Dave Ramsey – The Total Money Makeover
Dave Ramsey has written a fantastic book in The Total Money Makeover. If you are looking for a book to get you out of your current financial position this is a great one to own.
Not only does it contain excellent advice but it also has stories of ordinary people who managed to get out of debt and back on the road to financial freedom.
This is what faithful reader had to say:
enjoy discussions about my finances about as much as I enjoy talking about my weight. I certainly need to work on both, but I’d prefer to avoid the topics if at all possible, thank you very much. Can I get an “amen”?
Dave Ramsey, radio talk show host, author and all-around financial guru, is no stranger to this ostrich routine. After his own bankruptcy he came to the conclusion that the key to financial (and physical) fitness isn’t knowing all the tricks of the money trade; it’s being honest with yourself. “If I can control the guy in the mirror, I can be skinny and rich,” he says in his new book THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER.
In other words, you have to get your head out of the sand. Okay, I have to get my head out of the sand.
If you have your head in the sand and are too worried to do anything do yourself a favor, buy this book put the kettle on, make yourself a coffee and sit down to read what Dave Ramsey has to say. He advises you to do what any fianncial adviser who has been properly trained and has his clients best interests at heart would do – he tells you to get an emergency cash fund of $1000 together first before you start to tackle your debts as less than 50% of Americans could survive financially if they lost their income for a month.
Dave Ramsey advises paying off the smaller debts first – this is a motivational trick. Some advisers will say to pay off the highest interest charged debts first but if you owe $10,000 at 20% and $2000 at 10%, you will get the $2000 paid off much faster due to the lower amount and this will give you motivation to tackle the higher debt amount.
Jessica Lux has this to say:
Finally, a book that speaks to everyone, from those who are complete financial disasters to those who pay their bills on time, but overpend and need to reduce their debt load. Too many books about debt focus only on paying your bills on time and reducing your interest rates, while ignoring the people who have too much debt and are too smart about it, never paying a late fee and keeping it all at low interest.
I have never heard Ramsey’s radio show, but this book was a huge wake-up call for me. It is motivational and it will get you pumped to get intense about reducing your debt load and living only with the cash you have today. The strategies are excellent, the advice is solid, and people have turned their lives around under Ramsey’s guidance. There are a lot of testimonials in this book, perhaps a few too many, but I enjoyed seeing the success stories and seeing the different kinds of people who turned to Ramsey’s method.
Is there anything wrong with the book? Well I think his projections are a little unrealistic especially given our current market situation. You are unlikely to achieve an average return of 15% on your investments but that is not really the point of this book. The idea is to show you how to get out of and stay out of debt and believe me if you had all your debts paid off including your mortgage, perhaps you wouldnt need your investments to give you such high returns!
