Normal Is Comfortable, but Comfort Doesn’t Build Wealth

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ramsey Show – "Normal Is Comfortable, but Comfort Doesn’t Build Wealth"

Release Date: March 31, 2025

In this insightful episode of The Ramsey Show, host Dave Ramsey and co-host Jade Warshaw delve into the crucial distinction between comfort and wealth-building. The episode emphasizes that while the status quo may feel secure, stepping out of one's financial comfort zone is essential for creating lasting wealth. Throughout the hour, Ramsey and his team address various callers grappling with debt, budgeting, and financial planning, offering actionable advice rooted in Ramsey’s renowned financial principles.

Caller 1: Vinnie's Struggle with Business and Personal Debt

Timestamp: 00:14 – 08:38

Vinnie from Connecticut calls in seeking guidance on managing his business and personal debt. He owns a landscaping and construction business but is burdened with approximately $95,000 in debt. Despite good sales, his profits are siphoned off by credit card payments, leaving him frustrated and unable to see tangible growth.

Key Discussion Points:

• Debt Prioritization: Ramsey advises Vinnie to prioritize eliminating unnecessary debt before pursuing new financial goals, such as buying a house. “Bad news. You're not going to buy a house next year because you're going to be getting out of debt. You can't do both of these things.” (00:53)
• Avoiding Panic Purchases: Vinnie’s impulsive purchase of a second truck without proper budgeting exacerbates his debt. Ramsey strongly recommends selling the unnecessary truck to reduce debt by a third. “Sell it. Yeah, let's get rid of that debt. That gets rid of a third of your debt, dude.” (03:43)
• Income vs. Expenses: Emphasizing the importance of increasing income and controlling expenses, Ramsey suggests Vinnie consider side gigs or intensifying his current business efforts to stabilize finances. “You've got to get some income coming in to offset this because it takes more than $40,000 a year to eat in Connecticut.” (06:08)

Caller 2: Matthew's Wedding Budget Dilemma

Timestamp: 11:01 – 19:00

Matthew from Austin seeks advice on managing his upcoming wedding budget and how to approach his parents for financial contributions. Engaged for a year, Matthew and his fiancée aim to celebrate their union without incurring excessive debt.

Key Discussion Points:

• Budget Clarity: Jade suggests having separate conversations with each set of parents to establish clear financial contributions without forcing them into joint discussions. “If I were in your shoes, I would have...you just have to get clarity on the timeline.” (12:26)
• Setting Realistic Expectations: Ramsey highlights the importance of adhering to budgeting principles, recommending that wedding costs should not exceed 50% of household income. “The average wedding in America today is a little over $30,000...maximum wedding budget would be 50% of your household income.” (17:30)
• Avoiding Emotional Spending: Emphasizing the need for emotional detachment from purchasing decisions, Ramsey advises controlling expenditures and sticking to the planned budget to ensure financial stability post-wedding.

Caller 3: Rita's Debt and Retirement Concerns

Timestamp: 21:02 – 29:22

Rita, a 63-year-old high school teacher from Phoenix, shares her and her husband’s extensive debt, including $44,000 in credit card debt and $200,000 in student loans, with no retirement savings aside from their home.

Key Discussion Points:

• Open Communication: Ramsey stresses the necessity for Rita to communicate openly with her husband about their financial predicament. “You have to be on the same page.” (23:10)
• Debt Reduction Strategies: Suggested actions include selling unnecessary assets like Rita’s husband’s truck and aggressively paying down debt using available resources. “Sell it. You got to sell that today.” (23:25)
• Long-Term Financial Planning: Jade recommends establishing a realistic budget and creating a comprehensive plan to manage and eliminate debt, ensuring a secure retirement.

Caller 4: Nora's Frustration with Gerber Life Insurance

Timestamp: 32:25 – 38:00

Nora from Wisconsin expresses her disappointment with Gerber Life Insurance after her mother’s policy did not yield the expected benefits for her adult son. She aims to avoid such pitfalls in the future.

Key Discussion Points:

• Avoiding Poor Insurance Products: Ramsey and Jade critique the misleading nature of certain life insurance policies, particularly those marketed to children. Ramsey states, “Gerber life insurance is probably one of the worst ones out there.” (32:28)
• Understanding Insurance Value: They explain that many life insurance products do not provide substantial returns and advocate for investing in more reliable financial instruments. “Life insurance... has a cash value buildup, has a savings program in it. 100% of the time is a bad product.” (36:12)
• Educating Consumers: Ramsey urges listeners to thoroughly research and understand insurance products before committing, emphasizing the importance of making informed financial decisions.

Success Story: Drew’s Journey to Millionaire Status

Timestamp: 51:32 – 60:49

Drew from Fort Worth shares his success story, having reached a net worth of $2 million by following Ramsey’s Baby Steps framework.

Key Discussion Points:

• Adherence to Baby Steps: Drew credits his disciplined approach to budgeting, debt elimination, and investing as the foundation of his financial success. “Dream big but act small... the budget keeps us on pace with what those small decisions are.” (55:23)
• Compound Interest: Ramsey highlights the power of compound interest in building wealth over time, reinforcing its importance in Drew’s financial growth. “The power of compound interest will make you wealthy.” (59:43)
• Balanced Financial Portfolio: Drew outlines his diversified assets, including real estate, retirement accounts, and college savings, demonstrating a well-rounded financial strategy. “We hit our first million just before we turn 40 and then seven years later... it doubles again.” (52:09)
• Resilience Through Economic Fluctuations: Despite facing job layoffs, Drew remained financially stable due to his emergency funds and consistent budgeting. “Through the entire time, we weren't stressed. We knew we had the emergency fund, we knew we had our budgeting.” (57:11)

Success Story: Josh and Rebecca Achieve Debt-Free Living

Timestamp: 64:00 – 72:09

Josh and Rebecca from Raleigh, North Carolina, celebrate their achievement of paying off $203,400 in debt within 63 months. Their story underscores the effectiveness of living within means and adhering to Ramsey's financial principles.

Key Discussion Points:

• Family Financial Education: Raised with strong financial principles, Josh and Rebecca benefited from generational wisdom on budgeting, saving, and investing. “They modeled giving, they modeled investing, they modeled living on less than you make.” (65:11)
• Intentional Financial Planning: Their deliberate approach to budgeting and debt repayment enabled rapid financial freedom, allowing them to invest in assets like houses and savings simultaneously. “A four-year degree didn’t stop us from getting our house paid off and building a net worth.” (66:22)
• Emotional Investment in Financial Goals: Josh emphasizes the importance of emotional commitment to financial goals, likening it to nurturing roots for lasting change. “Once you become emotionally invested in something... it causes life change.” (69:23)
• Facing Setbacks with Confidence: Even after a recent car loss, their financial stability allowed them to handle unexpected expenses without derailing their progress. “We were able to handle the stress that came without any payments remaining.” (68:35)

Caller 5: Mike’s Accidental Business and Future Steps

Timestamp: 72:56 – 79:51

Mike from Idaho shares his experience of unintentionally starting a successful photography business while teaching, seeking advice on transitioning from a hobby to a sustained business model.

Key Discussion Points:

• Business Structuring: Ramsey advises Mike to distinguish between personal and business finances by opening a separate checking account and managing finances as a sole proprietorship. “You just need to make a decision... You would open it under what's called a sole proprietorship.” (76:03)
• Tax Management: Emphasizes the importance of setting aside funds for taxes and understanding the financial implications of business income versus donations. “Set aside a fourth of that. And you file quarterly estimates on your income taxes for your taxable profit.” (76:44)
• Scaling Responsibly: Encourages thoughtful scaling of the business by balancing generosity with financial responsibility to ensure long-term sustainability. “You need to take some of this to put towards getting out of debt.” (79:11)
• Passion and Business Growth: Highlights that Mike’s passion for photography and dedication to his craft are key drivers behind his business’s success. “Having a passion for it, having a love for it, because people can sense that.” (79:35)

Caller 6: Anthony’s Young Age and Aspiration to Buy a Home

Timestamp: 79:51 – 80:35

Anthony from Cleveland, at 20 years old, seeks advice on buying a home with a limited income of $30,000.

Key Discussion Points:

• Timing of Major Purchases: Ramsey advises against purchasing a home at a young age with insufficient income, recommending focusing on building financial stability first. “I wouldn’t buy a house. You're 20 and you don't make a lot of money.” (80:02)
• Budgeting and Debt Management: Emphasizes the importance of eliminating high-interest debt before attempting significant investments like homeownership. “When you owe more than half your annual income on a car, the car owns you.” (80:58)
• Career and Income Growth: Encourages Anthony to prioritize career advancement and income growth to enhance future purchasing power and financial security. “Start stacking cash. Go make some money.” (80:35)

Conclusion: The Path to Wealth Through Discipline and Strategy

Timestamp: 60:49 – 80:35

Throughout the episode, Dave Ramsey reiterates the core principles of financial freedom: disciplined budgeting, prioritizing debt elimination, and strategic investing. He underscores that wealth is not a product of inheritance but of intentional financial decisions and resilience. Notable segments include Ramsey’s emphasis on compound interest and the importance of emotional investment in financial goals, as illustrated by Drew’s and Josh & Rebecca’s success stories.

