Something I keep going back and forth on with Baby Step 3. The usual way is to take a normal month and multiply by 3 or 6. If your month is $5,000, six months is $30,000.

What I keep coming back to is the stuff that only shows up once or twice a year. Car insurance every 6 months, tires, a crown, registration, the dishwasher dying the same week as everything else. Spread across a year, that can be around $500 a month that a normal month doesn't show.

I'd cut travel and Christmas if I lost my job, so I wouldn't count those. Even then six months comes closer to $33,000. That's about $3,000 short, and it would probably show up right when the insurance bill does.

Maybe the answer is a bigger sinking fund so tires and insurance never touch the EF. I like the idea that if it happened last year and the year before, it's a bill and not an emergency.

idk, maybe I'm overthinking it. Did you guys size BS3 off a normal month or the yearly average?

Meant to say *car

By all means we have won the game w baby steps...we are 41, $1.9 million net worth, 2 paid off houses, $550k invested, in our last decade of work with 2 pensions totaling $105k yearly for life, 3 paid off cars (older cars, but all paid off, 2007, 2008, 2016), solid college funds for our 3 kids.

But I still feel the need to stress myself out with car repairs to save money. We have $27k in our savings, but it makes me so frustrated when I have to take the car into a shop. It feels like every time its gona be at least $1k, sometimes it gets up to $3-4k. I try my best to diy, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. When it goes well I save a lot, when it doesnt I know its time to get robbed at the shop.

The steps are supposed to be to give freedom, but how does one actually allow it to offer freedom when you stress the moment a small part of it is gone, the part that was even set aside JUST FOR THIS SITUATION.

I’m down from around $110k in debt to $8k. My current job is mandatory 105 hours per pay period. I could work 7 days a week, currently on 6 days on every other week.

I’m exhausted and it feels endless. If I worked another 8 hours of overtime that’s about $250ish a day take home. I don’t have much time for my family as my wife and I work opposite shifts. So days off are a blessing.

I get a pay raise next month that equates to another $250-$300 per pay check.

Should I keep trucking along with 105 hours minimum or would you guys really work 7 days a week?

If I worked 7 days a week I would make another $750ish a pay period.

Just turned 40, wife turned 40 earlier this year. We've been trying to live under our means here in Ohio with our 3 year old son. Just this month we noticed we hit a milestone for retirement savings, $1 million saved. Our goal is to retire at 55 and withdrawal from our 401k's penalty free using the rule of 55.

• Salary
  • $200k ($125k mine, $75k hers)
• 401k savings
  • $1 million ($700k mine, $300k hers)
  • 16% contribution rate for me, 15% for her
    • 5% match both
• Pensions (these are smaller total value pensions)
  • $110k ($70k mine, $40k hers)
    • At 55 these would have a lump sum cash out value of $275k for me, $175k for hers. However, the pensions are worth more then double if we take payments for 30 years (if we are lucky to live that long) versus cashing out as lump sum. These will be used to pay for health insurance between ages 55 - 65 (Medicare)
• Mortgage
  • $75k remaining, $250k in equity. 15 year mortgage @ 2.4%, 10 years left.
  • $1,100 total monthly mortgage bill (principle, interest, taxes, insurance)
  • Older home, 1600 square feet, just about everything updated
• Cars
  • 1 paid off (hers), I owe $4k on mine (paid off next year, I know should just pay it off...) and will drive it for 5 more years with no payment
• Cash savings: $30k

The single biggest thing helping us financially is staying in our current older home with the lower mortgage payment. The existing mortgage payment has allowed us to weather the higher price of goods and services and maintain our 401k savings rates.

We've been tempted so many times to move and double or triple our mortgage payment at today's higher interest rates. This has been a tough one as ideally we wouldn't mind moving to an area with higher rated schools. We do have School of Choice here in Ohio and are considering putting our son into a elementary several miles down the road that is rated higher versus the one locally that isn't reviewed as well (just decent).

Any suggestion on my budget?

