The Ramsey Show - App - Dave Rant: It's Cool to Be Gloomy (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 18, 2018

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. Merry Christmas, America. We're glad you're here. Thanks for hanging out with us. I love this time of year i love seeing the little kids all smiling and i am a little bit in shock how many people now think it is cool to be gloomy wall street journal actually agrees with me they printed an article out that hit just recently it says why is it so cool to be gloomy?

Like pessimism is in instead of optimism. Oh, we're all stuck. It's all the glasses half empty. Article says this. Has the percentage of the world's population that lives in extreme poverty almost doubled, almost halved, or stayed the same in the past 20 years? What do you think, by the way? Has it doubled, has it gone in half, or has it stayed the same in the last 20 years?

The percentage of the population of the world that is in extreme poverty. When the Swedish statistician and public health expert Hans Rosling began asking people the question in 2013, he was astounded by their responses. Only 5% of Americans got the right answer. Extreme poverty has been cut almost in half. A chimpanzee would do better, he pointed out mischievously, by picking an answer at random. So people are worse than ignorant. They believe they know many dire things about the world that are, in fact, untrue.

Statistically untrue. In fact, untrue. Not your feeling, an actual fact. Rosling published a magnificent book arguing against such reflexive pessimism. The title says it all. Factfulness, 10 reasons we're wrong about the world, and why things are better than you think. As the author of a book called Rational Optimist mentioned the same kind of thing. Okay, people cling to pessimism about the state of the world.

John Stuart Mill neatly summarized this tendency as far back as 1828. He said, quote, I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope is admired by a large class of persons as a sage. It's cool to be gloomy. The economy is going to collapse! There's a bubble! Trump is going to kill everyone!

We're all going to die! It's cool to be gloomy. It's interesting. And at Christmas you're gloomy oh my gosh the persistence of pessimism about the planet requires some explanation beyond the facts themselves therefore bad news is usually more sudden than good news which is usually gradual therefore bad news is more newsworthy. Battles, bombings, accidents, murders, storms, scandals, and disasters of all kinds tend to dominate the news. If it bleeds, it leads, as they say in the newspaper business back when we had newspapers. By contrast, the gradual reduction in poverty in the world rarely makes a sudden splash.

The increase of the stock market is gradual. It rarely makes a splash. You never see the stock market. The stock market spiked today. As a leading headline, you always saw, You've lost all your retirement! It's over! Your 401k is a 201k!

That's all you see. The stock market spiked. Never. all you see. Stock market spiked. Never. You always see the stock market crashed. It crashed. You remember back when it crashed? That's how we talk. The human tendency towards pessimism is absolutely amazing.

Did you know that people don't make as much money as they used to? The millennials, they cannot make it. They're overwhelmed with student loan debt. They have no opportunity in America today, and wages are falling. Have you heard this? It's all over the news. World poverty is going to overtake us. The number of people in poverty is really sad, but it's half what it used to be.

By the way. Okay, here's the actual facts on wages. This from Pew Research. After bottoming out in 2011, incomes are rising for American households since 2011. Those headed by a millennial, someone aged 22 to 37, now earn more than young adult households did at nearly any time in the past 50 years. According to census data, actual statistics, not your feelings. Hmm. The growth and household income among young adults has been driven in part by

millennial women who are working more and being paid more than young young women were in previous years because we all know that women are underpaid and the wages for women are slave wages we send the women off to the salt mines we We pay them a dollar a year. No? The statistical facts are that women are paid more than they've ever been paid in history. Which is good. They should be. They should be paid the same.

Shouldn't be underpaid just because of your sex or your color or anything else. That's not true. I mean, even if you don't have hair, you should be paid the same for doing the same job, right? I mean, seriously. I don't like baldism any more than I like racism or sexism. Baldism is the one I'm most worried about, by the way, because I'm privileged. There's a lot of whining going on out there. Gloomy is cool, but the problem is it's not accurate.

Incomes of households headed by 54 to 72-year-olds, which would be the baby boomers today, are at record levels, while those of current Gen X households, about the same as the peak earnings of similarly aged households in the past. Not a single category of age are wages down since 2011. They're up dramatically, they're level, or they're up. According to actual census data. Now, I don't know about your particular personal situation, but I will not give you permission to whine. We can help you with your situation. That's what we do here.

