Your 7 Big Steps · by Warden

Baby Steps treat everyone the same. Your money isn’t everyone’s.

Your 7 Big Steps is a debt-free roadmap compiled from your real numbers — your balances, your rates, your life. Protect what matters, pick a pace you can keep, and get a monthly receipt proving the plan is working. No shame, no one-size-fits-all, no $1,000 rule from the 1990s.

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The seven steps, sized to you

Every step has one number and one date — compiled from your accounts, frozen when you sign, and re-checked nightly. Completed steps never un-complete.

Footing
A starter cushion sized to your life — your rent, your dependents, your income volatility. Not a flat $1,000 for everyone.
Seal the Leaks
No net new debt, and every interest rate lowered that can be. Warden verifies your real APRs first.
Clear the Costly Debt
Eliminate the debt that costs you most — avalanche or snowball, your call, with the trade-off priced in months and dollars.
Runway
A full reserve sized to your volatility and your people — months of your actual spend, not a generic “3 to 6 months”.
Build What Matters
Wealth on autopilot, plus the priority you named — retirement, a home, your kids. Runs alongside earlier steps when your life calls for it.
Shrink the Base
Your biggest fixed cost, optimized — whether you own or rent. No assumption that everyone is racing to a paid-off mortgage.
Freedom
Live it, give it, and keep it working for you.

Contract → Loop → Receipts

1 · Sign a contract with yourself
Verify your real APRs, name the commitments you protect (each priced in payoff months), pick your pace — gentle, balanced, or gazelle — and sign. Your partner can co-sign.
2 · Warden runs the loop
Nightly checks against your live accounts. Windfall lands? Income drops? Drift? Warden proposes a change — you approve or dismiss. Nothing is ever applied without you.
3 · You get receipts
A monthly receipt against your frozen baseline: months ahead of doing nothing, debt paid down, estimated interest avoided. Proof, not vibes.

Warden is AI and can make mistakes — every number is an estimate from your linked accounts, and you review every change before it applies.

Big Steps vs Baby Steps, honestly

Where the plan comes from
CentivCompiled from your linked accounts — real balances, real APRs, real income and spend. Targets are frozen when you sign, so progress is measured against your baseline.
RamseyThe same 7 steps for every household, in the same order, regardless of your numbers.
Starter emergency fund
CentivSized to your life: rent, dependents, income volatility. A gig worker and a tenured teacher get different cushions.
Ramsey$1,000 for everyone — the same figure since the 1990s.
Payoff method
CentivAvalanche or snowball — your choice, with the difference priced in months and interest dollars so you decide with open eyes.
RamseyDebt snowball only (smallest balance first), even when it costs more in interest.
The things you love
CentivProtected Commitments: name what you keep (the gym, the trip, date night), see exactly what each costs in payoff months, and the plan is built around them.
Ramsey“Beans and rice, rice and beans.” Extras are treated as discipline failures until you’re debt-free.
When life gets hard
CentivHardship mode: if the month’s obligations outweigh income, the plan flexes to protect essentials and holds your place. No shame, no restart.
RamseyPause the steps and resume when you can — the framework itself has no hardship state.
Proof it’s working
CentivA monthly receipt: months ahead of the do-nothing path, debt paid down, estimated interest avoided — measured against your frozen baseline.
RamseyMotivation and milestones. No baseline, so no measured counterfactual.
Who does the work
CentivWarden watches nightly and proposes changes when a windfall, income change, or drift shows up. You approve or dismiss — nothing is applied without you.
RamseyYou do — manual budgeting in EveryDollar, plus your own discipline between classes.
Life beyond debt
CentivSteps 4–7 cover runway, wealth, housing, and freedom — one roadmap through your whole arc, alongside seven AI advisors on the rest of your money.
RamseySteps 4–7 exist, but the system centers debt payoff; the rest is course material.
An honest note: The Baby Steps have helped millions of people get out of debt, and the core insight — momentum beats math for a lot of humans — is real. Big Steps keeps what works (a clear ordered path, visible wins) and changes what doesn’t: the plan comes from your numbers instead of a script, the trade-offs are priced instead of preached, and a hard month is handled instead of shamed.

What it costs

Centiv Premium
$10.99/mo or $92.99/yr

Your 7 Big Steps is included — along with all seven AI advisors, unlimited linked banks, subscriptions and receipts intelligence, and your ¢Score. One subscription, the whole picture. The Free plan (one bank, no card required) includes the debt tools to get started.

The Ramsey stack
$99.99 first year (renews $119.99/yr)

Financial Peace All Access (the course + a year of EveryDollar Premium). EveryDollar Premium alone is $17.99/mo or $79.99/yr — and budgeting stays manual: you place each transaction yourself. One-on-one Ramsey coaching is quoted separately on top.

Ramsey prices as listed on ramseysolutions.com and the EveryDollar help center, July 2026 — check their site for current pricing. The comparison is about what the money buys: a course you work through versus a roadmap that works for you.

Take your first Big Step.

Centiv is free to start — no credit card, no trial clock. Link a bank, meet Warden, and see your roadmap compiled from your real numbers in minutes.

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