Dave Ramsey Overspent at Disney

[ArielSparrow]

I couldn't find a link to a quote or anything, but on the radio Dave Ramsey was saying how the rfid card made it so easy to splurge without even noticing. Dave always talks about the power of cash and using a credit or even debit card is not as painful as purchasing something with physical cash. Yet they even tricked him into thinking spending money is fun. It's so easy to buy ice cream here, churro there. Then he was surprised when his bill came at the end of the trip.

Nothing against Disney or treats. Just make sure that YOU know what YOU want to spend on YOUR vacation. Have fun but make sure to give yourself breathing room so you don't regret your fun. Make sure that Mickey ice cream doesn't affect your dinner at home.

I can't wait until this rfid thing is fully rolled out for all guests though. I'll just have to try extra hard to remember that this "magic" is actually a bank transfer.

 

[eliza61]

LOL Mr. Ramsey may want to start worry about the hot water he's gotten into lately for giving bad investment advice.
quite a few financial service industry's leaders are really tearing into him for his crappy investment advice

http://www.obliviousinvestor.com/in...s-bad-investment-advice-catching-up-with-him/

http://moneyover55.about.com/b/2013/06/06/dave-ramsey-should-you-listen-to-him.htm

 

[ICF]

Gotta give Ramsey credit -- it's rare that someone can make so much money, telling people such common sense advice.

 

[eliza61]

Gotta give Ramsey credit -- it's rare that someone can make so much money, telling people such common sense advice.

OMG!! ICF, you hit the nail on the head. I've always thought it was me because I read one of his books and the first thing I thought was "I just paid 29.99 to be told the same exact stuff my grandmama use to say for free".

LOL

 

[DawnM]

If it were that "common" people wouldn't be in debt, but they are.

Dave Ramsey has a place and a purpose, although my husband and I followed a different plan (Crown Financial). It is similar but better for us.

Our society makes it far too easy to not save and to spend what you don't have, we have gotten so far from the days of buying a small 1700 sq. ft. home with 3 bedrooms and 1 to 2 bathrooms to raise 3 kids!

If there is someone helping those folks, more power to him.

Gotta give Ramsey credit -- it's rare that someone can make so much money, telling people such common sense advice.

 

[DawnM]

What is rfid?

I couldn't find a link to a quote or anything, but on the radio Dave Ramsey was saying how the rfid card made it so easy to splurge without even noticing. Dave always talks about the power of cash and using a credit or even debit card is not as painful as purchasing something with physical cash. Yet they even tricked him into thinking spending money is fun. It's so easy to buy ice cream here, churro there. Then he was surprised when his bill came at the end of the trip.

Nothing against Disney or treats. Just make sure that YOU know what YOU want to spend on YOUR vacation. Have fun but make sure to give yourself breathing room so you don't regret your fun. Make sure that Mickey ice cream doesn't affect your dinner at home.

I can't wait until this rfid thing is fully rolled out for all guests though. I'll just have to try extra hard to remember that this "magic" is actually a bank transfer.

 

[ssawka]

If it were that "common" people wouldn't be in debt, but they are.

Dave Ramsey has a place and a purpose, although my husband and I followed a different plan (Crown Financial). It is similar but better for us.

Our society makes it far too easy to not save and to spend what you don't have, we have gotten so far from the days of buying a small 1700 sq. ft. home with 3 bedrooms and 1 to 2 bathrooms to raise 3 kids!

If there is someone helping those folks, more power to him.

It's not a matter of people lacking "common sense", it is a matter of people lacking "self control". I don't care how easy it is to spend, you still need to mentally keep track of what you are spending and know what you can afford.

 

[Marionnette]

What is rfid?

Radio Frequency Indentification

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the wireless non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. The tags contain electronically stored information.

Disney is imbedding a RFID chips in their new tickets and also will be using them in their Magic Plus wristbands for onsite guests. The chip will store the same info as your KTTW card for charging purposes. You tap your wristband against a receiver, enter a PIN code into the keypad and the charge goes onto your resort account.

There are other things that the Magic Plus wristbands will encompass but for charging purposes, it will work pretty much the same as the KTTW card but will use a PIN instead of a signature.

 

[Marionnette]

I couldn't find a link to a quote or anything, but on the radio Dave Ramsey was saying how the rfid card made it so easy to splurge without even noticing. Dave always talks about the power of cash and using a credit or even debit card is not as painful as purchasing something with physical cash. Yet they even tricked him into thinking spending money is fun. It's so easy to buy ice cream here, churro there. Then he was surprised when his bill came at the end of the trip.

Nothing against Disney or treats. Just make sure that YOU know what YOU want to spend on YOUR vacation. Have fun but make sure to give yourself breathing room so you don't regret your fun. Make sure that Mickey ice cream doesn't affect your dinner at home.

I can't wait until this rfid thing is fully rolled out for all guests though. I'll just have to try extra hard to remember that this "magic" is actually a bank transfer.

You can listen to his broadcast from yesterday by going to daveramsey.com/radio . It was during the 6/12/13 show that he mentions this. The segment begins around the 1:13:20 mark and it was a caller question about retaining a credit card that he has had for years. Dave goes on to illustrate his point about overspending with plastic by citing a visit to Disney several years ago and using his KTTW to pay for $8 ice creams without blinking (around 1:17:40). He goes on to mention cruise ships that employ the same practice as well as a study that shows that sales at vending machines increase when they accept credit cards.

I think that his point was to show how using plastic can manipulate consumers into spending more money than they would if they had to reach into their pockets and actually pay cash. Even Dave Ramsey, the guru of spending wisely, was taken in by the ease of using that little plastic room card to separate him from his money.

Lesson to be learned: Dave is good at hanging on to his money. Disney is better at making people spend theirs.

