Yes I think Dave Ramsey has alot of good advise. And in most cases his advice is easier adn more practical for many to follow.

His 1K in an EF instead of 8 months worth of living expenses, makes it easier to optain. However Dave isn't suggesting that you stop putting money into your EF just because you reach that 1K. He means for you to keep adding to it, and keep adding to it when you can. That way, through baby steps you can get a good sized nest egg going to help see you through the tough times.

His debt snowball is pretty similar to Suzie's idea for geting out of credit card debt. The only difference is Suzie says to get out of CC debt before saving a EF, Dave says to save an EF (emergancy fund) first and then pay off your cards as you can. Both suggest you make more than the minium payment, both suggest that you pay off that highest interest rate card first. and to do so by any means necassary with is to cut back or find a way to makre more money.

I do however find Dave more uplifting and easier to listen too, as he isn't doom and gloom the way Suzie is. Imagine telling all of America "you may loose your jobs in 09!" Yea susie way to be uplifting and get ppl to pay off their debt. Now they are all worried that they may loose their jobs so now they will panic and the credit cards will be the last thing to get paid. At least Dave is a cheerleader !

Dave Ramsey, Suzi, and Ali are awesome, try to learn from all 3 , the best.

Yes! We follow the Dave Ramsey plan, are taking his Financial Peace University at a local church and have paid off $5k in debt in the last 2 months. Yes, I said 2 months.

By having a $1,000 emergency fund there when we needed it, we had no problem when my radiator went out in my car and my son's heat went out in his. We use the money from the emergency fund and replenish it asap.

Don't think that you "need" high end cable, huge cell phone plans, dinner out or even a car payment. We own 4 of our 5 cars outright and are working to pay off our one loan in only 14 months instead of the "stupid" 60 month loan we signed up for (won't do that again!).

It's amazing that you can make huge changes for a small period of time that will allow you to live your life debt free and worry free. I encourage everyone to check his site out. I am so happy that someone told me about him and love to pass if forward.

Thank you.... I couldn't agree more. I wish Oprah would have him on. I would love him to tell her viewers:

YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FRIGGIN MONEY!!!

I wish that Oprah would open her eyes to someone else and help people change their lives forever... instead of just fixing it and going back to the same problem again.

While I agree with you, I do have to point out that Dave doesn't say to pay off the highest interest rate first - he says to pay off the all debt from the least owed to the most so that you change your behaviors. I find that this works better as well because your debt snowball seems to go more quickly as you use the money from the smaller debts and put them to the larger ones faster than if you were paying off a higher interest rate first (which may be the largest debt and therefore take the longest to be paid off).

Great comments!

To the best of my knowledge, he was on the show but they had a disagreement and he hasn't been invited back. I've looked everywhere and I cannot for the life of me find the episode, but I know it's out there somewhere!