The Ramsey Show - App - Bonus Episode: 30 Years of Life, Money, & Hope on The Ramsey Show

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

In this special bonus episode celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Ramsey Show, Dave and the personalities take a look back at 30 years of the show. They talk about the best and worst calls, the heart behind the show, and where they see the show going in the next 30 years. It's a special episode filled with stories from THREE DECADES of amazing people doing amazing things to change their lives and live like no one else. Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/2LJoOlhZ4Ak

Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. You know, it's crazy. The Ramsey Show has been around for 30 years. 30 years! Wow! To celebrate, I sat down with all the Ramsey Show co-hosts to take a look back on some of the unbelievable experiences we've had over the years. We talk about the best and worst calls we've taken,

and we remember some of the most gut-wrenching, inspiring, and even bizarre moments on the show. We also talk about the heart behind the show and where we see the show going in the next 30 years. It's a special episode filled with stories from three decades of amazing people doing amazing things that change their lives and live like no one else. Guys, this is The Ramsey Show. Hey, I'm George Camel and I want to help people spend less, save more, so they can live a life with more freedom. Basically, I want to help people suck less with money. Hey, my name is Ken Coleman and I help men and women discover and do the work that they were created to do. Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz and I love helping people get in control of their money

and create a life that they love. Hey, what's up? My name is John Deloney. I sit with people who are struggling to figure out the next right step for them. Hi, I'm Christina Ellis. I love to help people figure out how to pay for their educations debt-free

and win with money. Hey, I'm Dave Ramsey. I've spent the last 30 years of my life helping people get out of debt, become wealthy, and become outrageously generous. So we're here celebrating 30 years of The Ramsey Show. Dave, you've had a lot of success over the years.

Best-selling author many times over, over 600 radio affiliates, 18 million listeners, three hours of radio for 30 years. Are you tired? No, I'm fine. Okay, I'm fine. Life is good. Well, take us back because it's easy to forget that it didn't start this massive and this big headquarters and big shows and all these team members. Take us back to where it started. Well, there was a radio station in Nashville that was in bankruptcy.

And I went on, a friend of mine that was a real estate guy had a show that was pretty much like a bad Saturday Night Live skit, like bad talk radio. If you did a Saturday Night Live skit, that's what it looked like. Only he was serious about it. It was just bad. And they had no staffing. They were in bankruptcy. So he answered his own phones. Live on the air.

Live on the air and no screening. How does that work? Not well. So anyway, I went on the show and we were talking about real estate. And we were in this real estate club and trying to get people to come visit the club with the speaker coming to town and that kind of thing. And then towards the end of it, he goes, so, you know, what are you doing these days? And I said, well, I'm helping people that have, you know, had trouble financially. And he goes, well, if you've had trouble financially, just call in right now. And if you're struggling and the phone rang, and he wasn't used to the phone ringing much, and it kind of scared him.

And so he's like, you're on the air. And some guy's car was in repo and was crying. And you're right there. And so we answered the call. And then somebody else called. And we answered the question. And he wasn't used to getting that kind of action on the air. It was because it was bad. And he goes, hey, man, come back. Let's do this again. That kind of worked. And I went, OK. So I did it a couple more times. And then a friend of mine in the mutual fund business at the time called me and said, the guy that you were on a show quit. They were paying him $35 a day or something

and his check didn't clear in bankruptcy. And he goes, we ought to go do that show. And I went, I'm not doing radio. Radio people don't get paid nothing. They're like bankers. Big egos and titles and no money. I need money. I am broke.

My kids are hungry. I'm not doing this. He goes, hey, man, we got to go do that show. He goes, you could do it a couple days a week. I could do it a couple days a week. I'd get leads for my mutual fund business. And who knows, you might even sell some of that stupid little book you wrote. And that was financial peace.

That was financial peace carrying it around the trunk of my car. Wow. We're all so nervous. Like, I can only imagine not doing anything. Like, now you're used to, like, right, we do cameras and radio and all of that. Yeah. Oh, and we were bad. Were you nervous, though?

Yeah, but we were bad. It was awful. Did you know you were awful? Yeah. No, y'all probably thought you were great. Well, I mean, there's part of you, but I mean, we were cheesy, but we were country fried accents,

and I later got a coach, a voice coach, but it was like, WWTN, we're talking Nashville. Y'all call in, y'all gain money questions. It was hillbilly redneck radio. I remember being little and driving through downtown Nashville and the billboards started going up.

Yeah. You had a milk mustache. Yeah. There was a campaign called Got Milk. It was like all over Nashville. Yeah, there was a campaign called Got Milk that was popular 30 years ago. And all these celebrities with their milk mustache, and it was kind of a passive-aggressive question, got milk?

And so we said, got debt debt and put milk mustaches on. And the scissors and all of it. It was great. But good imagery though. So was this back in the money game days? It was a money game from day one. That's what it was called. When did it transition to the Dave Ramsey show? We had started syndicating the show and the guy that was on with me left. And there was another guy working on Fridays who they fired him. The radio station wouldn't let him keep going

because he started doing politics stuff. And so I end up last man standing doing the show. And we were trying to syndicate it, doing marketing nationally with the money game, the money game, the money game, the money game. And Laura Schlesinger, Dr. Laura was blowing up. She was getting huge. We had about 30 stations or 40 stations at the time.

And Rush was, of course, huge. And Sean was blowing up. Hannity was blowing up for the first time. And so, you know, we actually had a great marketing guy that's a friend of ours come in and go, you know, you're killing me here. Rush does not have the political game. Dr. Lara does not have the relationship game.

People are having trouble figuring out, there's too many things going on with this brand. You need to just bring it to the Dave Ramsey show. You need to brand everything off of Dave Ramsey. We shifted everything to Dave Ramsey, branding off the single person brand. And then everything drove through that brand. And that focus is what helped us move everything. Events, books, websites are working. It was in

the early days of the web. This whole place was built on you and your personality. So at what point did you go, okay, this can't just be about me forever. We've got to bring in more voices to carry this message. At what point did you start thinking about that and taking action? About 15 years ago, in my mid-40s, I said, you know, this thing's not going to outlive me if we don't decide how we're going to carry the message in the next generation. And as we started thinking about that, we said, well, we don't really say anything that's unique. Lots of people have said, live on less than you make, get on a budget. Lots of articles were written by boring financial people.

The only thing that's unique is that we actually love the people. We actually care about people, and we're actually helping them. We've got compassion for them, and we're sassy and smart aleck and funny and tell stories and entertaining and convince them in the midst of that to go through their transformation. So we realized at that point that the business, the whole thing we built would just die with me if we didn't have other people that could do the same thing, that could love people well, engage them, be smart, smart aleck,

loving, compassionate, whatever it took, bold, whatever it took in the moment to do not only good radio, but be good on the stage, be thought leaders in their space. And so we started with the idea of bringing other people on. And we discussed for a hot minute just it being Rachel. But the more we looked at that, that would be unfair to her

to dump the weight of the whole thing on one person, number one. And then number two, we couldn't find anywhere where the single follow-up, the single brand following the brand had worked. We hardly couldn't find anything that worked, but God kind of spoke to us and said, you know, it's a one-to-many handoff,

not a one-to-one handoff. And so that's how you all are. Here we sit. Thank you. Thank you, guys. I'm so glad all of you are here. You really wimped out. Happy lays the crown.

How do you guys sum up what The Ramsey Show is? Like, if you're talking to a stranger on the street and they're like, what's The Ramsey Show? How would you all describe it? I would say it's a place that people call in with their questions about their life and it's more heavily geared towards money. But yeah, it's just like a couple of people sitting in a radio studio, friends, and taking people's calls. I think there was a- There's like a simplicity in my mind. If you remember, I'm going to butcher it possibly, but I think many years ago, the tagline of the show was like,

where real life happens, call after callers. Real life happens, caller after caller. And I think even that's an older moniker, I think that's actually still extremely relevant. We're kind of diving into whatever mess is going on in life and going, here's how we think we can help. Well, it doesn't matter what the topic is. That caller is calling in in that moment going, I need some help.

