Dave Ramsey has made a lot of money by talking about money. He peddles financial advice based on the Bible. He started with a radio show, then expanded into newspapers, live events, and popular books. He even sold an “Act Your Wage!” board game with the tagline “First player out of debt wins!”
Eliminating debt is Ramsey’s passion. He counsels listeners to avoid all debt, to pay cash for their houses and perform “plastic surgery” by cutting up their credit cards. The box for the “Act Your Wage!” game features Ramsey holding a credit card between scissor blades. He likes quoting a verse from Proverbs,
The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is slave to the lender. (Proverbs 22:7 NIV)
Ramsey helps listeners escape the burden of debt. However, debt is not always a burden, and those who have escaped debt may still have unhealthy relationships with money. To make good financial decisions, we should look beyond simple rules like avoiding debt and examine our attitudes. Proverbs teaches that our attitudes shape our lives.
As water reflects the face,
so one’s life reflects the heart. (Proverbs 27:19 NIV)
When we borrow, we gain something in the present but lose something in the future. Because we pay interest on loans, when we borrow to consume, we gain less in the present than the we lose in the future, so we impoverish ourselves. Valuing the present too much relative to the future is a common disorder of our desires. Proverbs warns repeatedly about the future price of present comfort, often addressing the sluggard who sleeps today and starves tomorrow.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man. (Proverbs 6:10 – 11 ESV)
However, borrowing can enrich rather than impoverish if we borrow to invest rather than consume. Investing in things like tools or education can improve the return on our labor. We enrich ourselves by borrowing to invest when our investment returns more than we pay to borrow. Following the simple rule of avoiding debt may cost us profitable opportunities.
If we put our desires in order, we can use debt to our benefit rather than our harm. Putting our desires in order may mean shifting our focus away from our present comfort. Another passage from Proverbs that Ramsey likes to quote deals with escaping responsibility for the debt of others and concludes,
Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler. (Proverbs 6:4 – 5 ESV)
Ramsey talks about focusing with “gazelle intensity” on escaping debt. Focusing intensely on debt can counter our bias toward the present. However, our attitudes toward money can be disordered in other ways, with even graver consequences. Just as we can value the present too much relative to the future, we can value money too much relative to everything else. Paul warns against the love of money, calling it “a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Timothy 6:10 ESV).
Getting our attitudes toward money in order is hard, but the rewards are huge. Our financial decisions are often complex. Many of the most difficult decisions, like buying a house or going to college, involve both consumption and investment. Simple rules may not guide us through such complex decisions as reliably as healthy attitudes. If our lives reflect our hearts, we can put our lives in order by putting our hearts in order.