Damn, dude got hella culty. I used to listen to him all the time, even as a JW despite the fact that his Bible thumping made me uncomfortable since he was a false christian according to my own cult. Honestly, I do owe a lot to him financially because his unwavering culty rigid black and white beliefs did truly help me to break some bad habits learned from growing up in an environment with zero financial intelligence. My wife and I are debt free. Ultimately it came from following what he said, though the reality is that we did it our own way within those confines, so to speak.
Anyway, after leaving the JWs I tried listening to him a few times for entertainment purposes. I used to like the stories and such. But I couldn't do it. He was so rigid and it was quite triggering to listen to him. I still recommend his original Financial Peace book or whatever to people at times because it was solid financial advice, but it was never "The one and only Truth" as he basically sold it. I also had issues with some of the ELP services that he recommended and wondered why he would never promote things like low cost index funds for retirement, instead sending people to brokers as he made wild claims about hyperbolic returns on investments while receiving payment for promoting people.
I learned a lot listening to him. But I could always tell that he was super controlling. He got really into the personal lives of his employees and would go over their budgets and interview people extensively before hiring them, even interviewing their spouse. He would talk about how involved he was in the lives of his adult children and it was quite boundary-less for a guy that always had Dr. Henry Cloud on talking about boundaries.
I'll still recommend his financial principles and baby steps, but yeah, the dude is controlling as can be, and I thought he might have mellowed a bit. Sounds like he may have doubled down instead. Yikes.
Thanks for posting that. It was an interesting read and confirmed so much that I had thought might be the case as I read it. I can see every bit of that happening after listening to him for years.