I mean, if you think about the dynamic for someone to call into a live show, and we're all weird. We're a small sliver of the population that doesn't freak out when you're in front of people. I mean, most people really do fear public speaking more than death. And so the pressure for someone to call in live on the air and talk to somebody,

that's a terrifying proposition for a lot of people. So there's that. And then they're dealing with something where they go, this is, I feel like I need a breakthrough. And so regardless of the topic, like Rachel said, it's just a real person with a real struggle who needs real help. I remember the first couple of calls I took on my podcast

and it came out organically. My first response to their question was, why are you calling me? And like, that's a huge thing. Why haven't you called your friends or your pastor or your family members? And to a person, every response was, dude, I got nobody. Like you're the only person to call. And so if you had asked me right when I was starting, what is the role of this show? Like, how do I explain it? I would say it's a show people call about life. Now I've, I think my answer would be different. It's, we'll be there. It's a call.

When you've got nobody, we'll be honest with you. And we'll tell you what we think. We think we're pretty smart. We think we know what we're talking about, but we'll be honest with you. And I think that there's a lack of people who will be honest with you and not try to play some games with you and just say, here's what I would do in your situation. And I think we're just missing that. Yeah. I also think it's just like a safe space. Like these topics we talk about, sometimes there's stigma around them, people feel shame and they feel intimidated

to talk to their friends and family. And it's like, this is a spot where we're comfortable with this. Like you can bring us your ugly stuff. You can bring us the things that you don't want to mention to anyone else and we'll work through it. We'll celebrate with you

the things no one else will celebrate. Well, that and within the first 30 seconds of most calls, it's like, hey, how much money do you make? How much debt do you have? And like, you're not going to just like tell your BFF that usually. You're like, eh, that's kind of personal information. But I'll tell these strangers on the phone because there's no, and that's the beauty.

I'm like, there's no emotional attachment to us in a sense because we're like, we're here. So you call, we'll hear it all. You can cut through months of bullcrap. Hey, I remember when I was first seeing counseling clients in my practicum, they would tell me all kinds of things about their intimate life,

about their relationships, what they failed at. They would not tell me how much they made. They would not tell me how much debt they have. And it's so funny. It's like, hey, my name is Tom. How much do you make? And how much debt do you got?

I mean, we're like right through it, man. And we change people's names. How much of that make and how much debt do you got? I mean, we're like right through it, man. And we change people's names. How much of that's credit card debt, Tom? Exactly. I mean, it's like super like you failed. Let's just lay it all out. But I mean, I think there's a level of the world is desperate for that. And you don't get it anywhere else because we've got to do 17 sessions in therapy to even get to that question.

We've got to establish trust. You called us. What's the problem? Let's get right to it. We've got to establish trust. You call us, what's the problem? Let's get right to it. So to your point, John, Dave, you built a trust brand. Do you, you know, I don't take it for granted that people call in and trust us with their life's greatest problems.

Is that something you were intentional about from day one? Or did you kind of go, oh, people trust me. I got to make sure I handle this well. You know, we started out just answering the tactical question day one. And then we started realizing, wait, they really are opening up and letting us into the intimate parts of their life.

And then they would call randomly about some marriage thing or something. And I'm like, I can help you with your 401k. What are you doing? But it started, you know, what we used to call Uncle Dave or Papa Dave started kind of evolving pretty early, even though I was young. But it was just this trusted friend that was wise

and that would, you know, that seemed to have just some common sense about life. And we started realizing that that was there. And what that is then is a tool to actually be able to help them. Because they're not going to take any advice if they don't trust you. Right. And if you violate that trust, when we violate, we all goof up. When we mess up, even the smallest of things.

Sometimes we're compassionate when we should be, even the smallest of things. We don't, you know, sometimes we're compassionate when we should be a little tougher. Sometimes we're too tough when we should have been a little more compassionate. And you mess up the connectivity and the audience all knows that. I mean, it's not just the caller that gets that message. So then it's a little harder to trust next time.

So, but most of the time, the audience has been really forgiving. And at least portions, the portions that aren't forgiving are gone. So, but they're listening to something else. But, you know, these people are trying to help. I was on my walk this morning, a construction worker in my neighborhood stopped.

And he goes, hey man, I'm a millennial. I listen every day. I love your stuff, man. You're changing lives, man. You changed my life. Thanks so much. And I'm like, dude, you changed your life. I didn't change your life.

But I mean, that guy's out there and he's listening to when I talk to someone else. He'll never be a caller. But great guy. Yeah. But he'll never be a caller. So that trust is built on consistency over time. You're not wavering in your opinion,

Dave, for better and for worse. So talk about some of the foundational principles that run throughout the show. It all kind of falls under the umbrella of be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so we can look out there in any department, compartment of our lives and society, marriage, parenting, mental health, career, money, you name it, business ethics, leadership. We can look into any area out there and see the vast majority of the people

in that segment are dysfunctional, they're struggling. Because, and so you don't want to be normal in almost any of those categories I just mentioned. You want to be unusual. And success is unusual, so it's why we say, it's why we look and smile when we say that person's successful, they have a successful marriage.

Because it's unusual, you know? And so the underlying principle is to lead them away from the dysfunctional normal to the functional abnormal in whatever area it is. And that's just truth telling, and again, compassion and boldness and laughter and stories and tears. And then people trust you, and then you can take them by the hand

and lead them to the next place they need to go in all of those areas. So that's kind of the underpinning underneath all the different topics from money and life and relationships. Rachel, you've been in the money space for a decade now here at Ramsey as a personality. What have you found the common threads,

the principles that carry regardless of the cause? Well, from the money angle, I would say those underlying principles are teaching people to live on less than they make, which means getting out of debt, staying out of debt, having margin in your life, which frees you up in so many other areas when you have margin in your bank account. You know, the rainy day funds, like, I feel like those were, those are kind of the tried and true. And it's funny because it's so simple, right? Like, that's what, that's what

makes me laugh about even the show. That's your mind-blowing money advice right there. I know, that's what's funny about the show is like,'s 30 years of kind of, especially the financial perspective, the money perspective, it's the same stuff over and over and over and over and over and over. And still you'll get people that are like,

oh, you are so wise. I'll never forget one of my first national hits. I was in New York City doing one of the morning shows on set. And we were doing the live segment

and I made the comment, yeah, just, you know, you have to live on lesson you make. Because it's something I've heard my whole life. It's what we say here at Rooms the whole time. It's just like a, and these people that I've watched on like these anchors on the show

that I very much look up to in life because I'm like, oh, or not look up to, but just I watch them in my own house. They looked at me and one of them said, that is so smart. And I was like, she just said I was so smart? On Live On Less Than You Make?

Amazing. So yeah, so I think for us too, like those people. We're doomed. Jesus is coming. But no one is saying it though, right? Like to his point. Well, there's a simplicity to the advice. When you're conformed to the world,

you're doing what the world is doing. And they're not like on something so simple of live on a scene make. So that's always the bright spot where I'm like, we can insert hope into the culture. And it's not confusing. Like, we know what I mean? Like we get to bring out a very simple plan and we get to talk about behavior change and the things that make it difficult. But that's what I love about all the principles is I'm like, there's not many and they're pretty simple, pretty simple to understand. Hard to do sometimes. One of the things we do in all the areas

is we take the complex and make it reachable. I often tell people in our marketing team or on-air people all the time the same thing. Put the cookies on a shelf where everyone can reach the cookies. Because in the mental health field, we like to speak over, financial people like to speak over career coaches.

