The Ramsey Show - App - Budgeting on Straight Commission Income (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 22, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions Broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Rosie is with us in El Paso, Texas.

Hi, Rosie. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing great. So I just wanted to let you know I'm getting married in June. Yay! Yeah, it's so exciting. I followed all of your steps, got myself out of debt,

and we were able to cash for the wedding, which cost $13,000. So we have fully funded baby steps. Your phone is going all over the place. Can you speak directly into it, please? Oh, I'm so sorry. Can you hear me now? Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Okay, sorry. Let me start from the beginning. Oh, I heard you. You got $13,000 for a wedding that's coming in June. We got that. Right. Okay. So we had a fully funded baby step, and it was just like you said, when Murphy comes, Murphy comes.

And it was just emergency after emergency after emergency, which brought our fully funded emergency fund of $10,000 all the way down to $500. And so we have three checks until the wedding, and from those three checks, we can save $6,000. But there's a couple things that we wanted to get for the wedding, like wedding favors, and because it's a destination wedding, we also were thinking about, like, maybe having a nice dinner with everyone or providing another form of entertainment this will all be there for three days and so our question is um yes we know we need to bring the emergency fund up to a thousand but do we do we should we forget

all the extra stuff and just put it towards the emergency fund or should we just have our self-reported system run? You recently had $9,500 worth of emergencies. Yeah. Okay, I can tell you exactly what happened. I have a high deductible. And so from the emergencies, the thing that happened was I had an ambulance bill, which was $2,000. We ended up having some emergency dental work. So it was emergencies between the both of us.

And then, worst of all, this is going to sound absolutely crazy, but I almost killed my fiance's dog, and I felt responsible, and so I actually took on those emergencies from our emergency account. Okay. So what happens if you have an emergency and you have paid for a dinner at the wedding and you have no money well that's what i'm thinking is i guess maybe we shouldn't do those extra things well or some of them but maybe not all of them would i buy luxury add-ons to the wedding when i only have one

thousand dollars to my name no and the reason is what has happened to you in the past year all those things happened in like a matter of three months. If you hadn't had an umbrella when it rained, you'd be all wet. Yeah. I don't, you know, that's why I think umbrellas are good. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm not trying to be like a kilt, you know, like Dave hates weddings. Dave doesn't hate weddings. I love weddings.

Our three weddings we had with our three kids were huge parties. We party, man. We love it. We think celebrate our butts off, man. We have a good time. So I want you to do all that, but I also don't want you to get your block knocked off, kiddo, right? Right. No, you're right.

Stuff happens. Stuff happens. If you don't have money, it's a problem, right? Right, right. So maybe $5,000 and maybe you do a little bit of, you know, you get halfway rebuilt and then, you know, you work some overtime or you all do some other stuff, you know, in order to do a few things at the wedding. But am I going to have you do wedding add-ons with $1,000 in the bank?

You wouldn't advise someone to do that based on what has happened to you in the last four months. Why would you leave yourself exposed after what you've just been through? It's just not logical. Hey, thanks for the call. Andrea is with us in St. Louis. Hi, Andrea. How are you?

Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I got a new job, and I'm going from working at a corporate-type company that has a really good 401k match program to a smaller company that does not offer a 401k. I'm just wondering what the best way is to kind of make up for that for retirement. Just do a Roth IRA yourself would be the first start.

Are you single? No, married. Okay. Does your husband work outside the home? Yes, he does. Does he have a 401K? Yes. Okay.

And what's your household income? It's going to be around $150,000. Okay, cool. Well, we tell folks to put 15% of your household income into retirement. Not individual people, but household into household retirement. So you have $12,000 available to you and two Roth IRAs that you can do. You need to get to 22.5 in baby step four, but to be saving 15% of $150,000. Okay?

And you can put $6,000 a year into a Roth. He can put $6,000 a year into a Roth. That's $150,000. Okay. And you can put $6,000 a year into a Roth. He can put $6,000 a year into a Roth. That's $12,000, which means we need to put about $10,000 into his 401k. Gotcha. Does he have a match? He does. Good. We definitely want to put it up to that match.

