The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Fall for All the Hype (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 20, 2019

The show about you

🎵 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 become one of the leading indicators that you might be an everyday millionaire. We're doing an Everyday Million millionaire theme hour this hour. Chris Hogan, Mr. Millionaire himself, joins us, America's trusted voice on retirement and millionaires, author of two number one bestsellers, Retire Inspired,

and, of course, the new and everyday Millionaires that has absolutely gone crazy. Welcome back to the microphone. Well, thank you, sir. It's a pleasure to be back with you. Good to be back. Good to have you back in the chair. So Chris Hogan's with us. His show is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Sirius XM. He's out there all over the place speaking and talking all over America. You see him pop up talking about millionaires. This

hour, what he and I are going to do is take calls from actual millionaires not people with an opinion not people who just make up crap but they just listen these are actual millionaires and find out what they actually do how they got there how much money they got where did it come from did they inherit it are they an nba star an n star, an actor, or what do they do? How do they get there? And a real millionaire is defined as? Well, Dave, you have to look and understand it's what you own. All your assets, your 401K, your 403B, your home, your cars, the money in your bank account.

Take everything you own minus what you owe on, anything that has debt. And if that end number is a million dollars or more, then congratulations, you're an everyday millionaire. There you go. And sometimes people inherit that to get there. Sometimes they work 40 years to get there. Sometimes they strike it rich in business to get there. There's all kinds of different ways that people get there.

And we like to learn where millionaires really come from, not what your broke brother-in-law's opinion is. So I want to talk to real ones. So if you are a net worth millionaire, which is the only real definition of millionaire, it's a net worth of $1 million or greater, we want to talk to you this hour. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Sandy is in Fort Lauderdale. Sandy, what's your net worth?

Almost 2.6. 2.6. Okay, break that down for me. How is that invested? Mostly real estate and cash. Give me a little breakdown. How much is in real estate? About $200 in cash and the rest is in real estate.

Oh, all real estate. Okay. Yes. Alright. And how much of that's your home? A million 150. Okay. So you got some investment property then as well. Yes, I do. Another million dollars worth or so. Okay, great. How old

are you? I am 58. Good for you. And how much of this $2.6 million is there because you inherited it? None of it. Zero. Okay. Chris? Zero. And Sandy, do you remember your worst income year and then your best income year? Worst income year would have been when the Resolution Trust took over. Wow.

That was back in, well, the worst, the worst for us was 1989. Okay, do you remember the dollar amount? Well, we had a lot in accounts receivable, over $200,000. The banks pulled all the builders' lines of credit, and we owed all of our suppliers, and we had a line of credit and a mortgage and term loans and credit cards and car payments. Man, I haven't heard the RTC in a bazillion years. I remember that distinctly, though. That's the failure of the SNLs.

Correct. Yeah. Wow. Sandy, do you remember your best income year? That would have been right, the best income years were right before the big crash. Okay. Do you remember what dollar amount you all had as a household? It would have been close to a million dollars. Okay million dollar income wow very good no no no no no no no no no no i thought no no what's your best income year

about a two hundred thousand dollar income is your best year okay cool so your career is real estate apparently building um my husband is a contractor i'm in social services gotcha okay um so you have a degree a four-year degree i have a master's degree master's degree in social work um no no it's in policy and management policy okay cool and your gpa it It was 3.9. Okay, cool. So what's the secret for the 25-year-old version of you out there listening to being a millionaire by 58 years old? What did you do?

Well, when we got slapped with the Resolution Trust Corp. and all the lines of credit and the inability to lean properties or the banks have the right to wipe out leans at that time. And three small children, I said, we can't live like this. And so we made our motto. Our goal was to be debt free in 93. It took us until 1995 and we never took on debt ever again.

And that's what made you wealthy? Having no debt, yeah. Having no debt, getting up, having goals, going to work, and, you know, doing only what you can afford to do. Gotcha. Okay. So that'd be your advice to the 25-year-old version of you? My advice to the 25-year-old version of me would be don't fall for the hype to buy all the stuff that you don't need, but they'll convince you you want.

That'll do it. Will do it. Well done, Ms. Sandy. Congratulations. Proud of you. Very well done. $2.6 million net worth at 58 years old. And it sounds like that crash smacked them in the mouth and they got to start over.

Yeah, Dave. And not only did it hit them in the mouth, but they woke up. And they changed some things. That's true. You know? And that's exactly what we talk about in Financial Peace University. You've got to change some habits. You've got to do some things different.

