One other thing, they’ve shown excerpts of Ramsey’s DVDs at church to encourage people to sign up. In one of them, he’s giving an illustration and makes a joke about someone having a “Prozac moment” in reference to spending more than they earn. I was tempted to laugh, but started thinking about the implications of his joke. People who take Prozac are not stupid or even mildly forgetful. I think if I was taking Prozac, I’d be offended by Ramsey’s comment. That’s another reason I’m not going to spend my hard-earned money on his program.

And, as to having a reasonable paycheck to make it work, definitely, that is important. To tell someone “oh, let’s be victims” because they’ve stated they’re near poverty level is down right rude. There is no reason to respond to someone is such a manner, most especially since Mr. Ramsey aims his products particularly at Christians. Regardless of your belief system, to respond in such a manner shows your lack of respect for those, and I have been there, who are living hand to mouth. Try it some time – it is not fun.

As to Mr. Ramsey’s product/plan/advice, I’ve heard from many that it does work. You just need to stay strong and stick to a budget, just like a diet plan, you won’t see result unless you put the work in.

God’s Blessings y’all. Remember, be kind and polite to one another. Money’s not something you can take with you once you meet your maker anyway.

@ Terry: I understand what you are going through. I have no car, no license, and do not have a huge variety of earthly practical resources and support. It is very tough when you don’t have some conveniences that a lot of middle class people take for granted. Sometimes people just don’t understand how hard it can be when you lack resources that are common to many people.

Though I have not climbed out of my debt yet, I have made some advances toward a better life that have paid off. For the longest time I could not find work because I do not have a higher education degree. However, I kept submitting applications, and really worked on presenting myself in the best light on my resume by really thinking about the beneficial things I brought to past jobs. I sat down with a career counselor (free at a local employment / department of labor office) who helped me revise my resume to be more marketable.

Not having wheels can make doing things more difficult, so I decided to try to educate myself online. If you can, go to YouTube and watch some videos on some skills that can help you get you higher paying jobs (Microsoft Office Suite: Word, Excel, etc). After you make sure you grasp the concepts by trying them on your own computer you can put them down as a skill on your resume. Emagister.co.uk has free courses online in a variety of topics. You can take their free courses on what you are professionally interested in, and then put it on your resume in the education section. It really can bolster your resume and make you look like a more desirable candidate. Also, I found out through my career counselor that there is something called “WIA”. You can contact your state unemployment office or dept of labor about it. Basically WIA is a program that will PAY for you to get training in a skill if you are having trouble getting gainful employment. There are a variety of training courses you can select from and some of them you can even complete totally online! The benefit is not only do you gain new skills, you can put them on your resume and it makes you more marketable and current.

Temp agencies are good too. Usually they have you take a skills test for office jobs (which usually tests you on Microsoft Word & Excel). (So it is a good idea to check out some online tutorials on these programs if you don’t have them.) If you score low on the skills test at the temp agency, some of them offer remedial skills training to get you up to speed, but you may need to ask.

Regarding a car… You may want to call 211 or do some Google searches on charitable programs that will help you get a car. There are programs out there that can help you get a car if you show you are employed but lack the financial means for a car.

With prayer and some creative thinking and diligent effort you CAN improve your situation. I put in some diligent work and relied on God, and He provided me with a job that pays way more than I ever thought I would or could ever get paid. (By the way this job was through a temp agency). Don’t lose faith. Sometimes it is hard not to when it seems like there are many obstacles; and it’s easy to get bitter. One time I even told myself and others outright that I had decided to settle for a life of mediocrity, because it seemed so hard to get ahead in my own life. Afterward, God prodded me though to keep making small steps and trying different things and to not give up faith. If you give up it will prevent you from getting ahead in your situation.

Try to turn what you perceive as being against you in getting a job to work for you. You mentioned being over 50. You can use that as a benefit in your favor when contacting a potential employer. You have experience that a 20 year old doesn’t; real world experience counts here too, not just professional experience. You are bringing a total package to a potential employer. And I am sure that is not the only thing you have to offer. You said you were really good before at delivering pizzas. Why? What made you really good at it? Did you deliver them very promptly? Offer outstanding customer service? Did you just like the feeling of doing a job with excellence? These are marketable skills, and skills that employers really value. Obviously what made you good at your job reflects what you value, and therefore have that to offer as a benefit.

Turn your negative experiences into positives. Over the past year I went on interview after interview and did not get a job. However, now I am so rehearsed at interviews I can walk into them with ease and confidence I did not have before. Learning about, writing and sending out so many cover letters repeatedly has helped me to be able to write a winning cover letter. I didn’t have these skills before I went through this long period of repeatedly trying and failing. Having to repeatedly and creatively work at getting ahead has helped me gain some very useful skills and has pushed me toward personal excellence.

It seems like you see yourself in a somewhat negative light. I am going to encourage you to do an all out inventory of what you have to offer (your skills, your values, etc), in general and to a potential employer. I’m sure you will find you have some valuable attributes; and I’m sure you will find there are more beneficial things you have to offer than you initially thought. I think you need to realize and KNOW your own worth.