And does he have a Roth 401k option? No, he does not. Okay. Cool. Well, I would do two Roth IRAs, and I would do another $10,500 or so into his 401k per year. Because the bottom line is this. His 401k is your 401k. Okay.

You have as much rights to it as he does in the event of death, divorce, or neither. Okay. If you're both alive and everything's going great and you're 70, you use that money to live on. Who cares whose name it was in? If you divorce, you get half of it if you want it. And if he dies, you get it all because you're named as the beneficiary on it. So it's just a technicality that we're utilizing it in his name in order to get to our 22 fives. In other words, it is our 401k, our Roth IRAs in the sense of who owns them and who's going to benefit from them. So it's not like you've got someone that you're not married to that you're

doing this with, which you would never do that. So good question. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thanks for hanging out, America. We're glad you're here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Aaron is in the Ramsey Baby Steps community. And if you didn't know, there's about

150,000 folks in that private Facebook group now. And it is very active in terms of accountability, in terms of support and encouragement. It's an incredible group of people. The posts that go in there, it's pretty cool. She says, I'm a stay-at-home mom. How much should I have in life insurance? Anywhere from $250,000 to $400,000. If you have a high-income household, probably $400,000. And then if something happened to you, he could invest that $40,000 a year income coming off of it. He can hire Mary Poppins to take care of the kids, and he continues his career for $40,000 a year. If he's making $45,000 a year, Mary Poppins ain't going to be making $40,000.

So you don't need but $250,000 then. So anywhere between $250,000 and $400,000, somewhere in there is what we generally recommend. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees. And if you're thinking our low cost means less coverage, think again. Our voice and data service covers 99% of Americans and our 4G LTE network provides the fastest internet speeds like more expensive carriers. We operate on the largest GSM network in the U.S.

to ensure you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime, anywhere. Plus, you can keep your same phone and number and add multiple lines to save more. We're so confident you'll love Pure Talk USA that we invite you to try our service risk-free. Visit puretalkusa.com or call 844-862-3677. Enter promo code SAVEDAVE and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com. Reese is with us in Billings, Montana. Hi, Reese. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Well, kind of a quick little brief summary. I'm 21 years old. I make $60,000 a summary. I'm 21 years old. I make $60,000 a year.

I'm debt-free. I have a $5,000 emergency fund, $20,000 in savings, and $15,000 in my work for 1K and mutual fund. Wow. Well done. Thank you. I currently live in my parents' house, and I'm just wondering, would now be a good time for me to purchase a house, or should I rent for a few years and continue to save? Are you dating anybody? I am not, no. Okay. All right.

There's no prohibition with as well as you've done to you buying a home. If you want to buy a home, you're in a position to do that. I think there's two things that will help you make a wiser home purchase. One would be living in a cheap rental for a year and paying your own bills and kind of getting your feet on the ground outside of mama's nest, okay? I just think you're going to be a different guy after a year from doing that. You're already a very mature guy. You're already a very goal-oriented guy.

You have done an unusually fabulous job for 21 years old. I don't know how you got here, whether it was great parents or whether your brain just works good. I don't know what it is, but you've done a great job but i think you will add a layer of wisdom experience to your life just a year of renting something cheap uh just kind of get acclimated to being out there doing your own grocery shopping and so forth you know that kind of thing. And the second thing that enters into it is at your age, and I tell folks the same thing, are you going to college? No, I went for about a semester, but then I got a job offer at the current job I'm at.

What do you make? $60,000. Oh, you told me that. Yeah, okay. What do you do? I sell college textbooks on Amazon. Okay, wow, you're me that. Yeah. Okay. What do you do? I sell college textbooks on Amazon. Okay. Wow.

