Personal Finance Buzz

I got an email from my little sister the other day asking a question that gets asked quite often…“Which debt should I pay off first?” In most situations I recommend Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method of paying off the debts from smallest to largest, starting with the lowest balance first. The reason being that many people need the “small victory” of getting a debt paid off to help keep them motivated.

Dave Ramsey recently built a new house and paid cash for it. I wrote about it, and a discussion quickly started, which Ramsey himself added to

A letter to Dave Ramsey about my experiences in selling my stuff to pay down debt.

This week, Dave talked about breaking the chains of debt. He went through several, common myths about debt and then told the truth about them. I have to admit, I’ve believed some of them before. Fortunately, I’m still too young to have had the opportunity to get myself into too much trouble. And thankfully, I’m learning how to avoid it in this lesson now!

Dave Ramsey is an extremely popular personal finance guy. I added my two cents by introducing what I like about Ramsey.

As you know, I’m a huge fan of Dave Ramsey. He rocks. Seriously. So I had to go visit him up in Portland, OR to catch up on the latest Dave sayings, advice, and more.

Lots of people look forward to receiving a big tax refund each year. According to the IRS, the average tax refund will be $2,800 this year. That is over $230 a month that everyone is lending to the government interest free. If you are following Dave Ramsey’s plan like I am, that is a lot of money that could be going towards your debt snowball or emergency fund.