I just plop down my debit card, they say they're going to place a $500 hold and I say OK.

Never had to jump through any hoops, travel monthly for work.

Dave bankrupted on some of his debts and tried to go back and pay them, they had been written off. He could not pay them.

That's the other part of his ministry, he's a Christian and Christ paid some bills that he could not pay. Actually that's my favorite part of his teachings, he draws on the Christian Bible.

DR is the man

You don’t ‘feel’ anyThing when you hold a stack of $100 dollar bills? I do. Feels good.

stacks of cash are for 17 year old drug dealers on ********, I prefer to whip out my metal credit card to flex on peasants

This is a load of bull****.

When you get your financial education from someone other than Dave Ramsey, there exists an ever so slightly advanced concept called debt ratio. The highest operating entities in the world today use it effectively. If they paid everything cash, they'd be out of business.

This really isn't a debate.

I only listen to Ramsey occasionally, but I think he helps a lot of people. And the kinds of people he helps most are precisely the kinds of people who aren't disciplined enough or savvy enough to wisely/effectively use leverage to build wealth. They'd just get far deeper in trouble. He's most effective for people with very little self control and discipline and gets them back on track slowly and steadily without making things worse.

Some of Ramsey's schtick I like and some I don't. His frequent noting that you'll get 10% return with the stock market is vastly overstated. One can argue for or against paying off your mortgage. From a purely numbers perspective, it might make more sense to invest--but there are no guarantees. We paid off the mortgage a few years ago and it's amazing the peace of mind it provides. We've then had the freedom to invest more. He's not wrong that people get immensely into debt with cars they can't really afford.

So . . . I wouldn't say people are fools NOT to follow Ramsey's program, but I also wouldn't say that it's good for everyone. It's good for the people who need it and it can be beneficial to people who don't "need" it but use it to build up their financial foundation instead of getting into trouble.

Does dave have a different message from the last 20 years?

If you cant afford it, dont buy it?
Save save save?

Anything else?

I don't take financial advice from Ramsey, and I'm certainly not taking it from a guy who was driving for Lyft less than 2 years ago.

Run along kid, the grown-ups are talking.

lolz

I've never given anything written by Ramsey more than a cursory glance, because as many have pointed out, it's common sense. Sadly, common sense isn't common.

My wife and I are both undergrad educated, but we have never made more than $140K/y (probably closer to 95-100k avg.) collectively. That said, neither of us have ANY debt. We own our cars, 2000sf home, could survive for several years with liquid assets in case of emergency, vacation in other countries twice a year, and HEAVILY contribute to a diverse retirement portfolio.

I'm not saying it's easy to get financially comfortable because it takes sacrifice, but we did it. With the knowledge available to everyone, there's no acceptable excuse for being stupid with money other than a complete lack of discipline and/or laziness.

Not a slight, but you live in Oklahoma, which is a bottom tier state by most measures. Is the tradeoff worth it?

Kinda blows my mind at how many people sneer at the banking industry and then turn around and wave their credit card rewards around like its a badge of honor.

The banking industry is still making a net profit off you whether you pay your CC off and get rewards or not. You've been hoodwinked with a fancy piece of paper / report that shows you get x% back ... but what's not on that paper is all the various mechanisms in the system that recaptures those % points and more.

Sorry... but you're not getting one over on the industry that after 100 years of trying successfully amended the constitution to forever legally cuck you and every other person in this country/world. Every swipe of that card is really just Daddy Warbucks fisting you.

This is the same industry that many think tried to assassinate President Andrew Jackson when he shutdown the 2nd iteration of the federal reserve. They also threatened to topple the US economy in order to stay in power during the 1800s.

Dang people sound like a bunch of concentration camp prisoners bragging about how they got the largest piece of stale bread. Back to work. Zurück an die Arbeit!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Warburg

What kind of retirement account can you open for children? Can you just claim they get an allowance or something as their "income"?

Lol at not investing until all debt is paid off.

You're correct. At a certain point, when debt is paid off, he tells viewers to 'take their foot off the gas pedal' and enjoy life a bit more. I'm personally approaching it in the opposite manner. I just got out of student loan debt myself, and that accomplishment got me fired up to actually start tracking my finances on a budget... something I wasn't doing prior. Now I'm getting aggressive with investments, more so than I did with student loan debt.