Monthly income- 3100 (after health insurance, 401(k) and legal insurance. Note: I am paying for the legal insurance for my current pending divorce, it has saved me hundreds of dollars and be beneficial throughout the process)

Rent-875 (includes everything except electric)
Electric- 150 (varies, but average cost)
Internet- 66 ( needs the higher speed as i frequently WFH)

Streaming services- 75
Cellphone- 35
Groceries/housing-300
Gas for car - 200 (average)
Car payment - 700 (reg payment 350)
Bal- 9609

Student loans- 175 ( bal 79,000)
Pet food- 60
Car insurance - 175 ( currently looking into getting a lower rate)

NO credit card debt

Income- 3100
Expenses- 2301

Remaining- 624

Savings- 5,000
Pet emergency- 2,000
Car emergency 2,000
Emergency 1,900
Checking- 1,000

I can’t work on the weekends due to my commitment volunteering at my local animal shelter.

I do uber delivery 2-3 times per week earning about an extra 100-150 per week, but that varies

So basically, i own an e-golf 2018, i bought it this january for €10.600. Its fully paid off, no payments nothing.

The problem is, its costing me around €350 a month and im currently broke. I can afford it but i wont be able to save much if anything at all in the next few years.

As im writing this i realise how rhetorical this question sounds but people around me have said that i don’t necessarily have to sell the car, its just what i choose to spend my money on.

Any advice on this would be appreciated, thanks

Edit:
After some comments i guess it comes down to this: is it worth to keep my current car? I can up my hours to 20 a week, so id be earning around €1250 every 4 weeks. I can live without a car, and i don’t really want to buy a cheaper car. At my current income i dont know if its worth to pay this much for a car.

Hi there, I am 42 F renting alone with a fulltime job. My job just offered us a roth to contribute to on top of a 401k plan. I got excited and signed up for a conservative 1% into my 401k and 5% into a roth.
But now, looking at my numbers Im realizing that is almost $200 monthly I cant touch and I am on baby step #1 still.
Details about my situation:
I make now around $2800-$2900 monthly
My monthly rent plus expenses are $2600
I owe $2400 on a creditcard for a car repair I had last summer
I have $100 in savings currently

I cant help but look at what I would have been pulling in before opting into the roth and 401k contribution which would have been $3150 ish a month. That wouldvr allowed me to save $550 per month amd now I can only save $200-$300 per month.
I am getting an extra paycheck plus bonus in January of $3000 which will allow me to completely eeaae the credit card debt and have $700 left over to finish my emergency fund.

Should I try to see if I can cancel my 6% investments being taken out? Or just ride it out, thank you

Which gives me back $700/month to apply to retirement and extra mortgages payments.

I can’t wait to pay off my house next and be 💯 debt free!

I hear the peace you feel after paying off out house is indescribable 🧘‍♀️

I’d like to thank YouTube for pushing Dave Ramsey videos my way. I would never have put my mind to this methodology without his insight.

I'm 38M, living with my 32F partner in a small European country. We're financially comfortable, have very stable employment, and are at a crossroads regarding our next investment decision.

I've been looking at different financial independence strategies, including Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps, and I'd appreciate some outside perspectives on whether our current approach makes sense.

Annual income (NET):

• My corporate job: €45,600 (€3,800/month). Extremely secure employment, with very little risk of redundancy (virtually 0% chance).
• Partner's IT job: €48,000 (€4,000/month). Stable company in the tech-gaming sector.
• Existing rental property: €45,000/year net rental income.
• Combined: €138,600/year, excluding approximately €6,000-€8,000 in annual bonuses.

We deliberately exclude bonuses from our financial planning.

For some local context, the median annual net salary in our country is approximately €21,000, while the average is around €27,000. Both our salaries are therefore considerably above the national average.

Healthcare is publicly funded, although we also have private health insurance. We have a state pension system with a current retirement age of 65.

Mortgages and debt

We own our primary residence and a separate income-generating rental property.

• Primary residence: €250,000 outstanding at 2.85%.
• Rental property: €445,000 outstanding at 0.86%.
• Total outstanding mortgages: €695,000.

