The Ramsey Show - App - Bonus Episode: Are You Ready to Build Wealth in 2023?

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

The economy’s still crazy—and maybe you’re worried last year’s money stress will follow you into 2023. It doesn’t have to! Dave, George and Rachel will unpack how you can still make progress, build wealth, and have peace with your money this year. Yep, even in tough, uncertain times.  Get our limited-time offer on Financial Peace University and make 2023 the year you get rid of money stress: (http://bit.ly/3QSiKjV) Watch the full Building Wealth livestream, plus a special panel discussion here: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/wealth 

Hey guys, George Campbell here. We've got a special edition of the show for you today. We know lots of you started the year with a big cloud hanging over your head, AKA the economy. You want to build wealth, but you're fighting inflation and it feels impossible to get ahead. Well, if that's you, keep listening

because Dave, Rachel, and I have a special message for you from our Building Wealth live stream we hosted last week. We wanna give you next time. So you can check out the whole thing by heading over to ramsaysolutions.com slash wealth. All right, let's get to it. Woo! Hey, guys! How you guys doing? Whoa! Welcome, you guys.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Wow. Wow. Is it too late in January to say happy new year? Yeah. I mean, 2023 is here. Thank you, Jesus. I mean, we had 2020 and we thought, wow, 2021 has got to be better. And it said, no, hold my beer. Oh my gosh. You know, and then 2020, it just keeps going. It's amazing. So we're so happy to have a brand new year, a clean slate,

a fresh start, which is grace in its best form. You know, it just, I get a new shot at this thing. And so when you Google, you know, people that Google dieting, for instance, at the beginning of the year, it's like 82%. I mean, it goes way up. Just on a federal holiday, 10% do, right? Getting out of debt, getting control of my money, learning to save money, all way up at the beginning of the year. Our hopes are up, but these are weird times. It's dark out there. It's scary out there. It's uncertain out there. And people are afraid. And I've been there. I know what it feels like to be afraid. And if you want to get healthy in these areas, life change in any area of your life, your marriage, your parenting, your spiritual walk, your money, is an intentional act. No one accidentally wins. Super Bowl will be in a few weeks, and at the end of the Super Bowl, there'll be confetti, and the reporter will run over and

ask the guy, how did you win the Super Bowl? He never says, I just got off the bus. I don't know what happened. It's an intentional act. Since he was six years old, he's been probably playing that position or something like it all the way up through college. And he's one of the few that gets out of college and goes to the big leagues, to the NFL, right? And actually gets to play at that level.

It's not an accident to win. It's not an accident to be married today, 50 years. It requires extreme patience and understanding, which is what my wife said for me to say, so I did. If you want to get healthy, it's an intentional act. No one accidentally gets in shape. If you want a great marriage, if you want a great, if you want to build some wealth so you can be outrageously generous, it's an intentional act. Over the years of teaching this stuff for the last 30 years, I've spoken in a lot of different settings. And speaking of the NFL, I was speaking for an NFL team. They do a thing called rookie camp, and they bring in these rookies who are making more money than

they've ever made in their lives. And their eyes are full of stars and dollar signs and Mercedes bins and houses for their mama and so on, right? And they've got all these big ideas, and they have no idea that money's really not going to go that far. And so they bring me in to spray cold water on the whole idea because I'm good at it. So the first thing I explain to them is NFL stands for not for long. The average NFL career is 3.7 years, and 78% of them leave the league permanently physically disabled. And the divorce rate is fourfold the national average. And within 10 years, the bankruptcy rate is fourfold the national average. So it's not a great blessing when you hear those statistics, but you got a choice in the matter. If you're the son,

the daughter sitting there, wouldn't be a daughter in this case, but I mean, if you're the guy sitting there, you've got a choice. So I finished the talk, walked them through the whole thing, all the Ramsey stuff that we talk about, common sense, what grandma said, what God says in the Bible about money, which turns out to be the same things, right? I finished the talk and leaning against the back wall is this guy. Now I don't, I'm a football fan, but with their helmet, I mean, I know if they got their name on the back, I know who it is, right? But I don't know their, I mean, I pass them in the store. They're big, but I mean, you probably play football. You have no idea. But there's a guy at the back, and he's like Hall of Famer. I recognized him. He's one of those guys. He snuck in the rookie camp,

hear the call. And so I kind of called on him, and he's obviously a veteran player. And I said, so tell these guys, am I right? He goes, oh, you're so right. He goes, the number of you that'll be standing back here at the back of the room at my age is very small. So take advantage of the money while it's coming in. And he gave good follow-up talk, right? So I get to the end of it. I'm talking to him back there because he was dead on, very articulate. And I was talking to this guy, a future Hall of Famer. I can't say his name because I don't have permission to tell the story. I didn't ask him, but it's still a great story, so I'm telling it anyway. But I said, all that stuff aside, I said, I watch football, and I'm a mediocre at best athlete in a couple of things, not at

football, but I just, as a fan, can I ask you a question? And he said, sure. And I said, well, it's, you know, it may be one of those weird fan questions. I'll warn you ahead of time. And he goes, it's okay. It's just me and you hanging out. If it's stupid, I'll just tell you. And I said, okay. So you get paid like 10 million, 20 million, $30 million a year, whatever it is, somewhere in there, to do one thing, catch a football. How is it, pray tell, that when a, if you've ever seen a quarterback, if you stood on the sidelines of the NFL when they're throwing a football, it's so fast. If you've ever caught a football, it hurts terribly. They can total a car with a football. I mean, the speed is blinding. It's a physical act.

That's why it's amazing. I said, so if he throws the ball so hard, it drills a hole in your soul. It hits you in the numbers and you're paid $25 million to catch a football. And that's your only thing you do in life. Why is it, how is it that you would drop the football? Because as a fan, I'm going, you just hit him in the numbers. He goes, oh, that's easy. Happens all the time. I went, oh, good. He's not going to kill me. He goes, it's two things. He said, both of them come down to one thing. He said, it's loss of focus. I said, okay, so what's the two things? He goes, well, that's the things that cause you to lose your focus. Okay, this is getting philosophical. I like this. Probably theological. It'll probably preach. And he said, so the first

thing that causes you to lose your focus is fear. He said, he goes, I weigh 210, 220 maybe, six foot and some change. And when I go up after a ball, the guy that's going to hit me weighs three and a quarter, 375, and he is running at the speed of a Kia. And when I, you know, have you ever heard, he said, Dave, have you ever heard the announcer say, oh, he dropped the ball because he heard footsteps. He goes, that ain't a metaphor. You hear Sasquatch coming.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Fee, five, four, bum. Boom, boom, boom. Crush, I'm going to be in an ice bath tomorrow. And six massages later, I'm going to try to walk out onto the practice field and try to get ready to do that again next week. He goes, in a nanosecond, your brain tells you this is getting ready to happen and you drop the football. So shut up. Fear causes you to lose your focus. He said, here's the other one. Have you ever seen the receiver, Dave, running down the field?

There's nobody around him except the end zone is right there. The ball is coming and he's looking and he's got it. And he's like, I just got to catch it. And already in his mind, you see him, he's starting to do his touchdown dance. Only the end zone is still there. And he hadn't got there yet. And he's already, and he trips and falls or misses the ball because he's already in the end zone in his mind instead of finishing the job. He said, that's called greed. Greed will cause you to lose your focus. Fear and greed will cause you to lose your focus. Now, not greed like I want money, but greed like I'm celebrating something that I haven't yet earned.

