For those that like to spout facts that Dave abused the system of bankruptcy, and now does not want you to do it…When he started to get on his feet HE PAID BACK EVERY DIME he claimed on bankruptcy, there is no clean slate as some state morally.
So no he is not a hypocrite, he is telling you from experience you don’t want to do it, and if you did it is your responsibility to still go back and clean up your mess!

2. Giving 10% to charity or church is part of being a good human being- good things happen to good people. When you donate to charity you get nothing in return especially when you do it without press release unlike politicians!

3. This is unlike the Government taking 30% out of your check and giving it to people who vote for them, or payback with fundraisers and contracts. This is stealing and immoral and if more liberal people like Joe Biden (gives average $400 per year from $300,000+ income), Al Gore (when records were public $300 per year on $200,000+ income) and others gave money to our own country and to non-voters or where there is no benefit from what they do in return, there would be no hunger or poverty! There was a study that conservatives give around $2200 a year and liberals $600 a year. Don’t steal it, give it!

I do not know about ELPs but from what I have read, facilitators are not paid. Exact opposite, it cost more to be a facilitator than take the class. The material for the facilitator cost $299, while the material for those taking the course is $93.

I would imagine that most churches pick-up the cost for the facilitators material. And, some churches might even pay a person to act as the facilitator. But, I have found no indication that Mr. Ramsey’s organization pays facilitators.

I share all of this because my pastor and I are considering bringing Finacial Peace University to our church. I agree so strongly with Mr. Ramsey’s baby steps; especially step 7; that I am planning on paying the cost of the facilitator material out of my own pocket.

For those who are unaware, the last baby step is that there are only three good things to do with money; have fun, invest, and give it away. Mr. Ramsey makes it very clear that all three of these things must happen to truely get financial peace. Now, could you imagine just how much good a church could do if every member of the church was on step 7? How many people we could feed? How many kids we could get clothes for? How many needs we could meet? It is for this reason that I am excited to try and help other members of my church find the peace my wife and I have.

So he’s selling books and classes through churches. Are the “facilitators” at
these churches paid? Do Dave’s Endorsed Local Providers aka ELPs pay
for referrals? Any program run in churches should have full disclosure in
my opinion. Are facilitators using the classes to get leads for their business?

I agree with a lot of the philosophies, really don’t like how the debt
snowball is “dumbed down” so you’re not working off the highest rate
debt first. That’s not the most effective way but he doesn’t believe you
have the fortitude to stick with it any other way. The overall concept is
better than running up debt on stuff we don’t need.

Again, my question is about the money. Are facilitators unpaid volunteers?
Is Dave profiting from free labor? Does he have a financial relationship
with his ELPs? In any organization it’s always good to know who’s
benefiting financially throughout the whole network.

I don’t begrudge anyone making a living or a profit. When it comes to my
finances it’s nice to know who may be getting compensated for giving me
advice at any time.

It may not be politically correct to question, all I can say is Follow the
Money and the truth will be known. In the meantime, do what you can
to get out of debt.

My question to anyone that has taken the FPU courses at the church and/or online:

My husband and I just finished reading The Total Money Makeover and have started our new marriage off with setting a budget and are on Baby Step 2 (Debt Snowballing). Although we are a couple of steps away from Steps 3 and 4, we would like to learn more about good investments with detail. We know that he highly recommends Mutual Funds, but I’ll be honest when I say that doesn’t mean much to me, except that it apparently has an average 12% growth rate when vested for a long time.

Does the class help teach in detail what the different types of investments look like and how to decipher through all the technical aspects of investing? As the bookkeeper of our family, it makes me very nervous about how to invest our money and I want to make sure we do it wisely.

Ok, great. We’ve established that you have NOTHING bad to say about Dave Ramsey’s advice, which is what this post was about. Chalk another one up for Dave!

As for his policy being “exclusionary and unchristian”, are you serious? How many times do we have to go over it? Let’s say a Muslim ran a financial advice business and allowed people to become financial advisors themselves and use his name in their business. Let’s say he said he was putting Islamic financial principles to use and would only allow Muslims to be certified by him as a financial advisor and use his name. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Would you? If so, why? Dave Ramsey is a Christian and he’ll give advice to anyone, but those who want to take on the Dave Ramsey name as a financial advisor, he wants those people to share the same value system as he does. Again, why is this such a hard concept for you to grasp?

If Dave Ramsey was as greedy as you have tried to make him out to be, wouldn’t he allow just anyone to become one of his financial advisors? He could probably make a lot more money that way. Maybe, just maybe, he is trying to God’s will and uphold a high standard. To suggest that he is being “unchristian” is absurd.

