Meet Dave Ramsey

It’s 1984, nighttime, and Dave Ramsey is not sleeping...again. “All I can think about are my massive debts and the fact that I am going broke. Fast. Even in the darkness, I can feel my face turning red from embarrassment.”

Flash forward to 2001. Tune into The Money Game, a nationally syndicated radio show providing advice on personal finance as well as life issues, and you’ll hear, “This is Dave Ramsey, and you’re on the air. How can I help?” (excerpt taken from How to Have More Than Enough, 2000.)

Dave Ramsey knows what it’s like to have——and lose——it all. By the age of 26, he had accumulated a personal real estate portfolio worth over $4 million; by age 30, despite a degree in finance and real estate, he was so far in debt he was forced to declare personal bankruptcy.

Dave rebuilt his financial life and has spent years helping countless individuals get their finances back on track. As a New York Times best-selling author, as a seminar lecturer, and in over 6,000 hours on the radio as the host of The Money Game, Dave has taught hundreds of thousands of people how to free themselves from the burden of financial insecurity. His first book, Financial Peace, offered a simple, powerful guide for getting out and staying out of debt. He also demonstrated the enormous importance that financial communication has on a marriage, as well as proven techniques for husbands and wives to grow closer through their finances.

Sometimes called the “Dear Abby of Money,” he loves sharing the lessons he has learned about building a strong financial future and a successful, unified family through biblical principles, down-to-earth wisdom, and the tested knowledge of a seasoned expert.

In the course of his work with men and women in all phases of life, he identified the key traits that are essential to living debt-free, creating prosperity, and achieving marital accord concerning your relationship to money as well as teaching your children smart financial habits. His books More Than Enough, How to Have More Than Enough, Total Money Makeover, Priceless, and The Financial Peace Planner elucidate each of these traits, which include values, goals, accountability, discipline, patience, and giving back to your community. As Dave says, "broke is normal...so let's all get weird!"

In 1988 Dave formed The Lampo Group, Inc., a collective force of dedicated Christian professionals who work as a team to provide counseling and seminars on financial matters. One such seminar developed into the Financial Peace University Program that has benefited thousands of individuals and corporations using an established curriculum for financial success. A regular guest on television talk shows, Dave also reaches nearly one million listeners through his radio program; he also has his own syndicated newspaper column, "Dave Says," both of which are avenues for Dave to offer financial advice on a multitude of topics.

He resides with his wife, Sharon, and their three children, Denise, Rachel, and Daniel, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Updated 6/ 2003