The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: People Paid Off Credit Cards in the Pandemic…and the Companies Are Pissed Off! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Dr. John Deloney. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. A couple of show notes around here I want you guys to check on.

I'm working on a project called Baby Steps Millionaires. People that have become everyday millionaires by following the Baby Steps. And there's a bazillion of you out there, because I've been doing this for a long, long time. If that is you, get in touch with Kelly and let her know you're there for one of our Millionaire Theme Hours. theme hours and if you feel so inclined do a little brief version of your story on facebook or instagram and put it out there and just talk about i became a millionaire because we followed the steps that the folks at ramsey teach i'm a baby steps millionaire and um i've met tens of thousands of you over the years but i've never really quantified it, and I've never really publicized it. But it's a good thing for the world of social media to hear that you can become wealthy if you do the stuff that we teach, which is very basic common sense.

I don't teach you anything that's rocket science, and we don't teach you anything that's rocket science and uh we we don't teach you anything it's not that's rocket science but we're here to you know what we what we have done is we show up every day for 30 years encouraging you to do it and you already knew it you have to live on less than you make a concept congress can't grasp i mean you already knew what to do and here's a fun one john credit card debt keeps falling and here's a sad note banks are on edge dave i've got a kleenex if you need one i have a tear banks are on edge the banks are on edge americans are paying down this is uh this is for wall street journal americans are paying down their credit card debt at levels not seen in years. That is good news for everyone but credit card issuers.

Large card issuers that cater to borrowers ranging from the affluent to the subprime say the overall card balances and thus the firm's interest incomes are falling. To make up for it, issuers are spending more on marketing, and they're loosening their underwriting standards, which means that you don't even have to be alive now, and they will issue you a credit card. They don't have underwriting standards. They just give everybody a card.

Discover said its earnings call last month that the share of card balances that were paid off at the end of the first quarter was the highest level since the year 2000. Capital One. What's in your wallet? Money! Said that nearly half of the credit card balances it had at the beginning of March were paid off by the end of the month. Wow!

Card balances at three companies, including Synchrony, I can't even say that, which is the largest issuer of store credit cards in the U.S. The three companies say they're down 9%, 17%, and 7% in the first quarter of the year perspective. Card issuers rely on growing card usage and balances for their revenue. They're wondering if the pandemic trends will turn into a long-term shift. We are very focused on returning to growing loans. I love this next line. Delinquencies can't get much lower than where they are. We can't beat people up anymore,

or otherwise our loans keep shrinking, your revenues come down. Margins will get worse. If people don't keep on screwing up we're gonna make less money guys okay guys how can we and i love going back to this marketing and loosening so here's what's gonna happen you're gonna start getting these emails and cards in the mail saying hey we miss you guys yep here's some more money you can just go spend. Hey, Dave, what happens if America collectively said, whoa? We got our bell rung, and we said.

I don't want to be the little pig in the straw house anymore. I'm going to get my crap together. I'm going to get out of debt and have an emergency fund. I'm going to be the little pig in the brick house so when the wolf comes and blows, I don't have credit card debt. I don't have student loan debt. I don't have car payments. I'm under control, and I've got a pile of money you know what would happen discover would

be up a creek the economy would collapse no it wouldn't the economy would boom let me ask you this if you're if you get completely out of debt thus you have your entire income to work with and you have money saved for emergencies and saved to buy things do you then do people then spend less over the next decade following that or more i know in my life we've spent more. Spent more. The house I bought was more. Because you're affluent. Yeah. You have money. So this idea that debt drives the economy is not true. Now, consumption does drive the economy.

But consumption increases when people aren't broke. So the idea that getting rid of debt in America and getting rid of this burden on the back of everyone is somehow going to cause the American capitalistic system to completely fail is asinine. Because the reality is when people get out of debt and have money, they spend more money. Now they spend it differently right more intentionally

more wisely but it's not less dollars being spent on big screens you get nicer big it's more dollars being spent on the equivalent of whatever the consumption is because you've got the money yeah i mean think about it if you have to really think about the big screen and best best buy has to approve you for 90 days same as cash and you have to go through a um you know an entire portfolio of paperwork just to walk out with your big screen you shouldn't be buying the big screen well you shouldn't be buying it but let's say if you have to go that versus you go you know i want one of those uh no i think i'll take two and y'all just deliver it to me and here's the money yeah now who spends more i mean you know not really i mean you're not you're not being crazy but the truth is that i

make a lot more money and have a lot more money than i used to have and i spend a lot more money than i used to spend right well no duh you know so this this is the most wonderful news in the world and i wish i could take credit for it but we're not a big enough deal to take credit for it. We're a big deal, but we're not a big enough deal to shift the whole economy yet. But one of my goals in life is to get Americans to start treating the credit card like it's the financial cigarette. And we are on track, baby. But the pandemic came along and helped me with my goals. Because it woke a bunch of you people up.

