The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Cheat On Debt With Your 401(K) (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 19, 2018

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Starting point is 00:00:00 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Stephanie starts off this hour in Louisville, Kentucky. Hi, Stephanie.
Starting point is 00:01:01 How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Yes, we are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Yes, we are on baby step number two, and my husband right now is contributing to his 401K, and I'm trying to convince him to stop doing that temporarily, and he just doesn't want to because he doesn't want to miss out on the match.
Starting point is 00:01:21 And I've tried to tell him that we're going to pay down now so that later we can contribute more. And I'm just having a hard time getting him to agree to that. Okay. So, um, uh, how wealthy are you all? Um, we make about a hundred thousand a year. But how much money do you have? Um, not that much saved up. And his 401, he has probably around 16,000 a year. But how much money do you have? Not that much saved up.
Starting point is 00:01:46 And his 401, he has probably around $16,000 right now. And then I'm a stay-at-home mom, but I work part-time as well. And you have how much debt? We have about $62,000, not including our house. And so you have what's called a negative net worth. Do you know what I mean? Yes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:09 And the man that has a negative net worth has a financial plan. Your husband. Uh-huh. That's kind of like hiring a fat person to be your personal trainer. Okay. Does that make sense? it does yeah so um i mean he can do whatever he wants but i don't hire someone to be my personal trainer unless i'm going to submit to their suggestions because they have an eight pack and i have a keg right and so i have to do what they say in order to get to look like they look because my method of eating two pounds of oreos is not working right your husband's method of handling money has a negative net worth.
Starting point is 00:03:08 Knucklehead. You know? Yes. You can play this for him later if you want to off the podcast. But, I mean, it's, you know, at some point you have to say, I don't know how to do this. And so I need to do something better than my best thoughts. Now, let me give you the explanation, and maybe that will help. But until Knucklehead determines that he doesn't have the answers with his negative net worth on how to build wealth, I can't help him.
Starting point is 00:03:45 And you can't either. Okay. Okay. but if you can get past knucklehead ism my wife has to deal with knucklehead too occasionally so there's no it's a part of life right right i don't think your husband's a bad guy i'm just picking on him all right but it's just kind of if you think about the logic flow of it, it's absurd for him to be giving forth his financial wisdom, given that he has a negative net worth. Okay? So you're not on baby step two. You're on your and your husband's version of something that looks sort of like what we teach. Right. version of something that looks sort of like what we teach. But what we teach is if you're on baby step two, you have stopped all investing temporarily
Starting point is 00:04:30 while you get out of debt. And here is why. How long have you all been married? It'll be seven years this year. How long did you date before you were married? About two years. Okay. Let me tell you what you succeed at.
Starting point is 00:04:47 You succeed at things you pay attention to the reason he succeeded at making you his wife was he paid attention to you right the things you focus on are the things you win at and right now he's focused on two things. One, trying to work this weird plan his wife has come up with, this weird guy on the radio told her to do, and at the same time keep investing. He's dating two women. Uh-huh. It ain't going to work. Right.
Starting point is 00:05:18 The lack of focus is what causes people to lose, not math issues. Okay? If his plan and if math could fix your all's mess, it would have been fixed before you ever heard of me. But our plan works because you only date one girl if you want to get married. Okay. So right now you're dating the baby step two girl, and you're completely focused on her and get her out of debt, and that means the matching girl over here in the 403B is no longer in the equation. Okay.
Starting point is 00:05:57 Because otherwise the other one is not going to have fun. It's the focus. You follow me? What you focus on is what people win at. Okay. And you have no chance of winning at something if you don't focus. And the power of that focus supersedes the power mathematically of his match for a one- to a two-year period of time while you all get out of debt. I'm not suggesting he abandoned the match for the rest of his life.
Starting point is 00:06:19 That would be mathematical blaspheming. Right. But for two years, focusing matters, because for two years he focused on you, and you ended up in the altar. Right. Focus. Stop the 401K, even though there's a match. I understand the math.
Starting point is 00:06:40 It's not about math. It's about what you pay attention to is what you succeed at. You can wander into debt, but it takes extreme intense focus to get out. You cannot wander out of debt. You can't play both sides of the field. You can't play the field while you're getting out of debt. It's too powerful. It's too magnetic. It's too big a part of our cultural draw.
