Dave Ramsey Financial Management Forms: Fill & Download for Free

A man I follow, Dave Ramsey, is a multi-millionaire after having been bankrupt early in his career. He has created a large corporation based solely on sound financial management. His methodology is to basically save 15 % of every paycheck. Have no debt. Don’t buy new cars or live beyond your means. In his formula you begin investing in a good mutual funds and depending upon your salary, you should have around 1 million dollars in your 30’s. Obviously if you earn more, you can save more and you can get to that total faster. If you spend less, you can also get there more quickly.It doesn’t matter if you work for a startup, an existing company, or create your own, the finances are the same: earn, save and invest in a formula that meets your goals.

Fantastic question. Building wealth is a science. By learning best practices you can bypass mistakes and make smarter decisions.Books are a huge help to access those distilled best practices.Just a warning: the results (gaining financial traction) can be addictive.(a few books I read recently or am currently working on. Principles is fascinating)Classics: These decades old books include time-tested adviceThe Richest Man in Babylon - by George S. Clason. Quick read, timeless advice. You can buy the audiobook on Audible for 99 cents!The Millionaire Next Door - by Thomas Stanley. Great analysis from studies of hundreds of America’s millionaires. You’ll be surprised at how “normal” most of these millionaires are.Think and Grow Rich - by Napoleon Hill. Hill was commissioned to write this book by the great Andrew Carnegie. It delivers and is quoted widely for the insights on how to become and stay wealthy.Proverbs - The Bible (Solomon?). You’d be surprised how much great financial advice is in this book of sayings that’s over 2 millennia old.Money Mindset: Use these books to think correctly about moneyRich Dad, Poor Dad - by Robert Kiyosaki. This book will overturn a lot of the money myths you may believe.Think and Grow Rich - by Napoleon HillFrameworks: Use these to develop a simple framework to build wealthThe Total Money Makeover - by Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey lays out 6 steps to build a strong financial foundation, grow wealthy, and give generously. I love this book, and have also read many books by him.The Automatic Millionaire - by David Bach. A straightforward plan to automatically build wealth. Bach is a great storyteller and takes advantage of new technology to remove the biggest enemy of building wealth - yourself!Unshakeable - by Tony Robbins. I had super low expectations of this book, but it really delivered. It hits the highlights of the most important investment decisions you need to make, and includes a rich set of anecdotes, quotes, and even cartoons to keep you engaged.How to Invest: Once you’ve started building wealth, you’ll want a good strategy to grow it. These are good reads on passive investingThe Investment Answer - by Gordon Murray, Daniel Goldie. I read this on an hour long plane flight. Data driven easy read. Check it out!If You Can - by William Bernstein. Even easier read. This 20 page PDF is meant for Millennials to get the next generation of investors started, and includes a few longer reading assignments.Common Sense on Mutual Funds - by Jack Bogle. This dense tome by the founder of the Vanguard Group should sway you toward picking low-cost, highly diversified index funds.

