Golf, fishing, travel and relaxation — it’s a retirement many look forward to. But with growing personal debt and the average retirement age slowly rising, some might think it is far out of reach. Radio host and personal finance expert Dave Ramsey talked to TODAY and told us it’s not; and in fact, it can come sooner than you think.

To Ramsey, every person has the ability to get out of debt and retire early; it all depends on how serious they take the task.

Ramsey started his company, Ramsey Solutions, in 1992 “to counsel folks hurting from the results of financial stress,” according to his website. In addition to writing six bestsellers listed on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal worldloans.online/3-month-payday-loans/ locations and Publishers Weekly lists, he has created a “7 Baby Steps” plan on how to take control of your money and build wealth.

Baby Step No. 1: Create a baby emergency fund

The first thing to do, Ramsey says, is to stop all investments. “You stop all savings and you put $1,000 aside as your starter emergency fund,” he told TODAY.

Not investing in a 401(k) or Roth IRA might sound counterintuitive to retiring early, but Ramsey says that the shortest path to wealth is to do whatever it takes to get rid of any debt you have.

“You can’t borrow your way into wealth — no one does it,” he said. “You have to save your way into wealth.”

Before you start saving, Ramsey believes you must be in a place where you can save as much as you can. To do that, you have to get rid of debt. That leads to the next step.

Baby Step No. 2: Get out of debt

In this second step, Ramsey says to focus on all debt but the house — that will come later. He describes the process of paying these debts as a snowball.

“Pay your debts smallest to largest,” he said. “Pay minimum payments on everything but the little one. Attack the little one with a vengeance and when that is gone, you go down the list.”

Every time you are able to clear up a debt, any money you used for it can go toward another debt, and another debt, and another until they are all gone. Lees verder →