It slapped the silly out of some of you i think that i again my friends make fun of me for being overly optimistic all the time but i think that by and large people are good and i think by and large people um when backed into a corner go oh okay and my hope here is that everyone got their bell rung. Nothing can happen to us. We'd forgotten 9-11. And before that, it had been years. Forgotten 2008.

Right. And everyone realized, oh, this can go away overnight. But this can be a segment of America. This could be their emotional Great Depression. Yes. Their never again moment. That's right. segment of America, this could be their emotional Great Depression. Their never again moment. And hopefully, and that's really what this article goes on to say is happening.

And all we're going to do around here at Ramsey is just throw gas on that fire, baby. Absolutely. Discover. Cars having a hard time. Be ready for the credit cards to pretend that they're your friends. Cafe no one is struggling. Oh no, I can't bear it. Your number one wealth building tool is your income.

For business owners, this comes as no surprise. As you're used to putting in extra hours and watching your bottom line. That's why Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, is a great option for those who are faith-focused and budget-conscious. CHM is not health insurance. Rather, it's a health cost-sharing program. It's not harder, but it is different. To learn if CHM is a fit for you or your business, visit chministries.org slash budget. This is your last week to shop our famous $10 sale.

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You can get a case. People buy the Total Money Makeover, buy the case. They buy Deloney's Redefining Anxiety, buy the case, and give them out. The Ramsey team loves giving all this stuff away for half cost. We're also doing a Memorial Day sale this weekend where you can get up to 71% off kids' products and bundles. Check out all these deals, the $10 sale, the Memorial Day sale, all at the online store at RamseySolutions.com before the sales end. That will be now. Get this done.

Go to RamseySolutions.com and check out the store. All kinds of fun stuff going on. Seth is with us. Seth is in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Hi, Seth. How are you? I'm good, man. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Good deal. Well, first off, I say hi. My wife and I, we are newly debt-free, newly as in Monday, debt-free. Way to go. Good for you. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. We've been scratching and clawing like a third monkey on Noah's Ark trying to get out and get our head back above water where we need to be, and we've finally done it. I have not heard that one. That is fabulous. That's the most Arkansas thing I've heard since the last time I was in Arkansas. Well done.

That is so great. I'm going to steal that one. I'm going to steal it. That's a good one. Go ahead. Go ahead. I have a question. Well done. That is so great. I'm going to steal that one. I'm going to steal it. That's a good one. Go ahead. Go ahead. I have a question about PMI. Mm-hmm.

Do we have it? Is that something that everybody has if you don't do X amount down? Does it fall off on its own? If we do have it, does it come off on its own? Do they ever drop it? Do I have to request them to drop it? Explain PMI to me so I can get my brain around it. Okay.

Well, with a conventional loan, a Fannie Mae loan, if you put down 20% or more on the property, there is not PMI, private mortgage insurance and uh for those of you that don't know what seth's talking about private mortgage insurance does not insure you it insures the mortgage company you buy insurance for them so that if they have to foreclose and they lose money on the deal the private mortgage insurance company writes them a check it is foreclosure insurance that they make you buy because you didn't put enough down payment to protect them that's what it amounts to and so um it's you know it's a it's a the concept is valid but it's you know it's not something that's fun to pay because you get zero benefit from it

um and the mortgage company you're buying insurance to protect your mortgage company from you But it's not something that's fun to pay because you get zero benefit from it. And you're buying insurance to protect your mortgage company from you is what it amounts to. So PMI is 80% loan-to-value on a Fannie Mae, a traditional conventional loan. They generally will drop it, but many times forget. And so if you get down to 80% of the original amount borrowed or the original purchase price and they haven't dropped it i would lean on them many times you can contact them and if you're willing to purchase an appraisal that by an approved company that they do which costs you four or five hundred bucks uh that that that that mortgage company approves of, and it shows that the property has a 20% equity loan or 80% loan to value, then they will drop the PMI.