You're doing great. Okay. Anyway, the second thing that happens at your stage of life, pre-25, a percentage of pre-25-year-olds are in the process of finding their mate. And if you buy a house, there's a high probability that after you get married, you will discover you have bought the wrong house. I've heard you say that before. Yeah, so it's okay if you buy some, you know, move out, rent for six months, and then go buy you something. That would be an okay move.

Nothing wrong with that move at all. Matter of fact, I'd probably just recommend that move unless there's a lady uh that's very very serious in your life during that six month period of time um if there's not um then you're okay and if you get married you know 26 or 27 years old later i that maybe you never get married i don't know but none of that's nothing good or bad. It's just whatever happens. And then maybe she doesn't like the house. You can always sell it, and you will have owned a house. But if you told me, like, I'm getting real serious, and I'm thinking about buying a house, and I'm just hoping this girl is going to like it, that's not a good plan. Okay?

But you're not in that situation. So I'd probably move out for six months, and then I'd buy something. But just knowing that you probably won't be living in that same house when you're 30 okay as long as you kind of have that emotionally in your head then i i'm probably doing it but again dude you're you're just doing a great job very very well done Open phones this hour. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. 100% satisfaction guarantee that they have means that even if you mess up, you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with new promos they run every month, you can get deals. The promo code is RAMSEY.

Today's question is from Alexander in Texas. Says, Dave, looking for some financial guidance with my 100% commission income. I know that my scenario is a tad different than someone who earns a salary. I'd love to be able to get some advice on how to prioritize our financial goals, debts, purchasing a dream property, saving for emergency and retirement. The priorities are exactly the same. You're still going to work through the baby steps. Baby step one is $1,000.

Two is be out of debt, everything but the house. Three is build your emergency fund. If you save up a down payment for a house, that would be called 3B. Baby step four is start saving for retirement. 15% of your income into that. Five is kids' college. And these are in order. We call baby step four, start saving for retirement, 15% of your income into that, five is kids' college, and these are in order. We call baby step four baby step four because it's after three.

So there's your priorities, and that's how you do. Now, the only difference is how fast you're able to go up them depending on how well you do with your commissions. And so the variable income has to be managed with a prioritized to-do list every month, a prioritized spending list every month, because you don't know how much is going to come in. You're going to do the most important thing to the least important thing down the list every month when you're on straight commission. But straight commission doesn't change your priorities. It changes how you attack the priorities. That's all.

It's a little more, you know, sometimes if you're doing a great job selling and you're making a lot of money, you could go through it faster than maybe someone on a salary. If you're not doing a great job and you're not making money, it just means you don't have a low income is all it means at that point. And then you've got other things to look at and other things to worry about. Joe's in Omaha, Nebraska. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Joe.

How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Well, here's the deal. My wife and I are just truly blessed. I mean, we're totally debt-free, which is awesome. But we've got four boys that are kind of getting close to entering the real world, and all they ever have known is basically kind of what we've taught them in terms of, you know,

steering clear of debt and making sure you're conscious with the spending. My question is, as they enter the real world, what would you recommend in terms of the appropriate book for them to read or literature to kind of reinforce what they've known in our household, but it's just not, you know, dad telling them what to do? How old are they? Well, I've got two that are in college and two that are in high school. So they're kind of getting close to, like I said, entering the real world. I used to pay our kids $50 for a book report on books I wanted them to read. And that, you know, doesn't have to be a big, long, complicated book report.

The only purpose of the book report is to make sure that it was accountability that they actually read it. And they actually retained some of what it said. And so I have a lot of favorite books that I wanted our kids to ingest before, you know, as tools for their adulthood. And so I used to do that a lot. You can do that. I mean, you can take the Total Money Makeover. It's fine. It sets them up to do everything.

