The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: There's No Patriotic Obligation to Buy Stuff! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 13, 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. My co-host on today's show, Ramsey Personality No. 1 bestselling author, Rachel Cruz, also happens to be my daughter. And we're going to be taking your calls at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. So an article was posted.

Chris Hogan and I talked about it on Monday at CNN.com. Because CNN owned Money Magazine and Money.com, and it went broke, of course, and closed up, which is kind of ironic when you think about Money Magazine. They don't have enough money in the same business. But that's a side issue. They were a piece of trash anyway, so that's okay. But not like I have strong feelings about them. I was going to say, give us your opinion.

What do you think? Well, I mean, put a cartoon of me on your cover and trash me, and I'll always love you for life, you know? So anyway, CNN does an article Monday that says, since they don't have the money thing, they have to still do money, that says that people are saving money at the best rate since Ronald Reagan. And Hogan and I are like, yes. And what this proves is that even in hard times, you can save money if saving money is a priority.

It is not a, oh, there are systemic problems with the economy, and the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and no one can save money. Listen, if your kid's sick, you can save money to save the kid. You find the money to save when it becomes important enough to save money and hogan i talked through that so they've now expanded the article to this ridiculous tripe americans are slashing their spending hoarding cash and shrinking their credit card debt as they fear for their jobs could disappear during the coronavirus pandemic u.s credit card debt suddenly reversed course in March, yes, and fell by the largest percentage in more than 30 years, yes. At the same time, savings rates climbed to

levels unseen since Ronald Reagan was in the White House. Although caution is a logical response to that uncertainty, hunkering down also poses a risk to the economy, to the recovery of an economy dominated by consumer spending. The so-called V-shaped recovery can't happen if consumers are sitting on the sidelines. Well, let me help you guys with this, because apparently you haven't left your newsroom lately. you do not have a v-shaped return to the economy when entire states are still at home dumb butt i mean seriously now that analysis could apply 30 to 90 days from now if the nation is back to work and they're still hoarding cash and reducing debt you could make that analysis but right now they're not outspending anyway you doofuses unless they're

buying it on amazon well in california has what the largest gdp of like five like the fifth largest in the world right the only state of california just the state of california and it's completely shut down and they're still shut down until the falls but they're staying with schools and universities so yeah so all that to say it's yeah it's not a correct analysis when you look at it from well and here's the thing and then let's let's go ahead and fast forward and try to apply the logic in a logical way rather than the illogical way. Let's say that Americans forever decide, because they've been through this, that we are going to be wiser and we're going to carry little to no credit card debt and we're always going to save money.

Does that, in fact, crash the economy? In truth, it does not. Because, here's the thing, if households are stabilized through their own problems and through outside problems they continue spending savings stabilizes households if households don't have as much credit card debt you know what they have more money you know what they do with some of that more money they spend it it. So this is the same dumb-butt logic that people have said, well, if everyone in America followed Dave Ramsey and didn't borrow money and save money, American economy would collapse. No, it wouldn't collapse.

It would boom, because human beings would actually have more money because they're not giving it to banks and car companies. Human beings would have more stability in their lives because they would have savings and it would cause a boom if you used biblical principles for handling money which is saving money and staying away from debt and so it's the same stupid idea that the consumer has a you know you have a patriotic uh obligation to spend your stimulus check to stimulate the economy. Horse crap. That's what I was going to say. That's like the number one argument right now.

Or question or suggestion of when you get your stimulus check. And I was actually on an interview and kind of got a little bit combative with the anchor because they're like, no, Rachel, because I was telling them, pay out your four walls. Use that stimulus check for your food, shelter. Take care of your dadgum family. For your house, yes. And to build up that strong financial foundation for your family. And then you have the confidence to go out as a consumer

to go and spend, travel again, whatever it is where your money's going. Oh yeah, and he almost like blew, oh he was dying. He was like, Rachel, you're making my head spin right now. I can't do it. No, no, no. People need to go out and spend. They need to help stimulate the economy with this. This is why it's being given to them. And I'm like,

no. People are freaked out with this this and so use it for your own household so you're exactly right that when you have confidence in your own home then that's when you're going to go out and actually spend the money that you've earned you're going to go and even though you saved for it you're gonna go buy a brand new car you're gonna go out to dinner you're gonna go do these things with the money that you have because you actually have the money. And it goes that the reason that the stimulus passed so easily was several fold. Obviously, people, the politicians were trying to buy votes. Obviously, people were very scared and they were trying to calm them down. But the other reason that the stimulus passed so fast and so easily is the same reason that