Starting point is 00:07:03 And so knuckleheads got to go, I got a negative net worth. I'm going to try a different plan than mine and go all in. Go all in for 90 days. Go all in for six months and see how it works. Submit yourself to a different idea. It's not that it's my idea, except that I've got better fruit from my ideas than he does from his regarding financial things. And not only do I have a positive net worth, but I've also led 30 million people out of debt. So I probably know a little about this.
Starting point is 00:07:41 And so that's the thing. It's not me bragging on me. It's not arrogance. It's not that you you gotta it's not me bragging on me it's not arrogance it's not that at all it's simply this it's you if you if i'm gonna hire an estate planning attorney i need to listen to what he says understand why he's saying it and then agree to do different things than i used to do in order to have a good estate plan. Same thing. Same thing. Whatever it is, you're going to bring an expert into your life.
Starting point is 00:08:10 This is not a DIY thing. Ish is a wish. Doing the baby steps ish is a wish. Don't be an ish-wisher. It doesn't work. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Guys, let's talk about that timeshare pitch that you fell for. They promised you exclusive access to travel anywhere you want. Tropical beaches, mountain getaways, or whatever.
Starting point is 00:09:05 Oh, my gosh. They claimed it was the affordable way to travel anywhere you want. Tropical beaches, mountain getaways, or whatever. Oh, my gosh. They claimed it was the affordable way to travel, and then they convinced you it was a good investment. But here's the deal. Search any auction site for your exact timeshare and see what it's selling for. It's listed for a dollar with no bids. That's not a good investment. Now, I know I'm just adding salt to a very old wound, but, look, if you tried calling the resort and they won't take it back, if you tried selling it and no one will buy it, call Timeshare Exit Team.
Starting point is 00:09:30 Timeshare Exit Team will get you out. You'll have to be patient. It can be a long process, and it costs money, but it works. They're so confident in their exit service that if they don't get you out, you get a 100% refund. Call 844-999-EXIT. It's free to talk. 844-999-EXIT. TimeshareExitTeam.com. Thanks for joining us, America.
Starting point is 00:10:17 We're glad you're here. Arnita is with us in Jacksonville, Florida. Hey, Arnita, how are you? Good, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I just learned about you over the last two weeks, and I'm motivated to pay off debt.
Starting point is 00:10:31 Good for you. So here's where I stand. I got about $35,000 in retirement, $74,000 in the money market account. The income is $50,000. So do I take the money from the money market account and pay off the debt that I have, or can I just work my behind off? No, I just pay it off. How much debt do you have, not counting your house?
Starting point is 00:10:51 Not counting the house. I have 15 for a car loan and 82 for a student loan. Oh, okay. And you make 50 a year. Right. Okay. All right. Yeah, I pay off the car, and I put the rest on a student loan down to $1,000.
Starting point is 00:11:04 That's going to feel really scary. How'd you get the $74,000? Just saved it up over a period of time, which leads me to one other question. Should I take that? Do I leave that there, or do I move it maybe to, because I have the IRA account, which has the $35,000. Yeah, I'm going to leave the $35,000 loan. I'm going to clean out the $74,000 and put it on the debt okay down to one thousand dollars one thousand dollars is baby step one and then that that will leave you about twenty thousand dollars in debt and you got to
Starting point is 00:11:35 knock that out like you used to knock out savings you're going to lean into that debt as hard as you can lean and you're going to knock that debt out in about a year year and a half okay and then once that debt's gone then i want you to take that $1,000 account and raise it back up to three to six months of expenses. Okay. So that way you've got your rainy day fund, and then only then start your long-term investing with your IRAs and your Roth 401Ks or whatever's available to you on that.
Starting point is 00:12:04 So have you read the book, The Total Money Makeover, yet? No, I have not. and your Roth 401Ks or whatever is available to you on that. So have you read the book, The Total Money Makeover, yet? No, I have not. Like I said, I just learned about you two weeks ago. Okay, I'm going to give you a copy of it. It's the baby steps that we talk about. You hear me talking about those all the time on steroids. It's every detail about the baby steps, why we do them, when we do them, why the order is there, and the reason,
Starting point is 00:12:24 even though it feels very uncomfortable through parts of the baby steps. Like when I tell you take that $74,000 and take it down to $73,000 and put it on your debt, you can't hardly breathe when I say that. Right. Because you're a saver, and that pile of money right there gives you a tremendous amount of safety feelings, emotional feelings, and all that kind of stuff. It gives you much more peace than the debt gives you nightmares. Right, absolutely. And I know that. Otherwise, you would have already put it on the debt.