If they're young adults, Total Money Makeover will work just fine for that. If you wanted to kick it up a notch and go on steroids, you could pay them to go through Financial Peace University. Got it. And, you know, it's a touch more expensive, but that's not the problem. You'd pay the $100. That's not the issue. The issue is getting them to do it because it's nine weeks long. And, you know, they're going to go one class a week for nine weeks if

you can get them to do that you pretty much send them to financial boot camp before you put them into the military you know i mean you set them up to win and um a lot of parents do that stuff um a lot of parents take their teens with them to financial peace university as a as you know as they're going through it uh so that their teens learn. I've talked to a lot of people who say, you know, I'm 25, and when I was 16, my mother drug me to the stupid class you have, you know. And that's why we have the high school curriculum and now 46% of the high schools, those kinds of things. So, you know, but that's kind of taking it up a notch.

If you wanted to do that, you could do that. Total Money Makeover, though, will do everything they need to do in terms of if they get it. The trick is, you know, are they ready to actually get it, or are they just going to, you know, kind of a wink and a nod towards Dad and move on? And sometimes that's what we all do at that age. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Dave, I know you're against MasterCard and Visa. What about charge cards at an apartment store?

It's not really the same. Yeah, it is. It's a stupid credit card at a high interest, buying stuff you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't really like. Still kind of the same thing. It is the same thing. Like, almost exactly the same thing.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. The last thing I want you to feel is buyer's remorse, especially when you offered thousands more on a new home to win a bidding war. If I've taught you anything, it's that blindly throwing money at a problem is a stupid plan and something you'll regret for years. The key to avoiding this rookie mistake is to call Churchill Mortgage and get certified. This easy program puts you miles ahead of your competition because you are pre-underwritten. Your interest rate is secured, and yes, you can close within 14 days. Don't fall into the trap of offering more money just to compensate

for a poor plan. Call Churchill Mortgage today and get certified. Call 888-LOAN-200 or visit churchillmortgage.com. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Jacob and Stephanie are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Good. How are you? Good.

Welcome. Welcome. And you guys are here to do a debt-free screen. Yes, sir. Where do you live? Knoxville, Tennessee. Cool. Well, welcome to Nashville. And all the way over here, how much did you pay off? $16,000. Love it. And how long did it take you to pay off $16,000? 13 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? It was $21,000 at the time. $21,000 and you paid off over $1,000 a month. Pretty much, yes.

Yeah, that's like beans and rice. Yep. For sure. Beyond the beans and rice, yes. Love it. Okay. All right. What do you guys do for a living?

I teach singing lessons, piano lessons, and I help in a small bookbinding shop right now. And I'm an IT professional, and I also am a record producer. Okay. And so your income currently between all of that is $21,000. Now it's double that and more. Oh, okay. Okay, good. Good.

So how old are you two? I'm 28. 30. And how long have you been married? Almost seven years. I'll let her answer that. Good man. All right.

So what happened 13 months ago that lit your fuse and said, hey, we got to do some stuff, get our income up. We got to do some stuff and get this debt paid off. Marriage. The desire to do more with our lives than just work to death. Because we both spent most of our college career working two or three jobs just to pay off private school while we were in school so yeah so but what was the event 13 months ago because i mean i get the general disgust with i don't want to be

stuck here but there was something happened one day one One day you went, no, not anymore. Right. We actually paid off our debt a few years ago. So it wasn't just 13 months ago. And then since then, we've just really stuck with that plan of not being in debt. We totaled a car a few months ago, and we were able to pay cash for a brand new car because we had an emergency fund and a ton of savings left because we've just stuck with that plan of not going into debt for anything.

We pay cash for everything and it's just been awesome. We're able to go on vacations because of it and just live. It's nice. It's very nice. Yeah. Good, good. So how long ago did you become debt free? About three years ago, two or three years ago.

We had been saving to buy a house because we just could not stand apartment living. Yeah. And saved and saved and saved and put all of this hard work into a house. And then one day we just thought, you know what? I owe my mother, my grandmother, the student loans. Let's just take all the money that we had to buy a house and let's just write a check and pay it all off in one swoop. Yeah. So we did. And then through all these job changes and the blessings that we had,

it wasn't a year later that we were in a house. Yeah. Wow. So we were able to make it back very quickly. Beans and rice. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay.

