My wife and I are followers of Dave Ramsey. I listen to his podcasts, have been thru Financial Peace and have even been to one of his book signings.
The Dave Ramsey Baby Steps:
1) $1,000 emergency fund.
2) Pay off all debts smallest to largest following the debt snowball. While paying minimum payments on all other bills.
3) Fully fund the emergency fund to 3-6 months of expenses.
4) Invest 15% of income into retirement. Take a company 401 match where possible, then fill in with Roth IRA’s.
5) Save for the kids college fund.
6) Pay off the home early.
7) Build wealth and Give.
We don’t do everything he suggests to the letter, but we do a monthly zero based budget (using Everydollar). We have an emergency fund, and are in the process of paying off the 401K loan (that was used to close on one of our properties). Our goal is to have it paid off before the year is over.
I would highly recommend learning about Dave Ramsey and following his program. Especially if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
The dogs guide to personal finance 
I have been following the steps for 8 years. It is so worth it to be on the other side of debt. Keep up the great work and don’t give up.
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Thanks Budget great hearing from you,
What step are you on?
We sort of did our baby steps backwards, in 2008 I was normal and had almost $71K of non mortgage debt. I got it paid off and was completely thru step 3.
I met my wife, we got married and then we decided to buy some real estate.
The debt we currently have now was taken on to purchase a couple of properties. We have a fair amount of equity in our rental and could pay off all of the loans with the proceeds if we chose. Right now we like the rental and believe over the next few years (if we don’t sell it before then) that it could end up providing much needed cash flow in retirement.
Having said that, we took out a 401k loan to get the second property, and it is driving us nuts. So we are desperately working to pay it down. In fact this month is looking to be a really good month for getting that done.
Thanks for checking in, hope to hear from you again.
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