The Ramsey Show - App - Advice for Teens Who Are Making Lots of Money (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 15, 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. Thanks for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Gary starts us off in Boise, Idaho. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Gary. Thank you very much for taking my call. One question. My wife and I are looking at purchasing a family home, and I've heard a lot of people lately talking about that subject.

Ten years ago, I had a stroke. My career was ended. Over the last ten years, I've been on Social Security disability, and with a combination of that money coming in with my private insurance and my employer, I get about $60,000 a year. We're debt-free. We've got $90,000 in the bank. I've got $10,000 in the IRA. I've got emergency funds set aside for three months or so. And my wife's brother, who owns the home, wants to sell it.

And we didn't think about buying this house initially, but we're looking at houses we have been, and they're just too much money for the house around Boise area, and the prices are going up. People are moving here from all over the country. So we were asked if we wanted to purchase this house we're in, which we're already in it. We've been in here for a lot of years.

So have you been paying rent? Well, yeah. Our situation is I'm doing all the upkeep on the house. I pay all the taxes on the house. My wife's brother, who lives out of the country, basically doesn't have to do a thing. And so we pay for everything and that's kind of like you would think that's our wins we're paying all the taxes and anything that this house

needs or has to have done so your wife and her brother own the house together no my wife's brother owns the house free and clear oh okay what's the house worth? We've had realtors look at it. We've had it appraised already by appraisers, and they say $250,000. Okay. And what will he sell it to you for? Well, $250,000. No. That's not right.

Because if he sells it to somebody else... We've had realtors, many realtors look at it and because of the comps on the area they think the house is worth anywhere from about 260 or 268 so let me stop for a second let's stop for a second let's say you move out of it correct and he said puts the house on the market for 260 and he sells it for 250 he does not net 250 he's going to pay a real estate commission and closing costs and other stuff that a seller will typically pay. He's not going to net probably 88% of that,

so about $25,000, $30,000 less than $250,000 is his net. So with no real estate agent involved, he can sell it to you for $230,000 and make just as much money. Yeah, and we have no real estate agent involved in this deal. So he's not offering you a deal is the bottom line. Well. He's not. Okay.

Okay. It's okay. It's not a deal breaker, but, I mean, if he's offering it to you for $150,000, it changes the equation, but he's not. Right? He wants full price for it. Okay. Is that what you're telling me?

Yeah. I mean, it's $250,000, and we're thinking about buying it and putting 20% down and carrying the mortgage on this. I got you. Does your wife work outside the home, or $60,000 is your total household income? No, she works outside part-time, and she brings in about $10,000 a year. Okay. She has a $ a 70 000 household income can you put the balance on a 15 year fixed or the payments no more than a fourth of your take-home pay well um one year from today one year from my 66th year birthday is in one year from now and at that time i lose half my income because of my, the way the policy is written through my private insurance. So the only thing that I'll have income-wise will be my Social Security, which is around $2,300 a month, plus whatever my wife brings in part-time. so i'm just you know so with the money we've got we put down we've got let's say 30 000 or

something left in savings is that cutting it so close even if we i mean what will your house payment be it'll be it'll be more than half of your income at age 65 yeah well with with with the taxes insurance and everything everything the house payments are about, all that's $1,300 a month. And your household income is going to be $3,000, you said, right? Right. Yeah. That doesn't work. Yeah.

So there's the balance. That's not sustainable. Yeah. And so then we thought, okay, let's don't buy a house. Let's rent a house. But then the rental market is higher price than what the payments are to house. That's fine. But when you make $3,000, you can't pay $1,300, $1,400 monthly for housing.

Well, and then the other equation is uh my wife says well maybe you'll have to go back to work and and do something with consulting for what i was doing on my career so and then so whatever that may be or could be would be just added on top of but there's a lot of what if okay well i'm not going to tell you to do something that puts a house payment of 1400 on a guy making three thousand dollars a year from now that is not sustainable so you have to have a different plan than that or you're going to hit the wall and a year from now will be 26 i know26,000. I know. Well, I'd say, yeah, it's $3,000 a month, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I know.

And so you cannot say rent is expensive, so I'm going to have a $1,400 house payment, principal interest, taxes, and insurance with a $3,000 a month income. That does not work. So one of those two variables must change in this discussion. Either it is a lesser payment or a greater income in order for this to be sustainable. Because from age 65 to age 85, you will want to buy stuff like food. And you're not leaving room in this math to do that.