Fear, greed, these things will mess you up. When you sense disaster, when you've got fear, your brain shuts down. Dr. John Deloney talks about that all the time here at Ramsey. The parts of your brain shut down because you are in fight or flight. You got to get out of the way. The car is getting ready to run over you. You don't need to have a discussion about what type of car it is. Is it electric? Is it a Tesla? I know. Get out of the road. Your brain shuts down. Your thinking skills, your higher thinking skills, your critical thinking skills go away and you flee so you don't get hit by the car. You don't get eaten by the saber tooth. That's where it comes from, that part of your brain, right? And so this idea that fear is okay, and we become

fear junkies in this culture. Just look at the news channels. Everything is something to make you angry, greedy, afraid. Angry, greedy, afraid. These are not fruits of the spirit. Angry, freedy, angry, freedy, aggrieved. Yeah, all that stuff, right? Can't even say it anymore. It's so bad. But this fear thing is real and the numbers are devastating. And we've been fighting fear from COVID pandemic to quarantine and losing a job. First, we thought we were going to die. Then we thought we were going to not have a job because some people thought we were going to die. And then you couldn't get nothing. And then you could get everything, but it was all overpriced. And then you can't get nothing, but now it's

overpriced again. And I'm never going to get a house. I'm never going to get a house. And we get in this crazed mode. The anxiety level is so high. And with that going on for so long now, we've gone through like three or four events back to back to back. Now we're in this inflation mess. We've got this divisiveness and this anger in this country where everyone's just, they cut people completely out of their lives because of who they think they might've voted for. It's nuts. People have lost their dadgum minds. There's no grace. There's no mercy. There's no kindness and gentleness. I mean, it's all driven by this fear, fatigue, and greed. And if you stay afraid long

enough, fatigue sets in. And General George Patton said, fatigue makes cowards of us all. Tired people are short-tempered. Tired people aren't thinking clearly. Man, if I just get hungry, I get mean, much less hungry and tired. And then you put me in traffic with an idiot in front of me. Oh my goodness. Are y'all that way? I mean, and this has just been amped up for about 36 months. Y'all know what I'm talking about? It's coming to a head in our culture and we need to address it head on. We need to say it out loud and go, hey, the emperor has no clothes. This is not good. This is not good. As a people, we need to reset spiritually, emotionally, from a mental health standpoint. And it does revolve around our money. It revolves around

wealth building. So I'm afraid I'm going to go into recession. I'm afraid I'm going to lose a job. I'm afraid I'm going to end up in a van down by the river. So tonight, I'm going to opt out. I'm going to step back. I'm going to get a little different perspective, different look on things. How are Americans feeling about building wealth right now? Well, we just finished a huge survey with Ramsey Research, and the numbers are sad. The State of the Union's not good. I mean, it's like 1992. It's the economy, stupid. I mean, it really is. This is what people are worried about. Eight in 10 Americans are worried about the economy. Inflation's at a 40-year high here in 2022.

The great resignation, people quitting their jobs, 3.98 million people a month quit their jobs in 2021. Oh, it gets better. 2022, four million a month did. And then if they didn't quit their jobs, they got fired. Last year, Facebook laid off 11,000 people. Amazon laid off 10,000 people. Redfin laid off 1,000 people. And down in Mississippi, one factory closed, if you didn't read about it, back at Thanksgiving. On Monday night before Thanksgiving, they sent out an email and laid off 2,700 people. They all went to work on Monday. When they got home Monday night, there was an

email. You don't have a job anymore. They shut the whole factory down that night, as if they didn't know before that day. Heartless. Heartless. Salesforce, their stock has gone down 38%. In order to get their profitability up and their stock price off, start laying off people because their most expensive thing is people. And you can get your profitability up in corporate America anytime you want to just lower your payroll. That's all you got to do. Chop payroll, your stock price will go up. And that's not right. That's not right. That's when corporate America has gone nuts. And the weird thing is corporate America can be small company, big company, the type of corporate America I'm talking about, the yucky kind. You can run a big company. It doesn't have to be run poorly. And it doesn't have to be done without taking care of

people. It can be done. 37% of Americans are struggling or in crisis with their finances. That's 100 million people. 25% of Americans say they're relying on credit to make ends meet. Boo. 4 in 10 Americans say they have zero in savings. Half of Americans say their finances have a negative impact on their mental health. Four in 10 of you, when we surveyed you, said in the last year you have cried over your money or had a panic attack over your money. 40% physically cried.

These are your neighbors, the people you work with. And we lie. I mean, we lie in church. How's it going, Dave? Just fine. Car's going to be repoed Tuesday, but just fine. We cover it up, but it's there. And then it boils up in the form of fatigue. It boils up in the form of fear. It boils up in the form of anger. It boils up in greed, looking for a shortcut. I'm watching a 23-year-old, 25-year-old living in his mother's basement on Tic Tac, and now I got a whole new clue on how to get money. Yeah, right. 82% of Americans are somewhat or extremely worried about their student loan payments, but don't worry, Joe Biden forgave them. Oh, wait a minute. Supreme Court said,

hold my beer. We'll see. So the numbers seem like they're stacked up against us. And this is a weird paradox. All of this negative fear and everything else around the whole idea of money and about our futures, and yet you cannot get a parking space at the mall or a reservation at a restaurant. That's a weird paradox. I mean, if you went to Walmart, you went to the, you know, even a high end store, you got no idea that anybody's worried about the economy. They're in there spending like Congress. I mean, they are going bananas. And it's just this weird paradox, but these are the actual numbers. This is what's going on. So what happens in a situation like this is you get to the point, you say, I'm sick of this. I'm tired of this. And my great friend, the fabulous motivator from a whole nother decade or two ago,

Les Brown said, when you get sick and tired of being sick and tired, that's when you finally say the magic words of transformation. I've had it. When you have an I've had it moment, you are about ready to change your life. Changing your life is not an intellectual dance or some kind of theoretical idea. If you get sick and tired of being sick and tired, I've had it. Then you will change. American Express called my house when we were going broke. I was 28 years old. Rachel was a brand new baby. My wife would have left, but she didn't have a car. American Express called my house. We were going, we were so broke. It was awful. I had done every stupid thing, made Ramsey

callers look like geniuses. I had done every stupid thing. And the guy calls my house and he's trying to collect $1,166.42 on an American Express bill. You know how I remember it? Because I got so mad. Because he asked my wife why she would stay with a man that wouldn't pay his bills. We don't do business with American Express 40 years later, I'll just tell you that. Still, I was redneck hillbilly, hopping mad, ready to drive Jacksonville, Florida, drag him out of his little cubicle and beat the snot out of him. Because she called me at the office crying and said, he said, he said, he said, why would I stay with a man who wouldn't pay his bills?

