The Dave Ramsey Thread

[lunchmoney]

Curious to get the group's view on Dave's teachings and views on money. His podcast tends to focus on helping people get out of debt, and live on a budget. For those that don't have either of those issues, I am not sure what value he provides, although he does focus on biblical principles which many of his competitors shy away from.

 

[redbeard]

Dave has a lot of good advice. Unfortunately his target demographic is boomers who are in debt, so it might not be too useful for many of the younger guys here. Still the best book on personal finance is "I Will Teach You to Be Rich," which for $9 will show you everything Dave has to say in an easy-to-read and easier-to-apply package.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works: Sethi, Ramit: 9781523505746: Amazon.com: Office Products

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Ramit popularized "automatic personal finance" which has been seriously helpful for me:

Home

Bestselling author, Ramit Sethi, featured in ABC News, CNN, and the WSJ, has taught thousands to manage their personal finances and how to become rich.

www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com

 

[Caractacus Potts]

Curious to get the group's view on Dave's teachings and views on money. His podcast tends to focus on helping people get out of debt, and live on a budget. For those that don't have either of those issues, I am not sure what value he provides, although he does focus on biblical principles which many of his competitors shy away from.

I have listened to Dave Ramsey for a couple of years. He doesn't teach anything that I didn't already know and I had already completed all of his baby-steps before I found him. I have always been interested in personal finance/investing/trading and have quite a library of books devoted to those topics. But every generation needs to be taught these things anew.

Before the Kung Flu really got going I signed myself and my older daughter up for his nine week Financial Peace University through a local church. My daughter was initially resistant to the idea saying it would be boring. The first meeting was an eye opener for her. There was a young couple who had $300K of student loan debt between them, a woman in her fifties with no savings and substantial credit card debt, etc, etc. The woman came over after the first class and told my daughter how fortunate she was to have me as a father as no one had ever taught her anything about money earlier in her life.

When I have to drive my daughter back to my ex we will often bring the ipad in the car and play Dave Ramsey videos from YouTube. My daughter thought that my thoughts and comments about Dave and his advice was uncannily prescient, i.e., I tell her what Dave is going to tell the caller and why. She has since picked up on it as well.

I planted the seed and now I am going to keep watering it and tending to the soil.

I will often compare/contrast my ex and myself. My ex makes $X/year and spends $X + 20%/year. My daughter sees that. When I bought a new condo we went to a lot of open houses and collected listings. I sat her down and asked which was the best deal and why? We looked at price, taxes, association fees, etc. I also pointed out intangibles that she wouldn't think about, e.g., location, parking, restaurants, amenities, etc.

I think Dave Ramsey is a good start for most people and his baby-steps are an easy to follow path. Having said that, Dave is a deep cyan beta! The advice he gives regarding men and women and marriage is eye rollingly bad to those of us in the manosphere.

 

[Dr. Howard]

I have listened to Dave Ramsey for a couple of years. He doesn't teach anything that I didn't already know and I had already completed all of his baby-steps before I found him. I have always been interested in personal finance/investing/trading and have quite a library of books devoted to those topics. But every generation needs to be taught these things anew.

Before the Kung Flu really got going I signed myself and my older daughter up for his nine week Financial Peace University through a local church. My daughter was initially resistant to the idea saying it would be boring. The first meeting was an eye opener for her. There was a young couple who had $300K of student loan debt between them, a woman in her fifties with no savings and substantial credit card debt, etc, etc. The woman came over after the first class and told my daughter how fortunate she was to have me as a father as no one had ever taught her anything about money earlier in her life.

When I have to drive my daughter back to my ex we will often bring the ipad in the car and play Dave Ramsey videos from YouTube. My daughter thought that my thoughts and comments about Dave and his advice was uncannily prescient, i.e., I tell her what Dave is going to tell the caller and why. She has since picked up on it as well.

I planted the seed and now I am going to keep watering it and tending to the soil.

I will often compare/contrast my ex and myself. My ex makes $X/year and spends $X + 20%/year. My daughter sees that. When I bought a new condo we went to a lot of open houses and collected listings. I sat her down and asked which was the best deal and why? We looked at price, taxes, association fees, etc. I also pointed out intangibles that she wouldn't think about, e.g., location, parking, restaurants, amenities, etc.

