Yeshua is the Only Good Financial Advisor

For some reason, Youtube is sending me Dave Ramsey videos. This is the Christian financial guru. I am not sure he’s always a good source of advice.

Someone emailed and said they had debt. They used credit cards. They applied the points to trips. They paid their balances monthly. I guess their debts were not credit card debts.

He went off on a rant against credit cards, telling these people they should not use credit cards even if they paid their balances off every month, completely negating the interest problem. He said people who liked points thought getting $200 back on $10,000 was a big score.

Man, is that wrong.

He said these people should not eat out or go on vacation. That’s pretty harsh. They should cut way back, but eating at home every day and never going anywhere? That’s a pretty bleak lifestyle, and it’s not a great way to raise kids. Kids should travel. It’s a very important part of their education. Some debt is acceptable.

He seems to think there are people out there making credit card buys they would not have made otherwise, just to get points. I suppose there are people that stupid, but I doubt there are many.

I will lay out my philosophy about credit cards.

First of all, asceticism is not the answer. Be frugal; sure. But don’t live in a refrigerator box and never leave home. Human beings are not made of stone. We need a little recreation. We need a little treat occasionally. Telling people to live like solitary confinement prisoners is unrealistic, and no one who is not mentally ill can pull it off. I paid $1500 for stereo speakers and $900 for a parrot using student loans, and I am still very glad I did.

Second, credit cards are great when used properly. Some people can’t handle them, but then some people can’t be trusted with butter knives. You shouldn’t turn down a great thing because Dave Ramsey issued a blanket prohibition.

1. Credit cards help you get jobs and insurance. What? Yes, it’s true. If you don’t have loans and credit cards, you don’t have a credit rating. When you apply for a job, the employer will probably look up your credit rating. If there is nothing to see, you have a problem. If you apply for insurance, a good credit rating will make it more likely you will be accepted, and you will pay less. Good luck establishing a credit rating without credit cards.

2. Cards allow you to get things that are pretty hard to get otherwise. If I want to buy a part for a machine directly from Austria, I can get it with a credit card. I can pay for a hotel in Vietnam. Not so easy with wires and checks.

3. Cards put the power of big institutions behind you. I once paid a now-dead swindler named Joe Bergamo at a site called Plaza Machinery over $2000 to send me a lathe because other people trusted him. He demanded money orders or cashier’s checks. When he cheated me, there was nothing I could do. American Express and Paypal would have taught him manners. Remember this: any vendor who won’t take credit cards or Paypal is a swindler. This is the whole reason for insisting on checks and transfers.

4. When you use an ATM card to pay for things online, you risk giving a stranger access to your entire bank account. What if you have a million dollars in it? When you pay using a card, he gets access to nothing except maybe a number he can get in big trouble for misusing.

5. Points are fantastic. No two ways about it. I use Amex points to get Home Depot cards. This way, I get 1 to 1.25% back, depending on the current deal. I spend a ton on Home Depot items because I own rentals and live on a farm. I paid a guy $7500 to cut trees. He wouldn’t give me a discount for cash, so I got $75 back. A guy I knew used to pay his $22,000 law school tuition with Amex. He got hundreds of dollars’ worth of points every year. Why would he not do that? I pay for health insurance using a card. They won’t give me a cash discount, so I would have to be stupid to pay by ACH.

When I exchange points for stuff, I look for the best deal. That’s why I get Home Depot cards. Other companies give you less money per point. Why get 50 cents from Applebee’s or United Airlines when Home Depot will give you a dollar?

I have an Amazon card. I get 5% off plus free shipping. “They jack up the price to cover shipping.” Still cheaper than buying locally, and I get a better selection plus easy returns. To buy a box of screws locally, I have to spend at least $1.50 on gas. Usually more like $4. If I have to go to a real city, call it $40 or so. Tolls and gas.

I’ll bet I spent $45,000 on travel when my wife and I were waiting for her visa. That was not a luxury. Seeing your spouse is a necessity. I got back tons of points, and when we had to cancel things, we had big institutions behind us to make sure everyone stayed honest.

I also bought her wedding ring with a card. What’s better? A wedding ring, or a wedding ring plus a new pair of work boots?

6. Cards make doing your taxes easier. You have a nice record of everything you buy. No stuffing receipts in bags and trying to organize them later. You can have a card for business, making it even simpler. And vendors who take credit cards usually include sales tax so you don’t have to pay it to your state using a horrible website.

How does Dave Ramsey pay for things online with cash? If he’s using a debit card, he’s risking disaster. Is he sending checks to Amazon and Ebay? Welcome to the world of one-month delivery. Is he driving every time he needs a roll of tape? That’s not cost-effective.

