The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: Fear of the Coronavirus Is a Decision (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

Chris Hogan, Retirement Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where dad 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. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Joining me on today's show, answering your questions about your life and your money, and some of you have less of both now, is Ramsey personality Chris Hogan.

Chris, are we going to be okay? Absolutely, Dave. We're going to be okay. We have to calm down all the way around and quit watching so much crazy stuff on media. Oh, my gosh. It is scary the way people are acting. And I think that's more scary than the actual facts.

I agree. And it has been for several weeks the hysteria uh which is panic out of control is not your friend yeah fat as john deloney says facts are your friend yes i like that and um you know when you're in a crisis and we obviously have a health crisis in america we obviously have a corresponding financial crisis. And so, you know, bad processes, bad principles that have been in either one of those areas and or either one of those areas of your life are starting to reveal themselves. If you had a health weakness, a financial weakness,

it was okay when everything was okay. Right. But now it's being exposed. And when you stress test stupid, it comes up looking pretty stupid. Stupid doesn't stress test well. And, you know, we get ready to launch a website around here. We always stress test it. They load test it.

Right. Put a load on it, see if it can carry the load before we turn it open to the public and uh this is being you know some of your financial your best financial ideas you know like it's really hard right now to be really comfortable based on your airline miles yeah oh i agree They have been virtually disposed. Yeah. I mean, so let's see those airline miles you were trying to collect. It's kind of that Dr. Phil moment. How's that working for you now? So, you know, and so, you know what? Some of the things that people believed about money are now officially challenged and that is the good news of the bad news the hard times expose this stuff and make you say never again sometimes you go through a personal

great depression and sometimes the nation goes through an actual stress time and in 2008 a bunch of people learned their lesson yes and i learned my lesson when i went broke because i was stupid and my stupid ideas got stress tested and and I got my face beat in. And I was in my 20s, and I got the opportunity to start again with the knowledge that that experience gave me. And some of you right now, I'm not going to tell you I told you so, but this is your wake-up call. You're going to have the opportunity to start again with the knowledge that this mess has given you. I completely agree, Dave. And we're going to have – we're having right now, I'm doing Instagram live each day from 11 to 1130. We've got, I'm seeing more of an awakening for people where they go, you know, they're either

in two camps. Thank goodness, Dave, for your message. And I've got an emergency fund or I was on my way or I should have listened sooner. And of those three, I keep telling people, you've got an opportunity to make this now this information become knowledge and wisdom when you apply it in your life. But what we have to do is now realize more than ever that we cannot wait on the government days to save the day. I know they're talking about all the little stimulus packages and I tell people, know it it's going to help but it's not going to continue well it's not going to help but it's a little bit like peeing on a forest fire i mean it's a bit of a joke i mean it's going to help but it's you know if a thousand dollars saves your life you didn't have a life

that's true and so your financial life you know i mean a life. That's true. And so, financial life. I mean, that's just absurd. If payroll taxes being removed from a business saves it, it probably isn't going to make it anyway. If you were that close to the edge, anyway. So, it's more political hogwash than it is anything. It makes everybody feel better and makes the markets feel better. And I'm not.

If they want to do it, it's okay. But forgiving $10,000 of your student loan debt doesn't fix your financial problem you are going to fix your financial problem and that message has not changed around here the people that have debt and no savings uh they're finding out that this idea that there's good debt is bogus because this is when their stupid idea is stress tested every time there's debt it accelerates the volatility in your life and in the nation's life because the consumer is so leveraged and the consumer has no savings and so you know one two-week period of time with no pay and you're just completely devastated right and so And so what happened to me, because I was stupid,

was I had that same thing happen, only it wasn't a two-week period of time. I made $200,000 one year in my 20s. The next year I made $6,000 in the process of losing everything we owned. And I discovered I borrowed money wasn't my friend. It was only my friend when everything went perfect, and never does everything go perfect. And not having any cash was a dumb idea not having granite grandma's rainy day fund it's gonna rain dummy that's what that's what i kept saying to myself and and so i changed that and thank god i did all those years ago and i've talked a few of you out there a few million of

