Dave Says When to Buy Toys

Townhall.com ^ | December 28, 2011 | Dave Ramsey

[Kaslin]

Dear Dave,

I’ve noticed that lots of people get defensive when it comes to talking about money and living on a plan. Why is this?

Tonya

Dear Tonya,

I think it’s because there seem to be two negative emotions connected to people who have failed with money: guilt and cynicism. They feel guilty because they’re terrible when it comes to handling money, and they don’t want to talk about it.

Cynicism may be more prevalent in people who feel like they’ve been messed over by some “money expert” out there. Maybe they got caught up in a deal that went bad, or they lost a lot of money following their advisor’s advice. The results can be they end up believing that anyone connected to the financial arena is a bad, incompetent or manipulative person.

If you’ve made mistakes with money, that just makes you human. Everyone alive has messed up financially, and that includes me. I made mistakes with lots of zeroes on the end, but I managed to turn things around. Now, I’m running my own company based on those mistakes, how to fix them and how to keep people from making the same mistakes I did years ago.

Sometimes people just don’t want to be around others who are trying something new or different and winning in the process. Then, there are people in life—I call them losers—who just don’t want anyone else to win, because it reminds them that they’re not winning. Being stuck around those kinds of people is no fun for anyone!

—Dave

Dear Dave,

When is it okay to have a little fun and get a boat or a motorcycle when you’re doing the Baby Steps?

Jennifer

Dear Jennifer,

I always recommend that folks complete the first three Baby Steps before running out to buy a bunch of toys. Baby Step 1 is to save up $1,000 in the bank for a starter emergency fund. Baby Step 2 is to pay off all your debts, except the house, using the debt snowball method. Then, on Baby Step 3, we go back and fully fund the emergency fund to contain three to six months of expenses.

After you’ve gotten this far, it’s okay to have a little fun and save up for a toy. But don’t forget about Baby Step 4, which is putting 15 percent of your income into pre-tax retirement plans, like mutual funds and Roth IRAs. Don’t neglect saving for college, either, if you have kids. That’s Baby Step 5.

Baby Steps 6 and 7 are paying off the house early and building wealth and giving. Everyone likes having fun, and there’s nothing wrong with a few toys if you an afford them. Just make sure you don’t sacrifice your financial health for the shiny things!

—Dave

[LomanBill]

Cynicism may be more prevalent in people who feel like they’ve been messed over by some “money expert” out there.

Newspapers Drop Noted Finance Columnist

By E&P Staff

Published on AllBusiness.com

 

Dave Ramsey, the best-selling author, sent financial columns to newspapers in which the identities of those seeking help were duplicated or falsified, according to The Tennessean in Nashville....

 

http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services-miscellaneous-business/4703244-1.html

 

 

 

 

Uhuh.

 

 

[Mr. K]

Is there a step 9 for the new OWS crowd? (wait for the govt to bail you out)

[CharlesWayneCT]

In 2004. A little bit old, huh? Research by Wikipedia?

2004, Ramsey's column was dropped from The Tennessean and four other newspapers owned by Gannett Co. after it was discovered that the identities of those seeking help were duplicated or falsified in several of his columns. Ramsey attributed the duplications to a low-level employee. Ramsey offered refunds to the newspapers affected by the error.

[fellowgeek]

I’m a fan of Dave Ramsey.

We have been debt free for several years and have been paying cash for everything during that time. We have been small group leaders in FPU in our church for about 4 years, and have led about 6 - 13 week sessions. His programs are great, if you follow them.

But lately, Dave seems to be all about Dave. Buy my book, buy this or that, be a part of the Great Recovery ... by buying this or that.

It’s nauseating.

[LomanBill]

How old does fraud need to be?

NO SALE.

[CodeToad]

“and giving.”

Like 50% to the government that then illegally spends it buying votes in the form of “welfare”? Since when was welfare constitutional?

