I must admit I am addicted to the financial evangelist Dave Ramsey, his tagline is “Where debt is dumb, cash is king, and where the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice”
How cool is that?
I have been looking at my fellow UK based PF bloggers and not many of them talk about getting out of debt permanently.
I am an expat so my ideas about money are slightly different than your average Brit as in, when I lived in New York, it was impossible to get an overdraft unless you are depositing a great deal of money every month. So basically if you have a lot of money you can have an overdraft, makes sense huh?
In the UK, a majority of us, regular working folks, live off our overdrafts, well at least most of my friends do, therefore, the circle of debt is incredibly difficult to break. I do rely on my overdraft to cover me when the bills come in and my freelance pay hasn’t, which I know is naughty but unfortunately it has become a habit.
I would love to be able to listen to a UK based financial evangelist to help buoy me up the way Dave does for the Americans. I know I can come out of my circle of debt with one month of extreme leanness. I know it won’t be fun but I get so excited by listening to the people on Dave Ramsey’s podcast screaming, “we are debt free” that I want to be one of them.
In the UK, is it not in our nature to try to try to live debt free? Are we all expecting the State to pick up our pensions? So many of the so called Credit Crunchers that are in our newspapers just tell us deals we can get which of still means spending even though it’s at a discount. How about some real frugal advice? Why aren’t we advised more on how to save in this country. The only person I have found that is similar to Dave Ramsey is the wonderful Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert.com
Rant over – please feel free to put your oar in. See you Thursday
Your thoughts are interesting. My view is that PF bloggers in the UK cover a large spectrum of subjects, some telling of their personal journey out of debt and others advising of the latest deals or free stuff available or explaining how to use cashback sites and the like.
Nobody can tell you how to get out of debt, whether they be your chap in the US or our own Martin Lewis. Martin just tends to tell about the latest deals, the best credit cards, loopholes in the financial sector etc but also gives info on the latest freebies and the like just like a lot of us PF bloggers. To give real advise on getting out of debt, you probably need a background in the financial services industry but for me personally,my blog was born out of a large drop in income and what I do to save money. Past posts have included ways to cut back on utility bills, what bank accounts are paying cashback etc. It is not my idea to make people spend money, but if they need a new mobile, hopefully they can check the blog and find out the latest deal. I am beginning to wonder if people want to save money at all, my reader stats have dropped by half in the last month, such a shame for the effort in research and time I put in…..
Hello and thanks for commenting. Your points are valid about the service that UK Bloggers provide, we all need to know about the deals we can get to help us save money. I am sorry to hear that your stats have gone down, I do think some of the public are getting tired of the Recession and with the great weather we have been having people are most likely spending less time in front of their computers.
My husband’s two adult children, 25 and 28 yr olds, live in the UK and are constantly in debt. This is an interesting article because we did not understand how easy it is to get over drafts. Has anyone found anyone
local in the UK area that is like Dave Ramsey?? If these young people don’t get it together – they will forever be on the UK Welfare System.
Try
http://www.capdebthelp.org/en_GB/aboutcapmoney
CAP currently has 190 centres around the UK and runs frequent courses “CAP Money”
I found you through a Google search for the exact phrase “Dave Ramsey in the UK.” I’m an expat but probably the other way around. As I’m moving from the UK to the US. My fiancee went to FPU and then I joined later. Dave is amazing and although he says that “other countries have a lower spending rate than the US,” I do believe that many youngsters in the UK are foolish with money. I also love that he brings a Christian outlook on debt and money as that is particularly important to me.
My younger brother is unfortunately not being very wise with his money, but I’m sure that with time he will learn. He is at that stage where he thinks no-one is wiser than him and that he knows better, so he won’t really listen to my advice and everything that I’ve learnt from Dave. He never has any money because he uses the “£20 ATM machine” approach. And he is digging himself deeper into student loans. It’s painful for me to watch that happen.
Anyway thanks for this post, I will subscribe 🙂
Hi James, thanks for commenting. I completely agree with you about spending in the UK and it is not only the youngsters. I think the celebrity culture in the UK is so damaging. I feel that consumerism is higher in the UK than in the States. I don’t have any figures for it but that is my feeling.
I also think there is a feeling of uncertainty about the future which makes people spend without thinking it through. The recession that has been going on for what seems like forever and the longest winter in 100 years has given the people of the UK a huge cloud of malaise hanging over them and they are self-medicating by indulging.
Perhaps you should challenge your brother to participate in the next £10 Challenge? I really shows you how much you spend on non-essentials and gives a bit of perspective. I am planning to do one in the next couple of weeks. I will email when it is going to happen.
I enjoyed reading your article. I love listening to Dave Ramsey which I do several times a week over the internet. I only wish I had discovered him years ago. Dave has a ‘take no prisoners attitude’ which I think many of us Brits would vehemently oppose if it was the SAME message but delivered with a British accent. We do not like being told what to do over here in Blighty!
Things I like about Dave.
He is straightforward, he is clear. If a caller is making stupid/unwise/ill informed decisions with their money, he will not hesitate to tell them so. I really like that. He’s not God, but he is God like!! i. do this. don’t do that.
He offers people a plan wherever they are but equally I have heard him say: I cannot help you. You do not have the right attitude. I like that too.
Apart from having a budget every month and trying to live beneath my means, I never really had a plan even as a married woman, I’m embarrassed about this. My husband and I kept things separate and only paid bills together. In the long run, this is a strategy for disaster. I have learnt so much through listening to Dave’s show. And like you, I am looking forward to doing my DEBT FREE scream…sometime in 2017.
Hi Melya, thanks for taking the time to write a comment. I agree with you if Dave Ramsey had an English accent, we would hate him. I adore his take no prisoners attitude too.
It is hard to save money living in the UK – I have had a lot more set backs since the crash of 2008 and am not as close as I would like to being debt free. I still have one big credit card that I am paying of and if I am very good, I could have it done by 2016.