Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness Paperback – January 21, 2003

This book fell into my hands because my dad brought it home, free, one day from work. Both my mom and I have worked our way through it. The best part about this book is that it's not a, "This is what you do," sort of book. It is truly a workbook, a step-by-step guide of how your finances should be dealt with. Dave Ramsey knows what he's talking about because he's been there. The beauty of this book is that he makes sure your ready to change the way to handle money, if your not, he says, put it down and come back when you are. He won't waste your time. Each step of the way he asks you to stop until you have finished a particular task, like building up your savings account, then you can continue to the next step. My mom and I loved the book so much, we ordered two for my sisters! My mom is currently paying down her debt and I'm currently saving as much as I can.

Dave Ramsey teaches how to SIMPLY manage your money, develop a working budget and to become DEBT FREE!! It's a weird concept, especially for Americans, but since reading this book and taking Dave's Financial Peace University, my husband & I have our $1K emergency fund, pay cash for EVERYTHING, and so far have paid off over $5K in debt in just a few months. We will be completely debt free (except the house) within 2 years and plan to pay off the house w/in 7 years (21 years shorter than the mortgage note). That was something we could have NEVER wrapped our brains around in the past. Now, instead of working to pay Visa and Mastercard, we will be working to pay for our FUTURE!!It's a great read and every person in the USA needs to read this book. I have no doubt, it would do amazing things for our ecomony!!

This book is a game changer I have gifted it to five people thus far if you follow Dave Ramsey's plan you would be successful and is common sense.

Love Dave Ramsey. Cant go wrong with this book.

Good. Because you need to know your math in order to operate this workbook. I learned some interesting things about my finances, but it wasn't anything that didn't shock me. It's more of an exercise in finances. Maybe planning, maybe managing? I'm not really sure. The book is worth a gander. I mean, it's Dave Ramsey. Clearly he knows what he's talking about. But if you're not number savvy you may find it more trouble than it's worth and then you're out the money for the book that you could have saved for a pizza or something.

Dave Ramsey, in only a few words I can honestly say: Life Changing.I was the "free-spirit" in my relationship, and I would spend every penny I made and struggled and lived paycheck to paycheck. My credit score was so bad I couldn't get any credit cards, by the grace of God, and only had 5 debts eqauling over $10k. My fiance, at the time, and I had a lot of opposing views of money. We were told that our pastor would only marry us if we had pre-marital counceling and this book, "The Total Money Makeover", was part of the counceling.We got married and started a budget and failed the first month. Tried again in the 2nd month and failed yet again, but every time we failed, we still had small successes. We might have gone over budget we used it as an opportunity for growth. In the 3rd month we did it. Things clicked and my now wife and I were feeling like this debt she and I brought to our Unity was finally getting under control.We, or I, struggled and saved and learned to tell myself "NO", and to delay my pleasures. We lived in a tiny apartment and saved every penny above bills and necessities, and we were able to put 50% down on a house and and do thousands in repairs. We have not gone into debt, besides the house, and we are on schedule to pay out 15 year mortgage in only 9.My wife and I had a lot of struggles, and our families thought we were poor, even though we have 6 months in our emergency fund. They think we're weird and that our kids are struggling, but nothing could be farther from the truth.We teach our kids using Dave Ramsey's Jr. Series and they're learning to work for their money to spend, save and give. We have 3 kids and our marriage is strong.Now 11 years later I can honestly say:If a free-spirit, like me, can do this, literally anyone can. It's tough and requires a lot of sacrifice, but it has been well worth it. We're on baby step number 6 and we are having the time of our lives. We haven't had an argument about money in 9 years, we have a retirement of 15% going and we are saving for our kids college.Thanks Dave!

I followed his plan and got out of debt

The principles are rock on... but this book is a far better listen than it is a read. There is lots of filler in it... but of course to get it in print it needed filler to make it look like a legit book and honestly there are lots of naive people who need the filler stories to understand why the principles are so important. For me however, it just did not read well because frankly you need to hear the tone of Dave's voice to punctuate the humor in the sarcasm that fills the pages. The likely reason that this book is a better listen than it is a read is because that's what Dave does best, talk talk talk. That's what he does every day. Plus I am sure he didn't write this book. Busy people like Dave with systems and concepts he can regurgitate on demand don't write books, they record them and then a ghost writer helps them fill in the blanks and make it publishable.By all means buy this book, mark it up as a reference. Heck just two or three chapters of it will be worth the whole price but also grab the audio book on audible so that you will listen and understand what Dave is saying. You can probably find a free trial for audible and get the audio version of this book for free as well. Don't just get the audio book though as you will want this book as a reference or at least to sit around and remind you that you are not managing your finances the way you aught to and make you feel guilty enough to one day do something about it.