And otherwise, it doesn't become a life lesson. It just becomes something you get to repeat. She went through all of that in 89. I filed bankruptcy in 88. I was heading right into that. That's why I remember all that stuff. I was right there in the middle of every bit of that. Wow.

Very cool. It wasn't what got me, but I was right there on the precipice of that watching the whole thing. Well, I was sliding down the hill watching it, actually. All right. Rod is in Omaha, Nebraska. Rod, what's your net worth?

$1.1 million. Cool. Break that down for me. How's it invested? Allocated. $400,000 in real estate and the rest is in cash, different 401K, 403B, different variations. Gotcha. How old are you?

57. Cool. And how much of this 1.1 is there because you inherited it? About $400,000. When did you inherit that? 2001. Okay, cool. So that really helped you get there then.

Yeah, it helped a lot. It, cool. So that really helped you get there then? Yeah, it helped a lot. It helped some, and then we've done a lot of savings. We don't have any debt, so we ended up building the house pretty much by ourselves and stayed out of debt no matter if we didn't take a loan out on our house or anything. We just kind of built it a little bit at a time. Gotcha. Hold on.

I'm going to ask you a few more questions after this break. Hang with me. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month pure talk usa offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as 20 per month you never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data no contracts no hidden fees and if you're thinking our low cost means less coverage think again our voice and data service covers 99 of americans and our 4g lte network provides the fastest internet speeds like more expensive carriers we operate on the largest gsm network in the u.s to ensure you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime anywhere plus you can keep your same phone and number and add multiple

lines to save more we're so confident you'll love pure talk USA that we invite you to try our service risk-free. Visit puretalkusa.com or call 844-862-3677. Enter promo code SAVEDAVE and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com. It's a millionaire theme hour here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Chris Hogan, author of the number one bestseller, Everyday Millionaires, is joining me this hour. We're talking with Rod, one of the millionaires that has called in on the hour. By the way, if you're a millionaire, you could call us at 888-825-5225. Rod's 57 years old. He's got a million one.

400,000 of it was inherited. And who was that inherited from again? My mom and dad. Okay, okay. And so what is your best income year and your worst income year? Probably the best income year was right before the stock market crash. And, well, that was probably the worst was in 2009. How much did you make in your best year, and how much did you make in your worst year?

Oh, probably income-wise, employment-wise. Income-wise, employment-wise, or like... Income-wise. What was your annual household income on your worst year and your annual household income on your best year? The worst year was probably $40,000, and the best year was... The best year was just in the recent years has been about $130,000. Good. What do you do for a living? I'm a power plant operator. Okay, cool.

Four-year degree? No. GED. I didn't even graduate from high school. Got a GED. Cool. Good for you. Well done, man. Good. Chris?

And, Rod, do you all as a household do any giving? Yeah, we try to give, you know, 10%, 15% as best as we can anyway. Okay. And let me ask you this. What mistake did you all make in this route to becoming an everyday millionaire? What was your biggest mistake that you wish you didn't do? Probably I wish that I could have have i didn't really have the ability at when i i wish that i would have the ability to start younger to save more when i was younger

um i think that's probably the probably the most important thing that you know that that you can do because you can contribute to a smaller amount and not have to, you know, you can let it grow a lot faster that way. Yeah, very cool. So your parents left you a nice inheritance. They were obviously good with money. What did you learn from them that was the most important? Stay out of debt.

And you have? We're pretty big about staying out of debt. Yes, we don't have any debt at all. Okay, very cool. Well done, sir. Proud of you. Great job. Adam is in Austin, Texas.

Adam, your net worth? Yes, sir. It's about $1.2 million. Very good. And how's that allocated or broken out for me? Okay, my wife and I are both police officers in central texas so we have about 280 000 our police retirement system uh our 457 plan has 310 000 and our Roth IRAs budget about 140 000 and then we have about 400 000 uh equity in our home we have a small ranch so let's pay

for so we have and of course we have about 3030,000 in cash. Gotcha. Very good. How old are you? 37 years old. Young millionaire. Good job. Yes. So how much? Go ahead. I would say my uncle gave me your book, The Total Money Makeover,

right after I got out of college. And it was the best piece of advice I've ever gotten. I read it probably one week, and I read it again the next week. And my wife and I have been married for about 11 years. And we started your plan, um, oh, 10 years ago, pretty much after we, you know, got our finances in order and got married. And that's what we've done in just 10 years, working your plan together. So you did not inherit any money? Not a single penny. The only thing I've ever gotten is when my mom calls me over for dinner sometimes. So you did this basically in 12 years?

