A few years back a guy I work with (who's bad with money) talked about how he wanted to go to one of Ramsey's seminars.
I told him, "You don't have to pay somebody to tell you not to spend money. I'll tell you that for free."
But can you motivate him to actually change his behavior? It's not for lack of factual knowledge that people get into debt. It's much deeper than that.
And wow did this article miss the point.
I have read The Total Money Makeover, although it's been a few years. That article is way too long and it really misses the point of what Dave Ramsay is selling.
And yes I used the word selling on purpose. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Dave Ramsay is a man with a very niche talent. He has a way of motivating stubborn people to get out of debt. In a sane, rational society where the average person wasn't up in debt to his eyeballs his talent would not be marketable. But we live in Crazy World and in Crazy World, his niche skill is very valuable.
As a former debtor I'm not even saying the article is wrong per se, there are larger forces at work that put the masses, of which I am a part, into bad financial positions. I believe it's as much culture as economy however; I think we're conditioned to spend. But that's another topic.
But here's the thing to remember: I can't control the economy, I can't control the fact salaries are shrinking or not growing, I can't control health care, I can't control anything on a macro scale.
I'm left with two choices. I can either wring my hands and throw little self pity parties day in and day out that those big bad powerful politicians and corporations and Democrats/Republicans and executives and whatever are crushing me, or I can focus on what I can do with what I've got.
While Ramsay does comment on the bigger picture of the US and the mess we're in, his opinion on that doesn't matter too much if you're considering his financial self help products, which focus on the latter exclusively.
And of course they do, Ramsay does say a lot of things that are just factually wrong, but the one thing he understands is the thing that's hard to measure objectively: he understands how people in debt think and he understands how to get them to change. The man certainly doesn't understand market returns and investing or things like that, but motivation he gets.
I think he thinks he's smarter than he is to tell the truth because as a guru he's surrounded by yes men, but when I look at him I see someone who's very emotionally in tune with other human beings at the expense of being as dry and analytical as others might be. Like anything else in life this has good and bad points.
I won't lie, Ramsay's book past a certain point is garbage, but the first 2/3 or so about how to get yourself to actually stop being in debt is pure gold to someone who needs to hear it. And he does emphasize over and over again that YOU, yes YOU, need to do something. He's right on the mark there. That material actually did help me get out of debt by showing me it's right to get your emotions into it, you really have to want it. When you put both lobes of your brain into something, you're more likely to accomplish it.
I understand the criticism of the man, I always read multiple sides of an issue so I quickly realized his investment advice is terrible, but what he's good at he's really good at. But back to the point:
Look maybe big macro forces do act in such a way to crush the average person. I don't know. The hell are they supposed to do about it?
I pretty much do what Dave says (besides investing advice, I don't invest in any way remotely similar to his method), except I use a credit card which I pay off every month. But to get to the point I could do that, I had to stop using a card for a couple of years and get in the habit of spending only cash. Once I got that down I was responsible enough to use a credit card again.
I actually do agree with Dave Ramsay's analogy for this, he calls it playing with vipers. He's exactly right, that's exactly what it is, it's like milking a poisonous snake for its venom to use a credit card. Just because people do it every day doesn't mean it's not dangerous. But I could cut my card up and throw it away and see no real life changes. I wouldn't get my $50 a year or so from it but that's not going to be a huge impact.
Owning your own shit is hard and it sucks and you can't always find the strength to do it. Sometimes you don't know how. For me it's my weight, I'm still struggling to find a handle on it. So I empathize with the idea society shouldn't pressure people into bad decisions to begin with. But again what am I to do, cry about it or try to find a way? No I accept it's my own fault I'm fat. That's the only reason why maybe someday I won't be fat.
When it all lines up and you can own your problem, it's the greatest thing in the world. For the first time in a long time I see ways I could be free someday. I actually have money when things happen. My modem broke. I was able to deal with it. I had to replace a car battery and get some repairs done last week. No big deal, I had money to cover it. A few years ago these small events would have crippled me. That's a quality of life I didn't have before.
While I'm not FI and am not on course to be for some time yet, the fact is by having no debt and using the very simple financial principals of "I am going to save $X before I do anything else with this money" and "I don't get to spend any more than what's left of my paycheck", I am financially hardened against many catastrophes. Is it as good as being rich? No of course not, but being on an even keel isn't the worst place to be if the economy gets even worse.
I guess it sucks I don't have the house, picket fence, second car, wife and 2.5 kids or other things like that but at the same time, I don't have those things to lose if everything goes Mad Max either.
This article is terrible. It's really not about Dave Ramsay at all, he's just a target for a ridiculous tirade about how people can't be trusted to live their own lives.
Also, as far as I'm concerned, living debt free to the greatest extent you can is the single best middle finger you can shoot to a consumerist society run amok. Be the change you want to see in the world.
I love being what the credit industry calls a "deadbeat".