Caught a replay of Dave Ramsey on the ride home last night (I'm working all weekend, major project due Monday).
I was totally inspired by Debra and John a couple in their mid-40s (Debra is 45) who paid off all of their debt, including their home on 100 acres, in six years. They are debt free at 45!! Debra explained that they paid off $230,000 in debt on a yearly income of $100,000 a year. At the same time they paid for their son to also go to college and graduate school so he doesn't have any debt either.
Impressive! $230,000 over six years is $38,500 a year, which is also 38% of their gross income. I always want to know more about these folks that call into Ramsey's show, like are they also saving for retirement, or do they have an emergency fund, etc. In this instance, Debra at least told us that they were also paying for college/grad. school during this time. I would assume that education costs would run at least $10,000 a year (if not more).
When I got home, I told Mr. Sam and he said "sure, we could put more towards paying off our home, if we cut out more discretionary spending."
While I like to think we live on a pretty lean budget, we could do better (Mr. Sam mentioned something about shoes and how many I seem to own).
Anyways, something to think about.
I love those calls too. I always assume (maybe wrongly) that if they are calling into the show they're following his plan as-written, which would mean they'd be investing 15% toward retirement before paying off their house. I can't wait til our house is paid off too!
ReplyDeleteHi -
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ron Lieber, and I write for The New York Times. Thanks for the link to my column this weekend.
I'm working on a story that I was hoping to talk to you about. Could you please get in touch with me at lieber at nytimes.com dot com?
Yours, Ron
Jackie, Good point. But since we followed his plan, not exactly as written, I'm never sure if the callers are following pure baby step plan or modified plan.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on being contacted by the NYT to hopefully contribute to one of their articles. On a totally separate note, I just (finally) consolidated all my blogs into a single RSS reader on My Yahoo! ... however of all the PF blogs I read, yours is the only one that doesn't seem to have an option for RSS. Is it there and I just can't find it, or is it something that could possibly be added to your site in the future?
ReplyDeleteSo what did Ron Lieber want to talk to you about? Please make sure you link the article if he writes about you!
ReplyDelete