Why Dave Ramsey Is Anti-Debt 

You can’t put a price on the peace you get from having zero debt. Did it in my mid-40s. Meanwhile all my friends have bigger homes and nicer cars - all with payments. They’re always stressed about bills.

49 and my only debt remaining is some medical debt. Once I get that paid off I plan, hope and pray to remain debt free for the rest of my life.

There is no feeling like being totally Debt free. It's better than any car, boat, rv, vacation, high that lasts for a few weeks. All it takes is a little sacrificing and self control when your younger and when you retire it gives you a feeling of freedom that adds years to your life.

Always mentally financially strong if we don’t have debts. Thanks a lot Ramsey

Dave is correct. When you have no debt. You have peace of mind. You also have real choice.

My grandfather, who was a top executive of an Italian bank, always told at home that to buy by instalments would ruin a family. Two generations later we still stick to his advice and enjoy our family more than comfortable way of living .

I've been debt free for 10 years. I paid my first house off when I was 32. Now I'm a millionaire who's still working the same hourly wage job. You do the math.

I've been completely debt free since age 40- I live simply with low property taxes, drive a manual transmission Toyota truck with roll up windows and a.c. So many of my friends are forced to work overtime just to make ends meet. I just go through my day enjoying life... There is no price on freedom and peace of mind- Actually there is and it's paying off your debt. Live Free Or Work Overtime!

Also, what is great about living 100% debt-free is you don't have to make as much money and can work less if you want to when everything is paid for. It is much easier paying only property taxes. You don't even have to get homeowner's insurance if you don't want to when you own your house outright. Like dave said, you sleep better at night too with less anxiety.

We paid off our house. That gives me a sense of peace.

I know the feeling of having debts vs. being debt-free. The peace of mind, the freedom, the feeling that no one owns you, it's all worth it. I haven't had debts for 10 years now. I don't want to lose all that benefits.

I have always said it " A MAN WITHOUT DEBTS IS A RICH MAN "

Zero debt is a major part of my minimalistic ways.

I can appreciate that reasoning. That said a small amount of debt isn't bad if it opens doors. The story of the talents the servants were lent money to grow.

Dave is inspiring me to get out of debt completely. I don't have much debt but I want to get rid of it as soon as I can so I can have the feeling of being debt free.

Debt is crushing. Being debt free is the bomb! And you do sleep so much better at night. It's priceless!

I love when Dave says “you can always get back into debt” 😂

Peace of mind from financial freedom is priceless. Let the Joneses have debt with car payments and their mortgage.

Love Dave Ramsey. I am a CPA who "does it his way" . . . yeah, we have some (low%, fixed-rate) debt on house and on rental property, but ~1/3rd of total equity on each. Still, his advice makes a lot of sense because for some/many people, debt can be intoxicating and deadly.

this is just what i needed to hear

I have several friends whose stories are similar to Dave's - never late, never missed a payment. But went the BANK got into trouble, the credits lines dried up and the loans got called. All that (mythical) equity vanished and they too went BK. Debt, therefore, is a risk.

Peace of mind……..and freedom. The thing is………many people aren’t aware of what their mind is doing. 🙂

100% of foreclosures happen on a house with a mortgage? What about back taxes?

Peace over math for me. I hate owing people money.

Great video as always Dave. I am 42 years old and still renting instead of having a mortgage. People keep telling me to get a mortgage but the thought of a mortgage hanging over my head each month fills me with dread. I am content with where I live and with it being housing association I can just pay rent and when I reach retirement age I get to stay in the property rent free. Me and my wife don’t have any kids so if we did own our home then we would have nobody to leave it to when the day comes and we leave this world.

Lol John saying “good for him” at the end was great.

Debt is not a pet. Peace of mind is priceless

The fact that people have to question why debt is not good shows how backwards the world is.

I hate debt too. As soon as you can, pay it all off. When you have no debt and a simple low living standard your approach to investments gets better because you are not investing afraid. You make better decisions.

Stay far away from debt and live a happy life.

I’ve come to the conclusion that debt and payments are like drugs for some people they are just unable to live without it

Even if you make more money with debt why owe people money, anything can change at anytime and then all of a sudden that debt becomes a problem, just pay it off...

"Teacher"... uh huh... I think Dr. John saw right through that bluff immediately 😏

I realized you start thinking and talking in a different way when you are debt free. No more reliability’s on the desk makes you stronger for everything coming , you act from a more stable basis, greetings from Berlin Germany 🇩🇪

Correct - debt is risk! Paying off debt earlier or quicker is a risk-free investment with a guaranteed return while reducing risk

I just don't go into debt because I freaking HATE working 60+ hrs a week. 20-30 is enough for me 🤷

Ramsey is correct I have seen the risk of debt. It's not all just that you make money on the spread you're taking excessive risk.

