The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: The Government Is Responsible for the Shutdown! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 8, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Chris Hogan is my co-host today, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author of the book Everyday Millionaires. And you do need to read that book. It's how people became millionaires. It's not mythology, it's the truth based on research.

So check it all out. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. So Chris handed me an article right as we're going on the air. Survival mode, over 68% of Americans had financial setbacks in 2020 amid the pandemic. More than two-thirds of Americans experienced financial setbacks in 2020 due to job loss, declining household income, or drawdown of emergency savings, according to a new Fidelity study. Job loss, declining household income, or drawdown of emergency savings. Okay. The report by the financial services company also looked at how Americans plan to handle their finances

as they head into 2021 and continue to face challenges brought on by the pandemic. Well, let me correct you on that, USA Today. It face challenges brought on by the pandemic. Well, let me correct you on that, USA Today. It's not brought on by the pandemic. The financial challenges are not brought on by the pandemic. Ah. They're brought on by the economic shutdown. Because of?

That's what the government says. Okay. And it's brought on by your government. That's where your financial problems are brought on by. When you shut down people's ability to make an income, then they're going to have financial trouble. That really wouldn't be an insight, USA Today. That would be a fairly obvious conclusion. It's cause and effect. But it's not the pandemic.

The pandemic didn't cause it. Because people being sick with covid did not cause the economy to collapse the shutdowns by the government caused the economy to collapse in fear of people being sick with a pandemic and um you know lots of things to discuss there of the people surveyed over 38 said they will spend the year in survival mode now what i want to talk about chris from this was i get anytime i see uh it's a good survey sample size is 3 000 people so it's a legitimate statistical uh statistically significant uh i don't know the wording of the questions that they use to draw their conclusions with.

Right. Having studied statistics. And you and I spent a lot of time on research methodology when we were building out. Our company was building out with an outside research firm the study for millionaire. Right. And we want to be careful to not ask the question in such a way that it's leading. Yep. And we don't want to say, okay, what's really going on?

We want to get behind what's going on. So, for instance, in this, 38% say they're in survival mode in 2021. But the unemployment rate is 6%. So, you know, I mean, if you're two household income, you lost one income. Right. And you had, you lost one income. Right. And you had bills based on double income. You could be in survival mode and still not be unemployed. One person being employed, but the other one not be.

Right. So that's possible. But what I would read between the lines into this research and say is that one of the biggest problems with the economic shutdown brought on by the government in an attempt to control the pandemic is that it has affected attitudes more than reality. Depression is up. Oh, without a doubt. Suicide is up. As Dr. Delaney calls calls them the diseases of despair

are up and so my attitude my belief that things are worse than they really are in my house because i watch the news so much my house is actually okay but i watch the news so much that i think things are bad so i go into survival mode. Okay, I'm with you. And it's not an actual mathematic thing. No, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm freaked out because I've watched the news so much that told me that it was coming to an end. And I listened to the governor of California, and I listened to the governor of New York, and I said, we're all going to die.

And so it's over. We need to stay inside and just wait on death to come. And we're locked down again, still, except for the people that left those two states, which is half the freaking population there. Would the last person out of California please turn out the lights? Oh, my God, you people are all leaving. And moving here. Why? Leave us alone we like tennessee um anyway the uh so so the the point is not all of that but the point is that yes people

are really hurting yeah some are and we're here to help you we do that but some of it is and this is what i want to warn our listeners about, because if you believe things are going bad and you start taking all your decisions based on things going bad, you're going to cause them to go bad. What you said, self-fulfilling prophecy, right? No, no, no. That's absolutely true. And in looking at this, it said 68% of people had setbacks.

23% lost a job or household income. 20% had an unexpected non-health emergency. 18% had to provide unexpected financial aid to family or friends. And then 16% had a health emergency in their family. Wait a minute. What was the unexpected health emergency? Down here on the first page. 20% had an unexpected non-health emergency. Non-health emergency. So that's called an emergency that's one in five right well okay the number we've quoted for a thousand years around here and it stayed true was that 78 of americans in any given uh period in any given year right will have a an

emergency yeah and 20 that's about right then 20 would normally do that without covid without it a non-health emergency about 20 people have a non-health emergency no 78 percent that was in a five-year period of time wasn't it yes that stat that old stat we used to quote is an old money magazine stat five yeah five it's old but i mean it's still accurate because life hadn't changed that much plus or minus pandemic crap but um yeah so 78 of americans have a uh an emergency in any given oh no that's in a given decade that's what so it would be about 20 it'd be you know that's not that's not far off okay so what i'm trying to figure out here is this so if they surveyed me and they said did you have a financial setback this year

