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Christianity Today, September (Web-only), 2008 |

Q & A: Dave Ramsey

The popular Christian financial adviser on why he thinks the bailout is a disaster.

Interview by Sarah Pulliam | posted 9/26/2008 11:13AM

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How can Christians prepare for something like this in the future?

Have money in savings, get out of debt, live on a budget, live on less than you make, don't co-sign, and diversify your investments. These are things the Bible tells us to do with money. If you do these things, you're going to survive in bad times and prosper in good times. I'm not sitting here fretting that my world is going to come to an end based on what they are going to do in Washington.

How should churches prepare for this?

When people get scared, they quit giving. We may have the lowest giving in the fourth quarter than we have had in a decade. Churches that are out of debt and have money set aside for emergency, biblically speaking, are going to survive. Churches that have no cash and are in debt are going to reflect some of these Wall Street companies. They have to adjust spending to be able to live on what's coming in and anticipate a drop right now.

Hopefully when the flowers come out in the spring, we're going to see some better times. The only proper way to look at financial markets is over the long haul. One hundred percent of the 10-year periods of the stock market's history have made money, 97 percent of the five-year periods have made money. So don't let the panic of the day set your life up.

Related Elsewhere:

Culture11.com includes an article explaining how the financial system fell into a crisis.

Dave Ramsey talks about the bailout here. Ramsey is author of several books, including The Total Money Makeover and How to Have More than Enough. Ramsey was included in Christianity Today's article on Christian financial advisers.

Christianity Today has a special section on money & business.

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September (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52

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Tim	Posted: October 05, 2008 9:13 AM

Dave Ramsey is a smart and wise individual financial counselor who has helped many. But if he thinks that removing the capital gains tax and providing mortgage insurance is going to unfreeze the credit markets and reduce the unwillingness of banks to loan money in this downward moving economy, I think he'd better go back and study macroeconomics again. While I agree that the bailout of the mortgage markets will not necessarily normalize bank lending practices, it might remove some of the anxiety of bankers so they'll provide the lending that businesses need to build inventory for the Christmas season of buying. Since 25% of annual retail buying takes place during the Christmas season, can you imagine what would happen if businesses could not provide the array of products necessary to feed the demand? Jobs would be lost, inflation would sky rocket, and GDP for the last quarter would plunge. The resulting recession could become a depression.

Gregg

Posted: October 01, 2008 2:28 PM

Grumpy is right that the Defense Department has a large budget, fy 2008 with supplementals may reach 700 Billion. The base budget for 2009 is estimated at 515 billion. Perhaps he meant "trillion" but getting facts right goes both ways. The idea of being responsible, spending less than you make and having a good reserve is a wise course of action. Not expecting the government to fix everything is also a wise statement.

Jim Lagnese

Posted: September 30, 2008 3:18 PM

What you left out Dave was getting rid of the CRA. If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't be here. Secondly, banks (or any other individual or entity) that make bad decisions should not be rewarded. In the free market sometimes a correction is needed and we'll be better off for it. What is the fear here, that you won't have cable for a year? Operating out of fear usually produces bad results. Slow this train down and lets have some rational talk. Jim http://www.therightguyshow.com

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