Notable Quotes:

• “Normal is comfortable, but comfort doesn’t build wealth.” (Intro)
• “Debt is not your answer.” (03:59)
• “Dream big but act small.” (55:23)
• “You become what you think about.” (69:56)

The episode serves as a comprehensive guide for listeners seeking to transform their financial lives, offering real-life examples, expert advice, and practical steps to achieve debt-free living and wealth accumulation.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Jade Washaw Ramsey Personal is my co host today. Open phones here at 888, 825-5225. The call is free and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Vinnie starts this hour in New York City. Hi, Vinnie, how are you?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Hey, how are you? Pretty good.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. How can we help?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

So I looking to get advice. I have a small business. I have about $95,000 in debt in our business and we make good money in sales. But every time I feel like I make money, all my profit just goes to my credit cards and I never see anything. And it's just very frustrating because I make two steps forward, one step back, if that makes sense. So I'm trying to see what I can do to get my debt down. I also have a small, small debt in my personal because I'm also looking. I want to buy a house next year as well. So that's what I need help with.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, well, bad news. You're not going to buy a house next year because you're going to be getting out of debt. You can't do both of these things. So you finance the start of your business on credit cards?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

No, no. So we've been in business.

[Dave Ramsey]

You said you had business debt and then you said credit cards were taking all your money. That's where I got that.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Well, so we have business debt because we purchased. I meant some, you know, terrible financial decisions as far as buying a truck at the wrong time, purchasing a newer truck instead of an older truck. And one of the, one of the biggest. I'm sorry.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, go ahead, keep going.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

One of the biggest deaths is in February. I had to spend 30,000 on a pickup truck because in February I had an accident and I had a clean snow and I had no choice but to purchase another truck to, you know, complete the snow for the commercial properties.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you didn't have insurance?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

I have insurance. They fixed my other truck, but now I have two trucks when I didn't even budget for that or plan for that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Are you still, are you still actively taking out debt or have you decided I'm done? Like, have you changed your philosophy around debt?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Yeah, right now I'm, I'm done. I. Right now I try to make the lowest amount of expenses. Like I, for instance, I don't even go out to dinner anymore. I try Cook, you know, let's go.

[Dave Ramsey]

Back to the business. Let's go back to the business a second. In your business, what do you do? What is your business?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

We do landscaping and construction.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right, and now you have two trucks, and you only need one.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Yeah, exactly. Pretty much, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Not pretty much. Absolutely. You were doing it on one, and then you stupidly went and bought another one to plow three streets while the other one was being fixed. Okay, so how much do you owe on the stupid truck?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

30,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, sell it.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Sell it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, let's get rid of that debt. That gets rid of a third of your debt, dude.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you didn't need it, Right. You panicked.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Right?

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, next time you panic, debt is not your answer. That's what she meant by, are you through with debt? Every time you have a problem in business, if you go borrow money, you'll be out of business in about 20 minutes.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

All right?

[Dave Ramsey]

That's the path you're on. Okay, and how much credit card debt have you got?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

I have six. I have about another 30.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, and what's the other 30?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

So I have. It's a couple credit cards. I have one credit card at 16.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

And then I have another credit card that is six. And then I have another one that's about eight.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. That's 30. And 30 on a truck. But you told me 95. So what's the other 35?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

So the other 35 is. I have my. The first truck I have. I still owe 15,000 on that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

And then I owe my dad 12,500.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right, good. Okay. So. And what did you. What was your profit in the year 2024? Net profit that you paid taxes on?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Net profit was around 40,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. And you live in New York City?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

In Connecticut. It's worse. I live in their city. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Extremely expensive. You know you're not making any money, right? You're starving to death.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, if you had a job making 40,000 and no debt, you. We would tell you, look for a job. So is this. Is the business growing?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

The business is growing. You know, last year in sales in 24, we did around 200,000, and 23 did 100. So definitely is growing.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, well, if you can double it again, you can get there. Right. So if you sold. If you sold the truck and doubled it again and lived on beans and rice at home, you can plow your way through this. No pun intended.

[Jade Warshaw]

Are you single?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

I am, yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And if you're not working on your construction stuff, you're working, doing something else. You work all the time. You're broke. So pick up. Pick up a side gig working for somebody else. If you can't, stay busy working with your construction, landscaping stuff. Okay, so that's the trick, man. I mean, you've got to get some income coming in to offset this because it takes more than $40,000 a year to eat in Connecticut.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so there's nothing left. That's why it feels like the credit cards are killing you. However, it's actually the stupid second truck that's killing you.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

How many employees have you got?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

I have four employees.

[Dave Ramsey]

Full time?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. You gotta get more work in there. You got four people working, creating 200 grand. You got to get more work going. You got to get this to 400 grand to make these numbers work. But it sounds like you're on that track. That's a positive part of the story. The business is actually growing. If you can maintain your margins by carefully managing the business and managing the accounting of the business. And quit borrowing money every time something goes sideways. Like you borrow money from your dad, you borrow money on a credit card, you borrow money to buy a truck, you borrow money to buy another truck. It's got to stop. You're killing yourself. So if you stop that, what Jade said is exactly right. You stop that and you divorce yourself from debt. Is my provider to. I am my provider. I am going to get up, leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home to the tune of 400 grand. Cause, see, you'd go to 80 if you kept your margins. You go to 80. No. Yeah, yeah, you'd go to 80 if YOU made 40 on 200, you'd go to 80 on 400. Yeah. And so keep your margins right there. And at 80, you live on 40. And you sell the truck, you're almost out of debt. Sell the $30,000 truck. You got 60 left. You throw 40 at the 60, you're almost out of debt in a year. But that's kicking it, man. And it's all going to debt. No lifestyle, no weekends. I don't want to hear about happy hour. Happy hour is. I'm happy. I'm working more. Okay? That's where you are right now. That's the business you got to get in, is making money and throwing it all at the debt and then reverse the stupidity. I've done dumber things than you've done, Vinnie. But. But you're right. I mean, you got a couple things on the dumb list there. So you got some Stupid tax being paid. You don't spend $30,000 to plow four driveways. Nope, not on this planet. You give them work to one of your buddies and you pay him to do it. That's got a snow plow until. Because your truck's in the shop.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you just miss that breadth of revenue right now, that kind of stuff. Instead of buying a $30,000 truck. No more panicking. And even if you do panic, debt is not going to answer it. This is the Ramsey show.

[Advertisement Speaker]

Hey guys. I'm super excited to announce that two of the goats of sticking to a budget have finally teamed up. That's right. Ramsay and Aldi are partnering together because, well, groceries cost a lot of money and besides that, most stores are designed to trap you. And a maze, a sad, expensive maze. But Aldi is different. Aldi gives you simpler, better food choices that save you money and get you in and out so you can focus on what really matters. From affordable high quality must haves to grass fed meat, organic produce, and yes, even name brands, Aldi has what you need at prices that won't steal your joy. So stop paying more and start shopping smarter at Aldi. Find a store near you today at Aldi US That's a L D I US.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you're a business owner or you know one, you know one thing about business, it's hard. You go to work for yourself, find out you work for a jerk. Yeah, when you work for yourself, that guy's a slave driver. He will drive you into the dirt, man, and just crack the old whip, you know, Hey, I know this. And this is why we've been. I mean, I know this from running our business and from coaching now about 10,000 businesses through entree leadership. That's why we wrote the new book Build a Business yous Love. Where we unpack the proven step by step method to go through the five stages of business. It's hard, but it's easier if you know where you're going. And so today's the last day to get access to the ebook. Two weeks early, pre order before midnight and you'll get early access to the ebook. If you order the book in advance, it comes out in two weeks. Then you're gonna get the ebook today. If you do it, you get the ebook early, you get early access to it, you get the entree leadership hiring playbook and you get the enhanced audiobook. All of this is about $300, $350 worth of bonus items. But you pre order to get that the book date is actually, April 15th, so pre [e-mail] store. Matthew is in Austin, Texas. Hey, Matthew. What's up?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Hey, Mr. Ramsey. Hey, Jay. Thank you for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. How can we help?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Well, my fiance and I are getting married in October.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Budget. Yes. It's exciting. So I've been using y'all's resources online, so I have a good picture of, you know, how to set the budget. But my question today is how do we approach and ask our parents how much, if any, they're willing to contribute to this wedding?

[Jade Warshaw]

Ah. How long have you been engaged?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

We got engaged in February.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so they know what's. They know what's coming up. Has. Have they said to you, hey, we have some money set aside?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Not specifically her parents. We kind of, you know, started the planning process, and both her and our parents were kind of like, don't assume like you're on your own.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

They.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Her parents offered to pay for her dress.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, great.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

And seem like they want to help with the venue.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

My parents, they haven't told me specifically, you know, amounts or what specific expenses they would want to.

[Dave Ramsey]

So how old are you?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

The same thing. I'm 23. And she is going to be 22 in about two weeks.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So if I were in your shoes, and I was in your shoes when I got married, I would have. I would go to my parents and say, here's the date. You said that you were going to help with the rehearsal dinner. What does that look like? And what does that mean for you? Here's.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm trying to lay out the budget. Help me plug into it.

[Jade Warshaw]

What you want me to plug into it, and. And then she goes to her parents. That way, if there's any feelings, like they don't have to deal with having some expectation from the in law, if that makes sense.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. It'd be fine if you went with her to her parents, but don't talk.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

And it'd be fine if she goes with you, your parents, but she shuts up.

[Jade Warshaw]

Uhhuh. But it's not something where it's like we're inviting both of our parents to dinner and we're figuring this out because I feel like there could be a level of pressure.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, I wouldn't put them together. No.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, definitely not definitely.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's a nightmare right there. Well, actually, you could get them if they're competitive. No, I'm kidding.

