Art,

You said..."However, IMO, some of what he says is just plain wrong. He falls into the category of "Numbers don't lie, but liars use numbers". I believe that he frequently makes incorrect statements or assumptions to prove his point."

Can you be specific about what he says that is wrong?

brodon
I am proud of you for what you are doing. It takes a lot of determination to become debt free. We have seen the damage that can happen to individuals and families by letting credit get out hand. My wife and I worked at paying off our debt for several years and we are happy to finally found financial freedom. We are now helping others through Financial Peace University to reduce and eliminate debt so that they can live like no one else. We sold our sticks and bricks house and we are leaving in 70 days to live on the road in our 5ver and doing volunteer work. We are really excited. Stick with the program and you will make it.

quote:

Originally posted by cruzgal:
...What many people don't realize about the debit cards is that they ALL (as far as I know) have relatively small (like maybe $300-700) single-transaction limits no matter how large the balance in the account is...

I just completed an online transaction where I bought a 4 pc Appliance set from Sam's Club. Bill came to $2,426.25 including tax. Put it all on my BOA Visa Check Card. No problem. I think that there is a differance between debit cards and Visa/Mastercard debit cards.

We have both a Visa and a Mastercard debit card and both have limits, one $800, one $1000 in any one day.

Either of them will lift the limit if asked to do so for a specific transaction.

(Neither is from a "big" bank, they're both local types. Maybe a bank like BOA would have a different policy.)

FWIW...

Brian

We also have a Visa, Mater Card but all have very low credit limits. (Emergency use only)

2 years before going Full-Timer I put $40.00 per weeks in a pot, I now use that money for little thing, like a sunday morning breakfast at a restrant, or an aniversary diner, funniest thing without knowing it, my wife was also doing the same type of piggy bank saving, very nice for little extra.
Mike

brodon....and everybody
being debt free is going to be great. Not having to pay interest on all that borrowed money is going to help the bottom line. We started listening to Dave R. a few years ago and applying parts of his system to our lives, one piece at a time. We just quit making new debt and ,sure enough, all our debt is going away. We are keeping all of our credit cards, but we pay the balance every month. We now save up money to buy big ticket items like motorcycles and RV's. Paying cash has gotten us better deals on stuff. Cash purchaces give you a lot of negotiating power. Venders hate to see that 'cash' walk out the door if there is any profit in the deal. I encourage everyone to get debt free. We are not there yet,22 more months on a mortgage. Still eating rice and beans. And we don't buy anything we can't live without until we are "DEBT FREE"!!
Edit,, one more thing,if you bite off more than you can chew, chew like hell!

Thankfully I have have learned my lesson with credit cards at a young age. I am only 37 and I plan on remaining debt free until I die. The arguement of having a good credit score so that I can go into debt is obsurd to me. If life only deals me a 1974 broke down RV boondocking where I can, I will survive and remain a free man. Being in debt means being enslaved. Maybe I wont ever have all the bells and whistles that life has to offer, yet I don't see that as a life anyhowe. We are getting ready to go fulltime and the reason is to get completely off the grid....or dependency on someone else and that includes banks....if I don't have the money saved , well I just can't afford it. People lose jobs, things happen in life. I can't afford to bet that 10 years from now my situation will be the same as it is now. Many people did that , that is why you see a foreclosure sign on so many peoples homes.......and we have not seen the worste of it yet. I don't care what the stock market says.............sure it's going great a few people are getting richer, that has nothing to do with the reality of life for most people. It just means corporations are growing and we are borrowing more money from CHINA. If our government were individuals they would have been foreclosed on years ago! When we see God bless the USA I don't think it means God bless the Federal Reserve. As a matter of fact the Federal Reserve is no more Federal than Federal Express......a private corporation.

I think the full timers segment of RV society is about to have a massive explosion, where do you think all these people who are now becoming homeless are going to live? Especially since many people consider their RV to just be a toy and are cutting back expenses because they can no longer fuel it......beats the sidewalk for sure and now a used RV is a very good deal.I cannot wait to join the Full-timers club and do life a little differently. I don't see the American dream as being enslaved to a bank, I see it as freedom. I baught my first sticks and bricks house 4 years ago. It's not a castle but it's more than most people ever have. I got more for less because I saved up and paid CASH. Sure I lived on the cheap until I could. Now it's for sale so I can buy our RV for CASH. I am not into this landlocked thing at all. My family has no real roots and I guess it came down the pike to me. I could not imagine liefe revolving around having to come up with x amount of dollars or be homeless.I know I will survive, God will provide and I cannot serve two masters.

