The Ramsey Show - App - Becoming Debt-Free Feels Like Getting a Raise (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money.

McKenna is starting us off in Clarksville, Tennessee. Hi, McKenna. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks so much for talking to me. Sure. What's up? So I need to know if it is time for me to quit my job and go back to school.

Okay. Why would you do that? Because I currently do not have a very career-focused degree, and I want to go back to nursing school because that's something that I have a passion for, and I feel like God is calling me to do that. And I have the money to cover the first two semesters, and then my husband and I will be able to cash flow the rest. But I can't decide if I need to quit my job starting in August or not. Why would you not? I think I'm afraid to let go. I think I'm afraid to lose the second income.

Can you make it on his income? We can. And we make that a point to live off of his income specifically. So you've actually done a budget with his income only? Yes, sir. We're on baby step three and we'll actually be done in August. But we're going to have to pay for daycare and things like that. And I just, it scares me to let go of my income to go back to school for two years. What scares you about it? I think, you know, having things come up, I guess. And, you know, my husband's in the military, so he's gone a lot.

And, you know, the main focus of me going back to school is by the time he gets out two years from now, I will have that steady income for us to transition much more, you know, easily, I guess. So I'd be a little scared if you didn't do this right so i just i need to have i'm having a hard time letting go of my income because i'm afraid of what's going to come up in the next two years okay but the plan that you have you can survive and it's a detailed plan and you guys have looked it, and not only you can make your bills and you can eat off of his income, and you can cash flow nursing school the portion that you don't have saved. So you've got a detailed plan.

So the only thing to be scared of is if some bizarre, crazy thing came in in the next two years, right? Right. But you should be scared of that anyway. Yeah. I mean, life comes sometimes you know right so uh no you just don't you don't catch sight of the new land until you lose sight of the old land you have to set sail and um there's always a little bit of you know it's normal human emotion to uh to walk away to struggle with walking away from the known into the unknown.

But it's where all the fun is. You got to do it. Okay. You have to do it. Everything you told me was mature, well thought out, not impulsive, not being drama. It's not a crazy degree that you have no idea what you're going to do with it it's a freaking nursing degree you can work the rest of your life any amount of hours you want to work um and you'll always be employed it's unbelievable i've never

seen anything like that field and so uh it's a lot of hard work but uh but but it's uh it's it's you know for someone that has the compassionate heart and has the the science mind to be able to pull this off it's a it's a wonderful career you need to go do this there's nothing i didn't hear a single thing in this story that says don't do it okay and you know i would tell you yeah get after him kiddo you got this i love it sandra is in pittsburgh hey sandra welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave um i have a question me and my husband are having a little bit of disagreement on we are finishing baby step three this month and we will be starting baby step four good um he makes around 70 000 a year i make 20 part-time mine is a mandatory seven and a

half they take automatically i had to do that through the baby steps because you couldn't quit it now he's saying he needs to take eight his will match up to eight percent and he says eight that'll make our 15 but i'm not agreeing with that i well that's not how math works his eight percent of his income and seven percent of your income does not equal 15 of our household income yeah that's okay you don't add those together that's going to be more like seven and three quarters percent of our household income okay you take the number that is coming out of your check going into retirement divide that into your income and that will give you the percentage you're at about half of what you should be okay so you take 90 let me tell you it should be around 15 000 a year for you guys

15 000 a year okay yeah because i was figuring on taking what we make the total. Times.15. Times.15. That's 15%, right? And so $100,000 times.15 household income is $15,000. That's where I got that. Okay. You guys are making $90,000. So it's going to be like $14,700 or $14,500 or something, right?

Yeah. So that's where you're going to be. And, yeah, you don't get to add 8% of his income and 7% of your income for that to be equal 15. That's not how the math works. Okay. Does that make sense? Okay. Yeah, I think so. Like, take our income tax amount.

