The Ramsey Show - App - A Happy Marriage Starts by Being on the Same Page (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 19, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Thank you for joining us. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. As we give you the same advice your grandmother would, only we keep our teeth in. Brian starts off this hour in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Brian.

How are you? I'm doing great, Dave. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? I've got a nice conundrum. I have two potential employees that I've been interviewing, and on paper they're even. I'm trying to find a unique way to interview them to where I can find a separator between them.

Oh, wow. That's very cool. Good. How many times have you met with them? I've met with them about four times now. Good for you. Okay. That's a good, solid number.

A lot of people hire somebody after one interview, and that's a really stupid thing to do. You'll end up with crazy in your building doing that. But so four is good. There's a couple things we will do around here. How many team members do you currently have? I currently only have two others other than myself. Have either one of the two others met with either one of these? Both of them have.

Okay. Have you met off-site in a more informal location, just coffee on the sidewalk somewhere? That I have not done yet. Sometimes that helps people let their hair down and say things that cause you to hire them or not hire them um and the other thing we always do is our final formal interview is uh we just go out to dinner with our spouses and let the spouses speak into it if uh if the team potential team members married or engaged they would bring their spouse and and um you know the leader that's going to do the hire in our area and their spouse and sometimes two leaders. Sometimes there's six people.

You don't want eight or ten. But you just want to have conversation. No big formal thing, no test or anything like that for the spouse. But you just meet them. And sometimes the way they treat their spouse, sometimes your spouse sees something in them that you didn't see, good or bad. And that comes from Proverbs 31, who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her, and he will have no lack of gain.

So what I always ask Sharon after we go out to dinner is, you know, we're going to pray about this when we get home, y'all, and let you know later on what we're going to do. But I always just ask her. I don't ask her what she thinks i ask her how she felt i wonder how she feels because that's how god speaks to her is through that that button and uh so how do you how do you feel about that guy and she goes oh he's cool he's solid i think he's got good character you know i i noticed the way he you

know opened the door for his wife you know she she'll catch little things like that that I don't catch. And, you know, or she'll say, he's really articulate. He's smart. You know, or I'm not sure this guy's bright, you know. Right? How did you feel about them is a good thing. And that's always our final interview. We call it the spousal interview

but it's we're not interviewing the spouses we're just going out to dinner and around dinner with kind of more of a family atmosphere you just learn things and you can ask the spouse you know tell me why i should hire this guy you know tell me why tell me why he would be good at this job tell me where he will struggle the most at this job. And, you know, because they know him. You know, they go, well, you know, you're a hard-driving guy, and the last guy he worked for was a hard-driving guy, and I don't know, you know, y'all might not get along.

They'll say stuff like that, you know. And I just love the process, though. It's okay to take your time, and it's okay. Lastly, it's okay to look at the value system of the person. How do they view the world? And does that align with you? Okay. Stuff like, you know, if you're in a very small company, and so if you had wars between two of your team members,

one's real conservative and one's real liberal politically, and all they did was argue about that. They don't like each other. They don't respect each other because they're too deep down in the weeds on that stuff or something like that. I don't know. But, you know, the other question I always ask myself is just do I like them? There's only four of you. You know, you're going to spend a lot of time together. Do you like them?

Do you like them? Another question we always ask ourselves, this is such a, I love this material. It's in Entree Leadership, by the way, in our book, by the way, y'all. But do they light up when they're talking about doing the job? Or does it look like they're just like having a root canal to collect a paycheck you know or does their face just come on fire and you go man i would what have i got to do you know i got this is the most exciting thing you know if they're talking like that and they mean it and they're not pulling your leg, then you've maybe got somebody that's going to be fired up about the position. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

So is it Q? Is that your name? Yes. Hi, Q. How are you? I'm doing well. Good. How can I help?

I'm in Baby Step 2, and I have about $122,000 worth of student loans. And so I have a separate account that I'm saving up in so I can pay those off. Um, and today my mom came to me and said that her car is going to be repossessed and the car is in my name. So I'm wondering if I should take money out of my student loan, student loan account to get the car current and then try to sell it. Um, yeah, yeah, you're gonna have to and she's giving you the car back right so she says because i told her i said i can't you know keep

doing this every month where she's behind and then it's damaging my credit yeah mom this is not working for you it's it's it's not a your mom. Right. It's causing her a lot of stress and problems. Okay. Yeah, we need to collect the car and pay the bill up current. And so what do you owe on your car? It's $14,000. Okay. And what's it worth?

