The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: Your Accountant Is a Moron! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

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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. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, host of the fine print podcast on ramsey networks is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life your money your work your relationships and you we're here to help 888-825-5225 justin starts off this hour in miami hi justin welcome to the ramsey show Hey, Dave. I need a quick education and potentially some advice from you. So I received a call from someone from the lending arm of the company that services my home loan,
Starting point is 00:01:14 and he was pitching me on the idea of taking advantage of something called the VA EARL program, EARL as in I-R-R-R-L. I don't know anything about this, and so my hesitancy is that, A, it was a cold call, and that just makes me skeptical in general. But also, I don't know anything about the program, broadly speaking. So my question to you is, is the VA EARL program as easy and risk-free as I'm being led to believe, or are there some traps out there that I need to avoid? You currently have a VA loan. Correct. Your current interest rate is what? 4.25. And they're offering you the Earl at what? Earl at 2.75. And no closing costs? Correct. No appraisal, no closing cost. He said there'd be a 2% increase in fees that should be paid out within the first two to three years of the loan. And those fees would be routine costs such as the VA funding fee, which would be waived because of my service, connected disability, origination fees, title expenses, things of that nature.
Starting point is 00:02:24 Those are closing costs. Okay. Well, then there are closing costs. He told me no closing costs, but then he told me there'd be those fees. So I don't know. Those things are the definition of closing costs. Okay. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:37 So, I mean, all they're talking about is they don't have to fool with an appraisal because they've already got the loan on the property, and they're just going to drop the thing in there. They're going to hit you with an additional funding fee, and the funding fee was 2%. No, the whole thing was 2%. How much were they hitting you with the funding fee, 1%? I'm not sure what that would be, but it would be waived for me because I have.
Starting point is 00:02:59 Oh, that's true. You're waived to get the disability. Okay. I personally am not familiar with the i'm familiar with the concept fha has a concept that's very similar as well uh it's typically with fha it is slightly above market interest rate and there's no closing costs with the va it sounds like they're just hitting you with the funding fee and you're paying it back over in addition to your interest rate correct that's what that's my interpretation but i'm not the expert so i was i was really unsure i could i guess drill down on those details yeah
Starting point is 00:03:36 you need to get the details out of it because the otherwise it sounds like it's a fairly normal transaction the only thing i'm worried about is how they're going to tag you with those fees again you're not getting hit with the funding fee because of your disability. And that is the downside of a VA loan. For the rest of you out there, VA loans are one of the more expensive loans. Between FHA, VA, and conventional, VA is the most expensive, which is odd. It's supposed to be a benefit to someone who served their country, but it's actually not because of the funding fee if however you're disabled then guess what the funding fee is waived and now the va starts to be a very
Starting point is 00:04:10 reasonable loan at that point uh the interest rates are slightly higher but this 275 is fine in this current market there's nothing wrong with that rate all things being equal if it's just as cut and dry as this from 4.25 to 2.75, and all there is is the closing cost, you would say that it's a pretty... It's a done deal. Okay. Yeah. Let's pretend your worst-case scenario is the actual closing cost.
Starting point is 00:04:36 What were the other costs he was hitting you with? The origination fee and title expenses. And he mentioned one or two other things I didn't have an opportunity to make note of. Okay. Well, this is a pretty standard VA loan. Okay. Yeah. And if you pay those up front, I need to know what this origination fee is,
Starting point is 00:04:57 because if he's jacked that to 2%, this starts to not be as good a deal. But basically, the way you can do the analysis when you get a hold of it is you just do a break-even analysis. You say, all right, you're going to go from $475,000. Did you say $425,000 or $475,000? It's $425,000. Okay. So you're going to go down one and a half points. One and a half.
Starting point is 00:05:20 Yeah. And your current balance is what? $172,000. Okay, so 1% is $1,700. One and a half is going to be $2,250. Okay? No, I missed that. But it's going to be $2,500.