15% of your household income annually going into retirement. And that's maybe step four. You know, we're not trying to figure out how little we can do we're trying to figure out how much we can do because the more we do the more money we have okay this is how fast i build wealth not how slow i build wealth yeah no he was just thinking the eight and the seven i said no because i make less than you yeah it's not how it's but even that it's not they don't add together they are of each and take the total times 15 and you're gonna see it's a whole lot more money than you're talking about like i'm doubling what you're talking about yes oh definitely yeah you're doubling what yeah

so then you do we do like mine's a mandatory seven and it's gonna be 250 bucks a month coming out of somebody's checks. Somewhere total. But that's, you know, yes. So add to yours, add to his. I don't care if you put it all on his. Maybe your retirement plan sucks. But as long as the total is 15% of 90, then we're okay.

And the way you do that is.15 times the whole thing. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us. We're glad you're here. We appreciate you being part of the show today. We are in the middle of a move over here. If you've ever moved, it's simultaneously exciting and excruciating. And that includes when you move like from your dorm room and you could do it all in your back seat right uh try moving a thousand people almost and we

moved 300 of them over the weekend they walked in this morning plugged into their first time another 300 the next week another 300 the next week and so that's uh ramsey uh headquarters is shut down for visitors right now because it's full of moving stuff. But plan on coming to visit us in August or later at our new headquarters. It is amazing. And we're all just more than a wee bit excited and nostalgic about the old place. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down?

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That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you're here. Elijah's with us in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Elijah. How can I help? Hey, Mr. Ramsey. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Basically, I just graduated college a couple months ago, and I got a full-time job at the place that I was interning at. It's the perfect place for the degree that I got, but I really think that I'm kind of being drawn towards the real estate industry. I got my real estate license while I was in school, and I just kind of want some advice on how I can start to work my way into the real estate industry, get some experience while I still have this full-time job, and potentially just start going into real estate full-time, but I just want some advice on how to kind of make that transition and get experience while I'm still working full-time.

So you went to school four years to get a degree in a career field that you started a couple of months ago and you're already wanting to leave it. I still kind of enjoy it, but after actually being in the office and getting to see how the business is actually run, I'm not 100% sure if it's what I want to do full-time for the rest of my life. How long have you been doing it? How long have you been in the office? How long have you been in the office? How long have you been out of school?

I've been out of school. I graduated in late April, so I've been full-time for about two, three months. I've been at the office since February. What do you do? It's a RIA. It's a... I work with a lot of CFPss financial advising i got my degree in financial planning and finance and what is it that you thought it was going to be that it's not

oh i just it's not really i wasn't very surprised that i just thought i would probably enjoy the work more um maybe just get a little more fulfillment out of it. But after doing it for a while... You haven't done it for a while. You've done it for three months. Yeah. That's not a while. A while is five years.

I don't really know if I want to go that distance. I just feel like I'm being drawn towards the real estate industry. I just kind of want to start to see if I can get experience and see if that is what I actually want to do. Okay. Well, you're going to struggle at whatever you do if you don't give it more than three months to figure it out. It takes a little bit more time. I mean, you spent four years on this goal, and then after three months, you're abandoning that goal and using phrases like I'm being drawn to, like by a mysterious force.

Now, it just sounds real impulsive the way you're describing the calendar of what's going on. I mean, if you've been in there three years and you hated every minute of it, I don't want you to spend your whole life doing something you hate. That's not my goal. But, you know, you need to really kind of think through what was it that drew you to the financial planning world and then what is it that's turning you off? Because it's not logical that you spent this much time working on something knowing what it was and then after three months just decide you don't like it so anyway the way to move into the real estate business would be if you've answered those questions for yourself it doesn't affect me but if you've answered those questions

maturely for yourself um then the way to move into it would be part-time and get a broker that would allow you to get your license and place your – you said you had your license already – place your license with a broker and start working part-time. The good news about residential real estate is most people look at houses when they're not at work. And so your most premium times showing houses and working real estate deals are evenings and weekends. So it really doesn't interfere that – having a full-time job doesn't interfere that much with doing real estate.