When I looked it up on Kelley Blue Book, it's worth about $10,000. Okay. And how much is in your student loan account that you've saved up? I have about $6,000 right now. Okay. So you can bring it current and sell it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and you have a car you're driving, right?

Yeah, I paid my car off last month, actually. So you just bought her a car to help her? Yeah, it was back in 2015 before I met you, and I was just dumb. Okay. Well, I mean, you were trying to do something nice. You just did it the wrong way, right? Right. Yeah, we've all done that.

So how old are you? I am 25. I was 26 in July. Oh, okay. This is a very difficult emotional relational position to be in because you're basically, no matter how kindly you do it, this is reprimanding to your mom and you're a young lady to be reprimanding your mom okay so okay let's try to keep as much

condemnation language out of this as we can um it was your mistake i'll just if i'm you i'm just going to bear the mistake but it doesn't change the decision. I'm going to be very kind and gentle, but very firm. This car is sold. Okay. It's gone, Mom. Because it's not a blessing to you. It's not a blessing to me. This is a mess.

And the only way to clean it up is, thank goodness, I've saved up a little money. Now, in the future, let's not save up money to pay on your student loans. Just pay it on your student loans. Just pay them off as fast as you can in the future, let's not save up money to pay on your student loans. Just pay it on your student loans. Just pay them off as fast as you can in the future. But in this case, thank goodness you had a little money saved up. It's worked out well for you in this case. So thanks for joining us. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. The last thing I want you to feel is buyer's remorse,

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Call 888-LOAN-200 or visit churchillmortgage.com. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Tyler is with us in Detroit. Hey, Tyler, welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I'll be finishing my bachelor's degree in about a month and starting my PhD in the coming fall. I'll be moving out to Rochester, New York. Wow. I'll be there for about four to five years, maybe a little bit longer. I'm debt free. I'll be making about $27,000 a year plus an additional $1,000 or so per month with a side business. What I want to know is should I consider buying something or should I just focus on renting

during that time? If the market is vibrant in five years you should be able to make a month enough money to justify owning um and it won't cost you basically if you can't if the property does not go up in value during that time or you can't offload it because the market's not vibrant and both of those would be indicators of market vibrancy, right? Right. And so, you know, if you can offload it and it has gone up in value, it's going to be a good plan. I do not know the Rochester market, and, you know, you're going to be making like $39,000 a year, it sounds like, something like that. So you're not going to be making a ton. But have you got – and you're out of debt? Yes.

And you're paying cash for your Ph.D.? Yes. How? The Ph.D. with my degree is actually fully funded by the program. Perfect. Okay, cool. What are you studying? Chemical and electrical engineering, and I'll be doing microsystems engineering at the school.

Wow, wonderful. Good for you. That's great. Okay, cool. That's fun. Yeah, I mean, if you bought a little condo or something, and as long as there's a market to turn it back over, then you'll come out ahead by having bought.

Over the scope of your life, if you live in places for a reasonable length of time, five years and more each time, owning real estate is a, you know, one of the key methods for building wealth versus having, being subject to the regular increases in rent if you're a renter because that that slowly steals all your money over time you know so uh and you don't end up with any ownership obviously as a result of it so yeah i i probably would buy to if you want to get real technical since you're a math guy uh the the way to look at the numbers is this.

You can talk to the local realtor, get one of our endorsed local providers, and you're looking for two pieces of data that will give you a good indication. One is average days on the market. They call it DOM, average days on the market. And if the average days on the market is 270 days, that means you've got nine months to sell a house. No, thank you. This is not a vibrant market. If it's 27 days, this market's white hot.

Right. Okay, so we're looking at can we offload this thing, and assuming that five years from now is as good as it is now or similar. We don't know that. Can't predict national economic trends that precisely, but we're looking for the vibrancy of the minor market there itself, the actual micro portion of it. The second stat you're looking for is average annual increases in value for the past five

years within a mile or two mile radius of where you're buying. And so they can drop a data point in their software, in the MLS usually, and RealTracks or whoever, and pull up what your average annual increase is in values. So if your average annual increase is 1%, you're probably not going to come out because you're going to go up 5% and your expenses are probably going to be close to 10% to resale. You're going to lose money, right? Okay. But if your average annual increase is 4% for five years, now you've got a 20% increase.

