Dave Ramsey rant on Washington, D.C., and AIG

Listen to Dave Ramsey here talk about the problems in Washington, D.C., and AIG. He also proposes term limits to reduce the influence of lobbyists. He also argues the people who "run" this country (our elected officials in D.C.), should know what is going on (as with the AIG bonuses).

10 Myths about credit scores, but ...

A former FICO exec shares 10 myths about credit card scores. It's interesting that in order to have a good score, you have to have debt. Closing credit card accounts will not help you score.

Dave Ramsey repeatedly says he will not worship at the altar of FICO and calls the credit score an "I love debt" score.

Below is a question posed to Ramsey by a caller (or you can listen to Dave's response here):

Question: Caleb has had credit problems in the past, but has tried to clean them up. He wants to buy a house and wonders how he can improve his credit score.

Dave Ramsey's advice: Pull a copy of your credit score and make sure you have no outstanding bad debt or unpaid debt. The second thing that could cause your score to be bad is past debts that have been paid but are still on there. Remember, you don't have to have a credit score to get a house. You have to have cleaned up your bad debts, but if you find a mortgage company that does manual underwriting and can verify that you've paid your bills on time, then you qualify for a premium mortgage. You don't want to spend your life building your FICO score, because it's just an "I love debt" score.

You can also listen to Dave go off about credit scores here.

Another thing to keep in mind, as pointed out on the video, is that your credit score is used for other things (some employers check it, landlords will and some insurance companies offer better rates to those with good credit scores).

So simple, yet so true

Here is a funny skit from Saturday Night Live that Dave Ramsey pointed out: Don't buy stuff you cannot afford.

I have not always made the best financial decisions, but I have been getting better with the help of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes. If only our politicians would get it into their heads about not buying stuff unless you can afford it.

Enjoy.

A little plastic surgery

My wife and I are working toward eliminating debt and have started operating on a cash basis. Here is video from Dave Ramsey talking about how credit cards have not propelled us toward wealth and how some families have chosen to get rid of those credit cards, aka plastic surgery.