Dave Ramsey advice

[btreybig]

A few months ago, I sat down and read the Total Money Makeover. I felt like I had pretty good handle on my money but knew I wanted to have full control of it. I have your everyday bills along with a few that I just aquired due to me getting married. I knew my fiance (wife now), had some bills but wasnt concerned with them to much. Well now the honeymoon is over and we have combined our debts together we have a total of almost $30k in debt. I had no clue that it would have come to this.

We have started budgeting and working towards the debt, but my question is how many of you have traded in your perfectly good vehicle for something less so you can get your debt paid off? Did you regret your decision? I have been really pondering on this hard and not quite sure what I should do.

[fishanhunt]

We did the Dave Ramsey thing. We snowballed everything and it worked great. I didn't do the do the vehicle trading though. My wife drives about 100 miles a day for work so I like to keep her in a car that I don't have to worry about. My truck was almost paid off when we started the program. It took a little longer with the new vehicle but it still worked. I wish we would have stuck with it but it gets a lot tougher when clooege tuition starts eating your paycheck up !!!!

[Hamshire]

The biggest thing I did was sell my bike. It wasn't paid off, I didn't take a hit on it either, so it allowed me to put my bike payment + insurance towards debt.

[flywise]

I have been driving old vehicles for years while my wife( drives a lot for her business) has had new. Nothing wrong with older vehicles. Most these days last a. Dry
Long time. Both mine are over 230k and are just fine.

I started my own Dave snowball and I'm blowing through the debt

[DFWPI]

Well I haven't read or given into his advice, but I know I need anew, more fuel efficient vehicle. Working for myself and last month my gasoline bill was $800.

[hully1029]

ive been contemplating the exact same scenario

[Jet Black]

I drive a 10 year old truck, and it's not because I don't like the new ones. It's just a tool to get you from one place to another.

Edit: But to answer your question, no I haven't traded in a new car to reduce debt. But we did just sell our dream home and bought something half the price of it with the goal of not even having a mortgage by the time our oldest goes to junior high.

Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else brother.

[Charles]

It depends on how serious and how quick you want to get out of debt.

Save early and save often!

[In-Yo-Grill]

It really depends on what your other vehicle is. If you can get into a "beater" vehicle for cash then you could start applying your existing car/truck payment toward your debt. It's a sacrifice but pays off in the end.

[stone386]

How bad do you want it? My vehicle is worth less than 5k, but I am killing the mortgage every month. I haven't had a car payment i years.

[kry226]

The cheapest vehicle to drive is the one you already own.

If you're upside down in your current vehicle, forget about it, or sell it and take a loan for the difference. Better to be in debt $5k over $30k.

If you have equity, there's nothing wrong with selling to drive something cheaper while you're paying off other stuff.

We just chose to pay extra on our vehicles and pay them off. They're now 10 years old and we plan to drive them until the wheels fall off. I'll probably put them back on and drive them some more.

[BigL]

Not really a Dave Ramsey follower but do like the concept of paying off debt. I just paid off all mine.

[HoustonHunter94]

My truck was 4 payments away from being paid off when I started so I kept it. I just got married this year as well, wedding, rings, honeymoon, ect was hard to buy all with cash so we did put a few things on a card but have since paid it off. It is to the point now that I seriously HATE having debt of any kind. I do still have a mortgage but pay extra on it each month while still saving for rainy day and that plot of land I have been dreaming about for years now.

[Landrover]

Driving a beater now in order to drive what you want fully paid is brilliant....(probably less time than you think)...and it sets a huge example for your new wife!

[huntmaster]

I traded a new wife once but never a truck