Starting point is 00:12:58 Right. If the debt nightmares were bigger than the peace, you would have already moved it, right? Correct. And so what I'm asking you to do, I know, is emotionally strenuous. But the fastest method between you and wealth is to get control of your most powerful wealth-building tool, not be giving all your money to a bank and be debt-free. When you don't have any payments, building wealth is fairly easy. Okay. Hold the money from the money market and pay off the debt. Yep. When you don't have any payments, building wealth is fairly easy.
Starting point is 00:13:25 Okay. Hold the money from the money market and pay off the debt. Yep. Pay off the car today and then throw the rest of the student loan. It's going to leave about $20,000 on the student loan, if I did my math right. That's only $8,200 on the student loan. $8,200? I thought it was $1,000.
Starting point is 00:13:39 No. Oh, you're breathing better than I thought you were breathing. Okay. I thought you were down to nothing. Oh, my gosh. Yes, you're debt-free by the end of breathing. Okay. I thought you were down to nothing. Oh, my gosh. Yes, you're debt-free by the end of the day. That's a no-brainer. That should be easy for you. Okay.
Starting point is 00:13:52 Yeah, you're done today. Boom. You're debt-free. Okay. You just got to write two checks. Right. Okay, so it's $23,000 out of your $74,000. We got you down to $51,000.
Starting point is 00:14:03 That's still too much because your emergency fund should be three to six months of expenses, and so your emergency fund should only be about 20,000. Okay. And it's 51 after we paid off all your debt. Okay, so the rest, how old are you? I am 47.
Starting point is 00:14:20 Do you own a home? I do. My balance on that is 66. Okay, I'm going to throw about $20,000 at your home. I'm going to pay off the other two debts for $20,000. I'm going to leave $20,000 in your rainy day fund, and then I'm going to make sure you're putting, because you've got no payments now but a house payment. How does that feel?
Starting point is 00:14:38 Right. Pretty good. We're going to take your income now and make sure you're putting 15% for you. That's about $7,600 a year into good growth stock mutual funds in your 401K. Do you have a 401K at work, 403B? I don't. I don't. I'm a substitute teacher. My husband, he's retired military.
Starting point is 00:14:56 Okay. All right. So he's got the good 20-year plan on the retirement? No. No. Oh, he's not retired. He's not retired from 20 years. Okay.
Starting point is 00:15:04 All right. But is he working out other than that? No. How old are you two? He's 57, and I'm 47, like I said. Why didn't he work? He? Why didn't he work?
Starting point is 00:15:16 Well, he's a disabled veteran. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. That's the reason for his retirement. So he's got that income coming in. Good. So tell him thanks for his service. Okay, Yeah. That's the reason for his retirement. So he's got that income coming in. Good. So tell him thanks for his service.
Starting point is 00:15:25 Okay. Good. And so you're working, and you're going to take 15% of your income and throw it into retirement in your 50s, and you're going to have no payments, and we're going to get the house paid off next over the next five or ten years so that by the time you reach retirement, you're going to have a half million dollars and no house payments. Does that feel pretty good? Yeah, it does. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:49 And do you have any survivor benefits on his disability if he passes before you? Yeah, we both have $100,000 in policy, so term policy. Yeah, that's life insurance. But do you have survivor on his income? No, no. Okay. All right, cool. All right, you're doing
Starting point is 00:16:05 good yeah you got oh man i feel so much better 8200 instead of 82 000 that's just a lot better okay good all right so yeah hold on i'm gonna have kelly give you a copy of the total money makeover it'll shop you it'll it'll walk you right through this and reiterate what i just told you to do after you've read it you'll understand and you can go over with him too and the two of you line this out you're gonna be okay you're gonna be okay you can go over it with him, too, and the two of you line this out. You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. But, yeah, you need to clean up. All we're doing here is dusting out the corners. I mean, it's not near as bad as I thought it was.