Starting point is 00:05:36 I'm sorry. Right in that range. All right, so you're saving $2,500 a year in interest by doing this. If it costs you $2,500 out of your pocket, it takes you a year in interest by doing this if it costs you $2500 out of your pocket it takes you a year to break even i'm talking that's how you do the analysis on any refinance and this sounds like a fairly standard refinance i'm admitting to you i don't know those initials but everything else here sounds like a standard VA refinance to me. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Yeah, the initial acronym is Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan. I've been reading about it on the VA.gov website, but I'm not familiar with it, so I wanted to try and pick your brain a little bit. Well, they drop these types of, again, FHA has a very similar program, and they drop these things into an acronym, and it all comes down to, A, they've already got the loan on the books. B, they don't need to run an appraisal. And C, they've got you as a customer, and they know they're going to lose you as a customer because you can go get a 275 in the open market and dump them in the street.
Starting point is 00:06:37 So they want to try to retain a customer. That's where these things all fall under that heading. So there's nothing weird here going on. It's a fairly standard product that you're describing so very interesting yeah well with the break-even analysis do you have parameters where you say all right if i'm gonna break even within a year we're gonna go ahead and do this well assuming you're gonna stay in the house all right let's say i'm gonna i plan to stay in the house next 10 years okay then how long how far out would you go okay my closing costs are five thousand bucks and
Starting point is 00:07:07 i save twenty five hundred dollars a year well that's a two-year break even my closing costs are seven thousand five hundred that's a three-year break even you could roll the closing costs back onto the loan but you're still breaking even after three years um much past that i start to worry about it yeah three years of max two years used to be our rule of thumb back in the day in the real estate business if you could break even in two years on your refinance you ought to automatically do it assuming you're staying in the home yeah because but after that it starts to be a lot of unknowns the numbers are that the average home loan pays off every 5.6 years due to sale or refinance because the average house sells
Starting point is 00:07:47 every 6.8 years used to be now with the current weirdness who the crap knows but um but that prior pre-covid those were the numbers and so you know you don't want to go out that far for your break even so for me three starts to be uncomfortable two's kind of a slam dunk one's definitely a slam dunk. One's definitely a slam dunk. Yeah. And same thing on the percentage point. If you save a percent or more, do you go, all right, we got to look at the break even on this now. But if you're saving a quarter percent. A quarter percent doesn't matter. It's how quick I can break even. If a quarter percent allows me to break even in six months, I could do it. It's a lot of trouble for a quarter percent.
Starting point is 00:08:22 A lot of paperwork. But usually, you know know you're usually not going to break even fast enough unless you're saving one percent or more to screw with it yeah but i've seen a few cases where it's a little less than one and still makes sense Folks, having an ID theft protection plan has just become a necessity in today's digital world. For you and your children, the risk of being a victim is higher than ever. With all of these devices and time spent online, not to mention the scams and hacks occurring every day, it really is just a matter of time before you become a victim. There are a lot of options out there and even more gimmicks, but the only plan I've ever used and ever recommended for almost 20 years is from zander insurance zander
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Starting point is 00:11:34 RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They are the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. Free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best possible deal. Rules and restrictions apply. Today's question comes from Dennis in Washington. My friend and I started a paint contracting business. This year we've already earned $1.4 million with $500,000 as net profit.
Starting point is 00:12:09 We're worried about tax season because we've never experienced financial success like this before. Our accountant recently told us we need to make some expensive business purchases as write-offs, and my partner wants to buy a truck for cash. I really don't want to spend thousands of dollars for potential small tax savings what is the real wise thing to do fire your accountant right now he's an idiot i'm serious accountants that can't do math should not be employed this is this just pisses me off they're saying spend a bunch of money to save a little bit of money. Well, let me explain to you how this works, okay? If you go buy a truck, you do not get to write the truck off and save the cost of the truck in taxes. Let's say you have a $50,000 tax bill, so you go buy a $50,000 truck.
Starting point is 00:13:00 It does not work that way, honey. Your accountant's a moron, all right? So what happens when you buy a $50,000 truck is you get to depreciate that truck over three or five years, depending on what type of schedule you put it on. And as you depreciate it, let's just say we put it over five years, so the math's easy on my $50,000. That's $10,000 a year. Oh, by the way, you don't get $10,000 off your taxes either.
