The Ramsey Show - App - Dave's Thoughts on Where Higher Education Is Going (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 27, 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. Thank you for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, best-selling author, is my co-host today here on the air. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Kelsey's with us in Minneapolis. Hi, Kelsey. How are you?

A little nervous. I'm doing well, though. Cool. How can we help? Yeah, so my husband and I, we bought our house last October. We don't have any kids. We really love the neighborhood that we're in. We're in a pretty big lot. However, we love planning ahead, using your steps. We're in step three right now.

I'm about to wrap it up. Anyways, in about five years from now, we will need more space, more than likely. And so we're just trying to get some information and understand what the dayway is. If we take out a new mortgage and move outside of the cities, or do we stay where we are and take out a construction loan instead and spend less money that way? Currently, we're set to pay off our home in full in seven to eight years from now using your program. But this need is coming up in five. What's going on in five years?

We currently don't have any kids, but we are starting to talk about what that looks like for us timeline wise. And we have a limited number of bedrooms and we'd like to expand the house up in the currently the housing market. We're at the low end of the market. We've got like the ugliest and cheapest house in the block. And so we're actually about 150, 200 K below the average price right now, selling in our immediate neighborhood. And so a comparable house that we're looking at would be even more than that for what we're looking to have in a number of bedrooms and all that. Okay. Well, I would say a lot's going to happen in five years. And so I feel like you don't have to make this decision now. I would wait. And then once you have a baby, maybe you have another one and you guys are like, okay, we want to move. Everything may change. You may say, hey, we

actually want to be closer to the city. Or you may say, hey, actually, we want to be in the suburb. Or hey, I mean, who knows what's going to happen? So I just don't feel like, I feel like this decision, I don't feel like you need to make it right now i think you're okay to sit and wait and be patient continue the baby steps fund retirement start yeah working that mortgage down and then once you get to the point that you're like okay we want to start moving then look at your options and see where you guys want to be exactly that's what you did yes you were in a house and and yeah uh i mean two babies come the third one's on the way and y'all start thinking about okay where do we want to live and but you would the house you built that you and winston just moved in about a year ago um at uh at the location you built it

five years before you could not have possibly anticipated it didn't even exist the development i don't think i know but i mean the the point being and that's what i'm saying is like yeah you can't like just yeah make the make the call you can't you can't you can't know what you're going to do because you don't know what your options are going to be what your uh your feelings towards things are going to be and so it's uh yeah you don't you don't need to worry about it yes i like the idea that you guys are planning ahead kelsey and i talk about a lot just dreaming and thinking okay what are my goals what am i saving towards and your money helps fuel those dreams so i think it's still

fun to dream and say yeah what if we built a house what we wanted to look like you know just like have fun and dream but don't feel like you have to make a long-term decision from five years to today yeah and piling up some cash put being debt-free puts you in a position to make choices when it gives you options, when you do get to the point that you're ready to make that call. Matt's in Greenville, South Carolina. Hey, Matt, how are you? Doing great, Dave. How about yourself?

Great, man. How can we help? Well, I'm kind of in a catch-22 here. I just recently went through financial coach master training back in March. A great program, by the way. Thank you very much for that. Thank you. And so I'm getting plugging away, and it's been going pretty well, and to a point where now I really consider this God's calling on my life as far as for my career.

My question is, though, I currently am doing I'm working in a restaurant kitchen making 13 an hour. And I was driving for Lyft as well on the side just to create some savings. But I had a car accident about a month and a half ago. And so it's kind of taken that income away. So my question is, how do I try to increase my income, you know, the support getting going with the coaching business to try to get it to where I can do that full time? You had a car wreck.

Were you injured? No, no. What happened to the car? The insurance company declared it a total loss. So I'm basically, we are a one-car family right now. Well, did you not have insurance? Yeah, we did. They give you a check.