[Jade Warshaw]

Into a bidding war. A bidding war. I love her parents.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, no. I just. I. I would just Say Mom, Dad, I need clarification.

[Jade Warshaw]

Uhhuh.

[Dave Ramsey]

Just cuz I'm guessing the way you phrase these sentences that between you and your fiance, you would be the nerd, she would be the free spirit. Does that sound right?

[Caller (Vinnie)]

100%.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're the detailer. It's easy if you just say to your mom and dad, hey, you know how I'm detailed and you know how I'm nerd out about this stuff. It'll help me a lot to feel, to have peace about the planning if I just know what to plug in here. You just tell us what you want to plug in and I need to know, I need to know. And then she can say the same thing to her parents and say, you know, Matthew's a big planner and it just helps us to have peace and less stress, less anxiety if we know the amount.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. And not only the amount, but you know how these things are. People need deposits and they need, they need the money well before the fact. So make sure that you also reiterate that because you need to understand if it's going to be a situation where you're fronting the money and then they're giving it to you as a gift on the back end or if they have the money today. Right. To put those deposits. So just make sure you get clarity on the timeline and make sure they know, hey, if you said that you're paying for the venue, I'm just letting you know that they need a deposit in the next three weeks here that way because sometimes they're not, they're not thinking of it in the same way that you're thinking of it, they're thinking of it October. Right. And so just, just that clarification is going to help everybody.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but I think it's in person, calm, you don't have an attitude or a voice tone of entitlement or expectation. It's simply a question of clarification.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Yes sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's all you're looking for.

[Caller (Vinnie)]

Honestly, we could, we, I ran the numbers, we can cash flow this ourselves.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's not the issue. The issue is we need clarification of what you're not cash flowing because you're going to put together a budget.

[Jade Warshaw]

Unless. Right, unless. Let me throw this out there. If you have some indicator and you didn't say it, but if you have some indicator that taking this gift comes with something and you don't want the something that it comes with. Yeah. Then you do have the ability.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you take the venue I want.

[Jade Warshaw]

Or if you invite all my Friends or if you, you know, that sort of thing. If you don't want that and you can cash flow, that's also fine. It's up to you and your wife to be.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, we, we took the more back in the day, the bride's parents paid for stuff, paid for the wedding. Okay. So we took the more traditional approach with Rachel and Denise and sat down. We proactive the other way, sat down with their fiances, Winston and Bill and said, okay, here's the amount at the top line. Now you guys have got to figure out how to buy everything within that number. And here's some budget items you need to look at. Okay. Reception's the most expensive thing. Dress is not. Flowers can be. If you lose your freaking mind and so on. So you're going to discover this as you actually start putting the thing together. And so you do a line by line by line itemized budget for the wedding. A zero based budget. Just like if you're spending every dollar on paper before the month begins. It's project management. It's a project. It just has a lot of emotions and usually involved are a couple of human projects, but you know, and people's definition of word.

[Jade Warshaw]

Let me just say people's definitions of words are different and it's worth always clarifying because I know with my wedding, my parents said, we'll pay for the venue. In their mind, that was the backyard. They said, we'll pay for the food. And they thought that was barbecue. You know what I'm saying?

[Dave Ramsey]

Like, so we're going to stop by the barbecue trailer.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's like on Father of the Bride, Steve Martin and Jesus chickens. Yeah. So you have to make sure. Hey, this is what I have in mind. What do you have in mind? Definitions matter.

[Dave Ramsey]

Our girls grew up on Father of the Bride. So we had Frank.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh yeah. Frank.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's so funny.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that was just, it was classic. And we're like, yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

And you're writing the check just like.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm not dealing with Frank. You're dealing with him. Here's one check. You're done. It's going into the wedding account. Got your names on it. It's a gift. I'm done. I'm not going to tell you. You have to do anything except don't come back to me for more.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's it. That's all you get.

[Dave Ramsey]

And if you spend less than that, you got a down payment for a house.

[Jade Warshaw]

There you have it.

[Dave Ramsey]

You can do that. None of them did. Yeah, they just, they just. We just had a Huge party. And it was wonderful.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

I love a big party, especially if you can afford it, you know, so that's the thing. So a good rule of thumb too, guys, the average wedding in America today is a little over $30,000, okay? That's an average, which means up to half of them are less and up to half of them are more. The average household income in America is about 70,000. So maximum wedding budget would be 50% of your household income. If you are paying for it all, and for that matter, moms and dads, if you're providing it for the bride of your. For your daughter, who's the bride, it would still be the maximum of half your annual income. And you're paying cash.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's a good parameter.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And so other than that, you know, is it too much like, I went to a guy's wedding, his kid's wedding was like. I mean, they dropped like a hundred grand on this thing. It was a. It was a parte.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's a parte.

[Dave Ramsey]

It was serious. But, you know, he makes about several tens of millions of dollars a year. So it really was a nothing expenditure for him. But it was way different than the typical thing. And I'm kind of walking around going, you just burned all this in one day. But for him, it was like buying a biscuit.

[Jade Warshaw]

There you go.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not. It's a ratio thing. So that's the trick. Look at the ratios. I mean, if you make $40,000 a year and you want to spend $40,000 on a wedding, the answer is no. A stupid. You're out of control. You are going to be in the backyard with the barbecue just telling you so.

[Jade Warshaw]

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, nothing wrong with it at all. Just make sure we have clarification. That's all we want. That was a good point. Really good point. This is the Ramsey Show. Let's be honest. Shopping for health insurance can be confusing with high costs, complicated terms, and customer service that doesn't really serve you. Most folks just pick a plan and hope for the best. See, insurance companies don't work for you. They work for themselves. Meaning they love it when you overpay. So you need a guide on your team to help you make the best choices. Health Trust Financial works for you. They're not salespeople. They help you find the health insurance option that makes sense and saves you money. The fact is, health insurance is one of the biggest expenses in your budget. But most people who work with Health Trust Financial end up saving $500 a month. Imagine putting that kind of money toward the baby steps. My team has worked with them for over 20 years, and they've served thousands of people just like you. They're the only health insurance broker that's Ramsey trusted to help you. So stop throwing money away and get the health insurance that's right for you at Health Trust Financial. That's Health Trust financial dot com. Thanks for joining us, America. If you want to help us out, click the subscribe. The follow button helps a bunch with the algorithms and the stuff on the Internet that leads you, your friends, to watch this show that didn't even know it was here before. But you helped by subscribing, following, leaving that nice five star review. Mama said, if you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all. Yeah. So move on, troll. But other than that. Yeah. I mean, the rest of you, you're loving this. Thank you. It's very helpful to us. Very helpful. We appreciate it. Rita is with us in Phoenix. Hi, Rita. How are you?

[Caller (Rita)]

Hi, Rita. Hi, Rita. Hi, Dave. I'm sorry. I'm nervous.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's okay. We're good. How can we help?

[Caller (Rita)]

Thank you. Well, I'm 63. My husband is 60. We've been married 36 years, and most of our marriage has been full of debt. Right now we have about 44,000 in credit card debt. We have an $800 truck payment, 200,000 between the two of us in student loans. And I just feel we have no retirement whatsoever except our home, you know?

[Dave Ramsey]

And so help me with how you have 200,000 in student loans at 64 years old.

[Caller (Rita)]

Oh, we're late bloomers.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Who's the doctor?

[Caller (Rita)]

I know my husband felt the need to go and get two master's degrees. He's a teacher, and I'm a teacher. And so we. We got a late start, probably in our mid-50s. And I taught, you know, I'm teaching. Wonderful.

[Dave Ramsey]

So one of them was not in math.

[Caller (Rita)]

No, I know. No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow.

[Jade Warshaw]

So what are your incomes between the two of you with these degrees and these careers?

[Caller (Rita)]

So between the both of us, I added it up. Take home only is $5,635 a month.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, wait a minute.

[Dave Ramsey]

You make 60,000. You make $30,000 a piece. And he has two master's degrees?

[Caller (Rita)]

Well, yes, in teaching. It helped him make more money, but our debt just seems to.

[Caller (Matthew)]

No, no, no, no, no, no.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wait a minute. You don't make anything. Teachers that have two master's degrees should each be making 60. What are you doing? Are y'all working in a preschool?

[Caller (Rita)]

No, he's teaching high school, and I'm teaching middle school.

[Jade Warshaw]

So that was your take home? What is it before that? Are you taking a bunch out of your check?

[Caller (Rita)]

Oh, well, for the credit card debt. I don't even know how much it's taking out of that.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's doing it automatically.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, you're paying the truck payment and the credit card debt, and you're putting money in retirement and you got all this.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you're getting a tax refund, too, probably.

[Caller (Rita)]

Right?

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so you might be making 120. So what do you owe on the truck?

[Caller (Rita)]

Oh, goodness, about 34,000. Which. About what it's worth.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, yeah. Sell that today.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sell it.

[Caller (Rita)]

That's the problem. I don't think my husband's willing to sell it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Then I don't think I can help you.

[Jade Warshaw]

Does he know that you have. Does he. Does he feel that you guys have a financial problem?

[Dave Ramsey]

I've.

[Caller (Rita)]

I've kind of hidden it from him. So that's my fault. That's my fault.

[Jade Warshaw]

So if you. If you told him today, hey, we have 44,000 in credit card debt and 200,000 in student loans, that would be a light bulb moment for him. He doesn't know that it would.

[Caller (Rita)]

And if I may let.

[Dave Ramsey]

He picked up the truck. He drives it. He didn't think that Santa Claus brought it. And he picked up the two master's degrees. He didn't think Santa Claus brought those.