What I find interesting is I talk to younger people and they could care less about debt. There thinking is that they are going to live life to the fullest enjoy the nice things they have while they can and just keep working and pay the minimum. People only care about the NOW and that's it.

"I've done detailed research, and 100% of the foreclosures occurred on a house with a mortgage." Dave Ramsey never fails to impress me with his words of wisdom, wrapped up in obvious common sense, and tongue in cheek humor.

Saigon? Was this guy calling from 1968?

Improperly managed debt is indeed stressful. The caller’s scenario was properly managed debt, and properly managed debt can make you money.

agree with Dave .... inner peace and you tend to make better decisions in your life ...with out having that weight on your shoulders

I work for a sports team on the facilities side. I see traffic entering the parking lots. I see thousands of expensive SUVs and luxury cars arriving. My first thought goes back to Dave. How many of those vehicles are paid for? Would guess less than ten percent. The ninety plus percent are of course in debtors prison. So many have been brainwashed into thinking that one has to live a certain "normal" way. As Dave has said for thirty plus years, normal is broke.

Fun fact, your house can be foreclosed even if you don't have a mortgage. HOAs can actually foreclose houses in certain situations for trivial amounts of money if it goes unpaid.

This guy is not going to pay that off

Being in debt is bad for your mental health, and you can go to jail for it.

The risk of leveraging debt in the end is that if something bad happens and you don't have the money to pay for the mortgage, since there is a mortgage on the house, the house is lost. Ultimately leveraging debt raises the risk of any investment, because you are effectively placing the house as collateral for that money, which is the bank's money. Making money with your house on the line is not a good idea. Still the caller was not that exposed since he had a lot of money, more than the actual mortgage. I think it was still a good idea to suggest to pay for the mortgage, because it's still safer to do that, and since you don't pay for mortgage anymore you can get more money for investments in the long run and make a lot with your own money (without your house on the line if something goes wrong).

Even as a teenager when friends said...hay I have some savings for some product...but then they said oh yeah I still owe pearents a debt I was like...if you have any debt...then you have no savings.🤦‍♀️prioritys.

He said "How are you" and Dave didn't say "Better than I deserve" haha

"The island of misfit toys" caught me off guard! I usually refer to them as the cast of the Star Wars Mos Isley cantina scene....wait...no that would be the UN!

I love that Dave Ramsey or caller refers to "Saigon" (original Vietnam), not "Ho Chi Minh City" (communist Vietnam).

Dave's train of thought is valid. With that said after a certain point (financially) it is about math and less about philosophical reasons and worrying about losing sleep over debt. Once necessities are not a concern anymore and net worth is high the debt is a smaller piece of net worth.

so I have a mortgage on my house for about 30% of its value, and the rate is fixed at 2.75% for another 28 years. My after-tax cash is 3x my mortgage balance and I'm eaning 4.7% in Treasury notes. I should pay off my mortgage?? Don't think so. Worst case is treasury rates come back down and then I have a negative spread, in which case I would pay it off then.

more debt = more risk exactly, people want to take on just a little bit of debt just out of boredom that they dont realize it's a gamble. then that eases them into taking way more debt.

I don’t always agree with Dave, but I remember finding his stuff around two years ago and having my entire perspective changed. I’m so glad I never went into debt and have always paid cash. Feels good to be this free at 26, driving my shitbox car and putting 60% of my pay check towards my first house 🥲

26 with no debt job and CS degree

I was sure Dave would say sell one rental to pay off the other.

Once upon a time I was investigating buying real estate at foreclosure auctions. You had to have the cash or cashiers checks to pay for any property you bought immediately. I talked with one guy who had been a player for years. He told me that at one point he had had 27 properties all in foreclosure at the same time!

Dave, you are such a great inspiration

" I may have to work, but I dont have to work here" Its nice when you have zero debt you can walk around knowing that at your place of employment....

You can’t call your internet poll a study Dave

I'd love to have that formula

My car is nine years old, but I owe nothing on it. It is well maintained and I am saving to replace it. I do not worry about money.

Debt is dumb, cash is king. So simple, so difficult.

You can't put a price on peace of mind. Dave's way offers more peace.

I was in Saigon a few months ago great country and people. Got to go after paying down debts and I wanted to visit my girlfriend and her family.

This is very insightful because I’ve been preparing to get a loan for my first investment property. I’ve seen other investors say they are millions of dollars in debt but make millions of dollars in profits to balance it out so they risk it worth it. I’m just very confused at this point .. some people say spend other peoples money and keep you own and now he’s saying debt is bad. How are you suppose to reach wealth in this life? It’s all so frustrating!

“Sneaky snake”… so cute 🐍🐍🐍

Some homes are lost by non payment of taxes.

