In a Total Money Makeover, you won’t use credit, except possibly to pay a mortgage. But you only need to build credit by borrowing and making loan payments if you want to spend your life making loan payments. You need credit cards: People are often advised, particularly when they’re young, to get a credit card to build their credit.The belief that debt is normal and a way to improve your life promotes these myths: The central tenet of the Total Money Makeover program is living debt-free and buying only what you can afford (what you can pay for immediately). You must reject the view that debt is normal before you can get control of your finances. Further, financial institutions, stores, and other lenders aggressively push you to borrow because they benefit when you owe them money. We don’t know how to get a car, buy a home, or go to college without debt, and most people can’t imagine living without a credit card. Debt has become so ingrained in our culture that most people can’t imagine living without it. One of the biggest myths is that debt is normal. People who get into financial trouble do so in part because they believe a host of societal myths about debt and money that encourage taking on debt and spending foolishly in order to buy things they can’t afford. This book lays out what you need to do, but only you can do it. The fix for your financial situation isn’t a bigger salary, a windfall, or a better job, but acknowledging that your poor financial decisions are your fault and changing your behavior. This means that to live a better life than most people, you need to do what most people won’t do-make sacrifices now in return for the payoff of financial security later. The Total Money Makeover motto is: live differently from everyone else in the present so you can live differently from everyone else in the future. The program is intended for everyone-from high earners to people thousands of dollars in debt. In the Total Money Makeover, Ramsey lays out a program for freeing yourself from debt and money worries by changing your behavior: following a monthly budget, buying only what you can afford, eliminating debt, saving for emergencies, and investing. Your financial situation is the result of your behavior, according to radio talk show host and author Dave Ramsey.

To understand why you have money problems-why you’re heavily in debt and can never seem to make ends meet or handle emergencies-look in the mirror.

1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of The Total Money Makeover

The total money makeover summary