have to suffer for five years in ch 13 bankruptcy with no cash left for kids to join YMCA, while kids from poor families get their YMCA fees waived. Most government and private charities only look at your income, so if your stuck with debt that you didn't even get a real chance to avoid you don't get any extra help. And what if you spend four years paying ch 13 and one event beyond your control leaves you unable to make one of your payments? Your whole bankruptcy would be undone, you'd owe all that money all over again, you would have wasted four years suffering for nothing. Same can even be said for people working three jobs to pay down debt for 3-4 years only to be saddled with just one hospital bill for $80k. Back in the hole all over again. And if during this time frame you are not prepping so you can pay off debt, what are you going to tell your family with the SHTF? When all hell breaks lose, whether war, famine, economic collapse, etc. nobody's going to have credit. Cash might be worthless. Only those who put their physical needs in front of their fiscal needs will be the survivors. Marc -- I never claimed the Dave Ramsey method was the best method for all situations. As you have proven all situations are different. ALSO I never said to stop prepping while you do the program. This is a series of articles