DISQUS

Craig,

Just curious. Were you actively involved in a church when all this happened? If so, I'm just curious why they would let you sleep in a car? Under your circumstances, I'd be all for my church doing whatever they needed to help a fellow member.

Lots of Robinson war stories here.

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/nashville-tn/T0...

Looks like she likes cats......how nice. Rescue cats and screw over children and their dads..nice story.

http://catodyssey.blogspot.com/2007/02/court-ho...

Craig, I've never been divorced and I think I'm already more bitter about this than you!

Muriel Robinson......she's been around a long time. I can believe everything you are saying. I can remember as a small child hearing a man talk to my dad heartbroken over the little time he got to spend with his children. The judge was none other than Muriel Robinson.

She's built a reputation in Nashville as vicious towards men. She should be left unemployed.

Haven't child support laws in TN recently changed? At one time, you could make 30K a year and your wife 100K a year and if you had a child, you'd still be giving her 22% of your gross income.

But I heard that now there is some complex formula they use that takes into account the income of both parents and the time spent at each house. So if you made 100K and your wife made 70K and the child spent equal time in both homes, you'd only pay child support on the 30K difference of what you made. This sounds fair. I'm just not sure if this is how it works now or not.

Craig,

I think how you were screwed over by our court system makes a more interesting story than how you feel about Dave Ramsey that never done anything to you. I'd like to hear more about it. Where is your blog located again?

Brent

Craig,

Let it go man. Who cares anymore? Just me, you, and the occasional visitor.

I hope you and your daughter had a great Christmas.

Just curious, isn't "call a spade a spade" a racist remark? I'm not making accusations, it's just in the context I've heard it before, it isn't a very nice thing to say.

Being from the south, I've picked up a few of those sayings that I never knew were offensive. When I was 19 I was talking to a man I just met and mentioned I was trying to "jew" someone down on the price of a car. He got so mad! He started saying, I'm jewish. It never clicked for me. I'm standing there like......uh so? It took a minute for that one to sink in.

I agree Craig. Gain does not equal Godliness. Dave Ramsey's wealth is no indication of his spiritual walk.

Where I disagree is that the best indicator of his spiritual walk is for God to decide. What can I say about it? I'd have to pull the log out of my own eye before I started picking splinters out of his. (I mean that directed toward me and not you.)

How are things going for you? Have things improved? The economy is in a real mess right now! Yikes....

Oh Craig,

You and me will never agree. I'm simply of the opinion that if you earn money, you are free to do with it as you wish. At least that is what Peter said to Ananias and Saphira. Wasn't it your money to do as desired?

My point is God's people don't have to live like poor people. God has some very rich people and I don't have a judgmental or jealous spirit toward them. I'm sure I could look at most of them and find a way I would assume better to use their wealth. But for some reason, God hasn't seemed fit to bless me with millions.

Only God knows our heart. If Dave Ramsey is really the person you seem to think he is, he will certainly reap what he has sewn.

Hi Dan,

You make some good points.

But at the end of the day, it looks like we both agree that Dave Ramsey is a good guy that has helped a lot of people. If he has given the portion of his income that belongs to God to God, who are we to say what he should do with the rest? A huge castle on a hill may not be what you or I would do with the money, but for some reason God didn't see fit to give us enough money to build it anyway so it is a non-issue for us.

Do you think Job, King David, or King Solomon lived in a meager home? Do you think Christ's reward in heaven will be equal to your's or mine? Should he request something more meager?

Hi Mark,

I tried to contact you using your contact page, but your contact form isn't working.

I've ran across your name over at Garry Conn's and Josh Spaulding's blog. I'm curious if you've had any luck with your mini content sites. I put 10 of them together and didn't accomplish much. I finally decided to focus on just one, but so far, getting the site to rank for my keywords has been a frustrating process.

Just curious if you were having any better luck.

Have a good one.

Brent Crouch

Amen Craig! We just hit a subject that we both agree on.

Is the climate changing? Maybe. Maybe not.

If it is changing is it the result of man? I've seen no evidence of that. No more than the last ice age was caused by dinosaurs.

My biggest problem with this whole "green nonsense" is it is peddled by a bunch of elitist that want the rest of us to change our lives, but don't want to be bothered with it themselves.

Al Gore is a perfect example. He lives in mansions, flies private plans around the country, and then just bought a huge house boat which he named BS1.

These things are great and I have no problem with them. If a person can afford them, then I say more power to them. Just don't try and push your Green BS down my throat and tell me how to live.

The idea that churches have joined in on this nonsense is ridiculous.

