I'm approaching a $1M net worth, but I still enjoy listening to Dave Ramsey. His advice is a mixed bag but I find the batshit scenarios people call in with pretty entertaining. His own personal rags to riches story helps him remain a relatable and aspirational figure to many despite having a personal 9-figure net worth.
Ramsey's get-out-of-debt advice is top notch because it creates a roadmap that average people can understand enough to follow. His core audience is the people out there who have demonstrated an inability to use debt responsibly. A lot of these people have no understanding of interest rates, budgeting, or any other type of financial planning or analysis beyond "can I afford the payments?". And so they end up saddled with ruinous levels of stupid debt like cars they want but can't afford. Any boglehead will tell you his advice is often far from optimal mathematically, but distilling down into some idiot-proof heuristics that everyone can understand without math (e.g. pay extra on the smallest one) helps more people than it hurts start taking steps in a positive direction.
His stay-out-of-debt advice is meh. You're right he has a stated biblical position against debt, but I think also that's just a nice cover for a convenient simplification in his message. The fact he says mortgage debt is okay shows his anti-debt stance is not a firm biblical line in the sand which it would be if it were truly a spiritual question. He's a wealthy man and has a background in real estate so I'm sure he's aware of the ways that debt can be a wealth creation tool. But unpacking all the details of every "it depends" situation on the air to see whether using debt in that scenario is responsible or not could easily get complicated, and also could confuse the simplistic people who joined his audience for get-out-of-debt advice. So I understand why he wouldn't want to go there, officially, with people who most-of-the-time are looking for someone to help justify taking a debt they know is a bad idea. Furthermore, when a huge percent of young people today are going deep into debt for degrees that won't help them thrive financially, I don't have a problem with him telling people to explore every opportunity to avoid or minimize that debt. Much of his audience is debt-addicted, and he doesn't want to undermine the messages that getting and staying out-of-debt should be a top priority.
Ramsey's investing advice is trash. He's always talking about some amazing unnamed 10%+ annual return mutual funds that you can't learn about in detail without getting in touch with one of his affiliated "Smartvestor Pros". I have no idea if the advice they give out is any good, but that stuff always sets off my snakeoil alarm. Could easily be a lambs to the slaughter situation.
One thing I appreciate about him that I think other gurus underemphasize is the importance of healthy relationships and communication in long term financial health. Tons of his callers have bigger relationship problems than financial problems and I appreciate that he addresses that directly.
> Of course, God says debt is bad, so Ramsey doesn't care if I exist.
I wouldn't take it personally. A person like you who can do a cost-benefit to use debt as a tool is just not his audience.