Never heard of MMM! Gonna look him up, his short bio on Google sounds interesting though... who doesn't want to retire at 30?I do too. While listening to him on the daily for 2 years, and getting amped up about financial freedom, I still used my credit card. Why? Because I've almost never had any credit card interest accrue (I think I did for one single period in the last 2 years), and I reaped the benefits of the cash back offerings on a monthly basis.He supports the idea of people getting involved with investing or even real estate while pursuing their primary careers. While people are working towards paying off their debt, he also advises increasing your income by working a part time job or even a side project to increase their monthly incomes. But after paying off all debts he advocates enjoying life and taking the foot off the gas pedal a bit, while still doing things like putting 15% of money into retirement and funding the mortgage / kid's college in a procedural way.Control of your finances and a focus on your net worth is far more important than fun toy to indulge in for a few years. Very much agreed. He advocates a policy where you must not have more than 50% of your monthly household income put into vehicles. That 50% threshold could still mean a nice modern vehicle or two though, so I think he's being a little too generous there... I'd add an extra conditional to the policy that also takes into consideration your net worth, not just your annual income (IE you must have a net worth of AT LEAST your annual income to consider having close to 50% of your annual income tied up in vehicles).I'm on the same boat. In modern times, the benefits of a solid credit score are honestly very much worth it when it comes to the freedom of getting a mortgage or even a rental. To completely disallow a credit card (which is his primary recommendation) can wind up being more harmful than helpful in the long run. Also the cash back is nice too, all it takes is paying down the credit card statement on a monthly basis... easy enough for even a monkey.Solid point. He recommends people take more than the $1,000 while tackling their debt when faced with a monthly income that is volatile, or they encounter an emergency (lay off as an example). He tells that to people all of the time who have similar scenarios on the phone. Some people with stable income still to the 3-6 months before hand anyways, but at that point it's personal preference, and Ramsey would argue that you're "not following the plan."I always have this mentality myself. Anyone who doesn't buy their vehicles outright is an idiot, as they're only amplifying the net worth decrease via interest, let alone the fact they have a depreciating asset.

https://vimeo.com/199334296His philosophy is not to go "ish" or partial into any attitude or mindset. He advocates intentional behaviors, and as such sticks with black or white attitudes. If he says "credit cards are fine so long as you pay it all of monthly," I'm sure he's concerned that'll get some financially irresponsible listeners to justify their bad habits and attitudes. As such he says NO, and talks about a world where there were no credit cards or loans, and that sort of thing. As a motivational speaker he wants to push people to go "all in," and not allow any wiggle room or excuses.Nice! I hope I'm in a similar position years from now. I'm 24, just paid off my debts, and am gungho into the idea of not making bad financial decisions that would harm my net worth in the long term, as well as keeping money where it can grow!Good point, a debit and credit give similar psychological feelings. The rewards from a credit card may entice them to use the credit card over the debit card, however as long as it doesn't influence your decision making process for the purchase, and as long as you pay off the statement each month, it shouldn't negatively impact you at all. The only consideration on this topic is that he does propose an optional "envelope" system, where you use cash instead of credit/debit, and the cash is put into individual envelopes, such that each envelope is "assigned" a budget category, and you are not to exceed the envelope amount per month. Solely working with cash makes it more tangible and meaningful for people.As a Dave Ramsey listener, I believe a cash-back incentive credit card is fine to use. With that said, if you're getting credit cards from all of the places you go to, it clutters your statement and adds more potential chance of failure with monthly consistent paying off the cards.

With that said, I just got debt free (though I'm currently renting), so I'll be throwing a huge bulk of my paycheck into investments as well!

Kids don't need an income to get contributions to 529s for education, but they do need earned income to contribute to IRAs, same as you and me. The figures are actually startling if you do a montecarlo sim on contributing like $80 a month until age of majority and then doing nothing, or of maxing the contribution from 12-18 and then doing nothing. In either situation, the kid retires with a couple mil, srs.

