Financial Advice for those wanting to be an O/O

You haven't been introduced to The Madoff School of Advanced Accounting...

 

Long before Dave Ramsey my Dad would say learn to live on half of what you make.

 

It's definitely up for debate if you are that close to being completely independent or leasing onto a carrier to outsource your load search, negotiations, factoring, etc.

I definitely concede the time crunch but a quick run of the numbers makes me wonder if all of those services are worth what you are paying for them.

For example, 120k miles a year at an average of $2 a mile is 240k. Multiply that 240k by 20% you will pay to the company and that is 48k a year.

48k a year is about a $15 to $20 an hour full time job.

Starting with enough money in reserves and knowing your operating expenses to easily determine your free cash flow in my opinion moves the needle in the direction of doing your own thing. Without enough money in reserve to cover the lag of accounts receivable then the choice is made for you.

 

Get a job, work really hard, put in lots of OT, live frugally, save and save, then buy a used truck and work even harder.
If you're not driving it, you should be working on it.
Save whatever you can by again living frugally, till you can buy another used truck, put a good driver on it...repeat this about a dozen times, till you have a good steady stream of income rolling in monthly.
Then you can work only 6 days a week hopefully, and start buying newer, or new trucks.

Do this and keep growing your fleet for 30 or 40 years, then sell it and retire.

 

Listened to him a few times when his show was on later in the day and also on local radio when he would take callers. Don't bother calling his show if you have advice or thoughts counter to his, they won't take your call.

Few things to keep in mind, Ramsey got rich by selling $29.99 books to people without common sense, not by buying/selling real estate, regardless if you have money or not, his programs and advice does not work for everyone, and many of his ideas and suggestions have gotten people into real financial trouble. There are also some parts of his advice that have not been updated or rethought for the current times.

He also does not like to be told he's wrong or proven wrong, and his worshippers (so much for following Christ) don't like people pointing out flaws. He claims to be a good Christian, but he doesn't follow the teaching very well, like gluttony, greed, envy and pride, and his social media followers will spend their lives attacking you, trying to dox you and point out your flaws, have first hand experience with this.

Since the OP is in Colorado, he's probably heard of Tom Martino, again, not a great person, and gives very mixed advice, definitely full of himself. Number of years back, Martino went to one of Ramsey's seminars here in Denver and tried to interview him afterwards and discuss his program, Ramsey's staff wanted to vet Martino beforehand, and then declined to let him be interviewed because they didn't like that Martino had serious disagreements with the Ramsey plan.

 

Which of his ideas or suggestions are at risk of creating problems for some people, I haven't heard much about that probably because I don't follow his work too closely.

 

One thing he always preaches is buying used cars, never buy a new car unless you have a few million in the bank. Had a friend who used to do this, he had even less money in the bank from always fixing his used cars than I did from buying a new car and today this is more true than ever (this does not apply to buying a class 8 truck as a new O/O). Look at the mileage on used cars today, more and more 10 yr old or older cars on the road, higher mileage, more likely to break. If you want to go that route, buy it from a reputable dealer, buy a dealer backed warranty, but read the fine print of the warranty, get the car checked out independently, don't trust the dealer. If the price tag isn't too ridiculous, buy a certified pre-owned vehicle, they'll have a better warranty and often checked out better than the random used car.

 

Does he give any standards for used cars such as how old because that would leave a lot open to interpretation like your example of buying a 10 year old used car?

 

I haven’t listened to him in years,but it used to be a $5k car,with current prices that’s not much.
Dave Ramsey Review: 9 Pros and Cons of His Financial Advice
There are plenty who disagree with some or most of his advice.

 

thats way too much babysitting for me

And unless it’s eld exempt that’s a negative on used equipment as well,