Dave Ramsey is one of the most inspiring and well-known personalities when it comes to personal finance. He’s also a best-selling author of multiple popular personal finance books like ‘Baby Steps Millionaires’, ‘The Total Money Makeover’, ‘More Than Enough’, and the massively successful ‘Financial Peace’. And he hosts a radio program that airs on over 670 radio stations across the U.S. giving him a reach of over 80 million listeners each month. To top it all off, Dave Ramsey is also a multi-millionaire. Needless to say, Dave Ramsey is a success.
“Most Really Big Things, Start With a Pretty Simple Story.”
– dave ramsey –
So what is his secret? Well, we believe success leaves clues, and it’s the reason why we publish the success stories of inspiring icons like Dave Ramsey. We know every success story contains its little gems of insight that can teach, guide, and lead us towards our own version of success. So, with that being said, if you’re ready to explore Dave Ramsey’s inspiring life and career, let’s dive in to his story.
THE DAVE RAMSEY SUCCESS STORY
Early Days
Dave Ramsey was born on September 3rd, 1960 in Antioch, Tennessee. His parents were both real estate agents and developers. And like many ambitious folks striving to be self-made, his parents were into self-improvement, positive thinking, and goal setting.
In fact, they would often have Dave and his sister listen to motivational tapes on family vacations and road trips. They also aimed to instill in them responsibility and the need for having a strong work ethic.[1]
One example of how Dave’s parents aimed to ensure he become responsible and self-reliant, can be traced back to a moment when Dave, at the age of 12 asked his father for some money, and his father’s response to his request was essentially, that he didn’t need money, what he really needed was a job, because that’s where money came from.
It was this type of encouragement which helped Dave become entrepreneurial and business savvy at a young age. He was essentially forced to tap into his resourcefulness. And it led him down the path of eventually starting his own lawncare business, bracelet selling business, and various other small ventures to earn a buck in his youth.
Then, by the age of 18, he would turn his ambition towards selling real estate.
B-School
No doubt, Dave Ramsey’s need to make his own money in his younger years was a form of real-world business education. He learned how to transform his ambition for money into a value-adding services that helped him acquire more of it.
Once Dave graduated high school, he would turn his sights on acquiring a formal education in the realm of business. Thus, he enrolled at The University of Tennessee, while still maintaining a job selling real estate for over 40 hours a week.
After a few grueling years of blood sweat and tears, his hard work eventually paid off, as he graduated with degrees in Finance and Real Estate and with zero debt.
Living The Dream
Once Dave graduated things really started taking off for him. He got married at the age of 22, end then went all-in in the real estate business. And it wasn’t long before his real estate venture started growing dramatically.
In fact, he was pulling in $250,000 a year, which would come out to around $680, 000 a year in today’s money. On top this, he had simultaneously reached millionaire status by the ripe young age of 26.[2]
For all intents and purposes, Dave Ramsey was living the dream. He had an income, net worth, family, and career that most people would be envious of. However, he also possessed something else, and it contained the seeds of his dream’s destruction; debt.
That’s right, Dave Ramsey’s ambitious business dealings in his early career led to his accruing more debt than he should have to fund his real estate investments. Things really started to fall apart for Dave after the Banking Act of 1986 was passed. This new act saw many banks change their rules for ownership and the types of risks they were willing to take.
Over-Leveraged Leads To Loss
And in their eyes, Dave Ramsey was over-leveraged and looked like a big risk to the banks. As a result, many of the banks that Dave Ramsey had loans with called on them. Meaning, they wanted their money back A.S.A.P. They eventually gave him 90 days to unload over $1.2 million dollars, and when he couldn’t unload the debt, he defaulted.
All in all, Ramsey had over $4 million in debt. And after struggling to repay his called debts for over two and a half years, and getting very near to paying them all back by trimming it down to just $378K, he eventually capitulated.[3]
On September 22, 1988 Dave decided to call a bankruptcy attorney to keep the Sheriff out of his house. So, to ensure the rest of his furniture and personal belongings that his family needed weren’t seized, he filed bankruptcy the next day.
