The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: Quit Justifying Stupid Car Decisions! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: What to do once you pay off your home, How to know it's time to turn a failing business into a hobby, Dealing with regret after buying a new car. Want a pl...an for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. Best-selling author, Ramsey personality, Dr. John Deloney. Host of the Dr. John Deloney Show, one of our more popular podcasts author, Ramsey personality, Dr. John Deloney. Host of the Dr. John Deloney Show, one of our more popular podcasts on the Ramsey Network, is my co-host today. As we answer your questions about relationships, mental health, boundaries, family, careers, jobs, and money, it's a free call at 888-825-5225. Cassie is in Chattanooga hi cassie how are you hey guys uh thanks for taking my call and
Starting point is 00:01:09 it's cassie k-a-t-h-y oh i'm sorry i misunderstood how can we help okay well um yeah kind of an unusual thing maybe not but probably the best way to call and i have been signed up to join do the financial peace University at my church, and I couldn't get off for work on the days they were having it. So that was meant to be for me to get in today. Okay. I am 62 and a half. I work full time and probably will be for a while.
Starting point is 00:01:42 My mortgage on my home, I only owe $14,000. Great. Yeah, $14,000. Yeah. It's a 1953 house. Do you have $14,000? I have more than
Starting point is 00:01:59 $14,000. We'll pay it off today. I have a mental, what do I do after I pay the house off? Dance. Yeah, do somersaults in the neighborhood. Cartwheels. Yeah, yeah. Snow cone machine.
Starting point is 00:02:16 It's like a block. It's like I have to have something to pay on or I don't know what to do. I don't know. Because I love you, Kathy, if you need to send money somewhere you're welcome to send it to me if you want to make payments john deloney bahama fund so uh here's the thing you're right you do need to do this and and what's happened is is you have
Starting point is 00:02:42 lived using common sense with a reasonably frugal situation and have built a level of savings and have avoided normal levels of debt because you have almost no debt and so just by using good common sense what do you do for a living i am a customer service agent for a major health care provider. I help people that have Medicare products. Somewhere along the line, your family, your dad, your mom, something taught you common sense, and you've just lived well. Now what we've got to do is we need to add to the common sense one step,
Starting point is 00:03:21 and that step is intentionality, because otherwise you're going to feel like you're adrift, which is what you're calling about. That intentionality is two things. One is you need a list of things that you want to accomplish with money. Travel, generosity, a fun purchase that's just for fun, more generosity, and more investing. And you need a list of these things. Say, this is what I'm going to do with money from this point forward. The second piece of that is you need a written monthly budget,
Starting point is 00:03:56 which you do not do yet, that causes you to put the money towards that list. You have not won because of a written budget you've won because of common sense now i'm going to take the common sense and stick that into a budget a monthly rhythm that causes your bigger goals to happen and i want you to set some big goals that are fun and some of them will be for you some of them will be for others and some of them will just be to build some wealth it could be simple as i want to have this much money in a mutual fund it could just be a target uh of wealth and the wealth is to be used i've got between 130 and 140 in 401k okay well i would like for you to have 10 times that i would like that too okay all right
Starting point is 00:04:49 there's a goal now you got a goal now you got a payment to make only we're making a payment to kathy oh not to john i guess we're gonna make john's not getting this john's bahamas fund's gonna starve out here but we're gonna make the payment to Kathy, and we're also going to do some generosity. What do you make a year? Right around $34, gross. Way to go. $44 to $45. Excellent. Okay.
Starting point is 00:05:12 So you're going to do just fine. You've done great so far. So good, yeah. And now you don't have any payments. But here's the thing. You've been making everybody else rich with payments your whole life. And now we're going to make you rich. i like that this is the plan this is the new plan see now we got something to be excited about hang on we're going to send you a copy of
Starting point is 00:05:31 the number one bestseller baby steps millionaires it's going to show you exactly how to take baby steps to become a millionaire because your own baby step seven you've already done the baby steps and now we're going to walk you up in and show you the investing side and the wealth building side and help you get there like so many of people have done following this stuff over the years. And congratulations on being debt-free today when you paid that thing off. Paid off the house. It's awesome. Neighbors near Kathy, be forewarned.