The 0.86% mortgage is an exceptionally favourable employment benefit, with a contractually protected interest rate that cannot increase.

We have no consumer debt, car loans or other outstanding borrowing.

At this stage, I don't see a compelling financial reason to make additional mortgage repayments.

With the 0.86% rate, paying it off early seems particularly unattractive financially.

Similarly, I currently prefer investing surplus capital rather than accelerating repayment of the 2.85% mortgage. I understand that mortgage repayment provides a guaranteed return through interest savings, whereas investment returns aren't guaranteed.

If the 2.85% interest rate increases significantly, I'll reconsider.

Annual household expenditure

• Mortgage repayments, home and life insurance: €34,500
• Food, utilities and daily living expenses: €16,800
• Vehicle insurance and maintenance: €2,000
• Holidays/travel (4–6 trips annually where we don't hold back on spending): €10,000–€15,000

Total annual expenditure: approximately €63,300–€68,300.

Our cars are 2007 & 2012 Japanese models and fully paid off, with no plans to replace them.

We enjoy travelling and living comfortably but aren't particularly interested in acquiring a luxury car or unnecessary lifestyle inflation for the time being.

Our estimated annual surplus is approximately €70,300–€75,300, excluding bonuses.

Existing investments and savings

• €40,000 invested in VWCE (Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF).
• 0.12 BTC, some Solana and other minor crypto holdings. We don't consider crypto central to our investment strategy.
• €30,000 held as an emergency fund.

Our equity investments are still relatively modest compared with our exposure to real estate.

How this compares with Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps

I've been looking at Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps and find the general principles sensible, particularly around avoiding consumer debt, maintaining an emergency fund and consistently investing.

As I understand his framework:

• Baby Steps 1–3: Build an emergency fund, eliminate non-mortgage debt and establish 3–6 months of expenses in savings. We've completed these.
• Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of gross household income towards retirement. We're actively building our investment portfolio (proposed 28% of net household income).
• Baby Step 5: Save for children's education - this is not needed - education is free.
• Baby Step 6: Pay off the primary residence early.
• Baby Step 7: Build wealth and give generously once debt-free.

Baby Step 6 is where I fundamentally question whether his approach makes financial sense for our particular circumstances.

Ramsey strongly advocates early mortgage repayment, whereas I consider our mortgages relatively cheap financing, especially the 0.86% loan.

I'm aware his approach prioritises financial security, debt elimination and peace of mind rather than necessarily maximising expected investment returns.

However, given our employment stability, rental income, emergency reserves and ability to comfortably service the mortgages, I'm struggling to justify diverting significant capital away from investments to eliminate such low-interest debt.

I appreciate that Ramsey's framework is primarily aimed at a US audience and our European situation is somewhat different.

I'd be interested in hearing whether people who follow his philosophy would still prioritise early mortgage repayment in our circumstances.

Our actual dilemma: VWCE or additional rental apartments in 3 years time?

We have the opportunity to invest approximately €150,000 in one of two directions.

Option A: Invest aggressively in VWCE

Invest at least €3,300 monthly into VWCE, aiming to build our ETF portfolio to €200,000 initially and eventually €300,000+.

With approximately €40,000 already invested and assuming an illustrative 8% annualised return, we could potentially reach €200,000 in roughly 3–3.5 years.

Obviously, market returns are uncertain, especially over short periods.

The main advantages:

• Diversification away from real estate.
• Highly liquid investments.
• Global equity exposure.
• Minimal ongoing management.
• Long-term compounding.
• No additional tenants, renovations or property management.
• We retain our primary residence as a house rather than converting it into separate apartments.

I like the idea of accumulating VWCE over the coming decades and allowing compounding to do the work.

We could always develop our property in the future. There is no deadline, and we're under no pressure to undertake the project immediately.

We could potentially fund the development using future savings or by liquidating ETF holdings during favourable market conditions, although we're aware that favourable conditions aren't guaranteed.

Option B: Spend €150,000 developing our primary residence

Our existing house could be converted into three separate apartments.