And I was thinking the same thing. That's funny now. Right then, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was mad. I'd had it. And I'm still mad 40 years later. And when I talk to one of you and your life has been broken over the knee of a credit card company or broken over the knee of Sally Mae, or you've gotten yourself into a mess with your own stupid butt choices, same kind of stuff I've done in my life, I feel exactly that same kind of anger for you, with you, and sometimes a little bit at you. Get it done. Fix it. Get mad. It's time to change something. We've got this thing going around the the wussification of America, where people are, I'm struggling and I'm burnt out. You're not burnt out. I had a guy working for me. He goes, I'm burnt out. I said, it plan you believe in you don't think that when you do

something when you plant corn you're going to grow corn you don't believe that you're going to reap what you sow and so you're sowing nothing or you're sowing sparingly and you're going to reap sparingly or you're going to reap nothing. Burnout right now is code for, I don't have any hope because I don't know what to do, and I feel stuck. Exhaustion is the exact same physical manifestation as burnout. Your body feels exactly the same when you're exhausted, but you're not burnt out when you're exhausted. You're just tired because you just worked your butt off towards a goal, and you knew if you keep doing that long enough, you're going to get the goal. You know, if I keep doing this, I'm going to win. If I keep doing this, I'm going to get there.

And you don't burn out when you got a why. You don't burn out when you're getting traction. You don't burn out when you paid off a debt last month, and now you got three more to go. I'm not burnt out. I'm getting it. But when I don't think I can ever get out, no matter what I do, I hope the government fixes my life. Now you get burnt out because the government had never fixed anything. They can't even fix their lives. Look at them. They're a dad blame mess up there, man. It's the island of misfit toys. Don't wait on them to fix your life. That's crazy. So ask yourself, why did I set out to build wealth in the first place? Well, when Sharon and I started, it's because we wanted to eat Friday.

Y'all ever been there? And then once we got where we were eating pretty regular on Friday, one of her big goals was go to the grocery store and buy anything she wanted. She said, if I can just do that, I'll be rich. And that was a long time ago. She can do that a lot now. We got financial peace. Life's good. It's 30 years later now after going broke. So that's the first thing. Then after that, you start going, hey man, you know, maybe we can save up some money. And if there's an emergency, every time the tire's flat, it won't be a freaking crisis. Wouldn't it be nice to have something happen and it be an inconvenience instead of a drama? And then once we get past that, then we could do this and then we could do that. And man, we could change our family tree. We could make so much money, no matter how stupid our kids are, they could mess it up. I mean, that's possible. I mean, well, some of you it's not, but I mean, that's possible. I mean, well, some of you, it's not, but I mean, it's

depending on the kid, I guess, but wow, some of them got exponential abilities there, but you know, I want a better future for my family. I want to be able to give. I want to be able to give this much. I want to make an impact. Those around me, I don't ever want to walk up beside someone and I see that look. You see that look in their eyes? And I don't have the money to help them. I want to be able to just help them. I'm talking about that look, not the one who's begging, but the one who's got that look like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm so scared I can't breathe. And you put tires on a single mom's car and you fill her car with gas and you tell the mechanic to go through and make sure everything's

fixed. The whole deal don't cost you a thousand dollars. It changes her whole life because you don't have to think about it anymore because you've got your act together. This is when wealth building gets fun, y'all. This is when it gets fun. It's not a shortcut. It's not a hack. There's no technique. There's some principles. You follow those principles. They work every stinking time, and 100% of the time, they are hard. God and grandma were not in the business of lazy people winning. Grandma will kick some of your butts the way y'all act, standing around looking for something for nothing. I'm going to work from home and not work while I'm at home, but get paid. That's called stealing. It's a different thing, y'all. This is old school stuff.

These principles are what brought us to this great place in this country, and abandoning them are a problem. We cannot abandon them. There's no secret. Live on the lesson you make. Change everything. When you get sick and tired of being sick and tired, and you say, I've had it, you look in the driveway, and you go, 750 bucks a month? What was I thinking? Apparently, I wasn't. Car sold. What was that? I mean, you look over there, you go, I'm going to sell that. Kids are hiding by now.

They're starting to think they're up for sale. Some of you, when dinner time comes around, you don't know how to make anything except reservations. You might want to fix that. It's expensive. Not against restaurants, but broke people shouldn't eat out all the time. Hello. Why is this hard? It's not hard, except the culture has been told they can do anything they want and there's no repercussions. Of course, there's repercussions. Of course, when you violate the law of gravity, you're going to go splat on the sidewalk, dummy. That's the way it works. Man, I tell you, I love getting people fired up on this because it sets

them free. When you finally say, I've had it, it changes everything. My friend Jim Collins wrote a fabulous book on leadership called Good to Great. Many of you have read it, I'm sure. It's a classic by now, millions and millions of copies sold. And one of the things he talked about in there was the Stockdale paradox. And the way he got that phrase, Jim's a big researcher, was he interviewed the famous Admiral, Admiral Stockdale, who was a POW in Vietnam. Now, during the Vietnam era, the POW camp was in Hanoi, the Hanoi prison, which means hell's hole or fiery furnace. And it was nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton, sarcastically, by the POWs, the prisoners of war. Many of the POWs were fighter pilots. They were shot down there. Captured Senator John McCain was one. He was there in solitary confinement. Two of the five years he was there. So in the Hanoi Hilton, it was a place of

torture. Prisoners were regularly tortured every day. They were starved to death. Many, many, many died. They were put in solitary confinement. They were beaten. They were suffering all the time. Stockdale was a commander when his plane was shot down. He was captured. He later, after coming home, became an admiral. He was in prison for eight years and tortured 20 times during that time. Incredible, horrific thing. Many strong men, many brave men did not make it out of the Hanoi Hilton. And when Collins was interviewing Stockdale about this process, he's trying to understand the human spirit here. He said, how did you make it out alive? And Stockdale said, I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would

get out, but that I would also prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade. Collins looked at him and said, well, who didn't make it out? And he said, oh, that's easy. The optimists didn't make it out. The guys who said, oh, we're going to be home by Christmas. And then they weren't. Oh, we're going to be home by Thanksgiving. And then they weren't. We'll be home by Easter. And then we weren't. We'll be home by Easter and then we weren't. We'll be home by...and they died of a broken heart. He said, this is the very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts in your current reality, whatever they might be. Collins calls this the Stockdale paradox. You have faith in the end of the story, but I'm going to face the brutal facts of what I

have got to do to get to the end of the story. I've got to sell the car. I've got to work an extra job. I've got to learn a new word in my house, the ancient word. I'll teach it to you. You press your tongue towards the top of your mouth. You release it. You make a kissing motion with your lips. It sounds like this. No. It's a powerful word. It will release you from this culture. No.

You can say, no, I'm sorry, if you want to soften it. But at the Ramsey house, no is a complete sentence. Even with the grandbabies, Papa Dave said, I'm that guy. I love you. I love you. You will kill yourself. You cannot play with that.

No. I'm here to protect you. You're small and dumb. No. I love you more than life itself. No. No. And then you look in the mirror and you go, no, because adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good. When I was going broke at four o'clock in the morning, I sat down in my recliner with my Bible and it flopped open randomly to Romans. And of course, it wasn't random. It was God going, hello. And Romans 5, 3 through 5,

rejoice in your suffering. Now, I know many of you are reverent in your walk with the Lord, and I am most of the time. But right then, I wasn't feeling really reverent. Rejoice in your suffering. And I went, no thanks. Don't think so. I'm upset at this right now. No thanks. I think I'm going to move on to another scripture. This one doesn't appeal. Rejoice in your suffering. Keep reading because suffering produces perseverance. And perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint. It's a gift of the Holy Spirit. Hope comes from God.

