Three Drawbacks to the Dave Ramsey Plan

Carly writes in: I recently bought The Total Money Makeover on your recommendation and I’ve been enjoying it. It seems like a lot of your ideas and Dave Ramsey’s ideas overlap. What differences are there between your ideas? Before I get started on this article, I want to point out that I agree with Dave

Review: EntreLeadership

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance or other book of interest. Also available is a complete list of the hundreds of book reviews that have appeared on The Simple Dollar over the years. I’ve written about 250 book reviews on The Simple Dollar since I started the site in late 2006. Along

Review: How to Have More Than Enough

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance or other book of interest. Also available is a complete list of the hundreds of book reviews that have appeared on The Simple Dollar over the years. One of the first books I reviewed on The Simple Dollar was Dave Ramsey’s More Than Enough. I found

Review: The Total Money Makeover Workbook

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance or other book of interest. Also available is a complete list of the hundreds of book reviews that have appeared on The Simple Dollar over the years. Ronald writes in: I really loved your series of posts on The Total Money Makeover. I decided to pick

Theming in Personal Finance: Do Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett Work Without Jesus?

A few days ago, I met an employee of a local Christian talk radio station. We had a nice conversation about a variety of things, ranging from the programming on the station he manages, people we both knew, and so on. At the end of the conversation, this person gave me a pamphlet describing a

Five Ways I Disagree With Dave Ramsey

During the month of July, I conducted a very detailed discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover. During the process, I realized that on most issues, I agreed fully with Dave. To a degree, this put a damper on the book club. It’s always interesting when there’s disagreement, after all, if everyone conducts themselves

The Total Money Makeover: Live Like No One Else

This is the twelfth of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the thirteenth chapter, finishing on page 218. The Total Money Makeover ends with a very brief chapter

The Total Money Makeover: Build Wealth Like Crazy

This is the eleventh of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the twelfth chapter, finishing on page 218. The final entry, covering the thirteenth chapter, will appear on

The Total Money Makeover: Pay Off the Home Mortgage

This is the tenth of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the eleventh chapter, finishing on page 202. The next entry, covering the twelfth chapter, will appear on

The Total Money Makeover: College Funding

This is the ninth of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the tenth chapter, finishing on page 182. The next entry, covering the eleventh chapter, will appear on

The Total Money Makeover: Maximize Retirement Investing

This is the eighth of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the ninth chapter, finishing on page 167. The next entry, covering the tenth chapter, will appear on

The Total Money Makeover: Finish the Emergency Fund

This is the seventh of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the eighth chapter, finishing on page 150. The next entry, covering the ninth chapter, will appear on

The Total Money Makeover: The Debt Snowball

This is the sixth of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the seventh chapter, finishing on page 132. The next entry, covering the eighth chapter, will appear on

The Total Money Makeover: Save $1,000 Fast

This is the fifth of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the sixth chapter, finishing on page 108. The next entry, covering the seventh chapter, will appear on

The Total Money Makeover: Two More Hurdles

This is the fourth of twelve parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, where this book on debt reduction is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the fifth chapter, finishing on page 92. The next entry, covering the sixth chapter, will appear on

Should You “Debt Snowball” Directly into a Savings Account Instead of a Debt Payment?

The idea of debt snowballing is a popular one: it pushes you to get rid of your debts and get on a financially stable playing field, plus it encourages you to behave in a frugal fashion because you’re setting aside such a large, steady block of money each month to eliminate those debts. What’s a

A Deeper Look At Dave Ramsey’s Seven Baby Steps To Financial Freedom – And How They Apply To Us

In a recent discussion about why I’m looking at paying off debt in the short term over investing, a reader mentioned Dave Ramsey’s book The Total Money Makeover, which basically encourages everyone to follow these seven steps to financial freedom: 1. $1,000 to start an emergency fund 2. Pay off all debt (except the home)

Review: More Than Enough

In the past, I’ve reviewed Dave Ramsey‘s other books, The Total Money Makeover (which I really liked) and Financial Peace Revisited (which I felt was so-so). They both have a similar tack, however, in that they’re both all about Dave Ramsey’s personal finance philosophy – get out of debt before doing anything else. More Than

The Simple Dollar Morning Roundup: Dave Ramsey Edition

This week, my morning roundups are going to focus exclusively on specific personal finance writers. I’ve searched around the blogosphere researching these writers and the takes that others have on them and found a number of good ones. Today I’m taking a peek at Dave Ramsey, author of several personal finance books and the host