Starting point is 00:05:56 Cartwheels are coming. All right. Jenna is on the line in Orlando. Hi, Jenna. How are you? Hey, good. How are you guys? Better than we deserve. What's up? Okay. So I'm going to paint the picture in Orlando. Hi, Jenna. How are you? Hey, good. How are you guys? Better than we deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:06:06 Okay, so I'm going to paint the picture for you. My husband is a police officer making between $40,000 to $58,000, depending on the extra details that he works, a year. My sister and I own a company. It's been eight years. But last year, we decided to go in a different direction with the company, and we opened up an online shop, and we're selling home goods. And so we have not generated a profit, so I'm not paying myself yet. And we did borrow some money for the company.
Starting point is 00:06:41 Why? Why have you not made a profit? You should make a profit the first month. So we have had months from November. We made a profit and then December did not. And then what are you spending the money on? So we are spending, we are paying $3,000 a month on an ads manager and then it's not working. they suck we're trying we're trying to figure this out because right that's the question it's like okay why is it not converting um and what you know it didn't take me but one month to figure out there's one guy this one sale this guy has
Starting point is 00:07:17 made you he ain't making any sales right Does he have anything to sell as your product? No, he's a marketing agent. So our product is selling. The issue is, so obviously the supply chain right now is messed up. So our best sellers, like as soon as they sell out, so if you put it in an ad, it sells, and then we don't have enough inventory to keep up with the demand. And so then. This does not sound like a full-time job to me i think you need to get a job yeah it sounds like a hobby
Starting point is 00:07:50 okay so here's here's yeah okay so this is kind of the question yeah my husband's we're on a single income um we have twenty one thousand dollars debt, not including the business debt. How much business debt did you go in? So personally, I owe $40,000. But if you count on my sister's half, because my financial advisor said that I have to basically take on, like pretend that it's all mine just because she ever walked away. So $80,000 in debt. You spent $80,000 to open an online business that's not profitable? What did you spend the money on?
Starting point is 00:08:30 Oh, my gosh, kiddo. No. Yeah, this is now your side job, your part-time job. You've got a new job to pay off your debt from the business failure. And that's what you've got to do. Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry. Wow.
Starting point is 00:09:02 In an uncertain world, being a good steward of your money is more important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We always pick on you right in front of you, but our last caller makes me want to go back and revisit just some concepts for a second, not to pick on her or her particular situation or her family or whatever else.
Starting point is 00:10:24 Okay, so a couple of principles there. You do not borrow money to start a business or to run a business. When you do, you increase your chances of failure 10x. 80% of the small businesses fail in the first five years the number one reason for failure is described as cash flow problems let me define that for you having counseled small businesses for two decades now cash flow problems are i took out a bunch of debt and can't pay the payments while i'm trying to get this thing up and running because I'm not making a profit and I've got to pay the bank whether I make a profit or not. Cash flow problems are we're so broke, we're not making any money, we're selling
Starting point is 00:11:13 some stuff and we're not setting aside our sales tax and sales tax comes due and we used what was supposed to be sales tax money to send to the state and we used it to stay open and pay payroll it's not illegal it's just dumb and then you have a sales type have the state revenue department around your neck cash flow problems are i'm not setting a money aside for the profits i'm making for quarterly estimates for my federal taxes and i get behind with the irs you get behind with the revenue department the ir, and the bank, you have cash flow problems. And this is what causes small businesses to fail right there. So you're not doing accounting and you're going into debt
Starting point is 00:11:54 because everything in business has three rules. It takes twice as long as you think it's going to. It costs twice as much as you think it's going to. And you're not the exception. Those are the three rules. And I have to live by those three rules, and so does everybody else. And 90% of your ideas suck. You're going to make all your money and customer service on about 10% of your ideas,
Starting point is 00:12:17 and you're going to conveniently forget all the dumb butt stuff you lost money on to get there. You're going to repress those thoughts, Dr. John Deloney. But, yeah, I can remember some of them because I love telling funny stories of my failures. But I could write an entire book, and it would be very thick on the dumb butt things we have done at Ramsey that have lost money. And the Dave Ramsey ideas have come in here, and I come in with a great idea. And, man, I had to learn to say never say god told me because it makes god look stupid when the idea sucks it wasn't god right so god didn't tell me this it was just dave on the running trail it sounded great this morning when my adrenaline
Starting point is 00:12:57 was up but by the time we went into actual application six weeks later it was a really sucky idea and we lost some money on it and And I have done that like, I don't know, 8,000 million times. And so this is what's going to happen. And then you end up – the second thing you don't do in business is you don't go in business with partners, particularly your sister. The third thing you don't do is when you're a policeman, you don't allow your wife to do these things. Or when you're a wife, you don't allow your dumb husband to do things, right? We've taken calls where husbands are $800,000 in the hole to start this is not a this is not a 1940s leave it to be where you're you have to ask your husband permission that's not what i'm talking about yeah i'm talking about
Starting point is 00:13:31 people that you love you try to keep them from doing dumb butt things that's right and it's not a matter of you're squashing my dreams no i'm trying to protect our family i'm not a dream killer i'm a nightmare killer that's oh i like that i kill nightmares all the time because that right there is a nightmare. That ain't a dream. You know, that's what's going to happen. $40,000 a year and all of a sudden you look up and you have a $100,000 household. That's, I mean, nightmare.
