If you feel as though you have made a few financial mistakes, you are not alone. Most people goof up in ways both big and small when it comes to managing their money. Today, I thought that I would share with you some money gaffes that have been made by people that the “rest of us” look to for financial advice. Rather than discrediting the financial advice espoused by the individuals that made the goofs, I feel that the fact that they are able to fess up to having messed up makes these people real. It gives their advice even more weight because they have learned lessons, they have been there, and they are not just shouting down advice to us from their pedestals regarding things that they have never seen or felt firsthand.
We all know Dave Ramsey, he is a personal finance guru who has written many books and even has his own television show. We know that Dave knows how to handle money, and we trust his advice when it comes to letting him teach us how to manage ours more effectively. Did you know that Dave Ramsey has gone through the experience of hitting bottom financially? He most certainly has. When Dave Ramsey graduated from college, he quickly built a rental real estate portfolio worth over four million dollars. Banks loved to lend him money, and he was able to finance his real estate purchases easily – until one of the banks that he had borrowed a great deal of short term notes from was sold to another bank. The new bank called the notes due, and Dave had to scramble to pay back over a million dollars within ninety days. The scramble had a devastating effect on his real estate empire and he was lucky to escape with his home and the clothes on his back. Obviously Dave learned a great deal from his experience hitting bottom and working his way back to the top. It is a great person who can admit to such a large mistake publicly and use the knowledge that he acquired from that experience to help others. Thanks, Dave.
Another case of a financial expert making a money blunder comes from Beth Kobliner, author of “Get a Financial Life : Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties”. Beth had an awkward moment from which it took her years to recover financially when she was getting a job as a writer with Time Inc. at the tender age of 22. When she got the phone call she jumped on the job offer. Minutes later, the editor who had offered her the job called back to say that he felt that he had offered her too little money. She had a chance right then and there to get the same job she had just accepted, only for a higher salary. Unfortunately, Beth’s reply was that it was okay and that she would be happy to take the job at the salary that she was originally offered. She had a rough few years, and learned the valuable lesson of not underselling herself.
Photo by jdurham on morguefile.com.