Dave Ramsey says there’s no excuse for sitting idle in today’s economy. With countless ways to make money, he believes anyone willing to work can find opportunity.
“To be unemployed in America today is crazy,” the personal finance expert told entrepreneur Ryan Pineda on his podcast in January. “You can just wake up this morning and go, ‘I have an idea,’ and by nightfall it’s already a digital product. Come on. I mean, seriously.”
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Ramsey Says Income Opportunities Are Everywhere
Ramsey, who built a financial empire after going bankrupt in his twenties, said he understands both sides of the money equation. While budgeting and saving are important, he emphasized that many people need to simply get out and earn more.
“The idea that we’re somehow trapped or that we need to budget our way out of something only; no, sometimes you earn and budget your way out of something,” he told Pineda. “You’ve got to do something, I don’t care what it is, if it’s Uber or whatever, but go do something.”
Pineda, who made millions flipping houses before the market turned on him, admitted that he once disagreed with Ramsey’s anti-debt views. But after losing millions when interest rates doubled, his views changed.
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“It kind of changed my perception,” Pineda said. “Debt’s great when it’s good, and then when things turn, it’s not so great.”
Ramsey, who says he now owns about $700 million in real estate, completely debt-free, explained how going broke in his 20s shaped his current approach. He described his younger self as someone who believed he could always out-earn his mistakes. “I thought I could out-earn my stupidity,” he said.
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Ramsey told Pineda that real estate investors often ignore the real risk that comes with leverage. “More debt equals more risk. Less debt equals less risk,” he said. “Sustainability is the key to wealth building, not being brilliant for 10 minutes.”
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Even when it comes to business expenses, Ramsey said that, unlike debt payments, you can cut overhead if necessary. “With employees, you can do that,” he said. “You can’t do that with a mortgage, you can’t do that with a debt payment, you can cut overhead if necessary. “With employees, you can do that,” he said. “You can’t do that with a mortgage, you can’t do that with a debt payment. You can’t just go, ‘It’s inconvenient, so I’m not going to do it anymore.'”
Ramsey also talked about the backlash he sometimes gets from both secular and Christian audiences. “I’m too Christian for the crazy atheist and I’m not Christian enough for my brothers and sisters who are oversaved,” he joked.
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