FILE-This July 29, 2009 file photo shows financial guru Dave Ramsey in his broadcasting studio in Brentwood, Tenn. Ramsey doesn't deny mixing religion and business, and he doesn't apologize for getting rich doing it, either. When GoBankingRates.com asked financial guru Dave Ramsey what contributes to today’s lack of financial literacy, the money mentor simply said, “Debt.”
Josh Anderson, Associated Press
When GoBankingRates.com asked financial guru Dave Ramsey what contributes to today’s lack of financial literacy, the money mentor simply said, “Debt.”
“It’s become normal,” Ramsey told GoBankingRates.com “It is sold so aggressively that many have come believe it’s a financial tool. It’s not. Debt is dumb. It magnifies your risk in any situation. It prevents you from building wealth.”
To Ramsey, financial literacy means more than simply learning how to deal with money.
“I say finance is 80 percent behavior and only 20 percent head knowledge,” Ramsey told GoBankingRates.com. “You’ve got to make the shift in attitude. You’ve got to get sick and tired of being broke in order to make the necessary behavior changes to win with money.”
He also told the finance site that the recession was “a wake up call for most people” and financial literacy is the “same common sense our grandparents practiced.”
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Joey Ferguson is a business reporter for the Deseret News who focuses on public finance. He joined Deseret News after graduating from Brigham Young University-Idaho with a bachelor's degree in journalism in May 2011. He more ..
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I hope it was a wake up call for most people. It most certainly was not for Wall Street or the Big banks thanks to our paying the bill for their foolishness - for generations.
Isn't low financial literacy the reason for debt? I suppose it could go both ways.
Everything Dava Ramsey preaches I know instinctively since I was young. I guess it was a gift. I've always lived on less than I made and saved or invested the rest.
Its 'common' sense that if you get into debt now, for More..