The Ramsey Show - App - Advantages to the Blended Military Retirement Option (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 24, 2018

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We're glad you're here. When I say it's your show, it's because we let you talk. This show actually has more callers than any other talk show in America.

It's one of the reasons it's so popular. You actually get to talk. Jacob is with us in Roanoke. Hi, Jacob. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, thank you, Mr. Ramsey. Thanks for talking with me. Sure, man.

What's up? Hey, I was calling me and my wife. We just finished Baby Step 3, and we're starting 4,500. Good. And we're wanting to know what you would suggest as far as paying off our house. We have a 15-year fixed rate. It's worth about $150. We owe $122.

But we're not wanting to stay in it more than five to seven years probably. We don't know if we should save the money into a mutual fund or if we should continue to try to pay off the house as fast as possible. I would just pay it down as fast as you can. Here's the thing. You're not losing the money as fast as possible. I would just pay it down as fast as you can. Here's the thing. You're not losing the money when you do that. Yes, sir. It's basically your rate of return.

It's as if you had a savings account equal to your mortgage rate, that the interest rate was equal to your mortgage rate. So it's not a bad little savings account. Because when you sell the house, they write you a check. I mean, you get all the money back, right? Yes, sir. Yeah, I didn't know if it's free up, like being more fluid with what you could do with the money or not. Well, I thought you were going to buy another house with it, right?

Yes, sir. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, I mean, you're going to sell this one, so we don't need it for a bass boat. If you're saving for a bass boat, let's do something different. But if you're saving for a house, then I'm going to go ahead and use that as baby step six. But, you know, baby steps four, five, and six run simultaneously, as you obviously know, Jacob, where 15% of your income is baby step four going into retirement.

Five is you're saving something for kids' college, if that's applicable. If you've got kids and you're saving for their college, that's where you would do it. And then any other monies we squeeze or find out of the budget or bonuses that come in or inheritance, we just chunk it on the house, chunk it on the house, chunk it on the house. And as fast as we can do that. And then if the house isn't quite paid off or even if it is paid off and you get ready to move up in-house later, then obviously you sell the property and the money comes all to you at closing. But in the meantime, you've added much more stability

to your overall financial situation as you've gone along. So very, very well done. Connie is with us in St. Petersburg, Florida. Hi, Connie. How are you? Hi, Mr. Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a quick question. We have a home equity loan, but we do not have a mortgage.

Would this be considered Baby Step 2 or Baby Step 6? If it is less than half your annual income, I'm going to go ahead and put it in Baby Step 2. How much is the balance? How much is the balance? It's $30,000, and we make $82,000. Okay. Yeah, I mean, since you don't have a first, I mean, we could argue to do it either way. It doesn't matter.

The point is you're going to get it paid off pretty quick anyway. Okay. Whether you just force it into Baby Step 2, it's okay if you roll it over to Baby Step 6, but let's go ahead and have a plan. Since it's so stinking small, you'll be on Baby Step 7 in no time, right? Yes, sir. That's the plan. You know, so either way, you're going to leapfrog to Baby Step 7, whether you do it through

6 or through 2. Okay. So as long as you've got your emergency fund in place and your house paid off, you're at Baby Step 7. Well, hopefully we'll be there soon. Yeah. I mean, you make good money versus your mortgage. You're in really good shape.

You've done wonderful. Very well done. Ernie's in Tempe, Arizona. Hi, Ernie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? So I'm looking at going from the traditional high-free retirement system in the Army to the new blended retirement system. And I know what I'm going to do, but I still wanted to call in and talk it over. Okay. How long have you been in the service? I just hit 10 years in March. Okay. And you look at this as a career? I do, sir. Okay. Thank you for your service. As young as you are in the program, I think the blended is going to benefit you more. Mathematically, I think you're going to come out ahead. Because here's what happens. Military retirement, the classic military retirement, after 20 years you get this wonderful check for the rest of your life.

That's the classic normal military retirement. The new blended, of course, is a 401k system. In a sense, where the money is now in your name. And so let's pretend that you decided in five years or six years that you were not going to have a military career for your whole life, and you decided to move on. You don't have to get all the way to the 20, because you've got this other money in your name.

And if you die, if you choose a survivor benefit on the military, you've got your wife will get it, but if you don't choose that, she gets nothing, your family gets nothing, and either way, when both of you die, it's gone. When you put the money into your name, it survives all of you and continues to go on to your heirs. So the blended is a better wealth-building tool over the long term and gives you more control over your future. Now, if you were at year 17, I might tell you different.