Starting point is 00:13:22 You get $10,000 off of your taxable income and so if you're in a thirty percent bracket it saves you three thousand dollars this year to buy a fifty thousand dollar truck your accountant is a moron that math doesn't add up you don't need to be a trade fifty thousand for three thousand you're a moron okay that's just straight up that's just an idiot now here's the thing if you go buy business equipment that you're actually using the business to part most of it is going to be on a depreciation schedule of some kind under some cases you can write the whole thing off in one year maybe it will depending on what biden has done with the
Starting point is 00:14:00 trump tax stuff you may be able to write it all off in one year. But even then, $10,000 write-off for a $10,000 expense saves you $3,000 on your taxes. No, you don't need to go spend money to save on taxes. You're just going to pay some taxes, honey. You became very successful. I'm sorry. It sounds like they should have just been putting that money aside, knowing. I'm guessing they haven't been doing quarterly estimates. Yeah. their accountant is a moron this all happened this year so that this is all new to them but you know taxes aren't new they've been taxes since they've been working so uh they've
Starting point is 00:14:36 got to find a new tax if your partner wants to go buy a truck for cash you should do that with the money that he takes out of the business as his share of the profits and get ready to pay taxes on it do not buy things for your business to save on taxes only buy things for your business that causes your business to become more prosperous now if you have some legitimate things you can invest in that cause you to make even more money in business let's always invest in those we didn't do that for tax reasons. We did that because we're going to make more money on the item we purchased than the item cost.
Starting point is 00:15:09 That's called a return on investment, and that's what you do in business. You don't put money in anything else. But there is no situation in tax where if you spend a dollar, you save a dollar. No. If you spend a dollar, you save maybe a quarter maybe three cents possible exception would be if you spend some money on a new accountant who can do math and that might be a good return can you write that off that's the question have i been unclear about accountants who can't do math any of you cs and accountants who tell people to go run up their expenses
Starting point is 00:15:46 in a business in order to save on taxes ought to have your butt kicked up around your neck. It's ridiculous. When you people running businesses start doing stuff just for taxes, you about to be out of business. When the lawyers and the bean counters run your business, you are screwed. You have to make decisions that are business decisions i'm guessing these are the same people that buy things on their credit card on their business
Starting point is 00:16:10 card to get the rewards it's the same mentality of i'm going to spend 10 grand to get 200 my favorite one was my friend who's an electrician the irony of this just can never has been able to escape me his idiot accountant told him that it was okay for him to buy a houseboat and write it off as a business expense. Now, there's no irony here that we're talking about a boat with electricity, right? An electrician with a houseboat. But I'm trying to explain to him, Junior, it's not a business expense. That's not his name.
Starting point is 00:16:41 His name's not Junior. But I'm like, good Lord, Bubba. I mean, he said, well, I'm. But I'm like, good Lord, Bubba. I mean, you understand. He said, well, I'm going to have like business parties on it. I will entertain customers. How many days a year? Two days a year. Okay, you can actually depreciate two 365ths of this houseboat.
Starting point is 00:17:00 And you can write off the booze that you bought for the party. And that's it, Bubba. That's it. Your accountant is a moron. Oh, my God. This is so freaking stupid. Yeah, the fraction on that hurts my brain. It's so little.
Starting point is 00:17:15 Yeah, yeah. And it's an electrician buying a boat with water and electricity on it. That is always just bothering me. But, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, this is something we get with Entrez leadership all the time. Business people who are smarter than their accountants, smarter than their lawyers, start taking orders from people that are dumber than them.
Starting point is 00:17:40 Got to put people smarter than you around you. No, no. No. No. Go to RamseySolutions.com. Click on ELP for taxes. Get you a new tax person that can add. Can you tell it bothers me a little bit?