My advice is to take manageable steps in working on what is holding you back, be it lack of skills, lack of a car, etc. I personally wrote my limitations in the form of a list along with some healthy creative ideas to become capable in those areas. Then I took the first steps toward achieving success in those areas. For me, once I took the first steps and then just kept following the next logical step in front of me it created a momentum and made my limitations less like limitations and more like problems that can be solved with some intentional steps.

I hope this was helpful to you in some way. If you have any questions about any of the stuff I mentioned in here I can be reached at: lalarah@hotmail.com

God bless you.

Like Terry, who I can relate to, I am below poverty level. Totally cut off, no job, no car, no $ to even pay for a car, living with my folks temporarily because I can’t even afford to make any kind of rent, very, very, very few personal possessions, let alone “toys”, I have disabilities which make it difficult to FIND work, let alone DO the work without having illness and attendance problems, etc. It’s a dire, “hopeless” situation. I have debt, ONLY because I had to do SOMETHING to survive day by day. I don’t believe in credit cards, actually, and was extremely hesitant to get one. I didn’t get my first credit card until recently, at 32 years old! I had a job at the time…….

So basically, just “getting going” with Dave’s plan, is a HUGE task for me. Getting “current” wth my necessities is a very large hill; getting “current” with my bills? A major mountain in itself. And that’s BEFORE the Baby Steps begin! I am bound and determined to do this, though, modified of course to suit my situation. Even though I have this massive mountain in front of me to just get started, though, I see light up ahead. I have done samples of the debt snowball, suited to my irregular income and “pro-rata” figuring of debts. That snowball is VERY impressive, and in those samples, I had 4 debts chopped off inside of 3 months! That gave me a lot of HOPE and MOTIVATION.

What am I going to do about income? Well, that’s the kicker these days. In this economy it’s difficult finding a job, more difficult if you are disabled. But, it is not IMPOSSIBLE. I am out job hunting a LOT, although it is admittedly discouraging. I find that I do better when I am able to do things to make $ from home. So, I am also doing that. I make these little Disciple’s Cross necklaces, and they sell like hotcakes, literally!!! Thankfully I had just barely enough of a tiny cushion in my bank account to invest in a starter kit. I swear to this, I wear a necklace less than 5 minutes, oftentimes, and it’s SOLD, BOOM! With orders and requests to make more always coming. Today I sold 3, just by wearing 1. ANd I JUST started this venture! I feel good that I can give honest days’ hard work with the labor of my hands and heart, and not worry about being fired, or getting sick, and that I am giving myself a jumpstart to financial freedom. My hands hurt, my back hurts, etc., but you know what?? THAT’S OKAY. I’m on my way to being debt-free and in financial peace!

HARD? Absolutely. Harder that I don’t have steady income and survive off almost nothing (I have less than $2 in my bank account. Being able to make anywhere NEAR $500 a month would be a dream come true for me. Any more than that would be Paradise!). IMPOSSIBLE? NO. Absolutely not. I have motivation, and loads of it, despite my extreme poverty, and I have made myself FIND unorthodox ways to bring in money to “make it”. I will MAKE Dave Ramsey’s program work for me, and I am against credit cards and debt in the first place!

I was offended by criticism heaped on Terry. He can’t tell all here the specifics of his circumstance. When someone lives at the poverty level, I don’t think the most helpful thing is to tell him is to get a job. (I bet he thought of that.) Sort of like telling someone who is lonely and has no friends to get a pet. When trying to tell one’s story, they can’t summarize their life situation on an Internet comment page. Maybe he is wallowing in self-pity, but there is some validity in what he says. I think Dave Ramsey’s plan fits for a lot of people, particularly those who have a way to increase their income. If one can’t do that, and there are situations where that really is not possible, how do you save $1000? What if you don’t even have extras to cut out of your life, like cable TV, a late-model car or cups of coffee from Starbucks every day?

Another annoying thing for me about Dave Ramsey is that he seems to have capitalized on his failures and come up with a great idea to make money for himself. I say good for him. I guess most people just can’t naturally see the logic in his advice so they have to pay for it. First thing you need to do is buy his book, because a library book is no good since you need to refer back to it all the time. (As mentioned here several times.)

I have used Dave Ramsey’s baby steps in the past, even before anyone knew about Dave Ramsey. I successfully got myself out of debt and was able to save some money. Then I became disabled. Few options for increasing my income. Then those emergencies that Dave mentions came up. Then I fell in the doughnut hole in Medicare and had to pay the total cost of medications related to my disability. Just one thing after another, like for many of us.

I don’t participate in pity parties. I don’t feel sorry for myself nor do I think anyone else should. I find ways to make it and make improvements where I can. And I agree with Dave on most things, but I can only go so far with his plan. Oh well, on to Plan B. But I was surprised to read Dave’s book and find solutions to getting out of debt I had thought of myself. I was just not smart enough to market them, and there is Dave’s real talent. Not his ideas, but marketing.

I’m sure I’ll get a lot of criticism for sucking on the government’s teat. I think most people here should not comment negatively on someone’s life until they know the whole story. How presumptious of them.