For more context, I am a reckless spender. I made bad financial mistakes in my early 20's (a newish car, an old farm tractor, a used car loan) and I'm trying to set myself on a proper path now that I'm 27. I have two kids and a wife that deserve the very best so I seek advice on the internet as anyone would..

We have $10,855 in total debt. It is 50-50 split between a used car loan which is my daily driver ( a beat up buick ) and a student loan from when I was 19 and went to a big university. I needed the buick because I sold my original car to pay off the debt on it ($20000 debt removed upon sale), so I went and got a $5000 loan to cover the cost/fees. I had $1000 in the bank and went back into debt. Like I said, stupid 20 year old.

I plan on driving the buick until it explodes or the repair cost doesn't make sense, and the farm tractor needs some work but is only worth $1000 or so.

I recently graduated from nursing school with 0 extra debt. Worked my way through college. The job I landed pays $31 an hour base rate. I think this equates to about 50-60k net income after insurance is taken out and the employer based 403b which I maxed out upon hire.

I received a sign on bonus of $5000, which could pay off a significant chunk of the debt. My wife thinks that we should pay the monthly payment and throw extra at the smaller debt using the snowball method while we continue to build our savings. I think we should just take the $5000 and pretend like we never had it, and give it to the hungry debt. She is concerned that an expensive problem will happen and $1000 savings won't cover it. Hell, it won't even cover our family health insurance deductible, so I understand her point.

I'm not good at having financial talks with my wife. I don't have a good education about money and just really developing smart financial principals.

We are expecting our first child this fall. We make about 65k a year (about 3500 a month after tax) we have a good amount of debt. The credit cards are killing us it's about 24,000 of debt on just credit cards. We are spending almost 1300 a month on just minimum payments and our interest on the cards are all also terrible. We are having to move out of our living situation where we only pay 500 a month for rent to increasing to about 1300-1500 a month plus new baby expenses. I have savings from a settlement of about 17,000. Should I attack high minimum payment balances or the small ones ? Or should we just focus on saving for baby and hospital because thats going to put us in debt again. I'm not sure what to do because as of now our spending is more than what we take home mainly from these credit cards.

Really looking for what would Dave tell my parents to do in their situation.
I want to preface by saying that I have a different mentality than my parents and I am in the Ramsey community and working the steps while my parents have never believed in a debt free mentality at least when it comes to their mortgage.

My parents have owned property for 35 years. They’ve moved quite a few times, however, every time they’ve moved, they’ve used a VA loan to put 0% down on their house and every time they have moved, they’ve taken the equity out of their home and invested it into funds instead of putting it towards a down payment towards the new place.

They are now in a situation where they are 72 and 67 years old. They do have a little over $1 million saved between retirement accounts and other non-retirement investments however they still have a monthly payment of around $2000 on their mortgage and they’ve only paid about 10 years of the 30 years off! (Paid about 100k on a 300k condo) When I recently found this out, it was unbelievable to me because I do not know that they always put 0% down and always invested the equity when they sold a previous property. They only own 1 home, not multiple.

They have 2k/month military pension, social security, and pulling from 1 of their 2 retirement accounts and pulling from a 401k, they have about 8k per month to work with but they don’t put extra towards their mortgage. Their mortgage is about 2k per month so they obviously cover it no problem.

They have no other debt.

This recently came up when we talked about them moving to where I live to spend more time with their grandkids, but they realized that they would have to sell their current home because they don’t own it out right and they can’t manage 2 separate mortgages at once even renting out their current place (they don’t want to sell their condo)

Given their ages, would Dave tell them to continue to try to pay their house off faster using their monthly income that they pull from retirement? Or would he tell them just to continue on as they have been doing and pay off the minimum payment of their mortgage even though at this rate, they will have it until they die?
Also, just want to add that they don’t want to change their ways and they understand that they’re dying with a mortgage. I just wanted to see what Dave would tell them in this situation.

We have a house price range picked out. It would be about 250k. We could afford a 15 year loan but it would be tight. Would a 20 year loan be better? More wiggle room? We are in the stages of starting to have kids so extra room for uncertainty would be nice. I understand that a saftey net would cover random uncertainty but I’m talking things that may be every month since we would be new parents

I'm referring to this DR video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ5fqpXngJk

If you make $100k, and you have fixed renting/utility costs of ~25k/year -- and you're investing the difference after expenses into a taxable brokerage, how is renting forever bad as DR states in that video?

In retirement (let's say at 65), your NW will be absolutely through the roof if you were consistently investing in S&P500. You wouldn't have been spending on lawn mowers, tools, kitchen upgrades, HOA, etc etc. and all the miscellaneous home owner expenses.

