“The Total Money Makeover: A proven plan for financial fitness” by Dave Ramsey

“The Total Money Makeover: A proven plan for financial fitness” by Dave Ramsey

One of my “laws of life” is that debt is a form of slavery and that you should choose to live in freedom. “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey tells you how to do this. This isn’t a theoretical book about how to think and grow rich through the power of attraction or some other metaphysical BS. Dave teaches you how to break the chains step by step. If you forever change how you think about money – specifically, debt – then this book has done its job.

Just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. The concept of not spending more than you make and saving for emergencies is not a difficult concept to understand, but by the numbers, Americans struggle with this. I don’t know how “The Total Money Makeover” isn’t required reading in every high school in America.

Wouldn’t we live with less stress, have stronger marriages (finances are the number one cause of divorce), be able to change our family trees, and be able to give more generously to others if more of us followed Dave’s words? “Don’t be normal. Normal is broke – be weird”.

Through an easy to understand six-step system that he calls “working the baby steps”, Dave will teach you money management strategies that lead to financial independence and the ability to live and give like no one else. You’ll learn how to see exactly where your money is going when you create a zero-based budget and give every dollar a name. My father always said that money goes where you tell it to go, regardless of whether you’re aware of where you’re telling it to go.

There is a saying that goes something like “you can have anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want”. Dave Ramsey has done exactly that. After going bankrupt and losing everything due to overleveraging a series of real estate deals when he was in his early 20’s, Dave started his financial coaching business from a folding card table in his living room. He’s now worth about $60 million and is responsible for helping more people get out of debt and become financially free than any other single person who I’m aware of.

The concept of debt freedom is about more than a single book. Start with “The Total Money Makeover” and then check out the other books that he and his team have written. His podcast, “The Dave Ramsey Show”, is a bit formulaic if you’re a long-time listener, but it’s an excellent accountability partner for your journey to debt freedom and also teaches general financial literacy. Over five million people have taken his Financial Peace University course. One in three high schools has used his Foundations in Personal Finance: High School Edition curriculum.

I find Dave Ramsey to be a trustworthy person who has the heart of a teacher and genuinely wants to help people. I love his advice for getting out of debt, but I think his investing advice of just buying four different classes of mutual funds without regard to what the market is doing is too one-dimensional and limiting. To not get out of the way of an oncoming freight train or to dismiss the value of purchasing a well-researched single stock at the right time is shortsighted. It’s kind of like how Michael Jordan was the best basketball player of all time, but was below-average at baseball.

The good news is that if you work his system for getting out of debt, you can put your most powerful asset – your income – to work for you and invest how you see fit.

You can get a free 30-day trial to Audible as well as two free audiobooks that are yours to keep. Audible is an affordable way to enjoy your favorite books and discover new ones when you can’t make time to sit down and read a physical book. You’ll also help out The Pilanesberg Project when you follow my link.