Hi Craig,

I think most of what Dave teaches about investing is wrong. It's great for someone not sure where to start, but once your past the $10,000 mark, you better do your own research.

I agree with you that there are situations where Lender Paid Mortgage Insurance would make sense. The tax advantage is a plus. The only drawback is you can't cancel it when your below the 80% LTV. Your basically stuck with it for the term of your loan.

During the real estate boom, you could purchase a property with a very modest 5% down payment and with an average appreciation of 7 1/2% a year, you could drop PMI in only two years.

Dave is paid to give his opinion. Like it or not, there is no shortage of people lined up to hear it.

Hey Kev, Glad you're not going to be judging mankind in the last days. If you were, I don't guess Abraham, King David, Job, or King Solomon will make it through those pearly gates. These men were rich beyond imagination.

I love how some of you come here and admit that Dave is doing a good thing and then try and disect it until you find something you can judge as wrong.

How about casting judgment? Is that no longer a sin?

Jesus said, "How can you think of saying, 'Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye”. (Matthew 7:4-5)

Very good post ncsu95.

Hi Craig,

We agree on something! I'm looking for that decoder ring for Wilft's post. I read it from front to back about three times and didn't get one sentence of it. I'm glad to see you didn't either. I was thinking I was the only one that couldn't make sense of it.

Apology accepted. I apologize as well. We are obviously both passionate about our positions. Mix that with some testosterone and it sometimes leads to some name calling. No big deal.

One thing about it, Dave Ramsey doesn't appeal to everyone. That's obvious. But surely we can agree that the people that talk to him have at least listened to him and know what they are getting. Listen to him for 10 minutes and you know you could be treated with some "tough love" or just "toughness" when you call.

Personally, I don't have a problem with him using the name of Christ during his broadcast. Sure he isn't perfect, but neither am I. We all have failures and shortcomings. I'm just glad I don't have millions of people listening to me that can figure out what mine are.

One thing is sure, we'll all be judged and held accountable for our actions. This includes Dave Ramsey. I only know of one fit to judge any of us.

I'm really not a Dave minion. I believe he teaches a good get out of debt plan. I disagree with his investing philosophy and I don't listen to him everyday. Heck, I haven't listened to him in at least a year. It's pretty boring to me now.

I hope things improve for you. Just curious, are you / have you considered using Google Adwords to advertise your business? If not, drop me an email and I'll explain more.

Good Luck,

Brent

"Craig said - Calling my belief that it would cause me a problem stupid IS STILL AN AFFRONT TO ME. You can candy coat it all you want, Mr. Typical Southerner, but you called me stupid when you called an action of mine or an idea I hold to stupid."

You say typical southerner? Really? Are all southerners typical? Do you clients know you feel that way? Maybe that's why business is bad for you. Why don't you be up front and post who you work for. Let's get it out in the open.

"Craig said - His parents were realtors so they probably mistreated him in the same way."

So you classify realtors all in the same post as well. Are you surprised they are not bringing you any business?

"Craig said - Here’s SPECIFICALLY why I won’t post the info. It’s a subscription service and one of the points I agreed to when I subscribed is I would only use it for the specific purposes I purchased it for."

Did you purchase it to tell your clients about and post about it on blogs? How is posting the screen shot a violation of your terms but telling everyone about it isn't. Why not just go to the courthouse and get it the old fashioned way. Its public record and you can post it anywhere you want. Put up or shut up.



"Craig said - You’ve already heard from a regular listener to Davey boys show and he said HIMSELF he has a note on the building! He even did a lease option on it! That came from someone ELSE Brent, someone who regularly listens to Daveys show. NOT FROM ME! Second witness to the fact…Mr. Dave defender."

Who cares if he does! You stated you don't even care. If Dave is really admitting to it on the air, then why are you bringing it up like it is some secret?


"Craig said - I do have a problem with him being so adamant against ARM’s and then having one on the very building he peddles his plagiarized truffle from."

I've personally financed three commercial loans in my life. Have you every found a commercial loan that lasted beyond 5 years? If so, there is your niche. I'd love to lock my commercial properties in at these rates for the next 30 years, but that just doesn't happen.


"Craig said - Let me ask you something…could you really picture Jesus owning that building?"

No. I think Jesus will have a much larger building / mansion. I think that building is more King David / Solomon style.


"Craig said - Would he have a sign out front with his name plastered on it in 6 different ways?"

Haven't seen that one. I guess it could be called advertising. You should try it. It might be good for business.