you out there into doing that and and so you're sitting there right now kind of feeling like wow this stuff works i'm really glad that all those people that made fun of me my broke friends when they were making fun of me for cutting up my credit cards because i didn't get the airline miles which try flying on it right now yeah and um you're supposed to be in your home sucking your thumb you're not supposed to be flying on an airplane uh and and so no trouble social distancing on them though because nobody's on them um but you know the uh but you see the thing i mean it's the the the the uh everything is is exponentially more volatile in our economy and in our personal homes the more debt we have and and in other words

debt equals risk. Now, this is not something that you have not said and I have not said. That's exactly right. We've been saying this and now we're observing it like a bunch of lab rats. Well, and people are feeling it and hearing it on another level now. Yeah. And it's crazy. I've heard you say this before that you have to get to your uncle point, you know, and

I have uncles where they would get me in holds and get me in that point where i would say i must have been a big uncle well i was little i was little then you was a little i was little guy a little chris but unfortunately this is what requires us to wake up and really and truly not just talk about change but be about change in our lives and i'm talking to people that'll say chris this has never happened to me again yeah this feeling never again never again when you have that never again moment never again will american express call my house unless it's the wrong number because i'm not doing business with them never again no matter what i will never be in a position without cash for my emergency fund no matter what no one's going to come and collect my car out of the driveway unless it's because i called them and it was broken you know no one no matter what right

and that's what happened to me because i was stupid and i got myself into a mess and some of y'all we chris and i are not you know no one at ramsey is going to get up in your face and say i told you so and thump our chest about how smart we are. We understand that this is your wake-up call. This is your unique moment in time, and you're going to look back and go, thank God for the coronavirus. It changed my life. When you look back 10 years from now, if you will take this moment in time to change, you will look at this and say, thank God.

Like I say, thank God I went bankrupt in my 20s. It changed my life because i was stupid and i got my wake-up call thank god for it folks i love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today i'm talking about grip six belts i don't know about you but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right, and they're uncomfortable. Grip6 belts are unique. Owner BJ designed a truly modern, minimalist belt made of high-quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk.

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The phone number is 888-825-5225. It's just me and him sitting there. That's exactly how it sounds, boys and girls. So this is our life. It's what we do. A couple things I want to mention to you. This Thursday night, for most of you listening, that's tomorrow night. Thursday night, the 26th.

I can't get my dates right. This whole week's messed up. Thursday night, the 26th, at 7 p.m. Central Time, live from our studios here in Ramsey Solutions, Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, and me will be on the air for about 45 minutes to talk to you about a message of hope. We're going to walk through what to do. A lot of you have had a lot of questions and give you some reassurance that you're going to make it. We're going to be okay because we really do believe that. And we've actually got data points to indicate that and life experience to indicate that and faith to indicate that.

And so we'll go cover all that. But tell your friends and your relatives that are freaking out. They can join us for a message of hope tomorrow night, Thursday the 26th, 7 p.m. Central Time. Just go to DaveRamsey.com on the homepage, and you'll be able to watch it. Now, if you want a reminder, you can text in HOPE to 33789. Text the word HOPE to 33789, and it'll give you a reminder. And that would be kind of cool to get that. Then you could send that off to your list once you got the reminder

and let them know to tune in because i mean you know some of you got relatives or friends that are more freaked out than others or that want a message you know that kind of stuff i've had a lot of pastors contact me day when you're going to do something that we can just look at and see this and so the other thing is if you go to daveramsey.com slash hope we put a whole bunch of our products on there and services completely free or a super, super, super discounted, one of the two, to help you during this 14 days that you're at home. The crown jewel of that is we've done something we've never done in 30 years. We are putting out a 14-day free trial to Financial Peace University and Financial Peace, the membership.

And that means you can watch all the videos and binge watch that instead of binge watching Netflix. And it's completely free for 14 days. You've got access to EveryDollarPlus. You've got access to the Smart Money, Smart Kids series, the Legacy Journey series. You've got access to the Baby Steps Tracker app tracker app which is incredible brand new app we just launched and uh you got access to um uh everything i mean it's pretty crazy pretty crazy so yeah uh come and join us for that it's something you don't want to miss miss out on and all kinds of other

deals at daveramsey.com slash hope and you can find that 14-day free trial there. Don't miss out on that. Derek is in California. Derek, your question for Chris and I. Hi. My employer has a deferred compensation and thrift plan. It's called a 457B. And I get paid twice a month, and I was throwing 35% of my paycheck into that before taxes.