Anchor believes that is that we have been taught in school our whole lives that Keynesian economics, John Maynard Keynes invented Keynesian economics, actually works, which there's all kinds of data that says it doesn't work. Now, Keynesian economics is the government creates jobs and stimulates the economy. It's what FDR did in the New Deal. John Maynard Keynes convinced FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to get us out of the Great Depression by doing government make-work. And so they created the TVA.

They created all these guys digging ditches and cutting trees. They created all these jobs that the government was paying people that didn't have jobs to work, and that supposedly stimulated the economy out of the Great Depression. However, there's a very valid argument that no one talks about anymore, that World War II actually got us out of the Great Depression, not John Maynard Keynes, Keynesian economics. So this idea that government should interfere in the economy and stimulate things is so widely believed because it's taught as fact, this idea of keynesian economics and people don't know that's what it's called probably unless they're econ student like me but the uh

you know but but this and basically john menard keynes was socialist the idea that government is in control of our lives and government should be the nanny state and government should take care of us and all of that and we argued about this a lot back in the 2008 crash. The government has to get involved because the General Motors is too big to fail. We have to bail them out. Goldman Sachs is failing and we're dead. But hovering just below the surface is this idea that in seventh grade economics class, it was taught that Keynesian economics is fact, that the government's job,

one of their roles is to jump in and bail the economy out and stimulate the economy by creating cash flow or jobs and it's absolutely false there's nothing proven by it but oh here we did it again at a record level at two trillion freaking dollars so lots of problems out there people you have to think for yourself. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Folks, I love telling you about well-made, well-thought-out products. Today, I'm talking about Grip6 belts. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right, and they're uncomfortable. Grip6 belts are unique. Owner BJ designed a truly modern minimalist belt made of high quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk.

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Hey, Ron, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How can we help? Hey, Dave. Hey, Rachel. How are you guys doing? Great, man. What's up? So my wife and I were just starting the Baby Steps right before coronavirus hit.

And so our household income is $170,000. We have $87,000 in debt. As we were hitting Baby Step 2 and coronavirus hit, we said, well, let's stack cash during that time. So we feel comfortable to get back on the baby steps now. So I have $13,000 in cash. So my question was, I also have a stupid car, a BMW that I owe $33,000 on, but I'm underwater by about $8,000. So the question is, do I take the cash and deal with the BMW and take the hit? Or do I just, I have 13 left on the credit card. I can pretty much pay that off almost this month, obviously putting a thousand dollars aside for baby step

one. Okay. Are you going to keep the car? Well, I'd like to keep the car. I think you should. What's that, Dave? I think you should keep the car unless you don't like it. I really like the car. It's a fun BMW. Which one is it? They make a great car.

Rachel drives one. It's a BMW M235 convertible. Sweet. A little nicer than mine. Yeah, that is nicer than your car, but it is a great car, yeah. That's a good car. Here's the thing. We use two rules of thumb on selling, whether you keep your car or not.

Is it less than half your annual income, all of your vehicles added up? And they are. Okay, you make $170,000. You have a $33,000 car. That's not out of line. And can you be debt-free everything but the house inside of two years? Making $170,000, you definitely can pay off $87,000 inside of two years. Yep.

And so unless you have some other reason to sell the car, I wouldn't sell this car. Now, if the car was $100,000, I'd sell it. Or if you had another $100,000 in debt, I'd drop the $33,000 to get the rest of the way out of debt because you're not going to be out of debt in two years. You see what I'm saying? So you're not violating either one of those guidelines. The point is, is the car a glaring error, and it's not. Okay, gotcha.

