this rant in one sentence: Live within your means

Champagne lifestyle, lemonade wages.

Only reason why Dave gets too much hate is because truth hurts. Thank you for sharing your wisdom Dave.

Your wage may be stagnant but you know what is not? Your consumption. I like that.

I'm 32 and I will be seeing my first beach/ocean this May. A condo on the beach for a week because I'm debt free.

I’m in Ghana 🇬🇭 and I discovered you recently and my life is getting better. Here we buy almost everything with cash. You don’t have money, you don’t buy. Simple

Dave You would be proud of me. I’m from the Northeast and got sick n tired of saving 300.00 bucks a month as a local trucker. Paying these crazy rents, not for me. With No kids, No wife, No bills, No obligations... I got myself a storage unit 17 months ago. I set a goal and this August I passed it and will continue to do what I do. I’m now an Over The Road trucker living in the truck. Using the truck as my home. I save 1K+ a week every week. To date I saved 104K in cash (to me that’s a huge accomplishment) and put a mint condition 2004 Tacoma in my storage unit with 19,000 miles on it. I’m only a high school graduate but I also know what the word “sacrifice” means. Thanks for all you do! I did lose the cheating gf over this but there’s always a price to pay.

It’s hard for people to imagine life without debt. It’s so sad

I remember when my mom would yell at me to get off of AOL so she could use the phone; THE phone, not phones! Lol

Dave said what should have been said a long time ago. Look around people you're neighbors aren't rich, they are dirt poor from pretending to be rich.

It's something that I had to see within myself and those around me. We complain about always being broke but we live like rockstars nowadays. AC, Heating, vacations, flights around the world, eating out every other day, luxury cars, new clothes that are barely ever worn, 1000 dollar phones, tablets, laptops and desktop pc's, DLSR camera made for professional photographers, parties for every occasion every single month, constant spending with no extra work on the weekends, borrowing money to buy things we dont need with money we dont have and we complain about being broke. It's ridiculous how much we spend smh.

I dislike middle class people acting like they are rich. Stop it with the LV, Gucci, and Balenciaga. Just stop.

Back then there was no social media. Now people see others living these fake perfect lives on Instagram so they feel like they need to get into more and more debt to keep up and buy that same "happiness" they see online. It's truly sickening. Thanks for your common sense, Dave.

He’s so right. You can make 100k per year and be broke in 2019 just off fixed expenses 🤯

During the 2008-2009 downturn a woman in an Escalade (it was several years old, not new) drove up to me at the gas station while I was pumping gas into my Ford Ranger. She demanded that I gave her money for gas. I told her "sorry I can't." She became aggressive and demanded that I give her money; I ignored her at this point. She then went on a rant about me not caring and said that "she would not be able to make it home to see her family." I couldn't believe that someone who spent lavishly expected me, who purchased a cheap truck, to bail her out.

People create false limitations for themselves and blame others for feeling “stuck”

Dave Ramsey on a a rant lol...it's the world of social media...people wanting to look the part with easy credit but behind closed doors they are a mess..exhusted...detached...stressed...taking out more credit to upkeep the life style as heavens forbid what would the neighbours think if we don't upgrade our car...LOVE DAVE RAMSEY...BRILLIANT TEACHER X

Wow, as someone who grew up in the 90s it’s really eye-opening to see what becomes “normal” and “middle-class.” It can feel like “This is how it’s always been.” So refreshing to hear it’s not and that it’s okay to live like the middle-class of yesteryear.

Yet again, Dave nails it! My wife and I have always lived like we're in the 1960's middle class and it's a life of abundance. Wonderful home cooked meals from scratch, endless home entertainment with nothing but an antenna (29 great channels) and a library card, good looking and reliable vehicles bought with cash and driven for at least a decade and all the vacations we care to take by driving and fishing. Incidentally, we only go out for lunch and it's $15-$18 total for the 2 of us at local restaurants with great food. We only go out about 4 times/month as we love our home cooking so much. If you want to see something funny, take your homemade dinner leftovers to work the next day and heat them up. Everyone will want to know what smells so good and where you got it from. All I see are more ways to save money and make our lives better everywhere I look. We just paid off our mortgage on our 1120 sq ft ranch home that we built ourselves and now our annual expenses drop to less than $25,000/year with no need or want to spend more as we have a really nice lifestyle and we want for nothing. Needless to say, our former mortgage money is going to join the rest of our savings/investments as we continue our fantastic financial and tax plans. This is the real "good life" and it's available to all.

