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The problem is his religious beliefs are in contradiction to his normal common sense message. His whole shtick is do the common sense logical thing but that goes out the window when common sense crosses with something his church says he should do. Example being tithing....he has no problem even recommends completely broke people pay 10% off the top to their church. That completely inconsistent with common sense money management.
Another example is the broke housewife not earning money for the family because of some religiously driven desire to home school her kids. He gets that call all the time and he rarely tells them to cut the nonsense, send your kid to public school, and go get a job.
You took the words right out of my mouth. I am a longtime Suze fan but I wanted to see what Ramsey had to say so I listened to a few of his shows. I was amazed at the suckers that would call in and ask if they needed to continue tithing even though they were in debt. People can believe what they want to believe but I'm shocked that they wouldn't think of meeting their own family's needs before giving their hard earned cash to one of the biggest rackets going. Anyway, another thing I found silly from Ramsey was the whole envelope method. Adults should be able to balance their checking account and budget for the month without keeping envelopes of cash around the house...doesn't seem wise.
Adults should be able to balance their checking account and budget for the month without keeping envelopes of cash around the house...doesn't seem wise.
Well, perhaps they should be able to, but clearly they can't or they wouldn't be needing financial help in the first place. Envelopes aren't for everybody, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss them for everybody either.
I think both Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey give directionally good advice, to financially unsophistocated people. That's not to say that I would agree with everything they say (I don't agree on tithing; I belong to a church and don't give them anywhere near 10% of my income) but their general advice -- to live within your means and be reluctant to incur debt -- is good advice.
Ramsey is mainly for the debtaholics who can't handle debt in any way, shape or form, and need to stay away from it the way a recovering alcoholic stays away from a drink. Suze Orman's target audience is maybe not quite as badly off; they tend to be people who are financially sophistocated, live paycheck to paycheck and don't think much about the long term, but some of them could possibly be reformed with better information.
I listened to Suze before listening to Dave, basically because she sold out. For YEARS, she told people, correctly, to never buy a new car because the depreciation, regardless of interest rate, makes it a waste of money. Then, she got paid by GM to endorse 0% financing for brand new cars but failed, in the ads, to state that you had to have a near perfect FICO to get the deal. Once a sell out, always a sell out, if you are in the financial advice arena. She has also been very inconsistent on advice depending on what is going on in the economy.
Dave, since 2004 when I started with him, has been pretty consistent with his advice. I understand that he used to tell people to never get into ANY debt but now won't yell at people for getting a 15 year mortgage.
I've been pretty happy with Dave's advice and really am not interested in having debt any more. I sleep better at night and if I lose my job, I can get by until I find another one. Suze changes with the winds and considering how much FICO caused the financial crisis, I don't want to take advice from anyone affiliated with those idiots.
IMHO, FICO should be seized by the gov't for defrauding Fannie and Freddie and the company brass put in the whatever dungeons Ft. Levenworth has available.
The general advice they both give.... get out of debt, save more, live within your means, etc., is good advice. I think much of the advice they give is for people with far more money than most of us have.
The general advice they both give.... get out of debt, save more, live within your means, etc., is good advice. I think much of the advice they give is for people with far more money than most of us have.
More money? It seems to me their advice is mainly for financially unsophistocated people without much money.
That show from Canada (forget the name) with Gayle Something-or-other is equally entertaining from that perspective. I knew lots of people spend too much, but it really is eye opening to see how many will spend $6000/month on a $3500/month income. I wish they did follow ups on that show, saying/doing the right things for a couple weeks is one thing but truly making the lifestyle change and sticking to it is another.
Most of the follow ups would be depressing. Overspending becomes an ingrained pattern. These are hard to change, and most people don't want to do the hard work of changing them. Almost always, there are a lot of emotional issues attached to overspending. If you don't address the underlying emotional problem, you probably won't change the spending patterns in the long run.
I listened to Suze before listening to Dave, basically because she sold out. For YEARS, she told people, correctly, to never buy a new car because the depreciation, regardless of interest rate, makes it a waste of money. Then, she got paid by GM to endorse 0% financing for brand new cars but failed, in the ads, to state that you had to have a near perfect FICO to get the deal. Once a sell out, always a sell out, if you are in the financial advice arena. .
On what planet is taking a 0% loan (free money) that will probably wind up costing you LESS for a new car than financing a used car (which is NEVER at 0%) selling out? You gotta think about things before you spout off.
And who doesn't already know that the best finance rates go to people with the best credit?
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