Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey says anyone can turn their money life around – but you have to make a unique commitment to do so.
“When I was younger I lost everything I owned,” Ramsey said on his Labor Day radio telecast. “The good news is that it completely changed my life.”
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The year Ramsey filed bankruptcy he was only 28 years old, the same year his daughter was born. He had earned about $1 million in income but went under financially after banks called in his loans.
That proved to be his game-changer from a household finance point of view.
“From that point on, I never borrowed another dime,” he said. “From that point I tithed every week at my church, giving 10% of my income. From then on I’ve been on a budget. I don’t buy anything unless I can pay cash for it.”
“I simply said, ‘never again,” he added.
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Only a hard and fast pivot to commitment to never going into debt again can change one’s financial picture, Ramsey noted.
Even if it meant climbing out of bankruptcy at 28 years of age with a new baby daughter.
Not many people wind up doing that. In 2022, over 376,000 Americans filed for bankruptcy, according to Debt.org. Medical bills were the prime factor in U.S. bankruptcies last year, with 24% of people with medical debt considering going the bankruptcy route.
As Ramsey says, at one point or another, every successful person has failed — but instead of being defined by it, they learned from it.
“That’s how you win,” Ramsey said.
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