So in a land where we've lost our hope, and instead we're dependent on fear and anger and greed, we can step aside from that, step back, get a new perspective and say, I'm going to lean into hope. I'm going to confront the brutal facts of the mistakes I've made and the things I've got to do to undo them and the mess I have to clean up, but I'm also going to have faith in the end of the story, because I've read the back of the top Ramsey personalities

we've got right now. Everywhere he goes, people are just loving this guy. He's really on fire. He's a hardworking dude behind the scenes, learned everything we're doing inside and out. He and my daughter, Rachel, have just launched a new podcast that has gone explosive. The numbers are amazing. If you haven't listened to it, I listened to it this morning. One of them came out today called Smart Money Happy Hour. And it's two goofy guys, or two goofy people having a blast. And it's fun and funny. And there's information in there too. So you don't want to miss it. It's good. They're very, very good. And you're going to really enjoy it. And please welcome to the stage, George Campbell. Thank you, Dave. Thank you. Thank you. Well, it is a big day for gingers. Any gingers in the crowd? That was rhetorical. We see you. It's very obvious.

January 12th, National Kiss a Ginger Day. I cannot make this up. And I assume it was invented by just a real desperate ginger fella who needed a holiday just to get a little kiss. But January 12th is also special to me as a non-ginger. Exactly one year ago today, January 12th, 2022, my wife and I did our debt-free scream right up there on the Ramsey Show because we paid off our house. Thank you. Now, I'm not special.

I'm not rich. I don't have a trust fund. I don't have a rich uncle. My uncle's broke. This was a journey for us. And, you know, just like getting to five foot six, it took a lot of time and hard work to get here. The doctor says there's still hope. But here's what's crazy about my story. Over the past 10 years of following the Ramsey Baby Steps, I went from a negative net worth to a Baby Steps millionaire. That boggles my mind. So I am living proof that you guys can do this

stuff too. You see, I'm a first generation American, which means I was born in the US. My parents were not. They came from the Middle East back in the 1980s. And so like none of you, I grew up Arabic Baptist. It's a real thing. You can Google it. And if you're wondering like what that's like growing up Arabic Baptist, imagine Baptist plus hummus. That's the recipe. Delicious.

So my parents quickly conformed to the American culture when they got here. And what does that mean? You conform to the money culture too, don't you? The one that says payments are normal, your FICO score is almighty, and college education is worth it no matter how many Sallie Mae Monopoly dollars it takes to get there. And so naturally, I fell for those traps too. So by 2013, I found myself $36,000 in student loan debt, $4,000 in credit card debt. And here's me back in 2013. Check this out. Yeah. Don't laugh. It's not a funny photo. Gosh. Well, behind that ever so gentle smile and that single use H&M cardigan was a guy who truthfully was frustrated

and anxious and feeling a little bit hopeless. And here's why. Like many of you, I did everything you were supposed to do, right? I was part of the generation that was told, if you work hard and you get good grades and go to the college that you want at all costs and get the credit cards for the cash back

and the airline miles and the credit score and you wish upon a star that would make no difference who you are, anything your heart desires will come to you. Your dreams would come true, right? But it was a nightmare. Instead of a real boy, I turned out to be real broke. Not what you want. Now, thankfully, Ramsey Solutions intersected my life that year. I landed a temp job here a decade ago, and I went through this money course called Financial Peace University. Y'all heard of it? It's famous. It's famous. And it changed everything, y'all. In that course, my entire paradigm shifted. I learned that this money culture, this financial

system is actually designed to screw you over. Yeah, it turns out a life of payments makes banks and lenders rich, and they get fancy buildings, and they sponsor stadiums, and it keeps us broke. And I learned that if you want to win with money, you got to figure out what everyone else is doing and then run in the other direction. And that's what I did. 18 months later, going all in on these baby steps, I cut up the cards, and I paid off $40,000 in consumer debt. I was debt-free.

Felt so good. Now, can y'all imagine if I had waited in 2013, 10 years for student loan forgiveness? Well, you don't have to imagine because 10 years later, I'd still be waiting. It's like that scene, Bueller, Biden, Biden, nothing, nothing. Now, I wanna show you the difference between 2013 George and the George of today. This is me and my wife paying off our house, and that is a different feeling right there. I turned up to smile, right? I got more joy. I have less anxiety with money. I have more hope

for my financial future than ever. This stuff works, and you can do it too. You can go from negative net worth to millionaire, but you got to be willing to swim upstream, to be a little weird, to create the right money habits. That's what I want to talk to you about tonight. You came here because you want some hope that it's still possible to build wealth in today's America. But like Dave said, it's crazy times. Everything is still so freaking expensive. Inflation is out of control. And the last semblance of hope that we have is the Costco hot dog still hanging on for dear life. $1.50 for almost 40 years. But y'all know it's a trap, right? Because it's illegal to leave Costco for less than 150. That's a trap. But Costco aside, everything else has gone up, and it's really

got me down. I mean, y'all feel me. You know this. Life is good, right? We got contentment. We got gratitude. But it's been hard for so many people out there. It's been stressful. Money's been tight. you thought life would look differently by now. You thought you'd be in a different spot financially, and now it feels like you might never get ahead with money. And your money's stretched thin, of course, thanks to inflation and payments and childcare and your lifestyle and your subscriptions, and the list goes on. But that means you're feeling stretched thin too. And as I've been taking calls on the Ramsey show, helping people with their money problems, a lot of the calls boil down to one main issue,

margin. Too much month at the end of the money. That's the real reason they're stressed and out of control and anxious and feeling stuck and unable to pay for emergencies, unable to build wealth for the future. So what is margin exactly? Well, margin is breathing room, right? In your bank account and your life. It's knowing your card's not going to get declined at the grocery store. It's having money left over, abundance to give, to save, to spend. And margin is also the key to maximizing your number one wealth building tool, your income. So how do we get this margin? Well, it takes a little bit of math. Here's the formula for margin.

It's going to blow your mind. Get this. Spend less plus make more equals margin. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. It's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure. Now, let's be honest. This is easier said than done. If it was easy, we'd all have it, wouldn't we? It takes sacrifice. It's been a pleasure. Now, let's be honest. This is easier said than done.

If it was easy, we'd all have it, wouldn't we? It takes sacrifice. It takes some compromise. It takes living on less than you make. It takes getting out of your comfort zone. So I want to share three key steps to create margin so that you can actually build wealth. The first step is to start a zero-based budget. Now, if your income is your number one wealth-building tool, your budget is second. Why is that? Well, it allows you to get your spending under control and create a habit of saving. And a budget is just telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. And get this, when people start Financial Peace University, they start budgeting, they're using every dollar. On average, they find $350 in their budget,

in their first month of budgeting. That was just floating away from them. They took control. When you do a budget, you will feel like you got a raise. You don't need an awkward conversation with your boss. And it turns out when you pay attention to your money, it starts to behave, doesn't it? Self-control and discipline.

