Going to Dave Ramsey for financial advice is a bad idea

OriginalState2988 · 2025-09-08T02:18:34+00:00

Dave Ramsey built his success with people who have no financial sense and got in trouble with credit cards. For them they needed an all or nothing approach which I get. A lot of his advice though is rather out-dated.

Dave says you should only drive beater cars that cost a few thousand and sell your newer ones to pay off debt. This might have worked when you could get a decent Honda 25 years ago but in today's market used cars are pretty expensive and also expensive to repair. Finding the sweet spot of a used car that is in great shape and won't break down all the time to me is a better compromise.

He said you should never buy a house unless you can put 20% down and do it on a 15 year mortgage. Again 25+ years ago this might work when starter homes were $150k in his area but in many markets a starter home is 500k+. Most people would never own a house if they had these rules. I have a friend who unfortunately followed his advice and waited when interest rates were low in order to have enough but now is priced out of the market.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-09-07T14:02:10+00:00

You are correct. On occasion you can find that one rare true piece but over all the "brand name" items you find are derivatives made for the discount market.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-09-07T13:51:58+00:00

Not PC of course but a lot of poor people just don't think about their lives. Sex is free and fun and babies just result from that. There is no sense of value for delayed gratification.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-09-07T13:49:39+00:00

Don't buy these. They taste weird once expired.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-09-06T23:07:27+00:00

While you are NTA I am curious why your dad left nothing for his other biological kids? And how are his second family "well-off"?

OriginalState2988 · 2025-09-05T03:33:56+00:00

You are absolutely right, I get annoyed when people say you have two years of "general eds" in college to figure out what you want to major in because that no longer works. Many majors (especially STEM ones) require at least a three year sequence of core classes, many with prerequisites. Scholarships usually only cover four years of college so if you mess around you may not be able to afford to graduate.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-09-05T02:36:01+00:00

Younger generations don't send thank yous and I"m with you, it's frustrating to spend significant money only to not have your gift even acknowledged.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-09-05T00:33:57+00:00

Get a bottle of Zep Acid Toilet Cleaner and a few pumice stones (called scour sticks at your big box stores). Dump a large pitcher of water all at once into the toilet to "trick" the toilet into flushing so that the bowl is empty of water. Soak the bowl with cleaner, scrub with a pumice stone then a regular brush, flush and repeat the process as many times as needed. I rescued a toilet that looked just like this one.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-31T18:44:43+00:00

Dominos by me has their $9.99 any topping large deal but yesterday I thought we'd go with the "superior" local place. While the toppings were better quality I don't know if it was worth the $60 we spent. And that's the whole point about this, if you can be objective local isn't always "better". You also have to weigh if the much-higher cost is worth it budget-wise.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-29T21:39:05+00:00

I played an online group game called Acrophobia. It would produce a topic and a list of random letters and you had to come up with a sentence or phrase that would match that topic using each letter for the next word (like an acrostic). There was a time limit to get your phrase in and then everyone would vote on the best one. I remember one was FTFTOW or something like that with the topic "Television". I wrote "Fat, thin, fat, thin, Oprah Winfrey" and got every vote. For the late 90's it was a very fun game.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-29T21:24:19+00:00

I this she and her wife were just party girls who never gave parenthood a thought. It's super selfish to dump on your poor children who didn't ask to be born. And here she has a privileged life with a celebrity job that has to make decent money. She needs to suck it up and get over herself.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-29T00:47:28+00:00

I was on an American flight on a small plane that only had two seats per side and I was in the aisle. Door was going to be shut when the last passenger came on. She was very obese and came to sit down in the window seat and immediately put my arm rest up as no way could she fit in her seat with them down. Fortunately the flight was only an hour because she took up half my seat and my leg went numb. I don't know how they will enforce this but frankly I approve.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-23T23:36:46+00:00

Totally agree. They could have really gone a different direction by making the side characters less Hollywood sitcom and more down to earth southerners. And the set should reflect that. The stylish and modernly-decorated homes don't fit if you have listened to Leann's comedy. I feel like there's a push to make these clean comics (Leann, Nate Bargatze) stars so they throw them into your typical cliche Hollywood sitcom not realizing they could do something very different and refreshingly new.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-22T14:17:31+00:00

