Dave Ramsey, debt, credit cards, retirement, etc

[shawn_NJ]

Dave, I wouldnt be so quick to buy a house, esp now. After I sold my first house, I wish I kept the money I took out of it and rented or moved back home with my mom or dad. Instead I bought another place 2blocks from the ocean. Its really nice, but I would MUCH rather be sitting on the cash I took out of the other place...I'd sleep alot better. Thats for sure.

Now granted there are what appears to be alot of good deals out there....but who knows what the hell is going to happen to the housing market in the next 5-10years. And if they will still be "deals" 3-4years from now. I personally do not see the overall US housing market shifting positive.....for atleast 5-10years. And thats assuming things start turning around in 2010. We really screwed this up.

 

[dbrutherford]

Well at the rate I am going at it won't until the end of this year at least. And even then, I mightjust end up building a place. In my area, prices just haven't dropped. I am looking for a place in the 150k range. But it seems everything newer and nice is 200k+. Now I can afford a 200k house, I just don't want to. But there aren't too many places at 200k, they are all 225, 230, 250 ect... Everything between 100 and 200 are either overpriced crap, or they are so old they would need almost totally remolded. So right now I have only found two homes in the last 4 months I would have bought and they both have sold already. It is a tought decision because I am living at home with my grandparents roght now. Granted i ma living here practically for free but I really need my own space agaon. But when I lived in PA and AL it cost me almost 13k in rent. I wish I had that 13k right now...

 

[Speedfreak]

We have been looking at houses for about 4 years and the deals cant be beat right now. Even Dave says if your planning on buying seen then do it before spring.

We used to look in the 150K range and we were looking for an older home (built in the 60's or so) with a 2 car detached garage with an acre of property. Recently we have been finding houses built in 2000 or newer 2 or so acres with a 2 car attached garage for the same price.

We are going to look at one saturday. We are pretty sure we will make an offer according to what we think of the inside.

3100 square feet of home, with a partial basement, 3 car attached garage another 40X60 garage swimming pool, 5 acres built in 2003 for 180K We wouldn't have even thought about looking at this house 3 or 4 years ago.

Also Daves plan kinda gives you more money to do what you want also. We will be helping another couple lead a FPU class starting the end of march also.

 

[dbrutherford]

Man I wish I could find a nice place. Only few I found I never jumped on and someone else bought them. Lots of fixer up ers but I don't want to buy one of those.

Had a scare/shock at work yesterday. I guess this other big natural gas company near us is restructuring. I think I will be ok with my company because I am in the compressor services group and not the project engineering group. A lot of our projects are getting put on hold so a lot of those engineers are worried job cuts may be coming to them. They are way over staffed.

 

[tnj4life]

Im still paying down our last debt. We had it down to $5500, but I have to pay in $1900 on taxes this year(self empoyed). We're getting some land surveyed soon, my dad is giving us land and we're going to build a house out of our pocket. Were planning on spending less than $50,000 (hopefully) for a 1700 square foot house. We're not financing a penny and don't care how long it takes. I will be doing most of the work on my own.

 

[Speedfreak]

Well I am super stoked... We LOVED the house can't find a thing we would change. Other than add a bathroom in the garage for party time years down the road.

But the better part is we were going to keep our house for a few months maybe a year and hope that the market heads up then put it on the market. But the guy that owns the house wants to down grade and move into town. He lives in his motorhome traveling around 9 months out of the year so we might be trading homes. WhooHoo!!! We might have 60K in a 180K home and no hassles. Wish us luck negotiating...

 

[nightrider05]

Well I am super stoked... We LOVED the house can't find a thing we would change. Other than add a bathroom in the garage for party time years down the road.

But the better part is we were going to keep our house for a few months maybe a year and hope that the market heads up then put it on the market. But the guy that owns the house wants to down grade and move into town. He lives in his motorhome traveling around 9 months out of the year so we might be trading homes. WhooHoo!!! We might have 60K in a 180K home and no hassles. Wish us luck negotiating...

That would be a great deal for you guys! Best of luck JR. Hopefully its still close to the water. Haven't got to do any riding with people around here yet.

 

[Speedfreak]

That would be a great deal for you guys! Best of luck JR. Hopefully its still close to the water. Haven't got to do any riding with people around here yet.