This man has enough wealth that Dave’s expertise is not where he should seek advise. Dave specializes in getting out of debt, not in investing. If I was him, I would seek the advise of someone who specializes in investing. The caller does not offer enough information regarding the interest, time period and where it is. How long has he owned the properties and are the tax benefits worth keeping it? Has he looked at the value of the property and what he can get for it? Property usually increases over time and worth keeping based on comparing the value to what the interest is. I wish Dave would have asked better questions so the listener could get a better idea of what an informed decision sounds like.

1) Why did this guy even call in.... 2) It's not just about the market, it's about depreciation and counting interest towards income.... High LTV helps limit lawsuits as well.

Personally, before doing ANYTHING else, I'd figure out EXACTLY how much leverage I'm willing to have and stick to that at all times. Pay your current properties down until you can buy another property and stay at or under the amount of leverage that was decided in advance. Also, it would depend on economic times. For instance, in a time of prosperity, you can afford to leverage more (again, you want to have a reasonable amount that you've calculated, not go crazy), but in a recession, your main goal should be paying down mortgages one by one (if you pay a little on all of them, you won't pay a single one off). Also, the more assets I'd have, the lower the leverage I'd use. If I had $50 million in assets, I prolly wouldn't leverage at all because at that point I could live the lifestyle I wanted while continuing to grow my wealth at a substantial pace without any leverage. I understand that this is Dave's channel and he's anti debt, I'm not trying to step on toes, just what I'd do.

For someone who is financially illiterate, the "muh baybee steps" have some merit. They are a simplistic financial methodology and are all that some people can handle. This guy is doing very well and doesn't need to do anything drastic. If the investment properties are doing well and have enough cash flow to pay the mortgage, pay the taxes, and build a sinking fund for those maintenance items that will eventually arise, such as a new roof, then why would you want to wipe out your non-retirement investments just to pay one of the mortgages off? Oh yeah, Dave wants to talk about risk, now you do not have that $200k that you could tap into if something went wrong. Talk about increasing your risk.

The heat is on is Saigon.

Overall Dave's advice is good. But business debt and personal debt are two different things. Financing capital purchases like equipment can be very beneficial. Sure, you pay interest but that's the price to use someone elses stuff. Renting keeps you out of debt but why rent a piece of equipment for $1,500/ month when you can finance it for $1000/ month? It's a joke to equate business debt to some clown financing a designer purse.

I am confused because I have seen DR promoting the services of mortgage companies

I have about $5 million in debt on my rentals, probably about 60% loan to value. I think Dave would consider me highly leveraged. I have been doing this since 2002.

Feels like Dave Ramsey just covers the same questions over and over again. Callers could just use common sense, research, and they'd have their answer.

"everyone has some debt" well none of these people are secure. you can get mauled and killed these days with no consequences. you'd feel like you have less chains in life if you didnt have debt.

Is debt really an ethical excuse to get out of going out with friends?

They're renting out the houses? Why worry about their payments? Easier to just pay it off faster and not worry about it. Then the rent can go into investments instead.

You have to factor in the interest on the Mortgage, too. That's never addressed

The people who can effectively and reliably manage debt vs. investment to their own net benefit are not the kind of people who seek Dave's advice.

I used to put rubber bugs in my grandmother's purse....she wasn't happy

For long term investors, beta is a mostly irrelevant measure of risk.

When you dont have debt your rich

LOL I love that snake story!! :}

Risk reduction (not elimination) only reason.

I had a neighbor who had retired as a Boeing electrician after years of traveling the world, repairing aircraft that pilot had landed with the wheels up or whatever. He was a gambler. He was moving out of his house, and told me that he had used the proceeds to pay off all his debts. At age 65 and retired, he was broke and was, he said, starting FRESH!

Proverbs 19:17

5:41 truth!

Well why not stay out of debt in the first place? Yes it means you won't have the "goodies" but you also won't have the payments either. Get on a savings schedule and pay yourself a house payment instead of the bank. If your not willing to save up a house payment to pay cash then that item you "wanted" didn't mean that much in the first place.

Now that is a horse that can talk!

The island of misfit toys in Washington 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Mr Ramsey went broke because he was selling high risk 90 day loans and the banks called them back & he didn't have the money to cover. The caller is doing well & there is no reason why he needs to pay off his rental mortgages when they're low interest and he can get better returns over the long term by investing the extra income.

He's making more investing. So why should he pay more then off faster?

Like the nod to art vandalay.

“International educator” homie’s a part time English teacher 😂 No shade though, I’ve lived in Taiwan for two years and the English teachers here can save more money and live a better life style than the ones in the USA

He don't let the callers talk. Could've known that early if he just let ppl talk

Debt and leverage is how the rich become really rich, you just have to be disciplined enough to use it properly. Most people are not.