I mean, the math starts to tip over then. But we work with the military folks a lot, and a lot of financial peace classes being taught all over the world in military situations. And so we get this question a lot. And, you know, as I've looked at it, that's the generalities. But, you know, you could sit down with one of our SmartVestor pros. They can help you look at it. But any time I can move money into your name early in the process, meaning you own it and you control it no matter what happens,

that means you're going to come out ahead. Again, if you were in the 17th year, the 18th year, 19th year, the numbers start to tip over then, and you go, I'm just going to go ahead and get my 20-year retirement because it's so stinking strong. And obviously, the retirement amount you get is reduced if you choose the blended. But that doesn't matter. You've got control of that other portion of it so that that's that's where we come down on it alicia is with us in atlanta hi alicia how are you i'm great how are you doing better than i deserve what's up um so i recently uh came into uh some money money for about $30,000.

I have about $55,000 of student loans. That's the only debt I have. Great. Get it paid off. Well, my question is that I live in Atlanta, and I have two kids that are 10, and I was wanting to buy a house. No, no. So I kind of would have thought there was an exception to baby step number two. I wouldn't.

I wouldn't. When you buy a house and you're broken in debt and you don't have your emergency fund and you're still in debt, you're asking for trouble. We tell folks to, yes, I want you to get a house too. And Atlanta's no different than any other place. I want you to get a house, but I don't want this house to get you. And so I want you to be debt-free, 100% debt-free, and have your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses in place.

And when you hit that, then save your down payment for your house. So this $30,000 just accelerates your debt freedom. And then you need to get on a real tight budget and finish this off. Get the rest of this debt cleaned up so you can start saving towards a house. But no, I would not buy a house when you're in Baby Step 2, ever. 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

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and for the past four years, I've been making good money, but nothing to show for it. All she wants to do is take vacations and go out to eat. Richard, you're probably not going to like my advice, but I'll give it to you anyway because you asked. Here's the thing. I answer questions on this show, what would I do if I were in your shoes? And I have read, I don't know, 20, 25 studies with all kinds of data points in them that indicate all of them conclusively

that people who are married get along better than people who are shacked up when it comes to money. And people who are married versus being shacked up actually statistically become wealthier on average. Now, there's exceptions, obviously, but there's a tremendous data out there that talks about the benefits of marriage. Now, I look at that as a Christian through a moral lens as well, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about just the practical data points that say that your relationship functions better in that situation. It's a little different telling your girlfriend what to do than it is your wife.

It's a little different telling your husband what to do than your boyfriend. Or when something's important to you. I think we should do this, but there's not really a we. I think we need to get on a budget and we need to save for retirement, but there's not really a we, not legally speaking. And for that matter, not spiritually speaking. And data says not relationally speaking. So you leave yourself at a disadvantage there.

So you asked, you know, so I'll just tell you. I think part of the problem is marriage. So I think you get married, and part of your pre-marriage counseling, even though you've been together for a bazillion years, you ought to sit down with a good pastor, a good marriage coach, a good marriage counselor, and get pre-marriage counseling should include, let's get on the same page with money. And, you know, we need to be on the same page with money.

We need to say, okay, we're going to live on a written plan that we both agree to and that we both have a vote on. So it's not me telling you what to do, not, we're going to live on a written plan that we both agree to and that we both have a vote on. So it's not me telling you what to do, not you telling me what to do, but we're going to get on a plan and we're going to work towards being debt free. Why? Because that leads us to be able to be more generous and to be able to go on vacations or go out to eat and that kind of stuff. But, I mean, if you will just step back and say, it's tough for me to get my roommate to not want to go out to eat, that's a different discussion than I want to talk to my wife about we eat out too much, because when we're 80 years old, we're going to be broke if we don't straighten this out. It's a different discussion. It really is.

And I know some of you don't think it is, but you're wrong. Again, I've read 20, 25 studies on this, and there's all kinds of socioeconomic, psychological, relational data out there that matches up with my faith belief as well, which happens to be handy. But it's not just this blind thing of, oh, Dave Ramsey's one of those guys that believes in God. Well, yeah, he is one of those guys that believes in God. And so I believe you ought to be married before you're sleeping together.