Actually it is a little more distance from the water but shorter time wise since It is about 1.5 miles from interstate exit so I can blow down the interstate instead of going through town.

 

[SuperJETT]

I just watched a local news segment on payday lending and how the state legislature has a bill before them to change the max interest rate from 390% (yes that's 390, not 39.0) to 36% to be more inline with credit cards. Apparently the legislature called an emergency meeting last week on it without any public notice or comment and several advocacy groups are saying due to heavy campaign contributions, the legislators are blocking any attempts to limit fees/interest rates.

I love Kentucky, one of the most corrupt governments in the country.

 

[romack991]

Dave is on lifechurch.tv for 3 episodes. Here's the link if you want to watch. The first episode is up, the other two will come out each week.

http://www.lifechurch.tv/message-archive/watch/life-money-hope/1

 

[oxnard111]

Just got my CA tax refund this morning (finally after filing 2 months ago) and put all toward a loan.

Slowly but surely we're paying them off.

 

[dbrutherford]

Just got my CA tax refund this morning (finally after filing 2 months ago) and put all toward a loan.

Slowly but surely we're paying them off.

It took Alabama about a month and a half to give me mine. I know how you feel...

I just wish mine was more than what it was so I could have paid off the rest of my debt. But a little here and a little there and it will be gone...


Did you change your mind about buyinh a house? I think I will do it this year before the Nov 30th deadline so I can get the 8k back on my 2009 fed taxes.

 

[SuperJETT]

I'm in the process of refinancing our mortgage, and here's the message I got this morning while doing an online application.

It feels good to see that.

 

[Scorn800]

It took Alabama about a month and a half to give me mine. I know how you feel...

I just wish mine was more than what it was so I could have paid off the rest of my debt. But a little here and a little there and it will be gone...


Did you change your mind about buyinh a house? I think I will do it this year before the Nov 30th deadline so I can get the 8k back on my 2009 fed taxes.

FYI- The 8k is a no interest loan you must pay back over 10years.

 

[oxnard111]

It took Alabama about a month and a half to give me mine. I know how you feel...

I just wish mine was more than what it was so I could have paid off the rest of my debt. But a little here and a little there and it will be gone...


Did you change your mind about buyinh a house? I think I will do it this year before the Nov 30th deadline so I can get the 8k back on my 2009 fed taxes.

for now we're gonna hold off on purchasing. if a killer deal falls in our lap we won't pass it up, but we are not actively looking right now.

 

[romack991]

I'm in the process of refinancing our mortgage, and here's the message I got this morning while doing an online application.

It feels good to see that.

What bank are you looking to refinance at? I just refinanced last year at a 6.125% and think i might refinance again since its dropping under 5%. Plus I don't really care for the bank I'm currently at.

 

[SuperJETT]

Republic Bank, they have better rates than our credit union, though I'm going to check with them also.

 

[dbrutherford]

FYI- The 8k is a no interest loan you must pay back over 10years.

No that was last years first time home buyer's tax credit. It was a loan up to 10% of the house puchase cost with a max amount of 7500. You got the 7500 back with your 2008 federal tax return. Then you had two years before you had to start paying it back. The government would take 500 from your federal tax return for the next 15 years.

This year, it is the same deal except up to 8000 tax credit and you DON'T have to pay it back. You have until Nov 30th to buy a house to qualify for the credit. You also have to make less than 75k a year if you are single, and you cannot have purchased/owned a home in the last three years.

I have been reading up on all this stuff. Just google it, it is all over the place.

My sister and bro-in-law just did the 7500 tax credit. They are po'd because they bought their place the second week fo december 08. If they waited another month, they would have gotten the 8k free, instead of paying it back.


http://www.8ktaxcredit.com/

One of the key new items of the $8K tax credit is the repayment requirement has been removed, unlike the $7,500 tax credit.

 

[SuperJETT]

Keep an eye on your federal tax withholdings from your paychecks. Mine changed quite a bit, and would have resulted in owing taxes at the end of the year if I hadn't caught it.

 

[AtomicPunk]

Keep an eye on your federal tax withholdings from your paychecks. Mine changed quite a bit, and would have resulted in owing taxes at the end of the year if I hadn't caught it.

it got me, i usually have a small return, this year i owe. :smashfreakB:

:unitedstates: