Dollars Not Debt

You don’t have to convert to his faith, but you do have to follow a plan like his if you don’t want to be a loser the REST of your life!

My conversion changed my life in one way, while adopting Ramsey’s financial methods changed my life on yet another.

I may not believe in a god, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some pretty good advice for living in ALL of the major religions. I mean, if they gave *bad* advice, who’d believe in them anyway?

Really? Dave seems to be 99.8% about the Benjamins and .2% Christian. I’m not even religious but this guy’s religion is clearly money. Money Money Money oh and let’s throw in 20 seconds of something about Job or Jesus to remind folks I’m not all money money money. Yeah he is.

I like Dave Ramsey, and he isn’t so much preaching Christ died for our sins, as much as he is the wisdom that nearly all Americans would hold to be true. Proverbs 12:1 He who loves knowledge loves discipline, he who hates correction is stupid. No matter who you are, if you are in need of correcting, regardless if that person doing the correcting is an atheist or a Christian, you are stupid if you don’t take it. Dave Ramsey corrects a lot of myths about money, and I love that he also promotes giving.

Never mind that there are physical reasons for some people being fat. That eating less will result in more fat storage and burning muscle. Disregard that there are significant health consequences for a diabetic not eating regularly.

The financial advice is the same way. Diversify by investing all in mutual funds in 4 categories. Pay down low interest mortgages that are tax advantaged instead of investing that money in the market. Expect a 12% return in retirement even though you should be invested heavy in cash equivalents at that point.

His advice can work for some people but it is neither the fastest way to security nor the the most assured.

Why is it that modern conservative christians take a tone of condescension? I don’t think it is very Godlike to act in this manor – even if one is right. I think it shows an immaturity – a righteousness that is very hurtful and unproductive.

Thanks.

And all the hate over Dave Ramsey tells me he’s doing something right. The folks who seem to hate him don’t seem to care that they are completely missing the point.

They used to show the Dave Ramsay show on Fox here in Australia but they have stopped showing it – they replaced it with Suze Orman and an Australian version of the Dave Ramsay Show called “Your Money Your Call” – much more boring than Dave’s show……. wish they would bring it back again!!!!

I enjoy listening to him occasionally, but I do have a couple of issues:

One, as someone mentioned, the vilification of credit card companies. AFAIC, they’re just another business offering a service that many people want. It’s not like they held a gun to people’s heads and forced them to go into debt. The blame should rest solely on the people who were irresponsible with their debt (and I suspect that many of these people/”victims” have a history of not honoring their financial obligations elsewhere — you know, the friends that never pay you back).

Two, the high rate of returns he tells listeners to expect from their mutual funds. Warren Buffet just got through blasting those corporate pension plans predicting 8%+ ROIs as being unreasonable. Berkshire-Hathaway’s pension fund is predicting only a 6.9% ROI. Dave may know how to get out of debt, but I’ll take Buffet’s word over his when it comes to investing.

Dave also gives the impression that a mutual fund’s past returns are a good predictor of future performance. This isn’t true — and the people selling mutual funds are actually legally bound to point out that this isn’t the case.

Anyway, those issues aside, I do enjoy his show. It’s good to hear about people getting their lives back on track.