Dave Ramsey is one of the go-to experts to help you manage your money better.
Our financial health is important because if we can handle our money in the right way our lives instantly become easier.
Having a lack of money or being in a dire financial position can wreak havoc upon our lives.
I belive this book gives a great foundation on personal money management and if we follow Daves advice I believe we can reach financial freedom.
Below are my top 3 takeaways from this book. I recommend you read the full book. It changed my life.
The Best 3 Pieces Of Advice
” People run around buying things they can’t afford with money they don’t have to impress people they dont even like, and they do it in record numbers. Worse, they seem to get away with it! “
In my own life I try to buy things that actually make my life better or help me improve as a person. I try to invest in myself. Or I invest in things that actually make more money than I’ve put in.
I used to buy expensive clothes which ultimately put a dent in my bank balance. Now I buy nice clothes that are good quality, I just make sure I’m buying them at a bargain or at good value for money. I only buy things if I need them.
Its never smart to buy clothes or (insert anything else) to impress others. All that matters is that you’re happy with the things you buy for your own satisfaction.
Doing things for external praise alone is futile. We’re born alone and we die alone. We need to first and foremost do things for ourselves.
” If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else”
Dave is a big proponent of first of all becoming debt-free ( apart from a maximum of a 15-year mortgage).
Once individuals become debt-free, he talks about cutting your credit cards up and increasing your income in your career.
Once people are debt-free and they’re in full control of their income and they’re budgeting correctly he says to invest 15% of your income in stocks.
If we can take full control of our income and invest properly, later in our lives we can live like no one else.
To put this into perspective if you invested £500 per month in the s&p 500 index fund with an average interest rate return of 10% annually (although historically it returns closter to 12% anually on average since its inception ) for the next 30 years you’d make an astonishing £1,130,243.
On paper this would make you a Millionaire. I think this advice is extremely important. Because investing is so valuable to building wealth.
Because if you invest £0 in 30 years you’ll make £0.
The Office of national statistics reported that the lifetime earnings of working-age people in the United Kingdom equates to £566,000.
The facts are clear, we can all make enough money to do well in this world, it’s how we use it that matters. We need to use money to make money.
According to Proverbs 22:7: “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender” (NIV). I was confronted with this scripture and had to make a conscious decision of who was right—my broke finance professor, who taught that debt is a tool, or God, who showed obvious disdain for debt. Beverly Sills had it right when she said, “There is no shortcut to anyplace worth going.”
Among pop culture Its very common to maximise the amount of debt that we can obtain. In order to finance things we don’t really need. Examples of this are houses and cars well above our means.
Dave believes that we should be paying for everything in full. But he does make one exception. When taking out a mortgage he says take out no more than a 15 year mortgage and pay no more than 25% of your take-home pay on that mortgage per month.
So if someone earns £2000 per month after tax. Dave argues that the maximum term of this mortgage should be 15 years, and that you should pay no more than £500 on the mortgage every month.
Dave’s advice has helped me a lot and I’m sure will help you.
Below are links to Daves work.
henrypaget.com 
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