We'd retain one apartment for ourselves and rent out the other two.

The projected figures are:

• Development expenditure: €150,000
• Additional combined net rent: €1,950/month
• Additional annual net rental income: €23,400
• Projected annual cash-on-cost yield: 15.6%
• Total rental income across our properties after development: approximately €68,400/year

From a purely cash-flow perspective, generating €23,400 annually from a €150,000 development is extremely attractive.

The additional rental income could subsequently be invested into VWCE.

However, there are downsides:

• Further concentration in real estate.
• Additional tenants, maintenance, vacancies and management.
• Construction risk and potential cost overruns.
• Less liquidity.
• We would sacrifice some privacy by converting our current home into a multi-unit property.
• We'd have less capital available for ETFs while funding the project.

The projected 15.6% is a cash-on-cost yield rather than a guaranteed total investment return. The development's effect on the overall market value of the property also needs to be considered.

Option C: Take a hybrid approach

Continue investing into VWCE while accumulating capital separately for a potential development in the future.

Given our annual savings capacity, we're fortunate enough that this doesn't necessarily need to be an all-or-nothing decision.

What's making this difficult?

We're in a position where our employment income alone comfortably supports our lifestyle, including mortgage repayments, living expenses and travel.

We don't particularly need the additional rental income.

On the other hand, potentially generating a 15% annual cash yield from property development is difficult to dismiss, especially when compared with expected long-term equity returns.

But our existing property concentration also concerns me.

We have €695,000 in mortgage debt, substantial rental income, and relatively modest equity investments. Combined property value: EUR 1,750,000.

I'd like to develop more liquid assets and diversify our wealth away from property.

Furthermore, the convenience of owning VWCE rather than dealing with tenants is also very appealing.

We're already "taking it easy" which is why I'm planning for an early retirement. We also do not want to slave our lives away to corporate and have a great work/life balance. I mean I could get a job that pays an additional EUR 20,000 a year but I'm 38 and don't want to be sitting in "URGENT" meetings answering "URGENT" emails until I'm 65.

Our objective is long-term financial independence, flexibility, and building wealth without unnecessarily complicating our lives.

What would you do in our position?

1. Follow Dave Ramsey's approach: Prioritise eliminating the €250k primary residence mortgage despite the relatively low interest rate?
2. VWCE and chill: Invest aggressively into global equities, targeting €200k–€300k initially, while continuing normal mortgage repayments?
3. Develop the property: Commit €150k to generate approximately €23.4k in additional annual rental income, then invest that income into VWCE?
4. Hybrid approach: Build our ETF portfolio while gradually accumulating a separate development fund?

I'm particularly interested in how others would weigh the guaranteed savings from mortgage repayment against the expected returns and risks of equity investing or property development.

And perhaps the bigger question: at what point does pursuing higher financial returns stop being worth the additional complexity, reduced liquidity and potential sacrifice in quality of life?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQK_HWhx8SE&t=2s

Checkout the video above. I sympathize with this couple but having a dual income doesn't mean you have the financial freedom with 2 kids, and buying $50,000 cars. That's right, the new car purchased in the video is $50,000+...I had to look it up, has the double moonroof and leather seats in the video. Instead of paying maybe $3k to have a new transmission installed it was somehow "cheaper" to buy (and likely finance) a $50k+ car. Sales tax alone on that vehicle in Nebraska is $3k...

What would Dave Ramsey have said? Stupid decision. You buy a much cheaper, ideally paid off, used vehicle and have a $10,000 or more emergency fund. Then the air conditioner and furnace could have been replaced but nope.

"We spend 2x our mortgage per month on daycare". The $2,000 a month in daycare costs in insane and is a major problem in the United States. However, if you are going to have kids, and multiple at that, then you need to factor that in. Many of these affordability crisis news stories I watch from the mainstream media have families with 2, 3, or even 4+ kids. Kids are expensive.