Yeah, I've got it for about 15 months debt-free. That's without selling anything. So I was just trying to see if I should accelerate it or not, but my mic tells me to just keep the baby steps going, pay off the card as soon as I can, the credit card. Yeah, absolutely. And I think for some people, I mean, like Dave just said, but it's true. I'm like, you know, you look at the numbers and it's an obvious answer of, oh, yeah, get rid of the car because it is so glaring and it is so huge. But just like that. And even, yeah, knowing that you can be out of debt in less than 24 months, that's always my rule of thumb. What is this car? And the fact that it's eight underwater, you'd have to go take out that loan for the eight grand. Put that in your I mean, all the work with the math. But outside of that, I think it's.

And two years from now, you'll be buying the same car again, probably. But I mean, Rachel, if they had a fifty thousand dollar000 household income instead of $170,000, that car is going to be instantaneously. It changes everything. It's the numbers. Right. Instantaneously, that car becomes stupid. So the point is, is a $33,000 BMW stupid? The answer is no.

The question really is, in ratio to your life, your net worth, in ratio to your income, is it stupid? to your income is it stupid i had a friend made 15 million dollars last year he bought a 400 000 car that's nothing as a percentage of his income now you but it is stupid to go out and get a car loan for you're not saying that no no no i would never get a car percentage of what it's worth yes exactly but the but you know by definition is the car right just the car what makes the car stupid is a you borrow money on it or b, you know, by definition, is the car stupid? Right, just the car itself. What makes the car stupid is, A, you borrow money on it, or B, you know, the purchase should have never been done because it's too big a percentage of your income and or your net worth. If your whole net worth is your car, you're screwed, you know, because cars go down in value. So your net worth is going the wrong way. Zaire is with us in Pennsylvania. Hey, Zaire, what's up?

How you doing? Are you being treated today? Better than I deserve, sir. How can we help? Okay. So I was recently in a car accident, a real bad one, I guess you could say. And the insurance is paying out big time. Now, I want to expand this. Hey, Zaire, your phone's breaking up bad. Can you get where it doesn't? Yeah.

Okay. You were in a really bad car accident, and you're getting a settlement of what size? $150,000. Okay, I'm going to put you on hold, and Kelly's going to try to pick up and get your phone straightened out so we can talk to you. Gary is with us in Washington. Hi, Gary. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Thanks, Dave. I already know you're doing better than you deserve today, so I'll spare you the repeat on that question. Hey, I wanted to talk through something with you briefly, if you don't mind. Sure. The underlying question is one of those, should I sell my house, property and then pay cash for a downsized house or townhouse and mortgage-free type of questions? But I'll set the table with the info so you don't have to draw it out of me. I'm 36. We have an 18-month-old girl. My income's a little over 200K. I'm on a salary cut right now due to the world losing their mind over this mega flu apocalypse thing.

But I'm an executive in a company, so I don't feel that I'm at risk at all from a salary cut right now due to the world losing their mind over this mega flu apocalypse thing but uh i'm an executive in a company so i don't feel that i'm at risk in the long run from a salary standpoint so i think that's pretty stable mega flu apocalypse thing that's a good new name i may go with that okay yeah you know um i think i've got 110 cash and savings that's including emergency fund um and a little over 100k retirement. So I fell a little behind on that. But let's look at a building lot that I've had for a while. I've brought into the relationship. I have an offer on that from a builder who would like to take that off my hands. That would net out $100K after taxes and closing.

So if we did that, that would basically put us cash-wise at $210K. So the crux of the question is, I have a $580,000 home, and there's a present appraisal, currently a $400,000 on it. It's livable, but it's not something we want to live in long-term. We bought it for the dirt a while back because it's an acre with animal rights and a legal accessible apartment,

and you don't find that in suburban Seattle very often, right? Agreed. So we bought that with the idea that instead of building new, we found some dirt that we couldn't find in a new development, and we were going to sell that lot and spend the $200,000 and do a pretty major remodel and addition and kind of turn it into a forever-type home.

So that was the plan. Lately, I've been feeling a little burned out with my job, and the idea of being able to have a bit more freedom and not having a mortgage so in a year I could cash out my stock and potentially start my own business without having to worry about generating an income for a year or two was kind of the thought. So what we're grappling with is whether to continue with the plan we had to dump that $200K and do this house and kind of have a little piece of paradise in the middle of suburban Seattle here.

