The March 24th edition of Time Magazine has an article titled, “10 ideas that are changing the world.” I was excited to see that one of them on the list was living within our means. Dave Ramsey was labeled as one of the strong forces creating this change in our time.
The article made mention of how our national savings rate (savings as a percent of disposable income) has been decreasing quickly – especially over the last 30 years (10% in 1980 to 0.4% in 2007).
But the good news is that they are saying culturally we are making a shift. People are beginning to realize how out of hand this debt thing really is. Granted, many people still are not taking action, but at least people are beginning to realize that it is a problem. This is always the first step.
As Dave said, “Maybe a whole generation will wake up and realize that collecting points on your Discover card doesn’t make you rich.”
What about you? Are you saving more or less than you used to?
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That’s pretty exciting!
While not everyone who could use Ramsey will read Time, it’s certainly progress towards more national awareness. Plus we have Oprah bringing people like Suze Orman on her show…good stuff.
@MM
I am with you – it is nice to see that America may be making a long overdue shift…
I have never been in a lot of debt (apart from my mortgage). However, I am definately saving a lot more money now and I think this is partly because I can afford to but also to do with the amount of media attention lately to the problems being caused by debt.
Dave Ramsey has a very simple approach to getting out of debt and saving for the future. That’s why his plan is so successful. It might not make sense to math nerds, but it makes sense to the rest of us.
I have using Dave’s Baby Steps and am using the snowball effect. I have paid one large bill off and using that money on another medical account. We have alot of medical bills due to my husband having heart problems. We don’t owe any credit cards. So I am working my way to freedom.
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