[Caller (Rita)]

Very true.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, he may not know the exact numbers, but he knows he has made a mess, and he knows it.

[Caller (Rita)]

And I feel like I've allowed him to because when his dad died, he gave him $100,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

But listen, you're both. You're both complicit because you're married, right? You're both in on this. It's just the level. Whatever the level of denial is or the level of. You know what I'm saying? So you're both in on it. You know, we can go back and forth on who. Who did what and who knows what, but you're both in on it. So I would.

[Dave Ramsey]

Both of you are required to fix it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

And if he does not want to buckle down and clean up the mess that, by and large, he is responsible for. It was his choice to buy a truck. It was his choice to go to school and get degrees that have not monetized. These were his choices. And so now, at 60 years old, he gets to be a man and own his Choices and go. My family is in jeopardy. I've got to sell my truck. Your family is in jeopardy. He has to sell his truck. By the way, this is not an option.

[Caller (Rita)]

This is why he won't sell his truck. Because when his father died, he inherited a cabin in Colorado that's free and clear. It's worth about $500,000. And so he doesn't want to sell the cabin because it's emotional. You know, his dad memory is tied to it.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's that got to do with the truck?

[Caller (Rita)]

Yeah, you're right. You're right.

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean, you linked it. I'm asking that as a real question. Is there a link or.

[Caller (Rita)]

Oh, he feels that once we sell the cabin someday that he'll be able to pay the truck off and.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, you got a choice. Friday, one of them goes up for sale. You decide.

[Caller (Rita)]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

It sounded like the cabin had way more sentimental value. When I look at this, I go, okay, the truck, you're not even upside down. You get rid of that today. Do you have any money saved anywhere? Liquid?

[Caller (Rita)]

We have. We have $30,000 in our checking account, but I don't. I don't want to pay anything off with that because that's my security nest over the summer when he doesn't get paid.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Oh, you're. But you guys make enough throughout the year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Work in the summer, and I don't.

[Caller (Rita)]

Know where it goes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, work in the summer when you don't get paid. That's what other teachers do.

[Jade Warshaw]

Two homeworks. First homework is you got to have a budget. If you don't know where your money. When you said that, I said, okay, they don't have a budget. There's no plan for the money. So you're downloading every dollar tonight. Second homework is when you go to open up every dollar tonight because you've already downloaded it, you sit with your husband and say, we have a crisis, and I don't know if you know it, but here's what it is. And you start laying out those numbers and say, I have a solution, and you've got to open up the lines of communication. Tonight.

[Dave Ramsey]

There's a couple of things we can do. We can either sell your truck and buckle down and get on beans and rice and both take extra jobs, or we can talk about selling the cabin. Now. We cannot stay on the trajectory, making the stupid butt decisions we've been making for the last decade and have anything but Alpo for retirement. You've got to say this out loud.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, you do.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, I'm scared for you, honey. I want you to go win, but I'm scared for you because every time we bring up something, there's a reason to not do it. You've got about five things you've been doing wrong. You got to reverse all of those in dramatic fashion and then slam on the accelerator in the other direction. Okay, number one, you're not disclosing and working together on every detail of your budget and your future. You're treating him like he's a little boy and his feelings are hurt when his daddy died and so he can't make a grown man decision. Sorry. You get to be a man when you're 60. No way around it. You got to deal with it. Okay, number one, so you got to be on the budget. You got to be on the same page. Number two, you guys are going to have to chop something with a freaking machete because you have a mess, because you've been spending money like you're in Congress around there, and you've got to stop it. You've got to chop some stuff. And this car is one of them. But the car really points to the cabin. If I woke up in your shoes and I was him and I had to come Jesus meeting and I decided I was going to be a grown man, the decision I made to go get two master's degrees that I couldn't afford to do was the day I made the decision to sell the daddy's cabin. You didn't mean to sue it, but that's the day. That's exactly what happened. You lost the cabin when you went and got two master's degrees that didn't monetize. That's what you did. You traded the two because it's a balance sheet thing. Over here you got a $500,000 asset. Over here, you got $200,000 debt. And the sooner you fix that, the sooner you can get in gear and start saving and actually retire and not eat Alpo.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right. And, Rita, you need to run actual numbers. Because what's going to make this compelling, not just to you, but to your husband, is to say, hey, here's what we have. You know, teachers they set aside, you know, you have to pay into the pension. Here's what we have. If we continue to go at this rate, here's what our retirement will look like dollar wise, here's what we'll be bringing in, and that's going to shed some light when we compare that with what we owe on our mortgage and what we have to like real Numbers are going to make this a very compelling argument for you guys to do what Dave said and go in the opposite direction.

[Dave Ramsey]

So 36 years you've been taking care of him and now it's time for him to step up and say, I'm gonna be a man and we're gonna make grown up decisions together because we have made a mess. By and large. He has made a mess. That's what it is. You're trying to take care of him. You're trying for him not to have any hurt feelings, toughies. You signed up for this trip. He did. And he gets to take it. I'm sorry. This is the Ramsey Show. Statistics show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all. I don't understand this, John. Why don't people want to take care of their family? They think they're not going to die or something.

[Caller (Nora)]

Well, I used to be one of those guys. I didn't even think about it. And one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids. And I immediately went and got term life insurance.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's a gut punch.

[Caller (Nora)]

For decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse, they've lost somebody important to them.

[Dave Ramsey]

Me too.

[Caller (Nora)]

They don't know what to do next.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're going to have a crisis here. You know, you got two options. While you're sitting and talking to a young widow, she's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow.

[Caller (Nora)]

That's exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

These are the two options. It's saying I love you to your family. Term life insurance Jeff Zander and the team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years. They're the only people I trust. Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282. The Ramsey Show Question of the day is brought to you by why refi are defaulted private student loans keeping you up at night? Will Rirefi can help you lower your payments and your interest rate get you out of default. Visit yrefi.com ramsey and start resting easier. That's the letter Y r e f y.com Ramsey might not be in all states.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right. Today's question comes from Nora in Wisconsin. He says, my mother purchased a Gerber life insurance policy for my son and daughter when they were babies. My mom has since passed away. So I called before my son's 18th birthday to inquire about cashing out. The representative said if we wait until he turns 21, it would be worth 30,000. Fast forward. And my son is now 21. So I called again to inquire about my son cashing out so he could use the 30,000 for house down payment. This time, a representative informed me that he had an upon death policy, and he can only cash out for the money that's been paid in, which is 2,200, not 30,000. Needless to say, I am in the process of closing the accounts for both of my kids. I will still give them the amounts their policies are worth. But what a letdown. Tell people to avoid this trap at all costs. And we do. We do tell people to avoid these traps. Gerber life insurance is probably one of the worst ones out there.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's humorous. It's so bad.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's really bad.

[Dave Ramsey]

Life insurance. This. His sweet mom, who's passed, bought life insurance from a baby food company.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, just think about that. When you say it out loud, it tells you there's a problem, right?

[Jade Warshaw]

Absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

So, yeah. What a rip. And then they lied to him, too, which absolutely they do. I mean, they just lie, all these people in this business. Because what the guy meant to say was, he forgot to say it correctly, was that the death benefit would go up at 21 because he becomes an adult. But the death benefit is not worth anywhere near what they paid for it. The poor lady, if she had put that money. Oh, she did. She put it in a fruit jar.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, she put it in a cookie jar and it laid there for 21 years, and you got your money back with absolutely no interest. And so what that means is that it should have been close to $20,000 if it was in a. Just a. Maybe a decent mutual fund. Not even a good one. Yeah, you would have had. Oh, my gosh.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. That's painful.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And, you know, here's the sad thing, too. That sweet Nora, his mother that passed away, I think that was her name, right? Did he call her that?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, the mom's name was Nora.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, Sweet Nora thought she was doing something sweet for her grandbabies, which every grandparent wants to do. And these freaking people at Gerber completely predatorily fed on her grandmotherly love and ripped her off.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, when you're in.

[Dave Ramsey]

If I remember, I hope I wasn't unclear about how I feel about this.

[Jade Warshaw]

When you're in the delivery room, of all the papers that they give to you, they give you the Gerber life insurance policy in. In the room when you're having the baby.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, we ought to just talk to some hospitals about how they're. That's malpractice.

[Jade Warshaw]

It is. I remember saying that. I thought, man, it's great to want to invest for your kids and invest for the future, but they give you the worst possible thing if they. I would rather them give you a paper that says, hey, from here on out, if you just put $100 a month when your kid is, you know, 30, you know, they'll have almost $400,000. Like anything. I don't care. You could put it in an index fund and have that. Do you see what I'm saying?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, you fall off. No, Nora, who asked the question? I'm sorry. It was not the mother, Nora. My mother. She said.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that, Nora. Okay? Just now look down at the email and saw it, but. So aggravating.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, it is.

[Dave Ramsey]

But it's kind of like this, guys. Look, if you people call and ask us about, like, reverse mortgages, okay, where do you hear about reverse mortgages? Now think with me. Okay? The advertisement before the reverse mortgage is a walk in bathtub. The advertisement after the reverse mortgage is a Snuggie. This is where you're picking up your financial products. I mean, right there. This. And who's advertising it? Actors that are done. Actors that are way done. I mean, when you reach the end of your career that the agent calls and says you can do a reverse mortgage commercial and you go, yeah, baby, sign me up. We know where your career is, okay?

