Who's your most reliable financial adviser and why? Dave Ramsey Vs. Suze Orman Vs. Carmen?

I am actually a fan of Ric Edelman myself.

David and Tom Gardner of The Motley Fool

I think they provide the most sound financial advice, take on an industry of service provides that’ll constantly have you believe you’re to dumb to do it yourself so they can skim, and have one of the most impressive, verifiable track records there is.

I used to like Orman and Carmen, but after the Fool everything else seems “half-a$$.

IMHO of course…..

Suze Orman…simply becasue she is gay (j/k). That, and the fact that she attempts to teach young people how to avoid the pitfalls of credit cards and over extension. She’s excellent.

I am not familiar w/ Carmen….?

I think that Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman both give sound basic advice. For both of them their big mantras are spend less than you earn and get out of debt.

Sadly too many people don’t even understand these basic concepts.

I enjoy listening to Dave because in his early 20’s he way overleveraged himself into going bankrupt and came back from nothing. That and like snoopy said he gives solid sound advice.

The problem is though, if everyone were to follow his advice the American economy would lose a lot of jobs and companies would struggle to grow without credit.

My dad – but that’s probably not so helpful for others… ;)

I suggest not listening to any of the main stream, I call them bubble heads. Each may give a good nugget or 2, but most of them give a lot of bad advise too, too many to give examples.

Google blogs like The Big Picture, or Mish Shedlock, or Global Pacific Capital Asset Management, Mike Morgan—these folks give advise to rich people, and this is why poor people listen to Carmen, for example.

@Mizuki: Just curious, have you ever listened to Dave Ramsey? I would disagree that his advice is ever bad. It’s all pretty basic as in don’t spend more than you owe type of advice. To me it’s amazing that people don’t understand this basic concept but his show does really well and I rarely diagree with what he says. In all honesty, the stuff he teaches should really be taught to high school students. If that were the case the US might be in a much better situation than it is right now.

Ramsey is like a Dr, he is for the sick amongst us. Someone with money would not follow Ramsey any more than a healthy person goes to an emergency room. Someone in debt and lacking financial savy I am sure could learn some basics from Ramsey, though I beleive his advise to be limiting. His ideas about Tithing 10% + to Church, I find archaic and self destructive as bad financial habits—Ramsey is a Evangelical Tool. But, hey, nock your self out, I was just giving my 2 cents.

@Mizuki: I don’t want to stray to far off topic but I am curious to why you find tithing 10% to be archaic, self destructive, and a bad financial habit? I understand that you may or may not tithe to a church and Dave doesn’t say you have to tithe to a church but giving 10% of your money for the betterment of civilization IMO is not archaic, self destructive, or a bad financial habit. If everyone were to do this O wouldn’t have to worry so much about redistributing the wealth. Do you feel that O’s plan to redistribute wealth is archaic and self destructive?

Tithing 10% to a church goes to food pantries for the poor, meals-on-wheels, counseling, drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, outreaches to wounded veterans, mentoring, disaster relief, home-building, CPR and First-Aid training, foster care and adoption, and prison ministries, just to name a few. I don’t know anybody who considers donations to these types of things to be bad?

OK then, give me 10% of your income to me and I will see to it that “God’s work is done with it.”
Many folks who tithe have no retirement, no savings, no college fund for their kids—but like I said, nock yourself out! Just my 2 cents.
Now if I proposed a 10% tax to pay for health care for all Americans, you’d get all uppity and piss and cry about not being able to spend “your” money as you wish—go figure!

@Miz: MANY folks who tithe have no retirement, no savings, no college fund for their kids? Where’d you get this information from? Can you send me a credible link that actually researched this?

If you propose a 10% tax to pay for health care you would be taxing those same citizens who have no retirement, no savings, and no college fund. I don’t see your point.
And no I wouldn’t be upset if I thought that my 10% tax was actually going to health care. It’s kind of like my social security tax. Likely I will never see that again.