We're glad to help you. And we want to do that. And I don't want anyone to live in extreme poverty, and I don't want anyone to have a bad life. But you cannot say that there is a systemic problem with the economy, and this capitalism idea is now a failure. No. and this capitalism idea is now a failure. No, poverty, extreme poverty worldwide is half of what it's ever been, and wages are up for millennials more than any time in history since 2011.

In the last 50 years, the highest wages of that age group. Interesting. Another article from The Economist, to people who believe the world used to be a better place, Interesting. than a large majority of their compatriots, which many rich countries define poverty among their own citizens today, but they were absolutely destitute. Since then, the number of people in absolute poverty has fallen by about one billion, and the number of non-poor people

has gone up by roughly four billion. In 2013, the most recent year for stats, 10.7%, not 42%, of the world are living in extreme poverty. Hmm. Merry Christmas. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month.

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Just visit puretalkusa.com, enter promo code SAVEDAVE, no spaces, and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com, promo code SAVEDAVE. Joseph is with us in Wilmington, North Carolina. Merry Christmas to you, Joseph. Merry Christmas to you, sir. How can I help? Yeah, my mom needs to move out of her house into another place because she's 85 years old and really can't live alone. She's able to self-care, but she needs somebody living with her, preferably one of her children. And I'm not exactly sure how to go about it.

She currently lives on a property that's worth anywhere from $800,000 to $1 million. I took over her power of attorney six months ago, and she was spending more than she was taking in in her income. I got that fixed, so it's basically a wash right now, but I don't know if I should sell my house and have her move in to a new house that I acquire or have her sell her property and acquire a house for her. I don't think she needs assisted living at this point. Okay. So at the end of this story, does she live with you? Yes.

Okay. Either way. All right. And she can't live in the home that you're currently in? No, she needs handicapped access, and I live in a historic house. There's just no way I can make it accessible for her. Got it. Are you single?

We need a ranch, yes. You're single? Yes. Okay, all right. Well, and how many brothers and sisters? How many siblings? Two siblings, one brother, one sister. Okay.

And there's $800,000 worth of property here? At least, yeah. Okay. All right. Well, there's a couple of ways you can do it. One is she could sell the property, and she likely would have no capital gains on it. Right. Maybe. I don't know. How long has she likely would have no capital gains on it. Right. Maybe.

I don't know. How long has she had it? Oh, she inherited it in 1981. I checked on that. She's not going to be paying capital gains on it. Why? It was worth $600 when she got it? No, I believe I was told that she was,

since she inherited the property, that they didn't have to pay a capital gain on it, but I could have been told wrong. You were. The value of the property at the time she inherited it is her basis. If she makes more than $250,000 above that value, what it was worth in 1981, as a single person, you can deduct up to $250,000 on your capital gains on your residence.

I think. Double-check that. Personal residence laws may have shifted, though, in 2018. So go back and look at that. Yeah, well, going through her stuff, I found the appraisal that was made when she inherited it. What was that? A heck of a lot more lot more than like $185,000. Yeah, okay. You need to get some tax advice then because I'm not sure Dave Ramsey needs to be giving you tax advice on this

because I suck at it. But as far as the overall deal goes, she could sell the property plus or minus the tax problem, right? And she actually could go ahead and gift the brothers and sisters their portion of what they would get upon her inheritance, or she may need that money to live, though. She's going to need it, Dave. You know, she didn't do any good financial planning when she should have. She's 85 years old. She's got $800,000, though. It's all in property.

I know, but, I mean, we're going to sell that, right? Right. So that now is money. There's $800,000 in the middle of the table. Now what are we going to do? What's your property worth? My property is worth $205,000. Okay.

Would you like to, if you just bought another $200,000 property in your name, and you own the property, and she lived with you, you know, she could pay you rent. Could that be a very simple thing? Yeah, and I was thinking about doing that. But, you know, I'd have to sell my house in order to purchase another property i mean i'm i have some money but i don't have enough to put 20 down on another house right so so what would be wrong with that plan um that was what i was calling to ask you yeah i mean should i sell or should i have hers or and another house? Probably both of you, yeah.

She needs the money out of this property. If she's not going to be living there, we need to go ahead and liquidate it. And she's not going to be living there. We've already established that. You don't move in with her, do you? Well, if I sold her property and used that money to buy her another house in her name, then I could move in with her and keep my house. Yeah, that'd be okay, too.

