Dave Ramsey UK? 19 August 2020 at 10:58AM in Debt free diaries 4 replies 844 views

13IsaacM

I am 20 years old and  completely new to the financial world so it is a little daunting jumping straight into it. However, I decided to get control of my finances over lockdown and I discovered Dave Ramsey (for those who don't know he is an American financial expert although he talks about much more than just finances). I started his debt-free snowball technique, applying it to my iPad, Phone payments and MacBook that I have payments scheduled for. It has has had a tangible effect on my life and I paid off my iPad, about to pay my phone off and then only have my MacBook to pay off and I will have payed that off before my interest free period ends if all carries on as it is which will save me over £500. The point is that his advice and money techniques have completely changed the health of my finances. What I'm struggling with is finding anyone else in the UK who listens to him and how much of the practical advice is relevant to the UK, for example student loans is a different scenario and interest rates are different here in the UK from my limited knowledge. I'm struggling to find any sources of financial advice that I can trust and they all seem conflicting. I use Martin Lewis techniques for some stuff but he often says the opposite to Dave Ramsey with stuff like paying off debt (debt snowball vs. debt stacking), so I guess I'm just trying to find a source of advice that I can trust. I think this post is just the first step in reaching out and actually trying to get an understanding of finances in the UK.

blue_eyed_girl123

I guess the ML mantra is once you're out of debt to stay out of debt. So do you have a budget where your outgoings are less than your income. Do you have funds for things that might be extra to this budget - Christmas gifts, holidays etc? Do you need some savings for things like tech etc when your MacBook etc break? Do you have a car and/or might need to save up for a new one? Do you have a pension? Do you have the goal to buy a house and put money aside for that in a LISA for example? 

Hope this is helpful, it's just useful to think about short-term and long-term savings goals and how you might use your money to continue to stay out of debt 😊, although I think a mortgage is classed as a "necessary" debt, unless you plan to save up the full amount for a house. 

joedenise

Budgeting rather income/outgoing tracking is the way forward.  You might want to have a look at YNAB (You Need a Budget).  I and lots of others on here have found it really useful.

whiz90

The flowchart over at the ukpersonalfinance reddit is a good place to start for starting out looking at your finances and working out your next steps and goals after paying off debt. Here's the link: https://flowchart.ukpersonal.finance/
However be warned, if you decided to take a look around the ukpersonalfinance reddit page itself, it is heavily, heavily weighted with users earning extremely high salaries at young ages with large amounts in pensions and investments in the stock market. It's very easy to feel overwhelmed, left behind or like you'll never be able to achieve what other users have, so take some of the posts with a pinch of salt and don't get too invested in them. However it can be a great source for financial advice. 

erin_transport

Love a bit of DR. 

There’s similar mindsets on Uk based YouTube channels. Have a look at mama fur fur and Nicola at the frugal cottage also. There is a fb group for UK DR Debt advice also if you’re looking to chat to others.