Jeesh some of you people are scary. Surprise, Faith should impact all areas of your life. The bible has a lot to say about money. Next, I'm sick and tired of people saying a faith based reason is nonsensical is just wrong. Why is your lack of faith a greater reason than my faith in moral issues? Truth is Truth and if it happens to follow religous principles it doesn't make it any less true. The only thing funnier is when anti religous people like Eyebrow pull bible verses out of context and try to make it say one thing when it's not. We follow Dave's principles pretty closely not b/c we've taken his class or listen to him on the radio and but b/c it's wise stuff. It also means that we don't have the newest car or the biggest house or the latest toys but our lives are free of a lot of stress that other families at our stage are in. Unfortunately too many people listen to the liberal lies that you're not responsible for your actions and if you don't have something you want it's not your fault and that someone took it from you which is why you don't have it. Take responsibility for your life and don't expect the government or someone else to bail you out.

@charleneswint: i've always wanted to some potato gloves. anyone know what I'm talking about?

Listen up broke know it alls, You would be completely dumb if you thought that there was one way to peel a potato. Dave is just sharing one successful way. If you know so much why do you stray away from what you know to be right. Because you aren't perfect!

So stop passing your self righteous judgements off on people and become a millionare like Dave is then you can think of something smart to post. Until then pull out the positive things from this presentation and get on with life.

Keep up the good work Dave! At least you care to share.

Thanks Dave!

Life in America was once quite different. As a young adult during the Eisenhower administration, like so many of my contemporaries I possessed no credit cards. We all met our daily living expenses with the money in our possession. The only installment purchases that sensible persons engaged in were for a mortgage on a home or perhaps an automobile loan. The bulk of day-to-day expenses were covered by cash or check-and from an account in which the funds actually resided. Bank overdrafts, by which your bank covers a check written with insufficient funds (with a healthy fee attached) were unheard of. You may consider this overly restrictive, but the benefit is obvious: When purchases are restricted by your cash on hand, there is a built-in limit on what you can spend.

It's my firm belief that the overabundance of credit in this nation is a most pernicious influence on our citizens. If you acknowledge nothing else, recognize that institutional lending is predatory-by design. For a telling example, consider the practice of one the nation's largest banks, Bank of America. On the money you loan to them, by way of a passbook savings account, you currently receive interest of two-tenths of one percent annually. However, on loans to you through their Visa card, the rate is 24.24 percent. Can you think of a more descriptive word than predatory?

The lesson is basic: Avoid borrowing whenever possible. To prosper in this world, there is a fundamental concept you must embrace: Interest is not something you pay; it is something you collect.

- Al Jacobs, author of Nobody's Fool, A Skeptic's Guide to Prosperity
www.onthemoneytrail.com

But what do I know? My Christian theology degrees haven't come in the mail yet, and I haven't yet figured out what a "working" philosopher actually does.

You stick to your theories, I'll keep handling things here in the real world.

Hey now-- 6th year of the 15 year loan ( and its my second house-- used the proceeds from the first to pay off the student loans)- AND I pay extra every month... and I too intend them to have to drag my butt out of here....The deal about the parent's lifestyle really hit home too. It is so funny how we are so pressured to have the perfect household by our parents-- who should know better....

I've been through FPU (see previous comment about me being a renewed tightwad) and it helped me pay off $12K in credit card debt. Ive slipped away from the basics but I really do need to get back to them, its so much harder to give the cash as swipe the old debit card.

@Eyebrows McGee:

Then you are one of the smarter ones and in the smaller percentage. He does not say ALL people do not pay off their credit cards every month. But MOST do not!!! If we did, the majority of us would not be in debt.

If all his stuff is sooooo common sense, then what does it say about the mojority of us who are/were in deep doodoo of debt? WE LACK COMMON SENSE. Let's face it, the business of debt IS A big business. And what is discustion is how VISA/Mastercard/CITIBANK try to brain wash our kiddos.

Off my soap box now.

@Namilia: Actually, let me clarify: The $250 is for the DVD set, which (if you sign up for the course) the course coordinators will show at each session (there's 13 in all). The $89 is the course kit, which has audio CDs of all the lessons (ripped straight from the DVDs), workbooks, a copy of the Financial Peace Revisited book, a bunch of budgeting forms, envelopes, and a bunch of other stuff.