They want to use $70,000 words when a $2 word would have done the job. But it's all in an effort to look smarter, feel smarter, build themselves up rather than communicate, connect, and help someone where they are. And so in that sense, we get the joy of just being regular folk who just happen, you know,

we don't have to be hottie-tottie. We don't have to be, you know, better than, because financial people do this a lot in that world, and we're just not those people. We're just, may or may not like us, or you may not or may not agree with us, but what we say is simple. It's doable and it's life-changing. I think that's part of the reason it's the second largest talk radio show in America.

It just connects with every American out there. We're not using big $10 words like you're saying. We try to keep it really simple. And John, you've got two PhDs. That's got to be especially difficult for you to bring the cookies down the street. No, not at all. You're going to spend your whole life with hoity-toity books. One thing that I think Dave taught me real early was I've got, Dave's got success. He's got his name on a building. He's got a nice car, right, a nice house.

And him and his wife still disagree on things. And he's got reckless children, right? That's still- Gone off the frontier. Get off the rails. I was like, not just his wife disagrees with him. Children with that. Oh, geez.

We can't have a family session break out. But like, I think there's something about a, here's the right steps and it's hard. And then I'm gonna go first. And I think that's missing from popular culture and popular media is if I can just get to this place, then everything's perfect and everything works out. And I can't identify with that.

I can't identify with the marriage that nobody has any problems. I can't identify with, I'm out of debt and I'm still gonna have a disagreement with my spouse. Cause I wanna buy that new guitar so bad. And she's like, we don't need another one. You don't even play in a band. Like I know, but I need that.

I wanna know that someone's still having that disagreement or like, I want this new car. We've got, you're good on cars. Nope, I need this one too, right? Now I can relate to that. And I think there's a human element that's like, oh, that guy's just like me, right? Our bank accounts may look different

or our business may look different, but that dude's just like me and I'll follow that guy, right? This may sound silly, but it's like whenever I'm talking and I'm thinking through how can we translate the data and the content? It's like, if I were listening to this,

would I get bored? Like, would I zone out and just kind of tune out? And if that's the case, then it's like, okay, we got to bring this down. We got to make this more relatable because it's like, I mean, would I zone out and just kind of tune out? And if that's the case, then it's like, okay, we gotta bring this down. We gotta make this more relatable. Because it's like, I mean, when I'm reading content that's like way up here and heady, it's like, ooh, they sound smart, but like, this is boring.

Yeah, and what am I gonna do with it? What am I gonna do with it? How do I apply this to my life? Why does it matter to me? Totally, totally. The dumbest thing I've ever done with money is I let a friend talk me into a multi-level marketing purifying water thing that I never sold and honestly, it was so stupid.

You know how many mowers I got? Four. I got four mowers. The dumbest thing I've ever done with money, I kept paying for a gym membership for three years because I told myself I'd go soon, and I never did. I've got three deep freeze.

I've got a problem. Okay, I got a problem. The dumbest thing I ever did with money was to go deeply in debt, buying a bunch of real estate in my 20s, which caused me to go bankrupt because I was dumb. I once shipped a pair of shoes on Craigslist to Nigeria for a guy's cousin, and it was a scam.

It's honestly probably when I buy like expensive designer stuff. And then my wife's like, wow, we have two deep freezers, why do we have a third? I'm like, here's what I think. I think what's about to happen is zombies. There's a lot of calls that are on a spectrum from hilarious to heartbreaking to strange.

And Dave, you've had the brunt of this, having taken over almost 100,000 calls based on some rough napkin math we did. Wow. I know it's hard to pinpoint some of the weirdest or funniest moments, but are there any that are burned into your memory that have become a core memory for you? I can't help myself. I got a greatest hit request. Okay. Because he's walking us right to it. You got to tell about the call of the guy who had the brilliant idea for the telephone booth. Oh, God. Because I feel like

this is a perfect example. It represents the strange. I've completely melted down on the air in laughter to the point I couldn't recover two times in 30 years. I could not get it back. You know where you just get that laugh and you're just like. It won't stop. Like 13-year-old girls at the lunch table. It's the church giggle. You can't stop.

Church giggle. Yeah, you can't stop. You can't breathe. You can't. And the more you try to get back, you can't get back. And so breathe, you can't, and the more you try to get back, you can't get back. And so, yeah, this guy calls in the second segment of the show and this is a long time ago because there were pay phones.

For those of you who don't know, there were these phones we used to put quarters, dimes into and then later quarters and you could make a phone call that way. And this guy calls up and says, you know, I figured out how I can get free phone service in my house. And I said, okay, how are you gonna do that? And he says, I'm gonna put a payphone in the house.

And I'm like, well, somebody's gotta have the quarters to put in. He goes, well, I'll furnish the first set of quarters, because when they put the quarters in, then I'll take them out and give them back to them, and they can put them in again, and so I'll get free phones. That sounds like Congress.

And I'm like, dude, you have to pay for the connection. You have to pay for the phone line. And I start, he goes, huh? And I said, when you put a pay phone in your house, if it's not connected with the phone line, and I just started losing it because you just bought a phone line that you were trying to not buy,

and it's just, and I, this guy's dumber than a rock, and I just, and I just started, I just completely melted down, and I mean, and you can hear it in the audio, it's just, and finally,

Blake just, you know, he was a producer. He just took it to commercial because I couldn't get it back. We went to commercial early. Screwed up the whole network. Affiliates were going bonkers. They didn't know what to do. But he just started playing commercials because I was not coming back.

I was thinking of the advisability of putting in a pay phone instead of my regular phone service because for $800, you can get a pay phone. Joe, you have to pay for the phone line still. I get a pay phone still? Yeah, if you don't hook the phone line to the phone, you're not going to have a dial tone. Okay, well, that's what I wanted to find out if there was a hole in this. It's what's called an air gap. That happened to me once on the air that I couldn't recover and I had to like look down and I was just silent the rest of the time because if I looked up, I would have just started. What

was it? It was on the air with you and this girl called and she was like, yeah, and I can't, I cannot remember who she was or the numbers or anything, or even the story. I don't even remember the story, but it was basically like, you know, I have $30,000 in debt and I can do this thing where I sell this thing and I'm going to make 120,000, but I just need to invest a hundred dollars into this idea. And I'm going to make all this money. And, and, you know, and I'm, and we're all like, okay, okay. So this, and Dave's asking her a few, you know, clarifying questions. And finally Dave goes, okay, Sarah, where did you get all these numbers? And it just goes silent.

She goes, out of my butt. Out of my butt. And I was like, oh my gosh. I was not expecting that. And I just, and I, and then when the people in the booth, when the producers in the booth, they're all laughing. Oh yeah.

And he's laughing. And they all lose it. And I'm like, I can't. It's hard to recover. And I was like, and I just, it's funny for 10 seconds, but then if you get the laughs, and you can't recover,

then you're laughing at the fact I'm laughing, and then you're done. And I was done. Well, and the booth guys got to where they would just drop below the floor and laugh because they knew if I was looking at them laughing, it was going to make me start to lose it. And I couldn't. Oh, my goodness.

But I've been able to get through all of them. How much are you going to charge? I was thinking probably like $100 to $200 per room. Where'd you get that number? Out of my butt. Well, probably ought to do some more research than that. Oh, Lord have mercy.

I'm losing it. We used to do a stupid tax hour, and people would call in. If you'd done something stupid with money, you lost the money, we called it stupid tax, and still do. And the stupid tax stories were hilarious. I mean, a guy calls up and he goes,

I said, what'd you do that was stupid? He goes, I bought a monkey. You bought a monkey? He goes, yeah bought a monkey. He bought a monkey? He goes, yeah, a spotted-nosed guinean. And I'm like, that's a thing? A monkey's called, he goes, yeah, it's a big monkey. And he goes, yeah. And I said, okay.