And so that's what I mean. And I'm not being sarcastic, but that is too tight. That will not work. This will blow up in your face. You will end up getting foreclosed on if you do not have a different plan than $3,000 income, $1,400 payment when you turn 65. So we have to have a different plan. I don't care which one it is, but no, you cannot go forward until you have that figured out.

And, you know, you said you had $90 in the bank. If you put that down, it might be the whole thing down, plus you leave your emergency fund alone, and you look at some extra part-time work between now and then and after then, that you create some more income. Maybe your wife creates some more income because her part-time job's pitiful. And, you know, maybe that's how you get the income side of this equation up. And then you throw that whole 90 at this and start working with a lower payment. That'd be better.

But it appears to me that this is probably just simply a house you cannot afford. That's what it sounds like. And it sounds like you're going to have to go through the heartbreaking process of moving to a cheaper house. That's what it sounds like to make this sustainable. But if you can figure out a way to get your income up, I'm perfectly fine. But don't do this without a plan. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Do you know who is a prime target for identity theft? Your children. Kids have no debts or credit history.

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Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com, the number one online retailer of window coverings in the world. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you save even more. Always use the magic word, the promo code Ramsey. Addie is in Colorado. My husband and I have been married for a year. We're expecting our first child.

We live in Denver. I want to make a move because of the price of living here. My in-laws have offered to allow us to live with them while my husband goes back to school and works. Do we live with parents to pay off debt and go back to school or stay where we are and not be able to pay off debt as fast and go back to school you already know what you're going to you're not asking a question you're making a statement oh lord um let's see do i stay here and starve or do i go to my parents and prosper you know oh brother come on seriously um there's probably a third option or a fourth option or a fifth option uh but if you want to leave denver and you want to live with your in-laws

and him go back to school there's nothing wrong with that it's certainly obviously the way you've worded this what you're going to do um but if you wanted to go to that same town and rent a little place and both of you work more and maybe you have a side hustle and you get with christy right on business boutique and you start a great business on the side and you don't live at your in-laws but he does go back to school and you do make the move back to that city that's another option right so um but yeah it's um it's okay to to live there for a little while in order to get out of debt and in order to go to school debt free and in order to work and make things happen that's fine uh obviously the downside of the whole thing is you're living with your in-laws and some people can do that and others can't um i love my father-in-law he's a wonderful man we

just went to his 90th birthday party he is a saint he has 13 grandchildren 19 great-grandchildren all of them are functional just shocking i mean it mean, it's just amazing. I mean, what a great legacy and what a great man. The chances of me living in his house at any point in my life are zero. So it has nothing to do with him, and it's all to do with me. I'm just not going to do that. But that doesn't mean it's immoral. It doesn't mean it's wrong for you to do it. I was just something I don't do.

But if you want to do it and you're good with it and mommy and daddy are happy and you're happy and i know your husband's gonna be happy he's gonna be eating his mother's cooking again so i mean we know how that you know but there's all these dynamics and things that are going to happen here that usually put strains on people and you just really need to think through that and if you you're going to do that, don't go over there without a B plan in case this relationally becomes a toxic situation. Brittany is with us in Orlando, Florida. Hi, Brittany.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my question today is we owe $88,000 on our house. And with the economy change and the housing market going up, we have a lot of equity in our home. So my husband and I are trying to decide either A, stay in the house, pay it off because we don't owe too much on it.

Or B, I was thinking sell it, take the equity, the money we make, buy something cash, and save some money, live there for a little while, save up, and then move into a home that's going to fit our family and use the other property that's already paid for as rental property. Okay, if you did that, you'd go back in debt again, and so no, I'm not doing that. You made all these gyrations, and then you bought a house to move into that fits your family, went back in debt, and you got a paid-for rental property. No. If we stayed, the rental property we would live in for...

I know. I got that part, and then you're going to keep it, and it's paid for, and you don't have the money to buy the next house. If we save the money. You're going to save 100% down payment on your next move up while living in the house that becomes a rental? So that's the only way you would do it? Yep. Okay.

Otherwise, you effectively are borrowing money to buy a rental. And that's not technically what you did, but effectively on your balance sheet, that's what you did. And you made three moves to cause this to happen. No, no thank you um so this house that you're in does not serve your long-term needs for the next five years um for the next five years it does then just sit there and pay it off okay unless you hate it do you hate it no i do love it okay just stay there and pay it off the fact what's tempting you is um the fact that it's shot way up in value. Yeah.

