Dave Ramsey and the miltary

Stephanie2167 · January 2015

Hi ladies, I used to frequent this board years ago (prior to children) and everyone has always been really helpful. My Moms of Multiples group last night had a speaker that discussed finances. In particular, saving for college. His company follows Dave Ramsey's approach. I asked him last night but wanted to get a few other's peoples opinions on this topic (especially if you're a military family).

I'm wondering what Dave Ramsey's thought on purchasing a home is for military members who move every 3-4 years. We moved to Texas in June 2013 and almost bought a home. Ultimately we decided against it (chickened out). We're originally from Southern California so the housing prices out here in Texas were appealing to us. We are itching to own our own home and HATE paying someone else's mortgage, but what other option do military members have.

Any insight on what you've learned from Dave Ramsey on purchasing a home for a short period of time?

Thanks!

simplyelise · January 2015

About 9 times out of 10 when a caller has asked this question, he's told them not to buy until they know they'll be somewhere at least 5 years.

He gets a lot of questions from military families who are having to rent out their home in a previous city because they couldn't sell without losing money. (He also does not recommend being landlords in a location where you don't live).

I think I've heard him say to a military family that if they wanted to buy a home in cash, he'd be okay with it.

MommyLiberty5013 · January 2015

The general rule is buy if you're in for 7 years or more. How much longer does your DH have to go with the military? So tough - I have 4 extended family members affected by this very thing - moving around and not settling in.

kyrgyzstan · January 2015

Don't look at it as paying someone else's mortgage, look at it as paying for convenience. When you PCS, you just leave. You don't have to deal with hiring a real estate agent, or a property manager. Our last PCS, we only had about 90 days notice. It was easy to break the lease thanks to the SCRA. You can't break out of a mortgage. We don't pay for maintenance, and honestly only living places a couple years, even if we did buy, the best we could hope for is to break even, and that's best case scenario. In reality, you can't look at the mortgage as the only cost of home ownership. You have to add in maintenance (1% of house value a year), costs associated with buying and selling, etc. I get wanting to buy, we're in a non military housing area right now, and it was very tempting, but it's not worth it.

Wulfgar · January 2015

The best if you can get it, is on base housing. When I was in the Navy a long time ago, those with children who knew that they would be moving a lot got on base housing. Those that knew that they were going to be staying put for years (think 10 years or so), I was on trident subs so some people were able to stay stationed at the same place for their entire time, bought houses. The one that I knew that did this successfully was living off of his wife's nursing salary and his Navy salary was put into savings, investments, etc.

I know that other branches don't have this luxury since there is a lot more moving around.

kyrgyzstan · January 2015

Base housing is not always the best option. When you're sacrificing all of your 2k BAH to live in a small crappy condo when you could be spending $1600 to live in a larger apartment, with less drama, well, the choice is obvious.

Dave Ramsey and the miltary

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