This week Dave Ramsey shook the debt free and financial communities by going on Fox News and stating that if you need or are looking forward to a $600 or $1400 stimulus payment to change your life, you have “issues”. Yes, you read that correctly. The man who built an empire by peddling a book that preaches that a $1,000 emergency fund is the first step to financial freedom (aka a life changing event) just inserted his foot into his own mouth. Hearing him belittle people who are just trying to survive and regain their footing brought me back to where I started with my financial journey. I was, and am still am one of those lower income people he deems as less than and non-deserving of a financial break.
I found out who Dave was about 5–6 years ago while browsing Pinterest for ways to make money online and different ways to save money (making your own laundry soap, homemade cleaners, ways to cut down on utilities, etc.) I wasn’t about to drop money on his Financial Peace University or Total Money Makeover book as I didn’t see those as a need when I had found the majority of the information on Pinterest and Google for free. I decided to do it on my own since nobody I knew had done it and I wasn’t about to openly admit to my friends and family how much debt I had. I saved the $1,000 he suggested for a small emergency, paid off some small debts, and started throwing a good chunk of my paychecks to my car loan. Then I lost my job.
This event triggered my depression. I began to feel a lot of shame for having focused so much on paying off a car early when that really didn’t matter to me. I was given a 3 month notice at my job with the option of a severance package if I agreed to stay until the last day the business was open. I was reassured by everyone around me that it was going to be easy to find a replacement job right after my current one ended so I signed the severance package and solely focused on still trying to go “gazelle intense” on my car loan because in Dave’s world that was the way things were to be done. Leading up to the last week before my work’s closure, I had zero prospects for a job as I was unable to go on interviews while still employed. I felt defeated.
I filed for unemployment the following week after becoming unemployed and then came the waiting weeks on end for it to be approved. I felt completely helpless watching as my emergency fund disappeared with no set date on when I would be able to replenish it or if it would last me until I was finally paid through unemployment. I began to worry and over analyze every little thing I was spending money on including my $35 phone bill. Something I needed to have so potential employers were able to contact me. It took over a month to finally get paid for the all time I had been laid off. Even after all the time that had passed since becoming unemployed, the amount I was paid wasn’t enough to refill my emergency fund. That then triggered my scarcity mindset and I began to withdraw my unemployment payments each week from the ATM and hoard what little cash I had left in my room. I wanted to be sure that if anything else happened I had cash on hand. I had been applying to full time jobs for about 6 weeks at that point and getting nowhere. I was either over qualified for the jobs at minimum wage, or I’d hear nothing back from the jobs that I was qualified for. I started to think I wasn’t good enough to be employed. That having been laid off was a scarlet letter on my resume. That they assumed something was wrong with me because my corporation hadn’t taken me to work at another location across town. What others thought of me began to consume most of my thoughts on the daily.
I finally settled on part time work with no benefits that paid a little more than my unemployment because I figured it was better than feeling like everyone was viewing me as “living off the system.” I was miserable and overwhelmed. I was working a job that barely allowed to me survive, taking online classes full time because everyone had said that would help me out with future jobs, and trying to keep my sanity. I felt trapped in a cycle I had little control over, was doing everything “right” according to society, and yet still I was barely making it. It took almost another 6 months after that before I was able to find a full time job with benefits, get a place of my own, and feel like I was getting back on track.
Hearing Dave say that $1,400 isn’t life changing pissed me off more than just a little bit because I know what that amount of money would have done for me at that point in my life. It would have changed my situation drastically, not only financially but mentally as well. I would have been able to refill my emergency fund, pay things things on time without using the grace periods, and not worry the whole time if I was going to be able make the full payment before the deadline. I would have felt more confident, stable, and in control of my decisions at that time. Him saying what he said on national tv about stimulus payments and student loans just shows how truly out of touch he has become with the average working person. Thinking that erasing a $400 student loan payment each month wouldn’t help a person making $50K is just absurd. Acting like $1,400 won’t help put a lower income person in a better position is just stupid. What that actually does is shine a light on a much larger issue of how disconnected the uber wealthy become once they are financially stable.
Shunning those who have not yet reached their stability does not help the situation. Am I saying he deserves a huge cancel culture awakening? No, but I do think he needs a wake up call that what he’s built off the backs of those not in perfect financial health can be taken away. People don’t need his books, his online tools/calculators, or his programs. There are other avenues they can get the same educational tools without the judgement such as Youtube, Facebook groups, Instagram communities, etc. The internet is a vast and powerful place full of helpful resources and I encourage others to use those outlets instead.