They have to drop it when it gets down to 80-20 if you request it of the original amount. But, for instance, you could pay down the mortgage and or the value of the house go up, and you could get your 20% equity in there and get rid of it on that. With FHA, it's technically called MIP, mortgage insurance premium, and it doesn't go away ever. As long as you have an FHA loan, you have MIP. And with VA, it's built in. It's not technically there, but it's built into their system. So you're paying for it in both of those either way.

So sometimes the way to get rid of it is to refinance and get rid of an FHA loan. That's going to be my next question. Is that what you've got as an FHA? Yes. Yeah, the only way you're getting rid of it. Unless there's a few of the newfangled ones that you can do and you can get rid of it, again, it's more like the Fannie Mae. So you may want to check with your mortgage company and just start talking to them about it. Go, okay, under this particular loan, what have I got to do to get rid of MIP or PMI?

And they'll tell you what their guidelines are. And if it's like you're stuck with it forever, then the way you're going to get rid of it is to refinance it. And it's equal to about $75 a month per 100,000 borrowed. And so it's a lot of money monthly. It equals a quarter to a half a percent of interest is what it amounts to. And so you're getting dinged for not having put down a good down payment is what it comes down to at the end of the day. That's why we always recommend, if there's any way possible, to put down 20% simply because you avoid that. I hate paying that PMI.

I love not having any PMI, being able to – it's more money than I would think it was. What you said, I was thinking 50 bucks. No, it's a chunk of money. It adds up. Yeah. It adds up to being a substantial amount. Phoenix is on the line. Kim's calling.

Hi, Kim. How are you? I'm great. Thank you. I'm so excited to talk to you guys. So my husband and I have been following your principles for many, many years. We are maybe a month or two away from being death-free, so we're super excited about that.

My niece has had some really rough times. Her mom died while she was young. My parents raised her. My mom died, so my husband and I adopted her. She just graduated college. How old was she when you adopted her? 20. 20? 20. 20?

Yes. Okay. Yes, it was an adult adoption. I got you. Okay. Yes, she didn't have health insurance and other things. We wanted her to have access to our estate, so that's why we did the adult adoption. Okay.

She graduated from college with only $6,000 in debt. Thank you. And I'm very proud of everything she's done, but she's struggling with anxiety and what to do next, how to find a job, how to even start the process. And my husband and I are professionals. We can advise her, but I'm struggling getting through. I don't know what else to do, what to say to her. So when you say you're struggling to get through, describe that to me. What does that mean? You give her advice and she doesn't pay attention. You say, hey, let's go get coffee, and she slips in.

What does that mean? Normal teenager stuff. We give her advice. She asks our advice, which is wonderful. We give it, and she just our advice, which is wonderful. We give it and she just doesn't seem to do anything. She's 20 now, so she's out of normal teenager stuff.

She's 23, so she's out of normal teenager stuff. She's in full grown up. Yes. Is she still living with you? Yes. She just graduated a week ago. What's her degree in? Event management and tourism. That's a tough season to get out.

Two booming industries in COVID. Well, you know, it's not in COVID, but here in Arizona, there's a million opportunities. So she's just choosing to not go work? Yeah. Why? How come? The answer I get is I'm nervous, I'm anxious, I don't know if I'm going to do the right thing, I'm going to say the wrong things, am I going to make a mistake?

Everybody makes mistakes, I tell her. Everybody makes mistakes. If you don't like the first job you find, learn something from it and move on. But I can't get her to just pull the trigger. And I'm so worried about her. Yeah, so here's a heartbreaking situation that you're in. She's experienced loss like many people on earth will never experience, right? Her first caretaker passed away. Her second caretaker passed away.

And then as an adult, you swooped in. And at some point, you're going to have to lovingly let her go and this is going to be hard because you want to be that person that's always there for her and what you're going to have to do is change your definition of what there for her means and that does not mean you can just live at my house and do whatever you want that means i'm going to put you on a plan and you're going to have to move out. You're going to have to go get a job, and then we're going to have you over every Sunday for lunch,

and I'm going to check in with you, but you're going to have to start learning to fly. She's scared, and she's got a lot of reasons to be scared, but any time you jump out of the nest and spread your wings, it's scary. For her, it's super scary, but she still has to jump out of the nest. That's right. It doesn't mean you don't love her when she starts to fly. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Dayton is with us in Valparaiso, Indiana. Hi, Dayton. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, my grandma passed away a couple years ago. Wait a minute. I'm having trouble hearing you. You're muffled. Can you speak directly into your phone, please? Yes. Is this better? Yes, sir. Thank you. My grandmother passed away a couple? Yes, is this better? Yes, sir. Thank you. My grandmother passed away a couple years ago, and bless her heart and her heart work, she left both her children and children's children and inheritance. So basically an amount of $39,000.

