Baby Steps Millionaires

I so thoroughly respect this guy and his opinions. He touched very deeply on a lot of the more personal aspects of money and wealth. Plus the writing is fantastic; his educated anti-consumerist anti-socialist Christian ideology is so clearly articulated.

Financial advice is everywhere. From those self-help books saying how you can save money if you try, to people expounding the virtues of real estate on TickTok, everyone seems to be offering their little piece of money-making advice, most of it of dubious practicality.

That may be why I have never been one for financial help books. Usually, they are one voice in a crowded market, so I never wanted to waste my time on them. But then I found Dave Ramsey's book. To be forthcoming, I read this not because I wanted to know more about finances, but because I needed to listen to something short for the two weeks I could get out of my Libby Library loan.

Also, I had heard of Dave Ramsey on Youtube. His show seems to be filled with advice tuned more to the person who is already up to their eyeballs in debt, rather than someone like me: a man in his 30s with good financial habits. Yet the more I listened to this book, the more I liked what I heard. Despite his demeanor on the show, he sounded here like a kindly Uncle or Grandfather, trying to depart his wisdom onto you so you do not make the same mistakes he did. Say what you will about this book, he sounds like he genuinely wants to help you to become a millionaire, and believes it is possible.

He also offers many different examples of people who have used his program to great effect. Some people come from all walks of life: those who started rich and ended up poor. Those who started off poor to begin with, and had little to no financial literacy, and everything in between. All of this means that we see many people whom Ramsey has helped, which can convince the reader that what he says is right: financial literacy is 20% know-how, 80% willpower.

Yet, there were other issues with this book that I consider negative points. One of which was the references to Jesus and God. While I get that faith can be a strong component of your life, especially when you are struggling to climb out of a mountain of debt, I found his expounding on the Bible here to be misplaced. They often seemed to be here just to expound to the reader how much the Bible can fit into finances when that should not be the focus of the book. I think those passages would have been better served as their own little book (where he can make even more money) rather than written here, taking up valuable space.

Also (and correct me if I am wrong) he never clearly outlines what the Baby Steps are in the book. He talks all about them, and I can gather what they are from the content of each chapter, but it felt like, for the most part, the actual steps would be revealed to you if you paid for another course, book, or whatever. The point is, this annoys me how much time he spent expounding upon a program and only outlining the hints of what to do instead of stating the steps directly.

And it is this major negative that makes me give this book a three out of five. It isn't a bad book, but I would also look at other texts on the topic before diving into what Ramsey is selling.