So he said, I thought it would be a cool pet. And it was kind of a cool pet. And then I started dating this girl, and I got engaged to her, and the monkey was jealous of a cool pet. And then I started dating this girl. And I got engaged to her. And the monkey was jealous of my fiance. And it would hit her. And it would poop and throw its poop at her. Oh, my God.

And he goes, and so I ended up, he said, I paid $2,500 for the monkey. And he goes, I ended up having to give the monkey away. I said, you gave away the spotted-nosed guinea? And he's like, yeah. It was just mean. It was just mean. It's jealous and mean and hateful. And I had to give it away the spotted-nosed Gwynon? And he's like, yeah. It was just mean. It was just mean. It's jealous and mean and hateful, and I had to give it away. Nobody would buy it.

I bought a monkey. You didn't. I did. A spotted-nosed Gwynon. A spotted-nosed Gwynon? Yes, it's a type of monkey. It was a beautiful monkey. Sounds like a girl I went out with in high school.

Every time I tried to kiss or hug on my wife, that monkey would try to punch my wife with its little fist. And bottom line is, my wife, she just didn't care for that too much. Y'all should bring that segment back. Yeah, we ought to do that. Where are they now? I'd like to know where the monkey is. Yeah, where's the monkey?

And the worst one was the guy that called on the stupid text hour. This was the worst of all. He goes, yeah, I spent $7,000 on my wife to get breast implants. Oh, my gosh. And he goes, I come home a week after she's home from the hospital, and I found her in bed with my boss. And I drug him out in the front yard and beat him up, and the cops came and arrested me.

He said, so I put the operation on a credit card. He goes, so I got $7,000 in debt. I got to go to jail. I got fired. I'm getting a divorce. And I never even touched those things. And we just about lost it on that one. It's like an episode of Cops.

We're on the floor. It's very springy. Yes. Yeah, this could happen on the air. You got to be ready. It's live radio. Oh, man, man. Well, for every funny call, there's also some emotional, heartbreaking, some intense calls

where, you know, you're in the middle of a really messy situation. Any stick out to you guys? You're like, this one I still think about? Mine was the time I wasn't on the air. There's that bathroom in the dressing room behind the recording studio, and I just walked by to use the restroom, and I waved into the control booths

to say hi to everybody. And Kelly, who was the call screener and associate producer at the time, she had, like in the crisis world, we call them crazy eyes. When somebody, you can look across the room and know there's something bad's going on. And she waved me in,

and that's when I walked into a call y'all were a part of that ended up going for quite a while. But there was a moment when I'll call on the phone with that woman. I thought I was gonna hear her. I thought I was gonna hear her, I thought I was gonna hear her get killed. She was just in a real abusive situation in that moment.

And it was happening a lot. She had a boyfriend that was beating the snot out of her and she's calling us and he walks in while she's talking to us. And she's asking about selling her house. She said, I need to move. Yeah, can I move to get away from him? And I'm like, no, you need to leave right now. She said, now, I said, now, right this second,

go get your baby, get in the car and drive away. Do you have family in the area? You've got to get away from this. And he walks in and grabs the baby and starts holding the baby and threatening her. She goes, ends up sitting in the car. Because he puts the baby in the floorboard, he's going to drive away.

She dives in the backseat of that car and said, I'm not leaving my baby. And she's sitting in there with him, and John's baby in the floorboard. He's going to drive away. She dives in the backseat of that car. And she's sitting in there with him. And John's on the phone trying to talk this guy down while we got the police on the way. And the cops roll up on Bubba. And so Bubba got... Which was very intuitive of you, though,

because I remember, because I was on the air with you on that one. And she called and she's kind of out of breath even. And she's like, okay, I just need to know, can I sell my house? And it was this like urgency in her voice. And I think you were the one that were like, okay, why are you wanting to sell your house?

And she was like, well, I just, I need to, I'm not in a good situation. I'm just not in a good situation. And you were like, where is he? Is he near you right now? I mean, and you picked it up. And I mean, I kind of was a little bit more oblivious. You zoned right in on it. And and it was it was like literally going on on the air

of him there and she's like he's just walked I mean yeah it was scary in all fairness Kelly said before we picked up the call she said there's something going on here you need to figure it out she kind of she didn't know what it was she something's up. And so I was digging based on her input. It wasn't just pure intuition. So are you going to sit there in the middle of this sewage or are you going to fix it? I want to fix it. That's why I want to sell my home

and I just want to be done with everything. No, no, honey. We don't need to call a realtor. We need to get the boyfriend out of the house and that's going to involve the police and or your father and your brothers. He needs to leave. It's your house. And you're afraid.

You understand that this is wrong, right? Yes, sir. Okay. You're not the crazy one. I'm talking to the sane one. Yeah, I know. All right, I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to put you on hold, and Kelly is going to make sure that law enforcement gets over there, okay?

No, baby doll. I'm not going to be, I'm not, not, I love you and that baby. Do what? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's okay. It's okay, honey. You're, you're in a, I'm sorry. I trust you. Listen, listen. Easy. Breathe. You're in a horrible situation, and you have to make the moves to get away from it.

But you don't have a financial problem. You need a boyfriend-ectomy. And it's happening today, darling. It's happening today darling it's happening today dave you there is a level of discernment and intuition you have i remember listening before i worked here uh this american life did a feature on you and they were actually digging into how you can hear things in the caller's voice and call things out that the average listener would have no idea and you go is he hitting you? And they're talking about some random money question

and they're shocked because you're right. How does that happen? Well, I mean, it's an intimate medium. And, you know, where you just, we don't have a visual. We don't have body language. All you've got is voice. And the cadence in the voice,

it's, in a sense, it's like someone who's lost their sight because all you're using is one of your senses, you know, your hearing. And so you're dialed in and if you just stay focused on what's going on, you can hear it. I mean, I've heard all of you pick up on, you can tell when somebody's lying in that setting more than you can in person, I mean, I've heard all of you pick up on, you can tell when somebody's lying in that setting, more than you can in person, I think. Because they'll give you the verbal, they'll give you the body language cues and that kind of thing, but their verbal's off. And you can, in person, they can lie to you easier.

But in this, you'll hear them, you know, you go, okay, so what's going on there? And is this what's happening? And you waited too long to answer. You're having to make up a lie. You waited too long to answer. And in that case, on that piece of video or audio, again, I actually had data that I had dealt with

on one of the shows I was doing in New York with one of the talk shows with the psychologist on the thing. And she worked in a domestic violence shelter when she wasn't working on the show as a psychologist, as a counselor. And she showed me the data. She said there's a high correlation between a man who is extremely overbearing and over-controlling on the money with him hitting her.

So like she can't go to the grocery store without him going with her. She can't buy a stick of gum without him. He controls everything 1000%. And if it's like, the more extreme that is, the higher the probability that there's domestic violence. And so this lady's like, my boyfriend won't let me go to the grocery store by myself.

He wants to control all the money. And I'm like, so how long has he been hitting you? It's like, for her, she's like, where'd that come from? Well, I had that piece of data. But you could also hear her voice, that she was, you know, the way she's, the stress. You could feel it in her octave, I mean, in her vocal cords coming out.

And so we just, you know, you just go. And the poor little person doing the interview that was in the studio for that other show, we came off the air and she goes, how'd you know that? I'm like, I'm magic. Well, aside from all the funny and emotional, there's been a cornerstone of the show for almost as long as we've been on air, which is the debt-free scream. And, you know, about once an hour, we celebrate someone who's paid off any amount of debt, who went all in following the baby steps, following our plan.