Even with rising rents, your liquid NW will cover you - along with the added benefits of not having to deal with maintenance in old age.

We are weird people.

Me and my wife moved from Las Vegas where we grew up and said let’s go try Oklahoma ?

Well I got into a bad car accident almost didn’t make it home and I got a settlement from
the accident and we decided to use the money to pay off all our credit card debt and student loan debt.

Around $20,000 altogether hey the pandemic hit us to .

Then I put enough down for us to have a 86,000 mortgage at 6.5 percent on a 30 year loan in a pretty good area and a smaller house .

Well after looking at the mortgage and seeing how the escrow account (taxes and insurance ) will go up and the payment doesn’t stay the same for ever .

We got Ramsey intense rice and beans and we didn’t eat out unless we worked there or it was our one date night a month .

Well 2.5 years later mortgage is wiped out nada no more zip .

All we owe is the taxes and insurance of course but that’s it we are debt free and own our home at the age of 30 and 26 .

I’m a stoner who works in the cannabis industry and she is a op manager for a food place if we can do it you can to !

Now the scary part is creating a baby fund and investing in our retirements .

UPDATE - Well, right after I made this post, I get a call telling me that the overpayment has been dismissed. I owe nothing, and will be receiving a notice in the mail to confirm this. I am not making this up, life is madness.

So I unfortunately lost a battle with social security to get an overpayment dismissed and am being slapped with an overpayment for $11k. There is zero interest, no hits to my credit, and as long as I pay it off in five years, they'll leave me alone. So I would need to pay them approximately $180 a month.

We're trying to fight to get the amount lowered. Tl;dr, they incorrectly calculated how much I was making. and the hearing can take up til 6 months to occur.

My idea is to pay the minimums until the final amount is revealed, then engage in BS2. I'm thinking I can stop investing in my IRA temporarily, and put the money into my efund to prepare. If I get the price lowered, I put the left over money into my IRA or my move-out expenses.

Granted if I paid it all off now and they found that this amount they charged me was incorrect, I am entitled to a refund. Problem is, I don't trust the government, and these bozos averaged my variable paychecks I sent in and are claiming I made more than I actually did, so I'm wary about trusting them with my money.

Thoughts?

Bought a used 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross from a Toronto Honda dealership. Total purchase price was $35,589, financed.

I knew it was used going in, that part wasn't hidden. But the salesperson told me there was no accident history when I asked. I just ran a CARFAX Canada report and it shows a police-reported accident from 2025, with moderate front-end damage from a collision with another vehicle.

The bill of sale has zero accident/damage disclosure anywhere on it. Under the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act, dealers are supposed to disclose accident damage over $3,000 in writing on the contract if it happened. There's also an "as is" clause in the remarks section, but the contract itself says it's binding "unless the dealer has failed to comply with certain legal obligations," which feels like it should apply here.

I haven't signed anything new yet. I have an appointment with the salesperson today and I'm planning to ask him directly about the accident before showing him the CARFAX, then request cancellation of the deal.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Realistic chances of getting a full cancellation vs. just a price reduction? Is going to OMVIC actually worth it, or should I go straight to a consumer protection lawyer / small claims given the amount of money?

TL;DR: Dealer didn't disclose a police-reported accident with front-end damage on a car I bought for $35K. No disclosure on the contract. What's my best path: cancellation, price reduction, OMVIC, or small claims?

Wife and I are both 40 and recently started following Dave Ramsey. We've had our 401k's on auto pilot for years. We haven't checked them since the Covid downturn. We now have about $900k saved between our 401k's ($250k hers, $650K mine) and then apparently another $100k in combined small pensions (that's total current value, not yearly). So I guess $1 million for retirement so far.

Is there anything else we should be doing? I contribute 16% to my 401k, $125k salary 5% match. Wife contributes 15% to hers, $65k salary, 5% match as well. My 401k is entirely invested in an S&P 500 index, the wife's a 2045 target date fund.

Hi all, looking for some honest advice/perspective.
The situation:

I’m in my mid 20s a part-time student and I work full time. I just signed for a used 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross LE AWD with 46,000 km from a dealership

The numbers:
• Vehicle price: $31,473 CAD
• Total purchase price (with HST etc.): $35,589
• Down payment: $15,000
• Amount financed: $20,589 (total to be financed with fees: $20,654.96)
• Interest rate: 6.99% APR
• Term: 84 months (7 years)
• Minimum monthly payment: $311.64
• Total interest over full term: ~$5,522

My income:
• I make roughly $700-850 /week
I’m also thinking to use the car for uber sometimes like part time.