And I was kind of okay with it before everything went south with this virus thing. So I'm just wondering, you know, I brought it back down to the minimum contribution, which was 4% participate in it. And I'm wondering, should I just leave it at that? Or maybe, you know, cause I was, I'm the only one who earns a check in my family. It's a family of three, and I got a little one, and my wife is a stay-at-home mom. So it's just me.

So I was kind of. Okay. Well, what we teach are what we call the baby steps, and you should be out of debt except your home and have an emergency fund before you start saving for retirement. Are debt except your home and have an emergency fund before you start saving for retirement. Are you out of debt and have an emergency fund? I got $31,000 in savings. I have a mortgage. You have any debt other than the mortgage? What's that? You have any debt other than the mortgage? No. Okay. Then you're at what we call baby step four, and you should be putting 15% of your income into retirement.

Not 35%, 15%. And until you get your home paid off. Anything else you can find in your budget, though, at your home. And the 457 is an okay plan. If you've got a 401K or if the 457 has mutual funds, I think that's a fine way to go you're looking for the match uh and chris our rock paper scissors thing chris yeah our rock paper scissors thing is uh first thing you do is you oh well you you take up to the match exactly yes absolutely and um i

was listening to his voice dave i was hearing the motion. Derek, what else is going on? No, I mean, that's about it. I got a leaky roof. You know, I just found out about that. Okay. Okay. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm okay.

Okay. I'm just dealing with it. You know, we're out here in California, so, you know, that kind of, you know, there's just, you know, this kind of, you know, they're, it's just, you know, this whole thing of throwing everybody off. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. Yeah. Well, you know, the big thing, Derek, is I appreciate you reaching out.

And I'm going to tell you something. Whenever you get tough things going on in the world, you've got to be careful of who you're hanging around with and what you're taking in. And I don't know if you're plugged in with a church or if you've got some good guy friends, but it is important for you not to isolate. It's important for you to get on the line, get connected with them, and talk about the things that's going on in your head and in your heart. I tell people it's okay to be informed, but don't obsess. There's so many negatives going on.

So you want to plug in and hear hopeful things and really be encouraged in this time. And at times, Dave, like this day, we have to pick ourselves up and not rely on our own strength. Amen. Amen. Well, the thing is, you want to first do your match up to the match. Then you do Roth. If Roth is available, and you probably got to cut, you could do a couple individual Roths, if nothing else, and all into good growth stock mutual funds with long track records. And even if the market is down, I don't get out. I wouldn't have been in as deep as you are, 35% of your income is heavier than I want you to do.

I'd be putting 15% of your income in and everything else towards paying off your home and making sure your baby has a college fund. And that's baby steps five and six, and you can go from there. So good mutual funds with long track records, Your baby has a college fund, and that's baby steps five and six, and you can go from there. So good mutual funds with long track records, and you ride out these ups and downs that are a normal part of investing. These times are not normal we're sitting in, but for the investment to go up and down is a normal thing. It really is. Dave, I tell people the stock market's a living, breathing thing.

It is going to react and respond based on things going on in the country and things going on around the world. But looking back in history, and you taught me this when I first joined you in 2005, when you start to take a historical look at the market and not just a snapshot, you begin to see how this thing works. Yeah. And it overreacts. It's an emotional thing. Yes. It generally, you know, it's given the stimulus package too much credit. When it didn't look like it was going to pass, it tanked because it was giving it too much, not coming on board too much credit. And in the market, you know, it overreacts to coronavirus. It overreacts to positives in a good way.

