Put Dave Ramsey's rules through your numbers
Seven rules JMM has located in a dated source, rebuilt as a working calculator, and taken a position on. Four outside parties have published a figure on them, and those numbers are on the page next to the rule.
- Sources located
- Ramsey Solutions, EveryDollar by Ramsey Solutions
- Source years
- 2024 to 2026
- JMM verdicts
- holds up, depends on you, overstated, contested
Debt snowball calculator
When would Ramsey's debt snowball make you debt-free?
holds up The arithmetic is against the snowball and the evidence is for it. Follow the evidence. Ramsey Solutions, 2024Open model
Emergency fund calculator
What does three to six months of your essentials equal?
holds up The least controversial thing Ramsey says, and still the one most people skip. EveryDollar by Ramsey Solutions, 2026Open model
15% retirement calculator
What is 15% of your gross household income?
depends on you Fifteen percent is a good number. The return it gets illustrated with is where the trouble starts. Ramsey Solutions, 2025Open model
Four-fund allocation model
What does a four-way 25% allocation look like in dollars?
overstated Four names, one exposure. This is the weakest rule in the Ramsey set. Ramsey Solutions, 2025Open model
25% house rule calculator
What home price fits inside 25% of your take-home pay?
holds up Deliberately stricter than your lender, and the 15-year term does more of the work than the 25%. Ramsey Solutions, 2026Open model 8% withdrawal rate calculator
Does an 8% withdrawal rate survive your retirement?
contested Every research group that has tested this number found roughly half of it. JMM would not run 8%. Ramsey Solutions, 2026Open model Mortgage payoff calculator
What does an extra payment buy you?
depends on you At 3% this is a bad trade. At 7% it is close. The certainty is worth more than most spreadsheets admit. Ramsey Solutions, 2026Open modelNot every rule here survives its own arithmetic
JMM does not grade these rules as a set. Four of them carry a verdict other than "holds up", and the page says why in JMM's own words rather than leaving the evidence to speak for itself.
Each page separates three things people usually run together: what the source states, what JMM's model adds to make it computable, and where the rule itself breaks. The last one is not the calculator's limitations list. It is the failure of the idea, which is the part the person who published the rule has no reason to write down.