And that's what's tempting you. That's the carrot that's causing you to come up to the fence here. And so, but no, I'll just, because here's the thing. If you make all these other moves, all those other properties have also shot way up in value. Right. And so you're moving your increase in value to somebody else's increase in value. And so it's not like you're taking this money and moving to a market where something didn't go up in value or moving into a property that didn't go up in value.

No, I think I love where you are. And it's a steady. Ten years from today, you'll be living in a nicer home than you're in now, and it will be paid for. Okay. Because you sold this one that is paid for pretty quickly. You only owe $88,000 on it. You're going to get it paid off soon. Good job.

Thanks for helping me or for letting me think through that with you. William's with us in Madison, Wisconsin. Hi, William. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. So I'm sure you get this question a lot, but it's, like. Hi, William. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. So, I'm sure you get this question a lot, but it's like different for everyone. How should I

be investing my iPhone reselling businesses' profits at 16 years old? You're 16? Yes. Okay, cool. So, you're iPhone reselling. You're buying old used ones and reselling them for a profit?

Yeah. Pretty cool. Who's buying them used ones and reselling them for a profit? Yeah. Pretty cool. Who's buying them? Sorry, what did you say? Who's buying them? That's pretty cool. I post ads on Facebook and Craigslist, and then people come to me and I negotiate for a lower price, and then I just sell them on eBay or Craigslist again.

Yeah, you're buying them there. Okay, and you're just flipping them back out on eBaybay good for you yeah pretty much very cool smart very smart so how much money you making uh so it's between one and two thousand dollars a month it really does depend on how many people come to me sure profit yeah that's one,000 to 2,000 profits. Excellent. About 5,000 to 10,000 in sales. You're a stud, man. Well done. So you got a car yet? No, I don't.

Okay. I have my license, but not a car. All right. And so how much have you got saved? About 3,000. Okay. Well, my first goal, if I'm 16, is to get a car and pay cash for it. Uh-huh.

But you're not that far away. You already got 3,000. Put another 10 with it, you got a it you got a 13 000 car that's better car than any of your friends have got yeah yeah okay so that'd be pretty cool that's 10 months of it then after that who's paying for college uh my parents are if i go to an in-state school okay so you're going to an in-state school good all right and And what are you going to study? Entrepreneurship? I don't really know. Maybe something that's like a skill that I can use for a business.

I don't really know. I think you're an entrepreneur. You're 16 and you're making $12,000, $14,000 a year selling used iPhones. My God, you're an entrepreneur. Okay? This is amazing. I'm so impressed. Very well done.

So pay cash for your car. Make sure you get through college. These are your two biggest things that you need to concentrate investing on. You'll have plenty of time after college graduation to become wealthy and start long-term investing. If you have college paid for by your parents and you have an extra $50,000 sitting in the bank, pass that. If you want to do something in a paid-for car, you could start doing some Roth IRAs, but I wouldn't do it until you hit that point because I want you to go make a thousand percent sure you get through school and you study business. Please, you have to study business. And

we need you out here. you can actually balance books and everything you're impressive and so uh yeah graduate from school 100 debt free never borrowing money for a car or for school that puts you probably in the top two percent of the population to start with we'll go from there and decide what we're doing but uh if you get more than 50 000 saved up to make that happen then i'd start doing some roth iras but until then i wouldn't william investing is not your secret weapon your brain is your secret weapon because you have a good one this is the dave ramsey show We'll be right back. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month.

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Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Whoops, no, Grant's not in, but he is in Bozeman, but I don't get to talk to him right now because there's people standing in my lobby wanting to do a debt-free scream. I screwed up. Steven and Kaylee are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? What's up, Dave?

Good. How are you? Good to have you. Where do you guys live? We live in Franklin, Tennessee, about five minutes away. Yeah. Not Bozeman. No.

Well, welcome, neighbor, all the way over here to do a debt-free scream. That's right. How much have you paid off? We've paid off $34,000. Very cool. And how long did this take you? It took just under two and a half years. Good for you.

And your range of income during that time? We started at about $30,000 and ended at $65,000. Good for you. Well done. Well done. So what kind of debt was the $34,000? It was all my student loans. What do you all do for a living?