I would bring it way down, though. I mean, let's get down to a $300,000, $400,000 property and leave $300,000 or $400,000 liquid then. Oh, I was thinking far less than that. I was thinking no more than $250,000 on a property if she buys it. Right. And then, of course, what I'm trying to think forward to then upon her death, what happens, and I guess you move back into the historic house

because you may have kept it in that scenario, and I'd go that way. You know? So, yeah, that's probably okay. Let's sell hers and have her buy a property for $250,000 that the two of you can live in. And, you know, the brothers and sisters agree that you are paid something for her care, that you're being her caregiver, because if you weren't there, someone would be paid to be living there to take care of her. And so that would be a reasonable thing, and everybody's in on it.

We all talk about it over Christmas or Thanksgiving or whatever, and we have a plan. And then when she passes, you can liquidate that property and whatever cash is left and it's fairly easy to settle the estate out at some point so yeah that that takes care of her which is our biggest issue here we want to make sure she's cared for karen is in louisville kentucky hi karen welcome to the dave ramsey show Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you. What's up? So my employer offers a Roth 401k. Do you recommend doing the Roth 401k to the match and then jump to the traditional IRA and backdoor Roth to get to the 15% or do you recommend doing the whole 15% in the Roth 401k and avoid the roth conversion if you've got reasonable um uh

selections good mutual funds and you're an employer 401k it's just a simpler life to have it all there okay that's what i'm thinking because we ran into some tax issues last year and trying to figure out how to do that yeah i. I mean, it depends on how your wealth is structured as to whether you can qualify for that back door or not. But yeah, I think I'd put it all at the company unless your options just suck there. But if you've got decent mutual fund options, you take the match there, you put the rest of your money there, you've got a total of 15% going in to retirement all in Roth, and you're getting a match.

It's all in one place. It's simple. It's clean. That's probably what I would do. But, again, some companies, 401Ks, the options are just horrendous. And so you just, you know, I'd want to go over and go through the trouble to do the backdoor Roth and have some good mutual funds, you know, performing at a much higher rate, in other words. So that's what you're looking at.

Good question. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jasmine's in Denver. Hey, Jasmine, Merry Christmas to you. Hi, Merry Christmas, Dave. What's up? Okay, so about two months ago, I was ready to do a second mortgage. My brother mentioned your name, and I chopped his head off.

But now we have baby step number one done, and we're in for baby step number two. But I'm about to start student teaching in January, meaning I will not get paid for my time. Are you getting paid now? Well, I'm actually, I work everything backwards. I'm an instructional coach for a charter school, and I just do contract work because I'm in school. And so I do get about $800 a month, $900 a month, and so that's how much I'm making. Total, we have an income of $46,000 a year.

Right, and $10,000 of that's you right now at $800 a month, but you're going to go to zero while you're student teaching. Yes. So would that be considered a storm coming, and should we pause on the baby step number two, or? It could be. How long is student teaching? It'll be until May, so.

Okay. Five months. Five months, mm-hmm. Okay. Well, one of you is delivering pizza, though. What was that? Because you need another $800 a month. So somebody is going to pick up some extra work during this five months while you're doing your student teaching to avoid going further in debt. But, yeah, if you cannot make it otherwise, yes, you stop and you prepare for this five-month drop in income.

But I suspect one or both of you can make up that $800 deficit. Or maybe you can do that contract work a different time of day and keep that work. Because we're only $800 off here. Times five. $4,000 changes your whole life. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. 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 a struggle 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. Jesse and Rachel are with us in Grand Junction. Hey, guys, how are you? Merry Christmas. Hi, Dave. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I see on my screen you're debt-free.

Congratulations. How much have you paid off? A little over $30,000. All right, and how long did this take? About nine months. Okay, and your range of income during that time? Well, we started around $60,000, ended up about $93,000, $94,000. Wow, what do you all do for a living?

Well, I'm an electrician. Mama's a stay-at-home mama. That'll work. I love it. What kind of debt was the $30,000? Well, two of them were credit cards, and then I had bought a slide-in camper. One of them campers go in the back of the truck. Gotcha.

Okay. And how long have you guys been married? Ten years. Okay. Yes, ten. So after nine years of marriage, something happened. What happened? Oh, boy.

Well, I'm definitely the big spender for sure. I'm the one that did all the credit card stuff. I guess that's just how I am a spender, I guess. But really, it just, little by little, I've always known not to. But finally, it clicked after a little while, though it took a little bit. Yeah, like nine years. Like nine years. Yeah, exactly.