I mean, it shoots up when it shouldn't shoot up. It has this euphoria to it. It's either, it's like it's bipolar but i was sitting here thinking that word manic or depressing you know it's oh it's trying to that's what the market does and you just kind of got to know that and so it the market is set things are seldom as bad as the market indicates or as good as the market indicates uh it just you know you're just riding this and because people overreact they overpay for things or they panic and leave things and under and sell them too cheap yes and uh and that affects the market uh and even some of the computer generated trading

does that so it's a normal thing to watch all that derrick and if i were you i would adjust to 15 percent of my income in up to the match, then do two Roth IRAs, and then do other stuff until you get to your 15%. When you get to 15%, stop. Take your income times.15. That's how much you want going into retirement. And everything else needs to go to your baby's college fund and baby step five and on to your paying off your house early at that point.

Hey, man, thank you for the call. We appreciate you joining. And Derek, one more quick tip. And Dave talks about this in all of his material. You don't count the match as part of your 15 percent. You are doing your 15 percent. The match is over and above. And so just take that.

Walk with it, my friend. These baby steps have helped millions of people. And I promise it'll help you. Derek, I'll make you another promise. A year from now, all this craziness is going to be a memory. We're going to be okay. Thanks for calling in. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. No matter what time of year it is, focusing on your family's financial plan is always a smart move.

I get questions all the time about where to start and what to do first. One of the most crucial and affordable first steps to take is to protect your family and get term life insurance. I know it's not glamorous, but all the other steps mean a lot less if something happens to you and your family has no financial protection. Getting term life insurance needs to be a top priority. I recommend 10 to 12 times your income and lock in rates for 15 to 20 years. This gives

you plenty of time to get out of debt and build wealth. I've been recommending Zander Insurance for over 20 years and they understand and live this strategy and will take the time to help you find the most affordable term life rates. Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282. It's not that expensive, it's not complicated, and you need to do it now. On the line in Illinois. The screen says a debt-free scream for Jim and Annie. Hi, Jim and Annie. How are you? Real good.

How are you? Hi, we're great. Better than I deserve. So in the middle of all this mess, you get to scream you're debt-free. That's a little bit surreal. Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you what. Better than I deserve. So in the middle of all this mess, you get to scream you're debt-free. That's a little bit surreal. Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you what.

It's kind of choked me up when you guys called because, you know, to have our emergency fund in place and when all this stuff happened, it was a, wow, what timing. We're excited. Yeah. So how much have you paid off? $272,600. $272,600. Yeah. So how much have you paid off? $272,600. $272,600.

Wow. How long did that take? 25 months. Woo! What's your household income? Well, it's changed a bit, but it's ranged between $180,000 to $260,000. We had a job change. Wow.

So are you guys docs and this was medical debt or what? Medical school debt or what? No, we're just old and dumb. I do finance for a living. Okay, so how do you make it? Wait a minute, stop. What do you all do for a living? You're not too dumb. Dumb people don't make $260,000, okay? I'm sorry? I'm a finance genius. Okay. What do you all do for a living? You're not too dumb. Dumb people don't make $2.60, okay?

I'm sorry? I'm a finance genius. Okay. All right. That helps. All right. You're in the financial field, okay? And you're the single income, or Annie, you work outside the home?

Nope. We both work at automotive dealerships. Oh, okay. Very cool. All right. So you're killing it. Well done. And the $2.73 was what kind of debt?

We had home equity, credit cards, super duty truck, car lease, boat, line of credit. Wow. So Ford and Hyundai dealerships? Yep.

I saw a couple of Ford and Toyota. Okay, I thought I couldn't tell who was popping up here. Nice boat, yep. I saw a couple of Ford. Ford and Toyota. Toyota, okay. I thought I couldn't tell who was popping up here. Nice boat, too. We got pictures popping up on YouTube we're watching. All right, good. Way to go, guys. So you had lots of toys.

This isn't even your house. It's just your home equity loan. Yeah, that's right. Lots of toys, and in 25 months. I promise you that's next is the house. Oh, I don't doubt it you're on a roll here absolutely i mean you did ten thousand dollars a month plus for two years did you sell stuff well the the truck and in the boat and the the highlander lease oh they're all gone okay

those are pictures those are pictures of Christmas past. Yes, they are. Okay. Oh, my God. We got serious and got rid of everything. I bet you're popular at the car dealership driving a hoopty. Not too much. I bet.

