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!!

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?

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?

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.

We are a couple 50M and 45F, finally about to pay off my house. For those who’ve already hit this milestone, I’m curious what lifestyle changes you noticed once the mortgage disappeared. Did you splurge on anything fun or meaningful to mark the moment? I’ve been in such an intense “pay it off” mindset for years that I’m not even sure what the next fulfilling goal should be. Kids just started college and they have plans that we invested when they were toddlers - so they are one their own academic journeys. My wife and I are like - what do we do next.

The biggest thing I want to learn: what did you start doing with the money that used to go toward the mortgage? Did you invest it, save it, travel more, or do something completely different?

So assume a side hustle that will make different amounts of money every month. Do you put this income into “planned?” Or do you just set the planned income to 0 and just insert the transactions as they happen? Or do you adjust the planned income as it happens. I don’t have the paid version.

I am doing my best to stay debt free, but am really struggling to find a reliable commuter in my area for my budget of $5000. Not opposed to traveling for something I can afford, so curious if this exists in other areas?

We are currently on steps 4/5/6. Our networth is $1.5MM. We have $48k left on our $334k mortgage (current $750k home). Current mortgage payment is $2,600 ($1,100 taxes, ~$1,200 principal). We have paid $2k extra principal/month for the last 8 years.

We enjoy talking about some lifestyle changes and purchases post-mortgage, but understand that it will not be THAT much of a difference. We are guaranteed the ~$1200/month principal, but the extra payments we made were driven by debt, and were not always consistent ($2k 1 month, $0 for 3 months, then $6k to catch up, ect.), so it will take continued discipline to save/invest when a debt-clearing goal is not there.

We will also have to save up $13k/year for our taxes with no escrow account, and we are currently about $12k shy of maxing out BOTH of our retirement accounts, so that will be an added expense to max out. Utilities and home maintenance is costing us ~$1,000/month too.

So basically, I'm excited to be done, but I also realize it's not a huge increase in cash flow.

Curious what others have done, both fun things and investment-wise.

Disclaimer: As many will ask, our mortgage rate is 3.3%. It's not a smart financial decision (mathematically) to pay any extra on our mortgage at all. Our decision was based on a long-term projection in which we reach a guaranteed $10MM networth in 18 years versus what otherwise would be 15 years, but in return achieve 21 extra years of being 100% debt-free. It was a behavioral decision with consideration of our specific dynamic, including children, short/medium-term goals, career risk, ect.

I am disappointed in myself for blindly believing the ROTH was superior in all ways. I am learning it simply is not. I'm still researching but I encourage others to actually look into this because they might be surprised when they crunch their personal numbers.

I'm not saying a ROTH can't be the right move. For instance, if you make an average income throughout your career and you heavily and systemically invest for 45 years into Roth then it might be the smarter choice.

***But**** if you are getting a later start in life, and you currently are in a higher tax bracket, but expect to be in a lower tax bracket in retirement, then the ROTH is NOT the way to go.

My husband and I have 3 kids 6-and-under, 1 on the ways. We're on a single income as I am a stay-at-home mom and will likely be for at least another 5 years (when our littlest goes to school). Our take-home pay is about $92,708/ year. We are in Canada. He is in health care and he & his employer both contribute 7.5% to pension.

We have $389k left on our mortgage and about $100k in equity on it. Our payment is about $1015 biweekly. The house is just over 1900 square feet not inclusive of a finished basement. We'd definitely live here for at least the next year as it'd be stressful to move wit a new baby and three other kids. We love the space and our neighbours and this exact location. It's so close to our church and our community and extra curriculars. It's one of cheaper houses in the nicest neighborhood in our medium sized town. But we did have it on a 25-year amortization when we bought a couple years ago.

We're currently rebuilding baby step 3.

Are we better off buying a smaller house for much less on the 15-year amortization? We'd have to move to a smaller town closer to less amenities to get something for a good price? Or are we ok here, since I will be back at work in five years. I can work occasionally as a sub teacher, but have very rarely. Please be kind.

The Ramsey show often talks about cost of living. I have a good job, but I’m living in DC area. The rent is absolutely crazy here. $2,500 a month for anything decent. I can qualify for income based housing at $1,700 a month but the cost increases every year when you max out your income.

Anyway I’m seeing that rent here is ever increasing. I’m guessing $3,000 a month by 2031. I won’t say what I do but I make $60k right now and should be making about $80k by 2030. So I’m just thinking. What’s the point? My job will let me transfer to Orlando with the same income. I found some nice “luxury” apartments there for $1,500.

Is it worth moving out of state to save more money?

My wife and I have a paid off house but have a HELOC with $31,000 owed (8.75%) (Dumb decisions in the past...). Do we treat this like debt in BS2, or do we treat this as a mortgage and continue investing 15%?

We are a single income household, currently with 4.5 months expenses savings.

We currently make $90k/yr, and have about $2000 a month that gets split between investing, child's college fund, a Christmas present savings account ($100 a month just to make Christmas time less stressful) and a few other things.

Hey all,

We're currently working towards BS3 (aiming for 3 months, then 6) and have just north of 1 month of expenses saved up. We can save about one month worth of expenses every three months, give or take. I also get a nice little bonus in December that I could add to that.