I think Dave Ramsey is a good start for most people and his baby-steps are an easy to follow path. Having said that, Dave is a deep cyan beta! The advice he gives regarding men and women and marriage is eye rollingly bad to those of us in the manosphere.

I agree with this opinion. Dave Ramsey's program is/was great for me to reinforce the following:

1. There were people with way bigger amounts of debt than I had, that managed to climb out
2. There are people who believe that debt is a chain and don't live on credit cards, lines of credit and absurd mortgages
3. Living a boring life won't kill you, especially if you are doing it to get out of debt.

The theories are not rocket science, but breaking the habits and motivating yourself are. Like not eating junk food or deadlifting the mechanics are simple, but actually doing it is hard. Dave Ramsey's show made what seemed to me as "my crazy ideas" sane ideas.

I think his post debt ideas are kind of lame, but that is fine, they aren't harmful and his 'get out of debt' mindset is really what matters and works.

Again, deadlifting is a good example. Dave Ramsey's ideas are perfect for getting you off the couch and getting you to the initially impossible 270...but not as helpful to go from 270 to 450. Plus america isn't in crisis because people can't break a 360 deadlift plateau, its in crisis because people can't break the 'walking up the stairs' plateau. Dave is probably in a position to help the most people with what he's doing rather than catering to a small group of personal wealth nerds.

Dave Ramsey is a gateway drug.

 

[lunchmoney]

Great stories and insight so far. Anyone have suggestions on other personal finance podcasts while on the topic?

 

[powertower]

My wife and I did Dave Ramsey through our church earlier this year. We're both fairly frugal and don't really have debt but we had heard good things about it. It also doubled as a way for us to start doing a small-group and get plugged into our church.

Nothing he said about debt or investing was new to me, but I did find his tips for insurance and house-buying to be helpful.

Great stories and insight so far. Anyone have suggestions on other personal finance podcasts while on the topic?

You could always look into the FIRE (financial independence retire early) community. But that's more centered around blogging than podcasts. My favorite is Financial Samurai (www.financialsamurai.com).

 

[JohnnySmith]

My wife and I did Dave Ramsey through our church earlier this year. We're both fairly frugal and don't really have debt but we had heard good things about it. It also doubled as a way for us to start doing a small-group and get plugged into our church.

Nothing he said about debt or investing was new to me, but I did find his tips for insurance and house-buying to be helpful.



You could always look into the FIRE (financial independence retire early) community. But that's more centered around blogging than podcasts. My favorite is Financial Samurai (www.financialsamurai.com).

Does FIRE really work? I hear so much about it.

 

[username]

FIRE has many aspects but basically you save a huge portion of your income while working and then put that into investments that can cover your living expenses while being "retired." Some FIRE'ers do it with stocks, others with real estate, or some other investment that has an income. It works as well as your investments do.

Many FIRE'ers advocate several different types of investments in the hopes that if one falters there are others to pick up the slack. Like this year many property owners didn't collect rents but if they also owned stock then the stock offset the lack of rent payments.

Some FIRE'ers "retired" from a job but still do side hustles or part time jobs to supplement their FIRE income.

 

[HeavyHanded]

Dave recommends eating rice and beans so you can save for your kids college education. That hasn’t been a good investment in like 20 years. No kid of mine is going to college!

 

[powertower]

Does FIRE really work? I hear so much about it.

Theoretically yeah but I've never met someone in real life who has done it. Being exposed to the possibility that you can save and invest money and in order to buy your freedom is the important lesson in my opinion.

 

[Blade Runner]

Yes, Cliff's Notes:

Most people are undisciplined. They need to be told countless times that there are forces out there trying their best to seduce you constantly to consumerism (among other things) and keeping up with XYZ. Just like that Orman character, they emphasize things you should already know if you know anything (again, most don't because knowledge at least at majority part is application). It's amazing that these characters exist in the sense that what they say is so obvious, but that indicates the societal disease or inability for most to withstand it. Always keep that in mind.

 

[The Catalyst]

Dave recommends eating rice and beans so you can save for your kids college education. That hasn’t been a good investment in like 20 years. No kid of mine is going to college!