And then, or to sell it, hold back, you know, $50,000 for emergency fund and then spend the other $350,000 to pay cash for a newer, kind of smaller home, which around here, that would probably mean a townhome rather than a single family. So I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts on that, if folks you've coached in the past have done similar things, ended up feeling like they regret doing that, or how you might give some guidance on that.

It's going to take a lot of bandwidth if you start a business and do a renovation of that size at the same time. Yeah. That bothers me. The opportunity cost on your soul bothers me more than the money transaction part of it. I was going to say, because, Gary, I mean, at that point, it's a pretty personal choice for you. I mean, neither one is right or wrong. I think it's probably what you and your wife and family want more long term,

and that's probably more of a personal choice besides the bandwidth side, which is a good point. I mean, you're getting ready to enter into a major renovation that's the equivalent of building a house while starting a business. And, Gary, we all have to move out during that time if you did that renovation? Do we have to rent somewhere? Well, no. Fortunately, there's actually a legal accessory apartment on the property

that we can actually live in, which is nice. What's the renovation cost? Right now, the plans we've drawn up, the bids are coming around a little over $200,000. Okay, so you just take your cash and do the renovation and stay. Yeah, exactly. But you still have a $400,000 mortgage. How much stock are you getting to start your business? What's that going to turn into money?

How much money? Well, right now we're kind of in a Series B with the company, so it's probably worth around $350,000 to $400,000 right now. Yeah, if you could start your business down around $150,000 or $200,000 and have another $150,000 floating around, I'd probably stay. As long as you can handle the bandwidth of the two projects at once, that's the only concern because both are very draining. They're both emotionally expensive.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. You know, most of us are spending a little more time at home than we used to. And with that extra time comes cleaning out closets, working in the yard, and if you're smart, protecting your family with term life insurance, especially when Zander makes it so easy. Look, Zander is open for business. Their whole team is equipped to work from home at full capacity, and they are ready to help you find the best rates from the top insurance companies in the industry. Their commitment to serving their customers, even through uncertain times,

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It's awfully nice to see humans. They're a wonderful bunch, the humans are, and good to hang out with them. And we've got a beautiful human with a beautiful dress standing on our debt-free stage this has got to be the debt best debt-free scream dress we've ever had this is awesome absolutely awesome so uh stella is with us from austin texas right yes now tell me i mean the dress come on tell. Before you tell us about the debt, tell us about the dress. So a friend of mine who lives in Kenya asked me for my measurements, and she ordered the dress for me last year.

It's beautiful. And I thought this is perfect. As your debt-free screen dress, or it was just a good dress? It was just a good dress. And then I had the debt-free, and then it was perfect. It is perfect. It is definitely perfect. It's a great celebration dress for sure.

Thanks. How much debt have you paid off? $51,000. $51,000. And how long did that take you? 21 months. 21 months. And your range of income during that time?

I started at 55 and ended at 75. Okay. And so, accent, you are from Africa. I am from Kenya. Kenya. Okay. Beautiful area. I moved 10 years ago. Been here 10 years? Yeah. Okay. And so, Accent, you are from Africa. I am from Kenya. Kenya. Okay. Beautiful area. I moved 10 years ago.

Been here 10 years. Yeah. Okay. What do you do for a living? I'm an accounting manager. Okay. Very cool. Very cool.

What made you decide to come to the States? So, my mom relocated here, and then she moved the rest of the kids here. Okay. Yeah. Cool. So, what was the hardest part, Stella, for you? Oh, doing it alone. Because I had depression in 2018 when my sister died, and that was difficult.

I lost like three months of not doing anything but staying alive. So that was difficult. But if I had somebody else to kick me, get me going, that would have been helpful. For sure. And you have a little one next to you. Yes. And what's her name? Sophia.

Sophia. She's four. Four years old. So you did have somebody to kind of push you around. Yes. Four-year-olds. Well, in 2018, maybe not, but she wasn't doing a lot of pushing back then. True.

Right now, definitely. Definitely, yeah. We've got a couple four-year-olds in the family that are bossy around our place. Rachel's got one, and so does Denise. So cool. What kind of debt was the $51,000? I had $44,000 in student loans, and then I had $7,000, $5,000 in credit card, and $1,600 in medical debt. So what happened 21 months ago that got you started?

