Dave Ramsey Says Gen Z and Millennials’ Feelings About the Economy ‘Aren’t Facts.’ They Could Have Doubled Their Money in the S&P 500
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Americans keep hearing that the economy is doing well, yet plenty of people look at their bank accounts and feel like they missed the good part.
Personal finance personality Dave Ramsey says younger generations may have a reason for feeling squeezed, although he believes their monthly debt payments explain a big part of the disconnect.
Ramsey was asked in a recent interview with Fox News why people remain uneasy about their finances while the stock market continues hitting record highs. “The problem is feelings aren’t facts,” Ramsey said. “They create facts in our head, but they are not facts.”
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Ramsey pointed to the enormous amount Americans owe on cars, credit cards and student loans. He argued that Gen Z and millennials have been hit especially hard because so much of their income is already committed before they have a chance to save or invest.
“They are jammed up in their budget regardless of what the S&P 500 is doing,” Ramsey told Fox News. “They don’t have good feelings right now because Citibank has stolen all their stinking money with what’s in their wallet.”
He then pointed to what younger Americans could have gained from the stock market during the past several years.
“The market is up 13% year to date. That’s awesome,” Ramsey said. “If you had money in S&P, your money would have doubled in the last four years, but no, we are not participating in any of that because all we are doing is paying payments.”
Ramsey connected that same debt burden to another major frustration for younger Americans: buying a home. “The truth is a lot of people feel boxed out of the housing market right now,” he said. Yet people are carrying roughly $1 trillion in auto debt, $1 trillion in credit card debt and close to $2 trillion in student loans, he added, asking, “Guess who’s carrying that? These last two generations.”
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Ramsey’s larger argument was that income becomes a powerful wealth-building tool once fewer dollars are tied up in monthly debt payments. Investing can then become part of the budget instead of something people hope to start someday.