"Craig said - And Brent..if you want to imply that I don’t love and take care of my family, like you did in the last sentence of your post…give me an address and say it to my face. You typical phony southern lap dog."

What I implied was, "why not use this energy to improve your situation as your family will be the beneficiares.

Are you threatening me with physical harm? Is that what Jesus would do? Would you let your church friends here you talk like that? Do your church friends know you think of them all as typical southerners or do you attend a church full of transplanted yankees?

"Craig said - You know Brent…the last desperate action of a defeated man is a personal attack."

I'll be making $200K this year. I'm not defeated nor desperate. How about you?

"Craig said - Dave Ramsey is ONLY important to DAVE RAMSEY and his minions! Outside of Nashville and Ramseyland, he is NOBODY!"

Someone call Oprah quick. She probably didn't know that. You should probably tell Fox News as well.

One thing is strange. Wonder why they play him on 300 radio stations just for the Nashville market? I didn't know Nashville had that many stations?

See ya later little yankee doodle dandy man...

"My argument was with Brent, who insisted that Dave doesn’t have a note on the building."

I don't recall insisting Dave didn't have a mortgage on the building. I recall asking you to prove it.

Your idea that you could get into trouble for posting a public document is stupid. (not calling you stupid) Don't you think you put yourself in a worse position by continuing to slander Dave's name with no proof?

If there was a mortgage on that business in Dave's name, it'd be national news. You aren't the only person his teachings and recommendations has put out of business. There's a whole line of people that would like to find that type of information.

At the end of the day, I think you are a great writer that lacks enough reasoning power to write factual stories. You should stick with fiction. Your pretty good at it.

For me, I'll say it again. I'm no Ramsey follower. Unlike you, I haven't listened to him in months maybe even a year. I disagree with him on a few points of investing, but still think he provides some excellent guidance for those neck deep in debt.

So you can call the man a hypocrite all you want. I wonder how you view yourself? When I visit your personal blog, I see you portraying one image to all your church friends that take time to comment. Then you come here and the transformation occurs.

Good luck to you Craig. Hopefully you can channel this nonsense and hatred into something more beneficial to your family.

So you take your toys and play somewhere else. That's what people do when they make baseless allegations they can't prove and have lost the argument.

Pastor friend of Dave from Christ Church? Could that be Stan M.?

Craig, you talk a lot about Dave being a hypocrite, have you compared your writing here to your writing at your personal blog? It sounds like to different people. And why would it be wrong for Dave to give his sometimes "harsh and to the point opinion" to someone that called and asked for it, but it isn't wrong for you to give your "harsh and to the point opinion" towards Dave that didn't ask you for it.

I wonder if you had a problem when Jesus was "harsh" and whipped the merchants and overturned tables in the temple? Maybe he wasn't being Christ like.

From your personal writings, it is clear you are going through a tough time. I can only imagine how tough it was to compete in the mortgage business in Nashville when you have Dave Ramsey and Church Hill mortgage. I can understand your anger and frustration, but what you are doing here is not productive. If you wouldn't act this way and say these things to your friends at Church then why say them here?

As far as the mortgage on Financial Peace Plaza, if you had that information, I have no doubt you would have forwarded it to some news agency by now. If you have truly seen it who is the building deeded to? Dave personally, Lampo Group, Church Hill Mtg?

As far as lien information being available online, you are mistaken or are being misleading. I've been investing in property in Middle TN for some time now and have never been able to pull up lien info. You can get property records at this link http://www.assessment.state.tn.us/ but none of these counties have ever offered lien info online.

I hope things get better for you.

Craig what's the deal man? You come here tossing around accusations and make a total rear end of yourself.

Then I find your personal blog and find a very good writer and family man that is going through a tough time. The difference between your writing here and there is night and day. What's up with that?

And yeah, I believe he paid cash for that 3 million dollar business. Have you visited the court house to prove otherwise or is it just more baseless accusations?

Craig,

You gave yourself away on that last post bud. You hate Dave because his advice has hurt your business. Makes sense now.

You can't push people into more house than they can afford anymore. Nobody cares about your "sell your own home plan". Church Hill Mortgage is killing you in Nashville. It's tough to make a living even with a premed biology degree. Makes sense now.

I'm far from a Dave Ramsey Kool Aid Drinker. I disagree with Dave's advice on investing, credit cards, and several other things to name a few. I disagree with his opinions on things, but I don't call his character into question.

As far as pawn shops, it's been a year since I listened, but I have heard him many times say a pawn shop is for buying and not selling.

Either way, you aren't worth arguing with. Your issues with Dave are clear now. Maybe you should have pursued that medical degree. I'm sorry it's been so tough for you to compete in the mortgage business.