That's what budgeting is. It's just adulting with your money. Now, if you're married, you've got to be doing a budget together. This is a team effort like folding fitted sheets. Nobody should attempt it alone. It's too dangerous. Now, earlier, I told you my wife and I, we paid off our house, and there's no way we could have done this without being on the same page. We reach our goals so much faster when we work with our spouse, not in spite of them. It's one of the main calls we get on The Ramsey Show. How do I get on the same page with my spouse? Well, it takes hard conversations. It takes

actually having a vision for your marriage instead of wondering what's happening next weekend, thinking about what you want the next five years to look like. It takes going through Financial Peace University to create common language and shared goals around money. And here at Ramsey Solutions, we've got the best budgeting method out there. It's called a zero-based budget. This is where your income minus expenses equals zero. Let me show you what this looks like. Let's say we make $4,000. We list our income on one side. That's all the paychecks for the month. The other side is all of our expenses. So go through that bank statement and take your best guess at what that month is going to look like. And it should come down to zero. You'll notice right now we got money left over. Our expenses are 3,600. So with that extra 400 bucks, we got to give that a job. Otherwise, it's going

to float away into Uber Eats and DoorDash and Target. And so we're going to apply that $400 to our baby step. We're trying to get out of debt. Great. Now we've got a zero-based budget. Every dollar has a job. We don't like our dollars unemployed, right? Now we have a free app called EveryDollar that makes this super easy. You download it, you set up your budget in minutes, you track it throughout the month, and that is the way it works. Now, once we get the budget going, the second step to creating margin is to get out of debt. Turns out it's real difficult to build for the future while still paying for the past. You're getting tugged in two directions. Don't wonder why you can't build wealth when you've got payments up to your eyeballs. The credit card bills, the car payments, your student loan payments. Yes, they are coming back regardless of how long Uncle Joe kicks the can down the road. So here's an exercise. If you're

not mad at your debt and you're like, well, my payments are comfortable, here's a fun exercise for you. Add up how much you pay in payments every single month. Now add up the interest you're paying every single month. Now multiply that by 12 months. Now you want to punch me. You're so angry. Please don't. Debt is robbing your paycheck. It's robbing your joy and it's robbing your ability to build wealth. And for most people, debt is truly the biggest roadblock to building wealth. We can complain about inflation and the economy and the White House, but when we look at our house and we look at that guy in the mirror and you look at his payments, that's the real reason. And that's why we're going to get completely debt-free using the debt snowball method. It's the same method I use to pay off $40,000 in 18 months. Here's how it works. We list out all of our debts from smallest

to largest, regardless of the interest rate. If y'all were so good at math, we wouldn't be in debt, would we? We're focusing on progress here. We want quick wins. So we're going to attack the little debt with a vengeance. With all the margin we can have, we're selling stuff, we're cutting expenses, rolling that payment into the next one, into the next one. The Subaru's getting paid off. Sally Mae's evicted. We are debt free. Just like that. It's that simple and it's that hard because you got to realize, oh, my little plan of moving the card to the 0%, that's not actually doing anything. We got to get out of debt. We can't just move it around. So once we're out of debt, we're budgeting, we can move on to the third step to creating margin, which is get that emergency fund. So once you're debt-free,

it's your next priority. Three to six months of expenses in a rainy day emergency fund. And notice I said expenses, not income. So look at your living expenses. What do you need to survive for a month? Multiply that out. And this is really a buffer between you and life so that you never have to go into debt again. You're wondering, how does this help me create margin? Well, it keeps you from going back into debt, which helps you keep the margin you worked so hard to create. So let's define emergency real quick because some of y'all get it twisted because you get a sale to your favorite store in your email

and you're like, it's an emergency. They'll never do 30% off again. And by the way, upgrading to the latest iPhone, not an emergency unless you're an Android user, in which case it might be an emergency it might be i don't know and that is how you lose half the crowd you're welcome so those are the three steps to creating margin and we got to remind ourselves why are we doing this to reduce money stress and put ourselves in a position to build wealth. Now think about where you are

for a second. If you do all those three things, you've got a consistent monthly plan for your money, you've got no payments, and you have 10, 15, 20, $25,000 in the bank for emergencies. Breathe that in. No amount of meditation or goat yoga will give you that kind of zen. That is why we call it financial peace. You make decisions differently. You give differently. You spend differently. Now, you might be saying to yourself, well, George, you just did that in three seconds. This sounds like it's going to take forever. I got a lot of debt, man. I don't make that much. How am I going to do this? Well, I'll tell you, when you go all in on this plan, here's the timeline for how long it takes on average. Baby step one is a starter emergency

fund of a thousand bucks. People do that in 30 days max because we are selling stuff. We're working side jobs. We're cutting expenses down to nothing to get that thousand bucks fast. Second, the baby step two, getting out of the consumer debt. It takes people 18 to 24 months on average with that gazelle intensity. Baby step three, fully funded emergency fund, six months on average to get that saved up. So think about this. Two, two and a half years of short-term sacrifice to build an incredible foundation for long-term wealth building. Now we're actually ready to build wealth. Baby step four, we start investing 15%

of our household income in retirement. Now I'm gonna keep it real simple here because a lot of your friends out there think their whole life insurance plan they wanna sell you is an investment vehicle. And they think crypto is an investment vehicle. And the single stock that's gonna take off and go to the moon is an investment vehicle.

No, it's this simple. All you need to build wealth is a 401k and an IRA. In 2019, Ramsey Solutions did the largest study of millionaires ever done, over 10,000 of them. And here was a shocker. The number one investment vehicle to become a millionaire was a 401k plan. It's that boring and it gives me that much hope

that I can do it too. And here's a five-word investing strategy that sums up everything we believe at Ramsey about investing. Match beats Roth beats traditional. So let's walk through that. For starters, you're going to invest up to the match if you have one in your 401k. Or if you're military or government, you might have a TSP. If you're a teacher, you might have the 403b. The match is a 100% return on your investment. You put in four, they match four. Take that first. That's amazing. It's an awesome benefit to have. Thank you, HR. We love you. They don't get thanked a lot, it turns out. Usually they just get complaints about Gary and shipping, so they could use a win. So if you have the option of a traditional 401k, we're investing up to the match,

then we're gonna move on to Roth options. What does Roth mean? It's real simple. You're using after-tax dollars that grow tax-free. We love that. You got a million dollars in Roth at retirement, you get a million dollars without Uncle Sam touching it ever again.

So we're gonna max out a Roth. And if we're still not at 15% yet, we're gonna go back and invest in that workplace retirement plan until we get there. And if you have a Roth 401k, we love that. You can just invest all 15% there if you want. That's wonderful. So no matter where you are in your wealth building journey,

I recommend working with a financial advisor. I've got one, Dave has one. You need these people in your corner, not only to coach you through the ups and downs and keep you from jumping off the ledge, but to help you understand what you're investing in. Don't do this blindly. You can connect with one all over the country

at ramseysolutions.com. They're fantastic and they give me so much confidence in my wealth building journey. And now here's what's amazing to me. In most retirement accounts, 90% of the balance is growth when you get to retirement. That is the power of compound interest. Here's what that means.

You put in 10% is what you contributed. The rest was compound interest, that money making you more money over time. And you need a long-term mindset to build wealth and keep it. We are not on this thing to get rich quick. The wisest and wealthiest guy of all time, Solomon, said this in Proverbs 13, 11. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. That's fire. I mean, he would have crushed it on Twitter, let me tell you.

