Following Dave Ramsey...

I was mulling over someone's comment on a message board, how when they reached Baby Step 6 - paying off the house, they felt that squeezed tight in the budget. They felt as though their lifestyle was worse than it had been before. They couldn't put a finger on why, but did suggest that it was due to the extra savings.

I think that Dave Ramsey does an excellent job getting people to pay off debt. BUT what many people probably think is once they pay of the CC, student loans, HELOCs, etc and only have a mortgage then they will be rolling in the dough. Basically after Baby Step 2.

Where's the disconnect? Well there are probably two reasons for this, one during baby step 1, 2, and 3, following Dave Ramsey, you aren't saving 15% for retirement. That's 15% gross, not net. Right there that's a huge chunk of money.

Second big chunk of money saving for sinking funds. Those are things like replacing a car, home repair, vacations, etc. Those things you didn't do or put off in baby step 2, are now back with a vengence. So all the money once used for snowballing is now turned to saving for things a person in debt never had the cash to pay for.

I've found that living responsibly is hard. It's a lot easier to charge and live with free money. It's so much harder to save. But that's my reasoning why after Baby Step 2 the money doesn't appear to be so free.