[Jade Warshaw]

It's gone down the tubes.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's in the. It's in the Snuggie toilet. That's what I'm saying. But yeah, it's the same thing. Guys, just think about where you're learning about this. Here's another one. Okay, let's just think about this, okay? How many cash advance places do you see in the rich end of town?

[Jade Warshaw]

They're not there, Dave.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, there's a clue, right? How many title pawn places do you see in the rich end of town? Okay, there's a clue, right? Think about this.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Did you know that something like 78% of the lotto tickets are sold in the poor zip codes in town? And have you listened to the lotto commercials? They're not appealing to the highest common denominator of humanity, pretty much Darryl and his other brother Darrell are their target market. I mean, think about it, guys.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

These are people that can't afford to go to Vegas and lose money. Okay? So you take some clues from the proximity of the marketing on this and it will help you, too. I'm sorry you got ripped off. Nora and I thank you for giving us the opportunity to completely trash Gerber again. We do it pretty regularly, but whole life. Life insurance. Insurance that has a cash value. Insurance insurance has a cash value buildup, has a savings program in it. 100% of the time is a bad product. There's not a good one. There's some that stink less than others. But that's true of humans. Okay, so it's just. It's just both of them stink. They all bad. Do your investing. Not with an insurance company. And by the way, with investing, even.

[Jade Warshaw]

If she had had the 30,000, that's still a crappy rate of return.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now that would be, you know, it's only what, a 22?

[Jade Warshaw]

It's like 100 bucks a year until 21.

[Dave Ramsey]

100 bucks a year, that would have been. Yeah, that would have come out probably about 30k, but about 25k probably. But anyway, it's not putting a lot in 100 bucks a year, not a month. Yeah, so. But yeah, still.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not. It is $8.33 a month, so. You put that in the calculator.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I was thinking a month. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

But anyway, the. Wow. Ouch. I'm sorry. I hate that. So what do you do if you have kids? Well, they might get juvenile diabetes and be uninsurable when they're older. Yeah, they might. You know what the percentage is on that? Almost zero.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. So let's talk about.

[Dave Ramsey]

They might get childhood cancer too, and be uninsurable. But you know what the probabilities are on that? Almost zero. Okay. Percentage wise. And so you don't buy life insurance on someone whose income you aren't trying to replace. And children do not have an income from a financial perspective, they're a liability, not an asset. They're not creating money, they're drinking it. And so, you know, all. And eating it and whatever and all that. So. But. And that's fine. We're not mad at the kids. Send them to the salt mines. No, that wasn't what I said. No, what I said was, is they're wonderful, perfect little things that are to be taken care of. And it costs money. They don't make money. So you don't insure something that doesn't make money. It's that simple. And yeah, yeah, I, I like the.

[Jade Warshaw]

Way to think of it is if, if somebody's dependent on your income, that's.

[Dave Ramsey]

That'S when you get life insurance.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you get insurance only do your investments somewhere else.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

A hundred percent of the time.

[Jade Warshaw]

So we may as well go through it. So if you're working, if you're the working adult for me, 10 to 12 times my income on you. Right, on me. And then if you have a spouse that stays at home, what do you say? Like four times the amount or up to.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, what I always just say is, let's say Sharon was a full time mom. If she had passed away when I had little kids at home, I would have had to hire Mary Poppins.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right. And that's a lot of money, Mary Poppins.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean we're talking cook food, do homework, drive kids around, all that. In Today's world, that's 50 grand.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. That's a huge amount of money.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you need 5, 600 grand on a stay at home mom because that's the economic value that she brings to the table in that example. So. But if you're, if you're working and you make 100,000 bucks, you need a million two.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, definitely.

[Dave Ramsey]

And a million two invested at, you know, 10, 12% will replace the 100K without touching the million two. It'll create 100K a year in income for the remaining spouse.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right. And our friends at Zander are the ones you want to go to to get that locked in and in place. Really today, don't wait on that. Insurance is not a baby step. Life insurance is not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good point. George brought that up recently. Yeah, very good. This is the Ramsay show. Let me tell you the God's gonna cut you. It's Holy Week in Jerusalem. Crowds welcome Jesus as king. Rebellion is in the air.

[Jade Warshaw]

Jesus operates outside our jurisdiction.

[Dave Ramsey]

Rome will descend on us all. But instead of taking the throne, Jesus turns the tables.

[Jade Warshaw]

My house shall be called the house of prayer.

[Caller (Matthew)]

But you make it a den of thieves.

[Caller (Nora)]

The world will never be the same.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now in theaters, the chosen Last supper. Get your tickets now live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth, do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. Jade Washall Ramsey personality number one best selling author is my co host today. The phone number here is, 482-55225. Thomas is in Honolulu. Hi Thomas, how are you?

[Caller (Matthew)]

Hi hi, Mr. Ramsey and Ms. Washa. So I'm currently unemployed. I recently got terminated from construction services company Hilti North America. Also have had some extensive experience in sales and customer service. Some operational stuff is why recently, last year actually, I graduated the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a Bachelor of science in biology degree. 25 years old. Got roughly 13. Around $13,000 in savings. Right now I just paid off my rent for the upcoming month. I'm actually just not sure where to go from here. I've been applying some sales positions and some operations positions, but haven't been getting as much interviews, whatnot.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why'd you get fired, Thomas?

[Caller (Matthew)]

Yes. So my, my previous position, they said it was due to negligence. Actually, I so locked up the store in my role at Hilti was part of the account manager development program. Basically we would run the store, do send out, send out packages, receive packages, inventory, sales and whatnot. But the store is the role. And then we've always had issues with the door to go in and out. Some people, they've gotten locked out. We had to call locksmith, whatnot. But one evening after I locked up, an hour after it, after I left, the door popped open and then I got told it was negligence. I didn't secure the entrance. But I do think that they were kind of hoping to kind of cut me because the previous two employees in my position, they got terminated. And the last one before that, you just quit without any two weeks notice. I think they're trying to maybe get like a fresh start there or something.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so you've been applying for sales positions. Is it that you're not. Are you even getting in the room for an interview or you're not even receiving interview callbacks?

[Caller (Matthew)]

So I've had some sparse. I've had two interviews so far, executive role and then a project management role. But it seems for me, I. I realize with my age and then.

[Jade Warshaw]

How old are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

What not.

[Caller (Matthew)]

I'm 25 years old.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's wrong with that?

[Caller (Matthew)]

I put a lot of. I feel like over here anyways, a lot of the applicants, they seem to be a little older. So I kind of put a lot of pressure on it. And I feel like I'm not performing as well as I maybe should be.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's possible, yeah. I'll tell you right now, I think you might do well with some coaching or you might do well with a little bit of help in that area. Are you limited to Honolulu or are you looking elsewhere as well?

[Caller (Matthew)]

I am, yes. So I am open to moving to the Mainland. But right now, with. With my current living situation, it's just me, my younger brother, actually.

[Dave Ramsey]

Have you got some kind of a. A limitation or a slight disability or anything you're facing?

[Caller (Matthew)]

No. No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right, good. Okay. You just sound really, really nervous on the air, which can. That would. I would be nervous too, if I wasn't used to being on the radio or on the podcast. So I understand that, but I'm just trying to check and see what's going on because your voice cadence, it sounds like you're scared to death. And maybe that's all it is. Okay, that's fair. I'm picking on you. I'm just trying to find out what you're dealing with, why you're not landing these positions. Okay. I would. If I'm in your shoes, I want to step back two or three steps from this and say, okay, where do I want to be when I'm 30? Where do I want to be when I'm 40? What do I want to be doing and what are the steps to get there and why do I want to be doing that? And it's not necessarily go back to school, but it sounds like a lot of your jobs, you just fell backward into them. Just whatever landed at your feet, you took it because you were hungry and you wanted to eat, by the way. That's not a bad thing as a temporary measure. Take a job so you can eat. That's an okay thing. But I doubt when you were getting a four year degree in biology, your dream was to manage the warehouse and try to lock the door that's broken. No, that was not. Like you weren't sitting around dreaming of doing that when you're 25 years old. So you fell backward into that job is what I'm saying. It just came at your feet and you took it. Some of the sales things you took, it's the first, first thing that came up. You may or may not like sales. You may or may not be good at sales. I don't know. But it feels like that just whatever rolls in front of you, you pick it up and go with it. And again to eat. You do a lot of things on the short term, but I want you to start doing some thought about where I want to be five years from now and 15 years from now. And I'm going to send you Ken Coleman's book, Find the work you're wired to do. It has the get clear assessment built into it. It's my gift to you. And then I'm also going to send you his book, the proximity principle. The get clear assessment takes about 20 minutes to take and it will point out to you what some of your strengths are, your passions are, and it'll help you point in a direction that is a good long term career path, not just a job because you got to get out of the business long term of a job. Short term, take a job, take three jobs, I don't care. Short term is anything. Go make some money. Right. But long term, I don't want to be stuck in something where their biggest crisis of the week is a door that won't lock. Oh my God, really? Let's move on. Thank God you got fired. And so you get to go do something with your life that matters now. And yeah, so I'm going to lean into that and I may take some jobs while I'm working towards my career. But get in an apprentice program, it could be something in the trades, you could go that way, could be something in technology, it could go that way. It could be you wake up that biology itch and scratch it that was there. I don't know. But I'll send you those two books as my gift. Thomas. So while you're looking for a job, I also want you working on your career.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes. And do your best to prep for these interviews as best as you can. You know, role play these interviews. Go over these interview questions and get good at really being prepared to for them so that you can answer them like in a concise way and really get across if the place you want.