Starting point is 00:17:53 You're a little riled up there, Dave. I'm not going to lie. It bothers me a little bit. But I like the fire today. It's, um... Well, business stuff especially riles you up. You've been in this business long enough. 30 years. Well, and I've been helping small businesses with entree leadership we've been tens of thousands of them for decades and i just love small business people and this young guy man
Starting point is 00:18:13 they went out and they kicked butt they are absolutely killing it man i mean they're wearing it out a million dollars in that revenue in the first year half a million in pain contracting that's a lot of pain profit and what happens to a wonderful young guy like this yeah yeah just out of control man it's absolutely out of control you just can't live that way so um no i um you you make all business decisions on economic values, not on tax law. Whatever tax law happens, happens. Now, you can do a few things here or there on taxes. You may want to push some expenses into December too late now if you're on a cash basis accounting system so that you can get the write-off in last year.
Starting point is 00:19:04 Looks like Biden's going to change capital gains, so it would have been a good idea to dump some capital gains stuff last year. You can do some tax planning around some things, and you should do that. You should be wise about this. But this idea that we're going to run up expenses in business to save on taxes, just exhausts me. You done riled them up, Dennis. You done riled them up. Dennis. You done riled them up.
Starting point is 00:19:25 This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Open phones here on the Ramsey Show. It's a free call. Some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. 888-825-5225. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, on the debt-free stage, Kyle and Jessica are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Great. Welcome. Where do you guys live? Austin, Texas. Austin. Very cool. How much debt have you paid off? $175,000. How long did this take? It took us three years and one month.
Starting point is 00:20:46 Three years and one month. And your range of income during that time? We started at $72,000, and right now I'm making about $160,000. That's a nice jump. Yes. Like, what happened to the income, I've got to ask? Just different job opportunities and saying yes. Like somebody wasn't working, now somebody is? No.
Starting point is 00:21:05 No, both of you just went way up. I'm a stay-at-home mom for our two kids, about to be three, and he just got some great job opportunities. What do you do for a living? I'm a software engineer. Oh, okay. Okay, okay. Way to go! And a good one, definitely.
Starting point is 00:21:20 That's amazing. What's the kind of debt? Was this $175,000? $25,000 was car loans, and the rest was student loans. Whoa. $150,000 in student loans. What's your degree in? Computer science.
Starting point is 00:21:32 At least this one's paying off, huh? Yes. Yeah, you're making some good bank with it, and pretty quick. How old are you guys? 26. How long have you been married? We are coming up on five years in a couple weeks. Okay.
Starting point is 00:21:44 Wow. So a couple years into marriage, you're making 70 grand. You got a $175,000 monkey on your back. Ouch. This doesn't sound fun. You're 24 years old at that point, right? Oh, my gosh. This sounds like it was awful yes it was a lot we
Starting point is 00:22:07 um whenever he graduated from school it was all student loans on his end and so we sat down and looked at the numbers and we were really intimidated um but we'd heard about your program before and we sat down and looked at it and we just it made the most sense and so we decided to start um it didn't start right away because we were making so little whenever um he was finishing up school and i was working um but around a year and a half into marriage whenever our daughter was born we started paying off and then three years later here we are i love it wow well one thing about a software engineer when they see a system they work it yes that's it man it's like you're a process guy. You saw the process.
Starting point is 00:22:45 Ding, ding, right? That was it. Yeah. Wow. So what were your payments? Do you remember all the debt added up? What were those payments every month? Oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 00:22:53 She still feels it. I can tell her. Yes. I'm trying to think. Minimums were about $2,000 a month, but we always paid extra for the most part on those. So at least $2,000, but we usually paid quite a bit more. Wow. You're $2,000 a month richer.
Starting point is 00:23:09 Yeah. Oh, it's amazing. It's like unbelievable. I mean, we feel it every single day. I don't think we've forgotten about it since we paid it off. I mean, you can feel the weight off of your shoulders. You physically can feel that. Oh, yes.
Starting point is 00:23:22 Every day. Oh, my gosh. And you guys are 26. I mean, you must have a lot of friends probably other software engineers who are sitting there with another 150 in loans going well i'm just going to pay this off until i die that's the only way yes yeah we figured we were already pretty broke college students and so it wasn't really a big jump going to because we even though we were making more once we graduated um we just pretended like we were still those broke college students um so all that extra money that we were making more once we graduated, we just pretended like we were still those broke college students.