Yes, sir. A little under 10. Yes, that's correct. And what was your best year of household income? Probably the last couple of years as we've gone on. We've gotten pay raises and such. We've made about, I think last year we cleared $150,000 household income. What was your worst year?

That would be when we were married. That That would be, when we were married, that would be starting out when we were young. Young police officers, we probably made around $35,000 each, about $70,000 a year. Gotcha. Gotcha. Did you all have a four-year degree? I did. I went to the University of Texas at Austin.

Got a four-year degree. Do you remember your GPA? It was around 3.4. Okay. And throughout your time investing, did you work with an investment professional? Yes. Yeah. We started, we did exactly what they recommended in the book, Total Money Makeover. We found one with the heart of a teacher through Ameriprise Financial, and we worked with him step-by-step this whole way. Every year we have a financial checkup, and he says I'm his favorite client. He loves to see our progress.

I bet. So you're 37 years old. You see a young cop come on the force. You sit him down over coffee. What do you tell him? And I do that. I actually have just started a program in our department using your non-religious version, if you will, of the momentum. But that's exactly what I do.

I'm one of about five people that talk with them and try to get them to understand live less than what you make. And simply, in our line of work, a lot of our extra money comes from overtime and side jobs. And the biggest mistake I see, and that's what I tell them, is don't rely on that money. That is extra money that is not reliable. If you get injured or if you get put on restrictive duty, you know, all the overtime money stops. And that's where I see in my field people get in the biggest trouble. They start assuming that that extra $1,000 a month or $2,000 a month is just going to be granted, and it's not. That's right, Adam.

And to someone out there right now that says it's not possible to be done, what would you tell them? It is absolutely a lie. Chris, I met you in San Antonio for your book signing. You gave me a big hug, but that is totally false. My wife and I didn't inherit a single penny. We did it ourselves as government employees. I drive a 22-year-old truck with over 200,000 miles, and she drives a 12-year-old, I think, van with actually about 200,000 miles. We just don't live flashy lives.

We invest in what counts and not what is superficial. Absolutely incredible. Very well done, sir. Very well done. Thank you, David. It's an honor to speak with you. It really is. An honor to speak with you.

You did a great job 37 years old hey that man if you're 22 and you hear that call you got to be your ears got to perk up yeah you really do and you look at this and you understand he said not flashy not trying to impress people driving older vehicles with high miles to get to the job making sacrifices it's not a surprise. And so it's possible. And Dave, I'm going to tell you something. As I traveled around on book tour back in January, meeting people in 16 cities in 21 days, I was letting people know, I don't care where you were born.

It doesn't matter where you were born or where you went to school. You get to make decisions about your life, but you have to have the courage to not only decide, you have to keep deciding courage to not only decide you have to keep deciding every day people like us can't get ahead oh yes they can yes people like you get ahead people like me get ahead they do it every day right they do it every day because they make different decisions over a period of time and you know the the sad thing was is that when we did the study the the the largest study a millionaire has ever done here, our research team in conjunction with you and the team working on this,

I think one of the saddest statistics we found was that when you survey the public, 62% of them think they control their destiny. 97% of millionaires think they do now that's not to say you control 100 right but you control the controllables yes you control what car you buy you control what you spend on vacation you control whether you spend the overtime money or you know you control the controllables and that way you set out you know you live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. But that's a statement not of mathematical process of becoming wealthy. It's a statement of hope versus no hope.

Yeah, it really is. And whether you were raised in a household that had hope or not, doesn't matter. You get to decide. You get to plug in and decide, what do I want for me and my family moving forward? I mean, I met a guy the other day who was worth $40 million, and he grew up in a house where they told him he couldn't be done.

And something happened inside of him. It was a part of his faith walk with Christ. But something happened inside of him. He goes, I can too. And that's what changed his family tree. It wasn't that he got an inheritance, and it wasn't that he got privilege. It wasn't anything like that. He didn't

have privilege. He was poor white trash. But man completely turned it around to $40 million net worth. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has debt and a struggle to make ends meet. But they're starting to make headway with their budgets and smarter decisions with money.

They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right amount of term life insurance and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen, their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible, let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to ZanderInsurance.com or call 800-356-4282 and see how inexpensive it really is. Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible. It really does make you the hero of your story, and it puts you on The Dave Ramsey Show.