It's an old man truck with a topper. Oh, I love it. There you go. A topper. I haven't had a topper in years that's awesome well done so how old are you two i'm uh 58 and i'm 48 all right what started this journey two years ago because you guys got really intense well i started a new job that my income went down and of course my uh i didn't want to admit that to any um and so i started playing the shell

game with our credit cards and our home equity and lines of credit and took about 15 16 months and we just about hit the wall and i had to come to i had to tell her the truth so any he opens this up and says i've been trying to keep us afloat but i made a mess what'd you say yeah um it was really hard um it um was through god and you uh you saved our marriage wow it um it was really difficult but we are um so grateful and better than ever this was the best thing that could have ever happened to us. You look like freaking geniuses sitting here today. Yeah.

We feel like it. I mean, your timing is surreal. Yeah. But here you sit with an emergency fund, a $260,000 income, and no debt at all, and there's this tremendous level of fear out in the culture, right? Yeah. And we can look at each other and have budget meetings that weren't always good. But right now, they're, you know, they're easy to look at each other and say, this is what we need to do. And now we need to go into an emergency plan because, you know, we aren't working as much.

And, you know, it's just a good timing. It is. Annie, tell me this. What was the biggest sacrifice you all made during this journey? The biggest sacrifice I would have to say is giving up, just surrendering and trusting him and trusting each other that we could make it through this. I mean, it really, going out to dinner, buying clothes, some of the things, you know, just some of the things that you take for granted or that we were spending too much money on,

we just stopped all of that. Yeah, that's amazing. What did the boat sell for well we owed 133 on it and it sold for uh 70 000 uh yeah yeah so we owed a bunch on it afterwards and that's two best days in your life the day you buy a boat and the day you sell it yeah yeah we had a lot of fun for years but you know that's what happens when you get three new boats and trade and trade and trade in 10 year periods hey jim what advice do you have for the other finance gurus out there that think that they can pull this off seriously talk to them what would you tell them you know

don't it's easy to to figure out how to get financed. It's just you can put a pile on yourself way too fast. Well, we're proud of you guys. Way to go. Touchdown. Thank you. Who were your biggest cheerleaders other than the two of you? Our kids. Our kids were phenomenal.

Our whole family, our parents, our coworkers, they knew what we were going through, what we were doing. You guys had a real transformation with the impact on your personal relationship, your marriage relationship, and, you know, the freedom and the timing. I mean, you have a very unique story because of all those things colliding. And we're very, very proud of you. Well, you're on your way to being everyday millionaires, without a doubt. We've got a copy of Chris's book for you, number one bestseller, just to say congratulations, touchdown.

We're so, so proud of you guys. Very well done. Thank you. Thanks for being a voice of reason right now, too. I really appreciate that. Well, we appreciate you guys. You're fun to have on the air today. And, again, I just can't.

There's nothing more poignant than in the middle of this. I can imagine all across America when people hear you scream, I'm debt-free in just a minute, that they're going to be tearing up because a whole bunch of them are tuned in today going, man, if I ever, ever, ever needed it, I need it right now. That's right. So well done. All right, Jim and Annie from Illinois, $273,000 paid off in 25 months, making $180,000 to $260,000.

They sold the boat. They sold the car. They sold the SUV. They want it out of debt, baby. Got their marriage back in the process. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free. Yeah! Woo-hoo! Yeah, baby! Yes! There's something about that that means more today than it did three weeks ago yeah it does nothing against you guys three weeks ago we loved your debt-free scream too but that one makes me tear up uh man well he's my age almost you know right about the same age and uh i just think man

to be sitting right where he's sitting or where I'm sitting right now, where you're sitting right now, because we started doing these things months and years ago. We just want that for the rest of you. Yes. And if you're scared, you can be there too. You can be just like those guys. We can show you how. You can be there too.

And you can go through the best thing we've got, Financial Peace University, 14-day free trial right now. It's completely free. We've never done this before. But a bunch of people are parked at home for 14 days, and we said, we're going to put the online thing up, and you can go through the online class. We've got virtual classes going. And be like Jim and Annie. This is the time. Be like Jim and Annie.

