I was listening to a Dave Ramsey podcast last week in which he went toe to toe with a young financial writer from Fool.com, over a headline that stated Dave Ramsey Offers Dangerous Financial Advice.
Now after listening to the whole podcast, I realized that I didn't seem to understand what the problem was. Dave was audibly upset that his credibility was being ruined by a blogger who, although seemed to be only a couple years into his job, was correcting some of the things Dave was saying/tweeting to his followers.
To be clear, there are some things that Ramsey has advised and said/tweeted that are a bit suspect. However, he is a tough man who is hard to extrapolate an apology from or even change his opinion on certain matters. I didn't bother with the math on this tweet, because I'd suspect it's correct. I think it's just one of those statements that get people arguing over investing and futures and market volatility and all that garbage.
The exchange between the men seemed unneeded. All that needed to be said was 'Ok, sorry, I screwed up, I'll change whatever you want me to change' from either party. But because pissing contests don't end in that fashion, we just get two people arguing and no one really winning.
What I started to realize was that even our elders are adapting to an age where anything negative about them becomes an instant attack. It's as if every single blog post or tweet or comment with a negative connotation, all of the sudden has teeth that pierce skin and leave someone for dead. Are we unable to accept ANY comments that people disagree on? I'll be the first to say that I've made Yelp posts that go over the top on some things that make restaurant owners and operators react negatively. There was a whole Kitchen Nightmare's episode about owner's that illustrated the fact that some people cannot take any comments on anything negative about their business.
If I were the guy that wrote for the Motley Fool that titled something "Danger Advice from Finance Guru Dave Ramsey", and having the knowledge of what to expect when I sent it out to the Interwebs, I would've asked someone, "Hey is this title too much?". That's really all that was needed. Anyone could say, "Well, it might be a little too harsh. How about 'Questionable advice' or 'Risky' or 'Harmful'?" But then again, most blogger's don't have an editor to do that. Whether or not the writer has an editor is irrelevant, it shows that he didn't even question his own writing before sending it out or thinking about reactions to the piece.
If you did a quick Google search and typed in 'Dave Ramsey Arguments', you would see almost every single post involving the tweet from above. There is one here that includes 5 things the writer disagrees with but it stems from the 12% argument. This post about credit cards made the argument that rewards cards are useful for travel. No offense to that writer at MSN Money, but I have 2 rewards cards and they haven't paid any real dividends. Also, why would I question about going to Detroit or Guatemala?
There a couple more things that go back a couple of years that include the 12% solution. I don't really care about what money turns into what money over the course of 60 years. Does anyone get pissed when they turn into an old miser about not having an extra million sitting in their retirement account? Wouldn't you just be happy to have over a million dollars if you stayed alive that long?
Here's what has worked for me being a poor 20-something working Dave's plan:
- $1000 in savings is fine. I also put into it per paycheck, but in small amounts.
- I froze/cut-up/hid my credit cards that had the high interest rates to curb my spending habits, leaving only one to my disposal.
- I said "NO" to my friends sometimes when they wanted to spend the money that I didn't have.
- I work overtime if it's available.
- I make cheaper substitutes and go for the cheaper lifestyle: Cable is more expensive per month than Hulu+ and Netflix - Make the smart choice; I own a Keurig but I buy regular coffee by the pound and have it ground to the fine blend instead of paying $7 for 12 cups of coffee when I could buy 50+ cups for $9; I started cooking more often; I go to a $10/month gym and bought a rope to skip since that's even cheaper
- I sell things I no longer need/use: movies, books, jackets, anything goes up on craigslist.
Guess what? These changes are all working, and if I didn't have a certain brother to introduce me to Dave Ramsey, I'd probably be dead broke and probably in even worse debt.
Before I go, I hope for the rest of our sanity that people learn to take negative comments instead of thinking they are attacks on their credibility or worse. We all have backbones, right?
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