I mean, there's sometimes you do stuff during the day, but the vast majority of your actual eyeball-to-eyeball, kneecap-to-kneecap with a potential buyer or seller is on an evening or a weekend so you can do a lot of that stuff and build up your experience your book of business and uh not have to go from making money to making nothing for six months and starve out uh because it usually takes about six months in residential business to start actually getting closings and making a living and so forth and um you, but there's the good news is a lot of your financial planning training will help you in the academic side of this. I'm sure you probably picked up some marketing classes in that degree as well. Those will help you. Obviously, the financial parts of, you know, helping someone look at a different finance plan for a home or whatever will help you. You've got a good base knowledge of all of that. But I want you to sit down and I'm going to challenge you that you've spent four years working on something

and then three months later have decided it's not okay. That just doesn't ring well. And you need to think that through that part of this through it could be that where you're doing it the group of people you're doing the financial planning with you don't like you don't like their process it feels slimy to you uh you went into this to serve people you don't feel like people are the center of this that numbers are or you went into this to serve numbers and these folks you're working with are too people oriented i don't know but you need to think about is it the place and the group you're doing it with is it the

particular activity you plugged into um and so on and that that's what i would try to figure out so hey thanks for the call open phones at 888-825-5225 our question of the day comes from blinds.com find out for yourself why blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best possible deal. Sarah is in New York. I'm trying to figure out if I should pay off my 2008 car that has $2 left on it when it needs five hundred dollars worth of repairs i've been making double payments at 400 each since the beginning of the year i'm projecting that the car paid off by next month should i fix the car and keep driving

it yes you should and you probably need to get a second opinion on the repairs uh and figure out you know exactly what needs to be done why and uh, why, and some of these things might be minor things that you could do without fixing on an older, cheaper car. And so you need to do the things to keep it running and keep it safe. But sometimes a mechanic will give you a laundry list of things that you could do if you were going to put everything in perfect condition, and you might not want to do that on that car. We do want it to be safe, and we do want it to be reliable.

But past that, don't really give a rip. You know, on a 2008, you know, 10-, 11-, 12-year-old car, we don't spend a lot of money on the cosmetic or the creature comforts, so to speak. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Matthew is in Minneapolis. Hi, Matthew. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a question. Me and my wife, we got audited on our taxes this year. First time for both of us being audited. Got in a letter, and then I called, um, our tax guy and he wanted to come over and visit with us cause something did happen. Um,

and he told us that he mistakenly forgot to add my W2 instead of, um, he just adds my wife's, not my W-2 form sent it in. So now we got $1,900 more on our taxes, so now we owe $1,900. Okay, and how much of that is penalty? Not really for sure on the certain numbers but my tax guy said that um he would take care of any penalties that we got good he should he should it was his mistake good that's a good guy that's a good guy then he's got good integrity um i and i'm going to guess and say you know five or six hundred of the 1900 might be the penalties Or is he saying that's tax only and then there's going to be penalties

in addition to that? Right. What is he saying? He just said that it was his mistake. No, no, no. Does the 1900, is that tax only or does that include penalties? That includes

the penalties. Okay, we need to know how much is penalty because the rest of it is the only thing you've got to worry about, right? And then you need to put this at the top of your list. Have you got an emergency fund? We do. Right now we are starting our emergency fund and we have roughly $200,000. So we put that $200,000, we add an emergency fund towards the IRS bill. Yeah, you've got to put everything towards the IRS bill, and then it goes to the top of your list

as fast as you can. You get after it. Love it. Love it, love it, love it. Yeah, you've just got to knock it out as fast as you can. My guess is it's going to be $1,200, $1,300 of the $1,900. It's extra job. It's garage sale time. Wow. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Michael and Carolyn are with us.

Hey, guys, I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you, Dave. Awesome. Where do you guys live? We live in Mountain Home, Idaho. Okay. What's that near?

Closest to Boise, about 45 minutes away. Gotcha. Cool. So how much debt have you paid off? We paid off $50,000 in 23 months. Good for you. Awesome, man. Well done.

Well done. And what was your household income range during that 23 months? It started just about $80,000, went up to about $95,000, and at the end it went down to $65,000. Okay. All right. So what kind of debt was the $50,000? It was a whole combination of everything. We had credit cards, had a motorcycle loan, had student loans, and we had a medical debt. You were like normal. Yeah, unfortunately.