Author of the number one best-selling book, Everyday Millionaires, Chris Hogan joins me this hour. And we're taking questions, or taking, well, we are questioning, we are interviewing actual, real millionaires. The definition of a millionaire is your assets minus your liabilities. And there are about 12 million millionaires, according to several sources in the United States today. Our survey, the largest survey of millionaires ever done, says that 79% of millionaires received an inheritance of zero, 5% received an inheritance of under $100,000, another 5% received an inheritance of under $200,000, and late enough that it didn't affect the fact that they became millionaires. So it's very easy to ascertain that really about nine out of ten millionaires did not inherit any or enough money that they became a millionaire because of inheritance.

That's right. And we need to let that sink in, Dave, because that's one of the myths that people out there believe, that you have to inherit it in order to be able to get to that level. And for all too many people out there whose family didn't do well with money or there's nothing that they stand to inherit, the byproduct of that thought and believing that is that now you don't think it's possible for you. So it's really important for us to understand our belief system and where we fall. And Dave, as we did the largest study out there talking to over 10,000 millionaires, we were able to get through and knock out about five to six real myths and lies in my book, Everyday Millionaire.

And so if you haven't read that, I want you to definitely read it because it makes you think and it also proves to you what's possible. No matter where you come from, where you grew up, where you went to school, that you can do this and we show you how. 68% of millionaires used a financial advisor. 73% never held a penny of credit card debt. The top three jobs were engineer, accountant, and school teacher. Number three.

Number three, which blows people away. And people go, no, no, not school teacher, Hogan, because that's the most underappreciated profession out there. They're underpaid. Yeah, I understand. They're underappreciated and they're nowhere near paid enough for what they do. But I want you to walk with me here. You get somebody that's focused and for over 20 years, they're consistently investing into their four or three B. And oh, by the way, they're listening to

the message from Ramsey Solutions of attacking debt and being allergic to it, attacking and paying off the house. Well, let's do the math here. If they've got a home that's worth $500,000 or more, and they've got $550,000 in their 403B, remember what we said about net worth. It's what you own minus what you owe. You add that 403 together, 403B together with that house, they're an everyday millionaire. So again, the reality of this, Dave, is that it is possible. And people that say the American dream is not alive, it's dead and gone, they're wrong. It's alive and it's available. The book is Everyday Millionairesaires there's 140 of these statistics in the book it is also full of stories and full of inspiration we're also we haven't announced the date yet but we're working

on the white paper the actual research paper that we will sell in our store online it'll probably just be a pdf download kind of a thing with all the charts and graphs in it for the super nerds yes that want 84 000 statistics and all the comparisons and the pull apart of the thing with all the charts and graphs in it for the super nerds that want 84,000 statistics and all the comparisons and the pull apart of the thing. And that's fine. This book is not a white paper. This book is just proof it can be done and proof that most of what Americans believe about being a millionaire is a lie. Yes.

And it's really important for us to call that out and understand it because otherwise you end up having a victim mentality or thinking that you're not permitted, like at some country club that you have to belong to. No, it's not. Becoming an everyday millionaire is a decision that you make. It's a choice. You know, a guy asked me the other day, he said, Dave, I was just sitting with some friends. I was telling them about this research and this book and I've been number one.

And they said, what was the thing that shocked you the most? And I think this is the one that shocked you the most and i think this is the one that shocked me the most one third of the millionaires never made a six-figure income yes they did it with never breaking 100k i would have guessed maybe 50 under 200 that wouldn't have shocked me but that is a high number that never even made six figures. Out of the 10,000 of them, we're saying 3,300 of them that we found never made household income of 100K. Right. That means, Dave, it blows your mind. It does. It blew my mind, too, but let's take it a step further and really put it apart.

If you're talking about a dual-income family, husband and wife, means combined together, their household income wasn't six figures. Now, I know what's happening out there. People in America that are listening, you're thinking about your W-2 or your K-1, your income, and you go, well, Chris, I'm over six figures. I understand. But what are you doing with it? What are the actions that you're taking to maximize it? Marie is in Cleveland, Ohio.

Marie, what's your net worth? One point four in growing, Dave. I, what's your net worth? 1.4 and growing, Dave. I love the growing part. All right. So how's that allocated? Break it out for me. About $500,000 in real estate, about $650,000 in 401k IRA, about $150,000 in the kids' 529 account, and then the rest in cash and mutual funds. Very good.

How old are you? 48 years old. You're right on the average. The typical millionaire in the study was 49, so very cool. Great. How much of this did you inherit? Zero. Zero.