i could easily say yes. Yes. We lost the entire segment of revenue at Ramsey Solutions of live events. Not the entire, but we lost 90% of it. Yep. However, other areas of the business are up to the point that our overall revenues are up year over year, not down down but i did receive setbacks yeah so it depends on my attitude towards the situation is how i'd answer that so i could go oh god things are bad and eeyore is my spirit animal and so it's all bad and it's just not going anywhere and i've had setbacks this year and we have had setbacks right and it's been very freaking stressful and it Right. And it's been very freaking stressful, and it's been hard.

And it's been really hard for some of you out there. I know that. I'm not making fun of you at all. I know some of you have had a year from hell. I understand. And we're here to help you work through that and be the third pig the next time in the brick house when the big bad wolf comes by. We don't ever want you to be there again.

We want you to be in a reset mode. We're going to help you. It's what we do. But your attitude is reflected in this survey i think i would think so dave i think you're right i had a setback without a doubt i'm up so which way do i answer that the way i answer that question the reason the way i answer that question is based on my attitude not based on the mathematical reality this This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Life sure has a lot of twists and turns.

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Always use the promo code Ramsey if you want the best possible deal. It's kind of like magic. What's up, Chris? All right. I can't wait to hear Dave's reply to this. We may disagree. Today's question comes from George in Pennsylvania. It says, my children are six and seven and have accumulated about $5,000 in cash

in gifts since they were born. My thought is to use the money towards Baby Step 2 with the intention of investing heavily in their 529s once we get to Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6, which we anticipate reaching by the end of the year. My wife, on the other hand, feels guilty about using that money to pay off consumer debt please advise okay i'm going first absolutely you don't use the kids money you did this for the children you don't crack that piggy bank open you leave that money alone you put it in the bank and let it grow what are you gonna do what are you gonna say i'm curious are you going to say? I'm curious. I agree with you. Do you really? Okay. I actually do, yeah. Okay.

And the reason is this. It's $5,000. It's not $500,000. Right. Technically speaking, it is not their money. It's your money from a legal perspective. Okay. They're minors.

They don't hold assets. Now, and so you could use it and be legally okay the problem is that you're going to feel like a dog for having used your little kids money to clean up your big boy mess and it's gonna that that feeling is going to cost you more money than five thousand dollars because you're going to be looking over your shoulder thinking God's getting ready to smack you for doing this at all times. I mean, you really are. You feel guilty about it. Right. And so your wife, her spirit is right about this, and Chris is right. Even though it's technically okay, it's not enough money to do the emotional damage to yourself.

Because unless you're a wacko, you feel weird and bad using your kid's money. Yeah. Now, there's wackos, people doing cocaine, and they go steal their kid's money to buy cocaine. That's wacko. Or they steal their kid's identity. That's wacko. That kind of stuff. But I'm not talking about wacko. I right, or they steal their kid's identity. That's wacko, that kind of stuff. But I'm not talking about wacko.

I'm talking about normal people. And most people at least, you know, have some love for their children and would feel weird about using their kid's money. And so they would, you know, go along with what you're saying, Chris. And it really does. Because so much of this stuff is about managing attitude and behavior, what we were talking about in the last segment, and this affects attitude. It does.

And therefore, behavior. Sean is with us in Los Angeles. Hey, Sean, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Hey, so I think I'm on baby step four. I have emergency fund saved. I'm thinking about proposing next month to my girlfriend.

Yay! So anyway, I was wondering, do I take it? I think I can bust in my emergency fund a little bit because I have quite a bit saved. How much do you have saved? Like I'll have $15,000 on Friday. Okay, and what's your income? $72,000. Okay.

All right, you got some saved. We can call it a bunch, but you're probably about right for your for your emergency you know a couple months yeah and so what are you talking about spending on the ring um i don't know i know you said one month so i figured i don't know 3500 i guess whatever you know 4000 and you don't have any money saved towards the ring no no it's uh it's i've been well i just started working so i've been like putting away for like the last six months so um so yeah that's why i was there's a significant date next month that's why i thought it'd be a nice time to do it so it's kind of you know what i mean yeah so how much of the 3500 can you scrape together between now and then um probably i don't know maybe two grand yeah something like that okay well if you stole 1500

out of the emergency event probably it probably wouldn't kill you. Yeah. But you've got to put it right back. Put it back. Yeah. Okay. And I might consider going $2,500 and just cash flow on it. Okay.

