Lol.

matdad wrote: I'm curious, how many people who have blasted Dave Ramsey's financial advice on this thread have a net worth of several million dollars?

I'm 26 and have a negative net worth.

Does that somehow affect the validity of my comment that his "one-size-fits-all" advice that is demonstrably untrue in particular situations can cause problems if slavishly followed? You don't have to be rich to know that (1) there is a world of difference between good debt and bad debt; (2) liquidity matters; (3) opportunity costs matter; and (4) credit cards, if used correctly, can be a boon, not a hindrance.

I'm 24, and while I don't know exactly how to calculate net worth I would assume mine's negative since I have enough savings/liquid money to pay off everything but my primary house (and I might be like 30k short on the rental I own too). That doesn't mean that in 2 years it'll be the same story. I fully anticipate being worth 1 million dollars by the time I'm 45.

matdad wrote: I'm curious, how many people who have blasted Dave Ramsey's financial advice on this thread have a net worth of several million dollars?

How about ouside of this thread? Ramsey says don't buy individual stocks. Peter Lynch says by all means buy indiviual stocks. I would daresay that Lynch can buy and sell Ramsey several times over. Does that automatically make Ramsey wrong?

BTW, I don't know if I qualify as one who "blasted" Ramsey's advice. I believe I indicated that I agree with the majority of it, but have a few areas where we differ. The difference is I realize that there are multiple ways to get there, but that wouldn't sell books.

Ransey takes "risk" into his financial advice. Most people don't, they just punch teh numbers and let it fly. Sure, you can get a better return by writing off the interest on your mortgage payment and investing $200,000 instead of puoring htat into the house. However, he takes into consideration a job loss, foreclosure, all that stuff. He is EXTREMELY conservatative, that's where his advice stems from. It's not for eveyone. I like a lot of what he says, but I have a considerable amount of cash sitting around, I'm very responsible with my money, and can afford to take advantage of 12 months/no interest payment plans and such. I use a credit card for everything, pay it off at the end of the month and reap the rewards...most do not. He is speaking to the masses, not people like me. I do agree with most of what he says, just apply it in different ways.

pinstriper wrote: Ransey takes "risk" into his financial advice. Most people don't, they just punch teh numbers and let it fly. Sure, you can get a better return by writing off the interest on your mortgage payment and investing $200,000 instead of puoring htat into the house. However, he takes into consideration a job loss, foreclosure, all that stuff. He is EXTREMELY conservatative, that's where his advice stems from. It's not for eveyone. I like a lot of what he says, but I have a considerable amount of cash sitting around, I'm very responsible with my money, and can afford to take advantage of 12 months/no interest payment plans and such. I use a credit card for everything, pay it off at the end of the month and reap the rewards...most do not. He is speaking to the masses, not people like me. I do agree with most of what he says, just apply it in different ways.

CD's are somewhat liquid, stocks, funds, etc can all be converted to liquid in an instant. CD's hold very little risk.

Several good points above. I've actually taught a couple of FPU classes, but that doesn't mean I completely buy all of Dave's positions. Still - his advice is rock-solid for 95% of all families, whether it's coming from Dave Ramsey or Anton LeVey.

For one thing - I don't agree on Dave's position about having -a- credit card. I travel on business at least a couple times a month, and on many occasions I've had to buy last-minute airline tickets, pay for extended hotel stays, etc. It's very, very difficult to do this with a debit card. The difference - I sit down and pay my credit card balance EVERY Sunday night - I'm not about to take a chance with a late payment, etc.

Buying individual stocks is not a problem -, but, IMHO you need to be able have six months expenses (NOT the same as income) built up first. Once you have that met, no single stock in your portfolio should exceed more that 10% of your remaining assets above and beyond ownership of your home. In addition to doing your homework, you need to buy/sell with a degree of restraint, and purchase enough of a block in order to keep your commission/transaction fees from eating up all of your gains.

If you're not doing this, you're just playing the Wall Street version of "Rock Band".