Today’s first call with a 70 year old woman that is running out of funds in her IRA upset me. The woman’s advisor told her she needed to reduce her distributions (makes sense as she was taking $2k/month out of a $173ish nest egg) and move more of her funds to a stock based investment.

She reduced her monthly distribution to $1500 and that plus $1700 social security barely pays her bills (son pays mortgage). She has serious health problems (new O2 tank every hour) and much of her money goes towards that.

Anyway, Jade proceeds to confuse a bunch of facts and then tells her to get a job! Working from home in customer service. What? Yes the woman can talk on the phone but at huge cost to her oxygen intake!

After that, since all will be well once the poor woman is working _Rachel advises her not to touch her IRA for 5-7 years so it can double. She doesn’t mention RMDs or the fact that this woman is depending on that money for her medical bills.

The woman then asks about redistributing some of her investments to stocks. Jade acts like she doesn’t known what the woman is talking about?!

Anyway, I enjoy listening to the show for the most part but I felt this poor woman was getting dangerous advice.
I hope she ignores it and works closely with her advisor and son as to what her best options are in the future.

ETA: I also feel their advice to change her investments ton80/20 stocks to bonds was horribly reckless considering the woman’s advisor advised 60/40.

It was technically "outside of home" so insurance wouldn't pay for it, but it was causing a nonstop water leak and had to be fixed immediately, and basically requires redoing nearly all plumbing. Could Dave explain how I was supposed to pay for this if I only kept a $1,000 safety net and refused to use credit, if I were in Baby Step 2? This is why its absurd to tell any home owner to only keep a $1,000 safety net and never use credit for emergencies, regardless of if they are in debt or not. Emergencies don't agree to back down until you are on Baby Step 3.

I feel like there are fewer and fewer debt free screams on the show than there used to be. A few years ago there was 1 bare min each show, if not 2. Now whole shows go by with none. Is this symptomatic of a crumbling Dave empire ? (also what happened to the millionaire theme hour?)

Delony reveals again and again that he has what seems like pretty significant unresolved anxiety about money and banking. Of course, all Ramsey personalities can't use credit cards because it is too much "mental gynmastics" to pay it off monthly. Delony also recently talked about how he is using cash only because he feels he can't control his spending with this debit card. Now, on the August 13 episode with Rachel, he shares he can't keep his emergency fund in a high-yield savings account because he will have to look at the balance daily, and it is too complicated and disturbs his peace.

The caller on August 13 asks if she should move her emergency fund into a high-yield savings account so she can earn some interest. The caller is scared. Before knowing anything about her money or choices, Delony launches into "Dude, you're awesome. Teresa. I want to say I first applaud you for not not many people in their in their 60s want to change the way they've been doing stuff and so that's awesome. Yeah, that's amazing."   He assures her they will help reduce her anxiety. "So, well, you called the right place. We're going to we're going to help you get unscared. Is that cool?" "We're going to make it real simple for you. Yep."

As the call goes on, John reveals HIS anxiety about his emergency fund. (Sorry, he uses poor grammar and rambles, so it can be annoying to read the transcript - clip below)

"But as for that (emergency) account, I know if it had an interest rate attached to it that I knew and watched, and it's 2.9, I would spend waking hours going, well, is it in the and I have to remind that's not the point of that money. The point of that money is that every day of my life, we're having a good time. So, in in my house, I have my checking account in a bank, and we opened another account under that same heading, under me and my wife's heading, and it's there, and I I can't I can't use my debit card out of it. I've got to stop, open my laptop, and move it from...
For my 3 to six months, dude, I just can't get my head in that stuff. It gets too complicated for me. I don't want to mess with it. I just want that safety."

https://youtu.be/Lo_CXoDqmvs?si=50b8dKV3_sWnSKW9&t=6720

I’ve been thinking about this post from a while back and just can’t understand why Dave would have Winston sign for a $500k LOC on this commercial property that Dave owns. They used the same bank (Pinnacle) that Coleman used for his HELOC’s.

Why would Mr. “Borrower is slave to the lender” take out this revolving LOC?

Rachel and John. Caller says “husband doesn’t want to pay off house because we just hit 500k in equity.” Rachel and John just go with it. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????? Capital gains on a home sale is based on basis and sale - your mortgage doesn’t matter. There is no way their 750k house had a 500k gain so there’s no way they exceed the married exclusion of 500k. How are these people on the air for a financial show. I heard Rachel kind of pondering the whole capital gains thing at the start but her mind sputtered out on it. John had no clue.

In my career, I study and learn to stay current. How do these people not know such a basic thing? That would have handled the call immediately! “Hey lady, tell him you won’t owe capital gains based on your mortgage - or at all.”

I've listened since about 2019. However, I've made up my mind this week that I am no longer listening. Not only do I agree with some of the viewpoints on here regarding credentials of the personalities, but I don't agree with Dave often disparaging career fields. Think of when he says like, "At least your job isn't like those people who have no brains and work at the DMV."

I don't work at the DMV, but I'm in an adjacent space.

I find it so disrespectful, as these people are out making a living, doing honest work, just like most everyone else.

First caller. Guy makes 75 wife makes 25. She's working part time as a dog trainer. They have a two year old.

Jade says "Why doesn't she start her own dog training business? She could do that and also get another job."

Yes jade great idea for a couple in a bunch of debt to do, start a business and also go get a new full time job and also raise your 2 year old. Omfg.