Starting point is 00:23:46 So all that extra money that we were making, we just put towards loans and kind of forgot like we had. So we just lived as frugally as we could in the meantime. Wow. Wow. Okay, so people find out you paid off $175,000. That's impressive. Y'all are studs. This is amazing.
Starting point is 00:24:02 You guys are a power couple, man. This is so cool. So proud of you. Thank you. When they find out you did this, they say, how'd you do that? What do you tell them? Well, one thing that was helpful for me was just having that vision of what you want life to be like in the future. And just every sacrifice and everything you have to do to make that happen.
Starting point is 00:24:21 If you hold that vision, it helps it be more real. And I think just being a team, because we are always on the same page from the beginning, and that made it go so much quicker. And just realizing that we could still have a great life in the meantime, we could still have fun together. We just found a lot of free activities, like we would go hiking with our kids all the time and things that didn't cost extra money. And we just learned to live and enjoy life in the moment. So we learned to to make it fun even when it was really hard yeah it was three years is a long time but in the scope of your life it ain't spit exactly you know you live like no one else you got the rest of your life
Starting point is 00:24:54 to live and give like no one else and man you are yours you got you got a great career choice so you'll be able to make good money and you you know control a lot of your own destiny here you guys are really this is this is impressive thank you this is impressive if you guys accomplish this in three years i'm like what are you going to accomplish in the next 30 i'm i'm scared you guys are going to do so unbelievably well we can't wait we're excited as well we've been dreaming big so yeah what's the next big thing? Buying a house. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, take some trips and buy a save with that down payment up and get a house now. Very good. Very good.
Starting point is 00:25:29 How many kids you got? We have two daughters, and then we're pregnant with our boy right now. Oh, yay! Woo-hoo! That's the Ramsey lineup. Two daughters followed by a boy. Yeah, that's good. We're excited.
Starting point is 00:25:41 Very good. Well, you ought to be. It's great. Good times. Good times. Well, congratulations, you guys. We're that's good. We're excited. Very good. We ought to be. It's great. Good times. Good times. Well, congratulations, you guys. We're proud of you here. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:25:48 You're the kind of people that we love helping, and you're very impressive. Thank you. Very impressive. You're heroes. You took control of your life, and just beautifully, beautifully done. Gives me hope for this generation, Dave. You know, it turns out they're not all bad. Oh, we knew that.
Starting point is 00:26:02 We knew that here. We see it all the time. That's impressive. Very, we knew that. We knew that here. We see it all the time. That's impressive. Very cool. All right, we've got a copy of the Baby Steps Millionaire book that comes out next week, an advanced copy. And because that's the next chapter in your story, you'll be there before you know it at this rate. Bing, ding. Man, you're just zooming right along.
Starting point is 00:26:19 Zooming right along. Very well done. And a copy of Total Money Makeover as well, so you can give that to somebody, disturb their life, help them get on the same track, teach them the system you used, because they're going to ask. Yes. They're going to ask, because you start to walk different and smile different when you don't have almost $200,000 worth of monkey on your back. Definitely. Pretty stinking incredible. You guys are amazing.
Starting point is 00:26:41 Very, very well done. Kyle and Jessica, Austin, Texas, $175,000 paid off, three years in one month, making $72,000 all the way to $160,000 during that three years. Nice jump. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right, three, two, one. We're debt-free!
Starting point is 00:27:03 Yeah! Yeah! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! That is how it's done, boys and girls. Oh my goodness. The future's looking bright for that couple. Yeah. Well, here's the thing.
Starting point is 00:27:20 We see continuously in all of the millionaire data from Baby Steps Millionaire and from the Ramsey Research on Millionaires, all the data that we've got that people who are in industries that are process-oriented have a chance. They have the best chances. So the number one most likely career field to become a millionaire in all the millionaires we've studied as engineer software engineer here right okay the engineers are process driven one plus one equals two we don't have to have an existential argument about it by god one plus one equals two accountants
Starting point is 00:27:59 number two teachers number three and if you know anything about putting together a lesson plan or running a classroom full of animals that's called teaching, then you know they are process-driven people. Number three, managers and entrepreneurs. Number four, lawyers. If you've ever dealt with lawyers, they're process-driven human beings. The five top career fields of people who end up being millionaires are all process-driven. Now, that's not to say that if you're an artist, you don't have a shot.
