Dave Ramsey is a popular personal finance expert, author, radio show host, and tv show host. His Total Money Makeover book is a best seller with a step by step program for getting its readers out of debt.

Dave's program for debt elimination consists of a set of "baby steps" that begin with creating a baby emergency fund of $1000 and ends with building wealth.

Perhaps the step he is best known for, and the one that most people spend the most time on, is Step 2 - paying off all debt except the mortage. This step uses the "debt snowball" to accomplish paying off credit card debt, student loans, car loans, and any other non-mortgage debt.

You can find Dave's books in almost any book store. His radio show is syndicated on stations all across the country. His television show, The Dave Ramsey Show, airs nightly on the Fox Business Network.

If you watch Dave Ramsey's TV show on Fox Business Network or listen to his syndicated radio program on any number of stations, you will begin to hear patterns in his answers to callers' questions. His message is consistent and effective. Here are some of Dave Ramsey's views on different kinds of debt:

Mortgage Debt

Ramsey advises holders of existing mortgages to pay them off in Baby Step 6 of his plan (see above). It is rare, though not unheard of, to hear him advise owners to sell the home and rent if the mortgage is excessive.

For new buyers, Ramsey advises buyers to put at least 20% down with a mortgage term of no longer than 15 years and a monthly payment not in excess of 25% of takehome pay.

Mortgage debt is the only kind of debt you will ever hear Ramsey advocating on his show and he does so reluctantly. He personally does not borrow money for any reason, including for homes.

Car Debt

Ramsey is on record as saying that most of his callers/viewers/readers are not in trouble because of mortgage debt but because of car debt. Indeed it is not unusual to hear callers with $30,000 incomes and $500 car payments.

Ramsey frequently advises callers to sell their cars, even if they owe more on them than they are worth. His advice in that case is to take out a signature loan for the difference. Although if a caller is able to pay off the car loan within 18 months he often "okays" keeping the car.

He recommends that people drive very inexpensive cars until the are out of debt and then upgrading the quality of the cars they drive by buying used and saving cash for subsequent car purchases.

Credit Card Debt

Just say no. Ramsey never advocates credit card debt. Further, he views credit card lenders and their tactics as particularly evil.

Student Loans

As mentioned earlier, Ramsey does not advocate the use of any debt other than mortgage debt, and that includes student loans. amsey rejects the notion that it is impossible to go to college without student loans. His suggestions for paying for college with cash include:

• Starting at a community college
• Choosing state schools over private universities
• Having a job while in school
• Living in the dorm and eating on the meal plan vs. more expensive private housing and eating out.

Business Loans

At the risk of sounding repetitive, Ramsey doesn't advocate any kind of borrowing (with the exception of 15 year mortgages as noted above). Therefore, he doesn't recommend business loans.

Ramsey operates his business on cash and recommends others do the same. To this end, he offers special programs geared toward business owners and occassionally has business theme hours on his radio show.

Fans of Dave Ramsey know that he advocates the Snowball Method of paying off debt, which involves focusing on one debt until it is paid off and then applying its payment amount to the next debt on the list, and so on and so on. But what if you need a little help getting that
snowball to roll? That's where snowflaking comes in!

Snowflaking is applying small amounts of money to a debt in an effort to get it paid off faster. With snowflaking, no amount is too small because they all add up. Here's a step by step method to paying off debt by snowflaking:

1. Identify the first debt that you'd like to pay off.
   Begin looking for any way you can save or make small amounts of money.
2. Don't worry if they're too small - that's why they're called snowflakes.
   To come up with snowflakes you can do things to reduce your regular
   expenses and save the difference. You can also use things like gift money and
   rebates as snowflakes.
3. When you have a snowflake in hand, throw it at the debt you targeted in
   step 1. One way to do this is to make frequent, online payments of snowflake
   amounts.
   
4. Continue to find snowflakes wherever your can. The power of this process is
   repeating it frequently. After a while you will find that it has become
   addictive and something of a game. That's when you can make it really work for
   you!
   
5. Visit Snowflake Revolution for more information and inspiration!
   

1. Put at least 20% down.
   
   Not only does this eliminate the expense of private mortgage insurance, it also helps ensure that you won't buy more house than you can afford. Dave recommends you put down the most you can afford and pay off the mortgage as quickly as possible.
   

2. Finance for no more than 15 years.
   

   
   With a mortgage of 15 years or less, you'll be assured that you're building equity in your home and will be mortgage free sooner rather than later.

3. Make sure your payment does not exceed 25% of your take home pay.

   
   Again, this helps to ensure against buying more house than you can afford.