Starting point is 00:16:30 Good, good, good, good, good, good. All right, Kevin is in Seattle. Hi, Kevin. How are you? I'm good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:16:39 So I am working through Baby Step 2 and just started working through Baby Step 2. And I currently am in school, about halfway done, and I have about $22,000 in student loan debt. I'm wondering a couple things. One, do I stop school until I can pay for it? So that way I'm not continuing with the student loan debt, or do I drop school altogether? What are you studying? It's IT management.
Starting point is 00:17:15 Okay. What do you do for a living? IT management. Why won't they pay for it? The organization I'm at is a nonprofit, and so there's lots of experience, but they don't have the resources for that. I have been going towards project management. I make $67,000 in total, about $75,000 with my wife. Okay, and how much do you have? $22,000 in student loan debt.
Starting point is 00:17:45 What other debt do you have? Grand total, it's about $100,000 with my wife's student loan debt and medical bills and car payments. How much do you owe on your cars? One car, I owe about $3,000, and then the other car I owe about $15,000. Okay. There it is. Okay.
Starting point is 00:18:15 I'm going to tighten up my budget and say I really can't make much progress on my baby step two, but I'm going to finish my degree. What's it going to cost to finish the degree? It would cost probably between another $10,000 to $15,000. It's an online school, and I can work and stuff. And you make $75,000 a year. Yeah. So if you pay minimum payments on everything and get on a beans and rice budget and stay out of restaurants, you can cash flow the balance of your education.
Starting point is 00:18:42 You're not going to make any progress on your debt while you're doing that, but you can finish your education, in which case your income ought to go up $20,000, $30,000 when you finish it. You're going to have to leave that job. You know that. Yeah, I know. Okay. At some point. I mean, you've got to decide.
Starting point is 00:18:58 But if you're going to finish this degree in order to further your career, it's not going to be at that place. They can't afford you once you've gotten this degree. But, yeah, $15,000, finish it. Cash flow it out, man. Just stop paying extra on everything. Cash flow it out. You don't have to borrow more. You can do it.
Starting point is 00:19:16 But you do have to. If you're borrowing more in order to keep doing Baby Step 2 and debt snowballing, then you're just borrowing money to debt snowball. That's dog chasing its tail. There's no need to do that. So just let it sit there and tread water until you get out of school and then hammer it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options?
Starting point is 00:19:56 Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry, a Better Business Bureau-accredited organization CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Health Care Ministries has done for Thank you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org Thanks for being with us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:21:21 Dave is in Chattanooga. Hi, Dave. How are you? Hey. Hey, Dave. How are you? Hey. Hey, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:21:35 Best advice for a 30-year-old man who kind of crossroads what's not right. I can save about $75 a week. Should I invest it in a stock market or should I put it in a savings account? Okay. Well, savings accounts are paying 1% to 2%, and the average mutual fund in the past 25 or 30 years has averaged about 12%. Okay. So for long-term investing, I personally do mutual funds. I spread my IRA investments and my 401k investments across four types of mutual funds, growth,
Starting point is 00:22:11 growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. Put about a fourth in each of those. Look for long track record mutual funds that have been around a long time and that have good to great rates of return and have outperformed the S&P. Not all mutual funds have outperformed the S&P. If you're going to get lazy, you can just buy the S&P. It's the Standard & Poor's 500 Index Funds, or what those are called. But if you want to do a little bit of work with a good investment broker,
Starting point is 00:22:40 like one of our SmartVestor pros, click on SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com, and they can lead you into a group of mutual funds that have outperformed the stock market over a long period of time. Now, a lot of people with a lot of opinions about all that. You can go do what you want to. This has made me millions of dollars. Millions and millions and millions of dollars. And lots and lots of people that we have researched that are millionaires did exactly what I just said.
Starting point is 00:23:10 They simply invested in good growth stock mutual funds over a long period of time. And some of you get paralysis of the analysis and have a lot of economic theories with no economics. So it's a pretty simple equation, guys. And, Dave, that's a really, really good question. Thank you for calling, sir. Stephanie is in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Hi, Stephanie. How are you? Hi, good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband and I are considering building a second home by our parents. Wonderful. We'd like your conservative opinion. Awesome.
Starting point is 00:23:44 Because we're having a hard time pulling the trigger on it. You're going to pay cash? Wonderful. Awesome. You going to pay cash? We are. So we are 31 years old, and our projected income for 2018 is $1.7 to $2 million. Good Lord. My husband's in real estate, and I'm a genetics provider. Look at you two. Way to go. Thank you. Thank you. We've worked hard. We've worked really hard.
