The Ramsey Show - App - Credit Cards Are a Curse, Not a Blessing (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 28, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Open phones as we talk about your life and your money. It is a free call at 888-825-5225. That's

888-825-5225. If you've been listening to this show for 30 seconds or more, you probably have figured out Dave Ramsey doesn't like credit cards. Why is that? Well, because they're not a blessing, they're a curse.

I know some of you think you are winning and you're humorous and you're idiocy, but you're not winning. And, I mean, under the heading of just bizarre, stupid stuff is this. This just comes out this week. Apple is warning its customer that some fabrics, such as leather or denim, could cause permanent discoloration to the Apple card. Apple's new titanium, which you would think would be, you know, fairly strong, credit card, comes with a potential headache that will be familiar to iPhone users everywhere. It can get scuffed up too easily in the real world. Apple updated its support webpage this week to warn customers that some fabrics, such as leather and denim, could cause permanent discoloration to the Apple card. The damage won't wash off.

Apple also advises against placing the card in a wallet slot that has already had a different credit card so that it doesn't get scratched. And the company says customers should not store their Apple card in a pocket or bag with loose change, keys, or other potentially abrasive objects. In general, the Apple card should not be let out into the wild. It's kind of fragile it's precious it's a petite flower it scratches easily and screws up easily but if you remember now when apple did their big announcement what was their big announcement they put an emphasis in the launch on the beautiful look of the card it has has no numbers on it. It's just a little white card with a little apple on it.

And they're well aware that people use credit cards because of the way they look. This is how dumb some people are. It's got my football team's logo on it. It's a gold piece of plastic, which makes it superior to a normal piece of plastic. In this case, it's a white piece of titanium that scratches and discolors easily.

But I'm cool because I've got an Apple card. If you do sign up for the card, Apple recommends putting it in a wallet, pocket, or bag made of soft materials. In general, don't take it out of the envelope that you got it in and don't use it, and then it won't get scratched. That's the general thing. They also suggest cleaning the titanium card by wiping it with a microfiber cloth moistened with alcohol. You now are so dumb that you have a credit card that comes with care and feeding instructions.

It comes with its own microfiber cloth and own little pouch of alcohol so that it maintains its beautiful look, which means that you maintain your status as an idiot that took a credit card based on its beauty. Oh, my gosh. This is funny. I'm just saying. This is funny. It's pitiful, but it's funny. So the guys in the Ramsey Baby Steps community, the official Baby Steps community, the official Ramsey Baby Steps community on Facebook. It's a private Facebook group, but a couple hundred thousand of you are in there.

Somebody starts this thread up that ends up being hilarious in there. Of course, one of you did it. It wasn't me. I didn't have anything to do with it. They just printed it off for me this morning, and my guys decide this funny so i'm supposed to read it but it is funny things that are more likely to happen than dave ramsey using a credit card fill in the blank things that are more likely to happen than dave ramsey using a credit card going shopping at hobby lobby and getting lunch at Chick-fil-A on Sunday. There you go. Chris Hogan doing a Capital One commercial.

Ooh. The Nigerian prince transferring all the millions by email. That's pretty good. Oh, this one's brutal. The Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl. Oh! I didn't say it. Chuck Norris losing a fight. A Chuck Norris joke makes it.

I like it. Anthony O'Neill taking out a student loan to get his master's degree in left-handed puppetry from Pepperdine. Things that are more likely to happen than Dave Ramsey using a credit card at Blizzard in Phoenix. The government following and using the Dave Ramsey plan for real. California becoming an affordable state whoa sounds personal uh hearing a live from the ford lease program studios this is the dave ramsey show true that won't happen the cleveland browns on a winning streak whoa we got a couple football trashes in here things more likely to happen than dave ramsey using a credit card

dave opens a beans and rice restaurant dave going to bosley for hair i don't know what that means it must be a place you get hair for your head is it like a head i mean it's like oh implants oh good yeah that's not gonna happen either i'm past that. You would have to care to do that, and I don't care. So that's a part of the problem. Chris Hogan singing tenor in a quartet. Only if he had a helium balloon, right? Did you see the routine he did with Rachel on the Rachel Cruz show? They both are sucking on the helium balloons, and that voice coming out of Chris Hogan's body just didn't fit.

It was just completely wrong. Things that are more likely to happen than Dave Ramsey using a credit card. If you want to join the fun, it is in the Baby Steps, the official Baby Steps community. That's still not what it's called. What's it called? The Ramsey Baby Steps, the official Ramsey Baby Steps community. I can't think of what it's called. Something like that.

