I'm a believer in the Dave Ramsey approach to budgeting and living within your means.

For the past two years, we have offered every tenant the following:

"If you take the Dave Ramsey class Financial Peace University and provide proper documentation of completion, we will reduce your rent by $20/month for the remainder of your first year's lease. Essentially we will be paying for the class for you and then some."

Sadly, not a single tenant has taken us up on this offer...so I'm wondering whether I need to sweeten the pot a bit...or perhaps the tenants think they don't need any budgeting help.

My thinking is that if they can become financially disciplined in their budgeting, they will pay on time and be less likely to require eviction.

We have "B" properties with rents ranging from about $780/mo to about $1,100/mo. About half of those who rent from us are professionals...nurses, accountants, engineers, store managers, etc.

Thanks Paulio,

I pick up copies of Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover, at second hand stores for under $3.00. I try to give a copy of the book to people who could benefit, but I have only had one couple jump on board. They were a young married couple from a Bible study who were high earners who paid off all their debt, including their $300K+ house and are saving and investing like crazy.

A big issue is most people don't read, much less even read a non-fiction book on how to better themselves in some way.

Sad but true what you say. My wife and I are very fortunate that we can retire at such young ages...she is 59 and has been retired for a short time and I went part-time at 52...and will fully retire later this year at 57. For the past 5 years I've been working about 25-28 hours a week, which has allowed me to do a lot of fun things.

My wife and I didn't vacation much when first married, as we didn't have much money and were both working full time and going to college to get our degrees. I went to college about 11 years to get my two degrees, but the good thing is that I had zero student loans since my company paid for all my schooling...for which I am grateful.

As a result of not travelling earlier, we are now making up for it...we had 7 vacations last year and we have 6 planned this year. Next year we are going to Ireland for 13 days, and possibly Greece the year after.

I was chatting with my friend who works at the grocery store. We were standing in the Jell-o aisle, and a woman came looking for Jell-o, not sure what flavor would go best with pears. She was looking for some sugar-free orange generic gelatin for 69 cents, which was more affordable than that $1.29 name-brand Jell-o. ("Ooo, that's pretty expensive...") My friend suggested she get some unflavored gelatin, and then flavor it with the pear juice per the instructions on the box. The woman balked-- it was $2.40, but my friend pointed out that there were four packets, so it was actually cheaper than the flavored gelatin.

The woman ended up getting a box of generic gelatin for 69 cents because it was cheapest up-front. It's been a long time since sixty cents,let alone $1.71, made a difference to my budget, but I do remember those days...

But it reminded me that a lot of the tenant pool in my town is in just that situation.

Our local library was playing Reading Bingo for our adult summer reading program. I read TMM for my "NYT Bestseller" space and really enjoyed it. It was definitely a walk down memory lane, and it made me happy to see how far we had come...

Deanna,

Hoosier,

Congrats on being a generous and helpful person.

At Christmas time Dave usually offers his life changing book Total Money Makeover for $10. Could make a nice holiday gift and still follow your goal to help others.

I’ve lead several FPU classes and they are good. But people can attend and go home. Books change lives. Probably everyday someone on Dave’s radio show says someone gave them the book but they let it sit for years. When the time was right they read the book and became gazelles.

Zig Ziglar used to say he got 4 times as many letters from people saying his BOOK changed their lives as the people who heard him speak.

Keep thinking!

I think the good intentions are wonderful as long as you don't get preachy. Dave is available at my local library. I'll guess most tennants don't want homework assignments but it doesn't hurt to suggest helpful resources.

I've found most tenants could care less what you want or think or advise.

They are interested in what they want.

They resent anyone suggesting they change.

Hoosier... love your heart to help people.

Why aren't they interested? Dunno. Could be any number of reasons. I have led two sessions of FPU at my church. We regularly worship 750 or so on a weekend. Maybe 15 sign up? Granted, take out all the children and already very successful folks and that drops the count to maybe 250-300 adults. 5% isn't too awful--it's better than the response rate to my last "I buy houses" letter mailing (wink!). When we consider the life-changing trajectory Dave's plan has put us on we eagerly desire to get everyone on board at once, doing the program together, encouraging each other, cheering each other on.

All in God's time. His time says, "Not yet" for some folks. Sometimes for a lot of folks.

Some people are comfortably set in their ways and do not want to change. As you know, Dave's plan requires CHANGE. People develop "ostrich" syndrome. If things start to get bad, they'll bury their head in the sand, stick butt in the air, and simply wait to see if the storm passes. Btw, I've heard ostriches really do not bury their heads in the sand... I've never seen one personally.

We're a proactive group here. We try to get out ahead of the storm rather than simply weather it and expect the Govt or some relief agency to come clean up after wards. So we're always reading, learning, trying new things. Do you know how unusual that is to many people?

These are the same folks who often refuse to pay $15/month for basic renter's insurance, but then pay 5 days late ($25) and think nothing of it.

It's weird to me... I wish I had a window into their minds to see what makes them tick. Maybe I'd be scared or amazed. I simply don't know.

Bottom line is you can only offer and see if anyone responds. It's the same with the Christian faith: offer and see who responds. As Dave is fond of saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Maybe that teacher will be you! Maybe someone else.

Btw, I don't think anyone here was trying to be rude to you. With online bulletin boards, social media, "chat" there are no facial cues, voice tone, or body language to clarify meaning, so I often have to remind myself that MY mood is almost more important in getting the correct meaning out of a post vs. what the person actually says. Granted, if someone says, "S i d is a @#$%@#" then I can tell they're being rude due to the specific insulting nature of the word(s). Otherwise, if there is any room at all for uncertainty, I try to follow the advice of Martin Luther and "put the best interpretation on everything."

I commend you for trying to make a difference! Unfortunately, I'm not overly surprised with your response rate. That mindset shift that Dave talks about is a big shift for some. Poverty thinking is a tough one to break. It's all about right now. This is why the woman bought the cheapest gelatin and the guy bought the car rims from the stories above.

Here's another thought: instead of offering this just to tenants, maybe consider offering the resource(s) at a place in your town that specializes in counseling with people who are the most in need of financial coaching, and therefore more receptive. Think of a divorced parents' group, single moms/dad, someone who has just lost the family breadwinner, etc.

@Mike

Agree, but the way it was explained to me by someone is that *a lot* of Ramsey listeners debt is like a crack pipe...they just can't handle it responsibly.

@Nicole

Rather than pay for Financial Peace, why not just buy them the book as part of your new tenant gift basket with the plunger and roll of toilet paper?

It's cleaner, easier to carry out, and may be easier to get them to read than attend a seminar.

Personally I would just bring up Dave Ramsey in conversation if the tenant was complaining to you about their debt, bills. Then you could give them a copy of his book if you wanted to. But I wouldn't assume anything about the person and give them something automatically.

I was in an ER recently at a hospital here run by Seventh Day Adventists. My treatment was fine but of course I was given literature about Jesus Christ, asked to answer questions about my faith, etc., as they do with everyone who comes in. I didn't complain about it but it seemed like crossing a line and intrusive, although it's their hospital and their right to do that if they choose.

"it was explained to me by someone is that *a lot* of Ramsey listeners debt is like a crack pipe...they just can't handle it responsibly."