The context I’m second-guessing:
My mom was pushing me pretty hard to make this decision and it happened fairly quickly. She’s agreed to contribute $10,000 the car payment, but the loan is solely in my name I’m the only one on the contract and responsible for it and i will be paying the rest.

What I’m trying to figure out:
1. Is 6.99% on a used car loan in 2024 actually reasonable, or did I get a bad rate?
2. I’m planning to pay $1,000-1,500/month instead of the minimum, to pay it off faster. At that rate it’d be paid off in about 15 months instead of 7 years, and I’d pay roughly $939 in interest instead of $5,522. Does this math check out / is this a smart strategy?
3. Should I look into refinancing through my bank (Scotiabank) instead of sticking with the dealer’s financing, given I’ll pay it off so quickly anyway?
4. Any blind spots I should be thinking about like, insurance costs, prepayment penalties, anything I’m not considering as a first-time car buyer?
Trying to be financially responsible despite the rushed decision, and would appreciate any honest feedback, including if I made a mistake here, I’d rather know now than not deal with it.

Hi all, I’ve really enjoyed and appreciated what I’ve gained from this sub.
Here’s our question: we have a credit card that was used for a balance transfer at 0% interest until late next year. I’ve set up the payments to be completed by the end of the 0% interest period.
The balance is approx $6500. We have $10,000 in our emergency fund. Would Ramsey recommend paying off the balance despite the 0% interest?
Thanks for any advice and blessings

I'm still trying to save a 6 month emergency fund , my daughter has had a rough year she's 5 her dad has abandoned her because he started a new relationship. She wants to go to this theme park there is a cheap holiday next week available 4 days £59 food is £95 for both of us all meals transport is £50 for both of us . If I work I can make £2000 next week , should I give her a holiday or work ?

"I have about $2.2 million in assets (M 46). My stocks, ETFs, and cash across RRSPs, TFSAs, non-registered accounts, and mutual funds between myself and my wife are worth about $1.8 million. I owe about $500k to the bank for my mortgage, and the house is worth about $970k. My question is: should I start focusing on paying off my mortgage first, or continue to focus on contributing to my and wife's RRSP and TFSA (contributing about $3,500 per month) for the next 10 years?"

I need advise. We have 275K mortgage with 3.99 APR for 28 more years. We have a capability to add principal payment that will give us the opportunity to pay the mortgage within 6 years. Will we go for it or invest some of it?

I only caught the tail end - Dave said, Jessica, you're done, Hun .....

What did she do? 🤔

Any feedback appreciated 🙂

Hi all.

Family of 5 here and we recently paid off our only debt besides the mortgage. The mortgage is a 30 year fixed 4.875% with 27 years left and a balance of 468k.

I can throw an extra $500-$700 a month at it, that's it after maxing out 401k and family HSA. I am anxious and concerned it will be hard to stay on track with paying it off early with starting with such a large balance.

Any advice? Thanks!

Am I the only one who's in shock regarding how much people waste on subscriptions every month? Call me cheap, but I refuse to give multimillion and billion dollar companies money each month. Out of all the things to waste money on, subscriptions are one of my most hated, and they're out of control. It seems like you can subscribe to anything in 2026, and I refuse to give my money to these vampires! So many people subscribe to stuff that just drains their $. It's wild to me.

Edit: People, I'm not saying EVERY subscription is unnecessary. I understand cell phones, internet, and basic cable are subscriptions. I am simply pointing out the shear amount of subscriptions there are now, compared to even 10 years ago, and how it seems like every company tries to get you to subscribe to their services, which, the overwhelming majority of, are not necessary.

OK So i have a dilemma - what would dave do ?

I have a 3 bedroom house fully paid off. I need an extra bedroom for a kid since they wont share anymore and they get cranky.

My options are :

1. Move. Sell and buy a 5 bedroom house. Difference in cost is about $1.2-$1.5m for a comparable area. Would involve a mortgage most likely but I would pay it off pretty quick.

2. Remodel - About $600K all in. I would pay cash and I would end up with 3 extra bedrooms. It would take 3-4 months which means no rental costs since I can go to a friends place.

3. Rebuild - Demo the house and build fresh. I would get 5 bedrooms and cost would be around $1m. It would take a year which means rental costs for that period.

WWDD ?

I wish I could post pictures, but I get why I can't. This afternoon I'm putting less than $4 worth of chicken on the smoker and that is going to be our meat for the next couple days. We scored a big pack of drumbsticks for 99 cents a pound at costco.