Anyway, make sure you check it out. It is the place to go. And I have all these wonderful discussions about, oh, okay, here it is. The Ramsey Baby Steps Community. The official. The Ramsey Baby Steps Community is what it's called on Facebook. You jump in there and ask permission to join the private Facebook group. We'll let you in.

You can join the thread and discuss anything you want to talk about in there, as long as you're nice and you're not in there trying to sell stuff and all that. We're just trying to create a community of people that are doing these things. That's simple. So, yeah, the Ramsey Baby Steps community. Be sure you check it out. And, you know, it's good to be in community sometimes you have to have people to hold you accountable and sometimes encourage you

sometimes to give you information and there's a lot of good stuff happens in that community if you go in there and want to do a bunch of stuff ish uh they will hold you accountable they don't do ish in that community they're serious about actually doing the stuff we talk about. There's no ish. They're really executing on the plan. And they're not going to give you a pass for not doing it because they're all doing it. Like I said, there's

a quarter million people in there. So all kinds of fun threads and great information and all kinds of good stuff going on. So be sure you check it out. Yeah, I'm going to rush right down and get me an Apple titanium card that I have to keep in the drawer because I'm afraid it's going to scratch. Yeah, just rush right out. But put that on the list of things for Dave to not do this week.

Wow. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. day ramsey show i got a call the other day and i thought it was worth talking about again it was from a wife looking for life insurance for her family. She asked why I only recommend term life insurance instead of cash value plans like whole life. I usually explain how you overpay for coverage, earn a horrible rate of interest, and don't get your cash value when you die. But this time, I just had her go straight to Zander.com and get a rate. And then we compared that rate to the whole life plan, and she immediately saw the huge savings. She realized all the things she could do with that money, like paying down debt, investing in a smarter way. That made it

real for her. It makes no sense to buy or keep a cash value plan when there are smarter, less expensive ways to protect your family. That's why I suggest that everyone go to zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282 and get a free quote that's zander.com or 800-356-4282 Kelly is in New Jersey. Hi, Kelly. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Yes, I am in a mess that I am now getting out of. I was in a long-term marriage. I'm 47 years old. And my husband is completely unwilling to just be a partner globally in our marriage. So it's over. And I accept that. And I just graduated from occupational therapy school. I am now a licensed OT practitioner. I do have student loans. And I just want to know how to, I still am currently married.

I just want to know how to go about saving for my retirement. He's just very reckless with money, very financially abusive. He just bought a $60,000 Volvo, and he can't afford the payment at all. And, you know, I... I guess all of that's his problem if you're not going to be married to him. No, but I did... That doesn't affect you after you're not going to be married to him no but i did that doesn't affect you after you're not married to him right i'm hoping it doesn't it's not in my name the only thing that is in my name is half of you know the house and the um one credit card that we do have together. So I wanted to know how to go about just separating and getting

everything out of my name. Like he's going to obviously have to refi and put the house in his name. He wants the house. I don't want it. Okay. Then he's got to refi and get the mortgage out of your name. And what's the balance on the credit card? The one credit card that we share together, it's $14,000. So I know I have... And what is his income? $120,000. Okay. Plus he does side jobs, so I would say he definitely makes $140,000.

And how much student loan debt do you have? $40,000. And how much student loan debt do you have? $40,000. And how long were you married? 24 years. Okay. Well, I mean, it sounds like you have not talked to an attorney. I did. He told me not to leave the house until we file for divorce we're still living in the same house

okay but he also told you that you've been married 24 years your husband makes 140 and you're just a recent graduate with a bunch of debt that it's very likely that your husband would have to pick up that credit card debt and it's very likely in most states you would get alimony. Do you have children? Yes, we have three, and that's why I've stayed so long. What ages? We have children in the age of 20, 17, and 15. You'll get child support on the last two for a little while. The 20-year-old's not, you know, there's no child support on that. But, you know, alimony and child support are probably due,

and he'll probably end up in the negotiations picking up that fourteen thousand dollar credit card and having to pay it off um by court order and refinancing the house by court order as a part of the settlement agreement on the divorce and so really what we've got is is that you have forty thousand dollars in debt and a new career yes and i will be making my take-home pay. I already have a job lined up. New Jersey is horrible with the licensure department, I will say, but I have a job lined up, and I passed my board. Good for you. And I just found out last week.

