^ Or just don't charge anything to your credit card that you can't afford to pay off in full the next month in the first place, like I do. In other words, don't buy what you can't afford.

Problem is, most people don't stumble onto a Dave Ramsey or Suzie Orman until they've piled up $30k+ in credit card debt, multiple car loans, a mortgage they can't afford, etc....

I believe the point behind Dave Ramey's plan to initial save up $1000 emergency fund before paying off your debt, is that in case an emergency comes up, you don't have to go further into debt. I don't know all of Dave's teachings, but I'm going to assume once somebody has paid off all their debt besides their home mortgage, he'd advocate having 3-6-12 months of liquid savings built up in case of a job layoff, medical issues forcing you to miss work, etc...

From what I know of Dave's teachings, he can be extreme, and cut people off from otherwise financially sound practices, however you can't get into any "trouble" following what he practices.

Pretty much spot on. Hes also a big supporter of if you dont have the cash then you dont need it. If you have a car that runs, and you have debt, then you dont need the new car. but if you have no debt, and are driving a 20 year old vehicle he says its okay. He advocates a pretty strict budget... Plus I believe he subscribes to the no debt in 10 year plans...

http://www.geekosystem.com/no-collegehumor-no-bad-collegehumor-do-not-reward-stupidity/

This makes this even worse...

Sounds like to me someone's both an incredible revisionist (nice way of saying liar) and a very lucky man. How come that money wasn't already in a college fund?

While this guy brings bad judgement to a whole other level, imagine the carnival worker that just let him do it.

No integrity. No values. I have always wondered how bad off a person must have it to live that type of life.

I truly feel bad for both people. Now I'm gonna go hug my wife & kids.

My parents did the whole Dave Ramsey deal a few years back. Basically, he tells you to eliminate all debt, and create a sound saving system from there. To eliminate the debt, we had to create a budget that gave us the bare minimum for things (one envelope for food, gas, bills, etc...) and then the rest would go to beating the debt. To actually combat the debt, we were told to eliminate one payment at a time. This basically means pay of your car with every spare penny you have, and once that is finished move to the next payment, ranking them in order of importance and what you could logically pay off.

It worked well for us, and now the only real debt my parents have is our family van, which we got in 2008 I believe, and our house! We haven't found any real trouble yet, because he directed us to have an emergency fund at all times, and the family is getting towards being debt free after a long few years of paying things off. I, for one, am glad we found him when we did!