Took on a little consumer debt and you're a few thousand in the hole and have a steady income. Rice and beans no problem for you, Take the Ramsey approach. Spiritually in the right place also. You'll prolly retire with a coulpe of million.
Do like me and go ridiculously crazy with debt funding education and building your track record in real estate and large projects that can really me some dough. Also learning in detail about finance so you really have the vision to see where you screwed up.
Then it's sink or swim time! There is sooo much more to money and finance that compound interest! : Time value of money, opportunity cost, tax strategy etc. When I was 18 I read Charles Givin's book( don't remember the name) he said" If you wanna get rich, you have to learn tax strategy, I thought "thats too hard I'll just make soo much money it wont matter" I wish I would have listened to him 18yrs ago!
( do you know how long it would take to pay off 250k in debt with a 60k year job even eatin one meal a day even rice or beans, and drivin a two thousand dollar car?) your grand kids would be askin why you never took any trips with them or spent any time with people socially.
I say go broke, learn some lessons, go broke again if thats what it takes. I plan on havin alot more than two million when I retire, but if I don't, Hey- I had a heck of a lot of adventure, in the mean time, plus I would never trade debt free for the time I spent with my family goin on trips and driving safe vehicles, living in safe neighborhoods, and if I help a few people along the way by being heavily leveraged, maybe my debt did some good.
I say Dave Ramsey's plan is good for the average 8-5 person.
Kiyosaki and Trump have a whole different mindset, but I guess so does an entrepreneur. For me it's calculated risk (more education= less risk) not extravagant lifestyle, but not a "save my way to riches one" A keep going till I make it at all cost.
My 2 cents
