dave ramsey, financial guru...

i've never heard of him. my dad called just now and tried to talk me and my sister into going to one of his live events. he even offered to pay for the tickets. is this ramsey dude for real or is it a scam? i looked at his website briefly and got a hinky vibe from it.

there's a few threads about him in GD right now, as he has a radio show and is quite the right-winger (like many others on the radio).

His financial advice is quite good if you can get past his political rants.

I listen every day. Sometimes I have to turn it off when he goes on a rant/monologue.

it's plain common sense, and it works.

Don't listen to the guy on investing. He's STILL telling people to expect 12% annual compounded rates of return on their growth stock mutual funds.

Just a month ago he was on a "only 7% of the people are unemployed" kick. He thought the economy wasn't in all that bad of a shape. Financial guru? NOPE. He just has a few good ideas on how to get out of debt.

Does he have some good ideas? Yes. He advises you to build up an emergency fund, get rid of the credit cards, pay off debt effectively & how to stay out of debt. If you have a history of being in debt & struggling with it, he may help you. I would say he is worth listening to if you have debt problems.

On the down side, his ideas are not his own, he is a bit of a pompous ass on his radio show who always reminds his audience that he is a millionaire. His claim to fame? He went bankrupt at a young age, learned from his mistakes and makes money sharing it with others. Oh,he also uses way too much religion in his show.

I listen to his show every day. Why? Because I find the callers stories interesting and tragic. People call in on a regular basis with amazing amounts of debt and Dave tries to steer them in the right direction. I suggest you listen to his show & tell Dad to save his money. (unless you are struggling with debt)

At least 1 hour of it. It can also be downloaded as a podcast.

My Discover credit card saves me hundreds of dollars a year.
No annual fee.
Cash back on all purchases.
Saves postage on monthly bills I pay by card.
And I pay EVERYTHING by card.

caveat: If you don't have the self discipline to use them ONLY for ordinary purchases, stuff you have to buy anyway, then don't use 'em.
If you can't pay the entire bill, EVERY month, don't use 'em.
If 'shopping' is a hobby, don't use 'em.

You would not believe some of the people calling in with six figure credit card balances & seven year auto loans at 700 bucks a month.

First time I got laid off and had an outstanding balance.
Never again.

How is that a profitable long-term business model for them?

And I'm probably one of their few customers who does what I outline.
So if you have the card, and don't do what I said, I guess you're paying my ca$h back.
Sorry.

No, all the indentured servants in the country who are in debt up to their eyeballs are paying for your goodies. As long as you're happy about that, and they are, too, I guess there's no problem.

He makes his money by selling books, tapes, tickets to his training classes, and advertising for his radio show.

Just listen to his shows on the website and you'll get a good feel for what he does.

I think you could gain useful info, especially since it's free. Just ignore the RW Christian rants, which I don't think he gets too carried away with. He also has a book that I'm sure you can get from the library.

She will lay down in front of the radio and only bother me during commercials.

It is truly bizarre.

Just broke into my local radio wingnut line-up about a month ago. At first he struck me as a powerful force. Then I started hearing his sign-offs, something about "walking with the Prince of Peace." Then I looked up Wiki and a couple of things, and his background was that he declared bankruptcy (which he now excoriates his callers out of doing). Then, after getting the "debt free" thingy drummed into me the few snatches I was listening to him a couple of days per week, it dawned on me that he wasn't doing anything different from what my mother did when she pored over the bills and paid things off with an aversion to being in debt, and certainly not being in arrears.

Without knowing what I was doing, I had it engrained in me to pay things off ASAP. So my mother did what he now advocates withOUT the peaks of drama he had in his previous life.


But this is a common phenomenon: Back in the ('90s?), the Seven Habits dude was raking in Brazillions from speaking fees for his stuff, particularly the "paradigm shift" concept, which appeared (on the SURFACE) to be a profound insight. After a couple of years when we had his message hawked at us at the workplace, I realized that this "paradigm shift" thingy was NOTHING NEW. It has ALWAYS been around, how we make assumptions about what we see around us, perceptions of others, WITHOUT knowing the back story, then we are "shocked" when we learn the missing details and our whole assumption is "shifted".

Good topic. Ought to be in GD for (wider?) distribution. K&R.

He does, however, give sound financial advice.