Starting point is 00:24:05 Yeah, you have. Yeah, build a house. Well, so there's one factor. Our only debt is we have $1.1 million in a commercial building that's projected to be paid off by the end of 2018. I guess. So it's actually supposed to be paid off by November if everything works out okay. Uh-huh. We own our home outright as well as $3.5 million in commercial real estate outright. You guys are amazing.
Starting point is 00:24:30 Well done. How much money did you inherit? It's just your fabulous income that did this, right? We didn't inherit any. But you're 30 years old? Yeah. Good gosh. My husband's an animal.
Starting point is 00:24:42 So amazing. We lived lean and neat. My parents did have a college account for me that they said, if you have any money left when you're done with school, it's yours to keep. Okay. But I didn't understand. You have an annual income of $1.7 million. Yeah. Holy moly.
Starting point is 00:24:59 Okay. So I'm so proud of y'all. Well done. Thank you. Look at you. So how much does this house cost? Well, we want to do it as cheaply as we can. My husband thinks he can manage a project, and we can do it for about $500,000.
Starting point is 00:25:13 Okay. And you're going to pay cash? Right. But with the monthly payment from our commercial real estate. And then you're going to pay off the commercial real estate a little bit slower because you did this house. No, we're not going to do the house until this commercial property is paid off. Oh, and then you're going to pay cash for the house. Yep.
Starting point is 00:25:32 Oh, that's kind of a no-brainer. Why would you not do it? Well, we've lived so lean and mean for so long that it's hard to pull the trigger on something like this. Okay, let me tell you, there's a balance here, okay? There is great wisdom coming from a 30-something-year-old making this kind of money to say, I'm going to live lean and mean, and I want you to continue to do that. I don't want you to act like you hit the lotto or you're some kind of drunk rock star or something, right, where you lose all your money.
Starting point is 00:26:03 We don't want you to be that guy. You're not heading that way. So let's live lean and mean, but there's three things you can do with money of this size. Matter of fact, there's three things you can do if you have $2, and you ought to do all three at all times. You ought to be giving, you ought to be investing, and you ought to be giving, you ought to be investing, and you ought to be enjoying.
Starting point is 00:26:27 You have been great at investing. I suspect you've been doing a lot of giving. I kind of hear that, but I just heard it between the lines. I didn't actually hear statements. We hadn't talked about that yet. But where you're struggling on those three, it's harder for you to enjoy it because you're afraid you're going to become that guy right the one who made a lot of money and was stupid you don't want to be that guy right right right that's what i'm worried about yeah worried this
Starting point is 00:26:58 is opening so here's how here's how you know you're not that guy and anyway you want and then you can make all these decisions later easily. It's all about ratios. Most people don't have a $500,000 second home that they paid for in cash, but most people don't have a $1.7 million income at 31 years old. So most people are not our measure as to whether this is wise. What our measure is ratios as a percentage of your net worth, as a percentage of your income, what are you spending on toys, lifestyle, and second houses and cars and boats are toys and lifestyle.
Starting point is 00:27:41 I have two second houses, a second and a third house, okay? I have two boats, two sea dues, a bunch of cars, okay? But if you add all of that together, it is less than 5% of my net worth. So if it all burns down tomorrow, my life doesn't change. You follow me? That's how I know I'm not out of control. My giving is much larger than my consuming. My investing is much larger than my consuming.
Starting point is 00:28:12 Even though my level of consumption versus most people, or versus the way I grew up, I'm a kid from Antioch, Tennessee, the life I get to lead today blows my mind. You know? But it's an unusual life. I'm in an unusual place. And so that's just the way it is. So if I buy a brand-new Corvette, which is sitting out front, it doesn't affect. I mean, it's mathematically like when I used to buy a biscuit, you know. You follow me?
Starting point is 00:28:43 And that tells me I'm not being spiritually out of control. I'm not worshiping stuff because the percentage is such a small percentage of my life. Now, other people see it, and they've all got a lot of things to say about what you do. But other people aren't running your life. And other people weren't given $1.7 million income by God to manage. It was given to you. So you keep your ratios in check and take all your toys and put them in a pile and say, if we lost them all tomorrow, would it mess up our life severely? Financially, not emotionally.