@Craig - I live in Nashville too. It sounds like you have ran into an entire multitude of people that think Dave is arrogant. I'd love to meet a few of them.

I wonder if you ever ran into the little ole' lady that met Dave before he was on the radio. She met him because he bought her house after it was foreclosed on. Turned out, her drug addicted daughter has illegally mortgaged the house to buy drugs.

When Dave found out, he paid the legal bills to straighten the mess up, gave the lady her house back, and took care of her the rest of her life.

As far as recommending his listeners use a Realtor, do you think the average person can price, market, and sell their home? I don't. Realtors go to school for a reason. Would you fault him for advising his listeners to use a doctor rather than trying to practice medicine themselves?

For every ten people I have heard him call stupid...and I have, I've heard another 50 that he hasn't. People are different and have to be approached from different angles. Some people are stupid and need to be told so. Otherwise, they'd keep down the same destructive path they were on.

I believe the Dave Ramsey plan is by far the best. A few years ago, I had a potential customer contact me about a product I was selling. It was clear she was looking for a "Get Rich Quick - Save All" deal and that wasn't what I was offering. She was very forthcoming and told me she was on the verge of bankruptcy. I couldn't in good conscious sell her a product knowing she was in a very tight spot and I wasn't offering the "fix all method" she was looking for. Instead, I offered to send her a free copy of one of Dave Ramsey's books titled "Financial Peace Revisited" provided she promised to read it. She agreed and I sent the book.

We spoke a few times by email and eventually lost touch. Almost 6 months later, I got this email from her that I have hanging on my office wall today.


Hi, Brent!

It's been quite a while now, but I wanted to give you an update. I can't even begin to thank you enough for sending me the book Financial Peace Revisited . It has absolutely changed our lives! After reading it, I got really pumped and then became one of those spouses that constantly yaps, "Well, Dave says..." :)

Although there is not a local radio station where I live that carries Dave's program, I download it every night onto my ipod and listen when I'm out for my morning walk/run at 5:30 am. I know... kinda nerdy... but it definitely keeps me motivated! My parents bought us tickets for his live event in Dallas for my birthday. That was just this past Saturday. My husband and I had an absolute blast!!! He is an awesome speaker! Afterward, he did a book signing, so I got his signature as well as my pic taken with him!

My husband and I have also just started Financial Peace University at a local church. We've only been to two classes, but we are really excited about it. Since you sent me the book, we are on a budget... I've tweaked it a lot over the last few months. We have knocked out about $5,000 in debt and by the end of April we should have hopefully another $5,000 or so knocked out. I'm amazed at how much more money we "found" when we started "spending every dollar on purpose."

I just wanted to tell you how awesome I think you are... I can never ever ever truly express my appreciation and gratitude... your act of kindness has changed my life. My marriage will benefit and our kids will absolutely 100% benefit. Thank you thank you thank you from the very bottom of my heart!

God Bless!!!

Kristine Jxxxxxxxx


So for every person you find that he called stupid, I bet I can find 50 like Kristine.

Amen Brother. I learned this lesson a few years ago. Initially, I thought it best to go over and beyond to make myself available to customers and would even allow my cell phone number to be given out. I had a few "tire kickers" that went over and beyond in abusing it. I was getting called all hours of the night and weekend. I don't believe one of the guys that abused it ever spent a penny with me.

I have a real problem with the government taking money out of my check to give to someone that made a bad choice and bought more house than they can afford. I also have a problem with my tax dollars being used to bail out billion dollar corporations.

There is a thing called personal choice and people should be responsible for it.

"Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else"

Isn't this phrase pretty straight forward? Dave's program teaches people to sacrifice in order to reach their financial goals. For a guy making $100,000 a year, it is a sacrifice to deliver pizzas on the weekend. It's the carrot in front of the donkey. It's setting goals and sacrificing to achieve them. That's it. Nothing wrong with that.

Some of you have a bigger problem with "being wealthy" than you do with Dave Ramsey. If you make money legally and morally and give God what is required, what business is it of mine what you do with your money? You can buy an entire fleet of SUVs if you want. Anyone think King David or Job lived poor?

It also amazing to hear those saying, "If I had money or if I was debt free, I'd do this and that." Really? If you were going to be such a good steward of those resources then I wonder why God hasn't seen fit to bless you or trust you with those things thus far?

When many of us pray the Lord's prayer, "lead me not into temptation" , we just prayed ourselves out of money. God Bless those that are able to handle the responsibility of wealth. Most of us.....not so much.