@Yankee2 wrote:I don't agree with everything Dave says, but I REALLY think the no debt approach works.
And therein is where we disagree, debt is a tool no different than a chainsaw, properly used, it can make you money, used incorrectly, it can hurt you.
@Anonymous wrote:I am a forensic pathologist and I have spoken to others in my field about Dave Ramsey, they just laugh and tell me not to listen to a word he says.
Because they're pathologists? That makes no sense.
@Anonymous wrote:Wow, I am really sorry this happened to you. Just because he was a business partner, what gave him the right to sign your name to obtain credit? I was under the impression that no one other then yourself has the right to do that. Is he sitting in jail for doing this? I hope so. No one should have the right to ruin your life even if it is temporary.
Thanks
Mark
He handled all of the books for the company and of course had all of my personal information. As I understand the chronology, he opened up three credit cards and two business lines of credit in my name back in the late 1980s and early 1990s (I assume the signatures were forged), unbeknownst to me, and used them from time to time to fund inventory and such. It never popped up on my radar as the bills were always paid and I never thought to check. Then, just prior to the recession in the late 2000s, he got the brilliant idea of starting a niche business which was "going to make us rich", and he used the credit cards and LOCs to fund the buildout of the facility and hire a marketing staff; all without doing any real due diligence on whether the new business was viable.
You can see the train-wreck fast approaching; the combination of the recession and the lack of knowledge in the business space he entered led to a cash bleed lasting almost four years, during which time the business didn't turn a single penny of income. I didn't find out what was going on until the collections calls started coming.
As for sending him to prison, I didn't bother, he spent plenty of his own money as well and was deep in his own financial crisis when I left the company and went to work for one of our clients; I've heard through the grapevine he has retired and is living off his social security, but that's pretty much all I've heard. I suppose in the long run it was a good thing; from a financial perspective, I am far better off now than if the fraud hadn't happened and I'd stayed with the company. Granted, I had to restart my saving for retirement over from scratch in my late 50s, but that too has worked out pretty well. 
