Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

[Ultralight]

Remember when some folks on here were saying I was not following the Dave Ramsey method closely enough because I was using the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to settle my $165k student loan debt?

Well, this is straight out of Dave's mouth:

"Overall, the Debt Snowball is for relatively small and medium-size debts."

He also outlined some exceptions to his debt snowball, and these exceptions are large debts, like second mortgages, small-business debts (which are personally guaranteed), and rental property mortgages.

His rule is this: "...if the amount is less than 50% of your gross annual income, put it in the debt snowball."

Boom! Vindication.

[mschrisgo2]

Ultralight, just wondering .... was it the DR discussions or disagreement/attitudes over how to discipline Harlan (my way or the highway) that did in the relationship?

[pinkytoe]

UL, I don't know about the university you work at, but your pay seems low for your education and experience. Even admin assistants at the state university I worked at for years were getting anywhere from 38K-80K+. Any sort of degree really bumped up their pay. Wondering too if yours has good health insurance, pension etc.

[Ultralight]

Ultralight, just wondering .... was it the DR discussions or disagreement/attitudes over how to discipline Harlan (my way or the highway) that did in the relationship?

The treatment of canine companions did play role in the break-up. It was not the major issue though.

I am very particular about how my dog is treated. I love dogs.

[Ultralight]

UL, I don't know about the university you work at, but your pay seems low for your education and experience. Even admin assistants at the state university I worked at for years were getting anywhere from 38K-80K+. Any sort of degree really bumped up their pay. Wondering too if yours has good health insurance, pension etc.

I get paid $49k and have been there 4 years. I started at $45k.

Which state are you in?

I know I am underpaid, but how could my boss's boss and my boss's boss's boss make six figures if they were paying people like me what we really deserve? haha

[catherine]

My son has his Master's Degree and is student adviser at a community college and sometimes teaches a class, and he makes under $40k.

[Ultralight]

My son has his Master's Degree and is student adviser at a community college and sometimes teaches a class, and he makes under $40k.

That is not ideal.

[catherine]

That is not ideal.

I'll say. My son the restaurant server makes more.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I'd take any of those salaries. My last job was just shitty database development type work. I'm pretty useless really. But I would gladly do something more useful and retrain (that was affordable and legit, there's a lot of nonsense out there) right now if it could get me almost anything at this point though (well I'd have to be able to stand whatever it was, not like it, just stand it). But so many jobs, so few that pay enough to live off of (not that those that don't pay enough to live off of can't still be hard to land). 47k and I could pay my bills - ok probably on less and in california, yea my bills are not all that high really. That's quite literally all I want from life at this point.

[Ultralight]

I'd take any of those salaries. My last job was just shitty database development type work. I'm pretty useless really. But I would gladly do something more useful and retrain (that was affordable and legit, there's a lot of nonsense out there) right now if it could get me almost anything at this point though (well I'd have to be able to stand whatever it was, not like it, just stand it). But so many jobs, so few that pay enough to live off of (not that those that don't pay enough to live off of can't still be hard to land). 47k and I could pay my bills - ok probably on less and in california, yea my bills are not all that high really. That's quite literally all I want from life at this point.

Something you also want from life is to stay in the city you are in. If you were willing to move to other cities and states you'd have many, many more opportunities. I have moved across the country for jobs, which is a big reason I currently have a job.

When I finished graduate school I moved from Alabama to Arizona for a job. It was somewhat outside my field of study and paid $34k. But I was literally one of a small handful of people in my very large MLIS program to get a job at all. And I was actually hired two months before graduation.

Here are the reasons that my former classmates in the Alabama MLIS program could not get jobs:
1. They wanted to stay in Alabama (or the surrounding states) to "be close to home."
2. They wanted to work in the library of their choice (academic, public, children's, etc.)

I remember people having utter freak outs as they graduated the semester before me and during the semester I graduated. But when I graduated I was fine. I knew I would moving to Phoenix; I was going to be able to pay my bills and have excellent health insurance.

I even told some classmates this: "You have the skills to do the work I will be doing. You could get the same type of job. I had several offers."

They were like: "No! Must stay here" or "No! Must work in certain kind of library."

I was like: "Okay, have fun temping or brewing coffee."

They temped. And they brewed coffee. But they did not have fun.