“And of course I charge, just as he does and volunteer just as he does. I didn’t say we needed to be poorer , nor am I anti-christian. You just rail on about comments that I didn’t make.”

I’ll let others review your previous comments to decide if I was addressing comments that you made, or if I just made them up out of thin air.

“You simply can’t distinguish between free speech and your own I’m better than you because I a christian and believe in god attitude. If you were a so-called christian you wouldn’t say the things you have in the manner you have, and as a result proved me right. I’ll pray for you.”

LOL. Believe me, friend, I’m all about “free spech” and freedom in general, like allowing Dave Ramsey the freedom to run his business as he sees fit. Did I ever say you don’t have the right or shouldn’t have the freedom to express your opinion? And you accuse me of making up comments? Good grief. You certainly have the right to express your opinion, but when you express your opinion be prepared for others to express theirs, even if that means disagreeing with yours.

Nowhere did I say I was “better than you”, so please put the “victim” card back in your pocket. You’ll have to try playing that somewhere else. I DID point out your anti-Christian bias which is plain for everyone to see.

I just love it when someone verbally attacks Christians and when a Christian stands up for Christianity, the attacker then plays possum and complains about the other person not being a “so-called Christian”.

So, let’s sum up what we’ve learned from you:

It’s ok to license anyone off the street as a financial advisor and not ask them to uphold any kind of standards, but it’s NOT ok for a Christian to license other Christians financial advisors, because asking them to uphold and live by Christian standards is “exclusionary”.

It’s ok to exercise freedom of speech to bash Christians, but Christians should not exercise their freedom of speech or freedom of assembly.

Got it.

Now then, back on topic, this post was started by someone taking Dave’s FPU class. Remember? Reading the updates reveals a person who started out skeptical about FPU, but ended up saying it was worth it and that they would certainly do it again.

I understand DR charges for some of his products and services. I also understand he offers 4 FREE hours a day to a national media audience, along with whatever FREE info is on his website.

If you don’t think his paid materials are worth what he’s asking or not worth anything, I have a simple solution for you. DON’T BUY THEM.

I still don’t understand what your problem is (other than Dave being a Christian). Evidently, you think that he shouldn’t charge for anything. You say you give free advice, yet I’m assuming you DO charge for something, don’t you? So what’s the difference between you and Dave? Unless you provide ALL of your services for FREE, you are quite hypocritical to criticize someone else who doesn’t work for free. Just how DO you make a living?

And how is Dave Ramsey different than Suzi Orman that you recommended. She sells her products and services on her website. Isn’t she wealthy???? Oooooh, that makes her eeeeevil! Why aren’t you ripping her for not giving away everything she has??? OH, wait, now I remember…it’s because she doesn’t claim to be a Christian.

Jesus was a Jew and not a Christian and would not have been accepted??? HUH? I would say that you lost all credibilty with such an obviously hysterical statement, but you lost all credibility with your last post in which you compared Dave to BTK.

Jesus FOUNDED Christianity. A Christian is simply someone who believes that Christ was who He claimed to be (Son of God), repents of their sinful ways, and follows Him. Saying Jesus was not a Christian makes about as much sense as saying that God doesn’t believe in His own existence.

Your rant about America is typical liberal guilt garbage. Yes, we consume a lot. We also produce a lot. We also give more than that back in public and private funds, help, aid, etc. Without us, the rest of the world would be an absolute bombed-out pile of garbage. Life on this planet would probably would have already ceased to exist. If you feel so guilty about living here, perhaps you should sell everything you own and move to the the Congo. Just do your best to avoid all of those EVIL Christian missionairies helping and ministering to the poor.

We are “rich”, I won’t deny that; however, if you think making us poorer will somehow make others richer, you don’t have the slightest idea of how money and econimics work. Please tell us all that you were joking when you claimed to be a CPA.

And what does this have to do with Dave Ramsey? As a Christian, Dave is a proponent of giving 10% of your earnings to churches (a lot of which goes to helping the hungry, homeless, addicted, etc., both here and abroad) and helping those less fortunate.

You hate Christians and don’t believe there’s a God. WE GET IT. Fortunately, we still (at least for the moment) live in a free country where you and Dave Ramsey are free to believe what you want.

If Dave only wants Christians to use his name as a “Dave Ramsey Financial Counselor”, so be it! It’s his gig! And, yes, someone like Haggert or someone else could probably lie and get in. It’s possible. Evidently, your reasoning seems to be if you can’t filter out every possible “bad apple”, you shouldn’t try to filter out anyone. Absolutely ridiculous!

Your anti-Christian material is very, very weak.

This post is about Dave Ramsey and his financial advice. Evidently, you don’t have anything negative to say about his actual ADVICE, because you are working so hard to turn the discussion into an anti-Chritian rant.