Wow. What happened 23 months ago that lit the fuse on you two? Well, during our premarital counseling, my father took us through your program, and then about three months after we we got married we really hopped on the bandwagon and began our journey wow cool so is your dad your pastor yes he is okay all right cool because otherwise that would have sounded weird okay yeah i'm thinking michael all right all right very good you guys very cool so Very cool. So you guys just got married then, and three months later tore into it. Yep, that's exactly right.

So how old are you two? Really buckle down. How old are you two? I'm 28 years old. And I'm 26. Excellent. Very cool. So what is the secret to getting out of debt?

You paid off $50 thousand dollars in 23 months um for me i'd say it's budgeting and being on the same page whatever decision we make we've done it together so yep and then for me i would say just sticking to your plan and staying focused and trusting the process how's it feel to not have any payments it's incredible it feels like we got a raise once the last thing's paid off. It's so freeing. Now, which one of you brought the most of this debt into this marriage? Probably me.

Mine was all the stupid debt, too. Mine was the credit cards and the motorcycle. Hers was a student loan trying to get her education. That's me. Good job, guys. Very, very cool. So I'm guessing your dad was a big cheerleader, right? Oh, absolutely.

Who else were your biggest cheerleaders? What was that? Who else were your biggest cheerleaders? The church body was really supportive. That's where we took the class. So the church body was really supportive of us, but mostly just dad and mom. They gave us extra job opportunities, cleaning, anything that they could provide to just help us on our journey. And they're on the journey as well, too, so it really was sacrificial of them to help us out. Very cool.

Excellent! Great job, guys. Great job. Very, very well done. Man, I love it Great job, guys. Great job. Very, very well done. Man, I love it. Well, congratulations. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too.

That's the next chapter in your story, okay? All right. I want you to be millionaires. You call me back on a millionaire, everyday millionaire theme hour, okay? Definitely. I love it. Proud of you guys. Very well done.

Michael and Carolyn, Boise, Idaho, $50,000 paid off in 23 months. Brand new married, started that first thing out of the gate, making $80,000 to $95,000, down to $65,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! That's how it's done, baby. I love it.

Well done, you two. Very, very well done. That is serious, serious fun. Well, as I told you a few minutes ago, it's move week upon move week upon move week around here. For 17 years, Financial Peace Plaza has served as our company headquarters and the home of the Dave Ramsey Show. This place is really special because of you, our fans. We love that you drop by and watch the show live from the lobby and with the fresh coffee and the homemade cookies from Martha's Kitchen. It's waiting on every visitor free.

We especially love you come to the show to do your debt-free screams here. And in 17 years, our Ramsey Solutions team has grown. We were about 54 people when we moved into this building, and now we're just under 900. That's crazy. So obviously we've overflowed out of this building into other buildings in the neighborhood. We cause a traffic jam in the neighborhood by ourselves, and so we have moved out several exits into the country. We have about 47 acres.

We're having a major campus there. The first building is up, along with the studio expanded on the glass. Actually, there's two studios on the glass now. So you'll see some of the other shows and podcasts. You can watch them happening as well. And come and visit. There will still be homemade cookies that you'll smell when you walk into the lobby. There will still be a bookstore, although it'll all be nicer and bigger.

And there's a timeline of the history of how some of the things that you follow developed. And it's going to be quite an extravaganza for you to stop and make it one of your visits when you're in the Nashville area. We're in Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. And we'll open back up in August. So plan on dropping by then, and sometime in late August or early September, we'll have our first Debt-Free Screams live from that building. We actually have a little miniature stage now for the Debt-Free Screams,

where I'm in the studio looking right at you through the glass, as I always have, but it's a little different arrangement now and a pretty serious upgrade, to say the least. It's going to be quite a celebration every time one of you does a debt-free screen. So if you want to visit, just go to DaveRamsey.com slash visit, and you can pick out more information. As I said, early August we'll be open to the public there. And the current building is closed as well because we're in the middle of the move. So just if you're out there running around, you know, planning a trip to Nashville this summer, then in August, put us on your list. If it's prior to August, you're probably going to find a locked door because we're back here trying to clean everything. There's so much dirt. It's been a lot of fun though it's been a lot of fun we've got um two major television studios uh seven

podcast room and two beautiful broadcast studios on the glass in the lobby uh in the facility and so it's um all set up so we can continue to get messages to you guys from the various ramsey personalities this show and whatever else whatever we need to do facebook live youtube live television whatever it is we need to do we can do all of it from there with a mere flip of a switch well once all the switches are in and so and that's a lot of wiring and a lot of brain power going in right now. So good times, guys. Really good times around here.

