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Dave Ramsey is Coming to Vicksburg Daily News
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Listen to this articleNew York Times bestsellers – The Total Money Makeover, Financial Peace Revisited and More Than Enough. In them, Ramsey exemplifies his life’s work of teaching others how to be financially responsible, so they can acquire enough wealth to take care of loved ones, live prosperously into old age, and give generously to others.Ramsey knows first-hand what financial peace means in his own life, having lived living a true rags-to-riches to rags-to-riches story. By age 26 he had established a $4,000,000 real estate portfolio, only to lose it by age 30. He has since rebuilt his financial life and now devotes himself full-time to helping ordinary people understand the forces behind their financial distress and how to set things right financially, emotionally and spiritually.Ramsey offers life-changing, financial advice as host of a nationally syndicated radio program, The Dave Ramsey Show, which is heard by 4.5 million listeners each week on 450 radio stations throughout the United States. His syndicated column, Dave Says, can be read in more than 300 print and online publications worldwide.Ramsey is the creator of Financial Peace University (FPU), a 13-week program that helps people dump debt, get control of their money and learn new behaviors with money that are founded on commitment and accountability. More than 1,000,000 families have attended FPU classes at their workplace, church, military base, nonprofit organization or community group. The average family pays off $5,300 in debt and saves $2,700 in the first 91 days after beginning FPU, and is completely our of debt – except for their mortgage – in just 18 to 24 months.Ramsey created a group of products in an effort to teach children about money before they have a chance to make mistakes. Foundations in Personal Finance is an all-inclusive school curriculum that is currently in more than 2,000 schools across the country. Financial Peace, Jr. is an instructional kit designed to help parents teach their young children about working, saving and giving their money. Through Ramsey’s entertaining children’s book series, The Super Red Racer, Careless at the Carnival, The Big Birthday Surprise, My Fantastic Fieldtrip, A Special Thank You and Battle of the Chores, children learn about working, saving, giving and spending money.Ramsey earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Tennessee. A frequent speaker around the country at large-scale live events, Ramsey is a passionate and inspiring presenter who is at ease on both sides of the mic. More than 500,000 people have attended his live events.He and his wife, Sharon, have three children, Denise, Rachel and Daniel. They reside in Nashville, Tennessee.
A Letter from Dave RamseyI have an unusual way of looking at the world. My wife, Sharon, says I’m weird, and truthfully, I am weird. But there’s a reason. Starting from nothing, by the time I was 26 I had a net worth of a little over a million dollars. I was making $250,000 a year. That’s more than $20,000 a month net taxable income, and I was really having fun. But 98 percent truth is a lie, and that other two percent can cause big problems – especially with $4,000,000 million in real estate. I had a lot of debt – a lot of short term debt – and I’m the idiot who signed up for the trip.The short version of the story is that debt caused us over the course of two and a half years of fighting it to lose everything. We didn’t tell anyone what was going on, but if we had to do it again, we would learn from the wisdom of others who have been through it. We soon learned that we were not the only ones at the bottom. Barbie and Ken (you know, the couple who appear to be perfect – perfect clothes, perfect car, perfect house) are broke, and I don’t take financial advice from broke people anymore.After losing everything, I went on a quest to find out how money really works, how I could get control of it, and how I could have confidence in handling it. I read everything I could get my hands on. I interviewed older rich people, people who made money and kept it. That quest lead me to a really, really uncomfortable place – my mirror. I came to realize that my money problems, worries, and shortages largely began and ended with the person in my mirror. I realized also that if I could learn to manage the character I shaved with every morning, I would win with money.I went back to my first love, real estate, so I could eat and get out of debt. Along the way I began another path – the path of helping others, literally millions of others, take the same quest to the mirror.I formed our company in 1988 to counsel folks hurting from the results of financial stress. I’ve paid the “stupid tax” (mistakes with dollar signs on the end) so hopefully some of you won’t have to. I wrote the book Financial Peace based on all that Sharon and I had learned and began selling it out of my car. With a friend of mine, I started a local radio call-in show called The Money Game, now nationally syndicated as The Dave Ramsey Show.Our company history is full of landmarks leading up to the release of our third best-selling book in 2003 – The Total Money Makeover – and we’re not slowing down. Our company now has more than 250 team members, and a variety of products and services to help you reach your financial goals.Many companies define success based on the dollars coming in, but at our company we define our success by the number of lives changed: listeners getting out of debt, readers taking their first Baby Step and saving $1,000 and FPU graduates investing for their future. We learned early on that if we help enough people, the money will come. Our mission statement isn’t just lip service, it’s our mantra:The Lampo Group, Inc. is providing Biblically based, common sense education and empowerment which gives HOPE to everyone from the financially secure to the financially distressed.So wherever you are in the process – making the quest to your mirror, struggling to get your budget to work, paying off that last debt or completely debt-free – let us know how we can help you in your total money makeover. That’s what we’re here for!
What can you expect to see in “Dave Says” when it premieres?Here is last week’s column, to give you a finer understanding.
DAVE SAYS
Sunday, February 20, 2011Increase your earning potential! Dear Dave,We have $21,000 in credit card debt, and ongoing medical expenses for our special-needs child. My husband works very hard, but only makes about $25,000 a year, and we’re living in a 30-year old trailer. My dad is willing to help us pay off some of the debt, and get us moved into a house, if we’ll get financial counseling. Is there a better way out of this situation?SherylDear Sheryl,If you’re going to have to make payments to your dad, in other words, if the money is going to be a loan, don’t do it. The borrower is always slave to the lender. If you really want to ruin family events, have debt to your parents. It twists you up inside, and it’ll be especially hard on your husband.Now, if this is going to be a gift, and there are no expectations of re-payment being made, that’s a little different. But if you were my child and I wrote you a $21,000 check, I’d expect you to go into financial counseling and start saving money for your child’s future and for yours. That’s only reasonable. You guys obviously aren’t wasteful yuppies spending money right and left, but having a family and raising kids in the Dallas – Fort Worth area on $25,000 a year is tough – even without the credit card bills you’re talking about.Another thing I’d advise is that your husband get on a five-year game plan to improve his earning potential. Sit down with him, hold hands, and let him know he can be anything he wants to be. Then, help him decide what he wants to be in five years, what he wants to be making five years down the road, and the steps he’s going to take educationally or in terms of training to achieve that goal.He’s a hard-working man, but today’s culture doesn’t reward hard work alone. You’ve got to engage the gray matter a little, and boost your brain power, too. You make more money when you plan to make more money!—Dave
Relationship fixDear Dave,I have three stepchildren, the oldest of which is married and has a little baby. The only time we hear from him is when they want money. We don’t mind helping out once in a while, but his wife just seems lazy. She stays at home all the time, and doesn’t help bring in anything. What can we do to fix this?CindyDear Cindy,When your relationship with someone is based on you giving them money, then you don’t have a relationship. But there may be other reasons they aren’t calling very much.If you say things about his wife being lazy when you do talk, it probably makes them both angry. If this is the case, they may only call when they’re desperate enough to put up with your comments about her. Plus, taking care of a baby is one of the hardest full-time jobs around. The value or importance of what someone does isn’t always reflected in a paycheck.But I don’t think you should be giving them money all the time, either. You could try gently giving advice, instead. Maybe they need to be on a budget, or perhaps they should be spending less.Regardless, I’m always against perpetuating relationships that are based on handing out money!—Dave* Dave may be coming to your town this spring. For more information, please go to http://www.daveramsey.com/category/events?atid=gate]]]]> ]]> See a typo? Report it here.
