re: Mississippi State to Require Personal Finance/Dave Ramsey of all athletes

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Basic money management can be taught by current staff at any university. Why would you pay the "franchise feee" to Dave Ramsey for this knowledge? Good move by State to educate the athletes but bad news to go "out of house" to accomplish it.

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I guarantee that the cost of the Ramsey course is cheaper then you would ever get through any current university staff.

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that they can make debt a slave instead of a master. You can get a 2% or less loan on a car at virtually any credit union - and invest the money and make 8-12%, compounded on a $20,000 car vs. paying cash, you are paying $1,033 in interest vs. making $9,300 by investing the $20k with even an 8% return

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Very few individuals can currently earn that rate of return. Banks pay zero on savings, etc.

What investments are making that return?

Income is taxed, but car interest is not deductible. So you would not net that much.

For most people debt is bad, especially credit card debt with high interest rates.

Love this!! Also, sweet Adam Smith sig.

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Very few individuals can currently earn that rate of return. Banks pay zero on savings, etc.

What investments are making that return?

Income is taxed, but car interest is not deductible. So you would not net that much.

For most people debt is bad, especially credit card debt with high interest rates.

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8% long term is very attainable - you just have to be willing to learn a little. I've had years that I have made 24%, I've had years that I lost 10%. Over the long term, I've averaged about 9.3%, so its definitely possible.

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Basic money management can be taught by current staff at any university. Why would you pay the "franchise feee" to Dave Ramsey for this knowledge?

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Cheese, you and I both know the answer to that. This is the kind of state funded handed out by pols that the general public misses because they don't think about it and say to themselves (just like you did) "hey wait a minute, can't a trained on staff Ph.D do this better than Ramsey?"

Politics and state money.

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What investments are making that return?

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If you can't average an 8% return over the long term, you suck at investing, seriously.

A fricking S&P index fund will do over 8%.


I have mutual funds that have averaged 12-15% over 70+ years.

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There are a lot of smart people with advanced degrees living above their means and making foolish financial choices. I've been there. It's not about learning finance. It's more a question of changing your perspective about money and spending.

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I'm not denying that but smarter folks do have an easier time of it in general. See: Peyton Manning. AND like I said before the biggest factor for pro athletes going broke isn't smarts or even knowledge of basic finance but lifestyles that make it damn near a requirement to spend money (it's part of it when you're on the road and the pressure for entertainers of all stripes but especially athletes and musicians is to makes a show of wealth).

Further, one thing that's not talked about very much is that pro athletes are targeted by by professional conmen (and even the savviest of us on personal finance can fall to a conman look at Madoff's victims and before you say 'too good to be true' just remember he'd held high positions in finance like former Chairman of the NASDAQ and was considered legit and while his returns were good a lot of folks likely reasoned it was because he was connected and plugged into the system - man would've never gotten caught had the market not crashed so badly). These conmen latch onto athletes because they know exactly how much money they make and they present the kind of cons that don't sound like an obvious con or Nigerian Scam.

Then there's the agents. Many of these guys are approved by the NFL so it's not unreasonable to think they know what they're doing. It's also not unreasonable to trust the CPAs (they don't rip off normal people). Before agents, CPAs and financial advisers that ripped players off were considered rogues or folks just thought a player was making excuses. It's only now that the Players Union is trying to do something.

At any rate, the real issues I have are 1. making this a requirement for athletes instead of placing it in university studies as a segment and having all students take it (although again this shite really does belong in HS not college). 2. shopping it out

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Basic money management can be taught by current staff at any university. Why would you pay the "franchise feee" to Dave Ramsey for this knowledge? Good move by State to educate the athletes but bad news to go "out of house" to accomplish it.

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First of all, it isn't expensive. Second, I went through the course a few months ago with my wife, and watching Dave Ramsey on a DVD was a heck of a lot more entertaining than any live college professor I ever had. The guy has a great delivery and is able to get his message across to a wide range of people, whether you really start out interested in the program or not.

Tennessee alum Dave Ramsey

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to be honest this is shite that should be taught at the High School level not at the college level.

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Yeah, but it's not being done, so the universities should just ignore it? Well it isn't something we should have to do so we're just not going to do it.

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A special course on it is fine but requiring all athletes to take it operates under the assumption that student athletes are both different and dumber than the student body.

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Well...

Also, Some of these athletes are going to be making far more money than the rest of the "student body".

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Can you imagine Josh Dobbs (aerospace engineering major), Todd Kelly Jr. (biomedical engineering major) or Cam Sutton (pharmacy major) having to take this class? Not all athletes are dumb and the NFL and other pro athletes that spend all their money do so as much out of lifestyle as anything else.

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I know you don't think this is the norm among student athletes. You are a lot smarter than that.