So October 31, 2017, I guess it's the Holy Spirit right now that I know it is, but it was a little voice that told me, you're earning money now, but you're blowing it again. So, if it comes... This is a blunt little voice. No.

But if it comes to an end, it will be your fault. You won't say you didn't get money at any point. So, I said, okay, I'll buckle down and I will But if it comes to an end, it will be your fault. You won't say you didn't get money at any point. So I said, okay, I'll buckle down and I will do it right. Because I heard about you when I was 26. A friend of mine gave me the total money makeover and I read it and I was like, this is so good. But I'm earning $35,000. How am I going to do this?

So I didn't do anything at that point. But it haunted me. When you have the information, you're always going to be feeling guilty if you don't do the right thing good so it took me another four years to be like okay now humble yourself sign up for fvu and take the take the day program but two months in sorry it's kind of tied in the calendar to you recovering from depression after your sister's death because it's about 21 months back right right so it was October then in two months my sister passed away oh while you were doing this yes oh so you lost time on this oh okay yes so um but the good thing is I said okay 2018 is going to be a rough year for you. You might not lose weight. You might not eat right or do anything else, but you'll pay your debt down.

So that kept me going for the first, I think, six months before another friend passed away, and that's when I had the depression. But then after three months, I picked myself back up. October 2018 is when I had a chat, and I did all these visual things to keep me going. And then 2019 came and I was like, okay, the year is here. It's no longer next year. It's you're getting debt free this year. Wow.

So 2019, I picked myself up. I was like, no more stupid things. No more eating out. Like I really buckled down. Then in May of 2019, I got saved, which was your program, because you talk about the Bible and how it doesn't have a really negative thing to have money, as opposed to how I was raised. I always felt like money was a demonic thing or not really good. But eventually I got saved and I gave my life Christ, and he helped me through the depression.

So towards the end of the year, I started having depression again, and I was like, I got saved, God. I'm paying my debt down. I'm stopping to drink. Help me. What else do I do? And he said, apply for a job in Austin. And I applied for a job in the end of August.

In six days, eight days, I got the interview and the approval, like the offer letter. And I was earning $75,000. So I started from $55,000 all the way to $75,000. Sold my house in three weeks to Opendoor. Got a good profit and paid down $8,500 of the remaining debt. Oh, my goodness. Wow. So what city were you living in before Austin? Phoenix. In Phoenix, Arizona. Okay. So what city were you living in before Austin?

Phoenix. In Phoenix, Arizona. Okay. And what church were you going to when you met God? First New Life. Yeah, okay. Great. Wonderful.

What a life you've had. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. And I love the story because it is such a picture of life, right? You're going to have ups and downs. And when people are on the journey of getting out of debt, stuff happens. Life is still going to happen. And there are times, many times we've heard people say, oh, I had to pause stuff for two

months to get stuff going again and picked back up. I mean, like that is life. That's the journey. But you've been scrappy. But the perseverance through it all is incredible. And then obviously the spiritual change is beautiful. It's amazing. And our deep love of all of this, of why we do that, is in order for you to find Jesus.

And there you had it. Exactly. And it's a beautiful bow on top of it. And the fact that you did it as a single mom. So kudos to you. I don't know how. I don't know how. I don't know how.

It's all good. I mean, absolutely. You're incredible. Thank you. Absolutely incredible. Very impressive. Thank you. Very impressive. Very, very proud of you, Absolutely incredible. Very impressive. Thank you. Very impressive.

Very, very proud of you, kiddo. Very well done. Okay. So what's your advice to that lady out there making 35 who just set the book down and said, I can't do it making 35? So the only way to get out of debt is to get out of debt. I tried everything else. You can't not get out of debt is to get out of debt. I tried everything else. You can't not get out of debt.

That's the only way. So if you don't do it right now at 24, you'll have to do it at 26. You'll have to do it as a single mother. You'll have to do it when you're 32 with 51K. So start when you have that 10K in debt. Yeah. And don't get more debt. Because I cut up my credit cards and then during

the depression i didn't i didn't do anything but i didn't add more debt which was the perfect thing in my case because if i had the credit cards i would be swiping away my depression i guess yeah a little bit of a retail therapy in there that did not occur it didn't that's good very good you're impressive thank you you're a lot of fun thank you for coming all the way to nashville to do your debt-free scream in person so bring miss sophia up to do your debt-free scream with you because she uh steals the show so precious obviously and uh absolutely incredible so uh all right here we go stella and sophia we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaires book for you because that is definitely the next chapter in your story.

