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What is your opinion of Dave Ramsey and his advice ? Thanks.
His advice and Financial Peace classes changed my wife and my trajectory. We were so in debt 9 years ago approaching 50 with very little saved for retirement. I heard him on the radio as I was working late and got hooked. After a year of listening we finally just went for it and never looked back.
Debt-free and retirement is on track 12 years from now. We are having fun and are free to do what we want. All because of finding him on the radio to get us kick started. Then attended the classes at our church and the rest is history. If it weren't for Ramsey spelling out the obvious to two undisciplined adults who knew better, we would not have turned the corner.
I believe his advice is great for avoiding debt, building a budget and turning your financial life around.
HOWEVER, now that we are there, I have found his investment advice to be a little lacking. If someone does what he suggests then obviously they will be better off than doing nothing. It's fine and probably works for most people. They will likely have a comfortable retirement. But as I became more self-educated on markets, mutual funds, 401ks, etc... we are investing using a different strategy. Would also like to get into rental income which actually aligns somewhat with Ramsey. We just don't put our money in the 4 buckets he suggests.
Overall I believe his advice is excellent if it's the kick in the pants you need to turn things around. If you are quick to dismiss his advice then you're ignoring many people that have also had success leveraging his advice. Not saying you are wrong to poo poo it, but you need to realize there is more then one path to success.
If we can teach people how to write computer code in school, we ought to be able to teach them how to handle budgets, checking accounts, credit cards, how and why to save, and the basics of how the economy works.
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Originally Posted by HB2HSV
So true.
But our school system does not teach financial education. Not even at MBA school do we teach personal finance.
It used to, at least in the middle school that I went to way back in the early 1890s. Lol. It literally fell under "Home Economics", and included such boring-to-our-middle-school-minds topics as shopping for groceries within a budget, what does a monthly budget look like, and other things that were directly related to money and how it works in real life.
Nothing like that exists currently, which is why my wife and I taught our kids that AT THE KITCHEN TABLE. Like the food you are eating? Here's the economics behind it. Like the house you live in? Here's what it took to get here. Literally hundreds, if not thousands of hours of making sure they got the ins and the outs of basic finance, because without the basics, there's no sense in discussing any complex matters.
What is your opinion of Dave Ramsey and his advice ? Thanks.
I've thought he is terrific for a couple decades now. Love his encouraging show, and hearing the first hand accounts of folks digging themselves out of their financial messes using his advice. Great ministry.
Some of his stuff aligns with my life. My house is modest and paid for, but it’s been remodeled with premium materials out of cash flow. My credit cards have always auto paid in full so I haven’t paid consumer interest in decades. I’ve maintained a very large emergency fund since the 1990s. My 401k was always maxed.
However, I buy new cars paying cash and put extended warranties on them. I start thinking about replacing the car as it crosses 100,000 miles.
I spend big on lifestyle things he would put out of bounds. I ski. I own a boat. I take trips. My life goal isn’t to accumulate the most wealth. It’s to not have to worry about money so I always structured my lifestyle so I spent a bit less than I earned.
Some of his basic advice is ok to get out of debt but he is a quack. I took his seminary church series course (not by my choice) and it was even more outdated and unworkable advice than the public's curriculum. It's hard to listen to someone who doesn't follow their own advice, meaning, he lived in a $15 million dollar, 15 acre, 13,000 SF castle that he sold for $13 million last year. His current residence is unknown but believed to be in Salt Lake City.
He has some good, basic advice regarding becoming debt-free, from the typical consumer vantage point. Outside of that, I wouldn't trust him on more sophisticated investment or financial advice.
I dated a woman who went through a bankruptcy while we were together back in 2015. It was eye-opening. She kept all her stuff. No one scolded her. She was in a better financial position, within months of discharge, after the bankruptcy, than trying to keep her head above water before.
Bankruptcy can be a very useful tool in some situations. No one is saying that people like her don't need to learn better financial management skills along the way, but they need to use every tool available to them. It wasn't like she was going to qualify for a mortgage or favorable terms on any loan in the near-term before the bankruptcy, anyway.
Bankruptcy is a tool. If it helps ,use it. Dave Ramsey does nothing but give common sense. He has built an empire telling folks basic common sense on money. Then, a personal brand stamp of his Babylonian Christianity on it and sells it to the masses. Guess What? They bought it hook line and sinker. He is worth Hundreds of millions.
Where do you guys listen to him? This is an online thing? I would like to hear the "entertaining" callers.
I had heard of him, but didn't real pay attention. Then my daughter said she was following his advice. She had messed up in her early 20s and had a lot of cc debt as well as student loans and a car payment. She put herself on a strict budget, did some Lyft and Uber driving on the side while working as a grad asst at her university, and she has no debt left except student loans. It also helps that she's got a "big girl" job now. So, it worked for her to do a basic budget and get-out-of-debt plan.
Bankruptcy is a tool. If it helps ,use it. Dave Ramsey does nothing but give common sense. He has built an empire telling folks basic common sense on money. Then, a personal brand stamp of his Babylonian Christianity on it and sells it to the masses. Guess What? They bought it hook line and sinker. He is worth Hundreds of millions.
he isn't offering any advice dad didn't give me. it's basic common sense, as you note
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