jackassletters.com: Dave Ramsey

It took my girlfriend to point out that the postmark for this letter was over a week after the date on the letter, but my first thought was....

Yay! Someone actually read my letter. I think this is a first (OK, to be fair the Iowa Lottery did as well, but their response seemed lame and canned). I think every point was addressed. Of course he didn’t send me the 30k I asked for, but I didn’t expect him to, and I was a bit disappointed he didn’t send “an autographed photo of a book or something.” I’ve been dying for a photo of a book signed by the author. Seriously though, Dave Ramsey is way cool. Check out his website, check out his podcast. A simple signed photo would have gone a ways to inspire me.

Someday I will put into play all what Dave advises, until then, I will continue to be broke.

And as to the lottery, well, actually Dave, I was agreeing with you on this one. I took the lines I wrote directly from your show! I play the lottery on my birthday, and on my birthday only, figuring I will give the gods of chance their annual opportunity to bless me big time! Since I usually forget my birthday, I think I’ve bought about a dozen scratch tickets, and maybe 3 lotto drawings in my lifetime. I’m 38 (soon), so I am behind.

Those few chances to dream were probably worth the price of admission to me, but honestly, I do agree with Dave. It’s a screw job. Most people do not play only on special occasions.

The only defense of playing the lottery I ever heard, that made sense to me, was from a janitor who said, “I don’t drink, and I don’t smoke. I spend less on the lottery than anyone I know does on booze and cigarettes.” He bought a scratch ticket every day, and played the Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa lottery every week. I may be unclear on the states, but I know he spent $10 a week for years. He’d even won once or twice (or five times).

So I sat down with him, we discounted the small, few dollar winnings, and I showed him how much money he’d have had over the last 10 years of playing the lottery if he’d just parked the same $10 a week in a crappy interest savings account and never touched it. It was way more than his total winnings. He was the perfect example of why I never really play.

That story is nearly 20 years old. I have no idea where that janitor is now, but I bet he spent that last 20 years playing the lottery, and I am also wiling to bet he wishes he’d paid attention to that lesson in compound interest!

One point where I and Dave disagree, and this is because he’s a nicer guy than I am, if poor and stupid people are willing to pay for the wealthier of us to go to college, so much the better! This is a positive cycle in my mind. These kids on scholarships get to go to college, get even more intelligent (assuming they pay attention), and then they come out, smart enough to give the lottery a pass, since they don’t need it, and the poor and stupid keep buying lottery tickets. Darwinism at its best.

But then Dave believes in God, and I don’t, so that probably explains that!