Why didn't you buy a car? Because we didn't have enough in savings to buy the car. Didn't they give you a check for the car when they totaled it? Yes, they did. How much was that? About $2,800. Okay okay and so you got that money yes sir won't you buy a car we're we're we're looking for a car right now okay well i mean and then you're back driving again right yes sir okay. And then your income comes right back. Yes, sir.

Okay. So you're looking, though, Matt, your question, you want to be full-time doing coaching and working on that. So, yeah, I mean, I would say work and focus some of your time on that and try to increase that business. And then by the time that you're able to, time have enough income coming in from that then you can drop the 13 an hour job or drop the lift job do what you need to do to cut those hours down to continue to coach and up that oh maybe i misunderstood i thought he was saying how do i replace the income that i lost due to losing the car and i was going get a car and start doing it again that was to me, but maybe I misunderstood. Yeah, I took it as he wants to do coaching full time.

So how does he do that? I know he wants to do that, but he said, until I get to that point, I need to create some income. And I'm like, well, go back and do what you were doing before. Get you a car. That's what I was thinking. You may be right. I have no idea. I'm not sure.

I'm lost now. All right. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You guys jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. What he's referring to is the FCMT. We call it Financial Coach Master Training. And we have that whole series online that you can go through and learn how to do one-on-one coaching.

Some people do that as a volunteer item at the ministry at their church and that kind of a thing, or they just want the knowledge. Other people, like in his case, are wanting to, you know, they coach for a fee and help people for a fee, and we send them referrals as well. Once people call us in your city we don't have coaches all over we send them to someone who's been trained by us and uh then they can sit down and they charge a fee he's just not been getting enough of that business yet to be full time at it

but wants to be and that's cool that's cool he'll get there i'm sure very good good stuff this is the d Ramsey Show. One question I get asked all the time is, do I need life insurance? Listen, the whole point of life insurance is to replace your income for someone who counts on you. So if you have a spouse or you have kids, yes, you need term life insurance. It's the only way to protect them until you're out of debt and have built up your wealth. You're only digging a deeper hole if you waste money on cash value plans since it robs you of the ability to make real progress. And that's why I send you to Zander Insurance, and I have for 20 years.

That's where I get all my insurance, and they only offer the plans I recommend. It is not expensive. It's not complicated. And Zander will be there as your guide every step of the way. Visit Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. You need to get this taken care of. I can give you the advice, and I can tell you where to go, but it's really up to you to take that important step to get your family protected. That's zander.com or 800-356-4282. when it comes to staying focused with your goals 2020 has uh thrown a few curve balls this year

a knuckleball or two as well this year showing you what is really important to you um you know when things get hot you really know exactly what's real, don't you? And so right now is a good time to start thinking about your goals for 2021 because really pretty much all of us want 2020 over with. It can start with Christy Wright, our number one best-selling author. She just launched the brand new 2021 Goal Planner.

Having this planner is like having christy as your personal coach to plan the year ahead she's got the gold worksheet and then you can start and you start on that today the planner itself has the monthly weekly daily calendar sections plus new monthly teachings action plans powerful journal journaling and prayer prompts why am i telling you this today for a 2021 planning? Because it's on sale now. And we only produce so many of them, and they will be gone. And when they're gone, they're gone.

And so you want to go ahead and order that now. Christy Wright's 2021 Gold Planner. You can get it at DaveRamsey.com. Rachel, these are so popular. You were just signing one just a minute ago. Beautiful. Look at it. Yes.

I'm like seeing it on the YouTube screen right now for 2021. The new cover is done, original art from one of our graphics people, right? It's awesome. Oh, I'm sure. It's just great. And there was some pink in there and the Dave Ramsey show-esque. I love it. Look at the pink on the screen.