Your best household income year and your worst household income year? Started at $29,000, and the best is $425,000. Whoa! What do you guys do for a living? I am actually a physical therapist assistant, and seven years ago decided to become an entrepreneur and open up my own physical therapy practice. And my husband is in mortgage operations.

Very good. You guys are killing it. Good job. So obviously you've got a PT degree, right? Dave, I have a therapy assistant degree. So I have an associate degree. So not the doctor or PT, the physical therapy assistant. Love it.

What was your GPA? Well, to get through the school, I had to maintain a 3.5. So I struggled hard for those two years and maintained the 3.5 gotcha okay that is fantastic and did you all work with an investment professional at all did not up until about a year ago it's a great story i had an investment professional who contacted my business he was working on behalf of the local school he was trying to seek out some volunteers to donate money and he called up my company to see if my company would donate money to the local school, started talking to him. And I said, well, you know, maybe we could have you

look at our assets. Then in the last year, started working with him and we are his best story because he called us to give and he ended up getting a $.4 million dollar account that is fantastic so obviously you all are givers in your home extremely extremely we work to give that's very important to us we have two young boys we teach that to them yes that's fantastic did you learn about money from your parents or are you self-taught well i'll tell you i come from a family of six kids, not extremely wealthy at all, but full of love. And I think watching my parents put us all through private school, never in debt, but just cut corners and did what they had to do. And I just said, you know, I really never wanted to struggle as hard as my parents had to struggle.

And I just started saving and trying to define myself out there. What's the best piece of advice you've got for the 25-year-old version of you listening? It has to be set your goals and define yourself. You know, when I was a PTA working for a national company, they had said to me, you will never make more than what we're paying you, which was $50,000. And I stayed there for several years because I was afraid to leave. I'm like, I'm going to was $50,000. And I stayed there for several years because I was afraid to leave. I'm like, I'm going to lose $50,000. And, you know, I just said, nope, I'm going to define myself

and went after what I wanted. And, of course, I'm making way more than what they ever paid me. You're making more than the guy that said that to you. Yeah, that's a great point. Great point. Yeah, yeah. I love it. Well done, Ms. Marie. Wow. a great point. Yeah, yeah. I love it. Well done, Ms. Marie.

Wow. Excellent job. Touchdown, baby. Touchdown. Don't let people put limits on you. Yeah. We get to decide. You sign your own permission slip, Chris Hogan says.

You better believe it. I love it. The book is The Everyday Millionaires, How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth, and How You Can Too. the everyday millionaires. Ordinary people build extraordinary wealth, and you can too. This is an everyday millionaire theme hour as we talk to real millionaires here on the Dave Ramsey Show. The last thing I want you to feel is buyer's remorse, especially when you offered thousands more on a new home to win a bidding war. If I've taught you anything, it's that blindly throwing money at a problem is a stupid plan and something you'll regret for years. The key to avoiding this rookie mistake is to call

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will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Henry Ford said, failure is only the opportunity to begin again, and this time more intelligently. When I was reading that Philippian scripture, it has absolutely nothing to do with what we're talking about, or maybe it has everything to do with what we're talking about. Sharon and I watched the Netflix documentary on Billy Graham last night. Folks, if you have not seen it, it's only about 60 minutes long. It will blow your mind. I mean, I knew how iconic he was, and yet there were things I got a hold of in there

that just, my tears run down my face. The guy was amazing. Absolutely amazing. He spoke to more human beings live in person than anyone in the history of the human race has ever done wow think about that all those stadium events all over the world no one else has in live in person ever in the history of the human race spoken to as many humans one-on-one in a setting like that i mean that's that's a pretty amazing stat if you think about it it was iconic just amazing just amazing man obviously amazing integrity well there's there's

our segue there's a high correlation between integrity and the ability to build wealth too we found that all right brian is in topeka kansas hey brian your net worth sir? We're a little north of 1.7. And as Marie said, growing. Okay, I like that. And give me your allocation. How's it broken out? With 401Ks, deferred comp, raw IRAs. No, no, no, give me the numbers.

HSAs. Give me the numbers. 1.1, real estate, about 600. So 1.1 in retirement stuff? Is that what you're saying? Correct. Oh, okay. I got you.

Okay. And then $600 in real estate? Correct. Okay, good. All right. And how old are you? 59. Good.

Okay, excellent. Excellent. How much of this 1.7 is there because you inherited it? That would be zero, Dave. Okay. All right. Tell me this ryan what was your worst household income year and your best household income year oh i you know my career has been a little long so uh i'll tell you how you know i started that uh around uh less than 12,000 a year. Wow. That was back in the early 80s. Right.