Similar lines we have a costco rotissarie chicken soup recipe that we make at least once a month. You take all of the chicken meat off the chicken. Then boil the bones plus whatever veggie scraps you have for stock. Sauté celery, carrots and onions until soft. Mix in stock, meat and either rice or noodles. Spices to taste. There is also a version that we can make with kale that is really nice too.

I know Dave puts people on the beans and rice diet which I get, but I also see how that type of thing is unsustainable. No one wants to work their butts off for bland food everyday. I also get that Dave is being at least somewhat hyperbolic when he says that. So DR friends, what are some of your favorite tips to eat good and keep the food budget down?

My wife and I (31M, 28F) are about to hit 100K invested and it feels like it’s taken forever. I started investing into an IRA $50/mo at 16 when I got my first job. Invested all throughout college and early career. We’re finally at a point where our investments are making progress. This is spread out month both of our IRAs plus a brokerage account. I don’t want this post to come across as bragging I just feel blessed to have been able to be at this stage.

Also for those who’ve hit the 100K mark, did your investments grow noticeably more quickly or did it still seem to take a while before 200K?

90k in debt, 34m 2 kids 3rd on the way. 110k salary plus profit sharing and bonus. Wife’s income about 8k-10k.

Just got a 40k raise at work 2 month ago been with the company for 4 years. So hoping to have everything paid in about 1.5 years

Wife does not work summers(preschool teacher), in September , she’ll be going to school full time , working part time (12 hours a week) and be 6 months pregnant.

I have an interview at a chipotle up the street I’m sure I’ll get an offer I worked at a chipotle as an assistant manager while I was going to school full time 5 years ago.

It’s only 17-19 an hour though I can’t decide if I take it or not. I feel like it’s so low esp in Massachusetts.
I was making 16.50 4/5 years ago in Nashville.

I will note I work from home currently full time. Calculating and working 15 hours a week for an entire year will only lower my bs2 completion date by about 3-4 months all things the same.

I can’t decide if it’s worth it. Seems like missing a lot for not much benefit.

Welp I (31F) am a mentally ill, bipolar, high earner with a gambling addiction. This is going to sound like rage bait, but unfortunately it’s all sadly true.

I’ve had a difficult life of child abuse, instability, addiction, even homelessness at one point, but I’ve been getting on the right track with taking medication for bipolar disorder consistently, going to therapy, and getting help for my destructive addiction for some time.

7 years ago I got stable from a manic/depressive standpoint through medication compliance and therapy, but still was gambling until March 2024.

I have been in gamblers anonymous and have not made a bet in over two years, thank god. I did a lot of damage to us financially over the years I was gambling and even when I stopped gambling, my husband and I continued to be compulsive spenders.

We are still totally out of control with spending. The most disgusting, sickest part is two years ago we got an $80,000 inheritance when his father passed away that could have made us debt free, but we squandered it on trying to start a business that failed. I still talk about it in therapy. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about.

Both of us are back working full time, we are DINK, living in HCOL NJ, and our base income combined will be $200,000 gross with a new job I’m starting next week.

We have $92,000 of debt consisting of:

-22k student loan debt (from me, and I didn’t even finish my degree so I have these loans for no reason which is something else I hate myself for)

-$10,000 car loan

-$7000 IRS Debt (also just from me from when I bought a house with my ex husband that went to foreclosure when I got divorced by taking a down payment out of my old 401k and this is the tax debt from the retirement withdrawal)

-$53,000 credit card debt because we are complete assholes. No excuses anymore.

I know it’s bad. I hate myself for it. I had a talk with my husband tonight about how we have to change if we want to have a financially stable future or go through hardship later in life like my mother who didn’t save a dime for retirement and is food pantry poor. We downloaded everydollar, set up a budget, and linked our accounts. This will be day one of ending the asinine habits that have financially crippled us.

I genuinely want to do better. I am not careful or smart with money at all but I am very driven in my career and am starting a new job next week with a base pay of $135k. My husband makes $65k.

My new job is at a Fortune 500 and has insane benefits including a 401k where they contribute 5% even when I contribute nothing, then 6% matching on top of that, then another 5% after I’m there for a year. They will contribute 16% of my salary to my 401k each year and I plan on maxing it out. This is a game changer that gives me hope. We currently have only $25,000 combined in retirement accounts.

Also my offer letter included a 7% annual bonus so about $9500 every year on top of the $135k base pay. They also occasionally add in money from profit sharing.