Very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you. Proud of you. Who was your biggest cheerleader? Our family. Our families. Yeah.

Yeah. Our families and our friends. Yeah. Yes. Very good. Love it. All right. cheerleader our family families yeah yeah our families and and our friends yeah yes very good love it all right well we've got a copy of uh chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you guys are going to do that next that's what's going to happen you're on your way congratulations i'm proud of you thank you sir well done jacob and stephanie third are sixteen thousand dollars paid off in 13 months count it down let's hear a debt-free scream one two three

open phones this hour at triple eight eight two five25-5225 way to go you guys great job love it very well done stephanie is in tulsa oklahoma hi stephanie how are you i'm doing well how about you better than i deserve what's up so i have a question for you my husband and I are working baby steps four, five, and six, and we went to set up our will the other day and told the lawyer we wanted to leave all of our net worth to our 19-month-old daughter in case we both die, at which point he just kind of gave us a look and said, you know that that's going to be a lot of money by the time she actually inherits the trust fund. So I was wondering if you had any kind of guidelines of how much money, like, we should be leaving for, or at what point do we have enough money set aside for her that we should

start looking into giving to other organizations that we care about in our will? I think you need a new lawyer. He doesn't get to make your decisions about who you're going to give money to, and he doesn't get to shame you for your decision to leave your inheritance to your child. What a butt. I think he was just looking at the value of it. Yeah, it's not his option. That's not his job to make a value judgment.

I mean, if you walk in there and you say, I have $100 million and I want to leave it to my 19-year-old, his job is to say, okay, let's figure out how to structure that. Not, are you sure you want to do that? I mean, that's not his job. So the thing is this. Number one, you should not leave all your money to a minor. You leave it to a custodian who executes a trust for the minor. And so that's your best plan of action.

And so there's nothing wrong with leaving all the money to your child, but I would not leave it in control of the child or, for that matter, in control of the custodian of the child. You would leave it to a trust, and the trustee executes the terms of the trust, and then you can say in there, okay, here's $5 million in this account. The income off of this account can be used for the care and feeding of the kid until they are a certain age. Some of the money can be used to buy their first car

some of the money can be used for their uh education some of the money can be used if there's a major medical issue and you dictate what the money can be used for and thereby what it can't be used for uh and then you can say at 18 years old or 21 years old they get x amount and then you can die. When our kids were minors, we did not have the trust set up for it to all go to their control when they're 18. Instead, they got some at 18, some at 25, and some more at 30. I didn't run it to where they got trust distributions all the way out through their whole life. By 30 years old, it was going to be in their control. But even then, we had some guidelines on what their life had to look like for them to qualify for that.

If they're doing heroin, I don't want to leave them a million dollars to fund their heroin addiction. And so you kind of have to use some guidelines on those kinds of things. And you can put all of that in the form of a trust but there's no point at which you are doing something immoral or wrong by leaving all your money to your kids assuming you're not ruining the kid and really when you leave your money to the kid, it doesn't ruin the kid. It exposes that they already stunk. They were already ruined. It just exposes it when you leave them money.

And so because what money does is it magnifies your strengths, and it magnifies your weaknesses. Someone that's a jerk and gets money becomes a colossal jerk. Someone that's kind and giving and gets money, they become a philanthropist. Someone that has a drug problem and gets money, they die from drug overdose. You know, and so on. It expands. It magnifies what you already are, good and bad.

And so that's the experience that you're going to have as you build wealth. It's the experience your kids are going to have if you leave them wealth. And so, you know, you want to be sure that their character is in good enough shape that the money doesn't finish off destroying them. But money messes up all your kids. You should never leave your kids money. No, that presupposes that money is evil. And that's an improper theological and philosophical doctrine.