All right. That sounds good. Yeah. I've been married 38 years. My wife married me. The ring was.23. That's less than one-fourth of a carat. That means you cannot see it.

It is a speck. It's a little speck. Now, she does not wear that anymore. That's in the safe for nostalgic reasons, and she wears a headlight on her hand now. But it started with a speck. And so the point is there's very little correlation between the size of the diamond and the success of the marriage right like none except there might be an inverse correlation after some point yeah if they require a super large diamond

they're probably a bad deal so um yeah that could be an inverse correlation after some certain point but yeah i mean it's so hold on Is the Ramsey rule one month salary? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's what. But just because the jewelry stores in the mall say three months. Right. So, I just figured a third of them was a good idea.

You're erring on the side of sanity. I mean, think about those. He makes 70 grand. That puts him in a $3,500 ring. That feels right, doesn't it? It does feel right. It totally does. A $10,000 or $12,000 ring does not feel right. Way out of bounds.

That's wrong. That's right. Way out of bounds. That's more than sufficient to seal the deal assuming this deal is closable. So, I mean, he can close the sale. If it boils down to size of ring and all this, you're in a business negotiation? Well, this isn't a marriage.

And so, you need to see that red flag for what it is so uh last thing on this is uh aaron you know we're sean we're having fun congratulations this is a wonderful time for you but really if you'll think about how you buy the diamond 2500 will go almost as far as 3500 it will at a different place. And so if you know someone who knows a little bit about diamonds that can help you and help you appraise it or something like that, a high-end pawn shop is probably 50% of the retail jewelry store in the mall. And you can really find some deals there from time to time.

But you need to know a little bit about diamonds so you don't buy a piece of cut glass accidentally right okay um and and you know understand that you know a little just read up start researching you're getting ready to spend three thousand dollars on something you need to learn a little bit about carrot about clarity about cut um you know and because here's the thing the stinking things are not an investment. We got a bunch of them. Sharon does. I don't wear jewelry, but she's got a bunch of them. And they don't go up in value.

That's mythology. So it's just SWI, Sharon wants it. That's the only reason we buy them. It's not like diamonds are a girl's best friend. No, they're really not. That's just an advertising slogan. And so it's just they're sweet and they're nice, and it's a good thing for you guys to do for your lady. That's a good idea.

Do it and spend some money on it. That's fine. But don't do it based on it's a good investment that is going to go up. That's a load of crap. Okay? Just do it because it's the right thing to do and it's a gift and it's something fun. And later, as your income goes up if you wanted to upgrade you can do that that's what we did yeah but you're not going to get rid of that first one

i can tell you right now from a sentimental standpoint uh but i i it's good to hear and guys out there be smart you know and uh look at look at some diamond brokers and look at um look at some high-end pawn shops and shop around because there is a – furniture and jewelry have dramatic markups in them. And so you can get deals if you just start. If you learn about it and you push back and you negotiate and you shop around and you compare and you don't just walk into the mall and go, ha-ha. Yeah, that's like pre.

Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Open phones at 888-825-5225. What a wonderful thing. Oh, that's going to be like right after the first of the year then, huh? Yeah, for him. Yeah, he's going to be. That's good.

Absolutely. Very cool stuff. Good, good, good. All right, Joe is on YouTube. If our phones are included on our monthly phone bill, should the price of phones be included in the debt snowball? You pay for your phone, period. Or you don't buy a phone. If it's included in your monthly phone bill, you know what that's called?

Payments. You financed your phone, doofus. Don't finance your phone. No. Good Lord. Pay cash, even if you've got to go get a flip phone. Right? But don't finance that thing.

Yes, they still make them. Well, I know you carry one. Hush your mouth. But people, be smart. You're cheap, though. No payments. I'm frugal. You're cheap.

Ramsey, there's a difference. You're just cheap. I can't do this with you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Chris Hogan Ramsey, personality, is my co-host today here on the air. Open phones at 888-825-5225. George and Barclay are with us in Augusta, Georgia. It says on my screen you're debt-free. Way to go, guys.

Hey, thank you. Thank you much. Way to go. guys hey thank you thank you much way to go how much have you guys paid off 76 505 bucks in 10 months wow and your range of income during that time we started about 99 660 and we ended with 93 420 and kind of ebbed and flowed through that, through the side hustle game during those 10 months. Gotcha. Yeah. Well done, you guys.

