The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

What does Dave Ramsey’s choice to begin his discussion of the 2008 Great Recession in Preface 2, “Flying Turkeys and Skinny Dipping,” with an allusion to the fairy tale of the three little pigs reveal about his authorial objectives and methods? How does this set up the literary devices he uses throughout the book?

The personal testimonies and financial forms included in The Total Money Makeover are distributed throughout the book, frequently interrupting chapters mid-discussion. They are not neatly packed at the ends of chapters or in their own section. Does this arrangement choice have thematic significance? Does it change readers’ experience? If so, how?

Ramsey admits that just about everything he says in The Total Money Makeover derives from what he has taught for years on his radio program. How is Ramsey’s writing style also molded by his experience with the genre of radio? Use examples from the text in your response.

“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else” (78) is Ramsey’s motto for the Total Money Makeover plan and it appears frequently throughout the book. Why does Ramsey invent a motto for his readers? How does the motto highlight Ramsey’s beliefs about financial success?

Ramsey believes the ideas in his book are simple, but metaphors are often used to make complex ideas more accessible. Are Ramsey’s metaphors therefore unnecessary distractions? Are the ideas in The Total Money Makeover more difficult or complex that Ramsey wants them to seem? Why or why not?

Why does Ramsey choose to label what he believes are false ideas about debt and financial success as “myths”? Ramsey writes that myths take hold through mere repetition, yet he also admits that he makes the same points over and over. Do these kinds of repetition differ in any way, and if so, how? Use examples from the text to support your response.

Compare and contrast The Total Money Makeover to a classic personal financial book, such as The Millionaire Next Door (1996) or Think and Grow Rich (1937). How do the approaches differ, and how are they the same? Does Ramsey add anything new to the idea of the average person achieving wealth?

In the Introduction, Ramsey claims that he doesn’t intend to answer his critics, yet he frequently does so: Every time he busts a myth, he implicitly silences a critic, for example. Why does Ramsey take this rhetorical stance if it produces an apparent contradiction?