And he could definitely afford that monthly payment for the blue check. I'm just going to say that. That's the strategy, right? Invest consistently, steadily, over a long period of time. So from what I just told you, wealth building really isn't that glamorous. It's actually pretty boring. And that gives me hope because I'm pretty boring too. I like it like that. You know what's not boring though? Having no money stress, retiring with dignity, having a few million bucks in the bank instead of trying to survive off of social insecurity. So let's look at what this looks like in real life. We're gonna take a couple, Joe and Susie, 32 years old.

They just went through Financial Peace University. They're all in on the baby steps and it takes them three years to go from baby step one through baby step three, getting out of debt, get the emergency fund. So now, where are we at? They're 35 years old in baby step four, investing 15% of their income. Let's say they make $65,000 as a household. That's actually below the median household income of 70. Now, let's say they start investing at 15% into mutual funds in their Roth 401k. That comes out to about a little over 800 bucks a month,

little under 10 grand a year. And by the way, that 800 bucks a month exists because Joe and Susie created margin in their finances by getting on a budget and getting out of debt and having money set aside for emergencies. So now let's pretend they don't even get an employer match, all right, which is unlikely because most employers have one. And they work their whole lives making that below average household income, and they never get a raise for 30 years. Do better, Joe and Susie,

right? Now, the point of investing is, of course, to make money. And in a few minutes, Rachel Cruz will be out here talking about how you actually make money in the stock market. She's going to ease your fears around investing. But let's run some numbers out and see what Joe and Susie's accounts will look like investing at $800 a month over 30 years with average returns of 10% to 12%. So 10% return, they would have $1.8 million tax-free at retirement. Pretty good, right? Let's bump it up to 11%. Let's be a little optimistic. 2.2 million bucks. Now let's shoot for the stars and say they get the average return 12%. 2.8 million dollars. How much of that did Joe and Susie put in? Less than 300 grand. The rest was compound interest, and it only happened because they did

this over a long period of time. Now, we can argue about expense ratios and whatever y'all want to nerd out about, but you got to admit, even if I'm half wrong in my assumptions, I'm not, you'd still be a Baby Steps millionaire. But here's what's more likely to happen in reality. Joe and Susie's income will go up, right? Which means they're going to increase investing because of that. They're going to get the employer match, which means they're going to get free money. They're going to pay off their house early following the Ramsey baby steps in about 10 to 15 years. And that house is going to appreciate in value over that period of time. Oh, and by the way, once the house is paid off, they can increase investing, which means they're going to have way

more money than what I just showed you. But beyond the financial benefits, here's what they'll experience too. A marriage that's more likely to last. Because they're on the same page with no money fights and money in the bank. They're going to be more fulfilled in their careers. Because they're free to make decisions without needing that next paycheck. They don't have to deal with that toxic boss. They just walk out of there and find a different job. They also become more generous.

Because they have the margin to be. So when friends or family or their community needs help, They just walk out of there and find a different job. They also become more generous because they have the margin to be. So when friends or family or their community needs help, along with thoughts and prayers, they can also leave an envelope of cash at the door. How cool would that be? Don't you want that kind of life? That was rhetorical. Of course we do. That's what it looks like when you decide to rise above this broken financial system and follow a proven plan. If you want to change your future and you want to build wealth, you got to turn off the noise. You got to turn off the news. You got to focus on creating the right money habits, focus on your house. So let's go back to this tale of two

Georges. It's good to look back. It's good to remember that wealth building is a journey and that cardigans will hopefully come back around. And 10 years for a lot of you might sound like a long time. I don't get that kind of time. Well, guess what? It's gonna be here whether you like it or not. So what are you gonna decide to do that you're gonna look back 10 years from now and be grateful you did?

And here's what happens, right? We've all done the New Year's resolutions. Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year, but they underestimate what they can accomplish in a decade. So my hope for you tonight is that you decide to do the same plan that I did, that you discover the belief that you can do this. Because it turns out the little man still can get ahead in America today. Don't laugh. Thank you. And it's not just me. It's you. It's the big men too. But it starts with creating margin, that breathing room in your finances. And it is a different way to live when you create that margin in your life. And here's what I found. Margin gives you options and options gives you freedom and freedom gives

you peace and peace that gives you joy. And all of that leads to a more meaningful life, a life well spent. God bless you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. Now, earlier, I mentioned the stock market can be a wild ride. You might not like what you see when you look at the 401k. And good news for you, our next speaker is going to give you the Stock Market Survival Guide to Ease Your Worries. She's a best-selling author, host of The Rachel Cruze Show, co-host of The Ramsey Show, and her finest career accomplishment to date, my co-host on our newest podcast,

Smart Money Happy Hour. So would you help me welcome to the stage my friend, Rachel Cruze. Thanks, George. Great job. Great job. Thank you, guys. Okay, so if I didn't have this job, if talking about money, teaching about money wasn't my job, there's a couple other things that I have in my life that I'm like, you know what, I feel like I would be pretty great at. One would be a political correspondent for a network. I love politics, so I'm like, I could totally, I could do that. I could be a sleep trainer for babies. Fantastic at getting babies to sleep. Or a travel agent. And I love vacations. I love traveling. This is like a spiritual gift of mine, okay? So when our family is booking a trip and planning a trip, I'm like,

I am all in. Or if we go on like a girl's trip or a couple's trip, like it's travel agent Rachel, is what everyone calls me. And they're like, oh, is travel agent Rachel here? I'm like, oh, she's here. She is here. And I just love it. I love the details. I love looking at the flights and the hotels. I love making dinner reservations, researching the restaurants, what we're going to do. I make an itinerary. Like, it's just, it brings me life. I don't know. So last year, we decided to take our two girls, we have three kids, but we decided to take the two oldest, the two girls, to Disney World. And Disney, it's a planning kind of trip, right? So I am like working in my gifts. I'm like, this is what I was created to do. And so as we're planning the trip, I mean, I'm on my laptop every night, researching, looking at the hotel, figuring out, okay, which way should we get to the park? Do you take the tram? Should we walk? The buses? I mean, I'm making a schedule. I mean, I am all in. Even to the point,

it's embarrassing, but it's true. I would go on YouTube and watch random families and their trips to Disney. I was like, Winston's like, what are you watching? I'm like, the Millers from Ohio. But I'm like watching their trip. I would watch the roller coasters. I would watch the roller coasters. I would sit there and watch videos of every roller coaster at Disney World. I measured my girls so I knew how tall they were to figure out which rides they could go on. I mean, this is an all-in thing. You gotta understand, all-in.

And so I realized in my planning that there were two roller coasters that my middle one, Caroline, it was not tall enough to ride, but Amelia, our oldest, could. Space Mountain. Yeah, I knew I was gonna have a Disney fan here. And Everest. So Everest is a

pretty intense roller coaster in Animal Kingdom. So that day came, we're in Animal Kingdom. Caroline, there's just tears that she can't ride it, and we're showing her the measurement, like, sorry. So Winston takes her off, and it's me and Amelia. And thankfully, my kids love roller coasters, you know. Girls after their own mom's heart. I just love it, and so we're in the little queue, and you're going through, and Disney's pretty great. I mean, they're pretty creative, right? So you're looking around at all the artifacts, and you're getting to the line, and Amelia's like, oh, mom, I just want to get on now, and I'm like, I know, me too, me too. Like, I just, like, we're so excited. Well, there's a girl in front of us. I mean, I say girl, probably mid to late 20s.

