Dave Ramsey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dave Ramsey
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Ramsey in 2023
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| Born | September 3, 1960 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupation | Personal finance consultant, radio show host, author |
| Alma mater | University of Tennessee (BS) |
| Subject | Personal finance |
| Notable works | The Total Money Makeover |
| Spouse | Sharon Ramsey |
| Children | 3, including Rachel Cruze |
David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American radio personality who offers financial advice. He hosts the nationally syndicated radio program The Ramsey Show. Ramsey has written several books, including The New York Times bestseller The Total Money Makeover, and hosted a television show on Fox Business from 2007 to 2010.
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Early life
Ramsey was born in Antioch, Tennessee, to real estate developers. He attended Antioch High School where he played ice hockey. At age 18, Ramsey took the real estate exam and began selling property, working through college at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Real Estate.
Career
By 1986, Ramsey had amassed a portfolio worth over $4 million. However, when the Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987 took effect, several banks changed ownership and called his $1.2 million in loans and lines of credit because he was over-leveraged. Ramsey was unable to pay and filed for bankruptcy in 1988.
Ramsey experienced several years of financial recovery and began offering financial advice to couples at his local church. In 1988, he founded the Lampo Group, a financial counseling service, and in 1992 he wrote and self-published his first book, Financial Peace.
Ramsey began as one of three alternating hosts of The Money Game on radio station WWTN/Nashville in 1992. The show eventually became The Dave Ramsey Show, Ramsey's daily three-hour call-in financial advice talk show.
Financial Peace University, Ramsey's nine-lesson, video-based personal finance course, debuted in 1994. The Gannett newspaper group ran his financial column, though dropped it when the newspaper realized that Ramsey had changed the names on the letters to which he was responding. He offered to pay them their money back. The Dave Ramsey Show aired on the Fox Business Network from 2007 to 2010.
In 2014, The Lampo Group, Inc. was rebranded as Ramsey Solutions. The company's headquarters are located in Franklin, Tennessee, and a new 47-acre campus opened there in 2019.
Ramsey has written five books for adults, three of which were New York Times bestsellers, and six children's books. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2015.
Teachings
Ramsey advises listeners to reduce debt using the debt snowball method, where debtors pay off their lowest balances first. Ramsey opposes the use of credit cards. At live shows, he sometimes takes out his wallet to show audiences the "only four pieces of plastic" he carries: A business debit card, a personal debit card, a driver's license, and a concealed-carry permit. Ramsey encourages the use of cash and advises families to utilize an envelope system, putting a cash allocation for each month's food, entertainment, and other expenses in separate envelopes and then spending only what is in the envelope. Ramsey encourages people not to take on student loan debt and calls the idea that student loans are required for college "a myth".
Personal life
Ramsey married his wife Sharon in 1982, and the Ramseys have three children: Denise (Ramsey) Whittemore, Rachel (Ramsey) Cruze, and Daniel Ramsey. All three work for Ramsey Solutions. With Ramsey, Cruze co-wrote and published the New York Times No. 1 bestseller Smart Money, Smart Kids in 2014.
Ramsey had an estimated net worth of $55 million as of 2018. He sold his custom-built home in the Nashville, Tennessee area for $10.2 million in 2021 after living there for over a decade. A spokesperson said he was having another home built in the area.
Ramsey is an evangelical Christian who describes himself as conservative, both fiscally and culturally. He has blamed politics for what he considers Americans' economic dependence, and has said presidents should do "as little as possible" about the economy.
