@Acct
Jeff's point is don't invest if you only have “a couple thousand bucks”.
That should be emergency fund money or go towards paying down debt. The following are the principals surrounding everything Dave Ramsey has ever said. It is really just common sense money advice that “your grandparents would tell you” as he likes to say.
Step 1: $1,000 in an emergency fund.
Step 2: Pay off all debt except the house utilizing the debt snowball.
Step 3: Three to six months of savings in a fully funded emergency fund.
Step 4: Invest 15% of your household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement plans.
Step 5: College Funding
Step 6: Pay off your home early.
Step 7: Build wealth and give.
These are adaptable to your situation in my mind, while others adhere strictly to the steps and teachings. For example, my wife and I are 24 and 25 respectively with no kids and just bought a house in April. The only debt we have is our new mortgage. We have no car debt, no student loans, etc. We invest over 15% (before employer matches and profit sharing contributions) into our retirement accounts. We haven't started saving for our kid's college because we have no kids.
So we can't say for certain “we are on step 6” or “we are on step 4” like you might hear other people say.
Dave also doesn't like credit cards. We have ONE credit card that we pay off every month which we use for freebie flight miles and goodies like that. We have had monthly statements as high as 10,200 and recently just had two 5,500 months in a row, but they get paid every month no matter what. We only buy it on the card if we have the cash to back it up.
It may seem like a dumbed down approach to finances, but I go to bed every night and sleep peacfully without every worrying about paying our bills, car breakdowns, home repairs, or anything else that might surprise us.
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