Are there any debt-free screams that stand out to you guys? It's one of my favorite parts of the show because you just have a smile plastered on your face as you look across the glass and see those people who traveled from all over the country or called in to share their story. You know, I think about probably the heaviest and most painful but beautiful debt-free scream. It was years ago in our old building and it was a sweet mom, single mom, and she's up there telling her story.

And she just laid out the story of how her husband died. And to this day, I think it remains one of the most powerful calls, but it was one of those where normally those debt-free screams are moments of great celebration. And it was, but as she walked through the pain of what she went through and how much it meant to her and how much her husband had been on the journey and see those little kids with her. So now you got a single mom who, it was heart-wrenching, the loss that she went through. And you look at those kids and they lost their daddy. And then you kind of like, that's colliding with the fact that she's there heartbroken,

but also celebrating and grateful for her husband and his role. And it's those crazy moments where it's so heavy. You know, it's like the funeral that everybody's sad, but everybody's happy. You know, it's like, hey, we know where they are and it's gonna be okay. But it was those kind of,

that was probably the most heavy thing. And I was just hosting the video channel back then and I was standing in the lobby watching Dave do that one. And there wasn't a dry eye in the studio, the control room, the lobby. And, you know, those are powerful, powerful moments when you realize what this is all about. And in two years, you paid off your house. Yes, sir. That was our dream. It was our dream, Genesis and mine, to make this happen and and God is really good.

All right kids you guys been practicing the debt-free scream too? All right all right well this is about the best one I've had in a while I'll tell you that. Thank you sir. So uh all right Cynthia count it down. Ready three two one. We're dead free! Oh my gosh. Wow. Oh man, oh man. Thank you Lord for work that matters.

The one that I remember, just off the top of my head, there's been so many great ones, was Dave, I think it was you and I that was doing it and you always ask the question how'd you get started on this and that um husband was a was a veteran and he said I just kind of got to the point where I need to make sure my family was taken care of because I was going to take my life. I decided I'm done, and so I need to make sure everybody's good. And as a part of, I need to clear the deck for my family. It's the right thing to do before I take my life.

And one of the things that you were so instrumental in putting in the baby steps so long ago is you can't do this by yourself. You've got to sit down with somebody. And so as he sat down with his wife, ultimately it came out, and then they started a journey to get his health taken care of and get his mental health taken care of,

and they ended up with a new job. Just the breadth of change that happened in this family, but it started with a guy sitting down with his wife saying, I'm not doing okay. And so we, like, I think you and I, we've talked offline, Dave, you couldn't have dreamed up a better program for somebody struggling with significant depression because you're, I'm going to give you a tiny little goal, meet this thousand bucks, just do whatever you got to do to meet this. And then we're going to meet another goal and a little

goal. That's the path out of so many mental health challenges, relational challenges, and the money challenges. And you end up trying to get out of debt and you need to fix in your marriage and all and saving a life. You end up trying to get out of debt and you end up fixing your marriage and all and saving a life. You end up doing all this other stuff that just changes everything about your, about everything. Changes everything about everything.

So what happened to let you on fire, man? You all went off like fireworks. Honestly, it's a pretty wild story. I was actually debating on whether I should commit suicide or not. And I wanted my family to be secure when I was gone. And then just listening to your show and hearing the Bible verses every day, I came home and talked to Tori and decided we should probably get into a church.

We found River Valley up in the Twin Cities and gave our life to Jesus Christ. Got baptized October 31st, which is kind of a joke and a half because our favorite holiday was Halloween for a long time and just changed our life ever since. Yep. Amazing. Wow.

So was the financial pressure part of that or just other mental issues? I'm a disabled veteran. So I deal with PTSD and some traumatic brain injury from some of that. Wow. Wow. What's your healing journey been like?

You know, it's been a process. I got into a good group of guys at church, some men's leadership courses, starting counseling with the VA coming up on August 1st. Very good. Congrats, man. Very good. It's awesome. And another one that sticks out to me is in the old building, the Ganad family came to announce they paid off their house.

And so we were celebrating them and they had their kids with them. And I was hosting the video channel at the time. They're grown kids. They're grown kids about my age. And this is a Middle Eastern family. I grew up, my parents are Middle Eastern. And so there was already a connection there. And they said, hey, Dave, before we do our debt-free screen,

we wanted our kids to be involved. We didn't want to do this without them. So we wanted to surprise them today and let them know that we've paid off both of their houses. Oh, my God. And I mean, we were all just crying in happy tears. It was just such a shock. And that was one of the most special moments because it made me go,

that's the kind of legacy I want to leave. That's the kind of dad I want to be. And how old are the kids now? They're not kids, they're adults. Yeah, 29 and 30. Okay. And they're well established in this methodology. And in fact, if I could, I just want to share something.

They're also debt-free with the exception of their mortgage. There is, you know, we don't have any secrets. They've been right there with us. But there's one thing that we've kept from them. And I'd like to... You kept something from them? Yes, it was a little secret. And we thought, let's just keep it to ourselves. What kind of secret are you going to do right here on the radio?

And the secret is, just because they're here and they're going to scream debt free with us, we would like them to know that their mortgages are paid off. Thank you. Unbelievable. Yes. Wow. Wow. Wow.

You know, we're really clear that the best thing that we can leave to our kids is the wisdom to know how to handle their lives. You guys are changing your family tree big time. One of the interesting things being new on the show is that having watched Debt-Free Screams for years and then being on the show, it's just they never get old. Like you would think as a host, you might just be watching it being like another person is on there. But it's like we stop on the breaks and go, wow, that's so good. Like it feels I've caught myself like tearing up on the breaks and being like, that is amazing.

And I think it's cool here at Ramsey. We have fans of your fans. And it's like we are such fans of the people and everybody has such a unique story that it still hits us every time well with all of the the drama that's created by the caller some of it is created by us some of the controversy George what I got to be a part of that the other day Ken and it was really special Rachel and I were on the air and we had a Katie calling from Kentucky I remember all the details. Katie from Kentucky. Murray, Kentucky. Okay. This is, my memory is

seared now. He said one of the stupidest things. George dug himself up. It has a name now. It's called Horsegate. And so we've officially named it. And we're on the call with her, and she's going, hey, my side hustle was horseback riding. My horse is injured. I need ideas for side hustles.

So we're giving her some ideas. Hey, there's a local, I'm Googling. There's a local Walmart in your area. You can go make some good money there. You can, dogs, well, it's a real rural area. She's, it felt like she was just on the justification train and they had left the station. So we're getting to the end of the call.

She makes $34,000 a year. We find out she's $120,000 in debt. And so at the end, we're coming up to the break, and I go, Katie, I'm going to challenge you. Could you sell the horse? And she then goes, well, I've had it for 11 years. And I went, Katie, the horse doesn't even know your name. And Rachel's look.

What do you say to her? She was just in horror and shock. It's like the most intuitive animal you could ever own. Well, but I think technically George is correct. The horse doesn't know her. No, he doesn't. I just want to stand up for George on a technical level. She's like, no, this horse, you know.

You act like you call the horse a bad name. You know, all this. George is like, oh, Katie doesn't even know your name. Go to pray. I was like, oh, my gosh. Here's the thing. I have a soul. I've got two dogs.

Everyone's coming at me going, would you sell your dogs? And I go, my dogs don't need a farm. My dog isn't worth $20,000. Your dog is not injured. My dog's not injured. And you're not $120,000 in debt. I know. I know.

We all knew. What I was saying was, I cared about her future. And I went, she's never going to get out of debt at this rate if she doesn't change her income. Sell the horse. She's stuck because of the horse. I know. And so we came back from the break. I tried to couch it all.

It was not working. And then you said, you said, I wonder how much the horse would go for, you know. And you're like, I looked it up. You know, I can't remember. $11,000. Yeah. And he was like, you're. She said, the horse is $20,000.