I'm a preschool teacher. Oh, cool. And I'm a video producer for a radio station here in town. Oh, which one? Oh, Way FM. Oh, yeah. Buddy's Fowers. Yeah, great, great organization.

Yeah. Good for you. Well, fun. Great careers. And a young couple getting started out. How old are you two? I'm 24. We're both 24. Wow. Look at you. Well, fun. Great careers. And a young couple getting started out. How old are you two? I'm 24. We're both 24.

Wow. Look at you. Okay. So I'm going to guess and say you got married two and a half years ago. That's right. About. Yes. Okay.

And decided together to attack this debt. Tell me the story. How'd this all go down? Yeah. So go ahead. Okay. Well, we got married and I've been listening to you forever. Like, we grew up on FPU.

I used to listen to the CDs whenever I was, like, getting ready during the day. So I came into marriage like, okay, we're going to budget. We have a plan. You know, we're going to follow the Dave Ramsey thing. Kaylee came in not really— I mean, she was down with it, but she was like, what is this and who's this Dave Ramsey guy? I didn't know your parents were in a cult. Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah. So we actually went through FPU together, and you learned a lot about budgeting. Like, she basically took over. Uh-oh. Yeah. Maybe that was so I didn't have as much money to spend during the week, but I was okay with that. Okay.

I got a feeling I know who the nerd is and who the video-producing free spirit might be. Yeah, okay. All right, good. I love it. Very cool. So you grew up a financial peace baby. You get married, and then Kaylee, you guys go through the class together. So Kaylee, this was all kind of new to you, and your husband starts acting like he's an alien or something there for a minute.

But then you get into financial peace, and what was it when you were in financial peace university that clicked for you? I think it was whenever I realized that it felt good to have a plan because throughout high school and college, I would earn my paycheck. And then that next weekend and week, I would usually spend it all on non-essentials. And so I had worked all those years and then ended up looking back and I had no money saved. So that felt pretty bad. And then whenever we started, like when we were engaged and getting close to marriage, we started looking at what a budget would look like for us and things like that. And then whenever we got married, we did our first budget together and it just felt really good to know where all of our money was going okay so have you had any big budget fights oh man no i mean there were there

were a few times whenever uh one of us would go for me it was video gear like i would go and spend i know i would go online and it's one click to buy a lens on Amazon. And so that was my thing that I had a hard time with. Yours was Old Navy, I think? Yeah, I guess. And just like some weeks would be tighter than others. And so I would tend to get discouraged those weeks. And so I feel like I would just take it out on him. So it wasn't like a budget fight. It was just I'm mad that we're not out of debt yet.

Okay. You're mad you just placed it in the wrong place. That's right. You got transference. Yeah, all right. Okay. Yeah, but I mean, really, I mean, video gear is one category of spending. Old Navy is a different category.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think those are measured up. Okay. That's fun. You guys are great.

I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you. Who are your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you? Probably our families, I think. My parents both lead FPU classes down in Florida, so they've been cheering us on the whole way. I think you introduced me to the phrase, standing on the shoulders of giants. Yeah. And whenever I think about that phrase, I just think about all the work that they've put in and their cheerleading, and we couldn't have done it without them.

Yeah. That's very cool. How's it feel? It feels great. It feels really good. Yeah. It honestly feels the same right now because we're still in baby step three and so we're trying to stay gazelle during that, but it feels way better because we're paying ourselves

instead of, you know, Sally Mae. Yeah. Got rid of the old woman. Kicked her out. Yeah. Good for you. Well done. Thank you.

Well done. Well, we got a copy of Chris. Kicked her out. Yeah. Good for you. Well done. Thank you. Well done. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, The Everyday Millionaires. Number one bestseller, because you're going to be some. You're on your way. You're 24. You're debt free. You almost got your emergency fund done. You know what? But you know how to handle money now. You're telling it what to do instead of wondering where it went.

And it changes everything. Well done, you two. Thank you. All right, Stephen and Kaylee from Franklin, Tennessee. Neighbors, $34,000 paid off at 24 years old. Two and a half years, making $30,000 to $65,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! We're debt-free! I love it i love it i love it i love it boom just like that very soon we will start our 28th year of doing this radio show and our 27th year of doing 26th year of doing financial peace university and uh of course when we started the radio show four people were listening in the first class we taught three people went through you know i mean it was a little different scale than it is today there's 15 million of you out there right now about about 5.5 million of you on podcast, and about 9.5 million of you on our wonderful local radio affiliates, and 50,000 churches have now taught Financial Peace University.