Dave Ramsey has gotten wealthy and built a media empire from having expanded on a few very simple precepts:If you’re in a hole, stop diggingDon’t buy stuff on credit that you can’t affordMake a livable plan to get out of debt, then stick to the planThis, paraphrased, is his “baby steps.” The problem is that you can’t build the kind of empire Ramsey has using these common-sense steps alone. You have to embellish the message. It also helps to have the kind of folksy, avuncular style Ramsey has. It plays very well with his largely Evangelical, blue-collar audience.(Full disclosure: I am in no way a Ramsey fan. While I acknowledge that many people are better off having followed his advice, I view him as a charlatan and highly adept pitchman who ultimately puts his own considerable profits first)Ramsey has created a cult-like following by fostering the belief that only by following his advice can people find true peace and prosperity. This has been an effective strategy for him; his syndicated radio program reaches 600 stations, his “Financial Peace University” has had some 4.5 million people (at $99 per student) and his company, Ramsey Solutions (formerly Lampo Group) nets a reputed $40 million or more each year.Ramsey’s core audience is people who have a problem with debt. They look to him as a sort of lifeline. He recommends a systematic approach to getting out of debt: the “debt snowball.” Many believe he invented this, but it is just the approach of paying off certain debts first while paying minimums on others. As each debt is retired, the next debt is attacked, with the additional money freed up each month from having paid off the previous account.There is nothing wrong with this approach, although many would correctly say that paying off the highest-rate debts first will have better results mathematically. Paying off the smaller debts first, the thinking goes, gives some small successes earlier in the game, thereby providing ongoing motivation to stick with the plan.Paying off credit cards is a very good idea. As convenient as revolving accounts (credit cards) are, they are a terrible way to borrow money. They are also a good way to get into financial trouble, and many people have. It is very easy to spend a lot of money without paying attention, then pay just the minimum required amount each month (typically 3% of the balance) until the card hits the maximum.It takes a certain amount of discipline to pay off credit cards each month. It takes significant discipline to pay down a large balance, whether on one’s own or by using the methods of someone like Dave Ramsey. Ironically, Ramsey requires great discipline of his disciples, but does not trust them with an active credit card. In fact, he has repeatedly declared, “responsible use of a credit card does not exist.”This statement, of course, is nonsense—and it takes just one counterexample to disprove it. But this does not keep him from railing against almost any forms of debt—with the exception of a 15-year mortgage from one of his “Endorsed Local Providers” like Churchill Mortgage.In his oft-reprinted book, “Total Money Makeover,” Ramsey tells his personal story about how he was a young, millionaire real estate agent in the early 1980s. He lived a lavish lifestyle, drove a fancy car and lived a high life. Then Tax Reform arrived in 1986. According to his narrative, the new tax law caused the bank to “call” the loans he had on his highly leveraged real estate investments. He went broke, filed bankruptcy, then reinvented himself by providing financial counseling to members of his church. He managed to land a radio program and used that as a springboard to the enterprise he has today.The problem with this story—and it resembles the “drunkalog” portion of the typical 12-step talk—is that it is largely an invention. If Ramsey had actually been a millionaire (had a net worth of $1 million or more) he would have been able to liquidate his over-leveraged properties to avoid foreclosure. Second, there is no conceivable reason that the banks would have demanded immediate repayment of their loans because of any change in the tax law. They would have done so because he was falling behind on payments.He is against almost any forms of debt because he knows that is what his debt-distressed followers will eat up. He urges them not only to stop using credit cards, but also to ceremoniously cut up their credit cards and then close the accounts.Closing the accounts is a terrible idea. Having no “active trade lines” means that ultimately a consumer will have no credit score. If they want to get a mortgage, they’ll have to resort to “non-traditional credit” such as rent receipts and evidence of paying utilities, cell phone bills and other obligations. He says that they can get this kind of loan from a “quality lender” who may happen to be one of Ramsey’s Endorsed Local Providers with whom he has profitable partnered.He does not disclose a couple of facts: one, that any lender can offer this kind of loan; and second, that a borrower using non-traditional credit will be treated as though they had the lowest acceptable credit score. This means a rate about .75% higher than for a borrower carrying a 740 score.He advocates using debit cards instead of credit cards. While it is true that they do offer most of the same fraud protection as credit cards, there are a few problems. The first is that when someone is the victim of fraud, the money comes out of their account immediately. While the bank will issue a credit as they investigate the claimed fraud, their card will be frozen and outstanding checks may be returned, causing inconvenience and expense. The results can be more severe than mere inconvenience—especially if the fraud occurs while the cardholder is traveling.Compare this with having several credit cards. One is breached. The consumer notifies the card issuer, locks up the card, but simply uses a different card.In the world of Dave Ramsey, this kind of strategy is undesirable—because, again, “responsible use of a credit card does not exist.”I realize this answer departed a bit from the OP’s question of why Dave Ramsey recommends not using credit cards, but I hope the background exploration was interesting as well.