What kind of debt was the $77,000? Student debt. Car loans was the biggest part of it, about $50,000 worth of car loans and credit cards on top of that, of course. You've got to have credit cards. $50,000 worth of car loans. credit cards on top of that of course you gotta have credit cards 50 000 dollars worth of car loans did you sell some uh we got rid of both of them we traded them in we saved up money and bought cars in cash what are you driving now i told george if i'm selling mine uh you're gonna have to sell your truck Now, Dave, I have connected with these two before.

And Barclay is a reporter and does an amazing job. She's fiery and feisty. But they got intentional and extremely serious. Tell Dave kind of what some of your motivation was behind this sudden level of intensity. So a year ago, we, in our first year of marriage, experienced our first miscarriage. We had a couple more after that. But really, a few months after that, we went just head down and said, what's something that we can control? And also, whoa, if we actually had brought a child into this world uh we'd be paycheck to

paycheck could we have even afforded this and so we just I got budget heavy um with the app I checked it just about every day and just started going through the house and just selling stuff I mean we just we really um and during that time of course we had a couple more miscarriages. And it's almost like each time it happened, we got more intentional with our goal. And we took a terrible thing, and it really turned out to be triumphant at the end. It was a huge blessing for us. I mean, a terrible blessing that we were lucky to have experienced to get us where we are today yeah wow that's a tough that's a tough road right there yes it is so well done you guys i'm so

proud of you way to knock it out thank you how does it feel to be free now amazing oh my god it actually feels like i have my feet underneath me even though I still know that it's a long ways away. But we're a lot closer than we would have been. Yeah, we actually, before we started, somebody gave me FPU 10 years ago, the DVD set. And it was just the one thing that as I moved, I never got rid of. And so I pulled the DVDs out a year ago, and I realized I don't have a DVD player anymore. And so. Did you sell that too?

Did you sell that too, Barkley? Right? Yeah. But during that same time, we were looking at homes, and we were trying to scratch together like $2,000. We're like, we can put a down payment of $2,000, right? I mean, we just had no idea what we were doing. We were trying to borrow money from family just thinking about it yeah and then like we sat down and really kind of hunkered down on our budget we were like we were so dumb we cannot accept this money from other people this

is a bad idea we're just putting ourselves in a worse situation higher payments and technically we couldn't afford it which we couldn't afford it So what was the car you sold and the truck you sold? What were they? So mine was a Lexus GX SUV. I thought it was the mom car that I was eventually going to need but did not need at the time. And that was my $50,000 car that I had paid off about $15,000 on it so far, but I thought I was doing well, so I sold that. And I had a 2014 Silverado that I bought when I worked at the dealership, and I had about

$18,000 left on that one, and we traded that in, and I got a 4Runner with 175,000 miles on it, but in good condition. And I got a $6,000 Volvo that, thank goodness, taxes kind of got pushed to July because we were able to use some tax money we had set aside to buy that, and it worked out great. I mean, timing and everything just worked out really, really well for us. Way to go, you guys. You guys are fun.

You really worked hard and you sacrificed. And with selling the two super nice cars that's emotional for you but it also it also signals the friends to and they start making fun of you oh it was tough i was uh so excited to have that lexus originally but what we did is we had to immediately change our thought and we said so we're going to take this and we're going to actually tell everybody how much debt we're in and we're going to slaughter this debt. And those who thought we weren't going to be able to do it, we really thought it would be a couple years. And when I would start looking at the budget on the everyday app and I'm like, oh,

oh gosh, George, look at this. If we can put another thousand towards this, I think we can get done even a month earlier and a month earlier. And then the funny thing is like, the biggest thing that we consistently did every month is we tithed every single month. Yes. And every month, the following month, somehow we'd get a reimbursement check

or an overpaid medical bill or a refund of some sort. And we just throw that right to our debt it was it was awesome that was actually the i think the thing that made us the most happy because like there were times where you look at that money and you're tempted to do something with it we never did but it's there and it's flossing in your face like i could put this towards debt and pay out quicker but we uh the lord blessed us each time that we kept tithing. So that's one thing we'll never stop doing. Well, listen to me.

You guys are amazing in the decision you made. You know the year we've dealt with in 2020. You've got people that are out there that are delaying getting started. What are you going to tell them? What are you going to tell them to motivate them to go ahead and get going on this process? Well, first of all, you don't owe anything to anybody else. Put your pride aside because if you can suck it up, listen, we don't know what our neighbors are going through. You don't know how many people are in debt.