And then we were up a little north of 175, 180. Okay. Very good. And what career are you in? I work in sales strategy director. I work in designing service solutions with primarily health care facilities. Okay. And did you get a four-year degree?

I did. Very good. What did you get a four-year degree? I did. Very good. What did you get it in? I worked my way through business administration with marketing and management, and I have an MBA with a focus on finance. You remember your GPA? Oh, my goodness. I slept around, so I missed graduating with honors by one grade letter in one course over the four years.

Okay. Three point something. Okay. And do you all as a household do any giving? Oh, absolutely. One of the rules that we follow is pay God first and ourselves second. We have been tithing for decades on the gross. As we had a pastor years ago said, you want to be blessed on the net or on the gross.

Amen. So you've been steady for a long time. What advice do you have to a 25-year-old version of you that's listening, if they want to be a millionaire when they're 59? Start now and have discipline. I started out... How do you have discipline in a culture that has none? It takes focus. And I have been blessed with a wonderful godly spouse

who is a partner and an encourager and has encouraged many people. And together we give and support a lot of different organizations and a lot of different people. She does some counseling with people as part of a previous role that she used to do. And we continue that process. And it's so much fun to be able to give to people. And we had your program.

We were leading a small group back around 2007 or 2008, I guess it was, and we were completely debt-free except our house. And through leading the group, we kind of got accelerated and paid off our mortgage in 99 months that we had from a house that we built and saved over $105,000 in interest. Wow. Very cool. We use that to cash flow to rental properties and not only purchase them but also rehab them so we have some very good tenants that are in the properties that they are proud of and they are safe and very well maintained well done sir you're a disciplined focused guy what's the biggest mistake with money you ever made oh my goodness

i think i heard it on your ad, the timeshare. Oh, okay. There you go. Now, that was years ago before they were, I mean, thousands of dollars. Yeah. We had it paid off years ago, but we actually got out from under that just the way that our lifestyle, we didn't vacation that way. We enjoyed it while we had it. We've traveled and cash flowed vacations. We've been to over 20 different foreign countries.

Cash flowed a lot of different opportunities as well. Well done, sir. Very well done. Clarence in Tampa, tell us your net worth, sir. About 6.2. Awesome. And break that out for me. How's it allocated?

Annuities is about 2.6, and then I have bank accounts about 800. Then I've got insurance cash value of about 600, and then I've got mutual funds of about 500. Then I've got some stocks and bonds about 200, and and then I got real estate about $300,000, then I got some stocks about $500,000, and then I got about $1.5 in mortgages. Okay. And mortgages payable to you? Payable to me, correct. Okay.

All right. Very good. How old are you? I'm 74 right now. How much of this did you inherit? Zero. Awesome. So that's an impressive net worth, and you're well diversified. You're spread across a whole bunch of different things.

Tell me what your approach was. Tell folks how they do this. Well, I started investing in real estate when I was still in high school. I couldn't borrow any money because I wasn't 21, and I bought a lot of houses on contract for deed and would get them paid for and done well with them. And then bought into land and put a few bucks in, maybe buy $50,000 or $100,000 in land, pay for it, cash, and then put a little bit of improvements in it and get it rezoned, and then probably buy it for $100,000, $150,000, maybe sell it for a million, million and a half. You're a horse trader. That's good stuff.

What was your career? Basically working in a factory and doing this while I worked in a factory. Okay. So what was your income in the factory? I made about $4,000 a year. $4,000 a year? Yep. That was your best year ever?

Working there it was, yeah. Okay, but you made all this money on the side. Right. I made $1.25 an hour. Wow. Amazing. Amazing. So can this still be done? Definitely. Definitely. I'm not a college graduate. I barely graduated high school. I couldn't fill out an application for a job right now if you wanted me to.

I've never read a book from cover to cover, but I have a good mechanical mind and good with figures. Wow. Apparently amazing with figures. So impressive. Well done, Claren figures. Wow. Apparently. Amazing with figures. So impressive. Well done, Clarence. Congratulations. Touchdown! There it is. I mean, you can do it.

You can do it. This hour proves it again. And the study proved it. The book proved it. Folks, if you've not read Everyday Millionaires, you'll hear stories like his everywhere. It's time. I mean, that's what I'm telling America. It's time.

You need to believe you can and believe you should and get started. Ooh. Sign your own permission slip. Chris Hogan, right here. Number one bestselling author of the book Everyday Millionaires and Ramsey Personality. Welcome back. Thank you, my friend. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.