I cannot believe the credit card companys have not closed the loophole of paying no interest if paid in full monthly. They loose a lot of money on responsible people but they sit there like vultures waiting for you to have a problem or emergency and if you miss a payment or are late by 1 day it will cost you about 40 bucks and if you need emergency money like you need to have your coach towed and cannot pay it off in 30 days they will be happy to raise your interest rate sometimes higher than a title loan store. lol Once we stopped at a motel in Crescent City California. (before we got a credit card) and they would not accept cash. We slept in our car that night.

Don't feel too sorry for the credit card issuers. While they tend to refer to people that pay their entire balances as "deadbeats", they still do very well on those customers because of the merchant fees. Even at 1.00% (most are considerably higher) for as little as 20 or 25 days use at most, that's quite a return on an annualized basis.

Many years ago, when we were still working we got a notice from our credit union about our Visa card. Since we never carried a balance, paid in full every month, we were putting our credit rating at risk. The way we circumvented this situation was to pay our bill almost in full most months, $3 to $5 short every few months. I am sure it cost them more to carry that little balance each month than it's worth. It shut them up though.

Please realize that there are some instances where it pays to finance an RV. For example, if you have significant amounts of money in IRAs, 401Ks, these were set up so that the money wasn't taxed going in, but rather as it is withdrawn. If we had taken the money out to pay cash for our coach, we would have been taxed at 30% for that large of a withdrawal. So instead, we pay 5.5% and are earning (tax free) about the same (maybe a little less this year - though the overseas funds are doing well) each year. We can, at any time, tap that cash, but are better off leaving it alone until we are required (at age 70.5 yrs) to start taking distributions.

Barb

back on the title of this thread ...

It strikes me that, in times past, the goal was not to retire debt free but rather retire with a nest egg.

People built equity in their houses rather than use it as an asset resource for an inflated style of living.

People put money in savings accounts rather than borrowed money to support a 'lifestyle to which they'd like to be able to afford'

I guess, back then, just not that many years ago, we weren't exposed to so many temptations; the idea that we could live like the rich was considered a fantasy; and real poverty was within a much closer memory.

It is really a testament to our wealth that some can look at retiring at a zero asset point and still expect to live healthy and happy.

Barb,
That is a very interesting point you made about financing your RV, we were hoping to sell our business and buy a RV, but I can see where taking it out of IRA's instead would not be such a good idea. We have both, the Roth which is already taxed and the regular which you have to be 59.5 years before drawing out, then there is the tax that you will have to pay until you are over 70 and then you get the tax break. I believe that is how it works. Anyway I don't want the government to get no more of my hard earned money than I can possibly stand.
With the price of oil going up so tremendously fast, everyone is going to have to make adjustments, makes you wander what's next?
Our biggest concern is staying healthy...as long as you got your health you can still work if only part time......
Some people do not let temptation stare them in the face, and some people will fall for it everytime...it's amazing how debt can creep up on you so fast...instead of living within your means, they are living with their wants...
Wicked Wanda

So many great points in this thread. Brodon, RIGHT ON with your plan for retiring your debt. It doesn't matter what advisor or plan you follow, as long as it works. After failure of a 22 year marriage to an expensive spouse, I entered into a permanent (we pray) relationship with my wonderful wife eight years ago. She had always been very conservative and debt-free excepting the house mortgage. I had not. She guided me to retire my credit-card debt within two years and I feel so fortunate.

Not everyone will agree, but we try to watch every single penny. We, like the Mayers, track all expenses into Quicken. For us, credit cards facilitate this greatly. Cash receipts and internet purchases we manually record. I feel every expense, regardless of mode, is coming out of our pocket because my wife has constructively taught me to be vigilant about our financial status.

As some of the threads indicated, all this takes a little luck too. Misfortune can be so damned expensive and we don't want to duck our responsibilities. I cannot remember who, but I remember being so chafed about someone not so long ago who ran up hundreds of thousands in debt he couldn't/wouldn't accept responsibility for and was seeking protection against creditors. Was he unlucky and therefore forgiven? Or careless/negligent and inevitably drawn into trouble? I don't want to judge but part of me wants to stop rewarding big mistakes. So, Brodon, more power to you and I'm so happy you have time to dig yourself out and can enjoy the positive prospects ahead. It can work with constant vigilance and perseverance.

Good Luck!