Plugged into Firecalc:
Start: 3,000,000
Spend: $50K
Years: 60 yrs.
0 SS
0 Pension
Kept portfolio at Total Market
CPI inflation
75% equities: 100% Success
Kick up the spending to $75K: 0 chance of success
I guess I could see the success of a single person, living in Thailand. 50K is the total spending. I cannot see a 34-year-old with kids spending $50K for the rest of his life.
LOL, I remember when I got my first CC... I had graduated college and was making a whopping $22K a year... had to go to the bank and talk to an officer.. he said they were going to give me $750 credit ONLY because I was working for a big accounting firm... otherwise I would not have gotten one...
I personally find some of the Ramsey team members very judgy and a tad hypocritical. Their Facebook group is run by a person [Mod edit] who seems to love booting people out... one wrong question and OUT!
Ramsey is great if you are completely out of self control. For everyone else... he's a recipe to be poor forever. He's lost more people missed opportunity in the past 3 years than any hack just telling a responsible person to take heavy risk in appreciating assets. I had to completely deprogram my niece and their husband who sadly paid for his course. They sat on their hands for 7 years while renting and trying to save up enough for a 20% down payment and a 15 yr mortgage and they were still in their mid 20s. Cost them literally 100's of thousands of rapid appreciation and a chance at historical low interest rates because they were scared to death of good debt at that age.
Everyone must learn the hard way. I had the first talk in 2015. Took them till 2022 to see they missed a life changing opportunity at that time.
I am not a fan....
One of the first thing he says is to cut all credit cards... heck, I get a lot of money back on my CCs... a few thousand... no way I am going to cut that out of my life... for what? to show I am 'pure'?...
I am not a fan....
One of the first thing he says is to cut all credit cards... heck, I get a lot of money back on my CCs... a few thousand... no way I am going to cut that out of my life... for what? to show I am 'pure'?
For all the criticisms of Ramsey, I do think that overall, the guy does more good than harm. We all know people who are clueless about how to handle money or don't have the self-discipline to control themselves with a credit card in a department store ("exhibit A" being my ex) and those people are Ramsey's target audience. While we can quibble about the methodology of paying off the debt, but if the end result is that he gets thousands of people out of debt and in control of their finances who otherwise would not have, I do think that's a good thing.
Right! I must have input something wrong. Heck, $100K spending gives you 100% success! As long as you stay 75% in equities and long bond interest. Again, 0 SS, 0 pensions.I just plugged $75K spending for 60 years with a $3,000,000 portfolio into Firecalc and got 100% success. That's not surprising for a 2.5% spend rate.
Its kind of the Dave thing he will say sometimes to people, "you mean you are done working? What kind of life is that?"
To be fair, the no debt part is pretty darned important. Since I left home at 18, I have had no debt except for a mortgage and a couple of car loans. I've always kept the cars long after the notes were paid off, basically until they could no longer be kept running. And, after refinancing several times to get better rates and shorter terms, we owned the house free and clear after 23 years. In my opinion, that has made a world of difference in my life. So to the extent Dave Ramsey can help people get themselves out of debt, he is doing a very good thing.
Gumby + Frayne - yes on the "no debt".
The Ramsey guys - "we're made to work" - well, yeah we are! Many of us here are working at enjoying the heck out of life... but we're not working for pay. I'm heading out to work on my kayaking this morning. Signing off.....
To be fair, the no debt part is pretty darned important. Since I left home at 18, I have had no debt except for a mortgage and a couple of car loans. I've always kept the cars long after the notes were paid off, basically until they could no longer be kept running. And, after refinancing several times to get better rates and shorter terms, we owned the house free and clear after 23 years. In my opinion, that has made a world of difference in my life. So to the extent Dave Ramsey can help people get themselves out of debt, he is doing a very good thing.
That is exactly right, in order to build wealth a person or family has to get off the debt hamster wheel and failure to do so is hazardous to early retirement. Our society is driven by, you got have this shiny new thing today and it is only x amount for a monthly payment. Dave gets it, as do I would imagine most here as well. The two dudes in the video are a bit out of their element when talking about what it takes to have FIRE and that was the reason for the post. I think Dave would have to cringe just a little listening to this episode.
The last car I bought was in December 2017. I could have paid cash, but they were offering 63 month, 0% financing, so I took it. I just made the last payment in March. So, yes, I also understand that debt can work for those who know how to manage it. But I think we could agree that we are exceptions to the general run of the population, who are all too frequently crushed by debt rather than helped by it.
Heck, most on this forum are not normal...