Dave Ramsey: From a 1988 Chapter 7 Bankruptcy to a Talk Radio Empire

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David Lawrence Ramsey III was born in September 1960 in Maryville, Tennessee, raised in Nashville's Antioch neighborhood, and grew up with two parents in real estate. He passed his real estate exam at 18, earned a finance and real estate degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and by 1986 had used heavy borrowing to build a portfolio worth over $4 million. When his lender was sold, the new bank called in his notes, and in 1988 he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. He began counseling people about money at his church, formed the Lampo Group, now Ramsey Solutions, in 1991, and self-published Financial Peace in 1992. Financial Peace University followed in 1994, and by 1996 he was solo host of what became The Dave Ramsey Show.

His books included The Total Money Makeover in 2003 and EntreLeadership in 2011, and he joined the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2015. His debt snowball pays debts from smallest balance to largest, ignoring interest rates, on the view that personal finance is 80 percent behavior. Economists counter with the avalanche method and consumption smoothing, and Helaine Olen's Pound Foolish argues his advice ignores inequality and stagnant wages. Critics also question his support for load-fee mutual funds and his claim of 12 percent annual returns.

• He hosted a Fox Business television show from 2007 to 2010.
• His net worth was estimated at $55 million in 2018, and in 2021 he sold a Franklin, Tennessee, mansion for $10.2 million.
• In 2004 Gannett found altered names in his column's reader letters, and he offered a refund instead of an apology.
• In March 2020 he called people seeking event refunds wusses and said he would attend by himself if necessary.
• In a February 2021 Fox News interview he opposed stimulus checks, saying that if $600 or $1,400 changes a life, the person was already in trouble.