We had so many people who were friends of ours that were like, wow, you've inspired us. I'm in this amount of money of debt. Like, you can do it. As you guys say, as long as you have a pulse, you can get out of debt. You just got to put your pride aside and do it. That's right. And I would say this life is yours for the taking. It is what you make it to be.

So if you want to keep continuing on the path you're on, keep on doing it. Don't listen to this show. If you want to change where you are, then try something different. And our church at Stevens Creek here in Augusta just got the Ramsey Plus Church subscription, so we feel like we are completely surrounded. It's like the extra confirmation that not only did we do it, but we followed the right program, too. Now you're going to lead the charge for everybody else.

Right. You're walking, breathing testimonies. I'm so proud of you guys. Very, very well done. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? I would say our family, like our direct family just kept cheering us on. And we also had to just keep reminding them, like, hey, we have this much left to pay off. We did have a number of members at the church that would constantly reach out or when they found out, because there was a few of them that we didn't see often,

but they would come in and they would just tell us how proud they were of us, where we were, and once we finished it, it was like people came out of the woodwork. Yeah, that's cool. Congratulations, you guys. We've got a copy of Chris's book for you, if you don't already have one, that is. Everyday Millionaires, that's the next chapter in your story for sure very well done you guys are rock stars 77 the the month we got out of debt we also found out we were pregnant so it came full circle that's the best end for sharing that part 77 000 paid off

in 10 months making 100 000 a year count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one We're dead free! Yeah! So cool. Wow, what a neat couple. They really are. Powerful stuff. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Chris Hogan Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225 aaron is with us in illinois hi aaron welcome to the dave ramsey show hey guys how you doing great how can i help well so my wife and i have

been married about five and a half years and we really struggled to get on the same page financially and i just finally got her to read Total Money Makeover, which she agreed to read like one chapter a week. And then she read it all in like three days because she got into it. But I'm trying to get her to do SPU because I think it would really help us just with like understanding budgeting better long-term.

And I don't really know how to, she's not really wanting to pull the trigger on that. She wants to do, she just wants to stay the course now that we've read one book. And I kind of feel like we need a little more. Have you got any advice for that? How many kids do you all have? Four. Really?

What are their ages? We have two 11-year-olds, a two-year-old, and a 10-month-old. Okay. So she's-old. Okay. So she's been busy. Yeah. So I'm confused what your concern is. She's really enthusiastic because she read the whole book all at once real fast. Yep.

So why not just do the book? Well, I just feel like, I don't know. I feel like maybe just, yeah, I struggle with, and we kind of struggle with, like, understanding how to actually budget well long term. And that's kind of where I'm at. And so that's why I'm kind of like, I feel like that would be good for us to go through. Yeah, what I would do is just say, let's get on EveryDollar and download the app. It's free. Doesn't cost a thing.

Yeah. And let's do the book and every dollar. And if you want to investigate it, Ramsey Plus has a free trial, a 14-day free trial or seven-day free trial, whatever it is. Jump on there right now at DaveRamsey.com and you can do that. Or you can text BEGIN to 33789 and just tell her, hey, let's look at the free trial together. And if you don't want to do it after the free trial, just cancel it and do the book in the app.

Yeah. And I was asking about the kids, Dave, because oftentimes in order to get a spouse on board, every parent wants better for their kids and what they had. Yeah. And so if you connect and you guys are thinking out loud about what you want your kids to be able to do, the things that you didn't get to and you want them and you start to realize as a parent or as a grandparent, you're in control of that. You just got to make some better decisions and work together. Then that could be that step in dreaming in high definition. But no, you're

right. The Total Money Makeover, I'm going to tell you right now, that book's a game changer. It's still on the bestseller list, and it's still waking people up and showing people what to do. But every dollar as well, plugging into the app, there's nowhere you've got to go. You can do it online. It's completely free. Yeah. And you can do a free trial and see if Ramsey Plus is for you. Right.

You guys could even binge watch through FPU while you're doing that and look at it together and then, you know, it doesn't cost you a thing to look at it and ask her to do that. And she does that. So she's just worried about spending the money. I don't blame her. I understand. She's all enthusiastic now. That's a good thing. Yeah. I don't blame her. I understand. She's all enthusiastic now. That's a good thing.

I would go with it, man. Go with it. Go with it. This road's already paved. Just run down it. All right. You want some extra cash this Christmas? This is the final week to enter our Ramsey Cash Christmas giveaway.

