http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/
Joel and I have been through this program. I started it two years ago before this mess. Now you hear everyone preaching about cash being king, eliminating debt, saving your money, etc... I am convinced the majority of Americans are financial idiots when it comes to common sense financial advice. I admit that I was one two years ago. I don't know everything and not enough now, but a lot more than two years ago! We learn about calculus, english, history, humanities, etc.. in high school. Yet, how many financial classes have we taken? Who gave us out financial advice? You probably learned it through others and by what others and god forbid by the credit card companies... Dave Ramsey is the man and I am starting to hear more of him now. His course, for $99, is the single best $99 I have ever spent on myself. The best thing is to do the course with your significant other, if you have one. That way, you both are on the same page. You also help ensure the strangth of your relationship by getting the financial part in order.
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I agree, Daus.. I actually use a service called mvelopes.com that basically lets me do the envelopes thing without the cash.. Being in sales and traveling a lot, cash is a very hard thing to keep in the quantities I would need.. This type of service lets me allocate to the envelopes electronically and use my Blackberry to see how much I have left in each before I spend money with my cards.. It looks at my check card, AmEx and Mastercard as well and doesn't distinguish between them. If it is spent, it has to be accounted for. I like that. Has made my budgeting life SO much easier..
What does he say about the future of our 401k?
We all assume that by the magic of compounding interest, that we'll be able to retire with a few million dollars by the time we are 58 or so. We use the past 100 years of stock market history to plan the next 30 years of our life.
I am scared that the concept of "investing" is old-school; and "trading" is the new investing. It used to be that investors were "Buy and Hold for the long run" while the traders were the risky, short-term players and hedge funds.
Good companies - whether it be Microsoft, Intel, or GE, have actually given a negative return on the past 10 years. The S&P and DOW, which many Index funds are based upon, are down too.
I'm not convinced that buy and hold is the way of the future. Not of stocks, at least. Sure, you can buy and hold bonds and treasury bills, and get a very small return.
I think the people who are quickest to adapt and to TRADE will outrun the buy and hold Warren Buffets of the world over the next few decades. Communication is now instantaneous - why should and how could money be any slower?
This market crash is horrible and we'd all be fools not to take to heart some of the hard lessons that are all too clear now.
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