Personal finance books are popular, and because of this, the market is saturated. Therefore, Dave Ramsey tries to make The Total Money Makeover stand out from the crowd. In general, his remarks on the personal finance genre are somewhat deterring. His claim is that while many books in the genre are dazzlingly complex but uninspiring, The Total Money Makeover is plain and unoriginal in its content but inspiring in its message. He situates his book against the rest of the personal finance genre in several places. For example, in the first chapter, he says:

If you are looking for something easy or fast, you have the wrong book. If you are looking for a book to help you pass your CPA exam in the area of financial knowledge, you have the wrong book. If you are looking for a writer who has intricate academic theories (that don’t work in the real world), you’ve got the wrong guy (4-5).

Ramsey explains that his book isn’t a compendium of financial tricks or an aspiring scholarly assessment of investing, debt, or the economy. In plainer words, The Total Money Makeover is not just information, but transformation.