And then he said, Katie, the horse is worth more than you. I was like, you literally can't say that. I kept digging the horse grave, and I was about to fall into it. You fell in. Now I got to back off. A horse is not worth more than a person, George. I said net worth, Rachel. Net worth-wise.

Because, Katie, you're a negative 120. There's been some regrets in how we say things on air that then are plastered on YouTube forever that you can't change. And so there are some regrets. And she emailed even that weekend with pictures of her and the scores. Her prize-winning horse.

So we even wrapped it back up. But I've mentioned, I said this to John yesterday, I said, I care about her future more than her feelings. But I could have cared about her feelings too. In hindsight. In hindsight. I know. And horse people are very passionate people.

And you went after the horse community. Passionate is a very kind word. Yes. You've been trolled for days. Yes. So there's now a YouTube channel called George Campbell's Horse. And I comment on all of our videos just saying, hey. Hey.

It's great. It's great. Katie, I'm going to give you a hard challenge. Could you sell the horse? Would you do it? I can't. Why not? I've had this horse 11 years.

Katie, Katie, Katie. There's other horses out there. It doesn't even know your name. There's more horses for you on the other side. George! Listen, I want Katie to win. Oh, my gosh. She's got a mess to clean up.

I'm doing whatever it takes. I'll get another horse later. This is the Ramsey Show. The smartest thing I've ever done with money was buy an engagement ring for Stacy. I would say the smartest thing that I've done with money is invest early on in life. The smartest thing I've ever done with money is pay off my house early. I just thought you have to live with a mortgage payment forever,

and it goes with you to the grave. When I found out you can just pay it off early and then live a life without a mortgage payment, it changed everything. Highly recommend it. The smartest thing I've ever done with money is increase my generosity to the outrageous level. The smart thing I did with money was I paid into my health insurance so both of my kids could be born at the local hospital. The smartest thing I've ever done with money was win over a half a million dollars in scholarships to pay for my education. So Dave, over 30 years of doing radio, a lot of life has happened. The world has changed.

America has gone through some things. I mean, you think about 9-11, Great Recession, COVID, student loan crisis, and you're there every day taking these calls with people in the middle of some really intense economic times. What was that like? The first time that the nation shut down, when I was on the air, was the first story started rolling out while we were live on the air, on the Columbine shooting. And it was, shut everything down.

All news, everything went to that. All networks stopped and went to breaking news. Whatever the other programming was on, radio, TV, everything stopped and went to. It was iconic at the time. And, you know, we're getting live updates while we're on the air. And, you know, we've got to sit there and make a decision. Are we going to just keep talking about our stuff

and not address it? But it had put full stop on everything. So we just stopped and started taking calls from people and how they were feeling about it and what else stop on everything. So we just stopped and started taking calls from people and how they were feeling about it and what else was going on. And just giving people a place to be angry and sad and all the emotions that we all had that day. 9-11 happened at 8.30 in the morning.

And so we had a little time, because we go on in the air in the afternoon, to figure out how big a deal that was. And we knew that it was shut down. And we actually pulled the plug on the show and ran one of the network news feeds over our network. I think we went back on the air probably on Thursday or Friday.

And again, we just gave people a place to express themselves. And the anger, the revenge, the fear, all of it. And then the stock market. They had, of course, it's, Wall Street literally is in the shadow of the towers. And so it shut down Wall Street because they had dust and rubble the shadow of the towers. And so it shut down Wall Street because they had dust and rubble in front of the building.

So they reopened the following Monday and we knew the stock market was gonna dive. It dropped 500 points in 14 minutes. It was crazy. And so we knew that was gonna, so we're preparing people on Friday, Thursday and Friday going, market looks like they're gonna to reopen stock market Monday.

Just be ready. Let me tell you what it's going to do. It's going to go down. You know, and everybody's like, oh, see, they've crushed our economy with the towers. And no, they haven't. No, they haven't. It's just stock market is just, it's a drama queen. So you just got to ride with it.

And everybody's reporting headlines, major newspaper headlines, big print, stock market takes dive after terror attack. And it was the leading story for 48 hours after that. I couldn't find a single news outlet that reported when it completely returned 57 days later. Back to where it was. Not a single one, but we did. We talked about that a lot because we told people,

hang on, it's like we always do, hang on. You're playing the long ball, you're playing the long ball. And it came back. So those were dramatic, lengthy things that have happened. And then you have other big news events since then that you kind of got to sit back and go, is this big enough to even address it? We even used to have a stock market report

at the close of the day, because stock market closes by the time we get off the air. And we would take a live thing at one of the last few segments of the show and report what stock, you know, Dow closed up, Dow closed down. And we figured out people were not listening to us for that. They don't care. And I was probably the only one that cared.

And when I quit reporting it, I quit checking it too. So I don't even care. Yeah, it's definitely a show about hope. And the common thread there is, you know, it's kind of a voice of truth in a world gone mad. We're there to be like, the sky's not falling, stay calm, it's gonna be okay. And those principles, you know,

ride throughout different topics now from Ken with career and Christina with the student loan crisis and, you know, Deloney with COVID and Ken with the great resignation. We're seeing, you know, money touches all of these different areas in a big way. And we're expanding the show as well to cover more topics. Have you guys seen any trends or threads in the calls you've been taking the last few years? The student loan crisis is out of control. I mean, $1.75 trillion

in student loan debt. And we're seeing people just completely weighed down with this debt. I mean, they tell students going to college, this is good debt. You'll be able to pay it off easy. And it's like, what we're seeing is it's not that easy. And we're seeing people who do have a lot of regret with it. So it's just crazy that at this point, it is still such an issue. But thankfully, we get to help people walk through it and kind of change their mindset that this isn't something that you have to carry with you for the rest of your lives. Like this is something that you can attack and attack it fast and get

it gone for good. Yeah. And a thread that touches all of this is we tell people that you can happen to your life. It doesn't just have to happen to you. You can take control. You can have agency. And that touches every single piece of this from mental health to career, to relationships, to money. It's amazing how that is really the foundation, is we're gonna help people gain control and they're gonna do it. They're the hero, we're just the guides. Yeah.

I think when we look back many years from now on the pandemic era, I think we could say that it was the great reflection. I think because of obviously in the early days, and depending on what you believe about it, where you live, certainly people had to confront their mortality. And then I think the other thing that developed over time is people had to confront how little they control. It was like, I can't,

if the whole world shut down over this and the way I do my life, the way I do my work changed radically, and it did, and then I think people had to confront, I don't control very many things. And I think they began to look for places in their life where they could control things. And certainly in the space of work, you talk about what's changed so much. I think people realize, you know what, I want to work in a place where I feel valued. I think that was a big knee-jerk reaction. I don't want to be a commodity.

I want to know that my company, that my leader values me. I think I want to do something that I enjoy. I spend the majority of my life at work. And I just realized, wait a second, there's a different way to do work. And so you talk about things like remote work, certainly existed prior to the pandemic, but phrases like hybrid work, where companies are still trying to figure out all of this. And then you got workers trying to figure out, how do I want to do my work? Where do I want to do my work? How does it fit? And so I think that's a big reaction to the fact that people are now going, I can control some things. You know, we, early on in the pandemic, we did a wonderful thing called the Night of Hope. And we just talked about something that Davis said for decades,

control the controllables. And so I think we've seen a big shift, certainly in the workspace. How am I going to spend that majority of my time? And it's all about what can I control? And I'm going to try to do that. And I think that's something that has definitely shifted as a result of the pandemic. Yeah, I agree with that. I I think that's something that has definitely shifted as a result of the pandemic. Yeah, I agree with that. I think after 9-11, one of the comments I heard most regularly by people who were two, three decades older than me was they kept saying, this doesn't happen here. It was a psychological shift that, oh, this could happen, right? And I think you nailed it, Ken. I think through the pandemic, people had to confront, oh, the government can just tell us we all can't go to work, right? Like, I didn't know that that

was a thing. Oh, this many people can just get sick, like this many. I don't think any of us were going about our days thinking this was a possibility. And like you mentioned, I think it's, you really realize, oh, I control very, very little. And it's disconcerting psychologically, right? And then you have to build back, okay, well, can I control? And then suddenly you start to realize, wait a minute, I can control a whole lot more than I thought I could. So it's this dip.