I give enough.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I’m not buying. Just saying that you weren’t exactly posting news. You weren’t really posting evidence of fraud either. Clearly bad practice, but a large organization will have problems like that from time to time, the measure of a man is how he reacts when confronted with wrongdoing. I’d say Dave handled it properly.

I avoid Dave’s problem by never trusting anybody else, and trying as much as possible never to be responsible for work that must be done by others. Still, on the rare occasions I must trust others, things often end up screwed up, and like Dave, I have to take responsibility for things I may not have had any control over.

[LomanBill]

>>Just saying that you weren’t exactly posting news.

So all readers here are aware that Ramsey’s show got booted for “it was discovered that the identities of those seeking help were duplicated or falsified in several of his columns.”, are they?

Do low level employees manufacture all of Ramsey’s columns - or just some of them?

[LomanBill]

"Dave Says When to Buy Toys"

 

When/Where does Dave say how to avoid affinity fraud - by not walking into a room full of strangers and advertising the fact that the attendee, by virtue of BEING an attendee, has no "Financial Common Sense"?

 

[Cronos]

good rules for both, but most people have the need for instant gratification.

[Cronos]

I would not buy any “financial tool” or book. I’ll listen to his program and to others, but I don’t buy any of their stuff. I have a nifty little excel/VBA program that I’ve used for years that has helped me invest and stay out of debt. Beyond that it’s really common sense and listening to the advice of many folks before making your own decision.

[CharlesWayneCT]

There is a point at which news becomes history. I didn’t say the information was not valid, or appropriate, just that people should be aware that it happened in 2004, because for most people the fact that this happened 7 years ago, and not yesterday, would be an important piece of information for judging the current value of the information.

It would be my expectation that Dave would have cleaned up his operation after this happened. Since it is an old story, I can’t find any information as to why these particular papers got these particular columns.

It is interesting that there were only 4 papers, in one geographic area. I have no idea why. Maybe Dave had area-specific columns for some papers, rather than one national set, and he had employees who were responsible for getting the right answers to the right papers.

And maybe in this one case, an employee couldn’t always find local stuff, and rather than go back to Dave and explain the problem, he thought he’d handle it by changing the information on some other column from another area, or by repeating the same column from earlier.

It would all be speculation. If this happened last week, I could write Dave and ask him HOW it happened — he might not answer, but he might.

Of course, in the end, Dave’s column is about advice to those who are reading the column. It makes no difference whether the names and addresses of the people identified in the columns are real or false, because I don’t care about Marge in Springfield, I’m reading to see if the advice would work for me.

It might also not matter if he gives old advice, if I missed it when it was first published. Heck, if I had a problem, I might have to research all of his old columns to find one that applied to my situation. The papers would care because they are paying for new stuff, although I remember that in some cases these types of columns WILL run repeats when the person writing is on break.

[LomanBill]

>>I have no idea why.

Uhuh.

 

Is it common sense to walk into a room full of strangers and, by doing so, implicitly announce that you have none?

>>I could write Dave and ask him HOW it happened — he might not answer, but he might.

 

You  could also ask Dave why his site evidently has not a single reference to Affinity Fraud --

 

 

 

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q="affinity+fraud"+site:www.daveramsey.com

 

-- and suggest that he might shed some "common sense" light on why, according to the FBI...

 

http://www.fbi.gov/news/podcasts/gotcha/affinity-fraud-scheme/view

 

...Affinity Fraud is so rampant within religious organizations.

 

After all, Dave, being a good christian and all, surely wouldn't want folks to get fleeced by someone attending his show, would he?

 

He might answer, or he might not.

 

 

[LomanBill]

>>There is a point at which news becomes history.

Is there a point at which fools who ignore history, facilitate its repetition?

Too bad the folks within the fraudulent purview of James P. Lewis didn’t have a little “history” lesson before getting fleeced in his 20+ year long religiously affinitive Ponzi operation.

[Altariel]

Thanks for posting!