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Who is Murphy, Dave Ramsey’s arch-nemesis and why is he going to move into my spare bedroom if I go into debt?

Dave is always talking about Murphy. You know the one if you listen to Dave for more than a day or two. He’s the deviant lurking around, just waiting for you to do something stupid with money, so he can move into your spare bedroom and wreak havoc on your life and sanity. Often he brings his three cousins, Broke, Desperate, and Stupid.

Hearing Dave bring up Murphy is one of my favorite parts of the show and I am sure there are lots of people that have no clue what the heck he is talking about with “Murphy”. After all, a shockingly large portion of the population doesn’t know who George Washington was or can’t locate New York on a map.

Murphy? Who is Murphy and why is he moving into my spare bedroom if I don’t have an emergency fund, or if I buy a big house I can barely afford with no money down?

Dave is referring to the old idiom, Murphy’s Law, a perceived perversity of the universe. It’s phrased a few different ways and has been called other things in the past. (Sod’s law, Finagle’s Law, Reily’s Law). Here are a few modern renditions of the “Law.”

• “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”.
• “Whatever can go wrong , and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way”
• “Anything that can go wrong, will”
• “If anything can go wrong, it will, and usually at the most inopportune moment

With finances, it is critical to keep an eye on Murphy. Murphy’s Law is not something that you want happening in your life and there are ways that you can avoid exposing yourself to these pitfalls and dangers.

Dave humanizes this concept with Murphy. Murphy sounds like a good old boy sometimes the way Dave talks about “him.” When Dave says that “Murphy will move into your spare bedroom if you do so and so”, it always brings to min the image of a creepy, dirty, nasty bum moving into your house, wreaking the place, stinking up the spare bedroom, and refusing to leave.

I like this version best as it related to Dave Ramsey, ” “if anything can go wrong, it will, and usually at the most inopportune moment.”

When you go into debt, you are creating a never-ending “inopportune time” in your life. Dave is right when he says, you are asking Murphy into your life. When you are stretched to the brink with that new house or that new car, or those mounting credit card bills, that is THE MOST INOPPORTUNE TIME for the hot water heater to explode, or the upstairs pipes burst while you are away, or the car to break down, etc.

For most normal (i.e. - broke) people, this can be a vicious cycle.

Broke —> Murphy shows up –>Use credit –> Broker –>Murphy comes back for more –>More credit –> Broker still –> Etc.

This is where Dave’s plan comes into play. Baby Step 1, the $1,000 emergency fund, is considered to be “Murphy Repellent.” With a $1,000 in the bank for emergencies, you can start to pay down debt without being at Murphy’s whim. The transmission falls out on the way to work, fix it. Pay cash, move on without going any deeper into debt. At this stage, the Murphy repellent may be used and replenished MANY times before all debt is paid off except the house. That’s OK. At this point, you are holding your own against old Murphy.

Once all debt is paid off and the regular emergency fund of 3 to 6 months is in place, Murphy has been banished from your financial life. He may show up elsewhere, but on finances, unless you do something stupid like borrowing money, you won’t have to worry about washing the sheets in the spare bedroom.

More on the story behind the REAL MURPHY next time. The real life guy behind the saying almost lived long enough to be on Dave’s show. He passed in the early 90s. Wouldn’t that have been great to see Dave interview the actual Murphy. Anyway, bookmark this site and tell your Dave-obsessed friends and family about it.