I know. Duh. But that's just that. I know. I know some of you don't like that. And you know how much I care? Not at all. So that's what I believe.

And so you asked, you're going to get that. That's what you're going to get. So, by the way, those of you that are getting engaged or thinking about getting married, one of the best pieces of research that I ever saw, and I've read it in probably similar conclusions in several different locations, says that before you get married, if you if you want a highly successful marriage and a very low probability of a future of divorce. I mean, it takes your divorce rate well under 10 percent if you do this. It's amazing. These four things be in agreement on these four things.

Money. Is the big one. Number one thing people fight about in marriage, in relationships, is money. So be in agreement on it. Finding agreement on money is everything, because where you spend your money says what you think is important. And when you think two different things are important all the time, you're never going to have fun. Now, if you can get to both of them, that's fine. But you're never going to have a great relationship when one of you wants to spend like you're in Congress and the other wants to save everything and live in a cave and only come out on triple coupon Thursday and collects Lent. And so you have to get on this.

You have to have this discussion, this meeting of the minds on your value system on money. And that's a budget. That's getting out of debt. That's building wealth. It's putting money in the 401k because we want to be an everyday millionaire, all those kinds of things, right? Being in agreement on money is one of the things. Number two is being in agreement on kids.

How many to have, if we're going to have them, and how we're going to treat them. Ramseys are old-fashioned people, as you can already tell. The inmates do not run the asylum at our place. We are in charge. You're smaller than me. I can take you out and make another one that looks just like you. That was my theory. And so you're going to behave. And my grandkids are being raised the same way. Thank you, Jesus. So there you go. We're not mean. We're just don't raise little

hellions that think they're in charge. They're respectful. And as the three-year-old said the other day, they have consequences if they're not. What three-year-old says consequences? Rachel Cruises, that's a vocabulary, unbelievable. So I have consequences. You get your butt busted. It's a good thing, you know. So how you're going to treat your kids kids how many you're going to have if you're going to have them the third one is in-laws how you're going to deal with the crazy people in

each other's family and every family has crazy in it if you don't think there's crazy in your family it's you every family has crazy in it somewhere how are you going to deal with some kind of someone who's going to violate a boundary at some point? And if you don't have that set up, you're going to get to experience it, and it's going to be a strain on your relationship. And the last one is being in agreement on religion. It's very unusual for people to have long, long, long, happy, high-quality relationships that have two different spiritual beliefs.

Now, I'm not talking about Baptist or Methodist. I'm talking about, you know, one of you doesn't believe there's a God, one of you does, so on, that kind of thing. Because your value system gives you your beliefs, and your beliefs give you your attitudes, and those give you your actions. And so your actions are always going to be in conflict with each other when you don't have basic belief systems in harmony. That's what it comes down to.

So you need to be in agreement on religion, in-laws, kids, and money. If you do that prior to marriage, I'm telling you, you could almost wipe out the probability of divorce. If you want to add to it a couple of things, here's a couple of the data points. If the household income stays over $50,000, you did not have a child prior to marriage, out of wedlock in other words, you both graduate from college. These are all variables you control. If you do that with the four things I'm talking about, your divorce rate drops below 5%. 52% of Americans end up in divorce.

Yeah, but it's messed up situations most of the time. You can control a lot of these variables. It's the quality of your character, the quality of your life, and the quality of your decisions decisions and being in harmony intentionally. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that if you combine the data breaches that have occurred in the past 12 months, almost every American has had their personal info compromised or hacked? Over 50% of our listeners and viewers tell us that they or someone in their family has been a victim. And 70% of those folks have had it happen more than once. See, this is unbelievable.

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Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. We are all at risk, and it doesn't make sense to wait. Numbers don't lie. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Linda is with us in Boston. Hi, Linda. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me.

Sure. TGIF. Sure. What's up? So I have a question for you, and I'm really thankful that you're taking the time out to talk to me because we've got a decision coming up, and I'm not sure which way to go. My husband and I are selling our house and we've been living away from the city, kind of living cheaply, and the commute's just kind of killing us. So it's really time to move closer into the city in Boston. We're about an hour out

right now and with traffic, our commute's around an hour and a half sometimes, an hour and 45 minutes, and we just can't do it anymore. So when we move closer to the city, the home is going to start to get expensive. We're also looking at renting, and the rent for, you know, to try to live a little cheaply is just as much, you know, $2,000 to $3,000 a month kind of range, which is, you know, pretty much a mortgage payment on a smaller house. We're close to zero.