It could be your chance to win our grand prize of $5,000 and make this Christmas extra special. Enter daily to increase your chances of winning our grand prize of $5,000 at DaveRamsey.com slash giveaway. Plus, it's not too late to get life-changing gifts for family and friends. This week only you can get the proximity principle and Love Your Life Not Theirs audiobooks for $3 each. That might be something to get her yes three dollars for love your life not theirs that's good three bucks that's why did we do that well if you're gonna just give it away is that a typo cheap if you like if you hadn't heard we'll also launch christy

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We're down to the grand prize. This is the big one. The big boy. Go do it. The big dog is on the porch. Frank is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hey, Frank, what's up? Hey, guys.

Good to talk to you guys. You too. Short-term listener, but a long-time follower of your program, about 35 years, even though you haven't been doing it that long. It's common sense, right? You had common sense before it was cool. How can we help? Yeah.

So I've got a shovel-to-hole problem. I've got a large shovel and no hole. Good. I need some investment help. So I have a SEP IRA that I contribute the max to every year, but I don't have very much money in my Roth IRA.

Can I open a simple IRA? I'm a one-man business and contribute to a Roth, to a simple? Yep. Yep, simples can be Roth. I think seps can be Roth, can't they? I think so. So, my tax guy and my broker

guy says that I can't do a Roth in my SEP. Okay, then I'm wrong. Okay, I'll defer to them. I just assumed you could because you can't with everything else. Definitely, you can do a simple as a Roth, and you can the other thing you can do is you can roll out of a SEP every year and just pay the taxes, and it becomes a Roth.

Okay. Can I convert some of the other traditional IRA money that I've got? You can roll it all to Roth. How old are you? I'm 58. Okay. If you're going to leave it alone 10-plus years, and it sounds like you've got a pretty good nest egg, don't you? Yeah, it's pretty good.

How much? $2.7 million. All right. Good for you. Yes. Touchdown, dude. Well done. Yeah.

So, yeah, you don't have to do it all at once, but whatever you roll to Roth, if you leave it, you need to leave it alone 10 years or it's not going to make sense. And you're not going to be using all this money in 10 years, so you are it, you need to leave it alone 10 years or it's not going to make sense. And you're not going to be using all this money in 10 years, so you are going to be able to leave it alone unless you just plan on giving it all away or spending like a wild man. But, um... That would be a change. Yeah, it would be a big change, wouldn't it?

Yeah. You've done so well. Congratulations. Seriously. But anyway... I enjoy living and giving like no one else. Yeah. So, yeah, whatever you roll to Roth is just going to be taxed at your tax rate. What's your income? $350 to $450. So you've got a 35% to a 40% hit on every dollar you roll.

And for it to recover with tax-free growth and for it to make sense, you've got to have a decade or so. Well, unless I have the last couple of years like we've had. Well, that would be true. Yeah. That would be true. So you've got no penalties on it, but you are taxed on it. And I don't suspect your tax rate is going to go down under this administration because you are an evil rich person.

Yeah. Well, that's okay. Yeah. I'll still support them. Frank, do you have any old 401ks from previous jobs? No, sir. I converted all. You converted all. Well, I'm proud of you, man. Great job. And for people that are out there, when we're talking about converting, what we're meaning is that you are going ahead and paying

taxes on your situation in your current state, having the money not taken from your emergency fund, but being able to cash flow the taxes. Yeah, if you cash flow the taxes, then you effectively have invested more from a math standpoint, Frank. You got that? Yeah. So like you take 100 grand and you got a $30,000 tax bill and you pay the tax bill, but you leave the whole 100 grand in there. It's as if, mathematically, you've invested an additional $30,000, and it's all growing from this point on tax-free. So you'll come out day one, but for it to really make sense, it takes about a decade to roll around. So how much of this did you inherit?

Oh, I inherited maybe, well, I inherited $175,000, but I passed it directly through to my kids. I didn't keep any of it. So that is not why you have $2.7 million. Oh, no. How did you get $2.7 million? I went to work every day, and I saved about 40% of the income. Woo!

Man, you killed it. Simple formula. There you go, man. Effort and sacrifice. Another EDM, everyday millionaire. Without a doubt. Nine out of ten of them did not inherit their money. Don't believe what you heard.

It was a lie. Way to go, Frank. I'm so proud of you. You are a stud, man. That's amazing. Thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We will be back.

Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head over to DaveRamsey.com and click Dave Recommends. Thanks for listening.