Growing up, I lived with my parents in a 2br apartment for 800 a month. We had cockroaches all over the place. Slowly they built wealth, and have a single family in the burbs with the mortgage nearly paid My parents drove a beat up manual window VW that had faded red paint. Now my mom has a nice lexus but is thinking of a toyota for the next one to pay all cash My parents set a college fund and my in state tuition was paid for by the time i graduated. My four year degree translated to 150k a year finance job at age 30. Vacations? Parks, lot of picnics, one trip to disney world and one to cancun. Nothing fancy. Now I carry on my parents legacy. Dad, you left us far too soon. But your wisdom and love will stay with me my whole life.

My 16yo over heard this and asked "what is this Boomer rant" I died.

BAM!! The best advice I ever got was from Grandma.She told me that if I wanted to be a full time homemaker I would need to live like a 1950's housewife! We did it and made it...saved money as well!

Social media drives this increase cost of the middle class aka keeping up with the Joneses! Everyday we are bombarded with how much better others are doing by their social media pics, when the reality is they are drowning in debt! While I will admit I get jealous of how well it looks like others are doing I do my best to stay focused on the end goal of living debt free.

I don’t miss going to restaurants every since I started the baby steps. Always more work than it’s worth and never up to the expectations you have

Don't forget dropping $6 every morning on Starbucks coffee because you're too lazy to make it yourself at home.

This is by far your best 8 minutes I’ve ever heard since listening to your show. Fantastic stuff Dave.

I love how you put things in perspective. We often fail to appreciate how much we really have. Scaling back to achieve larger goals is easier than most people realize.

I'll never give my freedom up for " thing's."

When he explained his 240 air conditioning I died😂😂

I enjoy the simple things in life. I see a Ramsey Rant, I click on it.

Thank you Dave! A breath of fresh air! I'm 72 and I recognize the middle class life you described, very well. Today my 1100 sq ft house on an acre of land is paid for. My parents 1000 sq ft home sat on a 50 X 100 ft lot. If I was filthy rich, I would have no desire for more. My 17 yr old SUV and 7 yr old car are paid for. My parents had 1 car at a time. I'm at the point of being 3 months away from total debt freedom. My middle class income rose continually thru my working years and provides me with $42K net retirement income and I only need 30% of that to cover expenses annually. I can save and give like never before. I'm middle class and God has blessed me! How could I possibly complain?

This is the best rant in a while. I couldn't wait until they posted this on youtube so that I could share it.

Daves average middle class guy sounds like the richest guy ive ever met.

This is one of the greatest rants he has ever done. It’s all so very, very true.

All of Dave's rants summarized: You're not deprived, you're just spoiled

I've watched some of your live talks but in my opinion they cannot compare with your you tube radio rants... radio is indeed your gift and forte! Thanks for the inspiration!

I still live like Dave's old middle class and it's not bad at all.

its not how much you make ..it is what you do with it....someone making minimum wage can have a higher net worth than someone making 6 figures with debt up to there eyeballs...

I'm middle class. My trip to get into the middle class from near poverty went like this. Went years being poor and not being able to provide for my family or even remotely be close to affording health insurance and then joined the Army. Retired from the Army. Got a job in CNC manufacturing working hard 50-60 hours in a warehouse with no A/C. That is how I am middle class. Also do not have any debt other then a small car loan and a mortgage. I make sure our bills are less then what we make, and save and invest. We cook 95% of our food at home. Cheaper in price versus eating out, but we get way better quality meals. We may be blue collar, but my family wants for nothing and I love life. God Bless America.

Omg i cant agree more love love dave ramsey been listening to him for a year now and by this month I should be debt free thanks to him

I totally agree. No critical thinking and instant gratification problems. Some people can’t imagine being debt free which in itself is a great motivator.

I did financial counseling as a minister for 7 years. I never encountered a financial situation that I couldn’t fix. Sadly, I seldom encountered anyone who was willing to take the necessary steps to remedy their financial situation.

