Rethinking some of Dave Ramsey‘s teaching

[Joe S.]

Many people on Bigger Pockets love to hate on Dave Ramsey. I have been one of them in the past. I’ve listened to a number of clips/ shorts on YouTube of Dave Ramsey recently.

First, let me mention why I was put off by Dave Ramsey initially in the past. 

1. Dave Ramsey talked a lot about budgeting and when self-employed you’re pulling your business up by the boot straps. initially there’s nothing reliable. So basically his audience seemed to be somewhat employed by a company, etc.  That’s not a hard fast rule of course.  

2. Dave Ramsey seemed to think that real estate should be paid off except your house.  If that had been my approach, I would not have arrived in my current financial condition with higher net worth.

3. David Ramsey talks about stocks, mutual funds, etc.. whereas I made my money by being an active investor in real estate. I could not relate to his invest in strategy.  

4. He seems to lump all debt together.
I do not see all debt as the same. I see credit cards and car loans as , but I do not see mortgages being paid down by the tenants as debt as bad debt.

Because of the 4 reasons that are listed above I was very skeptical and even today I have not went through his whole program. With that being said, I’m starting to see more of the benefits in some of what he promoted.  I think many people and even investors can fall into the trap of raising their status of spending Every time they make a little bit more money.  More cash flow equals more spending.  I think there are many principles that he teaches that should be considered.  Credit card debt can be a double edge sword because after the zero interest teaser rate runs out, you really have problems. I think the emergency fund can be a challenge for somebody to put together especially starting out, but the sooner they have one the better. 

What’s your thoughts?

[Gregory Schwartz]

It takes a long time to grow a buy-and-hold portfolio buying only with cash. Not that it can't be done but...

You can build a great portfolio faster using leverage. However, this introduces a level of risk to the equation because now, as has been mentioned, instead of going to $0, you could end up negative big time! 

I'll be honest with you all, sometimes I dream of selling it all and just having 2-5 paid-off houses, enjoying the extra monthly cashflow and just enjoying life.

Maybe one day I'll act on that dream and deleverage the way Dave teaches.