Baby Step 1: Save a $1,000 emergency fund. Baby Step 2: Use the debt snowball to pay off all debt except your house. Baby Step 3: Fully fund your emergency fund by saving 3-6 months of expenses. Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of household income for retirement.
Updating Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 3:
In the event it takes you six months, those extra three months will put you deep in debt. While he does recommend 3-6 months of expenses, he really should be more firm on six months of living expenses for a nice buffer.
Step 1: List your debts from smallest to largest regardless of interest rate. Step 2: Make minimum payments on all your debts except the smallest. Step 3: Pay as much as possible on your smallest debt. Step 4: Repeat until each debt is paid in full.
Baby Step 4 in Dave Ramsey's best-selling book and system, The Total Money Makeover, is to invest 15% of your gross pay in good growth stock mutual funds. While it is just a rule of thumb, he recommends 15% of your gross pay and not your net pay which means that you calculate the investment before taxes.
The Dave Ramsey Baby Steps:
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 a Roth IRA and other pre-tax retirement plans.
Dave Ramsey has come a long way since filing for personal bankruptcy in his early years. With his estimated net worth of $200 million, he's living proof that anyone can turn a bad financial situation around.
You should save money for three basic reasons: emergency fund, purchases and wealth building. When it comes to saving money, the amount you save is determined by how much you have left at the end of the month once all of your spending is done.
In Baby Step 1, I advise people to save up for a beginner emergency fund of $1,000. Baby Step 2 is paying off all consumer debt from smallest to largest using the debt snowball method. Then, Baby Step 3 is where you go back and grow your emergency fund to a full three to six months of living expenses.
By age 30 your goal is to have an amount equal to half your salary stored in your retirement account. If you're making $60,000 in your 20s, strive for a $30,000 net worth by age 30. That milestone is possible through saving and investing.
Senator Elizabeth Warren popularized the so-called "50/20/30 budget rule" (sometimes labeled "50-30-20") in her book, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. The basic rule is to divide up after-tax income and allocate it to spend: 50% on needs, 30% on wants, and socking away 20% to savings.
The short answer is: Your rent payment should total no more than 25% of your take-home pay. That's the magic number. As mentioned above, your monthly rent should be no more than 25% of your take-home pay.
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