Starting point is 00:29:15 Emotionally, it would be a problem, right? But severely. My lake house, boats, houses, cars all went away tomorrow. I wouldn't even blink financially. And you wouldn't either. Would you? No. Okay.
Starting point is 00:29:29 I mean, you could lose your house. You could lose this $500,000 house. You could lose all your cars and whatever other toys you've got sitting around. And with your income and your net worth already, you told me you got $3.5 million in commercial real estate and a $1.7 million income. It wouldn't matter. So your ratios are in check, and that says that you're not that guy. That guy is the guy that makes $1.7 million and spends $17 million with his posse.
Starting point is 00:29:56 That's that guy. Or gives his mama an $8 million house that makes $1.5 million a year. That's that guy. You're not going to be that guy. That's where the ratios went the other way out of whack. Over the top. So you're doing great. Hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of our latest book called The Legacy Journey. It's the only book I've
Starting point is 00:30:14 ever written about wealth. All the other books I wrote were about money. And it talks a lot about the stuff we just talked about here. Even the spiritual implications of it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Okay, I need you to listen to this, because one normal routine that everyone does can cause total chaos in your life. I'm talking about the simple act of using Wi-Fi. When you're on Wi-Fi anywhere in public or at home,
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Starting point is 00:31:34 Download Hotspot Shield by Anchor Free today. Today, stores around the world are offering Black Friday prices in July. This is one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. So we're offering up to 72% off our best-selling books, audio books, and tools that will help you get rid of your debt, help you save money. It's a prime time to save big. So nothing's better than free shipping. How about Black Friday prices on our top 30 products plus free shipping? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:23 Deals on stuff like the Total Money Makeover book, the Starter Special, which now includes right now the Smart Money live stream experience this fall, Financial Peace University is on sale for only $119. Wow. Black Friday and free shipping at DaveRamsey.com. I think it's worth extending that discussion for a minute. Because there's so much anger and hatred and divisiveness and politicization of wealth out there today that it's worth talking about with actual sanity for a second.
Starting point is 00:33:02 I mean, I could rant and yell and scream about it and flop my arms like everybody else does, but let's just talk about it for a minute. Let's just talk this through. Number one, when you vilify and make successful people, do you hear me cheering her on? She makes a million seven. She's 31 years old. You hear me cheering her on?
Starting point is 00:33:20 I'm proud of her. She started with nothing. I don't even understand how they did that. I didn't get into the details of where that money came from, but oh my goodness, what an amazing young couple. Now, you've got about three options when you run into a story like that. And you run into them at a distance. You read an article about them. You know someone across town. They live on the other side of the tracks.
Starting point is 00:33:46 I grew up on the other side of the tracks. Great neighborhood. We weren't poor, but we weren't rich. Blue-collar families, most of them one generation off the farm, come into the suburbs of Nashville. It was the kind of neighborhood you could get your butt busted in anybody's house, and they'd call your mama and tell you to get busted again when you get home. We all loved each other.
Starting point is 00:34:07 Good neighborhood. That's where I grew up. I started with nothing. Sharon and I were millionaires by the time we were 26 years old. We owned $4 million worth of real estate, had $3 million worth of debt. The debt was stupid, and short-term 90-day notes. The bank got sold, called our notes. We spent the next two and a half years of our life losing everything we owned with a brand new baby
Starting point is 00:34:28 a toddler and a marriage hanging on by a thread we got the opportunity to be bankrupt and start over at 28 so i'm so stupid i've not only been a millionaire i've been a millionaire twice and now i'm a multi-millionaire the second time i don't mean debt this time not stupid enough to do it the other way twice but but I did it stupid. Some people are smart enough, they can do it only once. So when you hear a story or you see someone that got a nice car, you see even a music person. People don't usually attack the music people.
Starting point is 00:35:00 You certainly don't attack the Hollywood types when they make a bazillion dollars. But it's like when regular people make a bazillion dollars, particularly the evil business people, they must be evil. Evil. You have three possible things you can react to when you see someone else that is doing well financially. Number one, you can cheer them on because you want to be them someday. Or you already are them and you're just celebrating with them that they're a rock star young couple. That's me. You can say, wow, I'm 39.