In her trust, we are allowed to receive half at age 25 and half at age 30. I turned 25 on Sunday and received my first half, but approached my mother, as she is the one handling the money, to potentially move the second half into a non-zero percent interest rate checking account, something other than that that could possibly not have interest kick my butt over the next five years is your mother the trustee yes okay she's allowed to move it to even a money market account obviously that's kind of out of the question and i just wanted some guidance on some good um healthy maybe fdic insured um you know accounts that could that could maybe help hedge against that inflation. There's not any.

Inflation has run an average of 4.2% for the last 78 years, and the interest rates on money markets and FDIC accounts are 1%, 1.5%. You're not going to hedge inflation with 1.5% versus 4%. You would have to invest it greater not going to hedge inflation with one and a half versus four uh you have to you would have to invest it greater than that to offset inflation the good news is it's only for five more years yeah and it's only eighteen thousand dollars yes okay and so if you make um uh you know two percent or four percent18,000, it does not change your life in five years, one way or the other here.

So really, I mean, if you want to get real technical about it, what she should do, but won't, is to put it in a good mutual fund, something even like an index fund, and just let it sit there for five years. It'll do a whole lot better, but it's not FDIC-insured. And she's probably freaking out and doesn't want to do anything. She's probably super, uber conservative. It's humorous that $39,000, that small an amount, somebody bothered to set up a trust for it.

Yeah, well, she did. Yeah yeah it's done though but uh the less the lesson would be that's not worth screwing with you can't you can't you can't mess up your entire life with thirty nine thousand dollars yeah i mean you can have you could have thirty nine thousand dollars worth of regret will be the worst case scenario but um but you know it's so i mean wow uh but yeah i would just ask mom to put it in an s&p 500 index fund and look at the track record on that over the past 50 years and i think she could be very comfortable with that or put it in a money market at one percent you can get that at your local bank or credit union and that would be fdic or fsr or ncua insured you could get insurance on that.

But you're not going to make one. You may be wanting some change or something, which is not – there's nothing life-changing in these numbers. And you're going to go talk to your mom, and she's probably going to say no. Let it go. Forget it. Don't lose your relationship with your mom and be dramatic. Over $500.

Over five years. Yeah. It's just not enough money. If it was 3.9 million, we can have some arguments about where this gets invested, okay? Because you're starting to lose substantial money at that point. And it's not that I'm a snob or something like that. I don't think it's just mathematically the difference buys a biscuit. Right.

And she's wrapped up into this. She's got different hooks in this money because it's her mom and i'll just talk a lot of emotion around this deal i can tell because your grandmother put it there yeah um before she passed so yeah uh all right open phones at 888-825-5225 nick is with us nick is in houston texas hi nick how are you hi dave thanks for taking my call. I'm doing great. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So,

we recently sold a house, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with the equity of the house. We have $60,000 from that house. I've been following you for the past three years. You've really changed our life. We just recently completed step number three.

So I have a good six months' worth of income saved up. And now comes step number four. I am 33. I haven't contributed anything to my retirement. My wife works from home. My company's been putting in money, even if we don't match or anything. Nick, do you guys own a house? We do.

We own a house, yes. Okay, so this was a different property than you lived in. Correct. Okay. That was our first house. This is our second house. Okay, cool, cool. Well, the Baby Steps tell you at baby step four to put 15 of your

income into retirement have you heard that before i have so my question is i just started putting six percent into a rock 401k um but my i'm trying to figure out that equity that we got from our first house what to do with that 60 000 you would put it on baby steps five and six because you're putting 15% of your income, not 6%, into retirement. Okay. You don't lump some baby step four. Okay. So I shouldn't take that $60,000 from the house and just max put the remaining?

Nope. What's your household income? It's $110,000 from the house and just max the remaining? Nope. What's your household income? It's $110,000. Okay. All right. So you need $17,000 a year going into something between you and your wife. And she has a 401k available. You don't have a retirement plan available at work?

I do. I have a 401k available at work. It's just one of those funds that you pick a year and you're going to retire and you contribute to that. Target dates, yeah. Okay. Do you still owe money on your mortgage? Yeah.

We have money on mortgage. We just got it. You have children? The other part of that, we do. Yeah, we have three children. I have a 13-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a newborn. Wonderful. I would use some of this. I would sit down with your SmartVestor Pro. I would use some of your $60,000 towards setting up their colleges. You might do $10,000 each for fun. My wife's mother just passed away this past year and left her some money.

