I always listen to his podcasts when he talks about financial matters of Americans specially when it comes to debts.

Do you think he gives a reasonable advices in your perspective?

46 comments

  1. Too Jesus-y for me. You can save money without having to worship an invisible sky man.

  2. One time, I was out to dinner with friends. The bill came, and I was feeling generous.

    “It’s on me tonight, guys.” I said, pulling out my Amex.

    “Dude…” my friend said, the color draining from his face. “Is that a…credit card?”

    “Uh, yeah.” I replied, a little confused.

    “You use that for unnecessary purchases?” Another friend asked, his voice wavering.

    “Sometimes, sure. I get airline miles for it.”

    “But..you don’t carry a balance on it month to month, do you?” asked the waitress.

    “I usually do, yeah.”

    Before anyone could reply, the door to the restaurant slammed open. A hush fell over the Denny’s.

    It was Dave. And he was eaten with zeal. He approached our table. From seemingly nowhere, he pulled out a large can of beans.

    “Do you have any idea how much money you’d have saved if you had just had beans for dinner tonight?” He asked, in a voice that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere.

    I didn’t answer.

    “Do you, bitchboy?”

    “…N-no”

    “That’s what I thought.”

    Without another word, he put the can of beans in a large tube sock, and proceeded to spend the next hour beating me with it.

    Finally, he stopped. As he left the restaurant, I heard him ask, “Where are your airline miles now?”

    ​

    It was 107 days before I could walk again. I still live in fear of Dave.

  3. [This is a popular debate.](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/14ag3vo/what_are_your_thoughts_on_dave_ramsey/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1)

    I personally don’t like him. He’s unrealistic (pay for everything in cash, credit scores don’t mean anything, you can build passive income by buying multiple homes, etc).

    He really preys on the uneducated and those who don’t manage their finances well. For your above-average consumer who’s already somewhat money-savvy, you’re better off *not* listening to his advice.

  5. He has good advice, for some people. Mostly for people who have poor money management skills.

    The real problem with him is that he only has one set of advice. He sticks to the same handful of tips and doesn’t deviate from those.

    His anti credit card views are entirely wrong. Credit cards are the best way to spend money, as long as one is responsible and pays them off monthly.

  6. I grew up listening to him on the radio going to school, I observed my parents try to follow his advice. It’s not practical for everyone.

  7. Popular with the church crowd. He is right about Americans getting into financial trouble because they often live beyond their means and use credit as a tool to do that. But I think some of his more well known points are definitely not harmful, but sort of unrealistic for a modern economy.

  9. Good fundamental advice. It’s like basic first aid for finances. “Do this and you can avoid catastrophe.”

    Allow me to summarize:
    1. Stop spending money on stuff you don’t need.
    2. Actually put and keep some money in a savings account.
    3. Pay down debt.
    4. Invest in decent funds with long histories and low expense ratios.
    5. Something about God. Fine. Whatever floats your boat.
    6. Unintelligible screaming sometimes.

    It’s good advice for folks who just don’t have an interest in doing a lot of their own digging. He performed a public service, in my opinion. A lot of people are better off because of him.

    It’s not perfect advice, but he’s going for “good enough” for as many people as possible.

    He gives a cookbook approach to personal finance repair for people who are not already up to speed on personal finance philosophy or strategy. No “maybes” or “if you want tos.” Just “DO EXACTLY THIS AND KEEP DOING IT.” All in all, I like him because he’s actually helping people who want to improve their lives.

  10. He’s a preachy condescending ass and I could get the same advice from anyone else.

  14. About 6 years ago, I got some work done on my car. The mechanic had changed the radio station to some talk radio station, so I ended up listening to an episode of the Dave Ramsey show as I drove home. He was charming and I actually learned some useful stuff in the ~20 minutes I listened to that one show.

    Looked up what Dave Ramsey’s deal is and learned that there was a “baby steps” program happening in my own neighborhood every week, so I signed up for a program and learned a LOT in those 10 weeks.

    Even at the time, I knew he was kind of a dingus in the way that most finance gurus are, but I still thought the program was a useful resource. It’s a ***HUGE FUCKING BUMMER*** to see that Dave Ramsey has seemingly pivoted to full-time grifter over the last few years!

  15. My Mom liked him and my parents escaped debt pretty successfully. I hear people say that his suggestions are overly strict, but I think they work good for people who are in debt because they can’t control themselves if they have access to “free” money.

  16. When I worked at Bass Pro, I overheard one of the boat guys call the boating manager.

    He had a guy there who wanted to work out a discount for just paying in cash. The boating manager was like: “… We can’t give him a discount for using cash.”

    Makes me question how Ramsey is supposedly getting these discounts everywhere just for waving some cash around in a manager’s face.

  18. He’s not bad for small midwest town life. Where a middle class family has a combined $78K household income and homes cost $185K.

