100 Quotes by Dave Ramsey (2024)

Dave Ramsey stands as a beacon of financial wisdom in a world of economic complexity. Renowned for his expertise in personal finance, he has empowered countless individuals with practical advice and strategies to achieve financial freedom and security. Through his books, radio show, and speaking engagements, Ramsey simplifies complex financial concepts, offering step-by-step guidance for tackling debt, budgeting, and building wealth.

His approach is marked by a blend of no-nonsense realism and unwavering optimism, creating a relatable and accessible framework for people to take control of their financial destinies. Ramsey's impact is not just in dollars saved or invested but in the transformation of mindsets, enabling people to break free from the shackles of financial stress and work towards a future of stability and abundance.

Dave Ramsey Quotes

Debt has become a part of who we are. (Meaning)

You can wander into debt, but you can't wander out. (Meaning)

Savings without a mission is garbage. Your money needs work to do. So, name every dollar. (Quote Meaning)

Children are sponges—they are going to absorb whatever is around them, so we need to be intentional about what surrounds them. (Meaning)

Act your wage. (Quote Meaning)

Pray like it all depends on God, but work like it all depends on you.

If people in America would get their finances together and start taking care of each other, we could put the government out of business.

The decision to go into debt alters the course and condition of your life. You no longer own it. You are owned.

Earning a lot of money is not the key to prosperity. How you handle it is.

We live in a culture full of hares; but the tortoise always wins.

You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you. (Meaning)

Nothing happens without focus. Don't try to do everything at once. Take it one step at a time.

Winning at money is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge. What to do isn’t the problem; doing it is. Most of us know what to do, but we just don’t do it. If I can control the guy in the mirror, I can be skinny and rich. (Quote Meaning)

Adults devise a plan and follow it, children do what feels good.

Debt gives you the ability to look like you’re winning when you’re not.

Remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.

When you're trying to achieve a goal, negative people will just bring you down. Surround yourself with the positive.

Investing is important, but get debt-free first. That's what frees up your income so you can win.

There's not a party, a congressman, a senator, etc. elected that will fix your life. YOU have to fix YOUR life.

Too many people try to do the new job, new spouse, new house, new car thing in 18 months. That's a good way to end up broke. We've got to resist the temptation to catch up with our parents in 18 months. Slow down. You have the rest of your life to play catch up. After all, it's just stuff.

Study the habits of the people you want to be like and then imitate them. If they are succeeding, they must be doing something right.

When getting help with money, whether it is insurance, real estate or investments you should always look for a person with the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman.

At the end of the day we are not selling, we are serving.

Wealth comes from hard work but not because of hard work. Wealth comes because of God. Everything is His. (Meaning)

The paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. (Quote Meaning)

When we're dealing with money in relationships, when we're dealing with money in our personal lives, when we're dealing with money in our families, the flow of money in a family represents the value system under which that family operates.

Money is 80% behavior, 20% head knowledge. It's what you do, not what you know.

More wealth doesn't fix your life. More wealth makes you more of what you already are.

Bosses push, Leaders pull. Real leadership is servant leadership.

Leading a family is the hardest job a man can ever have.

If you will make the sacrifices now that most people aren't willing to make, later on you will be able to live as those folks will never be able to live.

One definition of maturity is learning to delay pleasure.

For your own good, for the good of your family and your future, grow a backbone. When something is wrong, stand up and say it is wrong, and don't back down. (Meaning)

Save 3-6 months of expenses in a Rainy Day fund. Know why? Cause it is going to rain, and you aren't the exception.

You can get anywhere if you simply go one step at a time. (Meaning)

Your priorities, passions, goals, and fears are shown clearly in the flow of your money.

Work is doing it. Discipline is doing it every day. Diligence is doing it well every day.

A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. (Quote Meaning)

Success is a pile of failure that you are standing on. (Meaning)

Knock out a small debt first so you get a quick win. Momentum is key.

If hard work, integrity, thrift, and perseverance have caused you to succeed, then you don't owe anyone an apology for winning.

Change is painful. Few people have the courage to seek out change. Most people won’t change until the pain of where they are exceeds the pain of change.

I'm not against people having new cars. I'm against them having you. We spend a tremendous amount impressing somebody at the stoplight who we'll never meet. It makes you broke and keeps you broke.