Redemption
After essentially loosing everything due to the bankruptcy, Ramsey decided to start all over again. But this time, he opted to learn everything he could about money so that this would never happen to him and his family again.
He begin studying everything he could get his hands on that related to money and it’s proper management. He also begin seeking out the advice and wisdom of elders in his community. And he eventually turned his sights towards seeing what he could learn about money from the Bible.
After pooling all of his new knowledge about money together, he slowly begin his climb back into prosperity and determined to never get into debt again.
As fate would have it, Dave was asked by a fellow church-goer for advice on how to improve his downward spiraling financial situation so he could avoid bankruptcy. Dave jumped at the opportunity to be of service, and word eventually go out about the pragmatic and wise financial council he was able to offer others.
And as they say, the rest was history. Before Dave knew it, his advice began to be sought out by more and more people from his church, and then the local community. Dave, took advantage of the the growing interest and decided to start teaching classes about budgeting, personal finances, which eventually led him to the launching of his own financial education company, ‘The Lampo Group, Inc.’
Leveraged Impact
Soon there after the opportunity arose for him to get on a radio show to share his financial advice, and the people love him. So, stay on air to scale up the amount of people his financial advice could impact. The radio show grew slowly and steadily, but didn’t make a profit for the first 10 years.[4]
However, with every show Dave Ramsey did, and every new person whom he helped financially, his popularity grew, and with it, his influence and his fortune. His show is now called ‘The Dave Ramsey Show’ and it airs all over the country. He also has a podcast and a YouTube channel where he publishes recorded versions of his talk show.
His YouTube channels have over 2.7 million subscribers, and his show now reaches over 80 million per week. Having committed to never allowing himself and his family to experience the hardship he put them through all those years ago, as well his commitment to serving as many people as he can with his financial knowledge, he’s become a multi-millionaire and extremely successful once again.
Related: Dave Ramsey Net Worth
Success Ethos | Dave Ramsey Success Story
So, how did Dave Ramsey become successful? From observing his success story it should be apparent that a good share of his success is due to the strong encouragement and positive programming he received from his parents at an early age.
In addition this, much of his success is directly related to his own ambitious efforts to make money, as well the many risks he’s taken in his career to accelerate his financial standing.
Lastly, it could be said that Dave’s Ramsey’s success, especially his more recent success, is a bi-product of his ability to help and serve large amounts of people. Dave knows how to manage money, and more importantly, he knows how a person should NOT manage money if they want to avoid financial ruin. Thus, it’s his ability leverage the airways to help millions and millions of people learn of his message and advice, that affords him the massive success he’s achieved.
Success In His Own Words
Having said, that here are a handful of insightful words of wisdom from Dave Ramsey. We believe they also provide clues as to what he believes it takes to find success in life.
In summary, success is bi-product of belief, persistence, overcoming failure, and being smart with the management of your money.
Related: Dave Ramsey Quotes
More Success Insights
Below is a powerful video of Dave Ramsey’s story. Its worth watching if you want to be inspired, or if you just want to learn even more about Dave and his amazing success journey. Enjoy!
Video Credit: The Ramsey Show (Subscribe Here)
Final Thoughts
Having gone from being a millionaire to broke, and then back to becoming not just a millionaire again, but a multi-millionaire, Dave Ramsey knows a thing or two about success and how to make a comeback in life.
He also knows a great deal about how to be smart with your money. So, if you need a little inspiration when life gets hard, don’t hesitate to come back for some encouragement. Or, if you’re looking for some ways to improve you financial situation, be sure to check out his show. Without exaggeration, it’s a treasure trove of financial wisdom.
Now, take what you’ve learned from this Dave Ramsey success story, and get out there and create your own abundant and financially secure future.
Till your reach those aims,
STRIVE
PS – If you enjoyed this Dave Ramsey Story, then you’ll likely enjoy reading about the success stories of fellow financial icons like Robert Kiyosaki, Warren Buffett, or even Grant Cardone.