You are what it's all about, kiddo. $51,000 paid off in 21 months, making $55,000 to $75,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free. Woo-hoo. All right.

I think Sophia's been practicing. Oh, my gosh. Well, listen, she moved from a different continent, single mom. I mean, all the hard things of life happened, and if she can do it, anyone can do it. Absolutely. I mean, like, that is a true, huge story of just complete perseverance and doing the impossible. Like, doing the impossible, but you did it because it is possible. It is possible, yeah.

I love it. There's, you know how you get out of debt? Get out of debt. You just got to get out of debt. Do it. Stella, I'll be quoting you more. That's about the way to do it right there. Sounds great.

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Go ahead and get started today. Go to Blinds.com to take advantage of this week's special offer. Rules and restrictions apply my co-host today on the dave ramsey show ramsey personality rachel cruz number one best-selling author all right let's try zaire again see if we get his phone straightened out. Hey, Zaire, how are you? Hey, Dave, how are you? Better than I deserve. So, if I remember, you got a settlement from a bad car wreck.

How much was the settlement? $158,000. Okay, wow. Are you okay now? Doing much better, doing much better. Actually, it was a three-person crash. It actually gave us half a million dollars, so $500,000 for three of us. Wow. But I had the least bit of the injury, so I got $158,000 and so forth. So yeah, $158,000 is what I'm

looking at so far. My goodness. Okay. And are you able to go back to work? Everything okay now? I don't know. Actually, what I was doing before this was traffic control. You know, the guys who work with PPNL and other big-time companies and whatnot. So basically, I messed up my ankle real bad, so I can't go back into that profession. So I don't know if I would have to sign up for disability or so, but it's a pretty bad fraction I can't go back to what I've been doing before the crash

okay well you probably just develop a career that you don't have to have the the uh be on your feet all day long to do right yeah for long hours yeah okay you'll make more doing that than you would with disability. How can Rachel and I help today? Actually, what I'm looking forward to, I got so many people in my area what to do with this money, to invest in the real estate, my bad, real estate, like invest in the homes or whatnot, buy a house. But I have the money to buy a house or whatnot,

at least start a mortgage for a house. I just don't know what to do. Okay. Zaire, how much debt do you have total? Probably $500, actually. Just my credit card. That's about it. So no car loans, no student loans?

Not at all. $500. Okay. And do you have any savings? No. Just a little. And when you're talking about investing in real estate, do you have a home right now, a primary home that you own? Apartment, yeah.

Nobody owns it. Okay. Yeah, I would just completely walk you through our baby steps. So the first thing is to get out of debt. So once you get that settlement check, the first thing I would do is write that $500 check, get rid of the credit cards and just, yep, you're done with that. And then I would take about three to six months worth of expenses that you have that you know you'll have and put that in the bank. And considering it's a good chunk of money, I would probably up to go six months

considering your disability and you're out of work right now having to go find something new. So I would personally put about six months away. How old are you? 19. Okay. So what I want you to do with the rest of the money after you've done what Rachel told you to do there is decide what you want to do with your life. Because it might be that you would spend $50,000 going and getting a degree in something or a certification in something or a trade school in something. And so, yeah, the one job you were doing is out.

We talked about that. But now I don't think you need to be a real estate investor, and I don't think you need to be a big-time mutual fund investor with this money yet until we get you a career track and see how much of this money you need to be able to go do your career. So let's just say, I'll just make up something, okay? Let's just say you wanted to be a computer programmer, and you went to the local tech school, and they said you can go to code school, and you can get three different Microsoft certifications, and it's going to cost you $40,000. Well, that would be what you would do with some of this money. I would spend it on you and on your future.