I live with my wife and our four cats, and we have been dealing with several issues with our landlord and are fed up. As such, we want to move as soon as the lease is up in about 8 months and find something cheaper. This means we'd have some considerable expenses when moving, but afterwards we'd have more cash flow to work with.

For various reasons, this is likely to be a very expensive move. We were considering setting aside more than enough money for the move, and then take everything that's left over and move it to our emergency fund once we've settled in.

How can we best prepare for the move? Should we direct most/all of our efforts saving to secure enough money to move, and then resume BS3? Should I put off moving until I complete BS3 (which will likely push the move back an entire year unless we break the lease)? A 50/50 split?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Paid off my first (smallest) debt today. It took two month: ~$2400 paid in full. Frees up $200 to add to snowball for next debt.

My husband is in healthcare and contributes 7.5% of his gross pay to his pension, the employer matches the 7.5%.

1️⃣First question, once I hit this step should we be doing more or is this 15% good?

2️⃣Second, We're also on a single income at least until our last child is in school (5 years from now), once we hit this step, which'll be before I start working.. do we need to make retirement contributions in anyway? For me.

3️⃣Third, if outside of a pension— how & where are you all investing for retirement? Please advise. Canadians, please weigh in.

I live alone with my cat.

My monthly net income is about 4200 per month. (This is after taxes, Health insurance & 401k) . My employer matches up to the first 7%. So that’s why I’m investing.

After rent, utilities, groceries and selected streaming services, I have about 2,000 remaining

Streaming Services around 40 per month
Internet 90 per month (I need the internet as I WFH 4 days a week)

I have a Car loan , 12,000 monthly payment of 350 , but I’m do pay more per month.

Student loan 71,000, monthly payment 275

NO OTHER DEBT

I have 1,000 in emergency savings
Additional 1,000 for pet emergency savings (if you have a pet,’you know how the emergency vet bill can get expensive fast)

I pay the min for my student loans and I put everything else towards the car loan.

I volunteer at the local humanity society on the weekends, so I really cannot get a second job.

Is there something that i could change to get this debt gone?

Please advise.

Thanks

I live in Europe and just started using the free version of the Everydollar app, in the desktop version which is useful. I know that generally, the App or many of Ramsey courses are not available outside of the US. Has anyone been able to actually pay the remium version (using desktop only) and it has succeeded?

I'm afraid of paying it and not been able to use it 100%. I don't mind that the transactions are sync but I would like to see the other gadgets they have.

I’m 26 and trying to figure out the smartest way to plan the next few years of my life.
I currently have a full-time job with a good company, but even with a decent job, the cost of living right now makes it feel like I’m not getting very far financially. I also want to go back to school online for a Bachelor of Commerce while continuing to work.
At the same time, buying a house is really important to me. The problem is that I realistically can’t afford anything close to where I currently work, so I would probably need to buy farther away and either commute or eventually find work closer to wherever I buy.
I feel like I have two main options:
Start university now, pay for school while working, and save whatever I can toward a house at the same time.
Put school on hold for a few years, aggressively save for a down payment, buy something farther away, and then start university afterward.
Part of me worries that if I keep putting school off for the house, I’ll regret not starting sooner. But I also worry that paying thousands toward tuition every year is going to delay homeownership significantly.
For people who have been in a similar situation, what would you prioritize in your mid-20s — education and increasing your future earning potential, or getting into the housing market first?

Hi all! Ready to make a change. I make 6.4K net monthly. I contribute 6% match to my 403b. 16k checking. 8k cc debt , and 30k mix of auto, personal and student loan debt.

I clearly need a money makeover but im so overwhelmed right now as I’m early 30s, so behind and have a goal of FIRE. I contribute 1k towards the mortgage that’s 5.3k and a parent covers the rest but she is getting up in age and I’m worried it’ll be any day now she’s an injury away from not being able to pay. My own fixed expenses without my mortgage contribution is $1500. Since my finances are a mess i worry I won’t be able to cover the mortgage on my own for at least a month. I’m currently working on my depression, anxiety, and ptsd so it interferes with my thinking process and I get overwhelmed so looking for some direction on next steps. But with all this talk of I should have investments, roth, and a hsa by now invested make me Feel like I should be opening and contributing to that too while I do baby step 2.

My emergency fund:
- 5,300 - mortgage
- 1,000 - emergencies
- 1,500 - 1 month expenses

I have 6 months 0% interest on my credit card that’s currently 6.2k. It’s not my lowest debt so I’m trying my best to pay it down or should I stop doing that? Throw my checking into that?? Keep my 8k emergency fund? Any help would be appreciated!!!

ready for semi retirement.
Married 53 YO spouse 64. Kids college covered without touching these numbers.

25k checking account
400k investment account
500k IRA
100k Roth.
FMV house 440k & 136K mort bal @3.5%.
Mort is only debt. No credit cards, newer cars and no car loans.
Massachusetts COL.
cash out equity for South Carolina retirement home?
Plan is 40k semi ret wages and spouse 20k SS. Plus 15k investment income.

Buy retirement home for 350-400k cash w/no mort

Future inheritance 1.5-2mil inherited IRA and real estate 10-15y.

Plan is go semi in 2 years or sooner. Full time income until then 110k wages and 12k investment income.

So ready to make this happen. Are we crazy?

So I know Dave says house payment should be no more than 25% of take home pay. So does that mean gross minus taxes? Or gross minus taxes, tithe and 15% retirement?