What's that mean? It's just, I love it. I love bringing in some. Some pink? Oh, there it is. Look at it. It's gorgeous. It is pretty. So anyways, all this I know, mean it's just it's just i love it i love bringing in some pink oh there it is look at it it's gorgeous it is it is pretty so anyways i'll just say no but it's incredible it's it's like i mean all you ladies out there you'll love it and you just signed one at the break for somebody out in the lobby that from last year's planner yes yep yes she said she was getting everyone's signature people are so i signed christy's product. I was like, sorry, Christy. I mean, people have been using these planters for years.

And every year we make them, they've been getting better and better and better. And Christy's getting better and better and better at it. Yeah, because it's not just like a calendar in there. There's so much good content throughout the year. So it's awesome. Go ahead and preorder it right now at DaveRamsey.com. And then as soon as they get in, we'll ship them over to you guys you can see how beautiful it is those of you not watching youtube right now see all the pink all right lindsey's with us lindsey's in sheridan

wyoming hi lindsey how are you great thanks how are you thanks for taking my call today sure what's up so i was just calling my husband and I are currently making 529 contributions for our daughter and nieces and nephews. And it kind of came up in discussion. What do we do? We want to be able to gift them all equally, but you know, what would be your recommendations or thoughts on, you know, if one of them went to a trade school or something that doesn't cost quite as much, you know, we're kind of thinking, you know, if one of them went to a trade school or something that doesn't cost quite as much, you know, we're kind of thinking, you know, what would we be able to do to help them all equally if they don't choose the same path in life,

if that makes sense? If you had the same amount of money in there, wouldn't it be unequal? Well, my thought, you know, like if one of them went to a trade school that only cost $20,000. They would have the money left over. They'd have the money left over, wouldn't they? They would, but, I mean, if it can't be used for an educational purpose, if they're done with their education, my thought was, you know,

do you have an idea, like, if we wanted to perhaps help with, like, a down payment on a house, do you think it's wise to invest it all in a 529 or go other routes so we have more than one option well i mean most people do not get enough into their 529 to pay for college okay and so most of the time this is a theoretical discussion so most of the time the answer is put all you can in the 529 because it's still not going to be enough even even for trade school now if you're way way way ahead of the curve and you've done a great job and you're worried about having $200,000 in a 529

and then they go do something for $60,000 at a trade school, that's a valid concern then. And if you're really looking at those actual numbers and that's actually occurring today, then you say, okay, I'm going to split it off. I'm just going to put some in a mutual fund in that kid's name, and I'm the custodian. Okay, that's exactly what we want to do.

Yeah, and that's a custodian account. But I'm not doing that if you don't. If you have $5,000 in your 529 and you're putting 50 bucks a month in there, I'm not doing that. I bet you don't, Lindsay, though, because you're talking about a down payment even. I mean, are you guys? How much is in the 529 today?

I mean, they're all like one and two years old. Okay, so you don't have to worry about today i i don't worry we it just came up in discussion and we thought well should we go this route yes you should go this route you should go this route until you have enough in the 529 that it starts to be an issue and you know so if you get up to 100 or something in a 529 after that you can start talking about putting some of it somewhere else. If you think that kid might be a trade school kid instead of a four-year kid. And by the way, either one's fine with me. I'm great with that.

But don't split it off today. And $50 here, $50 there, that'll drive you nuts. And you're missing out on all the tax benefits. it's going to grow tax free in that 529 so the college world is a changing it's changing we're talking about that during the break i know and there's a lot of i mean i've heard i think probably more in the last two years and even more so since the pandemic and everything and how much online has gone and everything i mean it's just it's crazy that people really are kind of questioning okay what's education going to look like in 20 years right she said that they're those kids or the accounts

are one or two years old but if you have kit littles and winston and i were still funding kids college we're still doing it um but i think it is an interesting conversation though of what education could look like in 20 years but you were were saying at the break, you're like, yeah, but it's higher education is not going away. You're still going to be using those funds. But it's I don't know. No, I mean, are people going to there's two things that have happened that have jarred everybody out of their their their zombielike sense about education and one is that this student loan debacle epic failure of the student loan system and uh and one of the results of that huge mess is that higher education is has shot through the roof and cost so it's so stinking expensive that it's making

everybody go this is just stupid and then the second thing that's happened is pandemic. Now they're still trying to charge for all that. Online. And you can't go back and you're socially distanced. And so there's four people in the class or some kind of crap. And they're going, uh-uh, that's not exactly the college experience, in air quotes, I had in mind. And so they're going, no, I'm not paying full price for, you know, online. If I'm going to do online, I'm going to jump on somewhere and take a $29 course.

