A Famed Political Blogger Considers Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace

Well-known political blogger Meg McArdle (Asymmetric Information, guest blogger at Instapundit) takes a trial of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace with her fiance and writes about the experience at Atlantic magazine. McArdle found that she was more careful with her spending when she left credit cards behind (not to mention the strange looks which she got when she paid in cash at a boutique). She points out that this "Grandma" plan had not so much found wanting as found difficult in a financially more flush time. She ended the experience impressed by the sense of empowerment that she felt, though acknowledging that having education and car purchases in the past made the Ramsey plan much easier.

McArdle is onto something when she says that the "Ramsey/Grandma" plan was abandoned more for inconvenience than failure to accomplish its purpose. We live in a society which has little interest or use in delayed gratification; as such, we make it very hard for younger people and those from low-income backgrounds to learn the lessons they need to thrive in their financial lives during the best years of their physical lives.