@Eyebrows McGee: And that's totally not what that parable means. Nice troll, though.

@Namilia: if you sign up to take the course at a church or somewhere like that it's $89. The $250 is if you just buy it directly off the website without signing up for the course.

If they were "in line" with the Bible, he's tell you to go be a poor-ass and not build wealth, because rich people don't go to heaven.

(Matt 19:21 KJV: Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.)

He must make the seminar to help people get out of debt from having bought his kit x.x Might as well watch it I guess..I can't afford to blow $250 like that. Graduating college stinks nowadays..still haven't managed to find a job that uses a 2 year AA degre in my area..

My wife and I actually teach Dave's Financial Peace University courses at our church, and it really excites me to see this on Consumerist! We've taught 3 "semesters" so far, and (roughly 75) people have paid off over $1 MILLION in debt! His "common sense" info really does work. We have mild disagreements about a few minor things (like payoff lower balances first), but it really depends on the situation. For most people, the psychological win is far more important than saving a few hundred in interest (especially when you consider how far in debt they were to start with).

Anyway, it truly is life-changing stuff, and the freedom it brings is liberating. It feels great to actually PAY for stuff. We used to use our credit card for everything (and pay it off every month), but now we use cash. And it's just better. OK, I'm done.

@taylorich: No, paying off the smallest debt first doesn't make sense when you look at the numbers, but it does when you look at the psychology. A lot of people get into bad debt because they lack self-discipline, and paying off the smaller debts first serves to reward them and encourage them to keep paying the remaining debts off.

Those people who can do the math and don't need the little feel-good or atta-boy of paying off the smaller debts first would be better off paying down the debts with the highest interest rates first. However, a lot of debtors need to see proof that they're getting somewhere, and while it may cost them more money this way, it's still less money than if they kept living in denial.

A lot of commenters are dismissing Dave's information as "common sense". Well, it's not quite as common as you might think! That's why there are so many people out there who are living paycheck-to-paycheck and wallowing in debt.

I've also heard the phrase, "Getting wealthy is simple--it's just not easy," which reflects the truth that good advice like Dave's is quite simple in theory. It's not easy to practice though, because so many people out there think they deserve their brand new cars, or their designer clothes, or their daily latté, or their exotic vacation, etc., etc., and they deserve it NOW!

That definitely applies here.

@taylorich: Are you sure you wrote that correctly? That made my brain hurt...

Check out this post at The Simple Dollar: [www.thesimpledollar.com] where they look at the two plans side by side to see the differences. High Interest wins by about a month, with about a 1% difference in money paid out.

@glomm: Completely agree. I can't even listen to anything this guy says because of this one thing he promotes. Paying off the high-interest debt can shave MONTHS off of when you become completely debt free.

I had a friend who had a 6.9% balance of $3000 on a car and a $9000 balance on a jet ski at 14.9%. She paid off the car first and was in debt for 6 months longer than she should have been, all due to this joker. I just can't get past it. It's not good financial advice. She could have not only been out of debt faster, but she also would have had an extra $1500 to enjoy her jet ski.

Of course right after the jet ski got paid off she went out and bought a brand new car, so I guess Dave's talks didn't really take.

Oh well.

As for the religious aspects of his teachings:
1> his teachings are inline with the Bible but not dependent on it. This is about Christian stewardship, not "God says this, God says that".
2> He has versions of his class for military and the workplace that have no religious references. Yes, it is just good sound advice.

As for Dave's material being posted on youtube - he may not care. Sure, his products are copyrighted and protected and all that. But he routinely gives his materials away for free and encourages people taking his class to share the information and materials. There also isn't much in the videos that you won't get from listening to his radio show.

All in all, try to keep in mind, that this post contains approx 1 of his 13 FPU lessons. There is a lot more to what he teaches than what you see here. And incidently, we're debt-free, and loving it! Thanks, Dave!

Good post - I agree with the part regarding people who pay with cash rather than use credit cards spend less money.

Our AmEx bill was out of control, so out of our savings acct, we took 1/2 the amount of a normal AmEx bill and used that through the next billing cycle. We both had money left over at the end.

It is so much easier to hand someone a credit card, than to let go of cash money.