Great. What do you mean making? I will be bringing home $1,400 net pay weekly. Okay, great. Well, here's what you do you just the problem is is that you got 24 years invested there's three kids there's a lot of heartbreak there's a lot of anger there's a lot of disappointment there's a lot of betrayal there's a lot of everything in the equation none of which affects the math until you tell it to

if you call me up and this didn't have this history and didn't have all this going on and you were simply a 47-year-old single lady making $1,400 a week with $40,000 in student loan debt and two teenagers and you're getting child support, you can walk right out of this. But you have to walk out through the fog of the grief around the relationship. Well, I've come to terms with that already. No, you haven't. I'm okay with it. No, you haven't.

Yes, I have. No, you haven't. You're just starting to come to terms with it. And the language that you've used in this conversation indicates that. You're starting to. You've decided it's over. But you haven't walked through the fog yet of the grief of this and you know and and release the anger to where he is simply a footnote in your history he still has a substantial foothold in your emotions and

that's normal by the way you were married for 24 years you shouldn't be able to disconnect instantaneously with no emotional impact that That would make you a psychopath. And so you don't want to be that. You want to be someone that experiences hurt in a situation like this. And that's going to cloud. But the trick is don't define yourself by the past. Define yourself by the future as often as you can in these conversations in your head. And you've got to mathematically, you've got a beautiful future.

You're going to be in fine shape. You're going to pay off the debts as soon as possible. You're going to build your emergency fund, and then you're going to start saving for retirement, and you will retire with lots of money. If you do it in that order, the baby steps exactly the way we teach them and stick to the plan. But you've got to get through all this, you know, he bought a Volvo.

Well, that doesn't matter. He's not married to you anymore in your new future. So if he continues to be stupid, it doesn't affect your near future or your distant future. It doesn't affect whether you get to retire with dignity because he bought a Volvo. It doesn't even come up. It's not even in the discussion. All right, Stephanie is with us in Georgia.

Hi, Stephanie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you? I am currently an Uber driver, and I pull in approximately, I would say, $30,000 to $50,000 a year. I have education. My education goes up to a master's and my student loans is actually, well, my total loans is a hundred, one moment, I'm sorry. I think it's like 115,000 and my credit cards, I have credit

card debts as well. It's not listed on the credit karma, what I'm looking at, because I think they're in collections. I mean, they are in collections. That's probably why it's not listed. So I'm looking at probably like $150,000 in debt. I've tried looking for jobs. I've gone on interviews, but I have no luck. I have the education behind it. I have experience, but I just have not been able to land a decent job. What's your master's degree in? It's in marketing. Do you have an MBA with specialization in marketing? Yes.

So I won't consider it an MBA because that's like extra time in school. It's more of a master's only. Does that make sense? It just says MS. That's what they tell me in school. They. It's more of a master's only. Like, does that make sense? Like, it just says MS. That's what they tell me in school. They're like, it's a master's. Okay. You can get an MS without it being an MBA, but they're the same thing. And both are master's degrees.

Master's in business administration is an MBA. Master's in marketing is what you have. That's fine. Okay. Right. Which really doesn't get you anything if you don't know how to do marketing. But so, okay, how old are you? I am 27.

Okay. And you dramatically overpaid for this degree then, didn't you? Just education in general. It's more of a cultural thing. Like, my parents are very big on education. No, it's not a cultural thing. It's a math thing. You overpaid to get a master's degree in marketing, it's not a cultural thing. It's a math thing. You overpaid to get a master's degree in marketing.

It's not a cultural decision. It's just you paid $100,000 to get something you should have paid $20,000 for. Well, it's not. I didn't just pay that for it. It's just my total education. I know. Yeah. Yeah, you paid too much.

So I'm thinking that this was the golden ticket, and this was Willy Wonka, and it's not. Okay, so you's not. Okay. So you're 27. You're driving Uber. You got a big pile of debt, and we need to get you a marketing job where you can make 50 doing that and drive Uber on the side. Right. And double your income so we can plow through this real quick. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to hook you up with Ken Coleman's stuff.

Ken Coleman is one of our Ramsey personalities. He has a best-selling book called The Proximity Principle. It's a proven strategy to land you the job you love, and it'll help you on this process. You don't have a ton of experience in marketing. It's mathematically impossible because you're 27, and you've been in school long enough to get a master's degree, which means you might have 12 months've been in school long enough to get a master's degree, which means you might have 12 months experience in marketing. Maybe.