Financial peace isn't the acquisition of stuff. It's learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can't win until you do this.

Without a mission statement, you may get to the top of the ladder and then realize it was leaning against the wrong building!

Fear is the enemy of hope.

Debt is dumb. Cash is king.

Delegation requires the willingness to pay for short term failures in order to gain long term competency.

Those who don't manage their money will always work for those who do

True leadership is servanthood. Put the interests of others at the center of your decisions.

Everyone has some natural talent or aptitude in one or more areas. If you can identify those areas you not only will be happier and perform more successfully in that role, but you will also become better paid for that. Our free-market system pays for performance at some point. When you have a natural talent or aptitude, coupled with desire and experience, the result is productivity plus.

Rich isn't an amount of money, it's a mindset about how you live. If you believe you can win, you can.

Making mistakes and learning from them is crucial to winning.

I think the lie we've told people in the marketplace is that a degree gets you a job. A degree doesn't get you a job. What gets you a job is the ability to carry yourself into that room and shake a hand and look someone in the eye and have people skills. These are the things that cause people to become successful.

How you handle or mishandle your money tells us who you are and, more important, it tells YOU who you are. Your priorities, passions, goals, and fears are shown clearly in the flow of your money. Your value system, or lack of one causes money to flow around you, passed you, or to you. When money is in your possession, what you do with it screams loudly who you are.

Surround yourself with people who add the fuel of advice and encouragement to your fire.

If you help enough people, you don't have to worry about money.

Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.

The world will try to tell you that you need stuff to be somebody. Don't listen

Outrageous generosity is a character quality of people who win with money.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who execute them are not.

If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else. (Meaning)

Every person falls down at some point. Successful people choose to get back up!

Contentment may be the most powerful Financial Principle. You can give more, avoid debt, and live better.

You must walk to the beat of a different drummer. The same beat that the wealthy hear. If the beat sounds normal, evacuate the dance floor immediately! The goal is to not be normal, because as my radio listeners know, normal is broke.

Where you are today is the sum of every choice you've ever made. If you don't like where you are, start making different choices!

You've got to tell your money what to do or it will leave.

Gratitude is really, really attractive. A child who is genuinely grateful makes you want to do anything for her, and that is true of adults as well.

You can't work three hours a week and make $100,000. Get rich quick doesn't work. Crock pot mentality always defeats microwave mentality!

The average millionaire can't tell you who got thrown off the island last night.

No one got rich on a government program. Do not choose to be a common man. You can be uncommon.

You must plan your work and then work your plan. (Meaning)

Higher calling matters. When you care so deeply about the why-why you're doing what you're doing-then and only then are you operating in a way that allows you to overcome the obstacles.

It's never too late to turn things around. You are the only obstacle.

When you create a basic budget and stick to it, it will suddenly seem like you have more money.

Poor is a state of mind. Broke is, 'I'm just passing through.'

If you buy a $28,000 car, in four years it will be worth about 11,000 bucks.

People are in such a hurry to launch their product or business that they seldom look at marketing from a bird's eye view and they don't create a systematic plan. (Meaning)

Good things that cannot be calculated or quantified are set in motion in your life and in your finances when you give.

Debt is normal. Be weird. (Quote Meaning)

Work is a surefire money-making scheme.

Be intense, passionate, and fired up, but about things that matter, things that change your life and your legacy.

Money... is like a beautiful thoroughbred horse - very powerful & always in action, but unless this horse is trained when very young, it will be an out-of-control & dangerous animal when it grows to maturity.

Work - get paid; don't work - don't get paid. Everybody is on commission, .. Try not coming to work for six weeks. Work gets paid; don't work, don't get paid. When they earn those dollars, and when you're 4, and you clean up your room, it really means mom cleaned up the room and you did two toys. When you're 14, it means you cleaned up your room. But still, we got the money caused by work, and then, we have teachable moments on how to handle the money they earn.

Feeling lost? Take a dream and convert it into small goals, then start taking the steps to hit those goals.

Money is not good or evil. It has no morals or intentions on its own. Money reflects the character of the user.

Broke people giving financial advice is like a shop teacher with missing fingers.