So it's different. But I never dreamed back in those days, I thought if I could just help that guy that calls in that's 40 years old or that gal that calls in that's 27 years old and help them get control, help them get out of debt, then I would be okay. I really never dreamed I would be talking to the children of people that I helped, the financial peace babies, the 24-year-old couple that just get married, and his mom and dad are financial peace

university coordinators he grew up on this stuff he never thought about doing it any other way so when he gets married it's you know we're gonna budget we're getting an envelope system we're going my new wife's going through financial peace with us we're gonna get on the same thing and it just never occurred that's a generational change knowledge uh when applied is called wisdom. And wisdom in your life, biblical wisdom in your life, transforms not only your life, but your family tree. And I am

so privileged to get a front row seat to see these family trees being changed. I have never given a single person in Financial Peace University money. I had to make the decision because one of my gifts is generosity, but I had to make an ironclad decision to not give someone that calls in on the radio show money. Because, you know, so many people that call you could give i could give them six thousand

dollars to change their life right now but that's not what this show is it's not a it's not a telethon and financial peace university so i i have to force myself to show them how to show you how to fix your life instead of fixing it for you. Because otherwise, I just, you know, you're teaching people to fish rather than giving them fish. And they can eat for the rest of their lives then. Oh, and change their whole family tree generationally. That is a beautiful picture, you guys. You want to change your life?

You know, you got a 12-year-old? 12 years from today, that could be your son or daughter standing out there doing a debt-free scream. And having done this show for 27 years, I will just go ahead and testify for you. 12 years goes pretty fast. Uh-huh. The 12 years is going to go anyway. So you might as well do something with it. You're going to live your life anyway.

So you might as well squeeze every drop out of it, darling. You might as well change not only your life, but your family tree. Financial peace, babies. What a blessing. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. All right. Now it's Grant's turn in Bozeman, Montana. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Grant. Thanks, Dave.

How can I help? Well, I'm really looking to maximize my wealth and kind of develop an investment strategy for the long term here. Trying to retire earlier than I should. Okay. So right now the case is I have no debt. I am investing or saving, I should say, 22% of my income. And that's going into a 401k, a savings account, and then an investment portfolio. I guess what I'm wondering is out of those three options, which do you think I should put the most eggs in that basket, I guess?

Okay. And how old are you? 23. 23. And what is your household income? $40,000. Okay. And what is your household income? Forty thousand. Okay. And your home is paid for?

Yes. Well, I rent. You rent. Okay. Yes. All right. And you make $40,000 a year, and you're saving 22% of your income. Mm-hmm.

Okay. All right. Well, the equation changes after you have a net worth of $5 to $7 million. But the first $5 to $7 million, the equation is pretty well dialed in. We just finished the largest study of millionaires ever done. A million-dollar net worth is what that is. In other words words that's the first stage of becoming what we would call wealthy it's not uber rich but it's wealthy and there's about 12 million millionaires in america a net worth is what you own minus what

you owe we found in the wealthbuilding side of the millionaire equation, as we studied 10,000 of them, almost all of them, like the numbers depending on which thing we were measuring, were anywhere from 80% to 95% of them fell in this category. They paid off their home in around 10.2 years, and they invested steadily in 401Ks and Roth IRAs in good growth stock mutual funds. They stayed away from get-rich-quick anything, and they didn't borrow money hardly at all.

They almost never carry a credit card. And if they do, they almost never carry a balance on it. They haven't borrowed money in a car in 20 or 30 years on average. When we asked them what their largest mistake they ever made was, they said buying a brand new car and putting it on payments. And that was back in their 20s, and they got over that. And so what we can learn from them, the first stage to millionaire, and you could be there with your income.

You could be there the $1 million to $2 million net worth probably by the time you're 35, probably 12, 14 years, because you're a very focused and intentional young man. You could have that first million. Now, the equation changes when you get up above five to seven million, how people build wealth. They go from there to uber wealthy. It's different. But the first million, let's say I'm talking to someone on the millionaire theme hour, and I ask them what their money's invested in.