We will complete baby step q at the end of this month. Here are the Facts:

1. Husband works from home

2. I am a stay at home mom over 13yrs with a BA in psychology

3. Our oldest started public school 5th grade. 9yr old had autism and gets out of ABA at 2pm.

4. After everything is paid we have MAYBE $50 until the next pay check

5. I have applied everywhere and have not found a job.

6. School districts, retail, restaurants, hospitals want me to work at least 8-5, 4-10 shifts.

My husband picks up our oldest and I pick up the youngest.

Car will be paid off next year when husband gets his bonus in March. And I have medical bills and some health challenges undergoing testing and exams.

Family sometimes will help with food and clothes for the girls.

How and where am I supposed to work to speed up the cash flow????

So. I have 122k in business and personal debt. Credit cards, outstanding business debt, old car loans, utilities, Uncle Sam, or King Charles where I’m from. The rental is in a huge growth area, it has doubled in value since I got it in 2020. I have around 100k worth of equity in it. These debts are mostly behind by the way, had a stumble and have been struggling ever since. Currently running business and business has been great. I think I can clear the debt in 6 years max.

Help 😢

I've followed Dave for years, and am officially a baby-steps millionaire.

Several years ago, my mom got herself into a financial pickle and I helped her out. I paid roughly $30k in debt, caught her up on all of her bills, and set her up on a written budget that worked. Giving her money was conditional that she stick to a budget and let me know if she needed any additional help BEFORE going into debt. She's on a fixed income and I knew that if a major expense came up, she was never going to be able to afford it.

Fast forward to now, and I've helped with a few major home repairs (new furnace, roof repair). I've recently noticed that she's suddenly started having extra money that I know she couldn't afford on her budget, namely a new laptop for my nephew's b-day and a week long road trip to the beach.

Here's my concern... I feel like she's slipping back into her old ways of spending now and worrying later. I talked to her about it and she assured me that she had saved the money, but for the life of me, I can't see how. My worry is that she's suddenly going to call me in tears that she can't afford to fill her oil tank, or they're shutting off her power, or something like that.

I was clear in my requirement that she reach out to me before taking on any debt, and that she stick to a budget. My problem is that I don't know if I have it in me to enforce the "or what" if she ends up in a jam. I won't be able to sit comfortably at home if I know she's sitting in the dark or bundled in blankets running a space heater.

How would you handle this?

Dave advises caller to not take medicare AT ALL and buy private health insurance.

I don't understand this. Medicare is usually $250 monthly and covers most stuff. A good supplement plan covers the rest.

We've all paid into medicare our whole lives. So Dave's saying get nothing for that? Why not take what it does offer?

Hey everyone. So just quick question here, once bs 2 is complete and now you’re debt free just got $1000 in emergency fund at the moment that’s all. Do you need to stay intense throughout all babystep 3 living on a tight budget until it’s hit the minimum 3-6 months or can you now at this stage still save money but do it more slower and save for things you genuinely want like a holiday or even just saving for new car things like that? And also is the emergency fund for specifically expenses only not including a fully funded lifestyle (including going out money an fun money etc..) and if so why is that?

I’m 26 I live in New England and work for a truck company as a non Cdl driver and detailer. I take home after taxes and health insurance around 2100 a month, plus my car insurance is around 300 a month and have a credit card payment around 200. Which I have no idea how I’m gonna be able to pay down. At this point just living at home I can barely save maybe 600-700 a month with gas and food prices the way they are, plus I pay my parents 100 a month in rent. Will I ever be able to afford, literally anything lol. An average one bedroom around her is almost as much as I make in a month, and you literally can’t find anything for under 1500. I want my own space to eventually buy a home, is there any way I could make that possible. I have no college degree, so I honestly don’t know what I could do for work. I really want to work in commercial truck sales, however there are only a few dealerships near me however none of them are hiring.

for those of you who paid off debt as a couple, how'd you get on the same page?

seems like a lot of the time the problem isn't even the debt, it's that one person feels like the bad guy, or someone's hiding a card, and every money talk turns into a fight.

what actually helped you two? weekly budget meeting, one person runs it all, a shared app or spreadsheet?

anything you wish you'd had when you started?