So you're not like super experienced, but you're a sharp young lady. You should be able to land something. Hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of the Proximity Principle book to help you get your career on track. That'll give you the money to clean up this mess. Amal is with us in New York. Hi, Amal. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm 35 years old. I work as an RN, and I started this job like three months ago. And like a couple weeks ago, I had an accident where I broke my ankle, my right ankle, and I couldn't drive. And my job, I'm doing insurance, so I go to people's houses, I drive, so I haven't been going to work.

And the doctor said, you know, in order for my injury to heal itself, I'm going to have to be out of work for a couple months, like two more months. And my job, since it is a new new job they're thinking about letting me go um i've been working as a nurse for six years i haven't saved anything i'm in debt i don't know what to do so you broke your foot? Yes, I broke my foot, yeah. How? It was just, I turned the wrong way. It was just a weird accident. And the doctor says you can't be on your feet for four months or three months or what?

Yeah, I'm wearing a cast right now, so I can't drive because it's my right foot. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And my job is thinking about letting me go because I don't qualify for FMLA. Why did you go take this job at insurance when you're a nurse? Because I like that it's remote. I don't really like patient contact that much. You just go to people's house, you do assessments, so it's kind of like... Oh, so you're acting as a nurse for the insurance company.

Right, yeah. So you're doing medicals. Okay. All right. Yeah. Hmm. So I'm not a doctor, but I've never known anybody to be in a cast with a break like you're describing for three months. I suspect you'll be in a walking boot soon break like you're describing for three months.

I suspect you'll be in a walking boot soon, wouldn't you? Yeah. Yeah, this week I'm hoping to get a – next week, actually, I'm hoping that they're going to put me in a walking boot because it's been like almost – I broke my foot like as a fifth. So I'm hoping like next week they're going to put me in a walking boot. But still, she doesn't want me to be driving the doctor, but I don't know. But you're single and you have no means of supporting yourself.

I have a baby. I have a one-year-old right now, but I'm a single mom. Yeah, so how would you support yourself if you don't work? How would you eat? Well, I'm going to have to go back to work, but, like, this job paid well. So I was making, like, I'm making, like, I haven't worked there for a year, but it's, like, net I would be bringing home, like, 58 a year. 68?

58. 58 as a nurse? Yeah. That's not great. No. It's okay, but it ain't great. It's not that, Yeah. That's not great. No. It's okay, but it ain't great. It's not that, yeah, it's not that well. It's not.

Okay, so what, so you're going to lose this job. What are you going to do? I'm going to have to find another job. Yep. But I have a lot of debt. I have student loans. I have a car loan. I haven't, it's just like like it's very hard for me to

like i try to budget every month but um it just doesn't work for me like i don't know where my money goes sometimes okay no all right well the first thing we have to do is just get some money coming in to eat with to solve the overall problem okay and then once you've got money coming in to eat with then the bad news is you're a nurse the great news is you're a nurse which means you can work all the time do you have anyone in your area that's family that can support you by helping to keep your kid a little bit yes my mom good because you're only working 30 to 40 hours a week right now. If you're not making but that kind of money as a nurse in the New Jersey area or New York area.

I mean, that's just, you have the ability to make almost double that in that area with that degree. And so I've just got to get your income up and then get you organized and make the money that you have coming in behave. You've been in a situation where stuff has happened to you for a long time, and this is your moment where you reach the point and you say, now I'm going to happen to stuff instead of stuff happening to me. That year that I broke my foot was the year I changed my life because I decided I was going to make my career decisions. I'm going to make my money behave.

I'm going to work hard. I'm going to be a grown-up. I'm not going to make my money behave i'm going to work hard i'm going to be a grown-up i'm not going to be impulsive that's your year this year art okay that's you yeah how old are you 28 no no 35 35 okay all right this is your year no it's the year everything changes it has to be. Because what you've been doing for a decade hadn't been working, correct? Absolutely. Yeah, so it's time to get mad enough to change some stuff and get on top of it instead of it being on top of you. And so you're going to work like a maniac a lot and all the time too much.

It's going to scare you, you you work so much but you're going to make more money than you've ever made in your life and you're going to start cleaning up some of this mess that is your debt and you're going to live on a budget where you make every single dollar bark and behave as if it was a private and you were the general in the military you can do it you can do it This is what you have to do. I'm going to put you through Financial Peace University, our nine-week class, and put you into the one-year membership to show you how to do every bit of this. But, kiddo, you've got to do it.