We're a wee bit excited. And it's quite a – I've never done anything like that. I grew up in Antioch, Tennessee, man. And I've never built a $70 million building and paid cash for it. It blows my mind, the detail and the process that we've gone through the project management things that are involved and uh but boy it turned out and um the team working on it uh the architectural team the contractors our team uh the number of hours we put in building things out for you guys to enjoy when you come and for our team to be more effective and continue to serve you guys that much better.

And so it's right on the interstate on I-65, again, just south of Nashville. Fairly easy to find. I think we're trying to get the Google people to make sure it's in the maps thing because it is down a little windy road in a new area, and it probably doesn't show up on a lot of your software. But you get in touch with us, and there's a little map there, I assume, on everything at DaveRamsey.com slash visit. Kelly, is there a map on that section of the site? Kelly, is there a map on that section of the site where people can find us? If not, let's get one up, okay?

Yeah, I haven't even looked at it. But let's do DaveRamsey.com slash visit. And again, just put us on your list of places to visit if you're in the Nashville area beginning in the month of August, in a few weeks here. So, good times. Very good times. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Kurt is with us in Fort Walton Beach. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Kurt. Hi, Kurt. Hi, Dave.

How's it going, sir? Better than I deserve. What's up? It's a pleasure to talk to you. So, short story, I've been listening to you for about a little over a year. We're in baby step two. Cool. I just got a new job that's drastically increasing my salary,

and now I have the ability to take care of my entire family with health care for the first time. Wonderful. And I'm confused. I don't know which one to do, being in baby step two. Obviously, I don't have a ton of money saved, so I'm debating between a regular health care or an HSA. How healthy is your family? Well, I have a two-year-old, and I have a three-year-old and a four-year-old.

And then me and my wife, we're fairly healthy. I mean, I don't have any issues. My wife has had some dental work and some little things pop up here and there. But I have two little kids, and you never know when something's going to happen to those two. So what is your household income now? We were together bringing in about $80,000. I was a teacher. My salary was like $37,000, and my new salary is going to be $65,000.

I start here in a couple weeks. So we're looking hopefully around $100,000 with the extra job still pushing up there. Okay, good. Very good. And the HSA is available to you, and then you have an HMO or a PPO available to you, right? Yes, sir. Okay. And so the deductible on the PPO is what?

$750,000 and $1,500,000. So I guess $750,000 individual, $1,500 750 individual 1500 family and then the hsa is 3000 6000 okay and um what are the premiums that you pay um so for the the um ppo would be 450 a month for the hsa would be 295 so about so about $155 bucks difference. Gotcha. Okay. Or about $1,800 a year. So in the first year, you would go from $750 to $3,000, which is $2,250 more risk. So if you go one year and

one year and three months without needing to hit the deductible, you'll be making money. Does that make sense? The difference between $3,750 is $2,250. That's the extra risk you're taking with the HSA. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. And you save $1,800 in 12 months in premiums. Okay?

So a little bit more than a year, and you're at break-even if you don't get into the insurance, if you don't hit the deductible, if you don't get into the insurance, if you don't hit the deductible, if you don't have a medical event. So a kid having the flu going to the pediatrician, you're not going to use insurance anyway because it's not going to apply to the deductible. You're going to do co-pays, or they've got some basic doctor visit stuff built in. You're paying that out-of- of pocket either way, by and large. The only thing that we would consider is if you had a major event,

a $10,000, a $20,000, or a $100,000 medical event, and that's the only time these calculations would come into play. The likelihood with your family of that happening sounds like it's very, very low. You'd have normal childhood yeah normal childhood sniffles normal things but the chances your family's fairly healthy i'm taking the hsa and taking the risk okay and putting the extra 100 800 18 1 800 and some change in my pocket every year from now on and that'll help you get through your baby step two that much faster, and that'll help you get your emergency fund built up that much faster.

