I agree 100%. I apologize for the evangelical energy (if you perceived any
) surrounding this. I think my enthuisiasm was because the MMM stuff (among others like JL Collins, etc.) was a source of how I became bought into the ideas you presented in your original post and then this one quoted above, and how they were presented in a way that aligned with how my brain thinks. Apply the engineering/math/logic side to these numbers and optimization of them, and as long as you can take the emotion out of it (payoff your mortgage vs. invest your extra cash) the decisions are so tremendously easy to make. It just took my exposure to the MMM side of it for a lightbulb to go off in my head to realize I didn't NEED to work until I was 70 if I wanted to live a comfortable retirement.
Doing thinks like maximizing your credit card debt to profit from credit card rewards and points, not paying off debt if you can maximize earnings in more profitable areas(such as the historic 10% yields of the stock market), tax optimization with how funds are diversified/withdrawn (backdoor roth), understanding compound interest (no raining day/emergency fund), knowing how to withdraw from your retirement accounts without penalty in your 30s or 40s, and ultimately realizing people like Dave Ramsey are/should be geared toward people who can't wrap their heads around the idea to spend less than you make; that was the major takeaways of the MMM stuff.
My attempt was to confirm exactly what your original post was conveying. Sorry for going off the rails!
@neffa3 , i'm right there with you and agree that him being a tightwad after hitting the 'finish line' wasn't cool. The self-insurance stuff and only cut your own hair types of stuff probably ostracized more people than it could have helped.