[Dave Ramsey]

To say, if the place is open to the public, go walk it.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And feel the air.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And get on their website and read everything about them. Read the history of the founder of the organization. If you're going to go to work for Amazon, know about Bezos, know how he started in his garage, know all that. If you're going to go to work for Dell, know he started in his garage. Right. And so you know. And so what does Michael Dell do? How's he think? Because that does run down through that organization even to this day.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's so true. Yeah. Preparation, remember this. Preparation is a gift you give yourself. That's some of the best advice I've ever gotten. And in an interview situation, it's very well.

[Dave Ramsey]

And what'll happen happen is you'll chill out and then your vocal cords will sound confident, not freaked out.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And that'll help you with that whole process. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Jade Warshaw]

Hey, what's up guys? It's Jade Warshaw. And look, if there's anybody who knows student loan debt is a problem, it's me. My husband and I had $280,000 of it, but we were able to dig ourselves out. And you can too. If your student loan payment and interest rate are burying you, refinancing could be the solution. Now, I recommend contacting my friends at Laurel Road today through their online application. You can get an initial rate quote in less than five minutes. And if you have a more complex situation, you can schedule 30 minutes to talk to an actual human being. Thank goodness Laurel Road makes it simple. There are no fees involved and you could save thousands over the life of your loan. Remember, you should only refinance if it makes sense in your situation. So if you're looking for a low rate or a shorter term so that you can pay off these student loans fast, talk to my friends at Laurel Road about their competitive interest rates and how you could actually get a lower rate by signing up for autopay. Listen, nobody's coming to save you from student loan debt. If you want them gone, you can't mess around. Go to LaurelRoad.com Ramsey to find out more about student loan refinancing. Again, that's LaurelRoad.com Ramsey. Laurel Road is a brand of Key Bank National Association. All credit products are subject to credit approval.

[Advertisement Speaker]

Listen, I know a lot of you would rather watch paint dry in slow motion than file your taxes. But thankfully, you don't have to dread filing when you've got Ramsey Smart Tax. It comes packed with everything you need to file online before the big deadline. That means all major federal forms and deductions are covered with no hidden fees. Plus, with Ramsey Smart Tax, you can save up to 70% compared to other tax software out there, it's a no brainer. Just go to ramseysolutions.com smarttax and see how simple tax filing can be. That's ramseysolutions.com smarttax.

[Dave Ramsey]

Jade Washall Ramsey personalities. My co host Drew's in Fort Worth, Texas. Hey Drew. How are you?

[Caller (Drew)]

Any better, I'd be you, Dave.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's cute. How can I help?

[Caller (Drew)]

Oh, well, I was calling in to let you know I'm a millionaire thanks to you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Baby steps, millionaire. What's your net worth?

[Caller (Drew)]

So right now we're sitting just at $2 million. What's interesting about it is we hit our first million just before we turn 40 and then seven years later, we just turned 47. And like you say, it doubles every seven years. We just hit $2 million.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow.

[Dave Ramsey]

I love it. Give me a little breakdown on the mix. How much of that's real estate retirement and so on?

[Caller (Drew)]

Yeah, so we recently hit a million dollars in our retirement thanks to the guidance of your smartvestor pros. So a big shout out to Chris and Tyler out there. It was awesome when we saw that seven figures on there, I'll tell you. That was so inspiring and exciting. That's sweet. We also have about 750 in our home equity, another 150k in our college savings, and then the remaining hundreds in like cash and cars and things like that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Got it. Well done, sir. Well done. How much of this did you inherit?

[Caller (Drew)]

Well, interesting enough. So my grandmother passed away about seven years ago and she gave the grandkids just $1,000 with a message of saying, hey, live life, you know, have great experiences. And today would have been her 106th birthday. So this is an experience that I'll never forget.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow. How fun is that? Very cool. Good for her. That's great, man. That's amazing. So. So she was like 99?

[Caller (Drew)]

Yep, 99 and a halfway. She was the matriarch of our family and my daughter is named after her. She's the fifth Adelaide, named after her.

[Dave Ramsey]

Grandmother, Adelaide V. That's sweet.

[Jade Warshaw]

So what was your income during this time? Highest to lowest or lowest to highest?

[Caller (Drew)]

So our adult income, you know, range from 45k to 220 is about what we make right now. But I'd say probably since we started the baby step process, you know, 15 years ago, it's probably averaged about 160 to 170.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you all do?

[Caller (Drew)]

I am in medical device sales leadership and my wife is the CEO of this household.

[Jade Warshaw]

Love that. Love that.

[Dave Ramsey]

I love it. Very cool. And so you got a four year degree?

[Caller (Drew)]

Yes, I graduated in three and a half years from Miami University in just business marketing.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, very good. All right, good. Marketing degree. And of course you're in sales now. That's good. What was your gpa?

[Caller (Drew)]

So I'm sure you could relate to this. I graduated with a 3.07. I was dying to get that 3.1 look at you, but unfortunately fell a little short.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, you were over three, so that's the one that killed me. Good for you, man. Excellent, excellent. What do you drive?

[Caller (Drew)]

So in Texas, you're required to have either a pickup or a Jeep, so I went with a 2018 Jeep Wrangler Sport.

[Jade Warshaw]

Love it. I love that you went with the Jeep. That would have been my choice too.

[Dave Ramsey]

I like it. What about your wife?

[Caller (Drew)]

Well, we just upgraded her car. She had been driving. Our last, the last thing we ever took debt out was in 2009 when we bought her a traverse. But now, living here in Texas, you wanted a convertible, so we upgraded to a 219 Buick Cascada convertible.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, that's fun.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's nice.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's very cool. That's my two million dollar net worth car.

[Caller (Drew)]

Yeah. Living the dream.

[Dave Ramsey]

I like it. Put the top down. I like it. Good job, y'all.

[Jade Warshaw]

So what I have a question. What role did budgeting play in this?

[Caller (Drew)]

Oh, it's, it's, it played everything. I mean I tell all the people because we do financial peace and lead that we're going through. We're leading a class, right. And I tell everyone when you start, it's amazing, you immediately get a raise. The advice I give people all the time is dream big but act small. So like, yeah, my wife and I, we always have these conversations about, you know, what we want our future to look like. And it's just exciting to kind of see, like what goals are we gonna have? What do we wanna do? It keeps us motivated. But dreams, you know, without actions, just a wish. So, you know, if we, if we want to do these small things. Your future is determined based on these small little decisions every single day. And the budget, you know, keeps us on pace with, with what those small decisions are so that we could reach those goals.

[Jade Warshaw]

You're right. Yeah. The budget's the map to get you to all your money goals. That's so important. Very cool.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's a good, that's good advice that I was going to ask you. What you tell the youngsters and that's younger than you. You're a youngster, but younger than you, you're a young millionaire. Young two millionaire for sure. Very well done, dude. Well done. Proud of you. How's it feel?

[Caller (Drew)]

It's, it's so freeing. I mean the journey were $2 million. But to be, you know, completely honest and stuff, it isn't such a, it's not always a smooth ride, right? No, the last year, I mean, I've gone through a couple different layoffs in medical device. Sometimes you have that with startup companies or different things. There's been some layoffs. And through the entire time, like we weren't stressed. We knew we had the emergency fund, we knew we had our budgeting, we knew we had all this stuff in there. And we're just constantly at peace, you know, with where we're at today and where we're going to be tomorrow.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's great. Well done, sir. Very proud of you. Thanks for calling in and sharing your dream with us. Because you're living it. You are living the dream. I like it. I like it. So what do you say? Dream big, act small?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I would say if you're gonna dream big, you better work big.

[Jade Warshaw]

Gotta work big.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because if you don't work big, it's not coming. The work goes with it. Because otherwise you get called a dreamer, which is a negative thing. Right. You don't want your daughter dating a dreamer. They'll live in your basement. So now we want people that get stuff done, that leave the cave, kill something and drag it home. Obviously, Drew is one of those, you know, Jade, I think I'm just visualizing out of the 30 or 40 million people that are gonna consume this particular moment on this show, that there's a couple things Drew's family understood that the typical person walking around doesn't understand. Number one, 89% of America's millionaires are first generation rich. They did not become millionaires because of an inheritance. That is good news for all of us who didn't have a rich uncle or rich parents. All we've got to do is leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home. And you remember a couple of principles. Principle number one is the power of compound interest will make you wealthy. And that's what happened to Drew. It's also making him double wealthy fast. So what that means is $100 a month invested from age 25 to age 65 is 1,176,000. So you're a millionaire. That doesn't count. Buying a house that would even take you up higher, you'd do even better. And that doesn't count the fact that you're probably going to put a lot more than $100 in. In your 401k, your Roth IRAs and stuff as you go along with matching. But $100 a month gets you there. Yeah, that's principle number one. Piece of knowledge, number one was that 89% of America's millionaires are not millionaires because of inherited wealth. We get that from the largest study of millionaires ever done in North America, airtight research that Ramsey Research did. It's in the book Baby Steps Millionaires, my latest number one best seller. And that book has the white paper of all the research in the back for those of you that are interested. But. So Drew is a baby Steps millionaire. And that's the third piece of information as he followed the baby steps.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And baby step one.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Baby step one, you are saving $1,000, $1,000 saved after that. Baby step two, you're paying off all of your consumer debt. That's everything except your mortgage. Baby step three, you're walking in and you're saving up three to six months of expenses after you've done that. Now we're at baby step four, where you're investing 15% of your income. Baby step five, we're putting away for kids college. Baby step six, we're moving on to pay off the house. Finally, baby step seven, living and giving like no one else. And there you have it.

