Overcompensation or necessary correction?

by Will on November 18, 2009

Megan McArdle has a fascinating article on anti-debt evangelist David Ramsey, whose advice on personal finance sounds pretty darn sensible.

Tagged as: David Ramsey, debt, The Atlantic

Will writes from Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington, Virginia). You can reach him at willblogcorrespondence at gmail dot com.

{ 6 comments }

1 Jaybird November 18, 2009 at 10:42 am

I work with a disciple. He won’t shut up about him.

I can’t say something like “I bought a copy of Dragon Age” without him saying something like “I wish I made Jaybird money!”

Drives me up the wall.

2 Mike at The Big Stick November 18, 2009 at 11:07 am

My wife and I did the 13-week ‘Financial Peace University’ through our church. Basically you spend an hour each week watching a 1 hour lecture on a chapter of the program and then spend 30 minutes in a group discussing strategies, setbacks, etc. It was very informative and also very sobering to hear how much of a pickle our fellow group members were in.

We haven’t stuck to the program completely but we haven’t borrowed money in 3 years, no credit cards and we have reduced our debt by about $10,000. Ramsey’s stuff works.

3 Will November 18, 2009 at 11:16 am

Yeah it really does sound pretty compelling, particularly the stuff about paying with cash instead of cards to better control your expenditures.

4 Mike at The Big Stick November 18, 2009 at 11:59 am

The one thing we don’t do is the cash thing. Instead, if we’re saving for a trip (for example) I will have my wife write a check each week for a portion of our trip budget. This takes the money out of the checkbook so we can’t spend it. Then I put the checks in an envelope. When we hit our target dollar amount we know the cash is in our checking account waiting for us. I know some people who also do the cash method with Monopoly money.

5 JosephFM November 18, 2009 at 2:44 pm

You know what isn’t sensible? Paying 200 bucks to listen to a guy tell you how to be spend your money sensibly.

6 JosephFM November 18, 2009 at 2:45 pm

Ack, how did that stray “be” get in there? …speaking of not being sensible.

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