But what happened nine months ago that put you guys on this plan? Well, in between my parents introducing me a couple years ago and a friend of mine talking about God's blessing, not being in debt, and just listening to your podcast is kind of what has finally clicked on stuff. So that's really kind of what happened there. Okay, so Rachel, Jesse comes home and starts talking about getting out of debt, and you're like, who are you and what have you done with my husband? No, I'm all for it.

Yeah, I know, but he's not recognizable because this is the guy who spins, right? Yeah. I was very proud of him, though, that it finally clicked. Yeah, that's very cool. Very cool. So once you made the decision to get out of debt, what was it that you did? Tell people how you get out of debt. What do they need to do?

Eat rice and beans. You're not joking, Dave. You did real rice and beans. To eat rice and beans, that's what we did all the time. I love it. That's fun. Okay, so you cut the lifestyle down big time. Yeah, yeah.

It was really focusing. You know, I kind of stayed away from the finances, let her kind of take care of the checkbook. But then once it finally clicked on me and I finally got focused, I started actually jumping in there with the finances. And every week we'd sit down and we'd go through every single penny, every dollar, every coin, and went around the house, picked up whatever we could, and did what we had to. Cool. Good. And so you did all of this from learning from the podcast, or did you do something else?

Just basically from all the podcasts is really all it was, yeah. Perfect. Love it. Very, very cool. So your cost for education at this point was zero? Yes. You're right. I love it. Good your cost for education at this point was zero? Yes. You're right. I love it.

Good. Good for you. Well done, guys. Well done. So you get on a budget. You both get involved. You start looking at the money for the first time in a decade of marriage. You stop the spending for the first time in a decade of marriage, Jesse.

And Rachel says, hey, we're eating beans and rice, rice and beans, we're not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless we're working there, and it looks like you kicked a little income in. You must have been working some OT, Jesse. Yeah. Part of it was me, I accepted a position at my job, a higher position, and then also I took on a second job there. I started instructing in my field.

Oh, very good. What did that pay? Not, I mean, that, it was more the, it went from just a journeyman to a general foreman is what I did, is really what kicked up the pay, but then the other pay was I worked every Saturday. really what kicked up the pay but then the other pay was i worked every saturday i worked uh a couple hours every uh through the week also and uh i was working i was working a good uh good 60 hours a week between the two jobs was it worth it oh definitely definitely worth it because now you don't have any payments yeah Yeah, no payments. How does it feel to have no payments? Oh, boy.

I don't know how to explain it other than it's just definitely a big burden off the old back. It makes it to where you feel like you've actually got something to do something with. I actually make good money. Yeah, you do. You actually do. Now you get to keep some of it. Exactly. Just send it to keep some of it. Exactly. Still send it to the camper people.

Very cool. Well, good job, guys. We're proud of you. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? Oh, boy. I think definitely my parents, and then also we've got some good friends of ours. Megan Alberto, I mean, I know that they're big fans of being out of debt. They themselves have done it themselves and have kept out of debt their whole marriage.

And so they were a big inspiration to us, for sure. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you two. We're proud of you. Well done. And we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book, number one bestseller, we will send you. And right after the first year, we'll also send you the new one, Everyday Millionaires, because you're going to be one. That's your next chapter, to be millionaires and outrageously generous, okay?

Yes, sir. Love it. Way to go, you two. How old are you two? Oh, I'm 37, and she's 31. I'm 31. Perfect. Jesse and Rachel from Grand Junction, $30,000 paid off in nine months, making 60 up to 93, kicking in the OT, baby, and a much better position as well.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt free! We're debt free! This is how it's done. Love it, love it, love it. Very well done. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com.

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Nicholas is in Texas. I recently got married. I've been feeling the weight of being a provider and protector to my wife. Good. I have $37,000 in student loans, $6,000 in credit cards. I just graduated nursing school. I'm making around $50,000 a year. I'm 27.

I'm worried about saving money for our future, a house, investing for retirement, just trying to figure out what to do, how to use my extra money at the end of each month. Good for you, dude. Well done. Well, the great news is you're in a fabulous career for making extra money called nursing. So you have a new job making 50K, but you can pick up all kinds of nursing side work, like working in the ER on weekends and nights and that kind of stuff, and you can make a pile of money on the short term.