Starting point is 00:28:34 You have a shot. But you need to understand that there's a correlation between following a freaking process and becoming wealthy. That's why we wrote The Baby Steps Millionaire. It's a process to become wealthy, and you have to submit yourself to a process, not try to be an artist with it. It's science. It ain't art. Yeah, that's a great way to put it, and you're right. There's this level of you can't just wish for it.
Starting point is 00:29:01 You can't just hope for it. You have to put the behaviors in play to make it happen. But, you know, those of us that have a creativity binge, you and me included. Yeah. I'm a process guy, but I've also got a creativity binge, meaning that I always question everything. Right? I have to go, well, I don't care about your baby steps. I want to make my own.
Starting point is 00:29:20 You know, I'm the same moron out there that some of you are that are listening right now. Don't go make your own. It's painful. You know? I'm the same moron out there that some of you are that are listening right now. Don't go make your own. It's painful. You know, follow the plan. You know what that guy did? He didn't even question it. He just did it. He just did it.
Starting point is 00:29:33 This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Max is in Corpus Christi. I'm Max. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Howdy, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure, man.
Starting point is 00:30:20 What's up? So I'm a midshipman, second year midshipman at the United States Naval Academy. And I'm just kind of trying to figure out how I want to set up my outlook going forward. So I'm going to graduate here in two and a half years with no debt. Or I have the option of doing that. Or I can take what's called a career starter loan. No! From USAA.
Starting point is 00:30:42 Well, it's a.75% interest loan. Okay. Because the idea was to cover your car and home. No! No! No! No! You're not covering your car. You're borrowing money for a car. Fair enough. That's what my brother-in-law said you'd say. That was easy.
Starting point is 00:30:58 Hold on. So you said the other option was graduate debt-free? Yeah. Or you can go $50,000 in debt, right? grand in debt right uh 32 yeah what's wrong with somebody ought to smack those people for doing that to you guys you guys are serving your country thank you so much for who you are young man thank you please don't go falling into a ditch okay because it was because all the financial investors are like well most people that do it beat the interest within a year in the stock market. Hey, let me tell you what they are.
Starting point is 00:31:29 They're full of crap. Okay? And let me tell you why I know that. I'm not just making this up. We studied, Max, 10,000 millionaires. The largest study of millionaires ever done in north america do you know how many of them told us that they borrowed money at one percent interest and invested it in the market and that caused them to be millionaires precisely zero Zero! None of them!
Starting point is 00:32:06 Very well. And they weren't trying to get a commission off of a young midshipman to get him to borrow money at the freaking credit union to put it into his mutual fund. You need to run from those financial people, because they haven't got your best interest at heart. You are a sharp young guy. You're getting ready to go. I assume you're going to be an officer, correct? Yes, sir.
Starting point is 00:32:28 You're in the Navy of the Marine Corps. I'm hoping to fly for the Marine Corps. Yeah. Oh, you're going to fly. Oh, even better. Wow. Good for you. Man, that's amazing.
Starting point is 00:32:36 And so your future in an aircraft, military or non-military later, is bright. Your income is bright. Everything is there. Don't saddle yourself with these kinds of problems all in an effort to accelerate your wealth building process because there's no data points to back it up. That makes sense. Okay. Man, I appreciate who you are, and I really don't want you to do this.
Starting point is 00:33:03 I hope you're hearing me loud and clear. I'm not just being a smart aleck with you i am being a smart aleck with the morons around you though oh my gosh yeah anyone who's selling him on the benefit of thirty two thousand dollars in debt is not looking out for him so let me let me just kind of walk this through george for a second it's important because it sounds like we don't know how to do math to people like those people that are advising him so for you morons out there that are teaching you some young guy stuff like this here's where you're wrong okay at thirty two thousand dollars and he can borrow the money at one percent or so if he invested in mutual funds and he made 10 or 12 percent does he not make the spread yes, does he not make the spread? Yes, he does.