[Dave Ramsey]

And typically, to get all the way through six, meaning houses paid off, takes people between seven and 10 years from today. Ready, set, go. They typically are out of debt, consumer debt and everything. If they lean in using the debt, snowball and beans and rice. Rice and beans. Quit spending money that they don't have. Sell stuff. Sell so much stuff, the kids think they're next. They're out of debt in 24 to 30 months, two, two and a half years. And then about seven years later, the house is paid off. Or at the seven year mark, rather, the house is paid off. And that's right where Drew is. That's, you know, he's got there at 40 and now it's going to double about every seven years for him.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. And it's, it's not a magic act. You know, a lot of people think this just magically happens, but it's not magic. It's very intentional. It's very intentional, intense. And if you do that, you can make it happen.

[Dave Ramsey]

Absolutely. That's the moral of Drew's story right there. This is the Ramsey Show. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get 10 different answers. Economic growth or a recession. Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or it will replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud enterprise resource planning system. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite and you should, too. Whether your company's earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities with one unified business management suite. There's only one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. NetSuite's real time insights and forecasting help you see into the future with actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you can spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next. And speaking of what's Next, download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com Ramsey it's free at netsuite.com Ramsey I talk to people every day who want to know how to do better in two areas, money and relationships. That's why I'm pumped to bring the Money and Relationships tour to a city near you. Join me and Dr. John DeLoney for a night that will challenge the way you think about this stuff and possibly change how you live forever. Starting April 21, we'll be in Louisville, then on to Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix, Fort Worth and Kansas City. Grab your [e-mail] tour before they're gone. We do our show on the glass Monday through Friday, meaning there's a window and you get to watch the monkeys in their cage here. That would be me and used to have a little sign up that said don't feed the monkeys. And George Camel took, he took exception to that sign so we had to take it down because he was afraid that he was being called a monkey. But that's not cool. So anyway, I'm the self proclaimed monkey here, so just, I'll take credit for that. Anyway, we're on the glass and you can stop by and hang out, watch the show happen from 1 to 4 Central Time, Monday through Friday. Two of us will be in here all the time and we're in here to help you. And also just outside the glass in the lobby with all the folks, there's usually 50 to 200 folks sitting around watching the show. There's free homemade cookies, there's free coffee and there's a debt free stage. And standing on the debt free stage is Josh and Rebecca to do a debt free scream. Hey guys, how are you? Good.

[Caller (Drew)]

How you doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Dave. Welcome, welcome. Where do y'all live?

[Caller (Josh)]

Zebulon, North Carolina. A little small town just east of Raleigh.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, fun. Welcome to Nashville. And how much debt have you two paid off?

[Caller (Josh)]

$203,400.

[Dave Ramsey]

Love it. How long did that take?

[Caller (Josh)]

63 months. Right at 5.3 years.

[Dave Ramsey]

I like it. Good for you and your range of income during that five years?

[Caller (Josh)]

About 105 to 165.

[Dave Ramsey]

Cool. What do you all do for a living?

[Caller (Rebecca)]

I work in retail merchandising and I'm.

[Caller (Josh)]

A systems analyst at a transportation company.

[Dave Ramsey]

Great, very cool. So five years 203,000. Was that your house? It was a house. Thankfully paid off your house?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're looking at weird people.

[Caller (Rebecca)]

I know.

[Dave Ramsey]

A hundred percent debt free. How old are you Two weirdos?

[Caller (Rebecca)]

I'm 30.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow.

[Caller (Josh)]

29.

[Dave Ramsey]

She robbed the title with a paid for house in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[Jade Warshaw]

Especially weird.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's the house worth?

[Caller (Josh)]

Right at 360.

[Caller (Nora)]

Wow.

[Dave Ramsey]

How fun. And how much have you guys already got in your nest egg?

[Caller (Josh)]

Roughly 250.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right, so you're halfway to little over halfway to being a millionaire. And you're third. Not even 30 years old and barely 30 years old.

[Caller (Rebecca)]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Excellent. Excellent, guys. Way to go.

[Caller (Rebecca)]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. So you start this and you're not even 25 years old. How long have you all been married?

[Caller (Rebecca)]

Five and a half years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so boom, right off the right of the gate. Here we go. Game on. So tell us the story. How in the world do you get this smart, this young?

[Caller (Josh)]

I'm very thankful to say, very little of it has to do with us. So we both were raised with parents and even grandparents that modeled biblical principles for how to handle money from a very early age. So they modeled giving, they modeled investing, they modeled living on less than you make, living on a budget, and just generally managing God's resources. Well. And I'll give you a short story that illustrates what I mean. So I grew up with a dad that I've always called the boring version of Dave Ramsey. He has a little more hair, but you're a lot more fun to listen to. And I remember one story in particular. He went to a yard sale and haggled with this poor older elderly lady for a nutcracker. She had the Nutcracker marked at 50 cents. And he walked up and the nutcracker had a chipped tooth. So he got that thing for a quarter.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, there you go. That's how you do it. I love it. That's fun.

[Caller (Josh)]

And then, if I can say so. And then college. This is where the Ramsey organization comes in. So I at college, found your. Your videos. I'd never heard of you before. College and FPU made such a big impact on me, even though I hadn't actually taken the course. As soon as I graduated, our church started offering it. And I think I took it three times because I like to so much. And then Rebecca attended the last one and we also led a couple of small groups. And so FPU was a big part of that. So our story is a success story. Not so much because we're fantastic or amazing. But because the people around us are fantastic and amazing, and you, Dave, and the entire organization are certainly a big part of that, and we cannot say thank you enough.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, thank you. You had the option of doing stupid and you chose wise. So I'm still going to blame you for your success. Well done, hero. Good job. Because not everybody gets a good pattern and follows it.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, that's right. You, like Dave said, you have a choice, and you guys chose right. And I love that you were both immediately on board. So you never really had the consumer debt. You just both got in, locked in and said, we're going to do this. Did it feel like a sacrifice or was it just kind of, hey, this is just part of our budget. We don't really feel it. Tell us how it felt paying off the debt of the house.

[Caller (Rebecca)]

I know for me, I know paying off the house was a big thing for Josh. Like, let's try to pay it off early. For me, I came into it, I like to say I got married and got into debt for the first time ever because he had bought the house just a couple months before we got married. But it was able to see just the weight and the stress that was taken off of Josh once the house was paid off. And now we just have a lot more freedom as a result of that.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's the first big thing you're going to do to celebrate?

[Caller (Rebecca)]

Buy a car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, God.

[Caller (Josh)]

Rebecca totaled. Well, actually, a deer totaled our only half decent car last Thursday.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, wow.

[Caller (Josh)]

So we lost our only decent car. And so I looked up the Kelley Blue Book value of our two remaining vehicles. An old truck, my grandfather's truck, and the first car she ever bought. And it's like $4,900 between two vehicles.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. You need to upgrade.

[Caller (Rebecca)]

We need something a little bit more reliable.

[Dave Ramsey]

Both of you do. Yeah. Instead of deer fodder. Yeah, I like it. So what are you gonna get?

[Caller (Rebecca)]

I have no idea. I am not a car person, so I'm leaving that up to him. I just want a better car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. You just want something that's a little nicer. Doesn't take much to upgrade that.

[Caller (Rebecca)]

No, it doesn't. Really.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're gonna get a little insurance check, and you're gonna put a little money with it and try to get a little better place, a little better thing. Yes.

[Caller (Josh)]

We're going to get anything that allows us to have enough confidence such that we're not praying on the way to Ramsey Solutions.

[Jade Warshaw]

I hear that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, my gosh. Way to go, you guys. I'm very Proud of you. How's it feel to not have a payment in the world?

[Caller (Rebecca)]

One Feels great. Feels amazing.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you tell, what do you tell people? The key to getting out of debt is you paid off your house by the time you're 30.

[Caller (Josh)]

So I've been very blessed to get to know a 99 year old World War II combat veteran over the past few years. He was my grandfather's best friend and he told me once, once you become emotionally invested in something, it becomes virtually impossible to change your mind. And so I think the key to getting out of debt is simply becoming emotionally invested in it, allowing the stuff to drop from your head to your heart. You know, rain that falls on grass doesn't actually do anything. It's the water that soaks down to the roots that causes life change.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Wow. Very good.

[Jade Warshaw]

Very true. Very, very true and well put.

[Dave Ramsey]

Exactly. Yeah. It's. You become what you think about. You know, Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So that's the deal. And it's the power of focus, the power of intentionality. All of that is a biblical principle. You're exactly right. So very well done, sir. Proud of you guys. And lady, you guys are awesome. This is great. We'll pray you get home.

[Caller (Rebecca)]

Thank you.

[Jade Warshaw]

So you can get a new vehicle.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you can both get a new car. Yeah. Because now without any house payment or anything else, now you've got the ability to save and pay cash for that. And you probably don't realize what the next three years is going to look like, how much freedom you've really set yourself up to be, because you've only really known one way while you were married. But now you've got a whole new version of you two to learn about and it's going to be pretty incredible. So way to go. You guys are heroes, man. You're amazing. So you know, every time someone tells us that there's a Gen Z problem or a millennial problem, I tell them, no, there's not. I point. I got excellent versions of both on this stage every week coming in here and showing us how it can be done. And so you guys give us hope for the future, us old people. So good job guys. Well done. Josh and Rebecca. Raleigh, North Carolina. 203,000 paid off in 63 months, making 105 to 165 house and everything at 30 years old. Count it down. Let's hear a debt free scream.