Starting point is 00:35:37 I'm not making that kind of money. But isn't that cool that they did that? And I'm going to go do what I'm supposed to do with my life so that I can do well. I'm going to live like no one else so later i can live like no one else i can i can get in the the same river that they're swimming in and swim with them downstream with the current i'm going to brag on them and celebrate with them when you do that it number one it makes you rare because most people can't do that they don't have the character to do it. But number two, it sets you up for success because you're not hating success. If you hate successful people, it's very hard for you to want to become a successful person
Starting point is 00:36:14 because you don't want to hate yourself. It's called cognitive dissonance. It's a psychological concept. You don't want to become the thing you hate. And so if you hate successful wealthy people, and that's all you say about wealthy people then why would you ever want to become one of those people it's cognitive dissonance it's it's incompatible in your value system so it's very difficult for you to become successful financially when you hate successfully financially be successful financial people.
Starting point is 00:36:46 So one option is to cheer. And I urge you to please get in that camp. Cheer. Cheer. When you see someone else winning, go, man, so proud for you. Even if you're not there yet and there's a little tinge of, man, I wish it was me. Good. Then go make it you, baby.
Starting point is 00:37:05 Or go do a tenth of that. I mean, $170,000 a year wouldn't be a bad income, you know? I mean, a tenth of that's not bad. The second thing you can do is you can be jealous. And you can say, man, man, oh, man, I wish I was like them. I wish I was like them. I wish I was like them. I want what they've got. I want to be like them.
Starting point is 00:37:32 I'll never get there, but the little man can't get ahead. I'm stuck. People like me, people that grew up where I grew up, people that do what I do, people with my political persuasion, my skin color, my sex, I'm a victim. And Condoleezza Rice says when you declare yourself a victim of prejudice, you have given someone else power over your life. Take the power for your own life. So don't be jealous. Jealous is I want what you have, but I don't think I can get it.
Starting point is 00:38:18 It's evil. You know what's more evil than jealousy? Jealousy's big, ugly brother. Envy. That's your third option. You could be cheering them on. You can be jealous. Worst thing you could do.
Starting point is 00:38:38 I got a whole bunch of people in our culture doing this. You can be envious. Envious is not only jealousy. I want what you have, and I don't think I can have it. But envious is, I want what you have, I don't think I can have it, so I don't want you to have it. And this is the wealth inequality movement. We're going to attack success and successful people.
Starting point is 00:39:03 I don't think you should have that. And so I'm going to embrace socialism where they take it away from you or anarchy where they take it away from you. The 1% evil people own all the world and the little people can't get ahead. Little people get ahead every day. 11 million millionaires and 91% of them are first generation rich in America. Started with nothing. Little people get ahead every day. I'm so dumb.
Starting point is 00:39:31 I was little people game from that side of the tracks. I told you I'm so dumb. I had to do it twice. Don't tell me it can't be done. Well, you had this privilege and that privilege and that privilege. Yeah, but I don't have any hair and I'm from the South. And some of you Yankees think everybody from the South is dumb, which just indicates how dumb you are.
Starting point is 00:39:56 Anytime you stereotype someone, it indicates your stupidity. Some of you people think we broadcast this thing from a double-wide, because I have a southern accent. Dadgum nice double wide, isn't it, folk? Talking to the live audience outside. But seriously, guys, I mean, think about how we react to wealth. We have vilified success. Let me help you with this. If you make $34,000 a year,
Starting point is 00:40:31 you're in the top 1% of income earners in the world. If you make $34,000 a year, you likely have a flat-screen TV and two cars. You are in the top 1% of the world. The rest of the world should be hating on you based on the wealth inequality movement. Think this through, guys. Listen, I don't want anybody
Starting point is 00:40:58 to be poor. I don't want anybody to hurt. But the best way to help someone who's struggling financially is not to take money away from someone else. The best way to help someone who's struggling financially is not to take money away from someone else. The best way to help someone who's struggling financially is, hey, let's learn from those who aren't struggling financially. Do what they do and become one of them. You get to decide that. You have the power of choice right now. Are you a victim or a victor?
Starting point is 00:41:19 Ah. Be a cheerleader for the successful. Be a cheerleader for the successful. Be a cheerleader for successful people. Because you want to be one of them. And if you cheer them on, you're swimming in the same river they're swimming in, and you're swimming right beside them. Hey, it's Blake, Chief Production Officer for the show. And here's a little tip for 2018.
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