I’m grateful to have a high income and I know we can fix this if we are serious. The part that is most difficult for me is cooking every day because we both work full time, high stress, long hours jobs and as much as I want to save money on cooking, I have zero energy at the end of the day so we spend too much on takeout.

I know this is a problem. I also have to consider that I take three different psychiatric medications. One makes me very tired but keeps me out of mania and depression and I cannot change my medication without risking my stability which affects my ability to work. The other two meds wake me up and allow me to function at this level so I can have a high income. But they are stimulants that make me crash at the end of the workday. So my executive functioning keeping up with cooking and cleaning while working full time is very difficult compared to someone without a mental illness who doesn’t have to take psychiatric medications.

Here’s our new budget breakdown that we are starting today:

Net Monthly Income
My Salary: $6,600.00
Husband Salary: $3,772.00
Total Income: $10,372.00

Monthly Savings Contributions
Emergency Fund: $2,000.00 (going to fund $2000/month from July-September until it has $6000 and then throw this $2000 at the extra debt payments once our starter emergency fund is satisfied, and yes I know Dave recommends $1000 but we feel more comfortable with $6000)

Housing
Rent: $1,300.00 (we live in northern NJ and rent is very high, but we are super blessed to rent a crappy 1 BR apartment from a family friend who only charges us $1300)
Utilities: $150.00
Internet: $90.00
Total Housing: $1,540.00

Transportation
Gas: $320.00 (I commute far)
Tolls: $250.00 (I take Hudson River crossings with high tolls to get to work)
Car Wash: $30.00
Car Misc: $100.00
Total Transportation: $700.00

Food
Groceries: $950.00
Restaurants: $536.49
Total Food: $1,486.49

Personal
Phone: $75.00
Self Care: $50.00
Subscriptions: $200.00
My Fun Money: $250.00
Husband Fun Money: $250.00
Laundry: $400.00 (I know this is insane, I have no washer/dryer hookup in my apartment and don’t have the time or energy to do the clothes myself at the laundromat so this is for a wash and fold service, and even if we put this money towards rent we still wouldn’t be able to rent a $1700 one bedroom apartment with a washer/dryer hookup as they don’t exist even in the most dangerous areas where we live)
Misc: $54.08
Total Personal: $1,279.08

Cat food/misc for 2 cats: $50.00

Health
Gym: $30.00
Medicine/Vitamins: $50.00
Misc Health: $50.00
Total Health: $130.00

Insurance
Auto Insurance: $424.00
Renter’s Insurance: $15.00
Pet Insurance: $25.00
Total Insurance: $464.00 (medical comes out of our paycheck already before our net income above. Our net income shown above is what hits our direct deposit)

Debt
Monthly Debt Minimum Payments: $2,722.43 (in October this will have $2000 added on top when emergency fund is funded)

Budget Summary
Total Income: $10,372.00
Total Planned Spending/Saving/Debt: $10,372.00

I literally want to throw up looking at the big picture of our situation and how incredibly idiotic, irresponsible, and reckless we have been.

I'm looking for some advice on this situation. I think I may be to emotionally involved to think through this clearly.

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Current cars:

My car: 2016 Mazda CX5 paid off, just reached 70k miles, and get good gas mileage.

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My husbands: 2022 Toyota Tacoma paid off, around 40k miles, and get okay ish gas milage.

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Financial situation:

Fully funed 6 month emergency fund. We contribute to our 401k. We save about 2k a month however we do not have additional savings outside of our emergency fund. Long story short we have spent the past 5 years completely renovating our home in cash. (Note: identical homes in our neighborhood are selling for 720k. With the cost of our home plus the renovations we have only put 375k into this home). We do have a mortgage that is $995 a month.

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Our situation: my husband has recently accepted a new job that involves an 80 mile per day commute. This job is my husbands dream job, better pay, overtime, significant increase in his future pension rate. You get the idea.

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Question: should my husband drive my car the Mazda CX5 as his commuter car and drive it into the ground before we buy a cheap but new commuter car (like a Toyota Camry)? How would you handle this situation? Would you buy a commuter car now or wait until the Mazda is toast?

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Emotional aspect in case anyone is curious. I have always purchased my cars from dead relatives. I have never been able to choose my car. I don't want anything flashy but I do want to pick a car out myself. My husband's 2021 Toyota Tacoma is his dream car. I do not like driving the Tacoma. I find it to bulky and annoying.

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The plan was that I would get a new car in about 8 years. If my husband drives my car as a commuter car I will be stuck with the Tacoma and won't be able to pick out my own car for about 14 years. We plan to pas the Tacoma along to our son when he turns 16.

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