And usually, by the way, these two data points will run, they will inform you the same way. They won't inform you two different directions. In other words, if the market is really selling fast, you're usually going to see appreciation rates that are good. Okay. And if the market's flat and hard to sell, you're usually going to see appreciation rates that are flat. So they're both indicators of the vibrancy of the market, and that's a technical way you can do the analysis, and you'll get real close on whether you should buy or not. But usually in most markets, a five-year window, it's going to be a good idea to own.

And it sounds like you're in a position to do that. Well done, sir. Very well done. Jennifer is in a position to do that. Well done, sir. Very well done. Jennifer is in Syracuse, New York. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. It's a pleasure to speak with you, Dave.

You too. I was wondering, I am on baby step three. I have paid off all my debt except for my mortgage, and I recently inherited an inherited IRA. I am wondering if I should continue to take the minimum annual stipends out of the IRA, or should I use the money to pay off my mortgage? How much is in the IRA, the inherited IRA? It's $137,000.

And how much is in your mortgage? $65,000. Awesomeness. Okay, and you have no other debt. And what is your other nest egg, not counting the inherited IRA? So far, I was contributing to a 401K between me and my husband. We have a little over $100,000 saved for retirement. Okay.

Yeah, I'd pull out enough. You're going to be taxed at your tax rate with no penalties on an inherited IRA. And so it's probably going to take close to $100,000 to net you $65,000. Okay. Not maybe $90,000, something like that, to net you $65,000 of taxes, and then I'd pay my mortgage off today. And it wouldn't bump me up a tax bracket for taking that additional money out? Yeah, it might, but so what?

Okay. It's not a big deal. It's 65. It's one time, and you're 100% debt-free. You're not borrowing money ever again. Now you're on baby step seven, and you max out all of your 401ks that you can put, as much as you can put in there. You max out your Roth IRAs, and you're going to become very wealthy. How old are you guys?

I am 35, and my husband is's 39 and what's your household income um about 85 000 a year awesome so if you sit there with no mortgage no payments of any kind making 85 000 and you you know you'd be you're going to be saving 20 25 of your income at this point because you don't have a house payment, right? And, you know, you're going to be very wealthy by the time you're 65. I'm talking $10 million here. So good growth stock mutual funds. You max out your 401Ks as much as allowed. You max out your Roth IRAs as much as allowed. And we suggest you sit down with a good smart investor pro. I'm not in the investment business, but that's what I personally personally do and i spread my investing across four types of mutual funds growth growth and income aggressive

growth and international and that's the best way to go for sure and um you know just click smart investor at dave ramsey.com and uh when you do that, you put in your information. It'll drop down a list of the SmartVestor pros in your area, and they'll help you, and they can help you manipulate the remaining $30-something thousand, $40,000 that's in that inherited IRA and what you're going to be able to do with it as well. Very good job. Wonderful. Speaking of Rochester, New York, Alex is there already. Hey, Alex, how are you?

Hey, Dave. thanks for having me. Sure, what's up? So I was just talking to that guy about moving to Rochester. How vibrant is the real estate market there? We were just discussing it. I didn't know. Yeah, I have been looking around. I would say all the good houses go pretty quickly.

Okay, so the market's kind of hot? Yeah, I'd say it's improving. Good, okay. How can I help today? Okay, so I just got an insurance settlement after a long negotiation for almost $200,000. I'm $50,000 in debt, student loan debt. I'm wondering where do I go from here? Okay. What was the insurance settlement for? I got hit by a car in a crosswalk. Oh my gosh. Are you okay? I'm okay now. Yeah, okay. So are you working again? I am working.

Good. What do you make? I make about $30,000 a year. Okay. Is that what you made before? Yeah. Okay. So you're kind of back to where you were as far as income goes. Yeah. Well, I had to drop out of school. That accident was three years ago, so I had to drop out, and I never got back. Okay. Are you going to go back now? I wasn't planning on it. Okay. So what are you going to do with your career? What do you do now you're planning to get into real estate or maybe get passive income somehow what do you do now i work at it i work at trader joe's okay i

don't want you to get passive income i want you to get some active income how old are you 24 okay cool all right okay so what i want you to do is start dreaming again. You got the crap knocked out of you. You got hurt, man. I want you to start dreaming again about what you're going to be doing that's big time when you're 44. And what are the steps in education to get there? Spend some of the money on that to make you better, retool you, tool you up to go win, and in the meantime pay off the $50,000 in student loan debt.