You know, we're on our second marriage, and when we first started out, we were pretty far in the hole. And we've worked very hard over the past six years to really get ourselves into decent shape. I hope we're in decent shape. And so we kind of have to decide now, do we get ourselves into decent shape. I hope we're in decent shape. And so we kind of have to decide now, do we get ourselves back into the home? Okay, when you sell your current home, are you going to get equity out of it? Yeah, we're going to get around $100,000 equity. Okay, and how much debt do you have not counting your home?

$20,000 on a car. We bought a car used, but it was $20,000. Okay, so that's got to go. The debt's got to go on that, and that leaves you $80,000, or you sell the car, one of the two. Yep. And then you buy a house with $80,000, and what's wrong with that? Well, I'm just not sure, because, you know, we're still going to have, well, okay, so right now our total debt is around $150,000, including the mortgage.

What's your household income? So we earn a little under $280,000 combined. That's gross annual. Okay. So here's the thing. Figure out what your take-home pay is, not counting insurance coming out, not counting 401K coming out. That's on 8K.

Your take-home pay after taxes should be around a little over $200,000. is not counting insurance coming out, not counting 401K coming out. That's on 8K. Your take-home pay after taxes should be around a little over $200,000. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So by month, it's around between 8K to 10K, somewhere in there. No, it's more than that. Oh, okay. 10K is $120,000 a year. You do not have $200,000 in taxes.

No, that's true. Okay, so it's more than that. Yeah. So your take-home pay ought to be approaching $17,000 a month after not counting health insurance, not counting 401K. Okay, so I don't want you to have a house payment that is more than a fourth of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed with the down payment that you have. Okay. And that's what I would tell you to buy.

And I think you can buy in Boston for that as you're getting closer. You're just going to get – what you've got is a per square foot shock. You get sticker shock per square foot. A bit, because what we're going to buy is, in that range, the houses are around double the price, and the taxes are double, too. And the good news is it's going to go up double, too. So, I mean, you're going to get great appreciation on it as far as an investment goes long-term as well. So here's the thing.

The other option is to rent. That's an okay short-term goal. Renting is okay short-term for different reasons. It's a bad 10-year or 20-year strategy to rent because during that time, house prices go up and you would have benefited from owning a house. You know, the equity, for instance, you're getting out of the house you're selling. That's money you made because you owned because you didn't rent. And the second thing is rents go up.

And when you buy that house on a 15-year fixed rate your payment's not going up now your taxes and insurance will go up over time but your payment itself is not going to go up and when you rent a hundred percent of the time over a 10-year period of time your rent's going to increase always rent's going to increase. Always it's going to increase. So you've got an increasing cost of housing with no investment when you're a long-term renter. When you're a long-term owner, you've locked in your cost of housing, you've sealed it, and you're getting this return, even though it doesn't go into your pocket, but you're building worth, you're building net worth, You're building wealth by being an owner.

And in most cases, it's tax-free growth in most situations, so the vast majority of them under current tax law. So I'm going to tell you to buy. Now, if you're going to go live in Boston, you think this is a little bit of an experience downtown. It's, you know, we're going to try this for a year, and then we're going to figure out what we're going to do. Rent for a year, that's fine.

It's an adventure. But if this is a five, a ten year plan, you think you're staying, bye. Lacey is with us in Charleston, South Carolina. Hi Lacey, how are you? I'm great. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I am wondering if

my husband and I should stop on our debt snowball in order to save for an upcoming military move, and that move could happen any time from next month to two years from now. Okay. The military, yes, that move is likely to happen because about the only thing you can count on with the military is they're going to move you. That's right. But they don't give you 20 seconds notice. They give you plenty of notice.

Well, my husband is in his unaccompanied orders right now. He's already gone, and we're left behind. And he's going through a thing, and if he doesn't make it through the thing, we move at the end of that month. Or he'll get orders, and we're ready to move. Okay, so you've got notice. You're pretty much going to move. Yeah, yeah.