Starting point is 00:13:54 Yeah. And then what that does inside your house is you start hiding stuff. You start getting quiet. You feel ashamed all the time. That impacts your marriage. That impacts your parenting. And then all of a sudden you're burning. The marriage is on fire right what a mess and you're not going to end up liking your sister as much when this is done no hey let me ask you this dave
Starting point is 00:14:13 i've heard this a lot from small businesses over the last year is there some things people could do about the supply chains i keep hearing that and my default setting is that's not an excuse plan better and i know that's not an excuse plan better and i know that's not fair and that's probably not accurate what are some things you can do well some things you can't control okay okay you're just screwed and it's just going to take some time okay but what you have to do is you have to say all right if you have to have a contingency plan you can't just assume stuff's going to show up when they said it was going to show up because they'll burn the boat down and sink it to the bottom of the atlantic with 400 cars on it or whatever you know that
Starting point is 00:14:50 thing that happened the other day right so um but i mean something sometimes things happen we had a carton of stuff coming from another country on one of those ships that got hit by the storms and it tilted and it dumped a bunch of stuff into the ocean yeah guess what our stuff was in the ocean floating around so you know you can't you know what do you you can't do anything you know but the only thing you can do is you can have a contingency plan that says okay if that stuff doesn't get here i'm gonna have it made stateside my margins are gonna drop way down but we're gonna get some product out and we've got a way to get to market anyway at least as a temporary measure we got a way to continue to build this house as a temporary measure've got a way to get to market anyway, at least as a temporary measure. We've got a way to continue to build this house as a temporary measure.
Starting point is 00:15:26 We've got a way to deliver. It may not be the exact thing the same way. We may have to change the product line. But the other thing you can do is you actually can go, oh, supply chain sucks, so we probably need to do some planning. We need to make sure that we have more than four in the warehouse before we run an ad campaign that costs me more than the dadgum item is going to make me in profit because we need to sell 4 000 to break even on this marketing guy we're paying three grand to and we don't even have enough inventory to do that
Starting point is 00:15:53 well that's not good planning so example of this is all right the john deloney book that we're doing uh we have we bought the paper last summer that That's right. In anticipation of supply chain issues. And to get ready to launch a major national bestseller in April with John Deloney. We knew that this was coming. We bought the paper last summer. Same thing with Baby Steps Millionaires. So I'm not run out of Baby Steps Millionaires. A friend of mine had a book on the bestseller list the same week as Baby Steps Millionaires was number one, and they ran out of books in January.
Starting point is 00:16:29 They still don't have paper or books, and the book was a bestseller. And they missed the window because they did not plan to have the paper last summer, which is what you have to do to get ahead of it. Now, I mean, stuff could happen. The paper could have got dumped in the ocean with the ocean liner going i mean i could have still messed it up but you got to do a lot of extra planning i mean we're building the events ramsey event center up here on the hill and uh i was in a meeting this morning with the building team the construction crew and everything and you know we're trying okay, we've got to have this fire pump, which has got to, you know, and it's got like six valves on it and two chips. Chips are a problem, right?
Starting point is 00:17:11 And so, you know, when do we need it? We don't need it until like August. Order it now. No, we already ordered it. We're hoping it comes in this month. We're going to set it in the warehouse five months ahead of time. But then we're not sitting around going, we can't open the building because we don't have the fire approval. You can't get't open the building because we don't have the fire approval.
