re: My experience Interviewing for Dave Ramsey

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If I have to explain why a $5,000 AC unit isn't an emergency

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Calm down, money bags. An unexpected $5000 expense would qualify as a need to dip into an emergency fund for a large majority of Americans.

I read Total Money Makeover recently. I'm a recent college grad with no debt outside of student loans, and those being a pretty manageable amount at a low interest rate.

His book was common sense to me, and the idea I got from the whole thing, especially the testimonials, was that this plan was made for people who were not taught common sense with money. My parents have done a really good job teaching about how to handle, spend, and save money over my life, so that I haven't had to really learn anything on my own. The feeling I get with his listeners is that these people didn't get that advice. They didn't learn the appropriate ways to take care of your money, and now they are paying for it in debt.

His book makes a lot of sense as a way to pay off debt and shield yourself from any temptation to play around with credit for a chance to increase your profit. I think his idea is that these people have shown they don't handle money properly, so it isn't good advice to tell them to take advantage of credit card cashback and low interest car loans, they're more likely than most people to screw themselves all over again. I think he makes a comparison of credit usage for these people to drug addiction: it starts small but screws your life up if it snowballs, and if an addict recovers from their addiction, they can still be easily tempted back into their vice (debt from credit being the vice for these people).

People like most of us that learned money skills from our parents may occasionally go into debt on bad deals (like Dave did), but we are smart with our money and we will work our way out of debt and back into smart money handling and positions of financial security. So that is why we shouldn't follow Dave's later steps; his plan isnt really meant for us

tl;dr: Dave's plan is meant for people who have no personal financial skills

I could also sell my truck for a $1000 beater and be out of debt. I'm not doing that though.

Like I said, I don't do everything Dave says.

Do you teach an FPU class? You are by the book son. Feel like I'm talking to Dave.

That's totally fine. You do that knowing the risks involved. I simply prefer to live more conservatively. I don't follow Dave's principals because he says to. I like to believe I think for myself. You know what you can afford and what you cannot.

And no I've never even taken the FPU class. I do like his EntreLeadership stuff and wouldn't mind diving into some of that.

I believe it. Probably some disgruntled employees in the mix too.

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a recent college grad

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student loans . . . .at a low interest rate.

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I call bullshite.

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Man I grew up with one single window unit for the whole house. And one wall heater.

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big deal. we had that in a mobile home and an apartment. one window unit and one wall heater.

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How should we react to yamakas?

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Take it for what it's worth, but one of Bernie Madoff's selling points went something like "Us Jews have to take care of each other, and that's why I'm offering you this terrific investment opportunity that I wouldn't offer to just any goyim of the street." This concept isn't limited to Madoff (or to Ramsey); appeal to in-group bias can be a powerful way to gain trust without really earning it.

_____ is probably an a-hole to work for and you're probably fired if you aren't a company cool-aid drinking robot. We can fill that blank in with just about any mid to upper management level job and the vast majority of small businesses. I wouldn't expect Ramsey's company to be any different. He openly admits on air all the time that he fires people who complain or aren't "fired up" or whatever else.

Aside from that, and although I don't follow much of his advice, I do admit that he has taught more people/helped more people/had a bigger positive impact than probably any other individual in regards to helping people get control of their personal finance.


ETA:

When Apple aggresively advertises products that appeal very heavily to the computer illiterate and hipster douchebags nobody seems to get mad at the company for taking advantage of them. If Ramsey can take advantage of the church market and if they voraciously consume his products then good for him. They're adults and his product isn't snake oil or a scam etc. so nobody is being taken advantage of IMO. I'd say people like Robert Kiyosaki are more guilty of being shysters.