Leaving free money on the table is dumb AF.No, using a rewards card doesn't make you smart and it definitely won't make you rich, but it does make you dumb if you can't handle using them and reaping the benefits.Only if you're dumb. Use your CC as though it's a debit card. You only buy what you have cash to pay the card off then and there. It's not that hard.There are very few places that actually pass the CC convenience fees on to customers, but yes in those rare instances you're better off with cash. For everything else, as long as you control your spending responsibly you're better off with the CC.Yes, most people have poor financial sense and spending habits, and those people should stay the hell away from credit.^ All of this.LMAO if you're cash rich enough to carry a clip full of 50s and then actually do instead of a credit card.

lol, wtf are you on about? No chit the banking industry is still making a profit off of my purchases; they wouldn't offer the cards if they weren't. I'm still coming out ahead by using the card and reaping the rewards than I would be paying cash/debit and getting nothing back.

Brb spend $1000, get a $25 gift card.

What did you huff before writing this?

I get that the whole banking/federal reserve boogieman thing is a popular, but it's hilarious how people get obsessed with it. You have some non-monetary system that would enable a stable society of our size? Because we'd be the first example in written history.

Obesity is an issue in the US because we are generally so comfortable. Nobody is hungry, everyone has basic creature comforts regardless of what they do. This is being in a "concentration camp"? Just lol at his miserable of attitude that is.

In terms of CC rewards- yes, the few of us that pay stuff in full and use the rewards programs properly come out ahead. Brb, have $1500 of travel rewards now on a card that cost me $75 annually and $0 interest paid. Brb, my friend has over $6k/year in rewards bc of work expenses. Never paid a dime of interest. The CC company itself comes out ahead bc the service fee they charge the stores is more than the reward percentage.so what?. Normal people don't care if another party is benefiting as long as they are too.

Or you could spend $1000 and get nothing...

The math really isn't hard on this one, my dude.

Ya I was more curious about the retirement account part and how old his kid was that he/she has some sort of earned income. That'd be goat if you could start a ROTH IRA for a baby

Your understanding of MMM is pretty poor. It's literally about finding what your expenses are and retiring when you hit 25x that amount. Things like reducing expenses help get you there faster (double impact of saving more and reducing all future expenses), but aren't required. It's helping people realize that they're not limited to saving just their 5% match, and that saving 50%+ of your income is possible.

Bogleheads is essentially the same thing, but they're more risk averse.

Dave Ramsey is great for helping people get out of debt, but once you get into the investing realm he's a snake oil salesman. I feel bad for people who see success early on who get fleeced by using his recommended financial advisors. You'll never get rich following his advice.

Anyway, I highly recommend you revisit the MMM principles. He does have a lot of other articles about environmentalism and other leftist nonsense, but the core ideas he presents are solid.

You're basically just setting up an account in an adults name with for benefit of childs name. Its currently in her grandfathers name with her FBO, and we both contribute to it. You have to pay taxes on it, but if its invested well its going to be growing at around 10%, way better than a savings account at the bank. Rule of 72 says it should double approx every 7years, it got started when she was born so she has lots of time for growth.

I have like 10 credit cards, haven't paid for a trip in 10 years, fly exclusively first class internationally due to my Credit Card Points. If you aren't a financial idiot and are not using CCs for all your spending to reap rewards, then you are leaving money on the table, simple as that.

I think Ramsey is good for people who know nothing of finance and are deep in debt, but beyond that, not a fan. Personally, when asked for basic financial advice I refer people to the /r/personalfinance graphic below -

So its not a tax advantaged retirement account but basically just a regular brokerage one? I thought you were able to get them an IRA or something somehow

personally i take financial advice from dave matthews

There are like 3 credit cards right now where if you open them up and spend $1000 in 3 months, you get $200-250 cashback instantly.

It seems like people are fixated on the CC rewards thing.

Dave has acknowledged on many shows that there are plenty of people who own and use credit cards who will never run into issues with them. The types (like me) who have never paid a cent in interest in over a decade. His point, even for those people, is that the CC points are still largely irrelevant on the path to wealth and financial freedom.

For most people, the reason they aren't financially successful is behavioral. Getting those sorts of people to follow a proper budget and invest is the goal. Earning $1000 in travel rewards in 10 years doesn't really matter in the big picture. His aim is to set up everyday people on the path to be millionaires. If the goal is a net worth of 1million+, the couple of gift cards and travel miles barely factor into the equation.