    His advice is stupid for a large portion of the country.

  20. I think if you’re an alcoholic Alcoholics Anonymous provides a great framework for a path to sobriety much in the same way that Dave Ramsey gives advice. Both have the same downsides of inflexible cult like dogmas. “If you’re not doing it exactly then you’re not doing it at all” mentality. Don’t get me wrong some people need this but it’s not universal.

  21. His advice is mostly geared towards people who are under a lot of debt and can’t find a way out. Not for you if you’re really trying to build wealth or alternate revenue stream.
    He does have some positions in line with the church, for example, he often advises couples, that having a baby has no effect on your expenses and debt. Anyone who’s had a bay knows thats a dishonest thing to say.

  22. One can do much better than follow Ramsey. His advice is very prescriptive and harsh. I know it helps plenty of people, but the credit ban in particular leaves people with seriously limited options if they ever want a mortgage or other loan because banks want to see that you can pay your debts. I prefer approaches that may involve a little prescriptivism to get you started whole you learn underlying principals, but that then focus on how to build a personalized plan once you know the underlying principals.

    I also don’t care for his morals. He focuses on the religious crowd and runs his business like a church, but it’s the corrupt sort of church where the people up high get forgiven for things like cheating on their wife while the rank and file get removed for having sex with a committed but unmarried partner.

  23. His snowball method is a great strategy for paying off debts. Having a one month emergency fund is a wonderful idea. That being said he recommends a 100% debt free no credit lifestyle and that isn’t sustainable. I’m sorry I can’t save enough for a house and or car as they are huge investments. He is a total jerk and is a conservative extremist. Playing the credit game is very important aspect for modern capitalism. I have a good credit score and I paid off a good amount of my debt.

  24. My dad used to watch his show when I was in high school, my dad made me watch it with him bc he thought it was good advice and he wanted me to learn. The thing I remember the most was this guy who called into the show talking about how he barely had enough money to make ends meet, laid out all his finances – bills, income, etc and was genuinely asking for real help. This guy was obviously in an impossible situation working a low wage job with no hope of anything better and Dave YELLED at him like he was an absolute moron about how he obviously needed to increase his income and then hung up on him. I was pretty stunned at the disrespect and unnecessary cruelty towards someone clearly coming to him in good faith for real help and I’ve ignored him ever since. His advice is not realistic for most people but I also think his attitude in general and the way he treats people just is shitty in a very unnecessary way and I can’t see any reason to pay attention to someone like that when more realistic advice being offered without cruelty exists.

  25. I read his book, I am trying to be debt free.

    His methods are a good starting point in someone’s financial journey but honestly YouTubers/podcasters like “The Money Guy” are a better influence in my opinion.

    Plus I joined a Dave Ramsey Facebook group shortly after I read the book, I had to leave because it felt so cult-ish. There’s plenty of cult-like stories around that man.

  26. Clark Howard is much better. God (and tithing) aren’t involved and he has much more integrity, i.e. won’t recommend something if he’s making money off the recommendation. Even tells you how to buy his books second hand, etc

  27. I want to think that he offers okay advice for the masses that don’t know anything about finance. Some of what he says is okay, and some of what he says could definitely be better if you know what you are doing.

    That said, he comes off as arrogant and condescending about it, IMO, and I am not a fan of that.

    In short – it is better than nothing for most people, but not as good as it could be for a lot of individuals.

  30. If you were never taught anything about money or finance, he’s a fine curriculum. If you already know the basics, can stand a moderate amount of risk, and are responsible, most if his advice is pedantic.

    I am everything he hates. I have multiple credit cards thanks to r/travelhacking and pay them off in full every month, I have a VA mortgage and didnt put 20% down, I rarely eat beans, I am comfortable with debt for capital purchases and drive a newer car, the kicker is I only have a 2 or 3 month emergency fund as the rest is all invested. *the horror*

    His principles like the debt snowball are good. I adamantly disagree with his premise that credit and debt are bad, they are a tool that allow you to leverage present cash for future value.

  31. His good advice isn’t unique and his unique advice isn’t good. Yes you should avoid unnecessary debt, don’t run up credit cards, and pay off your shit. THAT said if I can easily afford that car payment I’d much rather put down a healthy down payment and buy that new car and not have to worry about car troubles at all. A credit card is a useful tool when used PROPERLY and credit in general is a necessary evil, you cannot get by with a zero credit score. Add to this his pretentious boomer rhetoric, his enjoyment of still bagging on Millennials and his hypocritical religious bullshit and yeah I’m good thanks.

  32. He is very good for the people who can’t handle credit cards. It’s not for everyone, but he has helped a lot of people.

  33. Ramsey is big with the Evangelical crowd because he’s running a cult of financial purity with a veneer of Christianity.

    It’s incredibly difficult to do things like rent a hotel room or buy an airline ticket or rent a car using cash.