I can't do it for you. You've got to believe that if you impact this stuff, you know, I just tried the budget and it hasn't worked. You can't say that anymore every freaking dollar is going to do what i tell it to that's the way your voice starts to sound now you got to change that that's what you got to do so you hold on i'll have kelly pick up and we'll get you signed up for that and we'll get this working so thanks for the call open phones at 888-825-5225 you jump in we'll talk about your life and your money you can do this stuff and um no i'll take them after the break like we talked about okay not before i

don't have time i'll take them after the break okay open phones at 888-825-5225. So I'm going to go to Elise in Minnesota. Hi, Elise. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks, Dave. Oh my gosh, I'm so nervous to speak with you. I grew up listening to you. I can still hear your voice and back of my parents' minivan. And thanks to you, I was able to graduate college debt-free. So I really appreciate all that you've done. So I am on Baby Step 4, and I own a home newly. And then I just got engaged about a week ago. Cool. Congratulations.

Yeah. Thank you so much. So I've been saving cash for a new vehicle and now of course i'm saving cash for um the wedding yeah and my my question is um during that time can i back off of saving 15 for retirement or should i keep that going um And then the other question was, like, how do we budget for the wedding? Do you have a percentage? What do you make? Yeah. What do you make?

Oh, what do I make? I make about $100,000. Okay. What are you thinking about spending on the wedding? Our thoughts were about $30,000 to $35,000. That's fine as long as you save it up and pay cash. And if you take one year off to do that, that's fine too. But lay out a detailed wedding budget.

Don't have it be a moving target. This is the amount, and then you manage to the number. And you say, well, if I spend, you know, $35,000 is the number, and if I spend $2,000 on a dress, then that means I got $33,000. And if I spend $25,000 on the reception, that means we've only got, you know, and you're going to make everything fit in that number and go ahead and lay out a budget ahead of time, what you're going to spend on the reception, what you're going to spend on the photographer, what you're going to spend on the wedding itself, what you're going to spend on the dress,

what you're going to spend on the ring, honeymoon, whatever's going to fall in that $35,000, give every one of those $35,000 or $30,000 a name, save up and pay cash for it, and I'm fine with that within your situation. Hey, thanks for the call. We'll be right back. Up next is Mike and Crystal from Salt Lake City, Utah. I see on my screen you guys are debt-free. Congratulations. Hey. Hey, thank you. Absolutely. How much have you paid off, guys? We paid off about $169,000. Good for you. And how long did that take? About five years. Good for you. Well done, guys.

And your range of income during that five years? Started off at about $60,000 and went up to about 120 good for you what do you guys do for a living oh i'm a i'm a structural engineer and i'm a stay-at-home mom okay and what kind of debt was the 169 000 that's our house oh you paid off your house and everything. Woo-hoo. I'm talking to weird people. Yep. Wow. What's this house worth? You know, probably $380,000.

Wow. How does it feel to have no payments, no house payment, no nothing? Pretty darn good. It's fantastic. How long ago was the last payment? When did you make the last payment? About, I don't know, about four months ago wow so you've had four months of just kind of going where's all my money this is amazing yeah i don't know we're still uh we still have our goals yeah other goals yeah well

you always do that's a good thing good for you guys so well done so what put you on this journey five years ago to be weird you know so i you, growing up, I've always been frugal. My parents always taught me, you know, not to be careful with my money and not use credit cards and that kind of stuff. But it was normal to have a house payment for 30 years. It was normal to have a car payment. And then I started commuting and I was listening to your show and realized that it was possible to not be normal so that you didn't have to have a car payment. You didn't have to have a house payment. And so it was just listening to your show to make me decide that I wanted to pay off the house. Wow. Very cool. So five years ago, you start the serious process

of getting the house knocked out. Yeah. Right. We had some friends that moved and we realized that with the equity we had in our home already, we had lived there for about a year. And we had bought a short sale. So we realized that the equity we had, if we moved into a smaller home, we could pay off our house in seven years. And we were super excited about that. Looked into some homes, you know, smaller homes, and we prayed about it. And we felt very strongly to not move. Okay. And we were like, oh, but we could do it so quickly.

And we were excited about it but then um we kind of cut down our budget um and looked at some of areas where we could cut back and we found an extra five hundred dollars that we could put towards it and then two weeks later Mike got a really big raise where we had an extra five hundred dollars a month to put towards it as well. Sounds like your idea from prayer was accurate then. Yeah. It's kind of like God saying, okay, I'm going to do this. Let's do it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Very cool. Congratulations, you guys. How old are you two? I'm 37.