It's not accurate. Money is not evil. People are stupid. But money is not evil. And so when you leave stupid people money, they become colossally stupid. So that's what, you know, you're not ruining someone. You're exposing that they were already ruined and so i know lots of families who have high quality high character kids and grandkids that

are carrying on a the blessing of a wealthy family being an asset to the community being an asset to each other because they're high quality, high character people and the money is exposing that. So, you know, the money's not the problem. The people are the problem. Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has debt and has struggled to make ends meet. But they're starting to make headway with their budgets

and smarter decisions with money. They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right amount of term life insurance, and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen, their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible,

let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to ZanderInsurance.com or call 800-356-4282 and see how inexpensive it really is. Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible. It really does make you the hero of your story, and it puts you on course for better things ahead. Julie's in Austin, Texas. Hi, Julie. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thank you so very much for taking my call. I'm a little nervous no trouble with me no trouble never lost a patient how can we help um is there an age where you consider people too old to get started um my husband's about to hit 60 i'm about to hit 54 um he's really not very enthused about starting this program. What things can I do to help us? And if need be, are there things that you ever recommend a wife can try to do on her own? Now, truth be told, my husband's distrustful of my financial desire.

We got burned because of the decisions in the past that I promoted. And so he has reasons to be cautious. So I'll just shut up and let you ask questions. What'd you get burned on? We sold stock that inherited before Y2K that has grown hugely. Of course, when we no longer owned it, right? That portfolio would be huge now we put emergency fund into way too small a home that's a money sink and then the bedroom addition that we put on ate up the emergency fund that we had back then okay i'm sorry i'm sorry wait a minute where was he when all these decisions were being made um you made them by yourself without him no No. So why is it your fault? I think that he feels like in order to make me happy and or to keep the peace, he did things that he didn't feel good in his gut about.

Okay. So his problem is not your decisions. His problem is that he needs to run down to Walmart and pick up a spine and stand up to you when you think you're doing something wrong. He's a really fine and honorable man, and I don't want to represent him that way. I didn't question his honor or how fine he was. You said he didn't stand up to you when he knew you all were doing something wrong, and now he blames you.

That's what you told me. Didn't you? I don't think I want to go there. I feel like he's had to persist in a job that he hates for so long, and he's sacrificed so much that he's not looking maybe into an austerity program to help us kind of maybe make more progress. Yeah. Okay. No, there is not a program that a wife can do without her husband

that's going to do anything except cause problems. The people, all the data points we have of people who are able to build wealth and able to build financial stability all come from couples learning to work together and trust each other's wisdom. And Sharon and I disagree often. We're a couple of hillbillies. Disagreement is a way of life. It's how we process decisions.

We have to fight about them sometimes, and we're fine with that. We're not mad about each other. We don't lose trust over it. But we argue about paint color on the wall for god's sakes and so um but but that's how we process decisions but we don't either one of us move forward against the other one's will and that has caused us to prosper okay we can have we can have a discussion we can have a passionate discussion um you could call it a fight we can have we can have a discussion we can have a passionate discussion um you could call it a fight we can have all of those things but we're going to be in agreement before we move forward an agreement is not one of us caving because the other one is ashamed

that i've worked so hard or some other kind of crap like that. This is we're going to be two adults looking into the future, and we both feel good about the decisions, and we're going to make those decisions together. All the data points say that kind of a relationship is about the only situation that wealth is built in. Occasionally someone makes so much stinking money they can overcome the toxic relationships in their life, but most of the time the toxic

relationships are a bigger deal breaker than income a bigger deal breaker than debt a bigger deal breaker than other stuff and so the two of you learning to respect each other learning to work together learning to communicate well um and not i'm going to give you a pass because you work a job you hate. Not, I'm not going to go there. Not, yeah, we're going there. We're going there. And, you know, if you're my little sister, and you are, I'm 58, and he's old enough to be my slightly big brother,

then, you know, I would just sit down with you and say, guys, your number one impediment to getting your financial act together is the way you deal with each other. You've got some toxic garbage going on in your relationship. He let you do things he didn't think were good, and then he has the unmitigated gall to say he doesn't trust your financial decisions when he was involved in them. When you're involved in the decision you don't get to say i told you so you lost that card you don't get to play that card and that's what's going on here so uh you guys can't work our stuff

until you get your marriage stuff straightened out so i would tell you to sit down with a good pastor and work on the stuff and no no one is ever too old if you're breathing you're not too old to get smarter if you're breathing you're not too old to get wiser if you're breathing you're not too old to do better at any given area of your life as a matter of fact the most vibrant old people you ever run into are the ones that are continual learners. They're always trying something new. They're adventurous. They're not stuck.