I always keep 12 months of living expenses in an emergency fund but more so in case I ever got laid off. I sometimes feel that I could drop down to 6 months living expenses and invest the rest.

We are buying our forever home before we sale our first home.

We are doing 30 year conventional loan with about 30% down. We did same except 20% down on first home and paid it off in 9 years.

Our plan is to move and then get our house on market by December. We plan to recast loan with a large lump sum from current house. We hope to then add extra to principal when we can. we are essentially adding more to our down payment.

We could do extra large lump sum to principal instead of recasting or we could spread out the extra principal payments monthly for about 2.5 years.

what would be the best? how does the numbers compare with each option?

we have no other debt. We plan on saving enough money from our house sale to buy cars when needed. old blue is 16 years old with no problems.

The house here are expensive and saving up for one outright could take 10 years or more. The prices just seemed to keep going up and up and up.

Technically, I should be on Baby Step 6, but I'm hesitant to move forward with it.

My primary home is worth approximately $1.5 million, with only $300K remaining on the mortgage at a 2.5% interest rate. The situation is similar with my rental properties. Their remaining mortgages have interest rates in the mid-3% range, but they don't generate much cash flow due to rising property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs. Together, the rentals have nearly $1 million in equity.

I've also been saving well above the recommended 15% toward retirement.

Now, at 53, I feel financially stuck despite having built substantial wealth. Most of my retirement savings are tied up in accounts that I can't easily access before age 59½, while much of my net worth is locked in real estate equity that doesn't generate much spendable cash.

I had been making extra payments toward my primary mortgage to build equity faster, assuming my job was secure and that I could comfortably continue working until at least 59½. However, with the advent of AI (or Super Intelligence), my job security is in question.

Social Security still feels far away, and if I lose my job, selling one or more rental properties seems like my most realistic option for bridging the gap until I can access my retirement savings. Unfortunately, the real estate market isn't particularly favorable right now, and selling could mean accepting prices 20–25% below their previous peaks.

Looking back, I wonder whether I focused too much on building net worth and not enough on maintaining liquidity.

The Baby Steps helped me to accumulate whatever I have and still I find yourself financially vulnerable because so much of that wealth is inaccessible without selling assets or making difficult financial decisions.

I'm aware of options like the Rule of 55 and 72(t), but using them would mean drawing down my 401(k) earlier than planned, potentially eroding the retirement nest egg I've spent decades building. My goal was to let those investments continue growing until retirement, not rely on them to bridge a period of unemployment. Accessing those funds early would also mean sacrificing years of potential compound growth, which could significantly affect my long-term financial security.

Shouldn't there be an additional Baby Step after Step 4 or Step 5 (May be between Step 6 and 7) that focuses on building accessible savings to bridge the gap between an unexpected job loss and retirement age?

Update: Yes, I got my rentals before I started embarking on Baby steps, was reducing the loan on my primary home since then, but now with job security in question, I'm questioning the approach to pay down my primary as the primary loan is at 2.5%, and I feel I should have kept more cash aside than pay it down. Yes, If I can't find a position immediately after job loss, selling the rentals seems to be the option now.

CLIFF NOTES: The way I see it: Most of BS2 snowball just gets eaten up with sinking funds and BS4 retirement. I believe DR plan provides financial freedom but not necessarily an increase in lifestyle (in the near or midrange term). Obviously once you reach BS7 ( that changes things quite bit).

*********************************************

Long version: I'm curious how others look at this.

If you've spent most of your life relying on credit and debt to pay for medium-to-large purchases, you aren't necessarily going to suddenly have tons of extra money to spend once you reach BS4-BS6.

Why?

You've essentially replaced debt payments with saving/ sinking funds for those same purchases. The money is still being spent; you're just saving the interest you would have paid to finance them.

The upside is less stress and paying less (no interest) for the same goods, services, and experiences. The downside is that you have to wait until you've saved enough to cover a purchase instead of buying it now and paying for it over time.

Here's my situation as an example.

