Dave Ramsey

This contained quite a bit of cheese, but if you are willing to over look that. I can't recommend FPU enough. While the full class, I felt, was quite beneficial. Merely meeting other families in similar situations to us and discussing verbally was worth the cost of the FPU class. I felt like my time in the class was more beneficial if I listened the the "lessons" on CD before I went to class. If you aren't yet in a place where you can take the full class, borrowing these CDs from your show more library likely would be worth it too.

FPU remains me a lot of a 12-step program "Its simple, but its not easy" But getting direction on how to tell my money where to go, instead of wondering where it went, was surprisingly beneficial. I can't recommend enough. show less

Dave Ramsey essentially takes his "Financial Peace University" videos and lays it out in book from, running through his seven "Baby Steps" for financial peace, from putting aside $1,000 in an emergency fund, to paying off debt, to building wealth & giving it away and everything in between.

I am decent with money, but friends of mine who have taken the class and swear by Dave Ramsey convinced me I would still learn more. Even if you can't take the "Financial Peace" class, this book is show more basically the series of videos distilled. Ramsey comes from a Christian perspective, will often quote Proverbs, and makes the argument that building wealth isn't anti-Christian - it's wise, as long as you have the attitude of a manager and don't look to money for your security. Keep in mind that it's a little easier to read if you have his voice in your head, because he writes like he talks, exclamation points and all. I will also add the caveat that some of his "getting a job" advice is extremely out of date and caution that you will want to check out other suggestions or you will appear really aggressive and out of touch (unless you're in sales, I suppose, it will probably be perfect). That being said, this is really solid information overall and a great starting point for getting your feet wet in finances, from savings to investing to retirement. I highly recommend it to folks in their 20s and 30s just starting out, but someone will be able to find useful information at any age and stage in life. show less

I will say this with a lot of caveats--this book helped us get out of debt quickly and gave us the motivation to stay out of debt and be in control of our finances. That being said, I don't really take investing advice from Dave Ramsey (there are better resources) and we do use credit cards that we pay off every month and reap A TON of rewards from. I understand his schtick and why he has to be this way, but I've also been out of det for many years and am a big boy who can use credit cards show more and understand that credit scores ARE actually relevant.

Overall, this is a great gameplan that will help anyone get out of debt and do it quickly if you're willing to stick with it. Does it make the most sense mathematically? Not really, no. But the whole idea behind the book is to do a debt SNOWBALL and create momentum. Take the smallest debt, kill it, build momentum, take the next biggest debt, kill it, rinse, and repeat. It works, I assume, because it psychologically feels like you're progressing. show less

Really easy to understand and it makes sense. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars was the religious aspect thrown in. The whole last chapter was about giving money, he was talking about the church, but I think donating to any good organization counts.