DaveRamsey (PDF)

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Dave Ramsey

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McArdle, M. (2009, October
​ 26). Lead us not into debt. ​The Atlantic. Accessed
electronically on November 4th from
https://login.proxy.lib.uni.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w
&u=uni_rodit&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA211654762&asid=a1ba1054512d89c1a36b46
a9539548ea
● Source: Magazine
● This Magazine article by McArdle illustrates her time researching about the
finance guru named Dave Ramseys, who is famous for his radio talk shows, his
seminars on saving money, and his idea behind being debt free. McArdle also
steps foot into this kind of lifestyle to not only learn about Dave Ramsey and his
ways, but try them first hand. One experiment that Ramsey promotes is called
the “envelop system”, whereas you set aside money for specific needs or wants.
The idea is to ensure that every dollar that you possess has a name and a
purpose as to where it is being spent. This may include a utilities envelop,
shopping, groceries, clothing, and even envelops for eating out, or saving for a
vacation.
● McArdle also shares her experience with actually going to a Dave Ramsey
seminar, spending $200 for a front row ticket to be as close to the televangelical
as possible. Dave Ramsey is a religious man, not only in bluntly talking about
how to grow spiritually along with financially, physically, and emotionally, but also
ensuring that people put part of their money towards charity, and being good. He
does entertain a secular crowd, which is less like other evangelicals that sell
financial advice.
● This source also goes into depth about more of Dave Ramsey and his methods
to reducing debt, along with what McArdle sees as Ramsey's personal views
towards capitalistic ideas such as credit and debit cards, housing debt, and other
factors that may bring someone to their crippling financial knees. This is a very
sound article for understanding Dave Ramsey and his plans, alongside the
impact it actually has on people who partake in his methods, like McArdle did,
who said that after doing the “envelop system” she found more control over her
money and more confident in their savings.

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Dinger, E. (2012). ​The Lampo Group Inc. In J. P. Pederson (Ed.), International Directory
of Company Histories (Vol. 133, pp. 245-248). Detroit: St. James Press. Retrieved
electronically on November 4th from
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0c607f1f1973
● Source: Book
● This book involves Dave Ramseys personal life story. The most crucial
information that anyone should know about Ramsey is where he began his
lifestyle of financing and sustaining yourself without debt. In this book, it gives the
reader an inside background of Ramsey, who in the beginning asked his money
for money, to lawn care service in high school and eventually going into real
estate during his time in college. After college his real estate empire grew to a
reasonable sum of $4 million. After a change of law with the institutes he was
banking with, he was forced to be bankrupt. This opened his eyes to how to
manage money, and he started working on Lampo Group Inc, which supplied his
radio show, his seminars, and other financial programs where people can learn
how to get out of their own debt.
● I can trust that this information is accurate because it comes from the book
“International Directory of Company Histories” by Ed Dinger, who has written
information about several other companies and the history of them. This section
is well written and includes a lot of very important information about Dave
Ramsey that a lot of people might not know, including his early childhood and
how he went bankrupt before starting off his new career in teaching others how
to stay out of debt. The entire article included a handful of other important
information, like how his company Lampo Group Inc has grown, and how Dave
Ramsey moved up the social ladder to where he is today in his success.
● This information can be very important in my presentation because it’s the
information that people may not know about Dave Ramsey. I can use this to
explain how Ramsey went from being bankrupt, which is a very terrible thing to
come to when having a business, to climbing his way out of debt and eventually
forming his new career in financial advising.

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3 Smart Ways to Rid Yourself of Debt. UWIRE Text, 14 Oct. 2016, p. 1. Academic
OneFile,
login.proxy.lib.uni.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=uni
_rodit&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA466559434&asid=e1b8f0e877971f8ebeb1b6ede752c
358​. Accessed on November 4. 2016.
● Source: Newspaper Article
● This Newspaper article shares the ideas behind Dave Ramsey's core ideas about
debt. There are three narrators who all share their opinion about Ramsey’s idea
about how to pay off debt, about the actual percentage of households who run on
a monthly budget, and how to pay off some of your debt. Dave Ramseys idea
about paying off debt starts with paying off the smallest debt first. This is similar
to a snowball effect, where after you pay off the smallest debt, focus that money
spent on paying it off, to another debt. Continue to accumulate payments on
bigger and bigger debts until you’ve finished them all. This ensure that the
person trying to pay off the debt will stay motivated as they see change easier,
than “mathematically correct” paying the biggest debt first. The other facts were
to get a part time job to pay off extra debt, and that having a budget and
monitoring where your money is going will help maximize savings.
● I find this information useful because it’s correct about the principals that Dave
Ramsey and his programs are trying to teach. The narrators in the article, Brian
Feroldi, Jason Hall, and Sean Williams are part of a team of “Fools” which is
apparently what they call their newsletter, Foolish Newsletter. They all
proclaimed what Dave teaches, and shares their input about how effective it is.
Knowing personally from taking Dave Ramseys classes in high school, I’m
confident that they are accurate.
● The article talks about paying off your smallest debt first, which is one of Dave
Ramseys core ideas about paying off your debt with motivation and results. The
second piece of information talks about getting an extra job to help pay off debts,
and the last tip is to budget your money and know where it is going. I can use this
information in my presentation to share the tactics Dave Ramsey says helps
relieve stress and bring someone out of debt.

