Dave Ramsey Quotes

While I encourage people to save 100% down for a home, a mortgage is the one debt that I don't frown upon.

When I do something stupid with money and lose it ... I call that Stupid Tax. I have paid so much Stupid Tax that I am expert.

You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.

This is a great time for the 'guerilla marketer.' The days when you used to have to buy expensive TV time and a yellow page ad to get started are gone.

Earning a lot of money is not the key to prosperity. How you handle it is.

You have to teach children about money intentionally - create teachable moments.

Where you are today is the sum of every choice you've ever made. If you don't like where you are, start making different choices!

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. HELEN KELLER

If you have a customer who is able to make the purchase, they trust you, and you have shown them the benefits of the purchase, they will close themselves; you do not need some arm-twisting technique.

You wanna blow money? Put it in a 'blow' category in your budget. But at least admit it on paper!

Work is doing it. Discipline is doing it every day. Diligence is doing it well every day.

I can't tell you how many home businesses are almost in bankruptcy court over a Yellow Pages ad only to find out that the Yellow Pages ad isn't where their market will look for them, and it cost more than they thought.

Seems almost as if the very thing we thought would make us happy (stuff) has stolen the thing that among others brings us the most happiness: relationships, real connected time-invested relationships. Relationships

Those who don't manage their money will always work for those who do

The creature comforts we tend to rationalize as "business expenses I can write off."

I'm not against people having new cars. I'm against them having you. We spend a tremendous amount impressing somebody at the stoplight who we'll never meet. It makes you broke and keeps you broke.

Pay your utilities, gas and other basic needs before paying on your debts.

We have a retirement crisis in America today nor from a lack of money, but from a lack of vision

Change is painful. Few people have the courage to seek out change. Most people won't change until the pain of where they are exceeds the pain of change.

You have the clean canvas of a whole week before you. Paint well.

If your life is bad because of an elected official, then you don't have a life.

You need some quick wins in order to stay pumped enough to get out of debt completely.

Enabling is the enemy of motivation.

One reason people make bad decisions is they don't have a good decision as one of their options.

We are all in the business of sales. Teachers sell students on learning, parents sell their children on making good grades and behaving, and traditional salesmen sell their products.

We live in a culture full of hares; but the tortoise always wins.

I think the lie we've told people in the marketplace is that a degree gets you a job. A degree doesn't get you a job. What gets you a job is the ability to carry yourself into that room and shake a hand and look someone in the eye and have people skills. These are the things that cause people to become successful.

John Maxwell says a budget (for your money) is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Managing time is the same; you will either tell your day what to do or you will wonder where it went.

Baby Step Four: Invest 15 Percent of Your Income in Retirement Those of you concerned about retirement are relieved we have finally gotten to this step. Those who have been living in denial are wondering what all the fuss is about. Baby Step Four is time to get really serious about your wealth building.

Don't medicate dysfunction with spending. No amount of stuff will get rid of guilt.

A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.

Everyone has some natural talent or aptitude in one or more areas. If you can identify those areas you not only will be happier and perform more successfully in that role, but you will also become better paid for that. Our free-market system pays for performance at some point. When you have a natural talent or aptitude, coupled with desire and experience, the result is productivity plus.

If people in America would get their finances together and start taking care of each other, we could put the government out of business.

Delegation requires the willingness to pay for short term failures in order to gain long term competency.

Wealth comes from hard work but not because of hard work. Wealth comes because of God. Everything is His.

As long as the sun was shining, life was a party, and the pig with brick seemed kind of nerdy, or overly conservative, or even fanatical. But when their stupid theories were stress tested, their houses fell.

Retirement in America has come to mean "save enough money so I can quit the job I hate.

True leadership is servanthood. Put the interests of others at the center of your decisions.

Someone who never has fun with money misses the point. Someone who never invests money will never have any. Someone who never gives is a monkey with his hand in a bottle.

At the end of the day we are not selling, we are serving.

We don't keep jerks; life is too short to work with them and really way too short to pay them and work with them too. Seems simple, but it requires that you fight to build an incredible team and culture from the moment you post a position until you celebrate their retirement. Every day every behavior, attitude, and execution has to be led well by a courageous, loving leader.

We are scaling down is a painful statement to make to friends or family.

We started in our living room on a card table in our living room, and we have a multi-million dollar company and we know it can be done without borrowing a dime. It takes a while to get it started and to turn the wheel over, but the next time it's easier and the next few hundred times, it's easier than that. Have a budget where you reinvest a percentage of every dollar you earn to grow it.

There's a whole generation growing up thinking ... the government exists to care for them.

The decision to go into debt alters the course and condition of your life. You no longer own it. You are owned.

Be an evangelist with your excellence.

What I have done is packaged the time-honored information into a process that is doable and has inspired millions to act on it.

That stupid saying "What you don't know can't hurt you" is ridiculous. What you don't know can kill you. If you don't know that tractor trailer trucks hurt when hitting you, then you can play in the middle of the interstate with no fear - but that doesn't mean you won't get killed.

Rich isn't an amount of money, it's a mindset about how you live. If you believe you can win, you can.

We've really got to stop looking to Washington to fix our problems. It obviously doesn't have the ability to do that. People who are successful are not successful because of the president.

If you help enough people, you don't have to worry about money.

Twist and wring out the budget, work extra hours, sell something, or have a garage sale, but quickly get your $1,000. Most of you should hit this step in less than a month. If it looks as though it is going to take longer, do something radical. Deliver pizzas, work part-time, or sell something else. Get crazy. You are way too close to the edge of falling over a major money cliff here. Remember, if the Joneses (all the broke people) think you are cool, you are heading the wrong way. If they think you are crazy, you are probably on track.

The paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.

I will never be unemployed.

Money is 80% behavior, 20% head knowledge. It's what you do, not what you know.

Your priorities, passions, goals, and fears are shown clearly in the flow of your money.

A lower interest rate doesn't make a debt go away.

One definition of maturity is learning to delay pleasure.

Traction equals satisfaction

If you aren't
really careful, 'The Good Enough' can become the enemy of 'The Best.'

I suggest a Money Market account with no penalties and full check-writing privileges for your emergency fund. We have a large emergency fund for our household in a mutual-fund company Money Market account. Wherever you get your mutual funds, look at the website to find Money Market accounts that pay interest equal to one-year CDs. I haven't found bank Money Market accounts to be competitive. The FDIC does not insure the mutual-fund Money Market accounts, but I keep mine there anyway because I've never known one to fail. Keep in mind that the interest earned is not the main thing. The main thing is that the money is available to cover emergencies. Your wealth building is not going to happen in this account; that will come later, in other places. This account is more like insurance against rainy days than it is investing.

If you keep doing the same things, you will keep getting the same results. You are where you are now financially as a sum total of the decisions you've made to this point.

A little bit of controlled pain when you're six will change your life when you're thirty-six.

Anytime you open a business, you have to be effective in promoting whether it's a franchise or not. You'll need to learn to be a Web marketer extraordinaire. There's plenty of material out there.

You can't work three hours a week and make $100,000. Get rich quick doesn't work. Crock pot mentality always defeats microwave mentality!

Success is a pile of failure that you are standing on.

You've got to tell your money what to do or it will leave.

My wife, Sharon, and I started with nothing when we got married. I was driving a 1902 Pinto and eating off a card table.

The accountability of a group environment causes people to change their behaviors.

You find yourself unable to stop micromanaging, ask yourself if your team has a problem. You may have to reorganize or bring in some more talented people who have the capacity to earn the right to be delegated to. If your team continually drops the ball you are right to micromanage until they don't drop the ball or you get some new team members.

I think that anyone who wants to start their own business can, but not any type of business.

You're not exempt from math if you're a Republican, and you're not exempt from math if you're a Democrat. You're not exempt from math if you're a liberal, and you're not exempt from math if you're a conservative. You still have to do math.

Term Life Insurance is the only insurance I recommend. It's the least expensive way to get the coverage your family needs and allows you to lock in rates for 15, 20 or 30 years. Zander's online quoting system will help you find the most competitive options. It's more affordable than you think!

Stupid is not illegal.

If you had saved $20 per week for just ten weeks, you could have bought the scratch-and-dent model off the floor at the same Rent-to-Own store for $200! Or you could have bought a used set out of the classifieds or online. It pays to look past the weekend and suffer through going to the Laundromat with your quarters. When you think short term, you always set yourself up for being ripped off by a predatory lender. If the Red-Faced Kid ("I want it, and I want it now!") rules your life, you will stay broke!

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children (Prov. 13:22 NKJV). I

I learned early on that work creates discipline, and when you have discipline in your life, you are a healthier person.

You must learn to control your money, or to the permanent deprivation control you

The bridge between failure and success is hope. THOMAS JEFFERSON

If you don't own the goal and it doesn't come from your dream, then you won't have the toughness to persevere when the going gets tough. And I will promise you that the going will get tough. There is never an exception - everyone who wins must push through obstacles, lots of them. You simply will not get up at dawn for your three-mile run because your wife wants you thinner. Big goals require big backbone - wimps need not apply.

Fun can be bought with money, but happiness cannot.

Children who reach the age of eighteen with their entire skills set composed on Nintendo and eating Doritos have been neglected. Their parents neglected to give them the character traits necessary to live successfully.

People are in such a hurry to launch their product or business that they seldom look at marketing from a bird's eye view and they don't create a systematic plan.

Servant Leadership is the only #leadership that ultimately works.

Your job as an EntreLeader is to make sure when your team member leaves your office they take their monkey with them. The first step is to give them some ideas for options and instruct them to come back with three good ways to solve the problem and a suggested course of action. The next step is to teach your team to come to your office with a problem only after they have found three or more possible solutions and a suggested course of action. That makes for some great discussions and teachable moments as you show them how you would make the call. After solving problems and making the call with your help several times, the best team members begin to see the pattern you use and can do what you do. The final step is very personally rewarding.

Be very proud of what you do, and if you aren't then change it.

If hard work, integrity, thrift, and perseverance have caused you to succeed, then you don't owe anyone an apology for winning.

Every person falls down at some point. Successful people choose to get back up!

A budget is people telling their money where to go instead of wondering where it went. You

Teaching kids about money is never just about money.

Higher calling matters. When you care so deeply about the why-why you're doing what you're doing-then and only then are you operating in a way that allows you to overcome the obstacles.

If you will do the things others won't do then some day you will have the life others won't have.

After losing everything, I went on a quest to find out how money really works, how I could get control of it, and how I could have confidence in handling it.

This is not a game, ... Debt has become a part of who we are. It's become that spoiled child in the grocery store with their lip stuck out: 'I want it. I want it. I deserve it because I breathe air.' And, well, that's an uphill climb in our culture right now, to go against that and say, 'Hey, let's be grownups here. Let's be mature, learn to delay pleasure, save up and pay for things.'

You can't be in debt and win. It doesn't work.

I've got a young man who works for me who says you don't need to discover your dreams - you need to recover them.

Financial winners don't run sprints, they run marathons. They don't rush. They do it step by step over time.

Aristotle once said, To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.

You don't need credit.

I believe that through knowledge and discipline, financial peace is possible for all of us.