We followed it loosely when we first got married about 4 years ago since I didn't know anything else. Never took the class or anything, but certainly went to one of his live events and read the book. DH was never into it. We paid off higher interest debt first and never stopped our credit card usage (always paid it off in full, followed a budget) and most importantly, never quit the retirement plan. It took us 1 year to pay off my SL's and if we would have followed his advice to quit retirement contributions, we would have left more to $9K on the table from our employers contribution to our retirement, let alone paying extra in taxes. It would have saved us like $400 in interest by paying off the debt 2 months earlier. Penny wise, dollar foolish much?
I did like his focus on life insurance and getting a will in place. That was very helpful.
Nowadays, I don't get the mortgage payoff that he preaches. Yeah, I want our mortgage gone, but I don't understand the math. Our mortgage is at 2.625%. We do have a savings account that earns 3.05% on the first $20K, let alone the fact that our investments do very well for themselves. We only keep $13K or so on hand for emergencies and since we plan very well, knock on wood, we have never had to tap into it.
I have been on the Dave Ramsey forums and some people are very, very lost. They need a simple system. To Dave's credit, he needs to keep his plan simple for folks to follow.
To others, they simply evolve and evolve. Now, I find myself thinking about tax strategies, investments, tax loss harvesting, so when I listen to the DR radio sometimes, I want to scream at the callers and even worry that these same people are on the road driving next to me.