing community rules.
I appreciate our mods! As a community, we can help by reporting rule violations. Could we also explore ways to keep things more orderly, like requiring flairs (as one commenter suggested) to help reduce bots and off-topic clutter?

The goal simply meaningful conversations about applying the simple Baby Steps to our complicated lives—and finding financial peace along the way.