Screw this. And so that has changed the consumer's mindset of education. Those two things have given, really given higher ed two black eyes right now. Yeah. And we, I know we don't have a crystal ball. You don't have a crystal ball, but seriously though, what do you think if you were to predict in 10 years? I mean, like literally the online stuff has just shaken everyone to their core because people are, I mean, everything, like the things you thought were never going to happen, happened during the pandemic and people are so comfortable with the internet. There's, I mean, even Ramsey plus, right.

We were able to launch what was a standard class for so long online, and it's amazing. So, like, things are changing so quickly in that regard. I mean, you don't have a crystal ball, so it's unfair to even ask, but I'm just curious your thoughts on what education could look like, especially higher education where you're paying $40,000 a semester or a year at these private schools that aren't even meeting now. Like, it's wild. Well, obviously, if they don't start meeting nobody's going i mean they're they're gonna lose all their customers and so you know it's it's like if churches don't keep meeting don't start meeting again then you

know it's gonna be there's gonna be a fallout there in this country that's going to be unbelievable. And so if people don't get past the fear on these things and start coming back together, then, and I didn't think it would take as long as it's taken. I thought it'd be back to normal by now. So what the crap do I know? So I don't know anything. But I do think higher ed, for the first time, people are stepping back and giving it a really hard look. And not to say that it's invalid, because I really do not think higher ed is invalid. I really think it's valid. I would want all of my six grandbabies today to get a four-year degree. That would be my goal as their Papa Dave. Am I going to be mad at them if they go get a vo-tech degree? No, I'm not going to be mad at them. But I think there is a benefit to a four-year education.

I still believe that. Now, how we go about doing it, 18 years from today for little Charles? Right. There may be a whole different way of doing it. 17, he's almost a year. Okay, 17 years from now. He could do it in 16 because he's so smart. That's right, 10 months.

Genius. This is the Dave Ramsey personality, bestselling author, is my co-host on the air today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Roxanne is in Tampa. Hey, Roxanne, how are you? Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. I am about a month into Ramsey Plus. I'm loving it.

Good. And I have called today because I also, as you advised me to do, I got rid of my very expensive car and I bought a $6,000 beautiful car. Nice. Good for you. So, and it's paid off, which I love. So my next question though, is I have a lot of student loans, and I'm a public educator, so I have the Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which is a program where if you pay for 10 years, you get the rest of your loans forgiven. No, you don't. It was a scam. Have you not read the articles?

95,000 people have applied for it after their 10 years of service. 18 people have had their loans forgiven. Everyone else was denied. Oh, wow. No, they didn't do it. They scammed you. So there are some loan forgiveness programs that are real. That one has not worked out.

And I would not wait 10 years and hope that the government keeps its word because they haven't. Okay. I would just get the loans paid off. So that was my question. My question was do I wait it out or do I put it into my debt snowball? Debt snowball and get rid of it. How much debt have you got?

It's about $200,000. Oh, man. Oh, my goodness. What grade do you teach? I'm in a K-8 school. I'm an assistant principal. Oh, okay. Okay, good. And are you single or married? Single. And what's your income? My income is about 63. How long have you been an assistant principal? For about 12 years. Okay. It's going to take you a while.