It's not going to be two years from now before you move. Well, that's when he'll be done with his school is two years from now. Oh. Yeah, it's a big one. So the decision won't be made until then i'm hoping he gets all the way through it and we expect where we're going next the decision won't be made until he drops out of school kicked out of school or finishes school right okay yeah okay so he's gonna finish school it's gonna be two years before you know yeah so you got two you

got two years so you don't need to i mean 90 probability you got two years yeah i mean unless something really bad happens you know um i believe in him i think he's gonna make it i think he's gonna make it too um i don't know you know you could out you could ask what the percentage of people that start this are that finish it you know and and try to look at it that way and say you know well only 10 finish this thing whatever this thing is he's gotten into right and if that's true then um then maybe you are you're going to move sooner than two years i don't know but the thing is you're usually going to have more than a few minutes notice and you could stop then i i i think right now it's just this exciting change and you, you know, you're dealing with a separation

and all these other things that you deal with in the military. And so I'm not ready yet to stop your debt snowball and start saving for the move yet. But stop it in plenty of time to save for the move once you kind of see the move coming and you really got the date nailed down. But usually you've got three months to figure this out, and if you stop it for three months and throw all your money in a pile for three months, you can cover the move in most cases. I don't know what level in the military you are.

I don't know what your income is. I didn't ask those things. But most of the time that's the generic, you know, the general way you're facing this. And so thank you for your service, by the way. And thank him for his service. We appreciate you guys. Folks, if you are a buyer in this hot seller's market, I mean, you put a sign in the yard right now on a house that sells, right?

You might feel pressured to buy more home than you can afford or pay more than you should for that particular house because, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, it's going to sell, it's going to sell, it's going to sell. Everybody's in a panic, right? And so what you've got to do is you've got to put somebody in your corner that keeps you from getting off track you gotta have somebody that guides you through the process and a great agent is the guide that'll help you stick to your goals and a bad agent will cause you to buy a house you didn't need to buy or get all hyped up and put in $40,000 extra just to cover the bid because there's a bidding war or something. But no, a good agent is going to help you hit your goals.

They're going to help you know that you got the right down payment on that 15-year fixed. The payment is no more than a fourth of your take-home pay. Our endorsed local providers are the top 10% of real estate agents in your area. If you want a high-octane, high-protein real estate agent with the heart of a teacher that's going to walk you through in the middle of a hot market, help you navigate all the complexities of this, go to DaveRamsey.com and click Endorsed Local Provider and get one of the top real estate agents in the world in your area. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Strong and courageous do not be afraid or terrified because of them. For the Lord your God goes with you.

He will never leave you nor forsake you. Muhammad Ali said, He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. Danny is in Colorado Springs. Hi, Danny. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. It's a pleasure to talk with you. You too.

I appreciate your advice and want to ask for some. Okay. I am looking to retire in about eight months. I'll be 68 years old at the time. I have two debts. One is a truck that I can finish paying off by then, but I would like to retire debt-free. The other debt is my mortgage, which is $275,000 on that. I have an IRA that's worth $300,000.

Should I use that to pay off the mortgage? i know there'll be some tax coming out of the ira may not be exactly enough but uh do you have a other nest egg i've got a savings account of about 60 000 that's my uh emergency fund you don't have another 401k or anything else for retirement yes i do oh how much is in your 401k it's 1.1 million oh that changes it okay okay okay i thought for a second we were using all your money to pay off your house but not anymore that just changed with the last sentence you said yeah okay so yeah definitely gonna pay off the house okay good, good. I know that the interest rate on the house is only 3.5%. That's okay.

You wouldn't go borrow $2 million at 3.5%. No. That's scary death. And what you want, you want the peace of mind and the sense of freedom that you've worked your whole freaking life to get here and be a millionaire, and you want to be debt-free, and that's what you should do. What's the house worth? It's worth about $475,000.

All right. And so you've got a net worth of $1.6 million, $1.7 million, give or take. Yeah, something like that. Good for you. Well done. I sold the house. Yeah, well, no, you don't sell it. That's how your net worth is calculated.

It's what you own minus what you owe. You don't owe it. That's how your net worth is calculated. It's what you own minus what you owe. Okay. You don't owe anything in this scenario. It's worth $475,000, and you've got $1.2 million left in the other stuff. And that's where you go. So this is really, really good. Very well done. So since you're a millionaire, let me ask you a question.

Do you mind? Sure. Okay. How much of this money did you get because you inherited it? None. So you started with nothing. Absolutely. Okay.

What was your bill? Left home at 18 and worked my way ever since. What's the most money you ever made in your life, household income, in one year? One year I hit $200,000. Okay. Most years you averaged $100,000, $100,000? Most years, less than $100,000. What did you do for a living? What was your career field? It's in sales. Okay. Good for you. Good for you. Okay. And you're married? Yes. Okay. Did she work outside the home? No. Okay.

