Dave Ramsey vs. Peter Schiff on the US Economy

[Matt Collins]

Harry Browne gives the best investment advice.

[itshappening]

What about the gold stocks Ron Paul bought that are up 1,000% in the last decade? Peter invests in those kinds of stocks.

[tangent4ronpaul]

I'm relatively certain that all of Paul's stocks are in gold MINES!

-t

[jt8025]

Dave may not be wrong in his gold return on investment figures but the failure in his argument is that it factors in several years of 0% return when we were on the Gold Standard up to 1971. So if in 2011 he was looking at a 50 year track record then he would have been factoring in 10 yrs. of 0% returns because the dollar was linked to gold.

[S.Shorland]

The dollar index is just about to fall to 70 in the next 2 months and then lower still

[cubical]

Dave Ramsey does not understand the bigger picture imo.

[angelatc]

[Ramsey] joked and said that the media had predicted “36 out of the last 2 recessions”, implying the media was anxiously reporting any negative news in regards to the state of our Economy.

He didn't notice that they certainly didn't predict the 2008 meltdown? The CNBC people were literally laughing out loud at Ron Paul's assertions, as was Ramsey I suspect, until they came to fruition.

I do think Ramsey is right about living debt free, no doubt about it, but if we all live that way our economy will collapse. How does he reconcile that?

[Seraphim]

The economy as it is currently structured would collapse - the economy as a whole would flourish, though (once the rot is cleared).

:-)

I say, bring it on!

He didn't notice that they certainly didn't predict the 2008 meltdown? The CNBC people were literally laughing out loud at Ron Paul's assertions, as was Ramsey I suspect, until they came to fruition.

I do think Ramsey is right about living debt free, no doubt about it, but if we all live that way our economy will collapse. How does he reconcile that?

[Matt Collins]

I do think Ramsey is right about living debt free, no doubt about it, but if we all live that way our economy will collapse. How does he reconcile that?

WTF?!

So you're saying that if everyone behaves responsibly (not gunna happen) and lives without debt, or at least minimal debt other than one's house, that will cause the entire economy to collapse?

[Elwar]

Dave's target audience is not rich people with money to invest. To his credit, he has found a niche in making money from poor people.

His advice serves a purpose for helping people who suck with their money. Even his get out of debt advice is not optimum mathematically but they are good advice psychologically.

He advises people to start with a safety net of $1,000. He refers to Murphey's law and how it always comes into play.
This is sound advice because people with huge debt will likely borrow at a high percentage rate if they are low on funds and need money quick. Having a cushion at least keeps that from happening.

Then he advises putting any extra money each month toward the smallest credit card bill. Mathematically you would put your extra money toward the credit card with the highest rate, but Dave's way of thinking is that once you pay off one credit card and start using the money you were paying toward that card and combine it with the extra money you were putting toward it, then you get a snowball affect and can start knocking cards out easier. It is all about motivation and gaining that satisfaction early on of being able to cut up your credit card and put one more headache away as you move on to the others.

His advice is great for helping people with debt. From there it is all just easy stuff of saying to save up a few month's expenses, yada yada yada...anyone can give you advice on what to do with your extra money. The hardest part is actually getting to that point in the first place. If Dave could get everyone in the contry to that point, then we would all be better off.