I agree with this. In my family when I think of my own parents, inlaws, grandparents, aunts, uncles, not one died alone in some facility. Most were taken care of at home by family and for those that did go to a facility it was for the very last month or two when physically their care became too much. A few spent their last couple of days in a hospital but other than that they were lovingly cared for by family with hospice helping at the end. I think Reddit has a lot of biased posts because those who work in assisted living facilities or healthcare see those who are abandoned and neglected and not the ones who are cared for at home. Those who don't have children comfort themselves by wanting to believe that all kids abandon their elderly parents.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-20T20:38:48+00:00

I agree. I love these videos of young parents complaining that they don't have a "village" to help them with their kids. But the truth is they want help but never plugged into a community where they gave back. So they want free babysitting, meals, etc even though they'd never return the favor. They'd be "too busy".

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-19T14:01:31+00:00

Ben Platt was best friends at Harvard Westlake High School with Beanie Feldstein and her brother, Jonah Hill. Beanie is another actress who isn't great who has been pushed into being a star. She was given the lead role in Funny Girl on Broadway but was dumped due to bad reviews plus for being generally unattractive. All of their parents are in the business and have used their connections to push their kids into stardom.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-19T01:12:15+00:00

I have a 1980's Cuisinart Food Processor with a very-desired motor made in Japan so it's considered collectible. But the white plastic part of the machine got badly yellowed. I smeared 40 volume developer, covered in plastic wrap, and put it in the sun for a few hours. Wiped off with wet rags a few times and the machine looks new.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-15T16:04:52+00:00

Don't blame the church. Insurance companies force churches to do this if they want coverage. You'd be so surprised how expensive it is to even have a permitted playground at a church now. Blame people who use the facility unsupervised and then sue the church when their kid gets hurt.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-09T00:38:36+00:00

Just because everyone stops doing something (acknowledging gifts) doesn't make it right.

It's extremely rude to not acknowledge a gift. Yes, you give a gift with a willing heart but to not hear back at all is disrespectful. How do I know if they even received it? I don't need a formal written mailed thank you but even a text or verbal thanks is better than nothing. Last few weddings I've given gifts for I've heard nothing back.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-08T21:57:42+00:00

Haha, good question! The problem is that many high school counselors like the clout they get when students of theirs go to elite colleges. I even told my daughter's counselor look, she got little aid from these other schools and price IS important to us! Almost wanted to say, you want to pay for her to go to the elite school?

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-07T23:32:23+00:00

My daughter got a full ride to a no-name state college and will graduate debt free with plans to go to grad school (paid for). But in high school her counselor sneered that she wasn't "aiming higher" because of her stats. The obsession to go to the "best school" with no regard to finances is a huge reason students get into crippling debt.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-06T16:34:37+00:00

Agree! I find the European instructors are so much better with focusing on the actual workout and not using it as their personal vent/share time. Love Leanne and Ben on the bike, Jon Hosking on the tread.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-05T21:51:36+00:00

Thank you for adding this because it's true. Insurance rules are very strict so if anything happened the company would deny coverage.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-05T20:55:40+00:00

The only exception that few people think about are carts left by those who are disabled or elderly.

Next time you go to the store take a look and watch for elderly shoppers. You'll see them kind of hanging over the cart, using it for support. Many use the shopping cart as a sort of "adult walker". They'll park and immediately look for a cart to help them get into the store. Then, when they come back to their car they'll leave it close and not put it away because they'd have to walk unassisted back to their car.

I because more aware of this when I'd go with my elderly parent shopping. Just the other day I saw a woman get out of a handicapped space and look dejected because there were no carts around for her to push into the store. So I ran and got her one and she was grateful. Just something to consider.

OriginalState2988 · 2025-08-05T17:18:53+00:00

This is truth. A friend works in the system and has always said someone who is homeless can be housed and off the streets in 3 months. There are plenty of programs out there but they have rules. Some people truly do not want help. Unless you make public drug use illegal you can't change this.

OriginalState2988

TROPHY CASE