But that's certainly not a suggestion. That's an example because I don't know what you want to do with your life. But this is not that much money it feels like a lot of money when you're 19 and you haven't had this kind of money before but it will disappear very very quickly if you're not careful so i would set that emergency fund aside and then i would determine what my career track is going to be and what do I need to spend on education, whether it's technology, a four-year degree, an apprenticeship in trade school of some kind. I don't care what you do, whatever you want to do, but you're the best investment,

and getting you on a long-term career track is the best investment for this money by far. It's better than real estate, and it's better than mutual funds then once you get that settled um and you make sure this money is used only for that you don't blow it you don't go buy a bunch of junk with it you don't go traveling around the world and wonder what happened after you backpacked 168 grand away or some crap like that you get on a track you get on a plan and you roll out that plan to where the 29-year-old you goes, man, that 19-year-old kid was really wise when he had this one chunk of money come in. And you want that 29-year-old version of you to look back and tell you, look what you got. You got an education out of this. You've got your debt-free. You got an

emergency fund out of this. You got a little basic car out of this. And you got this other thing out of this. What did you get for this? of this. And you got this other thing out of this. What did you get for this instead of just looking up and go, oh, I spent it because I was stupid? Yeah, because I feel like the two knee-jerk reactions at 19 with almost $160,000. And what you're going to hear from people is trying to be too sophisticated, kind of like what they're saying. You know, invest in real estate. Go put in mutual funds and all that, which is all great answers, which could be a solution. Um, but getting too sophisticated to ahead of where you are, like you're 19. And so like what Dave's saying is exactly right.

Looking ahead and saying, Hey, what's the best use of this money for me to get a good career under me to make some great money going forward. Uh, and using that to invest in yourself, I think is excellent. And then the other knee jerk reaction would be just to spend it and how tempting it is to think, oh, I could go get a $30,000 car right now. Sure. Why not? I mean, it's just 30 grand out of the 160. I'll still have 130 left. I mean, you can quickly start spending that in chunks if you're not careful. So those two knee-jerk reactions of being super sophisticated where it's like, you don't really know what you're doing, but you're putting your money in, which is very scary, or just spending it all are not great tracks. So slow down, put common sense behind it, put patience behind it, and that's what's going to be your long-term play.

Yeah, and whoever's in your ear, get them out of your ear. You said people were in your ear telling you what to do with the money. You need to get rid of all these broke people giving you financial advice. The people have never seen $168,000. Suddenly they've got opinions about yours. If you want to get advice, get advice from somebody who's worth $2 million and is 50 years old and has a few scars on them, and they'll tell you what to do. It'll sound a lot like what Rachel and I just told you.

But your drinking buddy, he does not get a vote in this. He's 19 and he, and he's your drinking buddy. I mean, really, he doesn't get a vote. Uh, your, your broke cousin who suddenly just showed up and remembered he was kin to you. He doesn't get a vote, you know, so just be, get these people out of your ear and put some wise people in your corner you may want to sit down with one of our smart investor pros just to figure out where to park some of the money and how to hold it while you determine some of these things but don't consume the money is what we're telling you you could buy a little car you'll buy a ten thousand dollar car or something that's fine if you don't have, but the best investment will be you figure out your future and use this

money to get to your future. And that's when you'll look back and go, I really liked that 19 year old kid. When you're 29, you're going to look back at that kid and go, he was, he really, you know, he went through a horrible car wreck and he really was wise with what he did. And there's parts of my life I look back and I go, that guy was doing pretty good back there. And there's parts of my life I look back and I go, that guy's an idiot. So, you know, you want to be, you want to have that conversation with yourself that way later. And that, what we're saying is there's no regrets from misbehaving. Really, really cool. Really cool. Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com. You can sit down with one of our SmartVestor pros. They can help you do that. Hold on. I'm going to send you a

copy of Ken Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle, all about careers, and it'll help you with some of your analysis of your future, with some of your decision making, your dreaming about your future, and you'll be right on track. So what would your question be if he wasn't 19? What would my answer be? I'm sorry, yes. Well, if he lost his career, he needs a new career. If he's 57 or 59, he needs a new career.

I can't do what I used to do for a living. The first thing we've got to do is get the income coming back again. So I think that's a key factor, though, is the age, is what I'm saying, to look at the age and the situation. It does. That's part of it. But the key factor for me here is I've got to know what the career is going forward because if you don't create an income, the 168 burns up fast.

It's gone, gone, gone, gone. Burns. It's missed. It's a vapor. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top four most popular podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from the Ramsey Network, subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.