    Hey, big brain idea- if you’re broke stop giving 10% of your gross income to a church and use it to pay bills instead. Well, he advises the opposite.

    But NO CREDIT CARDS EVER is a form of rigid behavior that lets you feel superior to all the normies out there who must be drowning in debt (they are not drowning in debt).

    It’s just a variant of core Evangelical beliefs where if you aren’t at their church (in the in-group) you must be out smoking crack and whoring around because if you aren’t in the purity cult the only conceivable alternative must be SUPER SINNING all the time.

  34. A lot of his advice is really good. Some of it is quite dated at this point, but the principles are solid.

    He gets a lot of hate and often by people who don’t actually know what he talks about (as seen in this thread).

    His show is dumb, but his older books are pretty solid all things considered. Especially for people trying to get their finances back in order.

  35. I think he gives really good advice to people who are very deep in debt and feel hopeless and/or are not very financially literate.

    Having said that, I don’t agree with everything he says. Using credit cards and paying the balance every month can literally be free money/flights/whatever else, and it’s dumb (in my opinion) to turn that down.

    I do enjoy his podcasts tho. He is easy to listen to and has a great voice. And I do find the everyday millionaire segments fascinating.

  36. His show was on the radio station I liked for like the last 10 minutes of my commute. I could have changed the station but whatever.

    Some of his advice is outdated and wild – like every time I’ve had an “emergency” where I’ve needed to tap into savings it has almost always been more than $1,000. Okay, cool, so set my emergency fund a bit higher.

    Then there’s the intense and sometimes extreme guilt over going to college and taking out debt for it. Or buying a house with a 30-year mortgage… we sold our first home that we bought with next to no down payment, paying PMI every month, and payed off my bachelors degree worth of student loans and had enough money left for 20% down and some left over on our next house.

    I do, however, follow his debt snowball advice. I have a number I’m comfortable paying for debts (student loans, for example) every month. I throw as much as I can at the one that’s easiest to pay off quickly and just keep rolling the amounts into the next one and the next one.

  37. He’s a classic case of sound principles, taken too far.

    “Live like no one else so that tomorrow you can live like no one else” is a great starting point.

    The debt snowball method, if you can afford it, is a decent contributor to reframing your mindset if you have an unhealthy relationship with money.

    Budgeting aggressively is an absolute must, I don’t care what you’re making.

    Setting aside money to give is a good practice. This country desperately needs to adopt a more charitable mindset. (Also worth noting that Ramsey’s target demographics are already statistically the most charitable.)

    Cutting up all your credit cards, paying everything in cash, and totally ignoring your credit score is just stupid advice in 2023. Depending on your situation it can affect your hireability. Our world is wildly interconnected; you can’t live in ignorance of that.

    Instead, treat your credit card as a debit card and try to avoid carrying a balance. If you do carry one, carve out time to scrutinize every purchase you’ve made for 90 days and figure out what’s pushing you over.

    He also can get very judgmental when it comes to lifestyle, which I won’t get into here. Just going to leave it at, if you want to be a financial guy with faith-based undertones, coming down on people for decisions they made in the past that can no longer change is not remotely helpful for anyone.

  38. Good advice about some things for some people, horrible advice about other things, and generally kind of a shithead taking advantage of people who are bad with managing their lives.

  39. I find Dave Ramsey and his show annoying, but the basics of his advice is sound. We did the Dave Ramsey FPU class 19 years ago, and we’re financially a lot better off than we would be otherwise. We’re far from rich, but we’re debt free except for a reasonable mortgage and will probably be able to have a modestly comfortable lifestyle when we retire.

  40. He’s a piece of shit. I suggest you look into how he treats employee. He once tricked his way into one of those “ former employees “ Facebook pages and had his lawyers threaten legal action. He’s fired unwed women who get pregnant and fired employees who choose TO wear masks.

    Piece of shit.

  41. Yeah I love his shows, probably like people who love watching horders or intervention, at least my financial life isn’t as bad as most of the people who call into that show!

  42. I used to really like him, but I slowly began to realize that his advice wasn’t realistic for everyone. Don’t get me wrong, some of his advice is very helpful, especially if you’re in a ton of debt, but having no credit is more trouble than it’s worth. Credit cards aren’t the devil if you’re responsible with them and his car advice is ludicrously out of touch at this point.

  43. As a CPA/CFP, Dave Ramsey is to finance what Alcoholics Anonymous is to alcoholics.

    There are people in this world who have a compulsion to spend every last cent, max out every credit card, etc. they have. His advice makes sense for people like that. His advice is awful for basically everyone else.

  44. I grew up listening to it in the car with my parents. I’m 26 now. Largely due to his influence I have never had any debt. I paid for school out of pocket by myself, paid cash for my used car, and I don’t have a credit card. I have a lot of peace of mind that many of my friends don’t have due to this, and I’m pretty happy about that influence.

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