'There is no special sauce': This bit of 'slimy' financial advice on Instagram made Dave Ramsey's blood boil — here's what it is and he wants you to do instead

“You need to take a shower after watching that,” a visibly upset Ramsey said after watching the video while hosting an episode of The Ramsey Show.

In the clip, a father-daughter duo discuss how they qualified for a car loan at 3.5% interest instead of paying cash so that the cash could be invested in an Airbnb earning 14%. Effectively, the duo claimed, the net return was 11% from this convoluted strategy they called “arbitrage.”

Ramsey wasn’t impressed, and called out “slimy” users on social media for giving their followers bad advice.

'Slimy' social media

Ramsey’s daughter Rachel Cruze, who co-hosted the episode, was equally puzzled by the video. Specifically, she called out the duo for claiming an Airbnb unit could be bought for $11,000.

“You can’t buy a property with $11,000,” says Ramsey. “You could invest in it with a bunch of partners, but that’s assuming the property remains rented and the local council doesn’t pass a law against Airbnbs, in which case, your little butt would be broke.”

(The hosts were slightly mistaken on the dollar figure: the amount of investment cash discussed in the video clip is $7,000, not $11,000, but Ramsey’s point — that no rental property could be purchased outright for that amount — holds.)

Ramsey claims social media users like this are not measuring risk adequately and that’s probably misleading for viewers. He contrasts his own experience as a financial influencer with a radio show and podcast with millions of followers.

“The difference is the advice [we’re] giving is not so bad. We’re not as slimy or condescending,” he said.

He highlights this difference by giving genuinely useful advice to finish the segment.