And I'm 33. With a paid-for house. Yep. This is just weird. We're the weirdies. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You did it. You know, I would have to say, you know, Crystal's going to laugh,

but I'd have to say stick to the budget. You know, I always, like I said, I grew up being frugal, but she's the numbers one, and she was always very good at keeping the budget and making sure, like we used the EveryDollar app, and I would just check it to make sure we had money, but she was always good at putting in the receipts. But I would just say making sure that you stick to a budget and stay on track, and after that is just making sure that you know what your goals are. You know, in five years it got kind of hard at times to stick to the goals. Yeah, absolutely.

Very cool. What about you, Crystal? What do you say the secret is? I think just like Mike said, sticking to your goals. And I think side jobs also helped us a lot too. Mike used his talents and his skills of being an engineer and found some side jobs. And then I started a cake business and got my license and kitchen inspected and stuff. So I was able to do wedding cakes and birthday cakes. So doing side jobs

really helped us as well. Yeah. Wow. That's pretty cool. Very cool. So have you actually plugged into the calculator from 35 years old until 65 years old what that house payment, how many millions of dollars that's going to turn into? Oh, yeah. I'm an engineer. I can't help it. So, yes, I've done that math many times. Well, that'll keep you moving once you see that. You go, this is what this house is really costing me. It's $3.5 million dollars yeah yeah yeah that's part of what did it for me to see that in the end we

were going to pay almost as much an interest on the house as that we did when as we paid for it originally yep yep and it sets you free and now you're able to invest that same amount of money give more and enjoy more all because you're not slave to the lender anymore. Very cool stuff. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? You know, I would have to say, for me, it was my dad. He just would always ask me, how'd you do on your bonus this year? Are you paying off your house?

How close are you? How are you doing? I definitely have to say it was my dad. Very cool. And for me, it was my parents as well. I also grew up quite frugal, and my parents paid off their house in 14 years. And so, you know, that kind of mindset of the 30-year mortgage isn't a normal thing, and it doesn't have to be.

It's a family tradition. Yeah. I like it. Well, good parents. That's awesome. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you two. We're very, very proud of you over here at Ramsey.

Got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. If you're not already there, you're going to be there shortly with the numbers you're giving me. So pretty incredible stuff. Thank you. Yeah, we're really,. So pretty incredible stuff. Thank you. Yeah, we're really, really proud of you guys. All right, it's Mike and Crystal, Salt Lake City, Utah. $169,000 paid off in five years.

That's their house and everything. And nobody over there is even 40. Way to go. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. hear a debt-free scream. 3, 2, 1. We're debt-free!

Ha ha ha ha ha! I love it! This is how it's done. This is how it's done. Very, very cool. Open phones at 888-825- 5225.

A lot of parents think their kids have to go to college to be successful. It's not true. It does help if you study something that's actually usable in the marketplace. You get a degree in something that actually pays money. It's helpful. But the typical person now with student loans is walking around an average of $35,000 in student loan debt, and that includes people that don't have any student loan debt. Here's the truth.

You can go to college without debt. And I'm excited to tell you about our new book that's written by Ramsey Personality, best-selling author Anthony O'Neill, Debt-Free Degree. The step-by-step guide to getting your kid through college without student loans. Debt-Free Degree. You can pre-order it right now. It's only $19.99, and we're going to give you $40 worth of stuff. The book comes out October 7.

We'll be shipping them. You'll find them in bookstores that week and anthony will be on book tour that week spreading the word that you can get a college degree without debt and it's not privilege and it's not cultural and it's not anything it's a matter of choosing the right school it's a matter of choosing to work it's a matter of choosing the right school. It's a matter of choosing to work. It's a matter of choosing to get scholarships. And we're going to show you how to do every bit of it in this book. Debt-Free Degree, the step-by-step guide to getting your kid through college without student loans.

And we're going to throw in the e-book. We're going to throw in the How to Connect with Your Kid video by Anthony O'Neill. We're going to throw in the video of the entire Smart Parent event, two hours of teaching by Anthony O'Neill and best-selling parenting expert Dr. Meg Meeker. All of that for $19.99. If you pre-order the book, you get the other $40 and stuff included for free. So you can get that free degree at DaveRamsey.com or anthonyoneal.com or call the ramsey concierge team at 888-22-PEACE that's 888-227-3223 it is time to make student loans

a thing of the past it's time to stop this is the dave ramsey show This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.