We want that for you so bad. Make the time. Be like Jim Rennie. We want that for you so bad. Make the decision. Go to DaveRamsey.com and get signed up for that class right now. It's 14 days free. You can binge watch the whole thing. And if you cancel it then and you go get out of debt, we will still love you. We want you to stay in. But if you just binge watch it for free and get your life straightened out, we're so glad for you.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Go do it. Wow. Wild times at Ridgemont High, baby. Open phones to 888-825-5225. It's a crazy, crazy world we're in. Chris Hogan's with me. Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author a couple times over. His latest is The Everyday Millionaires.

If you're an everyday millionaire, you're probably not laying awake at night right now. Unless it's about something else. That's right. Breathing, easy and clear. Why? Because you had a game plan, and you followed it over time. And guess what? On the way to doing that, you've weathered some storms, my friends. You've seen some stuff, whether it was the SARS situation in 02 and 03. Market dropped 12%, but by 03, it came back

19%. The Great Recession of 07 to 09, 18 months we saw, right? It came back. So we've grown up. We've seen some stuff. And what we don't want to forget is that the market is going to come back. I don't know when, but I know for a fact that it's going to. Yeah, because the only other alternative is to assume that the entire economy completely implodes. And I just, there's no historical point of reference for that no um and you know that's a pretty heavy chicken little statement if you say america's coming to an end and that's where you have to get to to say all the businesses that you drive by that you recognize their names apple

um mcdonald's coca-cola microsoft, Lowe's, the movie theater, AMC. You know, who is it you're driving? Oh, by the way, Ford, Chevrolet, General Motors. You know, all these places you're driving by are suddenly not just down in value. If you assume that your mutual funds are worth zero, you're assuming all of those companies have a zero value. That's asinine. It is.

It really is. And, Dave, to go back 30 days from now and look at where the market was and to glance now, fast forward to where we are, and to say that what was happening in February was false is unreal too. Yeah. And so what we have to do is wake up, okay? I know it's scary out there, but I'm going to tell you something. Being clear and seeing this we have to do is wake up okay i know it's scary out there but i'm going to tell you something being clear and seeing this stuff for what it is it allows you to properly

respond dave i've been telling people on my instagram and facebook lives there's three things you can control and there's actually four your attitude your outlook and your actions but also your faith and when you see and you see this for what it is you don't want to waste energy on anything that's not worthy that's exactly right and all you can control is the controllables that's right that's exactly starts with what's between your ears yeah and um you got to start with controlling what's between yours we would not allow our kids when they were growing up to say he made me mad he make you anything you decided due to the way he was misbehaving to be mad now it might be righteous anger it might been an injustice but he didn't make you happy

he she didn't make you mad the coronavirus didn't make you afraid you decided to be and just as quickly as you decide to be you can decide not to be and um now again we're not saying positive thinking is you know pollyanna stick your head in the sand that prints in like something's not going on if you're facing some real stuff like our company right now our guys i got a thousand people working from home our productivity is down revenues are going to go down following that we're facing some stuff at ramsey solutions right now real stuff and you know i sure hope we get back to work soon yeah uh because if we don't it's going to be a problem and uh it's going to be a problem for a lot of people out there and already a problem for a lot of people out there so the uh you know you but

you you're clear-eyed but i'm also not going to oversteer, overcorrect, just because I've got some stress or because I've got some concern. I'm not going to pretend like it's not happening. I'm going to face it, but with clear eyes. But why aren't you panicked? Well, I'm not panicked because of our financial situation, for one thing. Right. But I'm also not panicked because I don't see this going on to September.

I'm really, you know, you know what gives me a whole lot more stimulus than the stimulus package? What's that? The president's saying we're going back to work. The president's saying the cure is worse than the virus. It's doing more damage than the virus. And at some point, we've got to start balancing these two things out. And someone finally being clear-headed and saying um we have a real serious situation with the virus and you know we have to watch that stuff but being real

serious about saying the economic damage because we have basically destroyed the hospitality industry cruise lines the airlines the uh hotels and uh the restaurants uh they're just, I mean, a bunch of them you will never see again. They're gone. And that's not an understatement. And we destroyed them with how we decided to fight the virus. And right or wrong, you can make an argument. I don't even have to make that argument. I'm just making a factual statement.