And that money's in a brokerage firm that's an inherited IRA. It's somewhere around $130,000 to $140,000. How much do you owe in your home? We owe $240,000 as a loan. You almost pay it off. So I guess my question is is because we have kids shouldn't we take a portion of that and put it into 529s or something yeah so at least portion of the five portion of 60,000 from the house sale maybe step five is kids college that's what i said just use some of it

sit down with your smart investor pro put 10 each, maybe in a 529 for each kid. That puts 30 in there. As young as they are, that gets you a good start and start doing some monthly on that in addition. And the SmartVestor Pro can help you calculate exactly how much you need to be doing to have a fully funded college fund for each kid based on their age. And then throw the rest of it at your mortgage. And when you get within reach of that inherited IRA and pay that mortgage off, I'd cash that IRA out, the inherited one, and pay that mortgage off.

Now, I don't cash out normal IRAs or 401ks to do that at your age, but that inherited IRA has a 10-year rule on it anyway. You're required to pull a tenth of it out every year under the new law. And so as you pull it out, throw it at the mortgage, throw it to pull it out throw it at the mortgage throw it to pay taxes throw it at the mortgage and then back to your baby step four you need to get seventeen thousand dollars a year fifteen percent of 110 going into some combination of you and your wives and you're still using pronouns as if you two aren't married it It's our money, our house, our retirement, and our kids. And our inheritance.

And our, and we, my wife inherited money, so we have an inherited IRA now. It's not like she gets to sit that over there on the side, and, you know, that's not how this works. Don't overcomplicate this, man. Yeah, just make it real clean, real simple. It's one pool of money, one percentage for the whole house. And so if most of the retirement is in her name, it doesn't matter. You've got rights to it by marriage and by wills and everything else. So you need to always have a will. But, you know, let's get this smoothed out here.

And the $60,000 gives you the opportunity to do it. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 13, 20. Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. John Maxwell says, A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

There you go. Open phones this hour. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Carlos is in San Jose, Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Carlos is in San Jose, California. Hi, Carlos. How are you?

Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hi. I just want some clarification. I've been listening to you for about the past couple months now, and I've made some mistakes in my life, so I just want to do it right this time. So my wife and I, I'm 31, my wife is 33, and we have a 16-month-old baby.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. We just received our federal tax today after eight weeks of waiting. And I'm in a unique situation. I can actually pay off my car today. Great. We owe about $20,000. I made a mistake of getting

a fleece. And then I heard you. I thought me and Akra were best friends, but I guess not. So right now I currently hold about $32,000 in our savings account, $12,000 in our checking, and another $4,000 in our separate checkings 4,000 in a separate checking account. So I just want to make sure I'm just doing this right. I know what you're going to say. You're going to say, pay off this card today and start saving up for a house. Why wouldn't you? I live in the Bay Area.

It's a little expensive, so I just want to make sure I'm just doing the steps correctly. What's your household income? So my wife makes about $50,000 a year, and I just started a part-time job. I take care of my daughter during the day. So I only make $18.50 per hour. So I know I need to bring my income up, especially living here in the Bay Area. But we're working towards that. So I just want to know if I... So what's the car, what does it take to pay the car off?

Today will be about $28,311. $28,000. Yes, sir. And your household income is $50,000. Yes, sir, right now. Yeah, unless your household income is going to go up, probably ought to sell the car. Is household income is going to go up, probably ought to sell the car. Is your household income going to go up?

The answer is yes. The correct answer is yes. Yes, sir. Yeah, so pay the car off today. You're right. You knew what to do. But, you know, here's the thing. You live in one of the four most expensive areas in America to live.

Yes, sir. And you make a below average income for America, household income, in the most expensive area. So the mathematics of that statement are very strenuous on your household. Yes. What does your wife do, man? She works at the clinic she's

a front desk she makes um so okay so you guys are going to have to get careers going that match the expensive area that you live in or you need to consider relocating yes. It's okay to make 50. There's no shame in making 50. But when you make 50 and housing and other living expenses in the Bay Area, in the San Jose market, I mean, you're freaking Silicon Valley. I mean, you know, this is unbelievably expensive. Manhattan. Yes. You know, L.A., San Fran downtown, and Silicon Valley. I mean, these are unbelievably expensive areas.