I started BS2 with approximately $197K in debt. It will take me 44 months to get through BS2, and I will pay ~$28,765 in interest during that time.

That's ~$654 a month in interest that I'm no longer paying once BS2 is done. That is 100% savings no questions asked. But the money savings largely stops there I believe.

Assuming I keep the same lifestyle, a lot of that money doesn't suddenly become extra spending money. Instead, it gets redirected into sinking funds for future purchases on home repairs, vehicle replacements and repairs, vacations, and other expenses that I might have previously financed.

Granted, I don't need to replace my vehicles with similarly valued vehicles every 44 months. But to be honest, I typically keep cars between 36 and 48 months, so getting a different vehicle every 44 months isn't unusual for me. After all, that's a lifestyle choice, and I'm not pretending otherwise.

I'm truly not criticizing DR's plan. I see the benefits of getting out of debt and paying less interest. I'm just wondering how much of the extra money people talk about having after BS2 is truly used for lifestyle increase, instead of just shifting how they manage money.

In other words, the biggest benefit to DR plan (for me) is not having more disposable income, but instead It is it having more control over your income.

Now if you do the DR plan in conjunction with a massive reduction in lifestyle overall, that can start to yield massive savings and wealth creation (at the expense of a reduced lifestyle).

I have enough "in savings" to pay off my consumer debt. Should I?

I just paid off my first credit card from navy federal credit, I’m so hyped!

But it was also so uneventful. I remember opening this card years ago. I received a “welcome” email that was all colorful and celebratory. I would get monthly points email congratulating me on the points I earned even though my credit was maxed out and eventually to collection.

But when I finally busted my butt to pay it off and get it down to zero and close it, all I got was a two sentence letterhead PDF:

Dear name,

The balance on account 1234 has been satisfied and no further collections will occur. The account status will be reported to the credit bureaus as “settled in full”; please save this letter for your records.

Collections Department

NFCU

So lackluster, but then I realized it’s because they don’t care because I don’t make them money. I am no longer shackled to these people. Only one card to do which should be paid off early November.

Dont forget to be proud of yourself even if it seems like no one cares.

My question is around paying off the mortgage early. Dave recommends only ever getting into 15 year mortgages, right? If that’s the case, extra payments don’t make nearly as much of an impact as they do on a 30 year, especially with sub-6% interest rates. Does he consider paying it off on schedule ‘early’ since it was a 15 year or does he want you to chuck everything you have at it to pay it off in even less time?

ETA: Damn, some of yall are really intense. I’m just askin questions 🤷🏼‍♀️ I didn’t think it was that crazy

54 M married

No debt except mortgage

Have a paid off 22 Tesla and paid off 19 fusion hybrid

Currently have a company vehicle that is provided to me through wheels. Wheels pays for insurance, gas, maintenance, rentals etc, they delivered the vehicle brand new to me. They are the owner I am the driver.

My employer charges me 28 cents per mile for personal use which I don’t use, but charges me up to 22 miles a day going to work and coming home from work, sort of like if I had an office to go to.

I run a territory, a pretty big one, I drive about 3500 miles a month, about 250 miles a day, Monday through Friday. So I can make my first location close to my house and last location close to my house to make my commuter miles as low as possible. I pay anywhere from $50-$80 miles a paycheck, I get paid bi weekly

I currently use my ford for errands after work, and Saturday/Sunday driving

Company is switching to $65 dollars a pay period flat rate or $130 a month instead of commuter miles.

This actually is easier because sometimes it’s less than I normally pay but now I have full access to the vehicle after work and on weekends, vacations. This use to cost a maximum of $375 a month which is why I never used
the vehicle outside of work

The question is, my fusion has been a great car, bought it right before covid from thrifty car sales with 26k for $13,900, it has about 98k now, about to hit 100k maintenance, coolant exchange, transmission service, new tires. I have only replaced the blower motor for $100 replaced it myself, no issues

Do I keep this vehicle or sell it?

The reason the policy has changed is a merger, I don’t foresee them changing it again but it’s in the back of my mind.

What do you think?