Dave Ramsey tells his listeners they need plastic surgery, and he has several five-gallon jars brimming with cut-up credit cards that prove he means business when it comes to personal finance. Ramsey, host of a hit financial talk-radio show, never thought he'd be throwing out a lifeline from Nashville's WWTN to thousands of listeners via his get-tough financial advice.
At age 26, not too long after his graduation from UTK in finance and real estate, Ramsey got rich quick by buying rental properties and foreclosed real estate on 90-day loans, which he sold fast for profit. Aggressive and intent on success, Ramsey built his real estate portfolio up to $4 million. His net worth topped $1 million in just four years.
Then the unthinkable happened. His bank abandoned real estate financing and called back all of its 90-day loans. Ramsey and his wife, Sharon Reed Ramsey, also a UTK grad in child and family studies, kept only their home and their clothes. They lost all their investment properties and $1.2 million. The process took two years, during which Ramsey recalls sobbing in the shower, mulling suicide, and being sued for loan default.
Through the experience, the idea for a consumer counseling company was born. Ramsey knew thousands were experiencing the same thing he had gone through. He also knew he had learned a lot that could help people with less financial know-how. He formed the Brentwood-based Lampo Group to help people discover financial peace through personal finance counseling, broadcasting, publishing, and seminars. Financial Peace, the book Dave and Sharon collaborated on, is in its second revision.
Ramsey is sending a wake up call to the overly financed American family. He can rattle off the statistics of America's enslavement to debt.
"Consumer debt rose 225 percent from 1976 to 1986. Visa billings doubled last year from $200 billion to $400 billion -- phenomenal. The American consumer is deeply in debt and not talking about it. I call it a Valium state of mind. Seventy percent of the country lives paycheck to paycheck with no savings for any kind of emergency. The typical family is holding between eight and 12 credit cards, and each card has an average balance of $1,500."
Ramsey says he's seen enough pain. It's time for America to get its financial act together, starting with the elimination of debt.
"The Lampo group is not just a business anymore. It's a crusade to help people find financial peace. People lose hope and feel like they're never going to get ahead, so they just don't deal with their situation. We're in the business of restoring hope."
Ramsey blames the "gotta-have-it-now" society and Madison Avenue for debt ills.
"We must have everything and we must have everything now. We have become a nation of consumers instead of a nation of producers. We are spoiled. No one wants to wait and save money for purchases. Also, financial institutions started marketing debt in the '70s for consumer purchases. There's so much money to be made by the credit companies that consumers are always going to be encouraged to spend, spend, spend beyond their means through the use of credit."
But in a world where even dolls come with their own miniature plastic credit cards, a man who stands up and says "Stop charging" is thought by some to be mildly insane.
"Madison Avenue has it so ingrained in us that it's OK to be in debt. Our grandparents would never have financed consumer purchases the way we routinely do. It used to be a source of shame if you had a mortgage. Now it's a matter of business. In 1919, only two percent of the homeowners in the country had a mortgage, but by 1962 only two percent didn't have mortgages.
"Most states have seen a 300 percent increase in bankruptcy filings. The mortgage banking industry has seen its percentages of late paying mortgages double every year. Tennessee is a leading state for bankruptcy partly because we had two of the country's largest real estate companies based here. Those two companies went bankrupt and took $700 million with them when they went down. Banks closed. Nashville was reeling and it just had a ripple effect," Ramsey says.
It's not just Tennessee that's feeling the crunch. USA Today has reported that for the last five years, finances have been the number one subject of most New Year's resolutions. It used to be weight.
Ramsey says the concepts he teaches through his ongoing workshop, Financial Peace University, or through his call-in radio show, the Money Game, are simple. But the behavior change is hard.
"It's basic stuff. Save money. Get out of debt and stay out. Limit your lifestyle and give money to charity.
"Financial Peace University is like weight watchers for personal finance. We ask you to be accountable for your budget. The goal is for the budgets to show some amount of saving, debt reduction, no additional debt, and liquidation of assets if necessary to reduce debt," Ramsey said.
The testimonials from Financial Peace University show that the program works. Ramsey says only half of his clients are teetering on the brink of disaster. The other half aren't in trouble, but neither are they able to set and meet their fiscal goals. None are beyond help.
"One couple had been married 13 years and had never saved money. After five months in the program, they had $4,000 in the bank and had paid off $14,000 in debt. The worst case I've had was a guy and his wife who had income of $110,000 and expenses of $165,000. Their credit card balances totaled $134,000. They should have a net worth of $800,000 instead of a negative net worth.
"Anyone who wants help can get out of trouble because most money issues are behavior based. If people can tighten up on discipline and habits, they'll be OK. Financial Peace University is the best thing we do here at the Lampo Group in terms of changing lives. We have 12 sessions and each one focuses in-depth on different aspects of finance -- the course content is like personal finance 101, which is taught nowhere.
"Colleges everywhere teach us to use other people's money and invest it at a higher rate -- they call it leveraging. I see students coming out of school and not knowing how to balance a checkbook. College is where you start learning first-hand about finances and credit because the credit companies are sending out cards by the bucket to students. Citicorp just spent $10 million marketing credit cards to high school kids. Sixty-one percent of all college students are carrying a card and 32 percent of those got it before college. However, a recent survey showed that fewer than 30 percent of the students polled could say what interest rate they were paying on their cards. It's like not knowing anything about guns and toting an Uzi. But the credit card companies understand about teaching children habits that will carry over into adulthood," Ramsey said.
The big losers are the students who come out of school with consumer debt in addition to student loans, he says. Ramsey's hard line debt approach extends to student loans.
"Only 30 percent of all students were using loans 10 years ago. Today 70 percent are borrowing. And savings are at a 30-year low. We have $13.5 billion in student loans in default right now in this country. And student loans do not go away when you declare bankruptcy. You owe them forever. I think we have a mindset that we don't have to work to go to school. But I believe you can work through school and get scholarships, if you bother. I know a guy who did a research paper every other semester for classes on some aspect of scholarships. He found $34,000 for about 200 hours of research. There is $6.6 billion in unclaimed scholarships out there, but you have to go look for it."
Citing his earlier self as an example, Ramsey says people spend whatever they make. He and Sharon take their own advice, however.
"This is a country where if you want to work, you can find a job doing something. If you can work and generate income, you can meet financial goals. Sharon and I made $60,000 one year and spent it all. We made $250,000 another year and spent it all. We made $40,000 another year and spent all of it too. But now we have no debt. I drive an old 1987 Mark VII with 185,000 miles on it. I don't care what anyone thinks because I've gotten to the point where I'd rather have $22,000 in the bank than drive a new car. Cars go down in value. The single biggest depreciating asset consumers buy is an auto. They go down like a rock. Never put your money in something that depreciates like that."
For personal finance advice, the Ramsey bookshelf includes Kiplinger's Personal Money Management Magazine, the USA Today Money section, and the books The Richest Man in Babylon and The Wealthiest Barber.
Ramsey has spoken to employee groups of O'Charleys Restaurants, Life Care Centers, United Parcel Service, Barge Waggoner and Sumner, Cooker Restaurants, Wendy's, and hundreds of churches.
For people who need a little financial healing in their life but aren't close to Nashville, the Lampo group sells Ramsey's book, educational videotapes, and seminars on audiocassette -- but they don't take credit cards.
"Money touches your life in every way," Ramsey says, "and you will manage it or lack of it will manage you."