I grew up in the working class. My husband too. We have noticed that the working class is obsessed with being "middle class" and they spend spend spend to fit into whatever model they think is middle class. Now, we are upper middle class and we live like we are in the working class because we want to be weird and not like our parents!

Now, I love Dave!!!! I'm 47 and grew up middle class. Most of the things that people whine about today are luxuries. We've gotten so successful in America, middle class is rich in most other places and era.

Like a 13 yr old girl at the lunch table .... 😂😂😂 best rant yet

I usually agree with Dave, but I do have to say that he is wrong with regard to cost of living versus salary in the past versus now. My dad made about $13000/year as a mid-level engineer in the late 1950s, and paid $16,500 for a house less than 10 years old. A mid-level engineer probably makes $85,000 now, but the same exact old house is about $425,000. A house less than 10 years old is much more expensive (e.g., 750,000). Also, the property tax, utilities, etc. have all increased in cost. As another example, child care can be $2000/month or more nowadays. It is much more expensive to live now than back in the 1950s or 1960s.

I remember leaning way over to crank down the passenger side window in my 69 Roadrunner. I miss that car.

I really like this show today. Everyone needs to hear this.

I'm upper middle class and I'm canceling my Netflix right now because Dave yelled at me and I feel guilty for paying the monthly fee.

Wow.. I can relate to these.. growing up middle class in the 80's and riding in a 1971 Dodge Polara we got for $500.. it started most of the time, but left us stranded a few times too. In the house we had a single 13" TV with rabbit ears and knobs to change the channel and no VCR. Taking that car in the winter and going downtown to the industrial section where they threw out old pallets and bringing them home to chop up for firewood. We never felt 'poor' it's just how we lived.

This whole clip made me laugh.... it’s so true

The middle class has access to so much amazing and unbelievable technology and consumer products for cheap now due to how much capitalism has advanced us.

I was borne in the 90s and this sounds like my childhood.

While I agree with the premise that the middle class has it better I think you are using a false equivalency. People from 1920 would say that your 1960 upbringing was ' rich'. It's not fair to compare generations as you are there is no equivalency.

Thank you Mr. Ramsey, for elucidating how spoiled we are. I'm grateful every day for the blessings God has bestowed upon us.

I believe you are correct about critical thinking not being taught in journalism school or how to report non biased new.

“Crazy old man yells at the ocean”

Love the old school Dave Ramsey rants. Need to have your wages go up and keep spending the same. That’s the real “secret” of getting wealthy.

At 30, I drive a 2012 Kia Forte with only 75K miles on it. It has crank windows, manual locks, joysticks to move around my sideview mirrors and goes 0-60 in about 17 seconds. We have no debt except our mortgage. Every time I think about buying a Tesla because I saw a cool video on KZfaq... I just come right back here to get some sense knocked in to me.

2-40 air conditioner. I thought my dad was the only one who said that. Hahahaha! Great minds!

The 60's... I can relate to a great degree. I strive to return to that quality of life without today's price tag. I am enjoying the fruits of living BENEATH MY MEANS...

Standards of living have increased. Try getting by today without internet access.

Dave, you have enlightened me! I am debt free thanks to your videos . You have opened my eyes. Thank you. I am truly grateful for your sage advice.

My favorite part of this video was the ending. Usually, Dave starts dialing back and then closes out on a fairly soft note. But here, he dialed it back a bit as the music came on and then started flaring up again and was straight up yelling again when the video just cut him off. Hahaha! We love you, Dave!

Dave. You know that the technology you are ranting about gets cheaper over time right? The automatic windows in cars cost more in the past because they were new technology.

Just listening to this and man, Dave UR making me feel old 😩

Nothing inspires me to be more gazelle intense than a reality check from Dave Ramsey! I'm truly better than I deserve.

This is my new favourite Dave Ramsey video 😂😂

Thank you Sir. You changed my life.

