01 August 2008

Cheating on Dave with Suze

The number one reason I have never read or tried the Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball method is that mathematically speaking, it doesn't make that much sense. Common sense would dictate that you pay the debt with the highest interest rate first, which is what I have been doing these past seven months. Then, today, I read a comparison on the Simple Dollar between the Total Money Makeover and Suze Orman's The Road to Wealth, and now I'm even more confused. What all of this confusion amounts to is, what kind of debt payer-offer are you?

Me, I'm a numbers girl. I love me some Excel files with complex, multi-sheet equations. When my husband and I were together, he would tell me that I would "run numbers" in my sleep. Like I would dream math. (I know, weirdo.) But even a numbers girl has some heart, which is why I went looking for Dave Ramsey and his psychological motivation. After seven months of paying on the highest interest rate card, I was still in a lot of debt. I needed some inspiration.

So, now I read about Suze's plan. I know I have mentioned this before, but I *love* Suze Orman. I love her show- especially the "can I afford it?" segment when people call in and say things like:

Hi, Suze! I want to buy a flat screen tv.
It costs 2000.00. I have 3500
dollars in credit card debt and I owe 10,000
on my Hummer/Escalade/whatever.
I make 75,000 a year and I
live at home with my parents.

Somewhere around the 3500 dollars in credit card debt Suze will start laughing hysterically. Then she'll say something like "Are you kidding me, boyfriend? There's no WAY you can afford that!" and the hopes and dreams of this poor guy are crushed forever. :)

Anyway, now I sort of want to do Suze's plan! But I'm gonna stick with Dave. I made a commitment to him, and I want to see how it pans out. So, I figure it took me 6 months to become disillusioned with my numbers plan, if after 6 months I need another change, it's Suze's turn.

5 comments:

Erin said...

Jamie I've been "doing Dave" :) for a while now and sadly I'm still on baby step #1 :(. I really like his method and the way his plan works mentally. It makes me feel good to see a debt gone even if it was only a $100 balance it is good to have $100 of less debt (did that even make sense?) I'm not a numbers girl though numbers scare me...which is partly why we are still on baby step one and I STILL don't have a budget!.....Maybe I really haven't been doing dave all along after all!

Anyway Love the blog!

Fooferoo said...

I'm not sure whose plan this is but I've been on the paying off the smallest balance first plan.

I'd rather not have a small bill waiting for 10 years while I pay off a larger bill just because it has higher interest.

What can I say, I'm weird :P

Anonymous said...

Hi, just found your blog. There is actually another plan out there that says to pay off highest interest rates first - 7 Steps to Becoming Financially Free (www.veritasfinancialministries.com).
This program is awesome and really helped get us back on track. It's a lot like Dave, but a few things are different.

Anyway, obviously if you have one debt that is only $100, it makes sense to get rid of it, but if you have cc's, student loans and cars that are all several thousand, go with highest rate to save tons down the road.

Amy said...

I recommend taking the "best" things from any plan and creating your own plan. I posted this before in my blog. I focus on DR, but I am open to changes where it is in my best interest.

Anonymous said...

I do that with recipes ;)

true though, each family's specific needs are different, so it does work well to pull ideas from different places.