‘You don’t need savings’: Grant Cardone blasts Dave Ramsey’s ‘save your money’ advice — says ‘real estate is a much safer investment.’ A head-to-head look at their polar money tips

“People save their money because Dave Ramsey said: 'Save your money, save your money, you need three months of savings,’” says Cardone. “No! What you need is cash flow forever. Because if you have cash flow, you don't need savings.

“Savings are spin. Cash flow can be used.”

Whatever your preferred personal finance celebrity touts, there’s an argument in favor of both saving your money and generating cash flow. Here's how to figure out which approach makes the most sense for you.

Cardone loves cash flow

Cardone believes the U.S. is in the grips of a financial crisis — evidenced by the three major bank failures in the spring.

He claims that other regional banks are “in trouble as well” and that if any of the big five super banks were to fail — JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp — “they would drag the entire planet down with them.”

Facing such doom and gloom, Cardone believes he’s financially secure as long as he has cash flow from income-producing properties — and that income exceeds his property expenses and debt.

“Cash flow is the king, the queen and the entire court,” according to Cardone. “It is the holy grail because cash flow allows you to weather storms and problems.

“During COVID I had cash flow. During 2008-09 … when property values plummeted 30% and 40%, I still had cash flow.”

Cardone argues “real estate is a much safer investment than having money at a bank” — an opinion no doubt inflamed by the downfalls of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March.

Read more: Owning real estate for passive income is one of the biggest myths in investing — but here's how you can actually make it work

How they compare on real estate investing

While Ramsey encourages investing your income for retirement, compared to Cardone, he’s far less bullish on real estate.

Unlike the big, bold claims often made by Cardone, Ramsey’s approach to building wealth focuses more on digging yourself out of debt and avoiding adding to it again through his seven small “baby steps”” program.

But Ramsey’s not just naturally more conservative with his investing approach — his teachings are based on hard lessons from his own life. In his 20s, he built a multimillion-dollar fortune flipping houses but lost it all when banks started calling in his debts — to the extent that he declared bankruptcy in 1988. And unfortunately, his experience isn’t all that unusual among investors looking to make a quick buck from house-flipping.

“I love real estate,” Ramsey said. “It does give you a better rate of return that other investments don’t have, but when I hear someone say passive income and real estate in the same sentence, it means they’ve been on get-rich-quick websites.”

Cardone does touch on some of these issues in his discussion with Moneywise, explaining that he offsets his risk by ensuring he has time and won’t ever over-leverage himself on investments.