If you pay your balances every month, employers, insurers, and potential creditors will love you, and you won’t pay a cent in interest. What’s not to love?

Ramsey also pushes conspiracy theories to make you think credit card companies are so much smarter than you, you can never get a fair shake. He says credit card companies give you special representatives when you call. He says they check your location using your phone number, and they set you up with people who sound like you.

No, they really don’t. He claims that if you’re in the South, they’ll give you a person with a “syrupy Southern accent.” That doesn’t actually happen. I would know. I have actually asked people where they were. Brokerages don’t do it either. I called a brokerage and got a deep-voiced Northerner who said his name was Isabel.

Big Brother is pretty bad, but he isn’t a god. It’s not responsible to call yourself a financial advisor and make things up. People will end up stuffing their mattresses with cash.

You need credit cards. You should have American Express and Visa or Mastercard. Face it. If you live in a Unabomber cabin with no electricity and eat potatoes you grow in your own excrement, maybe you’re an exception, but the rest of us have lives.

I’m sure Ramsey is way,way better with money than I am, because I do a lot of stupid things, and he will probably die sitting on 9 or more figures, but telling people not to use credit cards is nuts in 2024.

I don’t like his advice on credit cards, and I think he needs to work on his manners. He sneers at people unnecessarily. He is condescending. He seems haughty, and the word says haughtiness is abomination, just like sodomy. It’s something I am trying to correct in myself, because I have been guilty too many times to count.

If you’re going to hold yourself out as a Christian celebrity, you should exhibit patience, humility, and love. And no, “tough love” is not an excuse for popping off on people who have been nice to you and who build your business by consulting you.

Yeshua was often very rude, but 1. he was God and knew what he was doing, and 2. he was going after liars who dragged people down to hell with them. He was not tormenting poor people who wanted to use Mastercard to go to Five Guys once a month. There is a difference. If Ramsey wants to be mean to active pimps and child molesters, fine, but he shouldn’t vent on the people who make his fame and fortune possible.

The word says a haughty spirit goes before a fall, and if Ramsey is really worth 9 figures, he has a long way to drop. He should be more careful.

I don’t see him pushing charity as a way of becoming financially blessed. Maybe it’s in his work somewhere. It’s very clearly Biblical. I can’t recall ever seeing a professional Christian promoting this teaching. I can’t recall anyone but me teaching it, now that I think about it. The word says God repays those who give to the poor, and it says those who give will be blessed right here on Earth and that they will not be delivered to the will of their enemies.

Look at this:

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.

I try to remember these things because I am naturally stingy and afraid of poverty. Either these things are true, or God is a liar.

I have had concerns about keeping too much, but the other day, I read about Lazarus, whom Yeshua raised from the dead. His sister Mary poured something like $30,000 of perfume on Yeshua’s feet, and Judas the thief practically had kittens. Judas acted like a model “good steward” by modern Christian standards.

Ask yourself this: what kind of person has $30,000 worth of ANYTHING in their house? And perfume is a luxury. This wasn’t a car or a cache of merchandise used to support a business. Lots of people have expensive items they use for work, but not everyone can put down a year’s pay for perfume.

I think Lazarus and his sisters were doing fine.

Cornelius was the first gentile to receive salvation and the Holy Spirit, and he was a wealthy Roman who gave to the poor and supported a synagogue. The Bible doesn’t say he gave until he was poor himself, and it never says God had any problems with his wealth.

What was God going to do? Make him poor so the poor and the synagogue did without?

I think charity is much more important for building wealth than financial planning will ever be. If you depend on your own work and planning, you will spend a lot of time doing things you hate, and the wealth you gain is very likely to be a curse to you and your family. If God gives you wealth for being generous according to the orders of the Holy Spirit, your wealth will be a blessing to you, and you won’t have to sit at a desk for 200 hours a month, drinking Mylanta and wondering if your investments are going to tank.

I believe these things. I do not believe Yeshua wants me to sit around counting my money, being so frugal I make my wife miserable and worrying that I’m not a good steward if I don’t know where every cent is. When Yeshua needed money, he pulled it out of a fish’s mouth.

Yeshua told us to take no thought for our earthly needs. Where did he tell us to listen to Dave Ramsey and pour over the S&P for hours a day? I can’t find any advice resembling that, but he talked about giving frequently. You only have so much time per day. Does he really want us to spend that time ignoring people so we can grind out more dollars? It makes no sense.

I think you should have credit cards and use them with common sense and no worries. Seems to work for me.