Dave Ramsey: "Politicians aren't Jesus"

[_Analytics]

Are you financially independent and debt free?

Is this a sarcastic way of making fun of a motivational speaker sales pitch?

Jersey Girl, I don't want to hear about you writing Facebook posts about how EA changed your life. For the low price of $499 I didn't change your life. You did. I simply showed you how.

Lol.

[_EAllusion]

Lol.

You know, people come to me all the time and ask me how i've managed to become so amazing. There's nothing special about me really. It's just hard work attached to the desire to improve myself. I've been lucky enough to have mentors in my life who have given me 5 crucial steps to obtain self-empowerment and avoid the cycle of materialism and shame that so many people fall into. I want you to succeed too. There's no reason why you should look to me as someone special. I'll send you these steps and an EA organizational chart for free + some minor shipping and handling charges.

[_Analytics]

Lol.

You know, people come to me all the time and ask me how i've managed to become so amazing. There's nothing special about me really. It's just hard work attached to the desire to improve myself. I've been lucky enough to have mentors in my life who have given me 5 crucial steps to obtain self-empowerment and avoid the cycle of materialism and shame that so many people fall into. I want you to succeed too. There's no reason why you should look to me as someone special. I'll send you these steps and an EA organizational chart for free + some minor shipping and handling charges.

You could make a killing as a con artist, EA!

Your criticism is slightly misdirected with Dave Ramsey. I've spent $30 to see him in person once, and otherwise listen to him on the radio when I happen to be in the car and he happens to be on the air. Here is his program:

Baby Steps to Financial Freedom:

1. Save $1,000 cash.
2. Start a "debt snowball," by paying off all your debt, smallest amount owed to largest, except your house. Pay the minimum on everything except the smallest, and put all your energy into getting the smallest paid off. Then put all of your energy into getting the next smallest paid off, etc. If your cars are worth more than 50% of your annual salary, sell one or both to get in that limit. Get an extra job delivering pizza to pay off debt faster. Sell crap. Make big sacrifices for a short period of time and get out of debt.
3. Get your "emergency fund" set up by saving enough cash to pay for 3-6 months of living expenses
4. Save 15% of your income for retirement. Put as much of it as you can in tax-advantaged plans, investing it all in a handful of "good growth stock mutual funds."
5. Save for college for your kids
6. Pay off your house

Beyond that, he says have a budget and never never never ever go into debt. He says he'll forgive you if you want to buy a house, have a 20% down payment saved up, and take out a 15-year fixed mortgage with a monthly payment less than 25% of your net pay.

That's really all there is to the Dave Ramsey message. He'll then get a little religious and tell you to tithe to your local church as you are doing all of this. He's against debt and is in favor of living within your means. Save money, and don't pay interest. If you are in debt, cut back your expenses radically in order to pay it off.

What I like about him is he also looks at the emotional side of it. Mathematically, if you have a fixed amount of money to pay towards debt and are trying to pay off a balance, you first attack the one with the highest interest, then the next highest interest, etc. With Ramsey, he wants you to get the emotional win of getting things paid off fast, so work hard at getting the smallest balance paid off, and then the next and next.

He does have books and classes, but they aren't about giving some esoteric secret to success--rather, they are about the emotional aspects of actually doing what I outlined here.

There are some things I'd quibble about with the program, but it isn't a "send me $499 and I'll give you the secrets to getting rich through zero-down real estate" type of thing.

[_EAllusion]

I was just mocking the self-promotion through false-humility schtick he was employing in the video. I don't know what his advice is because what he said was so banal and attached to the promise of a product he is offering.

[_MsJack]

I generally like Ramsey. I did Financial Peace University for the first time last year and it really helped me out. I very much wish I had done it years ago; I can't imagine how much less stressful my life before now would have been if I had. Even having just a $1K emergency fund in the bank does wonders for your sense of peace and security over living paycheck-to-paycheck. It's one of just a few books / programs that I'm going to make sure my kids do when they become adults.