You don't want to do that long term but i want you working all the time because we're going to clean up thirty seven thousand dollars and six thousand dollars student loan debt and six thousand credit card debt which is forty two thousand dollars which believe it or not you could probably do that in less than 18 months but you're going to be working all the time and you're going to be on a budget a written plan where every dollar behaves. And you don't do anything with money except attack that smallest debt and work your way through it. Boom, nothing. No 401ks, no retirement, no saving for a house, no emergency fund above $1,000. We're completely in attack mode.

You work all the time. You have no life, and you're on a written budget, and you clean the debt up really, really fast. You'll be amazed at how fast you can do that. Now, I recently got married. I'm making 50K in nursing. You didn't mention what she's making. And when we put her income into this equation, assuming she has one, and you're overtime

working ER on the weekends in this equation, you could be done in a year. And with no payments, now then you build your emergency fund, then you save up for your house, and down payment, and then baby step four is you start saving for retirement. You're going to be able to do all of this. You just need a game plan, a clear path, and that's what we give you here. So we appreciate you listening, Mr. Nicholas. And pretty cool, 27 years old and feeling the weight of being a provider and a protector. Good.

We need manly men in this country. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Merry Christmas, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Kamara is in Hartford, Connecticut. Merry Christmas, Kamara. Merry Christmas, Dave. How are you?

I'm good and yourself? Better than I deserve. How can I help? All right. So I'm looking to be debt-free and to be a millionaire, whether in investments or assets. But right now, I'm shy under $160,000 in debt. And that's $68,000 in real estate, $58,000 in student loans, and about $11,000 with credit cards, collections, and old repos.

And my income just increased to $58,000 a year. $68,000 a year? $58 a year. $68 a year? $58. $58, $58, okay. And I was thinking about doing bankruptcy, but not sure if that's a good idea. Why would you file bankruptcy? Because I'm so much in a hole and can't dig myself out, or can't see a vision of digging myself out. Okay.

Okay. So the, well, here's part of your problem, though. The real estate, if you file bankruptcy, the debt does not go away unless the real estate goes away. Right. So is that a rental property or do you live in it? I live in it and hang on it. Okay, so you either keep the $68,000 in debt while in bankruptcy or you lose the property.

What's the property worth? The property is probably worth about $75,000 between $80,000. Okay, all right. Fairly inexpensive property in the Hartford, Connecticut area. I'm sorry, say it again. Fairly inexpensive property in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Right. Like affordable housing, okay?

So losing that doesn't sound appealing to me. Oh, by the way, $58,000 in student loan debt is not bankruptable. Right. So I figured that because I would keep that, the house, and then I also have a car that's worth about $14,000 that I owe $14,000. So I would keep the car and the house. So at the end of the day, you're filing bankruptcy on $11,000 worth of credit card debt and repo debt. Because you're keeping all the rest of it.

Right. That doesn't make any sense, does it? No, it don't. Okay. So that's not going to work. All right. So let's instead, let's get you on a plan that will actually work. How old are you?

I am 31. What do you do for a living? I'm a claims adjuster. Okay, good, good. Are you single? Yes. Okay. Do you have the opportunity to raise your income dramatically

by traveling to disaster areas and do claims adjustment? Like I talked to a guy the other day who made $200,000 doing what you do, but he went into the hurricane zones and the flood zones and stuff. Oh, wow. So, I'm sorry. I'm actually a claims auditor. So, I audit claims, not a claim adjuster. Okay.

All right. Okay. Yeah, that is auditor. So I audit claims, not a claim adjuster. Okay. All right. Okay. Yeah, that is different. All right. Okay, so you have a staff position with an insurance company. Correct. Which there's a bunch of those in Hartford. Okay, that makes sense.

All right. Mm-hmm. Hmm. So you're working 40 hours. Oh, 40 hours, yep. Yeah. And what's your degree in? Do you have a degree?

I have a degree in human services, bachelor's. Okay, good. All right. So what I'm poking around on here is I'm trying to figure out, while we get you on a system and on a clear path that gets you out of this mess, it's going to take a little while, but the good news in your story is you have a very small house payment, which is great.