And so I think that's the common thread. I can't do this, I can't do this. Yeah, tell your mother-in-law you're not coming for Thanksgiving. It's you can, and it's like, oh! You know what I mean? So we're giving people hope, but you got to ride through it with them. Right.

And on the money side, we've seen, I mean, Dave, you've seen a lot of money trends come and go. We talk about this in the Building Wealth event. All the get-rich-quick schemes, we're now seeing pop back up. And they're in new ways now, Rachel, with cryptocurrency and NFTs and nothing down real estate has made a comeback.

It seems like everything has changed, but also nothing has changed. The mentality is still there. When the voices speaking into it now are greater. I mean, you look at social media, you look at TikTok, you look at YouTube, I mean, all these places that now anyone can have a platform and a voice. And I think that's what's unique about this,

about Ramsey, is that there's been 30 years of groundwork of something proven. So when something kind of flashy pops up that looks like a good idea and that everyone jumps on it, we're the ones usually tapping the brakes, being like, let's just wait

and see how this plays out, crypto. Let's wait and see how this plays out, NFTs. I literally read an article today, and it was talking about all the celebrities that had come out endorsed, and it was like, you know, so-and-so came out endorsed, and then the NFTs went, and they lost 99% of their value. You know, you're seeing all this

happen, and we're the ones steady through the trends and the flashiness to say, hey, let's just hang. There was an Andy Griffith clip I saw, and I was like, this is like literally for our time, and I'm gonna butcher it. But basically, let's just hang. There was an Andy Griffith clip I saw, and I was like, this is like literally for our time, and I'm gonna butcher it. But basically he's saying, yeah,

this man is saying to him, you know, well, let the kid decide, let the kid decide. And Andy's like, no, no, no. Kids will always go with the flashy thing. They'll always pick up the flashy thing because they're thinking only for the moment. But I know what that flashy thing can do long-term. And I was like, it's just so good because these flashy things, you know, just pop up.

And we're the, I feel like, hopefully the voice of reason and the culture are saying, it sounds good in the moment. Just hold off. Hold on, think long-term. I have said, if you follow the trends, you fall for the traps. And that's what we're seeing with these younger generations

because there's super targeted marketing that's going, hey, dude, all you need is $10. You're going to get 10,000 next week, I promise. Or how about Jason Bourne telling you, the fortune favors the brave. I mean, when Jason Bourne says that, you've got to be a crimp born, right? I mean, how do you end Good Will Hunting? When it was just radio, there wasn't as many... We do know that Jason Bourne is not a person. He's a character. Stop doing a movie. Stop with your fags.

You know this. We do. Hey, hold on. Can I... This is the mental health guy asking you. Like, I really want to know this. How's your mental health? I have a firm grasp on that. I can stop any time I want. I have a firm grasp on want to know this. How's your mental health?

I have a firm grasp on that. I can stop anytime I want. I have a firm grasp on Dave's mental health. It's not great. Why is it so hard? The path is clear. It's not, it's like, how do you lose weight? Diet and exercise.

It's not challenging, yet it is a perplexing trillion dollar industry. Live on less than you make. There's not a scheme. In seven to 10 years, you can have everything you have in your life paid off and you'd be on the road to being a millionaire, which means you can give wildly

and your kids are gonna be okay. Why is that message so, I guess, unsexy? And why is it so hard to follow? Because it just doesn't sound challenging. I think we're wired to search out the fastest, easiest way. We want the most efficient, fastest, easiest way. The problem is that when you believe a lie on what is the fastest, easiest way, that's where the issue comes in. And so you're just, but the Bible says that no discipline seems pleasant at the time,

but it yields a harvest of righteousness. No one likes, every one of us have a kid inside of us that wants what we want right now. I want it, I want it now, I deserve it. I want the cereal mommy, I'm gonna throw a fit on the cereal aisle, right? We all have that cereal aisle kid inside of us. But adults devise a plan and follow it.

Children do what feels good. Adults understand there's a price to be paid that one definition of emotional maturity is the ability to delay pleasure for a greater good. And if you dare tell someone that is immature emotionally, whether they're 52 or 12, that they need to delay pleasure, they will come back at you with every bit of their intellect, every bit of their anger, every bit of whatever, call you names, everything else, because you have dared to call out the mythology

that the path they're on is, that they're dialing into. It's not gonna work for you. And so, you know, anytime we challenge that, then they come back at you and go, oh, well, you're just the people say, cup of coffee a day and you'll be rich. And we're like, yeah, it's an example. It's a math example, calm your butt down.

But, you know, it's, but the point is when you spend $10 or $15 a day on coffee, and then you have your student loan still 14 years later, and you're still paying it, then something's off. I mean, you've not addressed what's going on. And so, but again, that's where the criticism comes back, is you dare call people out on their stuff because you love them and you want them to do better,

but you get a very childish reaction. And we all have the ability to do that. Me too. Don't tell me I can't do something. And so we all have that ability to rise up against that. But I think it's just immaturity more than anything. And the thing is, when you tell people the truth about how to get a job, or the truth about how,

here's how you do this relationship, or the truth about what you gotta do with your money, they hear it, even if they don't like it. It touches, truth has a way of getting to you. And so, and they know you love them. And we love them. We care about them. I always want listeners to come away with a plan that they can execute, which gives them hope.

I want you to laugh. I want you to have hope, all of that. But I also just want you to learn, because that's why we're here, is to help the caller that we are talking to, but also all the listeners, the millions of people out there. And so if you can take tidbits of information, apply it to your life, and it changes the outcome of where you are financially, that would make me really happy.

When people watch or listen to the show, what I hope they walk away with is a little bit of confidence that they can take that right next step with money. No more excuses. Ignorance was bliss until they got the advice from us. And they went, I know too much. I know what I got to do now. My hope for them is that they walk away with clarity, realizing that there is a clear path

from where they are to where they want to go. And that they now have confidence to actually take the steps necessary to have transforming actions in their life to get them where they want to go. When someone watches the show, I hope they walk away with hope, knowing that no matter what they're going through or how overwhelmed they feel, that there's always a way to get through it. If you are willing to push through for a season and focus, you can find a way through

any situation. Somebody sat there and listened to what I'm going through, what I'm experiencing. And yeah, they poked fun at me. Yeah, we all laughed together. Yes, we cried together. But they showed up and they listened. And nobody else in my life listens to me, but they do. That's what I hope they come away with. So the impact of this stuff, Dave, over 30 years, we're now seeing the fruits of that generationally. I mean, you meet, you know, what we call financial peace babies, which is the kids of parents who went through financial peace, who've done this plan. Now they're growing up in this culture. You meet baby steps, millionaires who follow the baby steps and go, oh my gosh, Dave, I'm a millionaire. Did you find that starting to trend

over the last few years? Yeah, we had to be real careful to name them financial peace babies, because some guy got on the air and he goes, I'm a Dave Ramsey baby. And I'm going, no, you ain't. I'm like, no, you're not either. Change that phrasing, sir. Yeah, we're going to call you a financial peace baby.