They say, well, I've got a net worth of a million and a half. It often sounds like I've got a $500 thousand dollar house that's paid for and i got a million dollars in my 401k and so i'm worth a million and a half and that's it's really kind of two elements to their wealth sometimes they'll have a hundred thousand dollars in cash or sometimes they'll have a little stock or a little bit of an investment portfolio but that really wasn't how they made it they made it by buying a home and getting it paid off early, way early, and by steadily, constantly investing in those things. So that's what I would advise you to do based on that study, based on the results of that study, that if I were 23, I would do that. And so that tells us in your situation, I want to make sure you're putting 15%, not 22%, of your income into your retirement plans,

and then I'm going to start saving up aggressively to buy a home in a good neighborhood. Were you to get married later, you would discover you've bought the wrong home and will get to move. But anyway, yeah, but you could at least get started and uh and then move to another property and then you know making that having that paid off as soon as possible and steadily during that time putting 15 of your income away will lead you to a 35 to 37 year old one to two million dollar net worth now we did not do anything in increasing your income during those years. And so, honestly, if you go 15 years without getting a raise, you'd be called a loser. So most everyone's income goes up over time, okay?

So, you know, but we can just take the linear projection without the exponential projection and know that we can get you there, which that helps us know that you can get there so hey hold on i'm going to send you a copy of chris hogan's book everyday millionaires because it outlines some of the findings of the study it also gets you lots of inspiration it is not a nerd white paper if you're looking for an academic white paper on the study it is not that it's not full of charts and graphs. That's not what it is. There's like 22 or 32 statistics in the book on the millionaires. That's what it is. And then we talk about the millionaires, and we tell stories about the millionaires, and

we show you that you can do it. So that's what this book is, and it's a number one bestseller. So hold on. We'll send you a copy of that as our gift to you open phones at 888-825-5225 elijah is in grand rapids michigan hey elijah how are you how's it going dave better than i deserve i'm going to be up there next week you coming i don't know maybe uh well if i give you tickets you want to come i got some left i got about 150 tickets left for the Smart Money event with me and Anthony on Wednesday night. If I give you a couple tickets, you come?

Yeah. Yeah, totally, man. Done. All right. How can I help today? So, first, I got a really funny story. The guy who was just in, who was telling you about how he got debt-free, he's my college roommate. No way! The debt-free. He's my college roommate. No way!

The debt-free scream? No, not even joking. The guy that did the debt-free scream in our lobby just a minute ago. I did not plan this at all. That's hilarious. I'm trying to look in the lobby. There's a big crowd in the lobby. I'm trying to look in there and see if he's still in there.

That's funny. Cool. How can I help? So, anyways, that's besides the point. So some financial background. I'm the same age as Steven, 24. I'm making like 76. I have a house, got a wife.

We just had a kid recently. Last year, I paid off 15 grand of my uh student loans i've got 45 left um and i was wondering what your thoughts are on taking the money that i'm putting into my 401k um and putting it into my loans instead yeah that's what we do. Not to cash it out, but we teach you to stop adding to investments temporarily to completely focus on your debt snowball. Don't save any money anywhere

above $1,000 in your starter emergency fund. Don't cash any retirement out. Any non-retirement savings that you've got should be cashed out and thrown down to a thousand dollars and thrown at the uh that snowball and all of your income should be pointed at the debt snowball temporarily because what you focus on in anything is what you win it and so um hold on i'll have kelly up, and we'll get you a couple tickets to the Grand Rapids, Michigan live event coming up Tuesday night. By the way, Anthony O'Neill and I are doing that.

If you've not seen Anthony speak, he is a fireball. He's a blast. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away motivated. You're going to laugh. Your reluctant friend or reluctant spouse that you bring will be changed. So about 150 tickets left for those of you in Grand Rapids for next Wednesday night. We also have the Entree Leadership one day the day before for those of you in business.

The smart money is going to sell out. It's probably going to sell out in the next 24, 48 hours. But the Entree Leadership is not going to sell out. There's room in to sell out in the next 24, 48 hours. But the Entree Leadership's not going to sell out. There's room in it. You can come and get in touch with us. Just go to DaveRamsey.com. By the way, both of those events are live-streamed for the rest of you, and any of you can watch them.

And very, very inexpensive. Just click on DaveRamsey.com on our events page, and we'd love to have you sign up and be a part of that. It's going to be a lot of fun. I love it. Grand Rapids has been good to me for 20-plus years. I love that city. It's loved us.

Thank you guys so much. We're heading up there for yet another sellout. It's not quite sold out, but it will be before I get there. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. show. Hey guys, this is Blake Thompson, senior executive producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 15 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen to one of over 600 radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.