Starting point is 00:17:26 You can't get the fire department approval because we don't have a fire pump to run the sprinkler system. So that's just, you know, nine million things like that in a building. What is there? I don't know. Thousands of those items that those guys are having to manage supply chain on right now, and they're having to double down on everything. And so what we're doing is just buying it ahead and stocking it, buying it ahead and stocking it. And that way the crew can keep working.
Starting point is 00:17:46 That's right. But if we have a labor problem, you can't stock that one up. That's right. So you can't anticipate everything. But you've got to think different and you've got to think ahead. And you've got to get ahead of the curve. What you said was real important is if you hire a marketing person or you're selling burgers and you have a restaurant with 12 seats just do some napkin math and say how many burgers can i actually sell with only 12
Starting point is 00:18:11 seats in this little restaurant here well i have enough to cover my inventory if i have three thousand bucks how many of these products do i have to sell and do i even have that many in the closet in the back right that's just napkin math that's not hard i mean there are marketing consultants that are very very good and worth every dollar some of them are someone who got fired from a marketing job and now one just wants to work from home uh and so in some genres consultant means unemployed you know and that's not always true of every marketing consultant it's not always true of all every consultant.
Starting point is 00:18:46 And so I meet people all the time. I've said that for years. Their consultant's like, you don't like us. No, I love consultants. I like the real ones. But I don't like the ones that don't have a job. And so they got business cards that say consultant on them. And then they, you know, and the only sale the guy made was her.
Starting point is 00:19:02 You know, that's just, I've had salesmen that worked here. The only sale they made was me to get me to hire them. And I had to undo that decision. So this is business, folks. It's boys and girls. This is how it works. This is The Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Starting point is 00:19:51 Cassie is in Asheville, North Carolina. Hi, Cassie. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Great. What's up? So, okay, I just learned about you at you at christmas time my aunt gave me that wonderful christmas gift and um it's like some bad ugly socks right i am a baby step two now um i've been super excited to start this process and uh since listening to you i listen to you all the time, and I realize I have been stupid.
Starting point is 00:20:27 I bought a brand-new car last July because my other car was getting a lot of repairs and it was just getting to that point, and I needed something reliable. And, of course, I thought the only thing I could do was to buy a brand-new car. Well, now I want to get rid of it. I owe $26,000 on it and my car payments are ridiculous. And literally without this debt, I would only have about $4,500 left in debt. The thing is, is I am a server in a restaurant. I don't have a whole lot of income and right now this time of year it's really bad i'm also in school so it's really hard for me to get super intense and get extra jobs um because i'm putting my school first right now tell me one tell me one more time what
Starting point is 00:21:17 you owe on the car uh 26 000 okay and what would it sell for do you have any idea um well i have looked on like carvana and stuff like that and the most i've been offered is 25 000 if carvana offered you 25 000 you can get 30 yep i'm sorry i said if carvana offered you 25 000 you can get 30 for it if you sell it private okay yeah sell it private because they're they're not evil they're not a bad company but they buy at wholesale in order to sell at retail and you can just sell it private sale and make enough to get out of it and have no debt and maybe enough to get you a little two thousand dollar car or something so go to facebook marketplace someplace like that craigslist and see if you can sell it there yeah jump on kbbkellybluebook.com and see what private sale appraisal is on your car.
Starting point is 00:22:10 You'll enter a couple of facts about your car, and it'll give you a number on what you can sell it as an individual for. And used cars are unusually, first time ever since cars have been made, the used cars have actually gone up in value. And this won't be a window that lasts long. So, yes, you need to get rid of it. You don't have – you're not making enough money to justify owning a $30,000 car. Am I right? Right. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:22:37 Yeah. I mean, like I said, I'm a server, so I don't have stable income. Last year I made $34,000. Yeah. Well, and the good news is servers are in great demand, and if you're a great server, you can make really good money. You work a lot. It's hard work.