Financial Security is not enough money to buy toys. That is to learn to live with less money than you earn. So, you can help other individuals or investors. You are not a winner until done it

Goals convert vision into ENERGY.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting out of debt.

We are all in the business of sales. Teachers sell students on learning, parents sell their children on making good grades and behaving, and traditional salesmen sell their products.

"If you aren’t really careful, 'The Good Enough' can become the enemy of 'The Best.'"

Doing a budget means learning an ancient and powerful word: NO.

Financial winners don't run sprints, they run marathons. They don't rush. They do it step by step over time.

You can't be in debt and win. It doesn't work. (Meaning)

Work-get paid; don't work-don't get paid. Everybody is on commission

A big part of being strong financially is that you know where you are weak and take action to make sure you don't fall prey to the weakness. And we ALL are weak

When people get scared, they quit giving.

Being willing to delay pleasure for a greater result is a sign of maturity.

Goals are visions and dreams with work clothes on.

We learned early on that if we help enough people, the money will come.

A lower interest rate doesn't make a debt go away.

You don't build wealth with credit card rewards and airline miles. You can't beat the credit card companies at their own game.

Great talent stands in line to join your team because the culture becomes the stuff of legend.

Your greatest asset is your paycheck. Disability insurance protects you and your family if you are unable to work by providing income which will help pay your bills and take care of your family. It's just as important as life insurance.

Broke is normal. Why be normal? (Quote Meaning)

You will only sacrifice when you passionately believe in the outcome.

Servant Leadership is the only #leadership that ultimately works.

There's a great place to go when you're broke--to work!

We've really got to stop looking to Washington to fix our problems. It obviously doesn't have the ability to do that. People who are successful are not successful because of the president.

Be very proud of what you do, and if you aren't then change it.

As you will it, so shall it be. (Meaning)

Children who reach the age of eighteen with their entire skills set composed on Nintendo and eating Doritos have been neglected. Their parents neglected to give them the character traits necessary to live successfully.

The only reason to go into business is to make money. You have to work hard at it. If you're not passionate about it, you'll burn out so fast that it is incredible.

Contentment is both the fruit and the tree.

You have the clean canvas of a whole week before you. Paint well.

The first step in taking control of your money is to stop borrowing money. Start using cash today.

A good financial planner is going to do more than pick your funds.

In order to be a great marketer, you have to be focused and intense and look at scarcity, urgency, activity and passion in the marketplace.

If you come with mercy but not justice; that's called enabling.

Opening your hands will set you free. (Meaning)

Don't medicate dysfunction with spending. No amount of stuff will get rid of guilt.

Thinking about starting a small business? Assume everything will cost twice as much and take twice as long as you think it will.

Credit is an 'I love debt' score.

My children were taught at an early age how money works and that it comes from hard work. They've been on a commission - not an allowance - since they were little. They learned that if they worked around the house, they got paid. If they didn't work, they didn't get paid.

Enabling is the enemy of motivation.

Be an evangelist with your excellence.

Do not let your life, ministry or organization go faster than your resources.

Teaching kids about money is never just about money.

You will either learn to manage money, or the lack of it will manage you.

Anytime you open a business, you have to be effective in promoting whether it's a franchise or not. You'll need to learn to be a Web marketer extraordinaire. There's plenty of material out there.

Just keep taking the next step and keep having excellence in the ordinary.

If your life is bad because of an elected official, then you don't have a life.

I have to live my books before I write them.

You have to teach children about money intentionally - create teachable moments.

Leadership responsibility: If you own a biz, you're the head of the org. Good or bad, your company will LOOK and ACT like you do.

You must learn to control your money, or to the permanent deprivation control you

Instead of just purchasing an ad campaign, target test and measure. Give an ad a small try. If the response is enough to pay for the ad, make it larger. With a franchise, ask the most successful franchisees what they did. Ask the bottom five guys what they did and avoid it.

I can't tell you how many home businesses are almost in bankruptcy court over a Yellow Pages ad only to find out that the Yellow Pages ad isn't where their market will look for them, and it cost more than they thought.

You’re not exempt from math if you’re a Republican, and you’re not exempt from math if you’re a Democrat. You’re not exempt from math if you’re a liberal, and you’re not exempt from math if you’re a conservative. You still have to do math.

― Dave Ramsey Quotes

Chief Editor

Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.