George Kamel - Dave Ramsey Fans Admit Their BEST AND WORST Money Mistakes

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

I had the opportunity to chat with over 2,000 Dave Ramsey fans at the Smart Conference in Nashville where I ask them their biggest money mistakes and best money moves. Links: The Ramsey Show Smart Conference Chicago I love a good deal, when you sign up using this link, I’ll hook you up with a 14-day free trial and $15 off your first year of the premium version of EveryDollar.   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, George Camel here. Recently, I hung out with over 2,000 Dave Ramsey fans, and let me tell you, that day was better than I deserve. Oh, and if you're not familiar with Dave Ramsey, yeah, you are, he's this guy. George came off as a little rat bag at first, but he's grown on me. Don't act like you don't know. I hadn't had a Coke in a long time.

I quit drinking Coke. There we go. So I was at the Ramsey Smart Conference right here in Nashville, Tennessee. And if you're not familiar, Smart Conference is a two-day event with all of us Ramsey personality speaking, and the whole purpose of the event is to help you get smart in all areas of your life,

from career to money, to relationships, and everything in between. And if you want to know what it's like, here's a little teaser for my talk. As a giant nerd, I did the math. I started Googling in Costco going, what's the real math behind this? And I did it for you

so that you didn't have to. Six double rolls somehow equals 12 regular rolls, okay? But then six giant rolls is 14 regular rolls. But then six great rolls is 17.

regular rolls. And then I think they just got some kids in the marketing meetings and go like, hey, kids, what should we name the next one? And the kids were like, double plus. We're like, okay, double plus is 19 regular rolls. What's bigger than double plus kids? Mega. Okay, six mega rolls is now 24 regular rolls. What's better than mega if you're a kid? Mega plus. Okay. Six mega plus roles is 27 regular rolls. And then if you're a kid, what is better than mega plus? Super mega! at 36 regular rolls. So if you take nothing else away from this talk, remember that Super Mega is the best bang for your butt.

That's it. Eh? Eh? I don't know why they chose that clip. Toilet paper is a part of all of our lives, whether we like it or not. Smart Conference is a huge event. Like, smaller than a Taylor Swift concert,

but bigger than your average bar mitzvah. So this year, I decided to make the most of the action by talking to Smart Conference attendees about the dumbest money mistakes they've made. And, guys, these aren't your average shows who are watching reality TV and going bowling on the weekend. These are grade A Josephs. They watch shows like The Ramsey Show and attend finance conferences in their spare time

on the weekend. So getting Dave Ramsey fans to admit their biggest money mistakes is like getting Gordon Ramsey to admit that he actually likes luncheables. Where's the luncheels? But don't confuse them. They don't like that. You're Dave Ramsey. You'll figure yourself out.

Dave Ramsey. My name's Gordon. Gordon. Do I look like a fucking Dave? No. Different Ramsey's. Don't get it twisted. So let's get to it. It's time for a little money confessional with some hardcore Ramsey fans.

Tell us your biggest money mistake you've ever made. Biggest money mistake would have to be the investment in the solar panels. Oh, what'd you spend on the solar panels? It's 36,000. On a loan. Yeah. Nothing down. Nothing down. Well, one of mine is borrowing money from a girlfriend. You pointed at her.

That was before we got married. Yeah. Oh! What did you think about this? I wasn't super stoked, but I loved him and I trusted him. Did you pay her back all four grand? I never actually paid her back. Because you were married by then. Because now we're married by then.

Oh my gosh. Okay. What's your biggest money mistake? I would say buying a brand new car. Ooh, what was it? It's a 2015 Grand Cherokee. Grand New Jeep Grand Cherokee. And you took out a loan for this?

How big was the loan? The full amount. Woo! Woo! Okay, tell us your biggest money mistake. Oh, wow. It's actually a subscription in MLM. Oh, you fell for the multi-level marketing scheme.

I did. What was it? Can you tell us the company? Are you comfortable with that? Yeah, sure. It was Amway. Amway. I almost fell for an Amway pitch.

She turned around the little iPad and I ran, man. So we lived on credit cards for a good while, and we racked up about $40,000 in credit card day. Whoa. Well, I just did it like two, like a year ago. I put this diamond earrings and I didn't tell him. Oh. Can you tell me how much these diamond earrings were? Why?

I'm just kidding. He doesn't know the price yet. He still doesn't? Yeah, I know. Are you willing to tell us because she's too embarrassed? Well, I didn't see exactly pride, but I see the whole bill, so which it was more than the... She bought more than just the earrings. Yes.

What else did you buy? Oh, stuff? Stuff. All for Macy's? Yes. Did you know that she had this credit card? Yeah, but I didn't know it was that high on the balance. I think the biggest money mistake was...

was financing a bed. Oh, a man. How much do you finance? Oh, 7, 8,000? Yeah, so it was, uh. That thing make you coffee? I mean, what are they putting in that? I just made a French pot of coffee.

Anybody want coffee? Okay, tell us your biggest money mistake. My student loans. How much? Uh, 35,000. Bobby buying a vehicle, yeah, buying a brand new vehicle. Well, what was it? Uh, a brand new pickup.

The pickup guys want to know what pick up. The pickup guys want to know what pick They have very specific opinions. Oh, man. Silverado? Yes. Yeah. Ah, Silverado guy.

Yeah. Do you remember how much the loan was for on the Silverado? I think it was right around 52, 54. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. So my biggest money mistake was back when I refinanced my little condo to buy a car. And that rolled into...