This is innane and could cost people hundreds or thousands of dollars in interest. It is always better to pay off the higher interest debt.

Myth: You need to take out a credit card or car loan to build credit
Truth: Open credit cards with zero balances and car loans count against you when qualifying for a mortgage

That is absolutely 100% dead wrong. Open credit cards with zero balances HELP your FICO score immensely. Your balances count for a third of your total score. Having a zero balance can mean the difference between a 620 and an 800 credit score.

Granted, there are other ways to build credit besides credit cards...but I stand by my point. Having open credit cards with zero balances HELPS you. Especially if they're old accounts. That perfect payment history will do wonders for your score, too.

But Ramsey's way of breaking down what should be common sense and getting people to stop seeing debit as some sort of affirmation that your an adult or middle class or something seems to get through to people.

If it gets more people to get a clue it is a good thing.

1) Yay credit cards. Of COURSE I pay it off every month and of COURSE I redeem all my points/cash rewards. And I make interest on that money sitting in my high-yield savings account while it sits and waits to pay off my credit card 30 days later.

2) Yay 30-year mortgage. First, I'm not leaving here unless I am physically dragged out of here. Second, of COURSE I prepay principle EVERY SINGLE MONTH. (Well, okay, except September 1's payment, the first one I haven't prepaid principle on ever, because they drastically miscalculated my escrow this year so I had to pay a huge chunk of escrow in September.)

I do like his point about young people trying to attain their parents' lifestyle in 5-7 years, when it took their parents 35 years to get there. I even had to remind my MOM of this when she was hassling me about getting furniture that didn't suck. I was like, "Mom, how old were YOU when you got furniture that didn't suck?" I think my husband also feels like we ought to be up to a parental standard NOW. For me, I mostly miss parental-standard vacations, but luckily vacations aren't an impulse buy so it remains a psychological longing instead of a credit card catastrophe. :)

YouTube hides behind the DMCA as a way to post copyrighted materials. If Dave Ramsey wants it off YouTube, then Dave Ramsey needs to contact YouTube and have them take it off. Until that happens, this blog and any others is well within its rights to link to this video on YouTube. (Or at least until the courts settle one of a gazillion lawsuits out there related to this matter.)

I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey's.

Yes, he talks about things that should be common sense, but it seems the way he breaks things down makes sense to me. I have been able to paydown my CC's faster after trying the approach he suggested.

He can be a bit preachy and self riteous at times, but all in all I find him entertaining. I also find him to be less greedy than the other financial people out there. Dave often sells his literature at 1/2 price or better, making it reasonable in price.

...just my .02, I am not affiliated in any way with him.

Step 1: Read a book about escaping debt.

Step 2: Tour the country coaching people on how to escape debt.

Step 3: Use the money earned to pay off debts.

Step 4: Repeat.

I'm not even going to bother watching what he has to say. He'll end up saying what another "guru" in finances reiterate (attach the Suze Orman, David Bach, Robert Kiyosaki, etc etc)

And this is copyrighted -- I don't think Dave would be happy about that.

I'm not 100% anti-debt. However, thinking like that would sure help a lot of people out there. I have no problem with my mortgage. But my wife's small student loan eats at me constantly :) Once that's done, it's nothing but the mortgage and then (probably) a student loan in 16.5 years for our son.

While he does mention his faith in the context of answering callers' questions, it is not overbearing and usually only comes after a caller has indicated he himself is a Christian. Other than that the only times he mentions it are in using his favorite quote "Borrower is slave to the lender"....and that certainly is true.

Further, if people listened to "sound economics" they wouldn't have debt in the first place.

I used to listen to his show occasionally, but most of his advice is pretty basic. example - if you are wallowing in debt and just bought a brand new expensive car, get rid of the car and get something used (or a cheaper new car) that you can afford.

Is this a legally posted video? Isn't this normally available for a significant fee? I can't get to youtube from work, just wondering.

His ideas may be fiscally sound, but am I making something up, or does he market himself as some of 'preacher' too? Maybe it doesn't apply to him, but honestly, that's kinda why I've always avoided him.

IMO, 99% of those using scriptures or faith-- any faith-- to support financial decisions are scammers. Sound economics is dogma free.