I hope it doesn't take you 10 years. But that is a small shovel in a big hole. And so you may be starting a tutoring business on the side to get some income coming in and try to double your income over a period of time here so that you can attack this at a faster rate. But your return on investment, $200,000 invested to get a $63,000 job, was horrible. It was a horrible return for you. I'm sorry for that. I'm glad that you're there, and I'm glad you're an assistant principal, and I'm glad that people like you are serving. I'm very sorry that you're that far in debt to get that kind of an income. I mean, so my goodness. Yeah, it's going to take you a little while, kiddo. But I would not be waiting on the government to do it. I'm going to just start chipping away at it and figuring out what I can do to get my income up and attack it as fast as you can.

That's distressing. Well, it's so hard when these, I mean, you get these numbers like that. And sadly, they're more common than not these days. I mean, like that upwards of six figures, people, it's the reality. And so that, it just takes, it's going to take a lot. People spend $250,000 and then they're an MD, making $150,000, $200,000 a year. And it's just, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. So, guys, if you guys have not listened to the eight-episode series called Borrowed Future, the podcast that the Ramsey Networks did, you guys need to go listen to it.

And so you understand how bad the student loan program is. You've, you know, we the people, it has destroyed people's lives, and we the people are doing this to ourselves. And you and I are guaranteeing these loans because we're taxpayers. And so we're putting people like her in bondage, allowing her to do that to herself and oh i'm so sorry what a horrible i'm so sad um but yeah that and this is why the student loan program has to be stopped it's not working it has to be stopped it's out of control it's an epic failure and so um it's just um i mean she she's going to be scratching and

clawing for a while that's just heartbreaking all right yolanda is with us in san diego hey yolanda how are you i'm i'm fine fine i'm very, but thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? This is an estate-related question. Just some background. I'm in Baby Step 2, and I've been going really hard at my debt. and my brother, actually, before he passed away a year ago, had always, every time I saw him while he was ill, was telling me about this land, acres of land that we had in Louisiana, and he was like, you can't let this land go to waste. You have to take care of this land. He had learned that my grandfather's land had oil being drilled on it, of which oil royalties could be collected. It's also classified as timberland. And I think it

looks like it's over 40 acres. And so he passed away and it has been put heavy on my heart to go ahead and delve into this situation. So I've done some research. I found out that the land is in my grandfather's name, who passed away back in 1982. And since then, my father passed away in 2011. And then my brother, like I said, he passed away in 2019. then my brother like i said he passed away in 2019 are you the only survivable heir or were there cousins and nephews and nieces so from my research i do have one surviving brother um my other two brothers passed away, they also had children. And my grandfather only had two sons, my dad and I guess my uncle. I had no relations with them. And so right now what I did, since I really did not

know how to handle this, I reached out to an estate attorney in Louisiana who says that I need to have a land succession performed or done, and he's going to charge me $3,500, and I think there's like $400 of court fees. Do you have any idea what the land is worth? That's the thing. I have no idea what the land is worth? That's the thing. I have no idea what the land is worth. It might not be worth $3,500. Well, they are drilling oil on this land. Who's getting the royalty checks? Well, that's what I asked the attorney. So the attorney says that in the state of Louisiana, that if the oil royalty checks are uncollected over a 10-year period, that money goes to the state. That would be true in most states.

And so I believe that no one has ever collected any of the oil royalties for this land. There may not be any, though. But if they're drilling oil, there wouldn't be. They might be and they might not be. This sounds like swampland in Florida to me. I just, I don't think you, I think this is a pipe dream, kiddo. I'm not spending $3,500 on an attorney until I get a lot more information. I want to know what the royalty checks are, where they've been going.

I want the line of succession, how many brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles, aunts, and people are going to be splitting into this money. You could easily spend $3,500 and get a net when you're done of $1,000 after the property is sold. Because that oil that's out there, they're pumping natural gas out of there, and they're not getting any dead gum oil at all. I mean, this is all rumor and legend. This is so funny. I'm the opposite. I'm like, did you hit a jackpot? I mean, how do you not know, though?