Starting point is 00:22:53 But you can do really well, and you can control that. The problem is right now that this car owns you. You don't own it. Exactly, and I don't even like it. I mean, I like how it looks, but I don't i like how it i like how it looks but i don't like anything else about it and that's what i've learned that's what my wife said we got married cassie i'm sorry that's what my wife said when we got married i like how he looks i just don't like anything else about it no sell that car sell that car and get yourself a two thousand
Starting point is 00:23:20 dollar car that you think might die in the next few months it'll get you to and from to get you out of school and you will sleep like you haven't slept in a long time yeah yeah this is driving this is stealing your peace and not giving you peace how old are you uh we'll be 40 in april what are you studying um i'm in school for a lot of me right now okay cool when will you graduate may okay good good so you'll be ready to go get like a big girl job and stuff right be poking people with needles and doing all kind of fun stuff yes oh yeah and i mean it's really in demand right now too and i'm just i'm like so excited like i want to get super intense when i'm done graduating. Like, I can work maybe two, three, four jobs doing what I'm going to do. And, you know, the other thing is you'll be able to build up some cash when you do that
Starting point is 00:24:10 and buy a $15,000, $20,000 car this time next year for cash. Right, and that's what I was wondering. Like, I don't want to stop on the baby steps, but I didn't know if I should wait until I'm done with school. Well, you need to graduate from school. Your first goal with school. Well, you need to graduate from school. Your first goal is eat. Your second goal is to graduate from school. Your third goal is to get out of debt.
Starting point is 00:24:31 Right, okay. So as long as you're doing those other two things and you've got some money, then throw it at the debt. But, no, we don't want to pay off debt and then not have the money for school. You take out a big student loan or something dumb like that. Right. Finish school. Push on through. You've got a good goal. You're heading in that. Right. Finish school. Push on through.
Starting point is 00:24:45 You got a good goal. You're heading in the right direction. This car is a blocker. Get rid of the blocker. Okay. Yeah, you're smart. You got this. Congratulations.
Starting point is 00:24:55 You're going to be well on your way here. Sell this car. Well done. Well done. Julio is with us in New York City. Hi, Julio. How are you? Hey, how you doing, Mr. Ramsey?
Starting point is 00:25:03 It's a pleasure, man. You too. How can we help? Well, I just had a question about, like, because I'm, like, overwhelmed and deaf right now, man, and I just don't know where to start. I have two car payments because, you know, I was originally in my finance. You know, the car started giving me some issues. I started putting a lot of money into the car, and I started feeling like it wasn't worth it, man.
Starting point is 00:25:28 You know, the car was in 2012. I still owe money for the car. I still do to this day. You know, I was desperate for a car. I made a stupid decision. So I got in this car. You know, I had it for like two years and then it started giving me issues with the transmission.
Starting point is 00:25:49 I started putting too much money into it. I said, what i'm gonna just get a lease you know because i travel a lot you know from new york to pennsylvania back and forth so i end up getting a lease and now you're running now you're running up over your miles now you're gonna get hit again man your cars are killing you yeah the cars are killing me right now. I just don't know where to start. What do you make a year? I make about $50,000 a year right now. I did a job I just started working on the warehouse. First thing is, you suck at making car decisions. So you need to say, whatever decision I make with a car, I need to pay cash for it from now on,
Starting point is 00:26:23 and I need to slow down and quit. You keep justifying making these moves with bad justification. I mean, you know, if a car breaks down, it's not nearly as expensive as paying car payments to fix it. So fix it. You know, so the transmission, every time you have a little problem, you jump to another car instead of dealing with the problem that's right in front of you. So this car that you got right now, you're going to drive it a while while you get this mess cleaned up um and then secondly we're going to get you on a written game plan a written budget and we're uh we're going to set you up with financial peace university to go through
Starting point is 00:26:57 the class and learn how to handle money and plug you into every dollar the written budget and you're going to go get on that app and you're going to make every single one of your dollars behave. Are you married? Not yet. Okay, cool. How old are you? 32. Good, and you make 50 grand?
Starting point is 00:27:16 Yes. Good. Have you got time to work some extra jobs? Well, I actually, like, do have a second job on the side that i work oh how much you make it it um i make about like give or take like 250 a week extra okay so you got another thousand dollars another 12 000 so that puts you at 62 how much debt have you got not counting this car uh not not counting the cars um i would say about like maybe 10 000 besides the cars okay so that's not much that's good and you got more than one car now he's got
Starting point is 00:27:54 the lease too you got a lease but what's happening with the other car i think like the lease i was gonna like i only did the lease because I wanted to make cheap payments. But, like, I was planning to buy the car out at the end of the lease. Yeah, but it's not cheap payments because you're going to go over your miles with all the travel you're doing. You're allotted miles in the lease, and they're going to kill you with a mileage overage. Read your contract. Yeah, I know. Okay.