Starting point is 00:33:46 He does make the spread. However, what you need to understand is that your formula that you have used is A, naive and incomplete, B, short-sighted. Let me explain. Naive and incomplete means you have not factored in risk. Let me show you how I know you have not factored in risk let me show you how i know you've not factored in risk it didn't bother anyone that this young guy's going to borrow 32 000 at one percent so let's just put some x's on it if 32 000 at one percent makes him profit if he could do 3.2 million at one percent should he no what's the difference it's a bigger number the bigger number makes your heart measure the risk you feel it some of you just got tight in the chest or your stomach raised up just a little bit even when i suggested that the young
Starting point is 00:34:41 man be 3.2 million dollars in debt but if the math works at $32,000, why wouldn't the math work at $3.2? Because at $3.2, you finally physically felt in your chest the risk. But you didn't feel it before, so you thought you were some kind of B.A. with your math. You left out risk. You left out risk you left out risk risk is math and you have to insert risk in the process and otherwise you get your freaking head taken off and so just because the risk feels small doesn't mean it's not there and doesn't mean it's that you so your your your formula one percent versus 10 or 12 percent spread is incomplete because you left out risk number two it's naive because you
Starting point is 00:35:36 didn't take into consideration the fact that you have a young man getting into the cockpit of a fighter jet some of the most sophisticated equipment on the planet, where you can kill someone over the horizon and never see them, or be killed by someone over the horizon and never see them. It is a bizarre set of technology, the world's best in humankind history, and you have a young guy in his early 20s getting ready to climb into that cockpit oh and let's go ahead and put in the back of his mind that he has thirty two thousand dollars worth of debt and act like that doesn't matter of course
Starting point is 00:36:16 it matters the number three cause of dishonorable discharge in the military is financial irresponsibility they lose their security clearance and they lose their battle readiness because they're preoccupied with crap in the back of their mind because some moron financial advisor suggested there was a spread between one and ten there's more to this stuff folks than meets the eye that's my point yeah and you also have to wonder how much payments beget payments where he goes all right well i've already got the storage 2000 why not go get a car loan uh and why not go get payments over here and payments over here and run up a credit card and it just becomes normalizes it normalizes it exactly and i gotta tell you man these guys preying on the military people, it pisses me off.
Starting point is 00:37:06 You leave a military base and, you know, if you go to a military town, you leave the military, you leave the gates of the base. As soon as you leave the gates of the base, there is stupid on each side of the road for about two miles. Every dumb human trick you can do is on one side of the road or the other for about two miles. They are set up like a bunch of freaking piranha to feed on these guys from payday lenders to whoever else out there. And this is an innocuous kind of a loan he's talking about. There's nothing to this loan. But, I mean, the horrible financial products, horrible deals on cars, horrible behaviors they can engage in, none of which are good for them, none of which are good for their battle readiness,
Starting point is 00:37:53 none of which are good for their military career. And it's just sad that these people are preying on the very people who are young people who are not making a lot of money in most cases, and they're here to serve us. Yeah. What do you think makes them more vulnerable to these kinds of decisions? Well, it's the same age as a college student who went and got a degree in beer pong. You know, you got stupid outside the college. As soon as you walk off the college campus for two miles,
Starting point is 00:38:24 you got stupid on each side of the road too it's the same thing they're preying on the young that are inexperienced at life and think that i want to try all these new things that look like fun and will bring death death to your finances death to your relationships death to your future relationships uh i mean it's it's it's I mean, it's a problem, man. It's a problem. And so I'm not suggesting legislation to protect it, but I am suggesting that the military really ought to do some orientation. It's like a college should do an orientation. It's not just about what's happening on the campus.
Starting point is 00:39:01 It's about what's happening just off the campus that'll kill your butt and mess you up and set you on a trajectory that takes you 10 years to recover from and you know you're turning a guy 18 gal 18 years old loose with their first paycheck unsupervised and and and the first thing you do is drop them in a pool of piranha and it's just oh my god man stop pisses me off can you tell i can tell i mean we just love the military and we've worked with them for so many years with a big part for financial peace university and they're they're the vast majority of them are young very young and are susceptible this kind of thing and and's harsh. It's really harsh. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:40:00 If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.

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