But let's use the money to go to school and do something that you want to do to win that makes you excited again. That's what you need to do. You gave up on your dreams when you got hit by that car. I want you to get back up and go dream again. Hold on, I'm going to give you a book called Start as my gift. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry, a Better Business Bureau-accredited organization CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills.

It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years. And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Greg and Jennifer and the tribe are here.

Hey, guys. How are you? Hey, Dave. We're doing good. Welcome. Where are you guys from? We're from Atlanta. Oh, fun.

Good to have you guys. And all the way up here to Nashville to do a debt-free screen. Yes, sir. Very cool. So who have you got with you, names and ages? Let's see. We have Steven, who's 15. We have Ella, who is 13. 13 we have addy who is 11

and we have charlie who's 7 all right very cool steven's reminding me he's 16 okay all right that's good sorry uh it's good to be reminded and how much debt have you guys paid off 372 000 all right how long did this take? It took eight and a half years, but really focused on the debt in the last five years. Gotcha. And your range of income during that time? From $150,000 to a bit over $200,000. Okay, cool. And what kind of debt was the $372,000? The house. You paid off your house? We did. Looking at where people. Yes.

Love it. Way to go, you guys. Very well done. What's this house worth? Probably about 500. Cool. Whereabouts in Atlanta? We are in the North Lake area.

Okay. Fun. Cool. Good for you. Neat. Thank you. Well done. How old Cool. Good for you. Thank you. Well done. How old are you two?

We are under 50. But over 40. With a paid-for house. Somewhere in that decade. Exactly. With a paid-for house, no less. Did you ever think by the time you were this age you'd have a paid-for house? No.

Not really, no. Most people don't. Way to go. So what happened eight and a half and slash five years ago actually it probably all started about 20 years ago when we got married and um one of my best friends from high school their wedding gift um to us was your book wow and so that was the first we hit back in the day 20 i think it was yeah it's a um probably one of your first books yeah financial peace probably i think it was and so mindy and john um gave us that book and they

talked you up and they said you know a happy marriage is a marriage that starts on the same page so um we read your book and kind of greg brought a little bit of school debt into our marriage. And I immediately, we sat down and decided that that was the first thing that had to go. So we paid that off pretty quick and then really started on the right foot. Um, but you know, we bought a house about 10 years ago and decided that we didn't want to be paying that monster off for 30 years. So we just kind of buckled down and got focused. Good deal. Good deal.

Very well done. So what do you tell people the key to paying off your house is in your 40s? I would say focus. You really have to be laser focused on it. There's a lot of distractions. You got to learn to say no to a lot of... You got four reasons to say no around here. That's true. Almost 40 reasons to say no to a lot of four reasons to say no around there. Almost 40 reasons.

Right. And it's a lot of, um, it's a lot of balance. Like, you know, watching your friends do a lot of things that you don't get to go and do too. And,

um, really just learning to, um, do other things that are fun for a family that aren't quite so expensive. Cool. Well, I mean, you make good money, and you've obviously had a good life. You haven't, like, scrimped too bad, but just focused on the house and got it knocked out, right? That's right.

Pretty much, yes. You did this on about the normal pace of what we teach, and, you know, you're kind of a classic case study in terms of the numbers. It doesn't feel like you're a case study when you're doing it, though. No. When you're doing it, you actually have to say no and, you know, sacrifice to win. Yes. Now you don't have a house payment.

I know. How's that feel? It feels awesome. It does feel awesome. I think it took a little while to really sink in. But, yeah, it's great. It's wonderful. Yeah.

It sets you up mathematically making a couple hundred to do whatever you want to do. Yeah. I mean, you'll be able to build wealth and be outrageously generous along the way. It's pretty incredible. Very, very well done. We framed our letter from our mortgage company and put it on the wall that said that we don't owe him any more money. Absolutely. That's freeing for sure.

Yeah. That's pretty amazing. Very cool. What was the hardest part for y'all? You know, Greg was really very determined to sit down and do the budget and figure out where all the money was going. And I think it wasn't hard for us to agree on spending, but it was hard for us to figure out where all those dollars were going. You know, he said, you know, at the end of the month, I look at our bills and I can't figure out what we have, you know. And so I, it took a, you know, picking a number and staying underneath it

and not spending so much money at the store. That can happen. That can happen. Very cool. So do you think people can still do this now that you've done it? Oh, absolutely. Oh, I think everybody could do it. Yeah.

