In the past 4 years we have:

1. Paid off 42,000.00 in credit and auto loans.
2. Saved 8 months of expenses.
3. Saved 49,000.00 for my son’s college education.
4. Maxed out 4 ROTH IRA’s (30K a year).
5. Paid off our 450,000 home (with a little help from a 125K inheritance).

We both make straight commissions and our incomes have tripled. We really needed this plan to get us “on track” and see the big financial picture. You can argue all you want as to if you “like it” or not.

One thing that I can tell you is this – most people that try and “shoot holes” have never been on our side of the fence. They have never put in the 4 years of work. I have been on your side so don’t knock my side until you cross over and at least try it. If you don’t like it you can always get right back into debt.

And by the way, there is no such word as “IRREGARDLESS”!! Good grief, how about spelling/grammar check?

But there are ways to help people pay off highest debt cards first and maintain motivation. Showing them an easy graphical representation of what paying it off does, for example. Helping them budget. Giving them positive encouragement when they do things right. The list is long, and they are all things we try to do at Thrive, for obvious reasons: in the struggle to help people lead better financial lives, we certainly use every psychological strategy in the book.

I think Kristy sums it up well at the end – you have to show people the difference and then help them build a plan that sustains that. Ramsey is giving you a one-time plan that might help you, and that’s great. But the reason he is mostly concerned with motivation is because he’s not actually helping you every day, giving you tools, helping you touch back on growing your financial life. And that’s where I see online and other tools as critical: where Dave gives you a book, we’re giving you the tools.

And that’s “teach a man to fish” land. Not just saying “do this and it will work for you” but saying “do this, here is an easy to understand reason why, and let me fish right alongside you, so that you can ask me questions as you have them”.

Why? Because, while it might not be the most efficient, it is method that people are the least likely to get burned on. It’s like taking a cross country trip by going the route with more gas stations rather than the one with a few less miles.

If you can do it a faster way, great, but make sure you have the resolve to do it, because you are more likely to burn out. If you follow Ramsey’s method, you might not get mathmatically as far as is possible, but you will get far, and it works almost all the time.

How many of you calling Dave “bad at math” are debt-free millionaires?

If I’m trying to service more debts longer by trying to pay off the larger, higher-interest debt first, I wouldn’t have that “wiggle room.” I like his “lower your risk” philosophy.

Dave teaches you where you live and not from a bank counter where numbers fit “nicely” and conveniently.