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Personal Finance Topics / Retirement Investing
No. of Recommendations: 0
No. of Recommendations: 9
Dave Ramsey has good advice for people drowning in debt and wanting to get out.
For everything else, especially investment advice, he is (how to say it politely?) not so good. As in awful.
I know two families that followed Ramsey advice and recovered from crippling debt.
No. of Recommendations: 1
<< I know two families that followed Ramsey advice and recovered from crippling debt. >>
Obviously, I have no disagreement with avoiding debt. But Ramsey's credit card advice (i.e., cut up the credit cards and pay cash) is equally bad in today's economy.
Few retailers are giving you a discount for cash. If you're not using the best "cash back" credit card available to you, you're giving up 2% or more of your capital with every purchase. The becomes a big, compounded number over a spending lifetime.
intercst
No. of Recommendations: 5
But Ramsey's credit card advice (i.e., cut up the credit cards and pay cash) is equally bad in today's economy.
I don't count Ramsey's idiotic advice about not needing a credit card and not even needing a good credit score(!) as "get out of debt" advice.
There is a quote, I think maybe from R.A. Heinlein, that goes "A cat who burned itself on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove ever again. Or a cold stove."
That's Dave Ramsey. He burned himself on debt & credit cards, so he won't touch them. He has internalized the harm that credit cards, IF MIS-USED, can do. He and his co-hosts absolutely refuse to see that credit cards are like a stove.
The most amusing one they had where they said you don't need a credit card to rent a car. Then one of them outlined all they had to go through to get Avis to rent him a car using just his debit card. Had to get them to call corporate, who needed to see a credit report and pay stubs. One major rental agency eventually let him rent a car. Another major one refused. A non-major rental agency would not even consider renting him a car without a credit card.
(Being retired I have a lot of available time to watch youtube videos. Ramsey ones keep popping up and I watch some of them for amusement and entertainment. His anti-credit card screeds get hundreds of comments with people telling him that he is wrong, and that if you pay it off each month that you don't pay any interest, so the CC is effective a debit card. But with much more legal protection in case of fraud.
And you can get 2% cash back.
Or more.
Discover regularly has 5% cashback categories, commonly on grocery stores and restaurants.
Bank of America you can get 5.25% on gas. 3.5% at Sam's Club and online purchases.
)
No. of Recommendations: 8
The Ramsey anti-credit card thing is like alcoholics should not have booze in the house. Yeah, you might be able to resist, but if history shows you can't don't risk it. Will power is overrated.
Ramsey gave me one piece of advice that I'm grateful for. A caller to his small business advice show said he had more work than he could handle. Dave's immediate advice - put your rates up, you work too cheap. I had an epiphany. I put my billing rate up every year since, sometimes twice a year, always higher than inflation.
No. of Recommendations: 5
I you drive south out of Nashville on I65 you'll see the Ramsey Solutions building, a very nice-looking three-story office block. That's partly paid for by the bad investment advice, pushing people towards loaded mutual funds through affiliates.
He's helped folks in debt, no doubt. And small businesses. For investment advice everyone is better off with Bogleheads.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Obviously, I have no disagreement with avoiding debt. But Ramsey's credit card advice (i.e., cut up the credit cards and pay cash) is equally bad in today's economy.
Few retailers are giving you a discount for cash. If you're not using the best "cash back" credit card available to you, you're giving up 2% or more of your capital with every purchase. The becomes a big, compounded number over a spending lifetime.
Some people just can't handle credit cards. My sister-in-law for example. But I totally agree. It is a 2% or more tax free rebate. Additionally, the signup bonus for travel cards can be substantial (usually with an annual fee however).
No. of Recommendations: 0
The most amusing one they had where they said you don't need a credit card to rent a car. Then one of them outlined all they had to go through to get Avis to rent him a car using just his debit card. Had to get them to call corporate, who needed to see a credit report and pay stubs. One major rental agency eventually let him rent a car. Another major one refused. A non-major rental agency would not even consider renting him a car without a credit card.
I was at Avis one time and the person in front of me was trying to rent a car with a debit card, but was denied. Apparently, they put hold one the card for the full value of the rental plus the damage deposit and it exceeded the withdrawal limit.
