Posted on 03/03/2011 5:52:49 AM PST by TheSentry
Credit cards? Yes, a tool. I don’t like to carry cash. I’ve had a credit card since I was 18. It’s great for establishing credit, you just have to be careful. My husband and I use it routinely, but we pay off the balance every month and never purchase more than we can afford. Meanwhile, our cash is sitting in a money market account and accumulating (a measely, but still it’s something) interest the whole month. There’s a lot to be said for being an adult and having some self control. If you know you’re not that kind of person, then go with cash.
All of those sites that buy your old gold are rip off artists, IMHO. You’d have to be an idiot to mail your gold to someone you’ve never met and trust them to treat you fairly. I’ve seen several articles about these crooked schemes. Buying gold is like buying stocks. You’d better be educated, and sell before the value drops. I have a brother who is a successful day trader. I couldn’t make a living at it, however.
I guess I need some more coffee too. I'll drive 15 miles to the nearest starbucks in the newly financed F-450 and give them the Visa card for a Vente Latte . . . with the extra shot of espresso.
Makes sense to me.
Millions of listeners in Kansas City? That’s pretty good.
As a friend of mine says “free money is good money”. Unloading junk gold and getting anything is better than nothing. Hopefully, people are sending Krugerrand’s through the mail.
As a friend of mine says “free money is good money”. Unloading junk gold and getting anything is better than nothing. Hopefully, people aren’t sending Krugerrand’s through the mail.
Why not take your money out of money markets and put it in dividend paying stocks like Ford? They pay 6-7%. There are several strong companies that give similar returns. Beats 0.5%. Spread your money out over several.
Well now we're off on a whole other tangent! :D
You could make the argument that it would be better to invest the extra money that you'd use to pre-pay the mortgage today because of the time-value of said money. Give it more years to grow.
But in my particular case, unless I come into a lump-sum of cash (inheritance or similar) I don't see me prepaying on my current mortgage. I managed to refi when rates bounced low a few months ago and now have a 15 year note at 3.75%; not much point to prepaying that since the per-month accrued interest isn't much and the rate is so low. The only real benefit would be peace of mind.
Sell it to someone local, a jeweler you are familiar with. Sending it to someone on TV who is nothing better than a used car dealer is really stupid. I’ve lost large sums of money trusting people like that. Remember, the louder the commercial the lower the IQ of the target audience. And all the commercials I’ve heard are really loud. I have no problem with selling off what you don’t need, especially when prices are high. Just be responsible.
However, I do find him very similar to a reformed drunk. He's a reformed credit addict. We've used credit over the years for things we needed (e.g. supplies to fix the roof or the water heater, medical bills, etc.). It's been many years (15+) since we carried debt of any kind - mortgage, credit card, car loans, etc.
We got our family through completely on our own, and yes, that meant sometimes we needed to buy essentials on credit. I'd do it all over again if I had to. But every cent has been paid back and I don't foresee having to use credit at any point in the future - our kids have long been grown and out of the house. We have savings, rental properties, and investments. And no debt. As unbelievable as it is to Ramsey, some people do only use credit cards in an emergency.
The last thing that the powers that be want is for Americans to get out of debt and disappear from the financial credit/debt record keeping machinery.
While Ramsey may be wrong, the author of the website is probably not “all there”, either.
He writes that he thinks the idea of “Nudge” (the Cass Sunstein book) sounds like a good idea, and that he actually bought the book and intends to read it soon.
“Sell it to someone local”
Amazingly, that never seems to happen.
Your liberal use of capital letters and incoherent sentence fragments has convinced me of the rightness of your cause.
The reason you should use debt is because you think you will get something better in return for the money you pay in interest.
I don’t see that in 99% of personal debt. It’s mostly to satisfy a desire for more immediate gratification.
“I don’t want to wait until I save the money for this $30,000 car so I will pay someone $42,000 for it”
If you can pay $200 a month to pay off a new roof, why couldn’t you have paid $200 a month into a savings account to pay for the eventual problems? I’m amazed at the # of people who don’t save money because they can use debt.
I guess I don't see the problem. Telling people not to buy gold and then endorsing some gold investment firm would be hypocritical. Telling people not to buy gold and to sell what they have (whether it's a good idea or not) is absolutely, 100% consistent.
Dave Ramsey has a strong track record of helping people with financial problems. While one — and I myself — might disagree with him and some of his advice, I think the vehemence with which one criticizes him demonstrates more of a problem with ones own attitude than a problem with Dave’s advice.
“Fakeover”? “ignorant Ramsey”? “Egotist”? Yeah — take a breath! Ease up! Go to the mountains, relax, enjoy the scenary, rest...
Yes, I agree. When the wife and I take our free cruise next winter I'll raise a toast to Dave. Our current card has enough reward points for a free 7-day cruise for two; many of those points were earned using Other People's Money!
I earned my graduate degree as a part-time student and charged the (pretty high) cost of each class on my VISA. I then paid the credit card balance off at the end of that billing cycle (paying no interest), and when I finished the course my company reimbursed me for the cost of the class and books, but I got to keep the reward points.
According to Dave, that's irresponsible and I should have marched down to the financial office of the school and written them a check for the cost of the class. Instead, the wife and I will be cruising the Caribbean for the cost of air-fare to the departure port.
Even more fun ping!
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