Okay. Cool. Just put your mind to it. Yeah. That's it. Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's Retire Inspired book for you. Awesome. Number one bestseller.

Great. We want that to be now in your Ramsey Library that you got started over there about 20 years ago. Exactly. And take it to the next level where you become millionaires and outrageously generous as you go along. So very well done. So these kids for eight and a half years have survived this process. They have. So have they been practicing their debt-free scream, though? We have.

Absolutely. We have. All. We have. All right. I love it. Greg and Jennifer, Stephen, Ella, Addie, and Charlie from Atlanta, Georgia. $372,000 paid off. Eight and a half years. That's their house and everything.

They're weird. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready, guys? Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We a debt-free scream. Ready, guys? Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! This is how it's done.

This is how it's done. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they will remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping,

and with the promos you save even more money. Use the promo code Ramsey. Phillip is in Indiana. I'm 23, currently in baby step two, while paying for college out of pocket. My previous student loans are in deferment since I'm 23, currently in baby step two, while paying for college out of pocket. My previous student loans are in deferment since I'm in school. Should I be focused on paying those down while they're in deferment or saving up to pay for the remainder of my school in cash?

Save up and pay for the remainder of your school in cash. The best investment, young people, that you can make while you're in college is you. Pay cash. I don't worry about you. If you've got debt, I don't worry about you getting out of debt while you're in college. I'm more worried about you don't add any extra debt. Pay cash for school. Your rate of return do that before you invest do that before you reduce debt your rate of return on an education assuming your degree field actually has is applicable in the marketplace where you can get a job and you can use the knowledge you have to make money with your rate of return on education what you spend for the education versus what you get in income is higher than anything else we can talk about, debt reduction or investing.

So always paying for the remainder of your school in cash is always your first answer. And once you've got enough in the bank sitting there to finish school, your living expenses, your tuition, your books and everything, then work your baby steps. Then work your way out of debt. Then build your big emergency fund. Then start investing and work your way right up the baby steps but until you have enough sitting in the bank in cash in your control personally we're not gonna we're not gonna invest we're not gonna pay down debt your best investment is in you when you're in school that's a big deal and lots of people work their way through college i know everybody says, college is too expensive to work your way through. They say that all the time now.

Listen, if you'll just pull up what tuition costs and figure out what you can make babysitting and what you can make walking dogs and cutting grass. I mean, you can't do it on minimum wage. I understand that working 10 hours a week. But I worked 40 to 60 hours a week when I was in college. And I got through college in four years. And I didn't die from it. And so don't tell me it can't be done.

It can be done. Now, tuition was cheaper back then, but so were wages, baby. I mean, you make $20 an hour nannying right now. And you can get through school, people. Choose a school you can afford. Work your butt off.

You can do it. This the dave ramsey show Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 16, 9. The heart of a man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes his steps. Washington Irving says, great minds have purposes. Others have wishes. Folks, if you listen to this long enough, you hear the show long enough, and you listen to the debt-free screams long enough, you find there's two types of people with money well there's a lot of types of people but people fall largely into two buckets there's the bucket of people who are doing their debt-free scream they are happening to their money the other bucket of people is the people the money happens

to them dr stephen covey used to say in his book the seven habits people is the people the money happens to them. Dr. Stephen Covey used to say in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the number one habit of highly effective people is they are proactive. They happen to things. Everything doesn't happen to them. You make the assumption that we can't control all the external variables in our life, but we are largely in charge of our own destiny. Or we stand back and shake our head and wonder why everything bad happens to us. You either tell your money what to do, or you wonder where it went. Money flows from people who do not manage it

to the people who do manage it. If you take someone who manages money well and as a result has become wealthy, and they lose everything, they will become wealthy again because the things that made them wealthy did not leave when the money left. And when you take someone who does not manage money well and they're given a pile of money, have you ever noticed they end up with nothing? Because they don't happen to their money.

Their money happens to them. Case in point, lotto winners. Someone wins the lottery, the bankruptcy rate is fourfold the national average. Four times as likely to file bankruptcy if you win the lottery as not. Isn't that weird? The vast majority of lotto winners a decade later have nothing. Because the very thing that caused them to play the lotto in the first place gives you an indication that you're going to lose it.

Why some athletes, when they get money, end up with nothing. Because the only skill they've got is athletic skill. They had no character, no ability to manage the money, no ability to say no, no ability to have good relationships and boundaries. Those are the things that lead you to build wealth. And so wealth is an intentional act. Now, bad stuff can happen to people, and sometimes people are poor because people are oppressing them. I understand that. I'm not picking on the poor.

