He is right about getting out of debt and he should stick to that.
He is wrong on just about every other thing he teaches though. His investment advice is horrible. It is only there to make
HIM money through "endorsed local providers" that take a % of your money to send to him that you could do yourself through Vanguard or Fidelity or Blackrock and get just as good of results and not line his pockets. I went to one once out of curiosity. I asked the woman, so you want me to give you 3% of my investments so that you can
UNDER PERFORM a basic market index fund 85% that only costs me .1% to own. Then she completely mangled an explanation of modern market theory and proceeded to prove that she had no understanding of basic statistics or arithmetic. Ummm, yeah.
His advice on credit cards is silly for anyone with even a modicum of self control. People are using their debit cards like credit cards to avoid fraud but are missing out on $1,000's in rebates. My wife and I don't spend that much but we put everything on a credit card and still make $100s/year in rewards. For instance, just this week I used my Chase Freedom card to go buy $1,500 worth of Kroger gift cards. My wife uses them to buy groceries the EXACT same way a debit card works but we pocketed $75 with the 5% cash back.
If you are like Dave and live in a $30,000,0000 three level 30,000 sq ft house, $75 in cash back is nothing. To me, it is nice. I have a serious hangup with conspicuous consumption no matter how a person earned it. A 30,000 sq ft house at the highest point in an exclusive subdivision for two people is just that. Showing off wealth just to be showing it off. I find that tasteless. Especially for someone who so avidly promotes "Christianity".
That point segues into my other dislike about him. Through his show he promotes something whether intentionally or not called Prosperity Theology -
Prosperity theology - Wikipedia which is only once step away from a cargo cult -
Cargo cult - Wikipedia. Which practically antithetical to anything taught by Christianity and the actions of Christ himself. Rich man, eye of the needle and all of that.
I also don't like how much he has changed the way he talks to people. He has gone from being friendly and helpful to extremely arrogant and overbearing. A prime example of this is when a listener asked him about his continued use of a 12% annual return on the "stock market". It would have been funny if he hadn't been such an ass about it. The change is probably the difference from being someone trying to get listeners working from their kitchen table to being a multi-multi-millionaire with a $30M house.
I have been listening to him almost since he started back in the late 1990's. I used to listen to him more, but I don't take any of his advice on anything other than paying off debt and I advise others to do the same. But apparently people do listen and send him money.
I think Clark Howard is MUCH better and for investment advice, I go with Mr. Taylor Larimore's basic 3 fund Lazy portfolio
Three-fund portfolio - Bogleheads.
Mr. Larimore was in the 101st in Bastogne and does not hesitate to help anyone who asks without any arrogance when he isn't out racing his sailboat.