 

[crisi]

Anytime you turn money into an abstract it becomes easier to spend. And weave gotten so good at money being an abstract. We don't see our pay checks any longer. It's direct deposit. Do no need to go to the bank, we use plastic for everything, not carrying cash, and its hard to track your balance in your head. Add the pressure of not disappointing others, your kids at Disney, your girlfriend at the mall, yourself, of course, and money leaves your account at a fabulous pace. Add in my favorite (my husband got this lecture last night), "we make a lot of money, we can afford it" and you are sunk without discipline.

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

I have been on the boards for a couple of years, but I just discovered the Dis Podcast. Pete said once the budget board should be about saving money for Disney trips. This board always talking about people spending too much money.
Like someone said on this board
Our society makes it far too easy to not save and to spend what you don't have, we have gotten so far from the days of buying a small 1700 sq. ft. home with 3 bedrooms and 1 to 2 bathrooms to raise 3 kids!

Who cares what other people do with their money. If someone doesn't save money, that's their choice. If they want to work till they are 90 it's their choice.

It always blows me away how people don't want the government to tell them what to do, but the same people get mad at people choosing how to spend their money.

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

Plastic doesn't make all of us spend more. When I have cash it's easier to spend.
However I do write everything down. I hate to carry around cash.

 

[Marionnette]

Plastic doesn't make all of us spend more. When I have cash it's easier to spend.
However I do write everything down. I hate to carry around cash.

You are in the minority. Statistics show time and time again that people will spend more if they are not paying cash. It's just the nature of things. Good for you for being more money-aware when using plastic. Most people are not like you.

 

[wiigirl]

Plastic doesn't make all of us spend more. When I have cash it's easier to spend.
However I do write everything down. I hate to carry around cash.

I am the same way...

 

[eliza61]

It's not a matter of people lacking "common sense", it is a matter of people lacking "self control". I don't care how easy it is to spend, you still need to mentally keep track of what you are spending and know what you can afford.

And I really don't think money was all that hard to access back in the 60's except maybe technology did not allow for tons of credit card.

Also our society has changed. We've are now a society that feels we NEED all this stuff to be happy.

Take a look at the dis forum. How many post over the year do you read that go like this. "Please help me force some one to go to disney because XYZ is only little for a short time, or I really want to go or fill in the blank".

Some how on these boards if one does not go to disney life as we know it would end.

I think it's the same message every day with every thing. I just got an invitation last week to some thing called a "5th grade achievement party" the 5th grader wanted cash so they can rent a limosene to take them to school on the last day. Every aspect of our lives have been "ramped" up. I won't even go into what happen when I was young and in the 5th grade. You got bubuska and went on to 6th grade.


A young couple now is not going to want a 1100 square foot home because now, the normal home for a starter home is 2200 square feet and has a gourmet kitchen.

We've become prosperous and just like we aren't going back to typewriters and landlines we are not going back to the days of the 60's

 

[powellrj]

Its funny, the 2 different people I know who teach Dave Ramsey are the 2 worst families for money I have ever met! I think its easier to tell people how to spend their money than to do it themselves.

I know we have never used the charging things to our rooms options, so I could see how it would be easy to over spend.

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

I'm sick of hearing how young couples don't want to live in a small house.
I'm in my early 30's with two kids, my dh decided to wait longer so we can purchase a larger home. Some people bought smaller houses and the market crashed now its hard for them to sell it. We wanted a house that we can grow in.
Yes I want an updated kitchen with 4 bedrooms in a nice community. Interest rates are also low, they are going up some, but still nice and low. So it was worth it to skip a small house and buy a bigger house with lower rates.

 

[manning]

I have been on the boards for a couple of years, but I just discovered the Dis Podcast. Pete said once the budget board should be about saving money for Disney trips. This board always talking about people spending too much money.
Like someone said on this board
Our society makes it far too easy to not save and to spend what you don't have, we have gotten so far from the days of buying a small 1700 sq. ft. home with 3 bedrooms and 1 to 2 bathrooms to raise 3 kids!

Who cares what other people do with their money. If someone doesn't save money, that's their choice. If they want to work till they are 90 it's their choice.

It always blows me away how people don't want the government to tell them what to do, but the same people get mad at people choosing how to spend their money.

What's sad is that more people are turning to government to bail them out of the money trouble they get themselves into.

I can remember the advice I got when I was young. "Spend a little,save a little. Preferably save more than you spend".

And

"Live within your means".

 

[manning]

Some how on these boards if one does not go to disney life as we know it would end.

Kind of have to wonder how we ever survived before Disney built his parks.

 

[pryncess527]

Anytime you turn money into an abstract it becomes easier to spend. And weave gotten so good at money being an abstract. We don't see our pay checks any longer. It's direct deposit. Do no need to go to the bank, we use plastic for everything, not carrying cash, and its hard to track your balance in your head. Add the pressure of not disappointing others, your kids at Disney, your girlfriend at the mall, yourself, of course, and money leaves your account at a fabulous pace. Add in my favorite (my husband got this lecture last night), "we make a lot of money, we can afford it" and you are sunk without discipline.

I completely agree. We've started using budgeting software called "You Need a Budget" -- it has an app that goes with it and everytime I buy something, I'm supposed to enter that spending into the app and assign a category (takes less than 2 seconds). Anytime we over budget one category, we have to find money from another to make up the difference.

It's still "virtual", but it's put me so much more in touch with our budget and how much money we have. Instead of making decisions based on how much money I have left in checking, which might overlook a long term expense or bill that hasn't cleared, I make my decisions based on how much I have left in budgeted categories. It's been life-changing to have a less-abstract relationship with my money, even though I still don't carry cash. Even Dave Ramsey would not have been able to unknowingly overspend!