Dave Ramsey and the truth

I have gone through Dave Ramsey's audio course of Total money make over. It was a fascinating experience. Remind you I am a huge fan of Robert Kiyosaki and have read everything he has put out. I thought why not get a different perspective on financial matters and Dave is quite prominent as a financial guru so why not him. I learned that I need to cut up all my credit cards, never use debt, and shrink my spending to below my means. So basically go on a diet. Last I checked most diets do not work. I know from studying health and nutrition for years that having good education in health is what makes a major difference in your health. It's not just doing what someone else tells you to do yet it is knowing what to do and why makes a difference. Most people do not understand what High Fructose Corn Syrup is and how it affects their health. Hardly anyone knows that it was not even in our food system 30 years ago and is a man made product that has major health affects. Knowing this can help you with your health dramatically.

So Education is a very important aspect o our lives. Most of have limited exposure to education. Sure we went to school and some of us have diplomas yet the biggest lesson we learned is to turn over control of our lives to someone else and do as we are told. Color within the lines. Most people do not know that John Rockafeller was a major player in creating our educational system in an age when employees where needed most. People who can follow orders. So we learn to turn our money over to other people and let them control it. One of the biggest issues I have with Dave's teachings is he recommends investing in mutual funds rather than investing yourself or buying gold or silver. (its funny that the wealthy people in america do the opposite of what he recommends.) With todays economic melt down in full swing we have all learned what happens if you put all your money into mutual funds. It goes to someone else. Always remember, money is never lost in the stock market, it just goes into someone else's pocket. If you had bought gold and silver over the last ten years instead of a mutual fund you would still have all your money plus a very nice return. Gold ten years ago was around $200 per ounce and today is over $900 per ounce.

Robert's main philosophy is education. Learn how to control you own money and know how to create your own wealth. He says you should live below your means and learn to increase your means so you can have the lifestyle you want. Set a goal for how much money you want to spend in a month on whatever you want then learn how to create a constant stream of income that will be greater than what you want to spend. How cool would it be to have a regular paycheck that you don't need to get an extra job to have and you can spend it any way you want.

Robert tells in his books of how he really wanted a porche. He figured out how much the payments for the porche would be then worked to find an investment he could buy that would generate enough income to make his payment. He bought the investment then the car and had the car paid off in a few years. So the car was basically free and he still had an income producing asset after the car was paid for. It really doesn't take much more work to do this too. In fact it takes less work than having to get a second job to make the payments.

I don't know about you yet I prefer the path of education and controlling my own future.