His advice is great for his intended audience (people with little financial self-control and little understanding of finances/numbers who won't really change either of those characteristics much). Beyond that, some of the stuff he says is spot on and some of it is crap.
I agree with this.
My big disagreement with his baby steps is his amount of $1K as an emergency fund is not enough. It should be 6 months of expenses. At rock bottom minimum, 3 months of expenses should always be on hand.
I used DR back in 2011 and successfully paid off $25,000 worth of credit cards and car loans. The $1,000 emergency fund worked because it was low enough to jump over Step #1 ($1,000 emergency fund) and move to Step #2 (Debt snowball). Who wants to get stuck on Step #1 for months?
For most people in credit card debt "3 Months Living Expenses"= 3 months take home pay because they spend every penny they earn. They spend MORE pennies than they earn, actually, hence the credit card debt. If the couple brings home $3,000 each month, you're telling them they have to set aside
$9,000 before they tackle their debt. Do you think they are ever going to move past Step #1? Nah.
When I was doing the debt snowball, I never stopped and went back to Step #1 when emergencies hit. I let that sucker get down to $400, grit my teeth, and kept going. If an emergency beyond that happened, I reasoned that I could put it on a credit card. When tax returns rolled out, I'd use some of it to hit $1,000 in savings again, and dumped the rest on debt.
I quit Dave because his Baby Steps would have us on Step #2 forever, never saving beyond that $1,000. I can't remember my exact bills, but my snowball looked like this:
Credit #1 - $5,000
Creidt #2 - $8,000
Car - $12,000
Student Loan - $75,000
It's at 2.75% fixed interest. Why would I slam all of my money at that instead of contributing heavily to our 401ks? It makes more sense to split my money between extra payments and investments.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer. That's the biggest lesson I've learned from my journey through debt and personal finance!