In a previous posts, we reviewed the first six steps of Dave Ramsey’s seven-step guide for reducing debt and building wealth in his book, “The Total Money Makeover“. As we will be covering each of these “baby steps,” as Ramsey calls them, in individual postings, let’s look at the final one.
All Debts Paid. When you complete the Total Money Makeover plan, you will have all of your debts paid off including your home. Without any payments for a car, a house, college, and other everyday expenses, you are free to invest and spend your money to live the life that you always wanted to have. With no payments to make on consumer loans, you can really attack your investing, buy real estate, invest in a small business, etc. The possiblities are endless when you have all of your obligations paid for.
Live Like No One Else. Dave Ramsey is famous for saying several catch phrases. One of his most popular is, “Live like no one else, so eventually you can live like no one else”. With a little bit of pain and discomfort early in life while you live on a strict budget, you can have the life that you always dreamed of later during your retirement years. It takes hard work to live a carefree life with no debts or money worries. It is not easy, and Dave Ramsey never pulls any punches with that respect. But, he does paint an awesome picture of the end result. It is a life of doing whatever you want….living like no one else. Normal life in America is living paycheck to paycheck, poor, no savings, and a mountain of debt. But, it does not have the be that way. If you follow the baby steps, incredible things are possible.
Give Like No One Else. One of the incredible benefits of being debt free and having no payments for loans is that you can give to all of the charities that you want to. You can give freely to your church without worrying about bouncing the check to the electric company. With no bills you can give freely of your time and energy to the causes that mean the most to you. The possiblities are endless, and the world is at your fingertips at the end of this journey.
A Review of the Basic Steps for Saving, Eliminating Debt, and Building Wealth
Ramsey’s program and book, “The Total Money Makeover“, include the following baby steps to financial freedom…
- Step One: Save $1,000 for an emergency fund
- Step Two: Use the debt snowball method to pay off your debt
- Step Three: Complete the emergency fund
- Step Four: Invest 15% for retirement
- Step Five: Save for your children’s college
- Step Six: Pay off your mortgage
- Step Seven: Start building wealth
For the past seven days, I have been detailing each one of these baby steps in more details. Despite being complete with the babysteps, we are still not done. There are two more posts in this series and a book giveaway. So, please be sure to sign up to get all of the posts from the blog in your favorite RSS Reader or by E-Mail and get ready to win your own copy of “The Total Money Makeover”.
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In the aftermath of last year’s financial crisis, and the ongoing jobs problem, I would approach paying off the mortgage in a slightly different way. Unless you can get within striking distance of paying the mortgage in full, don’t do it incrementally. If something should happen, such as you getting fired in this really crappy jobs market, you become at risk of losing your home, including all those additional payments you made over the years. That would piss you off, to say the least.
So I would do this step by establishing a fund into which I can put whatever it was I was going to devote to early payoff of the mortgage. If stuff happens, you can use this fund to keep paying the mortgage on time, so either way, you protect yourself.
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