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Who was the Johnston in Lincoln’s Debt Letter? John D. Johnston was Lincoln’s Step Brother. Abe sets some boundaries.

June 1st, 2010

Dave often talks about the infamous letter that Abe Lincoln penned to a debt-beat, lazy relative who wanted to borrow $80.  If you haven’t seen the letter, written on December 24, 1858, or want to enjoy it again, it’s here.

There seems to be a lot of disinformation floating around on exactly who the “Johnston” is that Abe is writing to.  Many times, Johnston, is referred to as Lincoln’s brother in-law.  It’s easy to see how such a mistake could have been made.  Mary Todd Lincoln’s family sounds like a bad Dave Ramsey call.  It seems that Mrs. Lincoln could have used some boundaries in her family.   Johnston was, in fact, Lincoln’s step brother, John D. Johnston,  the son of Lincoln’s father’s second wife – Sally Johnston.

You can tell from the letter that Lincoln has had it with Johnston and sees that giving him $80 is not going to help him.  Dave tells folks on his show all the time that giving a drunk a drink is not helping.  Abe got this concept at least with Johnston.  Of note, the letter to Johnston was written on the the same page as a letter that Abe wrote to his father in which Lincoln gives his dad $20 to keep his land from being foreclosed on in order to payoff a judgment.  It seems that Lincoln may have had lots of boundary issues in his life, I don’t know what the story with his father is, but if he was losing his land and had judgments, he for sure was not enjoying financial peace.

It was well known that Lincoln was generous towards people that he cared for but it seems that Johnston’s past behaviors made Abe take a different approach with his brother.  In a previous letter, Johnston had stated that he was “broke” and “hard-pressed” on the family farm in Coles County, Illinois.  It seems from Lincoln’s response that this was a situation that happened frequently and Lincoln realized that just giving Johnston money was not helping him.

There may have been other reasons for not giving Johnston the money.  Dave often tells people that they are too broke to be helping someone else.  Lincoln probably didn’t care to put his own family at risk in order to help old Johnny out yet again.  I doubt that he was in a position to be doling out $80 too often.  In  1858, when Lincoln penned the famous debt letter, he was a professional politician who was very poorly compensated if at all for his efforts at getting the brand new Republican Party off of the ground.  He had just lost a race for the Senate to his arch-rival, Stephen Douglas and $80 was a LOT of money.  $80 in 1858 is the equivalent to about $1,800 in today’s money.

The New York Times, in an article dated February 11, 1917, stated that this letter “out-Franklins anything of Ben Franklin, in the matter of good advice to the unthrifty.”

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Why do you always buy too much stuff at Costco?

April 3rd, 2010

Source:  Science Explains Why You Always Buy Too Much Stuff at Costco.People don’t shop rationally. They make decisions based on an “emotional tug of war” between the pleasure and pain sensing parts of their brain.

But it’s not enough to just excite the NAcc (pleasure): retailers must also inhibit the insula (pain). This is where Costco really excels. When consumers are repeatedly assured that low prices are “guaranteed,” or told that a certain item is on sale, the insula stops worrying so much about the price tag. In fact, researchers have found that even when a store puts a promotional sticker next to the price tag⎯something like “Bargain Buy!” or “Hot Deal!”⎯but doesn’t actually reduce the price, sales of the item will still dramatically increase. These retail tactics lull our brain into buying more things, since our normal response to price tags is pacified.

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Andrew Jackson: The Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover President?

March 1st, 2010

Andrew Jackson, Dave Ramsey

In the history of the United States, Andrew Jackson is the only president to pay off the national debt. While impressive, this foray into Federal Baby Step 7 was short-lived and Uncle Sam whipped out the credit card when Murphy visited the following year in the form of a severe depression.

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Dave Ramsey – Gold is the Snuggie of Investments

February 21st, 2010

Gold is the snuggie of investments.  You buy it on midnight cable and it makes you look stupid. – Dave Ramsey

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Dave Ramsey: Hope you like the car!

February 8th, 2010

“Taking on a car payment is one of the dumbest things people do to destroy their chances of building wealth. The car payment is most folks largest payment except for their home mortgage, so it steals more money from the income than virtually anything else. USA Today notes that the average car payment is $464 over sixty-four months. Most people get See Morea car payment and keep it throughout their lives. As soon as a car is paid off, they get another payment because they “need”a new car. If you keep a $464 car payment throughout your life, which is “normal” you miss the opportunity to save that money. If you invested $464 per month from age 25 to 65, a normal working lifetime, in the average mutual fund averaging 12 percent (the seventy-year stock market average), you would have $5,458,854.45 at age sixty-five. Hope you like the car!!!!!!!”

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“Fear the Boom and Bust” Hayek vs. Keynes Rap

January 26th, 2010

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Dave Ramsey Wishing Well Plasectomy?

January 19th, 2010

Source: Failblog.org:  Some people need all the help they can get

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Credit Card Blues

January 11th, 2010

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What does Dave Ramsey think of buying gold?

January 11th, 2010

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Dave Ramsey – ‘Class of 91′ new mother of all plasectomies?

January 3rd, 2010

This one gives Tennessee Credit Card Massacre a run for it’s money as the greatest plasectomy ever …

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