And so you can do it, but most people that are doing it are doing it on double or triple what you guys are making. Of course. And so I'm just, you know, and the car doesn't fit in this equation. So I think the car, yes, I'd pay your car off. You can always sell it later if you want to. So there's no harm in paying it off today. But, you know, don't be sitting in this exact spot income-wise and be still sitting here wondering why you have no money three years from now

because I've already just told you why you'll have no money. I want you all to have a great conversation about is living in this cool place with nothing worth it? Or do we move to Kansas and make the same amount of money? It goes a lot further. We don't have the Bayside, but we've got life. We can breathe. We can go have some good times and fill in the blank, right?

Whatever that looks like. But I want you all to have a dreaming conversation about where else could you go. Or even if you love that particular area, but you just move 100 miles from there and have a very similar climate and so forth, but a completely different set of economics. Because it's just prohibitive to think about buying a home where you are with that kind of income. You don't get a pass on math because you live in California. It's still there. So that's what it comes down to.

Aaron's with us in New York City. Speaking of expensive, hi, Aaron. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? All right, I'll try and keep it simple and sweet to the point.

I'm 22 years old. Ever since I graduated high school, I've worked in a very specific field of heavy construction, and I make about $100,000 to $150,000 a year. And this year, with all the overtime so far, I'm actually already at about $110,000. So I'm on track for about $200,000 to $240,000 this year with all the overtime so far i'm actually already at about 110 so i'm on track for about 200 to 240 this year i'm very very lucky do you do um i almost don't want to say it so other people don't jump in the career field no very specific specialized uh sort of welding that we do out here that is wonderful i'm so proud of you awesome that is amazing my friend mike rowe thinks you're absolutely a stud and i agree with him well thank you very much i'm

actually in the city right now there's working day and night so in between shifts right now but i bet but my question my question was uh i still live at home i have about 80 000 in the bank i have about 90 000 in an annuity through work and about another 25 000 in a traditional ira that i set up last year or no not last year i love you and um i was just wondering what the next move is i i love that i'm in the position i'm in but it's also a lot you know i don't really have anyone similar my age to talk to about it yeah i don't you you don't have many people anywhere to talk to talk to about it. Yeah, I don't. You don't have many people anywhere to talk to.

Good for you, man. Yeah, because you have more common sense than the average eight Americans put together. You're amazing. Good for you, man. Man, you're a stud. All right, so in the multitude of counsel, there's wisdom, the Bible says. And so you're making enough money and you're doing very well that you need to start putting some experts in your life that have the heart of a teacher. So get online and get a SmartVestor Pro and go meet with them

and begin to map out what some of your goals are for your investing. You can get online and even start talking about having a will everyone should have one regardless of their age if they're 18 years old or older and that's an expert you start to put the financial people in your life that will advise you because they do know people like you they do know people that have more money than you and less money than you and they can teach you and say well here's what one of my clients did and here's an idea for you to think about and they can teach you you don't do it because they said to you do it because you learn from them okay um if i were in your shoes i would put a date certain on the calendar that i'm moving out okay and that can be that can be to a rental

it's okay um and i didn't i didn't give you the date uh but it doesn't need to be four years it'll be good for you as a young man emotionally and that's making all this money to not be living in his mommy's basement right okay it's not it's not like you're a bad. It's not like you're weak or something like that. But I don't want this to have no end date. If it's got an end date, then everybody in your house, around you, your family, everybody starts to plan emotionally for the day that Aaron packs up his box of soccer trophies and goes on his way.

And, Aaron, did you grow up in this area? I actually live an hour from where I work. I actually live in New Jersey. Okay. You can live in the same neighborhood then. I don't care where you live, but I'm just saying get on your own, pay your own light bill, buy your own food, buy your own coffee, you know, that kind of stuff. Lock the door when you leave, all the things that adults do.

And that's going to be good for you later on. Now, you don't have to do it. You can do it in a year. You can do it in 18 months. You can do it in five months. I did not give you the date certain. It doesn't need to be four years. I didn't say that.

And I want you to start grabbing a couple of friends that are different than you've hung out with your whole life. Yeah. And guys are going to be able to walk with you and teach with you in this new place. You've leveled up financially. Wow. And you're going to need some new eyes and new ears around you. And we're here, man. You call us anytime. Love it. We're impressed with you in this new place. You've leveled up financially. Wow. And you're going to need some new eyes and new ears around you. And we're here, man. You call us anytime. We're impressed with you. You're a stud. Dr. John Deloney, good show. Good show. James Childs and Kelly Daniels in the booth.

I'm Dave Ramsey. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free screen live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.