And I see her, and she's kind of doing this. And suddenly, she turns around, and she just looks at us. And she looks at me, and she's like, I was like, oh. And she looks down at Amelia, and she was, oh. And she stops, and she's to my seven-year-old, and she said, if you can do it, I can do it. And Amelia was like, yeah, you can. You got this. And I was like, you've got this. You've got this. So we get to the front. You're at the gates, and the people get off the coaster. You get on. You buckle up. I'm buckling Amelia, making sure she's all good. And it begins. And if you've been on that one specific roller coaster,

it kind of just, it's kind of nice at first. You kind of go around the bend and you kind of go up a little hill and it's like, oh, and you're, okay. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh. Right, and it's like the classic roller coaster mountain that everyone's on. And we're going up and it's to the point that I'm like,

I'm a full grown adult who pays taxes. Like, I'm a human and an adult, a grown-up, a mom. But you start, like, questioning every life decision that you've made until this point. We're going up, and I'm like, okay, this is gonna be good. And I hear from right in front of us, the girl in line, scream at the top of her lungs, get me out of here. And Amelia looks at me, she's like, I can't wait. I was like, I know. And then you go to the top and it begins. But I will say that little tipping point right there in life was us and the stock market last year, where everyone is questioning every life decision you've made to this point. And with this coaster, you know, the roller coaster ride, everyone enters the market even differently, right? Some people are excited and enthusiastic, maybe a little naive, like Amelia, my seven-year-old,

you know, just jumping right in. Some people are very fearful, very cautious. You know, everyone kind of enters differently. But let me tell you, it's a ride. It's a ride. And when it comes to building wealth, the market, you guys, George said it earlier, but it's one of the most consistent ways to build wealth over time.

But man, it's a ride. So you gotta hang on and you have to stay on the ride. And the problem is, is that fear can take over, can't it? Right? You're watching the news, you're reading posts on Facebook, and you're kind of thinking, oh my gosh, am I crazy? You know, is this the right thing? And you start questioning everything, and fear can just take over. So I want to walk through, how do we face our fears when it comes to the market? Because the truth is, if we want to build wealth, it really is one of the best ways, one of the most effective ways to build wealth over time. So the first way to kind of face

your fear of the market is to face the fear. It's just simply that. And what's hard is when you're watching the news, I feel like they want you to be scared of everything, right? They're like, the jobs report, the housing market, the stock market. Oh, my gosh, it's everything. And you're kind of thinking, I think the world's going to end, right? You get to this point and you're so fearful. And when your fear is not specific and it's just general, you can be paralyzed by it. So when it comes to being fearful of the market or from the economy, be very specific. What am I afraid of? Am I afraid because we're living paycheck to paycheck and it's terrible, right? Am I afraid because inflation, I'm feeling it?

Am I afraid because I genuinely was going to retire this year and looking at my 401k, I may not be able to. Are you fearful of the job market because your company is laying off people, right? Like, be very specific about your fear. Don't let it be this general idea that I'm scared of the economy. Be very specific. And then control what you can control. We have said that phrase a thousand, billion times, it feels like, over the last two years here at Ramsey. But that's the truth. Control what you can control, which means there's not a lot of things in life that we can control. The older I get and the more therapy I do, the more

I realize that's true, right? There's not a lot that we can control. But with our money, we can control our income. When it hits our bank account, we get to make decisions, right? We get to decide, am I going to spend it? Am I going to pay off debt? Am I going to invest? What am I going to do with that? If you are in the market, you have control to say, am I going to stop investing? Am I going to continue to invest? Am I going to pull money out? You have options there. So figuring out what you can control is so, so key. So facing your fear head on. Number two, overcome your fear with facts. This is going to help you. So we're going to get a little nerdy here. This is like stock market 101. Are you ready?

Okay, let's just talk about the stock market. What is the stock market? The stock market is a market of stocks, which are tiny pieces of ownership and public companies that you and I get to buy into. They're bought and sold, those shares. And so we get to be investors. Everyday people like you and I get to be investors in the economy. And that's amazing. So that's what the stock market really is. And what happens with the stock market is you can watch it and you can see, okay, the activity and the perceived values of those shares go up and down based on really how people are feeling in the world. It's that, okay? So when people are feeling great and they're like, oh, yeah, life is awesome. We're shopping. We're buying stuff for our kids. We're going on vacation. We're going out to eat. We're buying

new cars. We are just spending and doing great. Well, guess what? When you spend money to companies, the value of those companies go up. So the values, the perceived values go up and everything's great. But when fear comes in, uncertain times, maybe a pandemic, maybe a war, maybe an election season, maybe a bad jobs report comes out, but something happens and everyone's like, ooh, this feels unstable, so I'm going to contract and not spend as much. I'm going to hold my money and we're going to be a little bit more conservative because we don't know what's going on. But when people are not out spending money, the values of those companies, perceived value, kind of goes down. So you see that happening, right? I mean, it is a living organism is what it feels like, right? The stock market. I mean, it is a living, breathing thing, and you can watch it. There's even channels,

you know, on cable news that you can turn on and literally watch in real time and what it's doing. Like, it's just, it's wild. And so what's happened recently is, yeah, I mean, we're feeling that downturn. But you go back a few years, you guys. You know, there's a thing, COVID-19. So you go back to March of 2020, which feels like 20 years ago, doesn't it? Go back to March of 2020. Okay, the market fell 9.5%, you guys, in one day. It was the worst day for the market since Black Monday in 1987. Okay, so it tanked March of 2020, right? I mean, it's when COVID hit everything, right? You're feeling it. So what's wild is when you watch the market and you look, you see, okay, yeah, it dove and everyone kind of freaked out and panicked. Well, August of that year, a few months later, it returned. And then if you remember in 2021, we actually ended 2021 breaking records. The S&P broke a record.

I mean, it was great. 2021 was insane for the market. And then here comes 2022, right? And it goes back down. So again, it's this feeling of up and down. But what I wanna encourage you, where we're at right now, if you're looking at your mutual funds,

if you see your 401k, if you're in the market, you know it's not great. It's not great. Winston and I, we have a mutual fund, and he, this was just, I mean, I think it was last week, and he was like, oh, look at this, and I looked. I was like, oh, I don't know. I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it, because it is, it's been really tough. It's been really, really hard, but here's the deal. When the market goes down like that, you guys, that is the time to continue to invest. Invest consistently because it's on sale. That's what happens. It's on sale. What $1,000 would have bought you in 2021, how many shares right here? Well, in 2022,

you get to buy a whole lot more for the same amount of money. And here's the beautiful thing. When you're buying at the bottom, as it continues to go up, which I believe it will, I believe in the American economy enough to believe that it will go up, you'll watch it go back up. And you then, if you're in the market and you're on baby step four, you get to build that value back and you get that money. You get to watch your money grow with it. When people are fearful and they don't want to invest, they try to jump in when it's getting good, and they've missed all that growth, okay? So investing consistently, you guys, is so, so key. And again, 2022, or yeah, I look back last year, and I'm like, you know, on the Everest ride, the roller coaster Amelia and I were on, there's a part, if you've been on it, and you get to this