How do you not know that there's just tons of oil in all these royalties? If it was a big pile of money, somebody would have already been jacked up about it. It wouldn't have been going to the state. The brother was trying to tell her. Somebody. Her brother would have been all over there camping out on the place uh get in there and dig around if you want kids don't don't don't drop a bunch of money on this until you get some more information this is the day ramsey shot I'm going to go ahead and get started. our scripture of the day psalm 37 24 though he fall he shall not be cast headlong for the lord upholds his hand theodore roosevelt says the only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything. Absolutely true.

Okay. We all have this secret desire, wish, fantasy down inside of us that a rich uncle that we didn't know existed is going to show up and save the day. We all think the Calvary is coming and um and i i know i sound like an old grouch or something but the calvary's not coming you are the calvary you are the secret sauce you are the answer to your equation. The White House is not going to fix your life. You don't have a mystery rich uncle. And it's doubtful that you have an oil field that your great-grandfather left you that no one ever told anybody about in the family.

It's a fantasy thing that we all have down inside of us that we want to be true, that suddenly it's going to be easy. Suddenly all of our problems are going to be true, that suddenly it's going to be easy. Suddenly all of our problems are going to be solved, and we're going to click our ruby slippers together three times. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. We all have that.

It's part of the human nature because we have in our spiritual DNA a memory of heaven. And we're reaching for that, and we have this thing that that's going to occur. Somehow this is utopia is around the corner. It's going to get easy. There's no struggle. There are no more tears. The rich uncle is going to die and leave us a millionaire or there's an oil field the family and so the problem you can get into because we all have that and um the problem is it

never happens in reality you don't have a mystery rich uncle you really don't i mean it doesn't happen the the times that that happens if you're, and I want people to spend your money and your energy and your time on things that do happen, which is you getting better, you winning, not you. There's no easy button. That's a commercial. There's not a real easy button. I appreciate that. Yes, I totally agree yes i totally agree i totally and so you because i every time this is how people get scammed and it very well could be with our last

caller that the only money that is made in this entire transaction is a lawyer gets paid 3 500 bucks and she's in baby step Yeah. Trying to work her way out of debt. But there's this thing over in the mist that if I could pull the curtains back and I could get all the way, it's going to get easy. It's not. It's just, I'm sorry. I don't think so. I think if there was a multimillion-dollar thing happening over there, someone in the family would have already been cashing in.

I mean, how screwed up and inbred does your family have to be to walk away from a $10 million situation? Your cousins, uncles, aunts, and everybody, there would have been, everybody would have been talking about it. It wouldn't have been a mystery whispered as they, on the deathbed of the last three people that died or something. It would be like, da-da-da-da-da. I mean, think about it about it folks if your family had

their 10 or 15 million dollars laying around somewhere everybody would be fighting over it talking about it arguing about it looking at it going where's those dadgum royalty checks going it's if it's ten dollars and it's swampland nobody gives a crap and and they don't even pay the taxes on it but it may it may you $60,000 to get the back taxes paid on it. You know? And so this is – That is wisdom of the ages. It's just –

I am a young, youthful, hopeful person. Well, and you're a conspiracy theorist. You love a good conspiracy, and you love a good mystery. You love a good – your mama loves a good mystery. I mean, why not? And this is like a mystery and it's not it could be it could be and it's okay to investigate it chances are but don't place your hope on the white house the white house is not going to fix you

joe biden or donald trump or whoever ends up up there isn't going to fix your life i'm old i've seen a bunch of every brand, and every one of them comes in promising crap, and so far none of them have made my life good. They just take stuff from me at the point of a gun, you know, called the IRS. You know, they don't give me, you know. And so I'm not watching the Democratic Zoom or the Republican Zoom convention going, oh, oh, finally, finally, now it's going to be okay. Do you notice? We're not going to talk about it.