Never in your working life, huh? No. We've had children, and now we have grandkids that live with us because of other situations, but we're their guardians. Absolutely. Okay. Cool. Good.

Good. And so do you have a four-year degree? Yes, sir. In what? Biology. Okay. Bachelor of Science in Biology. Okay.

And then you went into sales. Well, actually, I went from there into health care, and from there I went into sales. All right. Cool. Do you remember what your GPA was in college? It was about a little under three points. Yeah. That's typically where the millionaires land, right around three.

So, for the 27-year-old millennial listening, what would you tell them if they wanted to be you when they grow up? They want to retire with a couple million dollar net worth, including a paid-for house. What would you tell them? How did you do this? What were the mechanics? Well, one of the biggest things that I found myself in trouble in early on was using credit and um i i couldn't figure out for a while how to get out of uh the credit debt because i was paying everything i earned uh to live on and um going back to your baby steps i didn't actually use them but but they all fall into place.

You quit. How old were you when you became debt-free other than the house? I was about 58. Oh, wow. That's 10 years ago. Yeah, it took a while. So a lot of this stuff's happened in the last 10 years. Yeah.

Okay, you had the 401K going all along, but you cleaned it today. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've had that for about 30 years. Okay. I've been contributing, you know, everything I can to that to build that up. Okay, cool. So do you think it could be done today? There's a biology major sitting here listening to you right now. Yeah.

They really need to look at how they use that degree and how they use it. Well, I mean, they go into the marketplace and their career evolves, which is what's happened with you, right? Right. But, I mean, bottom line was you didn't stay in biology. There's nothing wrong with staying in biology. But, you know, they graduate. They got a 3.0.

They're not doomed for life. Oh, God, we're never going to make it, right? I mean, they can they got a 3.0 they're not doomed for life oh god we're never going to make it right i mean they can go do this can't they absolutely and one of the things i did uh to avoid having a big uh uh education loan was i worked my my way through college uh it took a little bit more than four years but uh i was able to pay for it as I went along, and that helped a lot. What university did you graduate from? University of Arkansas. State University.

Okay. All right. Hogs. All right. Razorbacks. Blue pig. Razorback. All right.

Good deal. Fun. Well, very fun. Ended up in Colorado Springs. Danny, you did very well. Congratulations, sir. Move big. Razorback. All right. Good deal. Fun. Well, very fun. Ended up in Colorado Springs. Danny, you did very well. Congratulations, sir. Thank you. Thank you for letting me interview you since you're an everyday millionaire.

And by the way, Danny's story is like a cookie cutter template of what we found when we studied 10,000 millionaires. 401K. Avoid debt. got their house paid off, did not have a 4.2, did not inherit it, were not doctors, lawyers, and Indian chiefs. Working people. Working hard. Working while they were at work. Getting better all the time at their job, evolving in their career, steadily investing,

discovering debt didn't work and cleaning it out at some point in the process. The typical one we meet, they hit the millionaire status the first time around, 52 years old. Danny probably wasn't quite there with the math he gave us. He might have been, but I don't think he had a million-dollar net worth then. But he's approaching two million right now at 68. Said he started cleaning off debt at 58, if you remember hearing that. So is it too late for you? I think you just heard it wasn't.

He kind of got a late start there on some of it. He had the 401k going. That was an advantage, right? But it's not too late. Is all the opportunity gone in America? Wages are stagnant! Wages are stagnant! CEO income has gone up dramatically while the minimum wage has not moved.

The people that work at McDonald's are all starving to death. Oh, my God. See, this is the crap that's out there flying around right now that some of you people are saying and believing. It's absolutely ridiculous. That guy right there tells you, right? He's just very calmly says, I don't know, this is what you do. Just put money in your 401k.

Get out of debt. Live on the lesson you make. You don't have to be a rocket scientist. You can do this. Isn't that amazing? But you can't wail like a beagle that's been run over by a car and expect to go ahead and get ahead.

You've got to do this stuff. You're not a victim. You're a victor. Make a decision. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and 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 guys, it's Blake Thompson, Chief Production Officer for The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's up, but you'll find more on our YouTube channel, where we have over 6 million YouTube views each month. You can find debt-free screens, millionaire hour clips, Dave Brant, and so much more. Go check it out.