[Caller (Josh)]

Three, two, one. We're debt free.

[Dave Ramsey]

Love it, love it, love it, love it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well done. Well done, you guys. Man, that's beautiful right there. They'll be able to do anything. I mean, you take a couple hundred thousand dollars a year of income, which is what they're approaching, and no payments of any kind.

[Jade Warshaw]

They're not even. They're 30 years old.

[Dave Ramsey]

Can be so much money. So much money. Unbelievable. Wow.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's inspiring. I'm inspired.

[Dave Ramsey]

Very cool. This is the Ramsey Show. You spend hours researching before making a major purchase like a home or car. But it's also a good idea to put in the work searching for the right insurance coverage to protect your biggest assets. I recommend using Ramsey trusted pros. Whether you're looking for car, home, or any other type of insurance, Ramsey trusted providers have been coached and vetted to serve you. Like we would find what you need@ramsey solutions.com insurance, Jade Wash, all Ramsey personalities. My co host Mike is in Idaho. Hey, Mike. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[Caller (Nora)]

Oh, how's it going, guys?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than we deserve. What's up?

[Caller (Nora)]

All right, so I think I accidentally started a business, and I need a little help here.

[Jade Warshaw]

Explain.

[Caller (Nora)]

All right, so I'm a high school photography teacher, and I teach yearbook and journalism and all that kind of stuff. I started taking senior photos and sports team photos and designing banners, and essentially, I started doing it simply to essentially pay for my classes. In Idaho, we really don't have a lot of money for things, and I want my students to actually, you know, have cameras to take a photography class, which I think is super helpful. Anyway, so. Yeah, yeah, right. So anyway, I've taken all that money I just donated to my classroom. I hire some of my students in order to get them experience. My problem, I suppose, is a good problem here, but words really gotten out that I'm doing pretty well with this stuff. I'm starting to get booked up with a lot of different senior photo sessions.

[Jade Warshaw]

Great.

[Caller (Nora)]

A lot of different teams are contacting me with to get their photos. And right now I'm looking at like 400 to $800 a month. I'm bringing in for my program that I'm donating because I'm making actually a lot more money than I originally thought I was going to. I want to make sure I'm protecting myself. And I, you know, I'm very ignorant when it comes to business. I still want to donate a lot of this money, but down the road, I would really like maybe start compensating myself with all the hours that I put into this. Do I need to file for an LLC or I guess what Are my next steps here?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, you don't need an llc. You just need to make a decision.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. How much? You have to decide.

[Dave Ramsey]

You used to give 100% of your proceeds to the cam, to the classroom, and now you're not going to correct.

[Caller (Nora)]

Again, I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure which route I want to take, but I suppose that would be my next step to decide if I wanted to start compensating myself, what would be my next steps?

[Jade Warshaw]

Just making that decision. Is anybody else. I mean, this is for your class in your classroom. Is anybody else dependent on this money that they're going, oh, man, we were expecting that money from Mike. That needs to be involved. Yeah.

[Caller (Nora)]

And at that point, it's just me.

[Jade Warshaw]

At that point, it's you figuring out, okay, what percentage of. Is it 50%? Is it 80% that I want to give away versus keep? And what's your intent with the money? Is it that you're getting out of debt? Is this just to help build up savings and kind of have a clear picture for all of that, and then you just push play?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, exactly.

[Caller (Nora)]

Sounds good.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. The first thing. And then I would open a separate checking account for your business. You can open it in your Social Security number. It doesn't require a tax id and it doesn't require to require an llc. Okay. The only reason you would need an LLC is if you get big enough, the business is big enough, or your personal wealth is big enough that you have a target on your butt and somebody wants to sue you. Right. Now you're a broke photography teacher. Nobody wants to sue you.

[Caller (Nora)]

Correct. You're not gonna get any money from me anyway.

[Dave Ramsey]

Exactly. So, I mean, what are you gonna do, drop a camera on their toe? I mean. I mean, you know, there's not a lot of potential liability here. Okay. So the. I'm not worried about it if I'm you. So you would open it under what's called a sole proprietorship. And so your checking account would be Mike. So. And so DBA doing business as Mike's Photography, or whatever you call it.

[Caller (Nora)]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And then all the money that you make doing that goes into that account. All expenses come out of that account, and all contributions come out of that account.

[Jade Warshaw]

And keep some money aside for taxes, because you're gonna.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, you're gonna have taxes on the net profit. And the other thing with taxes is, is there some kind of a nonprofit associated with your school that you can donate this money to that ends up in your classroom?

[Caller (Matthew)]

Yeah.

[Caller (Nora)]

So we all have our own accounts for each one of our programs here.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is that a tax deductible account? Could I make a contribution to it and get a tax deduction?

[Caller (Nora)]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, then you're making a contribution to that account. You take a tax deduction for your contributions. You take a tax deduction for your expenses. What's left is taxable profit.

[Caller (Nora)]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you would set aside a fourth of that. And you file quarterly estimates on your income taxes for your taxable profit. But that just depends on how much of it you're not going to donate. As long as you're donating everything, net of expenses, you have zero taxes. Okay, but once you decide.

[Caller (Nora)]

Yeah, and right now. Right now, every single dime's going to it. So am I.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller (Nora)]

Right now, at least you're fine. Every single dime is going to this.

[Dave Ramsey]

Fine. But I mean, if you're doing 800 doll bucks a month, that's $10,000 a year.

[Caller (Nora)]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's pretty. Pretty generous to a single classroom.

[Caller (Nora)]

Well, again, we don't have a whole lot here.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but I mean, how many times you got to buy all this stuff? One time? Correct.

[Caller (Nora)]

Well, cameras break down and all that kind of stuff, and new equipment comes out, and they keep filling my classrooms full of more and more kids, and I need more resources. I guess it's. It's.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, you also know, in the technology world or the camera world, that is an endless. Yeah, that's a bottomless pit. Yes. Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

I've got several million dollars in various kinds of cameras inside this building, and I'm constantly having to look at people and go, no, I think we've got enough, because the people that are on the backside of those cameras love buying more.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's true.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

You'll have to draw a line there.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So, yeah, it, you know, get. You get your gadget people, and gadget people just always want more gadgets. That's. That's life. And so. Yeah, you want to do that. Very generous of you.

[Jade Warshaw]

Very, very.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's pretty cool. That's. That's like a. The cool teacher.

[Jade Warshaw]

He is the cool teacher. I'll give the cool teacher a piece of advice, though, because we didn't talk about it, but if Mike, if you have debt, you do need to take some of this to put towards getting out of debt. Just saying.

[Dave Ramsey]

Absolutely, you know, absolutely.

[Jade Warshaw]

Split the difference.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'd probably go as much as half or more. Yeah, yeah. But this guy's just very generous, and he loves what he does. He loves taking. He loves photography. He Loves kids.

[Jade Warshaw]

And that clearly shows because people keep coming to him. That is a huge ingredient when you're building your business, I think is clearly having a passion for it, having a love for it, because people can sense that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep.

[Jade Warshaw]

And you're better at it because of it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's exactly how it works. So very well done, Mike. You're the cool teacher man. We've. We dubbed you that for the week. Good stuff. Open phones here at Triple 882-5-5225. Anthony is in Cleveland. Hi, Anthony. What's up?

[Caller (Matthew)]

Hi. How you doing, Dave?

[Dave Ramsey]

Great. How can we help?

[Caller (Nora)]

So I'm 20 on I rent right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now, but I'm looking to buy a home.

[Caller (Nora)]

I only made 30,000, though. What's your advice on being so young.

[Dave Ramsey]

And not making a lot of money.

[Caller (Nora)]

Trying to buy a house?

[Dave Ramsey]

I wouldn't buy a house. You're 20 and you don't make a lot of money. I would go make some money. It's okay to rent. Rent as cheap as you can rent. And let's work on the career side of the equation. Let's get the income way up, Start stacking cash. Yeah, I feel like I'm bad at budgeting my money in, like, when it.

[Caller (Nora)]

Comes to, like, rent and all my bills and actually budgeting, I don't know where my money's going. Well, do you have that you in high school?

[Caller (Matthew)]

Yes.

[Caller (Nora)]

I got 17, 000 in a.

[Dave Ramsey]

No.

[Caller (Nora)]

16,000 in a car.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, that's where a lot of it's going.

[Dave Ramsey]

1600. Wait a minute, wait a minute. You owe $16,000 on a car?

[Caller (Nora)]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you make 30,000 credit cards? Yeah. That means when you took our class in high school, you flunked it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. That's where the money's going.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sell the car.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, you got to. And decide. You got to decide today that you're not borrowing money. Because I can tell you as long as you're taking out debt, it's gonna. Buying a house is going to become further and further and further and further away from you as a goal. So if you want to lasso that and pull it closer, you need to stop borrowing money. Especially. Especially things like credit cards and car payments.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's the deal. So, yeah, you listen, folks, when you owe more than half your annual income on a car, the car owns you. You don't own the car. You can't breathe. All you think about is making car payments. So you can think about the things got your handcuffed and it's dragging you around the parking lot. It is no fun at all the things eating you alive, dude. So, yeah, Wade, don't even talk about buying a house. And let's get our income up. Get the car gone. Get the car debt gone. Get all debt gone. And lean into that budgeting stuff so you'll be okay. Keep it. Keep at it, dude. Keep at it. This is the Ramsey Show.