dead end, and it's like these fake tracks that go nowhere, and you're like, where do we do? Where do we go? Oh, we're going backwards. And you go backwards into this dark tunnel, and you're like, I have no idea what's going on in life right now. You know, that's kind of what it felt like. But staying on the roller coaster and not jumping off is what keeps you safe. And staying on it and riding it out. Okay, so I mentioned the S&P 500, and George has been talking about the market as well. So when you look at something like that, again, there's these words that are thrown out in this topic, things like the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones, and it's like, what is this? Well, I like looking at the S&P 500 because basically, what is it? It's a stock index. And so it's basically a

measuring stick that shows how the overall economy is doing because it's the S&P 500, which means it's the 500 largest publicly traded companies is what the S&P 500 is watching. So you get a good picture because what makes up that are companies like Delta, Hershey's, Home Depot, American Airlines, Netflix, Nike, my favorite, Target, the black hole of goodness. I mean, it's just great, right? So it's these large companies that you're watching. And when you look at the history of the markets, because that's also important to know, okay, if we're in it and we're in a fearful time

and it doesn't look good, what does history show us? Well, history shows us that the average annual return since 1928 through 2021 was 11.82%. Okay, that was the average. And what I like to look at that is I like to see the overall big perspective of the market. Because again, if you're in it, it's scary right now. It's not fun. But that's because we have a short-sighted view if we're just looking at the present. So that's why backing up and seeing the pattern of what it's doing is really important to your wealth building. And I love patterns in life because when you know that

something is kind of predictable, you're like, okay, that gives you a little bit of safety, you know, a little bit of peace. Our youngest is three, and we tried potty training like two months ago, and it was just a disaster. Boys, I don't know what this thing is. I'm like, y'all are crazy. Potty training a boy is so hard. So I just gave up. I'm just lazy and I'm like, you'll figure it out. It's fine, we'll find it. So I can tell you, it's kind of gross.

Your parents will understand. But during his nap, when I go get him up at 3.30, there's a pattern that he poops. Every nap I walk in and it stinks, his room. It's predictable. I know, I'm not shocked. I'm prepared. And I know the pattern, right? If you go to Chick-fil-A, you can be pretty sure that your order is going to be right. Jesus chicken always just proves well, right? So there's a pattern that you can count on. So patterns are really helpful. And when we're looking at the

market, seeing patterns can give us peace. To me, I look at it, I'm like, there's a pattern, right? There's a trajectory of it going up. Yes, it does this, and it's insane, and it's nuts. But overall, you can see that pattern that it continues to go up. And so that's why I have confidence. I do. I still have confidence in the market. And that's why we're still investing and building wealth. Again, this is such a huge key. And the reality is, too, where the S&P is today, as we're doing this live stream, is higher than where it was in 2019, pre-COVID, okay? So again, it feels insane. It feels like, oh my gosh, it's up and down. But really, when you look at the numbers, it gives you peace. So when it comes to building

wealth, we want to face our fears. We want to get the facts, learn some new stuff, hopefully, to have some peace and safety with our building wealth. And then the third thing of overcoming is just to keep investing. I'm telling you guys, consistent investing is what is going to help you build wealth. The survey that we did with net worth millionaires found that investment consistency was the second most important factor to building wealth, is what they would say. The first was financial discipline. And what's fascinating too is they studied the net worth millionaires, and then they studied the general public.

The general public said investing consistency was the seventh most important thing to do to build wealth. So millionaires, general public, right? We're going to go over here. Investing consistently is so key. So if you are out of debt, if you have a fully funded emergency fund, funding your retirement, that 15% of your income into retirement, you guys, is still

important, even in a down economy. Keep at it. And if you're a first-time investor, maybe you're at the point that you are on baby step four. You've fully funded your emergency fund. You're on this journey, and you're a little bit gun-shy, get in. Get in. Get in and do it. Because over time, that is what's going to help you build wealth. So how do you invest, though, in a down economy? Because a lot of people are asking that. Okay, so I want to invest. So what does that look like? Number one rule, diversify. Don't go single stocks. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify. Mutual funds within your 401k is great.

Spreading your money around. I know it sounds boring and it's not exciting, you guys, but again, look at the pattern, look at the consistency and do what has a rate of return that we know of, okay? So mutual funds is a great place. And then number two, you write it out. Write it out. Continue, continue to invest. Again, even if it's down. Warren Buffett has a great quote, and he said,

be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. Greedy, I don't really like that word. It's not a great word, but I like the idea because you remember last year, crypto was like the big thing. Cryptocurrency, everyone's like, oh yeah, get into Bitcoin, all this. You're going to make so much money. You're going to make so much money. There's so much hype around crypto, and there's a little bit of that greed of like, get in quick. Yeah, get rich quick. When that stuff is happening, you guys, be a little fearful, right? Get back and be like, let's see how this plays out. Hasn't played out great for them. And then when people are fearful right now,

they're freaked out, they're pulling their money out, they're stop investing, they're freaking out, that's when you know to jump in. And so don't freak out, don't jump off the ride, continue to invest. And again, that perspective, the long-term perspective is going to help. It really is. So facing your fear, getting the facts, keep investing, and just know this is for the long-term. This is for the long-term. And it's hard to have that perspective sometimes. You know, even with my three kids, we're like in the thick

of it. They're three, five, and seven. And it's just a lot, you know? You're just like, wow, there's a lot of humans in our home. It's what it feels like. And you'll, you know, you'll meet these people at the grocery store. Great intentions. But they're like, oh, I just sent my youngest to college. Enjoy every second. And I'm like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Are you changing diapers at 3.30 every day? Are you? No, no, you're not. And I'll be honest. I'm like, okay, I know that. I know it's true. You know, the days are long, but the years are short. You know, it's on a coffee mug. You know, I get it up here. But some days I'm like, yeah, no, I want them like changing their own clothes and stuff. Like we want wanna keep moving along, right?

And so I don't have that perspective. I'm in the thick of it. And so that's how the market is again. Remember, having step back and have that big perspective. And so when Amelia and I, when we ended the Everest ride, they brought us down, you know, you get out and it's like, the gate's open and people kind of clap or they're laughing, all of this. And you get out and it's like, the gate's open and people kind of

clap or they're laughing, all of this. And we get out and Amelia was like, I want to do it again, mom. I want to do it again. I'm like, we're not standing in that line again. We're not standing in that line again. And so we're walking out and the girl in front of us, I remember she looked back at us and she goes, oh, well, wasn't as terrible as I thought. And I thought, you know what? I think 65-year-old Rachel is going to say that about her investing. That was a ride. That was a ride. There were some scary moments. But you know what? It wasn't as bad as I thought. That's my prayer. So again, you guys, this whole building wealth idea, when it comes to investing, it's boring. It's not exciting. Like George said, I wish I had this fun, flashy formula that no one's ever heard of.

But it's the consistent investing that's really going to help you build wealth. And you build wealth not just to stock up money and keep it all, right? There is a true intention of your why. Why are you doing this? Changing your family tree, being generous. I mean, there's amazing stuff that money can do. Money is a tool to create a life that you love. And building wealth does that in scale. Thanks for tuning in to this special edition of the podcast. And hey, if you made it this far, get ready because we've got something just for you. We are offering a special deal on Financial Peace University. If you heard nothing else today, I hope you heard that this can be the year you get rid of your money stress. And Financial Peace University is the way you're

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