Yahoo Finance I’m a Financial Advisor: This Advice From Dave Ramsey Could Help You Make Thousands
With total personal debt reaching an all-time high of $17.5 trillion and credit card balances hitting $1.13 trillion in the final quarter of 2023, it’s evident that many American consumers will need Dave Ramsey’s advice to help pay off debt before the situation gets worse.
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Ramsey has been a major advocate for saving money, paying down debt and getting your finances in order, but his advice can also be used to make money and build wealth. GOBankingRates reached out to money expert, Mike Manalac, to find out how you can use Ramsey’s advice to make money and build wealth.
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Can Ramsey Help You Make Thousands?
“You can make thousands by following Ramsey’s advice and developing a personalized budget and savings system,” said Mike Manalac, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with experience at top accounting firms and Fortune 500 companies.
Manalac summarized the formula for how followers of Dave Ramsey’s advice can build wealth:
“Start with your monthly take-home pay and allocate funds to cover your housing, automobile and any other essential monthly expenses. Split the remaining funds between a monthly fun budget, a high-yield savings account and shares in an S&P 500 index fund.”
According to Manalac, “By sticking to your budget and savings system, you’ll start building wealth over time.”
Ramsey’s Best Advice for Building Wealth
Here’s advice from Ramsey that can help you make thousands and build wealth.
Have a Financial Plan
“Dave found that the best way to build wealth is to have a process-oriented money management strategy,” remarked Manalac. “Create rules and follow them, such as living by a budget, living on less than you make, avoiding debt and investing early and regularly.”
Before you focus on making more money, you want to ensure that you have a financial plan so that you’re ready for any new income streams or an increase in cash flow. You’ll struggle to get your finances in order without a plan or budget.
You Don’t Need To Make Millions To Be Rich
Manalac noted that the advice might sound basic initially, but it shatters the myth that you need to make a lot of money to build wealth.
“A third of millionaires make less than $100,000 a year, and most were self-made,” shared Manalac. “In fact, teachers are more likely to become millionaires than doctors or lawyers, not because of how much money they make, but because of how they spend their money.”
This advice from Ramsey encourages you to focus on what you do with your money, rather than how much you make. Remember, you don’t have to earn a million-dollar salary to become a millionaire one day.
Use Your Current Career Skills To Build Wealth
Before you try to change jobs or look into some elaborate income-generating system, you want to take advantage of your current career.
“Most millionaires have careers that involve setting and following a set of rules,” said Manalac. “Teachers follow a lesson plan, accountants have regulatory guidelines to follow and engineers have design specs to ensure buildings are structurally sound.”
Manalac mentioned that those are also the top three professions of millionaires seemingly because they use a similar approach in their finances. Wealth building starts with setting and creating a budget based on your income and expenses.
Always Invest Your Savings
Once you’ve created a budget, it’s essential that you leave space for savings and investments.
Manalac elaborated, saying, “Instead of spending the remaining amount on unplanned expenses, allocate a portion of your take-home pay to savings, such as putting a small portion of each paycheck into a high-yield savings account and an S&P 500 index fund.”
Increase Your Income
So, you have a plan for your money and are sticking to it. Now is the time to start finding ways to earn more.
Ramsey emphasizes sticking to the basics, like asking for a raise, working overtime or trying to land a better gig. If those options don’t work out, you can try the following:
Pursue a Side Hustle. When it comes to bringing in more money, Ramsey’s a proponent of pursuing some sort of a side hustle. No matter your skills or interests, odds are there’s a side gig that’s perfectly suited for you.
Sell stuff. You probably have items around the house that you no longer need that you could list on Facebook Marketplace for some extra cash.
Find freelance work. If you have any unique skills like graphic design or writing, you can look for freelance gigs.
Pay off your debt. As always, Ramsey wants you to focus on paying down your debt so that you spend less on interest and keep more of your money in the future.
“This guidance from Ramsey will help people who earn a modest living make thousands and eventually turn that into millions,” said Manalac.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I’m a Financial Advisor: This Advice From Dave Ramsey Could Help You Make Thousands