So you increased the mortgage to give you some money to buy a car, which you were like, that's smart. And I couldn't afford it. The biggest one, gosh, this is whenever I was... I graduated from a car. college and I went to an art auction and I bid on an art piece and paid a thousand dollars yeah and I was like oh that that looks really cool and you know your taste change and you're like 20 years old at this point 21 maybe and you spent a thousand bucks on a piece of art yep and I put it on the it's a it was a credit card oh yeah out do you still have the piece of art I do and it doesn't fit with my house

it's not even like your vibe anymore years later right oh my gosh what is your biggest money mistake. Oh, man, not investing when I was younger in my 401k. That was, yeah, that was, what were you doing instead? Just spending, having a good time. Kids, I was living in a 60 trailer house. I just didn't know what I was doing. I never seen. I wasn't taught. And now you're looking back and you're like, I could have turned into so much money with compound interest. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wow. Man, I, uh, I got to say, slightly entertaining, slightly disconcerting, but overall, I'm just really impressed that they were willing to be vulnerable and share some of their biggest money mistakes. And also,

Honestly, hearing all this was good for me, because I've done stupid stuff with money. I've paid my fair share of stupid tax, so at least now I know I'm not the only one. But we didn't stop there, because truthfully, that's kind of a bummer of an episode. These people are here to learn and grow with money, and boy, have they done that. So to end on a high note, I asked them to share the best money moves they've made. Check this out. What was your biggest money when so far? Paying off over 200 grand in debt.

Whoa! What kind of debt was 200 grand? Everything under the sun? You had it all. dental loans, cars, consolidation, credit cards, you name it. That's amazing. So you guys completely debt free now? Yep, besides a mortgage.

It's our mortgage. Wow. Yeah. How long it'll take you to pay off $200,000 of consumer debt? About three years. That boggles my mind. I think our biggest win would be the fact that we're on the same page. There for a while, I would say we were on two totally different pages and that's really stressful.

But now we're on the same page and that makes all the difference in the world. I call that progress. And working together is so key. I'm proud of you guys. Being able to homeschool and then being able to cash flow their college because now they're in college. That's incredible. These are my beautiful babies. These are Josh and Judah.

These are our twins. And then my daughter, who's 21, went to school debt-free. And she's got her MBA. So, I mean, God is so good. That's incredible. Three kids, no college debt because of your hard work and sacrifice and their hard work. We paid off $18,000 while I started a new career. Wow.

That's amazing. So what's your biggest money? win so far? Biggest goal you've achieved, most success you've had? I would say, I don't know if we've reached it yet other than paying off my student loans, but just in the debt snowball itself, just watching it actually pay things off. Small, so large, you're feeling the progress. Okay, what's your biggest money win so far on this journey? Honestly, probably attending FPU using that money to attend the class and learning the principals and, you know, following through with it. So getting financial literacy, going through

Financial Peace University and going like, okay, I'm going to learn some things. I'm going to do some things. Right. Right. That's awesome. And where are you at now? Are you debt free? Where are you out of the place? We're dead free except for the mortgage. So we're a baby set four, five, and six. Woo. Investing, same for college, pay off the house early. Yep. That's incredible. I'm proud of you. Thanks. Actively planning. Every dollar app, my wife and I, we listen to all of the podcast and we go home and we talk about them. That's amazing. Excellent. It's good stuff. You're budgeting, You're communicating with your spouse. You're aligned on money goals.

Absolutely. That's the big win for you. Yes, sir. That's awesome. Well, it's an honor to have you. Thank you. So, have you told your kids about the solar panels? Do you explain that to them?

Oh, yeah. What do they think about the solar panels? They are mad that we did it. Our son actually bought us tickets to this conference, so. Your son bought you tickets to be like, don't ever do something like this again. Go to the Smart Conference. We're going to send you there.

Yeah. Well, you're raising great kids. Yes, we are very thankful. That's a great sign. Biggest money win is last year my mom got very successful. and because I'm in Babyself 7, I was able to take my full FMLA for seven weeks, and I didn't get three paychecks, but it didn't matter. So it allowed me to grieve and to, you know, do the things that I had to do moving forward.

Wow. I'm grateful. I gave you that space to do that, emotionally, financially. Exactly. You got to pay for a house. You have an emergency fund. You're like, I can miss three paychecks to be with my mom. Yep.

That's really special. Well, you have a great story to tell other people of what it's like to be. be debt-free. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Way to go. This is it. This is what it looks like. What a redemption story that was. Okay, the point of all this is that it's not about the mistakes you've made with money. It's about what you're going to do about it. What are you going to do next? I know that you can get ahead financially, because these people did. I don't care who you are, where you're from, what you did. Nope. For once, I was not trying to make a Backstreet Boys reference.

Editors, settle down. Who you, who you are where you're from. For real, though, regardless of your background with money, we can all get better and build wealth. And these people you just saw, they're living proof. But it starts with knowing the traps to avoid, learning how to manage your money the right way, and deciding that you're in the driver's seat when it comes to your money.

And if you don't know where to start, try doing what these people did and check out The Ramsey Show. It's kind of like smart conference, but instead of getting life and money advice in one action-pack weekend, it's available to you 24-7-365. I'll drop a link to the Ramsey Show YouTube channel where you can watch full episodes and highlights.

And if you want to take things further, we actually have another smart conference event coming up in Chicago, September 15th, and 16th, if you want to join us. I'll be there, my friend Dave Ramsey will be there. In fact, all of our Ramsey personalities will be there. And I want to see you in the crowd, along with maybe that solar panel guy from the video.

That'd be fun. Nice guy. I'll drop a link to the event below if you want to check that out. In the meantime, share this video with a good-natured friend friend who might relate on a deep level to some of these money mistakes. And if you're willing to be vulnerable, let me know about your biggest money mistakes down in the comments. It'll be a great reminder that we're not all alone in this cold, harsh world. We can warm it up in the comments section together. Keep it cozy. Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys next time.