Dave Ramsey is a good resource but financial planning is a little bit like diets. One size really doesn’t fit everyone. Some people are very disciplined, others are not. Some people have children, some do not.

One of my big beefs with Dave Ramsey was that he advised married couples to work together to reach common goals. That sounds great on the surface, right? But in reality it caused a lot of friction between my husband at the time and myself. I tend to be frugal, he tends to be extravagant. We tried it Dave Ramsey’s way, it did not work, then we switched things up and all of a sudden there was peace between us.

Another issue — different people value different things. I like to travel and could care less about the house I live in. Some people are house proud.

At any rate, I stopped having a formal job in my late 30s. I do work I enjoy and live very frugally. This works well for me but I think most Americans would not be happy with my lifestyle…