Starting point is 00:28:21 And so the other car, where's the other car? What's the deal with the other car? Well, the other car right now, I'm still paying for it, but, like, I don't really drive it. I still go up the road and stuff. Where is it? In your driveway? Yes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:28:36 What do you owe on it? $8,800. Okay. What can you sell it for like it sits? I would say about, like like maybe $5,500. Okay, good. Go borrow $3,000 and get that thing out of your driveway. Then you owe $3,000 instead of $8,000, and then you owe $10,000, so that's $13,000, and you make $62,000.
Starting point is 00:28:57 Now we've got a plan, baby. We're going to click this thing off. Hold on. We're going to have the team pick up and sign you up for Financial Peace University. You do everything we teach you to do in that class. You'll be debt-free in a year, and you're going to have the team pick up and sign you up for Financial Peace University. You do everything we teach you to do in that class. You'll be debt-free in a year, and you're going to have an emergency fund in 18 months. It's going to change your life if you'll go do exactly what we tell you to do. You can do this. We'll be right back. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life, your money, your mental health,
Starting point is 00:30:00 your relationships, your careers here on The Ramsey Show. It's tax season, and I know that's thrilling to most people. Nope, don't know anybody loves this. If filing your taxes does not have to be horrible, we created Ramsey Smart Tax to give you software that you can actually trust. Not going to try to sell you some more stuff or sell you debt or surprise you with fees you didn't see coming. Smart tax has steps that are simple and clear. You know you've done your taxes right.
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Starting point is 00:31:02 Get into Financial Peace University and every dollar. Oh, and file your taxes with Ramsey Smart Tax. And, again, Ramsey Plus members get that free. So that's pretty cheap. It's a pretty good deal. All at RamseySolutions.com slash Ramsey Plus. RamseySolutions.com slash Ramsey Plus. Kevin is where I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:31:20 Deanna is with us in San Antonio, Texas. Hi, Deanna. How are you? I'm doing well. Can you hear me okay? Absolutely. What's up? Oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 00:31:31 My heart rate is like 121. Okay. You're going to be okay. We've never lost a patient. Well, it's nice being on the phone with both of you. You too. Okay. My question is, um, I'm still on baby step two, but my, uh, term life is ending this year. So last year I ended up getting long-term healthcare. Should I, should I not
Starting point is 00:32:00 do that since I'm still on baby step two? How old are you? 56. Long-term care insurance I would not buy until you're 60. Okay. Long-term care insurance is nursing home insurance. Right, right. The probability of you spending time in a nursing home before 60 years old is.0005%. Okay. And the only reason I got that was because I'm by myself,
Starting point is 00:32:30 and I always thought, well, I don't want anybody to burn. I don't want to burn anybody. So I figured to do that. That would be nice when you're 60. Okay. But this is like buying homeowner's insurance and you don't have a house right and i have a house and i still owe on it okay that's not what i'm talking about i'm saying you bought insurance that is not it is covering something that has such a low
Starting point is 00:32:56 probability of happening at your age that i would not buy it right okay you need the money to do other things what do you make a year uh 48 okay and how much debt do you have hon like 29 on what uh 401k loan uh a car and a kitchen reno. Okay. All right. And so, number one, have you learned your lesson that borrowing money is not going to make you wealthy or happy? Yes. Okay. And how much do you owe on this car? 18. It's a lot.
Starting point is 00:33:43 I know. It is a lot. Okay. Here's the rule of thumb I use on cars once we find somebody in a car debt there's two things we look at one can you be debt free everything except your home in two years you might but it's going to be tight i i've been running the numbers because I pay long-term $167,000. That's a lot. Yeah, it is. That's $2,000 a year.
Starting point is 00:34:13 I know. I was looking at that. I thought, well, I'll call, find out. I'll cancel it tonight. But you owe $29,000 and you make $48,000. You could be debt-free in two years, but it's going to be tight. Can you sell that car? And most of your debt is this car.