Oh, yeah, OK, I get it. Yeah. Whew. Ramsey baby. No, you're not a Ramsey baby. No, no, you a financial piece baby. Oh, yeah, okay, I get it. Yeah. Ramsey baby. No, you're not a Ramsey baby. No, no, you're not. Just so we're all clear, from this point forward,

I'm going to refer to everybody as Ramsey baby. Just be known that that's not okay, okay? Yes. But that's the thing I didn't see, that if we did it long enough, we would see the third generation now starting to move. It's amazing. Because some of them, they get it in high school and high, whether high school curriculum or whatever. And, you know, we'll see that with the work that we're doing in the career

area. We'll see that with the work we're doing in the mental health areas too. I mean, it won't take but about 10 years and you'll start to see the generational effect of it. But, you know, and it's odd that we used to say it was kind of a tagline, but it was the truth. Change your family tree. Change your family tree. And if you learn how to do relationships, you change your family tree.

If you learn how to get into a career that is satisfying, more is caught than taught, Rachel says, so the kids are watching. They're gonna go, oh, wait a minute, maybe I can make more money, not less, and do something I love, and not have to be in a toxic environment. Wow, I don't have to go, I'll make less so that I'm happy.

That's a bunch of garbage. So we can break all that, put that truth out there and break the mythology off of them, and then another generation comes along. Yeah. And we're all here, you know, carrying the torch. And in 2021, there was a very intentional shift from the Dave Ramsey show to the Ramsey show. And it's slight. We just took out four letters, but it means a whole lot more. What is the future of the show to you? Well, that was a part, that was the, one of the last major steps of moving the brand off of a single person to many. You know, we added all the personalities over the years

and we had intended to start putting personalities more on the air with me in 21. Then COVID happened, and so we went, okay, we have to, as a group, get on the air and talk to people, in John's case, be able to calm them down. And his trauma background, you know, people were traumatized. And so, you know, facts are your friends. Can't function in fear. Critical thinking skills break down. Frontal lobe shut down. All that.

We went through all that stuff. And so bringing John and everybody else into that and going, I get that you're scared. We're all a little scared. This is an uncertain time. But here's what it's not. Here's what it's not. Calm down.

Get your thing. And so we accelerated that and got everybody on the air during that time. And then by the time we had been doing it almost a year with everybody on the air as co-hosts. Permanent co-hosts. Permanent co-hosts. We said, all right, it's time to go ahead and just make the change in the name itself. We didn't make a big deal out of it. And so, so did no one else. It was great. Well, it's time to go ahead and just make the change in the name itself. We didn't make a big deal out of it, and so did no one else. It was great. Well, it's expanded even beyond the Ramsey Show now with the Ramsey Network. So we've got a whole network of shows with the Ken Coleman Show

and the Rachel Cruze Show, the Dr. John Deloney Show, the Fine Print. And it's amazing how it really is like succession. We're looking at it right now as we start to enter these different areas and help so many more people. There's a lot more people to reach out there. And job security, the world is still in shambles. So there's plenty of work to be done for all of us. So that's the good news and the bad news.

But as we wrap here, what would you guys say to the person, regardless of their situation, it's money, it's career, it's life, relationships, they feel stuck right now and they don't see a way out. What do you just wish you could say to every person? I would say that there's hope, that no matter how dark your situation is or how overwhelmed you feel, and they don't see a way out, what do you just wish you could say to every person? I would say that there's hope, that no matter how dark your situation is

or how overwhelmed you feel, there's always a way. There's always a way. I would say that stuck is a choice. I'm not in any way minimizing the feeling of being stuck or the circumstances where someone feels as though, because I take it quite literally, you know, I remember I would tell someone to, to, to put themselves from on when they feel stuck financially, emotionally, professionally. I can't get out. No one's going

to give me a shot, whatever. And I'd say, all right, first, we're not going to panic. You know, we're going to go, okay, there is a way. Christina said so beautifully, there's a way. And that's what we specialize here at Ramsey Solutions, a clear path. There are steps that you can take and you can get unstuck. So stuck is a choice. So once you move into this, all right, there is a way, I got to find the way. And then when I find the way, so that's clarity. Now I know I can walk the way and I can begin to shift from, I feel hopeless and helpless. And I go to, I am confident that if I do the little things and struggle, as we were talking about earlier, embrace the struggle, I can get unstuck. And I think that that's, it's the mindset to realize that if you think you're stuck, it's because you've chosen

to believe that you are hopeless and helpless and you're not. Yeah. It starts with that paradigm shift where you got to go, I got to think about this differently before I can even believe it's possible and take action. And once you think about it differently and go, I'm not going to stay this way. Where I am right now is not where I have to be a year from now, six months from now, 10 years from now. And when you have that vision for your life, you've got that powerful why, man, it'll light you up. And so that's what I want for everyone watching. Yeah, I would say look for options and look for people. Because I think when you're stuck and there is hopelessness, it feels like there's no options. Or if there is, it's just one, and that one option is terrible. It's the only thing,

I can only do this, I can only do that. Whether it's, you know, with relationships or, you know, money or like, it's just that. And I'm like, there's always options. So even when someone calls on the show and they're like, yeah, I've got, I have to do this. I'm like, no, you don't. Think about A, B, C, D, E. I mean, there are options out there. So I would say just stop, look for options and then look for people.

Because I think when you are, actually our pastor was talking about this on Sunday. When you're discouraged, it can be a very lonely place and you draw in and you talk about this a lot. But I would say get people around you and whether those people are us and you tune in and listen to the show, but really encouraging you, yeah, people in your life that can walk with you, that can hear you, that can actually maybe bring you options of things that you weren't thinking about. Because when you are stuck, it's like a tunnel vision.

So find those options and find those people to walk with you. Yeah, I echo that. I think the longer I'm doing these shows, the less relevant my quote-unquote, all the articles I've read are. It's the fact that I'm a guy that they're slowly starting to trust this guy who loves me and he'll be honest with me. And they'll lay out this long three or four minute problem. And it's like, it's just this.

And they go, oh. And I have to remember that in my life, that when I get stuck, when I see a big problem, I need to stop. Like you just mentioned, I gotta stop and I gotta reach out to somebody. I gotta make sure somebody sees me. And that's going to be my path out. And so I've got to, the listener watching this show, remember this, we're with you. It's not us versus you. It's us with you. And the more we can create an environment where people feel with us and that

we feel we are able to sit with them, I think that these shows will continue to do well. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. And I've been there. Most people have been there. Where you feel stuck or you feel panicked or you feel trapped in a certain one decision is all I can do or have two possible decisions, both of them are bad, two options, and we've all been there.

That hopelessness is so debilitating. The rest of that verse says, but, and that's a big word. When desire comes, it is the tree of life. So when you, in your hopelessness, when you, in your moment, connect with people, find a plan, know what the next step is, fog starts to clear, and you say, desire. Now desire has come. I am choosing to use that word that you used earlier, agency. I'm choosing to, what John would call, take locus

of control. I'm choosing to say, I can control the controllables. I'm choosing to say, yeah, this is a bad deal, but it's not forever. And it all comes down to choosing to change. When desire comes, it is the tree of life. And that's the only person we can't help on this show is the one that won't choose desire. Instead, they want to become defensive and they want to intellectually build a set of walls

around their life, emotionally build a set of walls around their life that say, see, I can't win. I'm a victim. It's impossible for me to win. I'm stuck. Someone else is going to have to fix this. I can't fix it.

And we can't help that person until we can get them some desire, throw them some desire over that wall and get in there. And then they start to knock down the victim walls and they start moving from victim to victor. Well, Dave, speaking of choosing, I speak on behalf of the group and millions more. to knock down the victim walls and they start moving from victim to victor well dave speaking of choosing i'm speak on behalf of the group and millions more thank you for choosing many decades

ago to step into the spotlight to give people hope and money and now all areas of life grateful for you all honored to do this incredible work with you and make an impact thanks for being here