They're not sitting on their recliner waiting to die. And so these are the best and the coolest old people you ever run into. Be one of those. That's what we all want to be, I think. Sometimes it's hard to do. But so you guys have an adventure ahead of you. You've got a whole new chapter in your marriage that you need to discover. And then that will lead you to some much better chapters in your financial world that you can discover.

And that's what I hope for you. Thanks for the call. Peyton is in Huntsville, Alabama. Hi, Peyton. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? So I'm 18, and I started investing in a Roth IRA last year. And I was just wondering what you recommended for somebody so young as me, like a strategic plan to become a millionaire as soon as I could. You know, where do you put your money so that you can see the most growth? Well, the best way to get rich quick is to get rich slow okay so uh don't fall into the trap of how fast can i get rich you're going to be there uh you're 18 years old you have a roth that alone makes you a freaking unicorn i mean you dude you are way ahead of this curve here you're going to be great you're going to have so much money in your life

if you keep concentrating and keep focusing and keep paying attention. You're a rock star. But have a little patience. Let me tell you, one of the things I learned to do, Peyton, was to study people that are winning at something and even interview them and ask them what they're doing. How did they win? So the first thing I did when I was your age, I started meeting with millionaires because I wasn't one and i wanted to be one and i said how did you do that and they started telling me some things they did nowadays my new hobby is meeting with billionaires because i'm not one yet and um so but i had this cool conversation i wrote about it in one of my

books with a guy who's worth about four billion dollars he's 73 years old at the time i had the conversation with him. Wonderful Christian guy. Wonderful grandpa. Wonderful dad. Wonderful business. Wonderful leader. Everything.

His company, the people in his company love him. I mean, he's just a great guy. He's just who you want to be when you grow up, you know? And I'm sitting down with a guy who's worth about $4 billion. That's $4,000 million. Okay? That's crazy. That's like a lot. And so I'm asking him, I'm like, what do you do?

I ask him the same question. What's the fastest way? If I want to be you when I grow up, what's the formula? You know? Same question you just asked me. And he said, well, I hear that you're generous. I hear you giving on the air, giving people books and giving them Financial Peace University. And I hear stories of your you know your family is generous

and i said yeah that's all true and he said well don't stop being generous i said good i got that i'll do that and he goes and there's this book you ought to read and i said oh i love books what's the book and he goes i read it to my kids i read to my grandkids he said it might be the most important financial book you'll ever read and he went on and on actually he was playing me is what he was doing payton but i stepped up on the rug, and then he pulled it. And I said, so what's the book, dude? And he said, have you ever read that book, The Tortoise and the Hare? And I said, yeah. What do you mean?

He goes, well, every time I read the book, the tortoise wins. Don't get rich quick. Let the tortoise win. Now, the hare is sexy, but he runs around ADD, and everybody thinks he's cool, and he's got nothing. He loses the race every time I read the book. Every time I read the book, the ugly, steady, plotter, predictable, don't get rich quick, get rich slow wins. In other words, he was telling me, take my time, slow down, make steady, wise wise choices not rash greedy choices

slow down you're going to be fine you're doing a great job Peyton this is the Dave Ramsey Show Hey guys it's Blake Thompson Senior Executive Producer for the Dave Ramsey Show this hour is over but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel catch the most watched Dave Ramsey

death free screams and the very popular everyday millionaire segment We'll see you next time.