Times have changed Dave ! A lot more distractions and more “pointless things” to spend your money on. People who are buying more liabilities vs assets will stay stuck in the middle class ! Not to mention inflation growing a lot faster then minimum wage

After finding Dave about 5-6 years ago I have really completely changed my debt habits. Really helped me grow in my financial situation. Thanks Dave

Uncle Dave at it again! Great teaching sir, thank u for all your wonderful advice🙏🏿🙏🏿👏🏿👏🏿. Wish u many more healthy long life to keep on teaching us👍🏿

This is great, well said David.

we were poor growing up and I remember my folks would add on Disney or HBO for the holidays and then they would deactivate it so we had it as a treat I agree it would be good to cut back on all the services

This was probably the best video I've ever seen. Thanks for calling it as it is, Dave!!!

Right as always! We view of luxuries as necessities and complain that we can’t get ahead. I know many folks who make less than me and have more because they live truly middle class. Thank you Dave. Was toying with the idea of a new car, but not anymore!

How do ppl hate these true and helpful videos?

Me and my husband went to Gatlinburg for our middle class honeymoon! 😂😂

Dave, I would like to give a simple thank you for telling the truth. I look at debt a lot differently today since first hearing you on the radio a few years ago. I have been agressively working to become debt free from my financial decisions, and then plan to work on my wife's debt immediately after. By the numbers I hope to be out of this in 2 years for me, and another 2 to 5 with my wife depending on if I can get her on the same page. I just made the leap forward telling myself I don't want to live like this anymore, and have already eliminated half of my debt in 2 years using simple common sense, and self discipline. It is like trying to get in shape. When you cheat, the only one you are cheating is yourself.

These are true words that most don’t want to hear. Thank you Dave for doing all that you’ve done for us. 👍🏽

i like dave's attitude but he is pretty out of touch with modern technology. The house size thing is crazy and peoples 'need' for multiple cars boggles my mind. Most middle class people are cutting the cord on their home-phones and cable, and facetime gchat skype etc can be used for free, and as tech improves do does the average quality of life. He is refusing to acknowledged that historic middle class jobs are vanishing people are being pushed out. Most people arent angry or asking for handouts but its not really fair to blame individuals for a nationwide trend

I am in Swaziland🇸🇿, in Africa. Discovered your videos a month ago. I opened an emergency fund and paid off my credit card. Now I'm paying off my school loan. Thank you Dave.

Hi from England. Everything you say is so true. My husband and I are debt free and very happy but no one around us understands why when new items come out we do not want them. Even people who do not work expect the latest mobile phone, just a joke. Love all this common sense. You can not teach common sense. Dave Ramsey you rock.

One of the best Dave Ramsey Rants of all time.

I liked the part of "I saw the ocean at 14 y/o!!"

Shame us, Dave! We have so much to be grateful for but it's human nature to reset to zero, waking up thinking we deserve everything we had yesterday.

Great stuff "Uncle Dave". I completely agree. We live like we are wealthy compared to some parts of the world too and we need to be more content with what we have.

I've watched this atleast 10 times... I love it!

I love Dave! May God continue to bless him!

I feel personally attacked 🤣😂😫

This video will change my life. Thank you.

My favorite rant thus far! My husband and I make over 6 figures and people can't understand why we drive old cars and don't vacation more often!

Read an article the other day where they said it is hard to live a middle class lifestyle ON A THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLAR A YEAR INCOME!!!!!! It's because they live in a bay area. Dave isn't wrong about the eating out every day thing. The budget was spending over 3k on food! That is ten times what I spend on food every month!

I don’t know what middle class people you know. Who eats out every day? 🤔 I feel like you live in dreamland, Dave.

Dave, you are awesome! Love the Rants! Keep 'em coming!

Dave went full 'get off my lawn' with this one lol

2600 sq ft? You are out of your mind. I must be low class

I don't disagree with you Dave but times do change. What you considered middle class in the 50's was considered rich in 1910. The world changes, and things like power windows in cars are standard - you literally cannot get a car with manual windows, save a few rare models. The majority of people paying $10/month for Netflix don't have a $100+/month cable bill. I don't blame Capitalism because I know it's the best system, and I don't think the wealthy are getting wealthier. But, wages are stagnant and have been for a good while. There is no way around it.

Today I paid off my first snowball debt. I m elated. I m ready for this.

Yep. This is my favourite Dave Ramsey video to date. I love that he calls it how it is