That said, Ramsey is periodically full of s***. He's wrong on completely getting rid of credit cards (you can, in fact, make a little extra money every year by using and paying off a cashback card every month), on MLMs (he tells people MLMs are a good way to make money; 99% of those who participate in MLMs never make back what they put in), on investing (12% return on investment in this day and age? Withdraw 8% every year of retirement?), and more. He seems to think that the world is full of reliable $1k-$2k cars that the poor can drive instead of making their high car payments.

He also seems to think that there's always something to sell, another job to take, expenses that can be cut, or some other way to get ahead in life, but some people really are chronically poor due to circumstances that they can't help. For most of us, getting ahead in life is a combination of hard work and luck.

He does come across as rather arrogant and grating at times. I suspect his NPI is well above average. The blow-up with his own employees a few years back made him look controlling and borderline culty.

Still, he delivers very valuable information on financial health and delivers it well. Until I find someone who does it better, I'll take the bad with the good.

[Guest]

..........

Here is his program:

Baby Steps to Financial Freedom:

1. Save $1,000 cash.
2. Start a "debt snowball," by paying off all your debt, smallest amount owed to largest, except your house. Pay the minimum on everything except the smallest, and put all your energy into getting the smallest paid off. Then put all of your energy into getting the next smallest paid off, etc. If your cars are worth more than 50% of your annual salary, sell one or both to get in that limit. Get an extra job delivering pizza to pay off debt faster. Sell crap. Make big sacrifices for a short period of time and get out of debt.
3. Get your "emergency fund" set up by saving enough cash to pay for 3-6 months of living expenses
4. Save 15% of your income for retirement. Put as much of it as you can in tax-advantaged plans, investing it all in a handful of "good growth stock mutual funds."
5. Save for college for your kids
6. Pay off your house

Beyond that, he says have a budget and never never never ever go into debt. He says he'll forgive you if you want to buy a house, have a 20% down payment saved up, and take out a 15-year fixed mortgage with a monthly payment less than 25% of your net pay.

That's really all there is to the Dave Ramsey message. ....................

You forgot my favorite bit of advice he gives, "Beans and wieners, beans and wieners" or maybe it was "beans and rice". I have at least "half"himers.

[_Analytics]

I was just mocking the self-promotion through false-humility schtick he was employing in the video. I don't know what his advice is because what he said was so banal and attached to the promise of a product he is offering.

True enough. My point is that he isn't one of those guys that says he'll give you all of the inside secrets to wealth if you pay $x,000 and join Trump University or whatever. He is always looking for things to sell and market, and is always looking for ways to get more revenue out of what he does, but he isn't a con artist.

[_Jersey Girl]

I thought this thread would turn into a discussion about personal responsibility taking. I guess I'm not a good prophetess after all.

;-)

[_Analytics]

I thought this thread would turn into a discussion about personal responsibility taking. I guess I'm not a good prophetess after all.

;-)

When I saw the video I definitely thought somebody around here could use the message.

Who is going to argue with trying to take control of your life?

[_Jersey Girl]

I thought this thread would turn into a discussion about personal responsibility taking. I guess I'm not a good prophetess after all.

;-)

When I saw the video I definitely thought somebody around here could use the message.

Who is going to argue with trying to take control of your life?

I honestly don't think that some folks today know they're aren't in control of their lives, financial or otherwise. I think that with regard to piling up debt, it's almost a hamster on a wheel type thing. I have an old friend who is well educated, at the end of their career and still on the hook for student loans. So, was that level of education really worth it at all.

I think a great majority of us go on automatic and fail to really think about what we do.

Simple things...if you have a mortgage you don't own the house, the lending company owns the house. The more stuff you accumulate, you need a bigger house. You're working for your STUFF. Remarkably, Thoreau wrote on such things in the 1800's.