Your car payment is not so good. The credit cards and the repo, you're not even paying on them right now anyway, right? Correct. Okay. So if we get you on a plan and on on a system i think we can take the income that you have and really start to make some traction but i'd also like to add some income to this equation with some kind of a side hustle or a side gig of some kind that brings in another thousand

two thousand dollars a month uh because i don't mind you working all the time for a short period of time if it gets you out of this mess. I mean, if you could work like a crazy person for two years and be debt-free except your house, you'd do that, wouldn't you? I would. Yeah, so that's what I mean by a side hustle. I don't want you to do it the rest of your life, but I work 80 hours a week for a short period of time, because you're not going to die from that, just to get the mess cleaned

up. Okay. Right. And I have a business on the side, which is event planning, but it's not doing anything. I'm not getting any business from it. Okay. Then we've got to get some business or we've got to do something else. Right.

Because you need money. Right. Okay. We're going to get you on a budget. Now, are you putting money into your 401K? So this job, well, I just recently got back hired. Are you currently coming out of your check? Do you have money going to a 401K?

No, I don't. Good. Okay. How much tax refund did you get last year? I got about, I think, $5,000. Yes. Oh, okay. So you got $400 too much coming out of your check every month

because that's how you get a refund. So you need to talk to payroll and say, I need to raise my take-home pay by $400. What have I got to do to do that? Because you don't want to loan the government $400 every month and then get it back in April and act like Santa Claus lives in Washington, D.C. He doesn't. I know him. Claus lives in Washington, D.C. He doesn't. I know him.

He lives in the North Pole. Okay, so that money didn't come from Santa Claus. That was your money. You gave them too much, and they gave it back to you with no interest. That's what a refund is. You follow me? Right. That $400 is going to go a long way helping us here.

So good. We fixed that. Is there any other crap coming out of your check? Not at the health insurance for me and my children. No, you need that. You need that for sure. How many kids you got? I have two.

What age? Eleven and four. Wow, okay. All right, cool. All right, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to put you on a written plan called a budget. Jump on everydollar.com and download that. I'm going to put you in our Financial Peace University.

It's a nine-week class. And I'm also going to throw in the Financial Peace membership, which is a one-year membership that gives you access to every dollar plus and a full online array of classes, including in addition to the nine-week class. I'm going to pay for it. I'm going to give it to you, okay? If I give you this class, will you go? Of course I will.

Okay, you go, and we're going to get you on a budget. We're going to get your income up. We're going to get your take-home pay up by changing your take-home pay with payroll. We're going to look around and see how much. We're going to sell so much stuff. Those two kids think they're next. Might sell this car, but we're not going to sell it right now. Right now, I just want you to start attacking some of these debts. Let's list these debts off smallest to largest.

Squeeze every drop out of this budget. You've not been doing that because you've been just disorganized and been just living like a rat in a wheel. And now we're going to get traction, and we're going to work extra, and we're going to tear into this. I think you can be 100% debt- free except your house in about two two and a half years i love it but you're gonna be you're gonna be going crazy during this time it's not it's gonna be painful okay it's okay i'm ready i want to be debt free and i want to be a millionaire

but it's gonna be worth it because if you didn't have any payments and you had this little dinky butt house payment you'd be in a position to start investing and now we got you towards millionaire status but you the millionaires are organized they're intentional and and they they set very defined goals and they do what it takes to hit those goals and that's what i'm going to show you how to do okay we'll put you in financial peace university merry christmas we're going to pay for it and i want to hear back from you. While you're fighting this battle, you've got two and a half years of hell in front of you, kid. And you call me back, and I'll be here for you.

You got questions? If you just need to whine one day, you call me and say, Dave, you told me I could call and whine. You can do that because it's going to be hard. The only thing I'm going to promise you is it's going to be worth it because it works. This system that we show people how to handle money, it's not get rich quick. It's hard, but it works because it's living on a plan, very intentional with every dollar. Attack these debts, smallest to largest. When you don't have any payments, you now have control of your most powerful wealth-building tool,

which is your income. You get this nine-week class, Financial Peace University. We'll throw in the one-year membership to Financial Peace, which is all income. You get in this nine-week class, Financial Peace University, we'll throw in the one-year membership to Financial Peace, which is all the online stuff and EveryDollarPlus and everything else is built into that. Man, the community is in there. It's incredible. You get down to the local church and find the class to attend.

Man, it's going to change everything for you, kiddo. It's going to change everything. I can't wait to hear your debt-free scream. And then we'll have you on the Everyday Millionaire theme hour a few years after that. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener. We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread the word.