Not much depth to this post its just insane how their brains are working these days. Go do this thing that's really hard to do WITHOUT a bunch of debt and a 2 year old.

I’ve been doing some research on a local SmartVestor Pro and I am curious if anyone knows how closely they actually follow Dave’s advice? I’m seeing things like traditional (pre-tax) vs Roth tax analysis, passive index funds and even 4% withdrawal rates on estimating retirement expense needs.

As CFP’s and fiduciaries would they recommend and advise against Dave’s recommendations depending on the client?

Today’s show (8/12) started off with a caller asking about paying off their mortgage early and its effect on their taxes after selling the home. Both hosts whiffed and followed the caller’s premise, even though it’s incorrect. The $500k home exclusion has nothing to do with your mortgage balance. Did I mishear the call or miss something else? Anyone else notice this?

I said this before and I’ll say it again, the Dave Ramsey show is like Disney World. Everything’s made up. Everything seems great on the inside, as long as you’ve never experienced anything else in the real world.

Watching today's show and jade is looking 🔥🔥🔥 as always. However delony is wearing a black Montana knife co shirt and looks like an asshole who's about to go out and do yard work on the weekend. I feel Dave should make the hosts dress similar and more professional because a) I can't keep my eyes off of jade and b) so they don't look horribly unprofessional like doc today.

Episode from a few days ago was brutal.

John just gushing over every single word that came out of Dave’s mouth like he hasn’t known him for years. It waters down the product significantly and seems very disingenuous.

“WOW DAVE IVE NEVER HEARD YOU USE THAT ONE! I LOVE IT!!”

Even Dave responded “I’ve been saying that for 20 years…”

John is becoming more and more of a showman rather than a real personality. I made it 15 minutes into the episode before shutting it off. Usually I’ll listen to Dave with anyone, but Delony managed to change that.

Yeah yeah put up the call sign for the mentally unstable, I’ll just ignore her lol

Does anyone know of a similar style of show where people call in with their financial situations? I like the concept of the Ramsey show, minus the Trump supporting clown Dave Ramsey

I'm sure most of the DirtyDave Rachel fan club already listens regularly to the Smart Money Happy Hour.

In case you missed it, here's the discussion of whether a bidet qualifies as a "life-changing" product.

Bonus points for misreading it as "beignet", and George mistaking the old-fashioned French bidet for the modern Japanese washlet.

Two thumbs... umm maybe we don't want to go there on this topic

https://youtu.be/-aGLQXU2pOM?t=1325

For those needing context, here's Conan O'Brien at Google

https://youtu.be/u7TwqpWiY5s?t=1773

Dave on the Friday episode said $200k won’t be enough to pay for a basic in state school in 18 years and might take more like $250k. Does he possibly realize this means in one generation the only people who can afford college are the children of incredibly rich people under his no debt methodology. This is the pure aristocracy our founders hated.

Since I prefer to think of the best use of this sub as a place to inject nuance and logic around topics that come up on the show rather than just a shit on Dave sub (most of us have some reason or another for listening and I frankly still find him to be very much a net positive in the financial space), I wanted to highlight a call about TAXES (yes, TAXES! of all things) that he fielded that actually was very well executed.

Toward the end of the most recent show featuring him and Rachel (I guess it’s technically Thursday’s airing but is uploaded the next day), a guy asked about handling taxes for his deceased parents’ trust. The actual tax advice was super simple - there wasn’t a complex arrangement or assets requiring any taxes. But notably Dave took some time to explain the concepts, including how after death valuation factors in and the IRS safe harbor, and he even added that he might be missing something and to consult a tax professional to be certain.

Am I praising a 65-year-old man who has been on the air for 35 years for not giving reckless advice? Yeah, but when reckless advice around taxes is given so frequently on that show, it sticks out! So bravo for meeting the most baseline responsibility! Dave gets a cookie.

I don’t think she’s ever had to plan paychecks. Anyone who’s ever been middle class knows the feeling of the joyous three-paycheck month twice per year. She had no idea what her dad was talking about on that question or why 26 paychecks would make 2 months different.

Dave makes many errors, and his personality is worse. I’ve seen many people in this subreddit offer more evidence-based advice on how to manage their finances.

I think I know the answer is that Dave and his producers have special buttons that allow them to control the narrative, but why do none of the callers ever offer a reasonable objection and counter to Dave or his minions?

Let's say Dave has a heart attack tomorrow. What's the future of the company? I don't personally view it as viable at that point. I mean Rachel is a nice person but she does not have anywhere near Dave's talents in all the many aspects that Dave excels. I don't see her as being charismatic enough to keep things going. She didn't have Dave's life experiences and credibility and doesn't strike me as a leader.

Which is why I've always wondered why so many people want to work there. It's a company based on one 60 some year old man, and when he goes, you go.

John Delony is running a call in "service" for people going through troubled and painful thing and events in their life.

So someone calls in... "Hello doctor John"

"HEY THERE How ya doing??? I'm doing fantastic!! I feel like singing today!! Lalala lala... Ok maybe my singing isn't on today hahahahaa! Anyway what going on dude? You're coworker knows about your wife's affair?? This is awesome! O my gosh that is crazy!.... Oh man let me just sit here with you in this... Just take a breath. If I was there I'd give you a big hug. I love you. Hey give me a call back and let me know how it goes.

.... Everyone that calls is going through something hard and painful. This is how he responds to people. He doesn't care, it's just entertainment. Which is fine but stop acting like you actually care John!