All signs point to the fact that Dave Ramsey is, in fact, insane.
Which makes me think about him again. When I first made the decision to stop living a life of debt, I found Dave Ramsey’s website, and was attracted to his simplicity.
He says:
- Set up an emergency fund of $1000 because bad things happen that cost money.
- Pay off your lowest balance card first. Doesn’t make mathematical sense, but if you have seven credit cards with balances, there’s a lot to be said for seeing that number slowly dwindle to one, even if the one you end up with at the end has the highest balance.
- Snowball it. So, pay minimums on everything, but add $100 to your lowest balance. Then, when the lowest balance card is paid off, roll that into your next lowest balance. Meaning, the credit card payment on your second card is minimum + first card minimum + $100. The idea is that you’re throwing the same amount of money toward your debt every month, but as you start paying off credit cards, your debt payment has more of an impact.
- Ignore all other goals until your debt is paid off.
Seems easy enough, right? I decided to follow his plan.
Only, I ran into a few snags. There were things about Dave Ramsey that rubbed me the wrong way, including:
- Financial Peace University costs churches upwards of $20,000. That seems wrong to me, especially because his plan is really very simple.
- He’s religious, and I am not, and I don’t think you have to follow a religion to be financially smart.
- He’s a big meanie on the air. “Tough love” and “telling it like it is” doesn’t really belong in a get-out-of-debt conversation. I mean, people call in because they know they need help. Give them a break!
- He’s gotten stupid rich on the heels of people in debt.
That last part really irks me. I know enough about religion to know that even Jesus didn’t like all the rich people who only exist to serve themselves. So I liked reading about how my preconceived notions about this guy were true.
The article mentions the following:
- Dave Ramsey was a bully as a boss
- He stalks his ex-employees
- And infiltrates private Facebook groups in order to figure out who his detractors are
- And goes after people on social media.
Doesn’t anyone know you can’t take things back from social media? Once they’re out there, poof. They’re out forever.
It makes for an interesting read.