That's not what I'm doing. But what I am saying is that sometimes you're where you are because of a series of decisions you've made. As a matter of fact, usually you're where you are. And you can make new decisions. You don't have to. Well, my family, the way I grew up in my neighborhood, my people, those are how sentences start when people are going to explain why they're

losing and it's not their fault. The little man can't get ahead. People like me, you don't understand about the isms that are out there. Yeah, I do. Isms are real. They're real. But I meet people every day who overcome their isms.

Sexism, racism. People overcome their isms all the time. Hard work, hustle, smarts. Looking forward, controlling the destiny. Can everybody do it? Apparently everybody can do it, but most people choose not to. They choose not to control the variables in their life. And so it comes down to something as simple in personal finance as doing a budget.

When you do a budget, it is you exercising the fact that you believe you control your destiny. If you are a victim of destiny, why would you ever do a budget? If you're going to be controlled by an ism, if you're going to be controlled by the way you grew up, if you're going to be controlled by the people in my family, people of my heritage, people of my ethnic background, people of you fill in the blank, if you're going to be controlled by that, I grew up on the other side of the tracks, Dave. Most millionaires did, by the way. The vast majority of millionaires grew up on the other side of the tracks. The only difference in them and the next-door neighbor that's still on the other side of the tracks

is they decided they didn't want to live there. So they picked their butt up and they moved to the other side of the tracks. They lived like no one else so that later they could live and give like no one else. Consequently, we see things like the 5 million families that have been through Financial Peace University. You know what the number one data point between them being successful are the ones that are successful going through that getting out of debt and the ones that aren't? The number one data point is to do a budget.

We can predict your success in Financial Peace University by the second class. It's nine classes when you go through, nine lessons. The second lesson we can tell if you're going to be successful. Did you come in with your zero-based budget done in every dollar the way we teach you? No, I've got my own version of Dave Ramsey. I've got my own version of smart. I'm ish. I'm Dave Ramsey-ish.

I'm going to do Financial Peace University-ish. You're not going to make it. I mean, when five million people do something, you got good data, okay? We got good data. We know exactly who's going to make it and who's not. We can study your behavior and tell you. If you keep on this path, you are going to fail. And you've already started down the wrong path,

so you got to turn around and go back and start again. The people that do their every dollar budget complete the class. They typically go to all nine lessons. They stay in the membership for a year, continuing to watch online. They download the podcast. They watch the debt-free screams on YouTube to stay, to stay on their budget. How interesting. They were sick and tired of being sick and tired.

They said, I'm not going to be those people anymore. I am going to control these variables. I'm going to control my destiny. Do sometimes their transmission go out? Does sometimes there are car wreck? Does sometimes somebody get cancer? Does sometimes somebody die? Yes. Sometimes tragedy happens. Yes.? Does sometimes somebody die? Yes.

Sometimes tragedy happens. Yes. Sometimes I get laid off. Yes. But guess what? They get up and do it again. Sometimes I get knocked on their butt and they get back up and they do it again. And you get back up and you do it again when you have a plan and when you believe you're

in control of your destiny. If you fall off your budget and you mess up, you get back up and you do it again. You don't take the EveryDollar app off your phone. By the way, it's fairly easy to put back on because it's free. And you sit down there and you do your budget. The correlating statistic between people that win at anything and people that lose are those that are intentional. People that win are intentional. You don't accidentally win the freaking Super Bowl.

They never interview the guys at the end of the Super Bowl and go, how'd you do that? I don't know, man. I just got off the bus and I just won. I have no idea. No, it's an intentional act of a decade plus, two decades usually, of practice and skill development that brought them to that. 10,000 hours of practice brought them to that.

You don't accidentally play a guitar like Brad Paisley. It's not an accident. It's an intentional act. Now, some of you got drunk and woke up married, but most people getting married's an intentional act now some of you got drunk and woke up married but most people getting married is an intentional act you date you court you're very focused you do everything right you smile at the right time and you shave and take a bath and it causes courting to work and you get married it's an intentional. You win at what you're intentional with. Winning is not accidental.

Winning at money requires budgeting. There's no exception. And you don't get a pass because you're smart. As a matter of fact, if you're smart, you've got to do it twice as much. Because you think you're smart. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,

and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.