In Defense of Dave Ramsey: A Counter to the Critique
Before I begin, I have to admit that we are Dave Ramsey fans. We believe, that at its foundation, Ramsey’s financial independence strategy is sound. Not perfect. Not above modifying for your specific financial situation. But it works and we argue that failure within his system is more likely than not, user error.
CampFIRE Homesteading is not affiliated, associated with, or party to a business venture with Dave Ramsey in any way. At CampFIRE Homesteading, we don’t believe you should have to guess or assume our bias or question our objectivity.
In the recent months, we have come across several videos on YouTube that critique Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. We find this valid; Dave Ramsey and his ideas are not above critique.
Admittedly, we are not graduates of Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, but we do employ some of his financial tenants in our own strategy to achieve financial independence.
What we found interesting is that in the listening to the people critique Dave Ramsey, it was less about the tenants, or the strategy, or the results. It was about the messenger or their inability to buckle down and stay the course.
Information sourced from Dave Ramsey’s website.
One woman opens her critique of Ramsey saying, “I’m a little turned off that I am taking financial advice from an old white man.” This bothered me because I was raised to be objective, or at least try to be, in all things. I remember learning as I grew up that we should not forsake the message because of our view of the messenger. To me, Ramsey’s age, gender, or race have nothing to do with his financial advice.
After stating the trouble with taking advice from a white man about money, she then shifts her argument to how unrealistic or difficult following Ramsey’s recommendations are.
She then addresses the $1000 emergency fund. To her, $1000 is not enough to cover any real emergency in the modern age. I partially agree with this, but I also think that this $1000 is not intended to cover all things. I am almost certain that Ramsey knows that most rent in large cities is more than $1000, a major car repair is more than $1000, and certain family emergencies exceed $1000. This critique was also shared by another woman critiquing Ramsey’s approach.
This $1000 is intended to soften the blow of a financial emergency, not account for a massive financial set back. In fact, Baby Step 3 of this strategy is to work towards establishing several months worth of living expenses.
The remainder of their collective critique was framed around how unpleasant life is while trying to pursue financial independence. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with Dave Ramsey and everything to do with them.
At CampFIRE Homesteading, we have written about this before. Specifically, we ask, “How bad do you want it?” We live by a philosophy that if you want something bad enough, you will do what is required to achieve it. Period. “It is hard,” is not an excuse to quit.
They both complain that a strict budgeting and spending regiment prevented them from enjoying all the things they want to do in life. No movies, no vacations, no shopping, etc. In essence, the road to debt-free living and financial independence is too long and too hard for them. They want to, “live life,” and not be “miserable.” One stated, “why be in debt and miserable?”, framing the limited spending strategy in pursuit of being debt-free as miserable.
Here is where I personally feel the itch to put on my military uniform and direct some tough love in a vernacular familiar to servicemembers. Instead, I will just say something we have said in previous articles: financial independence is not for everyone. This is true for many things. The level of difficulty can serve as the barrier of entry for a lot of things.
In the U.S. Army, someone who quit something because it was hard only highlighted one thing, they lack the discipline and heart to dig down deep and finish. As we would say when I was in uniform, “I don’t want a quitter watching my six.” Why? Life is hard. And if someone folds under the pressure of discomfort, especially temporary discomfort, would I depend on that person when things get really hard? No!
They also blast Ramsey for not accounting for alternative family situations, such as single parent homes, or expenses like child care. These are valid issues, but I argue that implied in Ramsey’s strategy is something that I learned in the U.S. Army, “adapt and overcome.” Life is fluid. Another adage I find apt for this discussion is that, “no plan survives first contact.” This means that your planning efforts, although essential, will almost certainly be upset by the adversary, the environment, or maybe some unforeseen variable. When your master plan is disrupted, you have to be able to fall back on your grit, training, and ability to improvise to complete your mission. Simply saying the plan didn’t account for something does not mean we throw our hands up and go home.
I think Ramsey assumes that people pursuing financial independence have the ability, at some level, to modify the strategy to best fit their individual lives. Generally speaking, his financial independence roadmap is effective, it’s tested, and it’s proven. However, I would be willing to bet that those who undertook this worthwhile effort have made changes to the plan to fit their specific situation. Financial independence is not a spectator’s sport, you have to be an active participant. Part of participating is making decisions and taking actions that are best for you and your situation.
There is also criticism of Ramsey because one of the women felt that he did not take into account for his, “white male privilege.” I find this argument ridiculous. In full transparency, I am what many people would call ‘African American.’ I call myself an American that just so happens to have a higher melanin content. The last time I checked, we are all subjected to the same education system that ignores financial literacy. No one, regardless of our skin color, forces us to spend money how we do. As the saying goes, “show me how your spend your money, and I’ll tell you what you prioritize.”
Am I saying that racial bias plays absolutely no part in the financial maze we are all attempting to navigate? No. What I am saying, is that no goon squad is running around looking for people that make smarter financial decisions and they are not putting a weapon to our heads and forcing us to buy things we don’t need.
In closing, I find the vast majority of the critiques of Ramsey’s financial independence plan to be excuses that only serve to justify retaining the same lifestyle that created the debt mess they are now trying to clean up. I found, at the base of the critique of Ramsey, was two fold: emotion and ideology.
My father taught me that knowledge and facts just are. In his words, “the truth is like rain, it doesn’t give a damn who it falls on.” In modern parlance we hear, “facts don’t care about your feelings.” As a man, I employ the approach that Thomas Jefferson used when creating his Jeffersonian Bible; he kept all the sound advice and life lessons, and removed anything that required the reader to engage in personality worship or adhere to dogma. Many of you have probably heard this adage from your grandparents, “don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.” I have adapted the idea that we should never discard information because we have an issue with the source.
The biased mind’s logic…
“The Sun is warm on a cloudless summer day,” said Joseph Stalin. A critic of his decided to avoid the Sun the rest of their life.
We have to be more objective, smarter, and better than this!
Do you have critiques of Dave Ramsey’s financial independence approach? If so, we would love for you to share them with us.