Starting point is 00:34:27 I'd sell it. Well, here's the worst part, is that I just got it like maybe last year because I was in a wreck and they totaled my perfectly paid car. That's okay. What's the car worth that you're driving? Do you have any idea um maybe 29 okay i think 20 it's um it's a mazda yeah so here here's what i would do if i woke up in your shoes you need to think about this if you're going to do it but i've done this so many
Starting point is 00:35:01 times in the last 30 years that it's easy for me to make the decision so plus it's not my car so you got to make the decision yourself but if i woke up in your shoes i would sell that car and get me a cash car that i pay nine thousand dollars for ten thousand dollars for and then that leaves you just nine thousand dollars in debt you'll be debt free by christmas and then you're living on a budget and you're going to rebuild your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, and your life is going to... I mean, think about what it'd be like to have $10,000 in the bank and no payments at all. I know. That's where you could be by this time next year. I was thinking about that when I had... I thought about that when I got into rec, and then I thought, oh my gosh, it's like karma. I don't know. Not karma. I'm nervous. You're okay.
Starting point is 00:35:48 You hear what I'm saying, though? What would it feel like? Breathe that in. What would it feel like to have no payments and $10,000 in the bank? Oh, it'd be great. You could be there in 12 months doing what I'm talking about. And then that sets you up with a lot of freedom, a lot of peace,
Starting point is 00:36:07 a lot of mathematical margin to start to build some wealth and retire with dignity. Yes. I agree. That's what I want for you. And I want you to forgive yourself for buying this car. You're carrying a lot of shit.
Starting point is 00:36:22 Everybody makes mistakes. It's okay. I mean, I made so many mistakes.'ve got a phd in dumb so you know it's okay that's that's what qualifies me to do this shows i've done almost every dumb thing you people out there have done that's how i recognize it so quickly and it's also how i cut stuff out of your life like just like with a samurai sword instantaneously i don't think it doesn't bother me at all it's like sell it car's gone sell it just cut it out right there you know it's just done and it's easy for me because i know where you're going to end up if you do this stuff and you follow all the way through and so the temporary pain is worth it's worth the temporary pain to get to the prize at the end of the story just going to
Starting point is 00:37:06 sleep yeah i don't own anybody anything yeah and it's uh it's a different thing man i mean and uh you know you talk about all the time how trauma rests in the body and you know you get tight across your shoulder blades and that kind of stuff you know when people do there's physical change in your body when you're when you don't have any payments when your body recognizes, we're safe now. Yeah. It falls off of you. It's just like your shoulders drop, yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:31 It's just a, whew. Yeah. You can... I can laugh again. What's interesting is I've done this with like an audience with like 5,000 or 10,000 people. And I say, okay, hey, everybody, just close your eyes. Think how it would feel to have no payments. It's audible.
Starting point is 00:37:47 You can hear this relax all through this 10,000 people. It's audible. You physically feel the shift in the auditorium. It's crazy. And that's what we've done to ourselves in this country. We're just frenetic. We're so tight. Yeah, we're frenetic.
Starting point is 00:38:03 Get the next thing. Answer the next mean tweet. Run, run, run, run, run, run. Fight, fight, fight, fight. I don't have any real friends. I don't have any money. And I'm just... Everything's just... There's no margin. There's no peace. There's no relaxation. One of my favorite things on this show... They're pissed off.
Starting point is 00:38:19 All the time. All the time. Is to watch a debt-free screen and you ask them, how does it feel? A hundred percent. Their face changes. All the time. Is to watch a debt-free screen and you ask them, how does it feel? A hundred percent. Their face changes. Their bodies change. And if it's a couple, they cuddle in a little closer. But when you ask them, hey, what was it like? Take us back to the beginning.
Starting point is 00:38:35 Their body goes back. Yeah, they can remember. It remembers. Yeah. It remembers. And then all of a sudden. The stuff you talk about on your show all the time, I think about it. We are free. We're free.
Starting point is 00:38:42 Yeah. There's a physical change and so the stress-related illnesses have too many times finances at their root absolutely and decisions we've made on earth that put our put ourselves in that and it just people are walking around with one big ball of stress forgive yourself yeah sell that car and then be free go move on move on if that's the dumbest thing you ever did and you're a freaking genius. You win. You're a genius.
Starting point is 00:39:07 That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.

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