And if you continue this in this economy, now you are going to have a problem. You are going to have a problem because it's going to extend past those industries into everything else. And people's livelihoods, how they feed their children, how their futures are based, and, well, you're putting people's lives at risk. Now, you know, we can make an argument about that. And what is the tradeoff? Were you willing to kill granny for the almighty dollar? Not willing to kill anybody's granny for an almighty dollar.

That's not the point. The point is, are you willing to completely destroy this economy as your reaction for this virus? And when the president says, no, we're going back to work, and our governor says we're going back to work in about another 10 days here in Tennessee, then I think that's a big deal because these people's jobs do matter. Yeah. If everyone in America starts to become unemployed, now you've got real problems. But I just don't think that's going to happen. I don't either. I really don't see that.

I think people have had enough. They're tired of being afraid. They're tired of cowering in their homes. They're tired of the economic impact of the cure now superseding the actual disease we were trying to kill. And people are sick of it. And, you know, I know some of you are mad and some of you are still, you know, we got hate mail yesterday because Anthony and I were sitting this close. And I'm like, well, Anthony's been tested, so I'll give him a hug. But, you know, I mean, it's just people are so angry and off tilt.

And it's just time for us to breathe, be kind, extend some grace to people that disagree with you. You may disagree with me. Extend me some grace. I'll try to extend some grace to you if you're wrong. It's okay. Yeah. Well, and Dave, you're right, though. When people get fearful and when people hit panic, they can get mean and they can get nasty. And I think that's a good reminder for me, as well as all your listeners out there, just to remind yourself to just meet whatever you

meet with grace, to be able to give people some level of understanding, even beyond maybe what they're due, but just to take that level of road. It's a higher road for you to take. I have a good friend who's terrified of the virus right now. He's healthy. He's not in a risk group. It's all between his ears. He's afraid he's going to get the flu, essentially.

And he's terrified of that. And he's terrified of that. And he's terrified of appearing to be socially irresponsible. And he is held up in his house. And he's a good guy. He and I are just looking at this thing completely different. And I'm not a bad guy because I'm sitting here doing the show with you. Right. But he is completely debilitated by his fear over this.

And he's really angry with me because I'm continuing to work and I'm continuing to travel. And I'm continuing to try to do things to keep these thousand families that work on our team fed. And he's really angry with me. I'm being socially irresponsible and I'm doing this and I'm doing that. And I understand. You're not to be angry. But he's terrified. He's not just fearful. I mean, he is holed up in his home and people are sliding stuff under the door to him. I mean, he's not no human contact and no

logical reason for it. Wow. Other than he's just been watching the news reel too much. Yeah. Way too much. And I'm going to tell you something, you get to that level, it's going to take some work to come out of that. Yeah, yeah. That's a psychological thing. Yeah, that's a battle. At this point. I hadn't thought about that.

His PTSD from this is going to be real. It's going to be massive. It's going to be real. I hadn't thought about that. I'll have to pray for him in that way. It's just kind of pitiful to watch people be mean that aren't normally mean to their relatives and they're mean to people in Walgreens. And it's just, it's gotten out of hand, you guys.

You need to be kind. It's funny you say that. I went to the store, picked up something, and I told a gentleman, I said, thank you, sir. And he looked at me and he goes, that's the nicest thing anyone said to me all day. He said, everyone else has been mean and nasty. And I said, I'm sorry, sir. I said, I hope you have a good day. But for him to take the time to mention that.

Yeah. It had to be bad. Just be nice. Be nice, people. Triple your tips. Triple your tips. Be nice. Chris Hogan, Ramsey Personality, and me, Dave Ramsey, here stirring up trouble, being socially irresponsible.

It's one of our personal spiritual gifts. We'll be back here on The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. It's George Camel, host of The Dave Ramsey Show video channel. You can now listen to the show on your smart speaker. Just tell your Alexa or Google device to play the Dave Ramsey Show or find out all the ways you can benefit at DaveRamsey.com slash smart speaker.