That does sound pretty ridiculous. There's no reason to eat mainly rice and beans unless you're in extreme poverty or in an apocalypse type situation

 

[HeavyHanded]

That does sound pretty ridiculous. There's no reason to eat mainly rice and beans unless you're in extreme poverty or in an apocalypse type situation

I was sort of exaggerating, but his system puts great emphasis on saving for college.

 

[Lionheart]

A lot of his advice is bad. He tells people to never have a credit card and that you don't need or even want a credit score. I make over $1,000 a year on cash back from credit cards and never pay a penny interest on purchases. When Dave's people go to get a mortgage from the bank they will wish they had a good credit score. He should tell his listeners how to be disciplined with their credit and thrive rather than telling them to opt out.

 

[HeavyHanded]

A lot of his advice is bad. He tells people to never have a credit card and that you don't need or even want a credit score. I make over $1,000 a year on cash back from credit cards and never pay a penny interest on purchases. When Dave's people go to get a mortgage from the bank they will wish they had a good credit score. He should tell his listeners how to be disciplined with their credit and thrive rather than telling them to opt out.

Same here. I get between 2-6% on everything I buy, and just auto pay the full balance every month. But I think his theory is people will spend less money if they are using cash. Like you have $150 budgeted for groceries, so you go to the grocery store with $150 in cash, and that’s it.

 

[JohnnySmith]

FIRE has many aspects but basically you save a huge portion of your income while working and then put that into investments that can cover your living expenses while being "retired." Some FIRE'ers do it with stocks, others with real estate, or some other investment that has an income. It works as well as your investments do.

Many FIRE'ers advocate several different types of investments in the hopes that if one falters there are others to pick up the slack. Like this year many property owners didn't collect rents but if they also owned stock then the stock offset the lack of rent payments.

Some FIRE'ers "retired" from a job but still do side hustles or part time jobs to supplement their FIRE income.

Thanks for your input.

Will have to do more research on FIRE. Thanks

 

[el buffalo]

I watch his videos from time to time, and I'd consider myself a Dave fan. Seems like a humble guy and a good dude. It's good to see a guy giving faith-based advice and helping people avoid needless auto, credit card and student loan debt.

Curious to get the group's view on Dave's teachings and views on money. His podcast tends to focus on helping people get out of debt, and live on a budget. For those that don't have either of those issues, I am not sure what value he provides, although he does focus on biblical principles which many of his competitors shy away from.

 

[Jacob Robinson]

Used to listen to Dave on the drive to work every morning. Good advice overall.

Regarding credit cards, he deals with people with debt problems. For the responsible, sure, credit cards are OK, and have the benefit of one having no liability for fraud, which is not the case with debit cards. But again, if credit cards got someone into a mess in the first place, then getting rid of them is not bad advice.

His advice is to get out of debt and stay out. That may mean that one's credit rating drifts off to oblivion, as there is no more credit to report. A credit rating is simply how good one is at paying back debt. But at a stage of life: home paid off, cars paid off, kids out of the home, good income, significant cash in the bank and good investments going, then does it make a lot of sense to borrow then pay back money just to keep a credit rating going?

 

[jakester318]

Curious to get the group's view on Dave's teachings and views on money. His podcast tends to focus on helping people get out of debt, and live on a budget. For those that don't have either of those issues, I am not sure what value he provides, although he does focus on biblical principles which many of his competitors shy away from.

Well, when you consider that 40% of Americans cannot come up with $400 in an emergency situation, as simplistic as Dave's teaching seems to the more informed, it resonates with so many because financial literacy in America is non-existent. On top of that, the US is the world's 5th leading country in GDP per capita. That means even though each citizen contributes ~$63k to the economy, 40% of Americans are broke. Let that sink in.

Sources:

40% of Americans don’t have $400 in the bank for emergency expenses: Federal Reserve

Almost 40% of American adults wouldn’t be able to cover an $400 emergency with cash, savings or a credit-card charge that they could quickly pay it off, a Federal Reserve

abcnews.go.com

List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[JohnnySmith]

Well, when you consider that 40% of Americans cannot come up with $400 in an emergency situation, as simplistic as Dave's teaching seems to the more informed, it resonates with so many because financial literacy in America is non-existent.

This. Ramsay's advice for the wealthy is terrible, but for average broke Americans it might be the difference between poverty and paying rent.