We're going to drop it in a second. I know. But it's just, it is funny, though. Every election, though, they say this is the most important election. Every election. This is the most important election. This is the most important election every election this is the most important election this is the most important election and what happens up there is important because those people can screw up christmas oh my god the island of misfit toys on parade and and so you know but

but don't place your hope on the wrong stuff let me just, place your hope on those two hands that are in front of you, those skills that God gave you, the energy that he gave you, the creativity that he gave you, the power to work and earn money that he gave you. Place your hope on a system that you work, a system that causes you to get out of debt and build wealth and change your, and you change your family tree now there's a place you can place your hope you know but but the the answer to my business problems are not some dadgum consultant that comes in from the outside and has all the answers they don't if they if they had all the answers they wouldn't be a consultant they would be running a business i mean i don't mind listening to a consultant and i and we do consulting people, but we're teaching them and helping them do it for

themselves. There's no magic pill. There's no pill. There's not a one pill I'm going to take. One thing's going to happen. It's all going to be okay. All of a sudden it's okay. It's not going to be okay. That's, you know, it's the same crap with the vaccine on COVID. COVID will all be okay when there's a vaccine. No, it won't. No, it won't. There'll still be COVID. And people are still going to be nutburgers about it, one way or the other.

They're still going to be going crazy out there, right? Same with the lottery. Same with the lottery. They're looking for a magic pill. I'm looking for an easy button. I want an easy button. I want someone else to make this easy for me. I want Yolanda to call back in six months and say.

And tell me that I was wrong. And say, actually, Dave. I got $10 million off of some swampland in Louisiana that had gas wells on it. Remember me, Yolanda. Remember me. I believed in you. I don't. Hey, I believe in you. No, I'm kidding. No, no, no. I believe in Yolanda. That believed in you. I don't.

Hey, I believe in you. No, I'm kidding. No, no, no. I believe in Yolanda. That's my point. I just don't believe in her swampland. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's it.

I'm just saying. No, I know. I'm just playing. Yep. It's possible. Yes. So investigate it. But no, yes.

Putting your hope and your energy and everything. Yes. Don't place your dreams. Right. No, I hear that. Your hopes. And lean over on it to where when it crumbles you fall over don't don't place your hope on the wrong things it'll it'll steal your hope and and you you'll be you know your emotion it take you a decade

to emotionally and financially recover this is how people get scned, that they're trying to get an easy button. I wrote a ridiculous book when I was 16 years old. My dad read it and handed it to me called Con Man or Saint. This guy was a con man. He was a legitimate, real con man, and he'd stolen millions of dollars from people, and he was in jail. He wrote the book from jail, but I don't remember anything about the book except the vague sense of the story and this phrase he said it's almost impossible to con someone who isn't greedy oh wow that's good you're trying to get something for nothing and the con man presents you something for nothing and so you bite and if you don't if you're not greedy, you don't bite.

And so I thought, man, that's an indictment of his victims. He obviously was in jail. He was obviously a jerk, right? Sure. His book was called con man or saint because he wasn't sure. Well, we were all sure if we read the book, it was a con man. But the, uh, he wasn't a saint. But his point is true. And I find myself, when I get desperate, then I'm, in a sense, that's a type of greed.

And I can get over in this thing, and all of a sudden I'm doing stupid butt stuff that I don't need to be doing. All in the name of desperation or greed. Easy money. Easy money. Easy money. Hit the easy button. desperation or easy money. Easy money. Easy money. Hit the easy button. Folks, you're your secret sauce. You're the answer to the equation. You can do this stuff.

Rachel, thanks for hanging out. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember there is ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can listen to Dave, Rachel Cruz, Chris Hogan,

or the rest of the Ramsey Network anywhere with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Catch all of our full shows, browse by the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Catch all of our full shows, browse by topic, or send clips to your friends. Head to the App Store and download the Ramsey Network app today.