In addition to that, the PPO probably has an 80-20 after the deductible, doesn't it? 80-50. I think that's insurance. It's an 80, yes. Yeah, 80%. With the HSA, it's 90 after deductible. Okay. So that additional 10% is risk the other way.

So it's $750 is your risk with the PPO plus an extra 10%. So on $10,000, it would be an extra $1,000 out of pocket. You follow me? Yeah. Do I take that extra i'm sorry no you just use everything you can find and you work your baby steps but my point is i'm just helping you do a break-even analysis consideration on these two i have had an hsa on my family since they came out 15 or 20 years ago back in the george bush administration is when they first passed. Okay? I've had one all that time.

I have never hit the deductible. No, I'll take that back. We did hit it one year. One year is all. So I shouldn't put anything into the HSA actual account? No. Just take the savings. Just take the savings.

And the increased risk. Okay? Your risk is going up from $750,000 to $3,000. Understand? Yes. Yes, sir. But it's going down from 80% to 90%, too, on what they cover. Mm-hmm.

So you've got more coverage once you get past a deductible. So, in other words, if you had a $100,000 event, the HSA is actually going to be less out-of-pocket than the PPO. Because the PPO is charging an extra 10%. They're only covering $80,000. The HSA is covering $90,000. You follow me? Yes, sir. On $100,000, that's a $10,000 swing. Wow, yeah.

So if you had a... This stuff is just so confusing. It is. It's kind of a barrel of fishhooks mathematically. It's a little bit of a math riddle. But if you said, okay, let's run out a scenario at $50,000 medical event, $100,000 medical event, you're going to see the HSA, because they they cover 90 even though they don't cover as much on the deductible you're going to come out ahead in those events so the only event that's going to

pinch you more than on the hsa is a like a fifteen thousand dollar event or twenty thousand dollar event you're going to pay a little more out of pocket that way uh so if you had like a kidney stone and it was 12 grand when you went in and out of the hospital or something like that, then that one you're going to pay more out of pocket with the HSA. But a big event or no event, the HSA is going to be cheaper. So does that make sense? Okay. Yes, sir.

And so I'm hoping to be done with step two in about six to seven months. Great. Then do I just start putting a little bit into the HSA? No, just take the cheaper thing and then build your emergency fund. Because your emergency fund is going to be $10,000 or $15,000, and that will cover your deductibles. Very good point. Even though, no, just last, because they do match contributions into the HSA. Should I not worry about that at all?

Oh, when do they, how much do they match? Up to $1,200 for a family. Wow, that's great. After you finish your emergency fund, I would consider that as a baby step four type of a discussion. Roger that, sir. But I want your emergency fund in place first, because you can't use an HSA for a broken transmission. No, I've had two of those in the last year, so yeah, roger that. fund in place first because you can't use an HSA for broken transmission. No. I've had two of those in the last year or so.

Yeah. That's why I would rather have the emergency fund before I fund the HSA. But that match makes it something you'll want to do for sure. We match 500 here at our company. And so that 1,200 match is a sweet match. That also tells us they're trying to get you to go that way because they know it's good for you guys. So we've got the vast majority of our almost 900 people here are on the HSA, like 90-something percent, because the math just works out better for a family that's either got real health problems or is very healthy.

If you're just kind of in the middle, eh, you know. But the days of I've got insurance, so I just go to the doctor all the time, with any kind of insurance, those days are gone. Those days are gone. You have to be thoughtful about using medical care. And that's good that the consumer actually has to stop and be thoughtful about it because it keeps people price conscious when they're buying medical care, just like you're price conscious when you do anything else.

I mean, the difference between what you can get an mri done at one place versus what you can get it done in other places astronomical but nobody stops to look if insurance is paying at all and that's part of what has driven the costs up just like federally insured student loans have driven the cost up of college because there's this flow of money, this gush of money coming at something. And anytime that happens, you're going to see the cost go up when there's no one controlling the spigot. No one's got their hand on the valve. And the beauty of this is that we, the consumer, are watching over things.

And I think the HSA is really going to be one of the big answers to the health care issues, not socialized medicine. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys, it's Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour is over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rams, death-free screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to The Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.