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Blakely, A. (2014, May 9). Financial Guru Dave Ramsey to UT Grads: It's a Great Time
to Be Graduating. Retrieved November 04, 2016, from
http://tntoday.utk.edu/2014/05/09/dave-ramsey-to-ut-grads-its-a-great-time-to-graduate/
● Source: Website
● This website page talks about the graduation ceremony at the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville. The importance of this is that Dave Ramsey graduated
here with a major in finance and real estate, and that his son, Daniel, is
graduating too. Ramsey, as an alum, was able to speak to the soon-to-be
graduates about some tips for being more financially stable. The first couple
steps were to live the same lifestyle you lived in college. This means to keep
expenses low, sell anything you can, not getting new expenses, and paying off
your student loans as soon as you can. He goes into depth about the importance
of being focused on finding a career, making an appearance for an interview, and
that it will require a lot of work and motivation to get anywhere in life.
● The source is very trustful because it is posted directly on the University of
Tennessee’s website. The message in the story was also very accurate because
it is a reflection from Dave Ramsey’s own event at UTK. The information
presented in the article about what to do right out of college coincides with the
advice Ramsey gives to all graduates, and to others who are trying to get out of
debt.
● As a college student myself, I can utilize this information in a speech by speaking
of the importance of sustaining a low-expense lifestyle after graduating, and to
use that to pay off the student loans debt that we all accumulate. I can use the
tips given by Ramsey during the UTK graduation ceremony on us UNI students,
like being prepared to network yourself so you can find more job opportunities,
and that life doesn’t get easier after you graduate. The information is very
relatable to me and others who I will be presenting this to.

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Financial Peace 101. (2007, August). Healthcare Financial Management, 61(8), 21.
Retrieved on November 4th from
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9125faf6
● Source: Scholarly Journal
● This article explores the program known as Financial Peace University, which
was created by Dave Ramsey. In this 13 week course, individuals learn the
basics of how to save money, function on a budget, build up an emergency fund
and ultimately live debt free. The program first started churches, but eventually
grown into a more secular setting, taught by multiple coordinators. The author,
Ken Trammell, is one of the instructors of a class, and shares his opinion about
how helpful the class is to people struggling financially.
● I find this source reliable because the author of the article is a coordinator for one
of Dave Ramseys own Financial Peace University classes. This shows that he is
very knowledgable about the content that he is teaching to individuals, and
helping Ramsey spread his financial literacy classes. The article also gives good
information about the class, and the personal opinion from someone who is well
known in that field.
● I can apply this information to my presentation very efficiently by explaining what
this 13 week course is, and how it has helped people financially. It’s one of the
most important aspects of Dave Ramseys enterprise, being his Financial Peace
University, that he built to aid others who need guidance in their personal
finances. It is also useful to use a source coming from someone who teaches the
courses, as it gives personal insight about how useful it is and how helpful it is
teaching the course.

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It was slightly difficult to research topics about Dave Ramsey because he isn’t a
very famous person to most people. He does run a multitude of radio shows, seminars,
and his own financial literacy programs, but he still hasn’t gotten full attention. For this, I
was slightly stretched for information, but there was still a lot out there that was
sufficient for my research. I was still able to utilize go.galegroup.com efficiently in finding
sources.
What ended up working well was how each article was able to connect all the
points of Dave Ramseys teachings. Each article gave input on different categories, from
Ramsey's personal background, to how his real estate business came to crashing down
to bankruptcy, to building up and starting his own financial literacy programs. The use of
his talk shows, and seminars really helped reach out to others who are in need of
guidance, and these articles have helped me find information to share with my class on
Dave Ramsey and his tactics for fighting debt and being financially responsible.
The last thing I found useful was finding sources that came in close relation to
Dave Ramsey himself. One of these sources was an article from the university that he
graduated at along with his whole family, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, where
it was Ramsey himself speaking, and another that was directly from an employee of his
own financial programs, Financial Peace University. Having these sources gave direct
knowledge of Ramsey and his teachings, and will help immensely in my presentation.
After writing my first annotated bibliography, I’m much more comfortable being
able to write more in the future. I still have a ways to go before perfection citations, and

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ensuring that my points of interest are very well thought out, but I know the structure of
the assignment and able to produce better results in the future. I would make sure to
use topics of wider interest, so I can find more information and a larger variety of
sources.
From doing this one bibliography, I found that that the weaknesses for producing
this product was the not so large sample of sources and information for my project. I
had to search quite a bit to find adequate information that was relatable to the core
ideas behind Dave Ramsey, but also enough variety in that information wouldn’t
overlap. It was also hard to find sources that were more directed towards Dave Ramsey
and less about other people, with only slight mentionings of Ramsey.