The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Fall for the Nothing-Down Real Estate Trap! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

George Kamel & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: Combining finances in marriage, Why you shouldn't fall for nothing down real estate schemes, How sometimes you have to say no to something good to achieve something great. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm your host, George Campbell, joined this hour by my good friend, Mr. Ken Coleman, and we are taking your calls about life, money, career, purpose, work at 888-825-5225. In case you missed it, it's been an amazing week with a lot of fun calls, interesting calls. We talked to a couple who put $112,000 on credit cards for their wedding. We had Rachel Cruz and Jade. Hope those pictures turned out well. Goodness gracious.

I asked if the ring looked like a disco ball. No joke. So we had Jade Warshaw and Rachel Cruz host together for the first time. I saw that. I was passing through the lobby, and I saw it. I was like, now that's what Thelma and Louise should have looked like. That was, yeah, spicy. Spicy show. the lobby and I saw it I was like now that's what Thelma and Louise should have looked like that was yeah spicy spicy show Jade had an epic rant about car payments that were over a thousand dollars I

know Ken you're very passionate uh about the insanity of car loans and how they're keeping Americans broke and Ken and I covered Buc-ee's um and their amazing pay and benefits and their culture and my first Buc-ee's experience. So it's been a fun week of segments and shows. You can check out all of those if you missed it on podcast or on YouTube. And on top of that, in case you missed it, we had an incredible event just steps from here in our atrium, the Building Wealth in 2023 livestream. We had about 600, 700 people in the crowd, hundreds of thousands tuning in online,

and Ken, that was a blast. I'm still a little sleepy. It felt like a fever dream. Yeah, I got out of here last night at about 10 minutes to 10, and back in this morning, and did a little Fox News appearance, and so it feels though I've been here for 48 hours. Wow. And we're locked in, but we're excited. It was a, I will tell you, it was a special night. Really great stuff. You and Dave and Rachel did a great job with some great keynotes, and then we had a fun conversation with John and I joined.

John Delaney and I joined in, and we had a lot of laughs. A little too much fun was had, and if you want to see what we're talking about. No, not possible. Well, you can't have too much fun. It was borderline off the rails at times. Not true. I think we can admit that. Not true. Wow. Now you're going to have to watch it. You have to watch the delay to was borderline off the rails at times. Not true. I think we can admit that. Not true.

Wow. Now you're going to have to watch it. You have to watch the delay to see who's right, me or George. Well, hey, the good news is if you missed it, you've got the FOMO. You can still tune in. You can go to RamseySolutions.com slash wealth and catch the replay over there. Love it. Yeah.

Let's get to the phones. Sarah is waiting in Denver, Colorado. Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. How can we help today? So my fiance and I are going to get married a little bit later this year, and we're talking about buying a house.

I actually was married previously and got a divorce, and he is now in the picture, and I have had a significant amount of assets over time like we have similar salaries now but I've just had a decent time to like pile mine up and so although from like a family and marriage perspective we do want to take like what you guys talk about of merging our finances and treating it as like an us, you know, group and how do we buy a house and so forth. But I also bring like quite a bit of cash and like brokerage accounts and so forth I could use for either the down payment or even like buying the house outright. And so I was kind of curious your advice about when one person has a significant amount, it's like you will protect yourself. I

mean, I did go through a divorce before, but at the same time, I don't want to go into my marriage, like thinking of the quote unquote worst case scenario. Well, it's a reasonable thing to be thinking about because of the hurt you felt in the past. Divorce is one of the most difficult things a person can go through, and it can scar you when it comes to the way you view money. And of course, we talk about this is we, this is our money. Once you're married, combine all the accounts. would recommend a prenup is if you are coming in with, you know, astronomical assets compared to the other person. And it's more to keep the crazy family at bay versus a distrust in the other person. So what kind of assets are we talking about? Give us some numbers. So I have about 2 million between like retirement accounts and I had sold my previous house that I owned with my ex-husband and walked away with a bit of cash from that. And so like I'm sitting on just from like a cash standpoint, over half a million

dollars as I'm deciding, do I want to buy the next house? Do I want to put that in the market? Not just rush into a decision. He, on the other hand, probably has more like $500,000. So again, neither one of us is at any hurt from a financial perspective. But when it comes to buying a house, that was not something he was initially planning for. So it's more tied up in brokerage and stocks. And with the stock market going down, it's like, how do we get to something where like I could buy our house, but I want him to feel like he has skin in the game, but at the same time, yeah, like you get my pull. We totally want to try to merge, but yeah, but here's the deal. At the same time, keep in mind.

Sarah, Sarah, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think we really got to dive in here. What are you most afraid of? I don't think you're calling for strategy. I could be wrong. Are you calling for strategy about how we merge all this and how we do this? Or are you worried about something? I think it's more like I... Sarah, don't edit. You're trying to edit. And listen, I get it. But we're here to help.

And if you just tell me what you're feeling right now, we can help faster. Tell me, stop editing. What are you thinking that you didn't say? What are you worried about? The main thing I would be worried about is like, if for some reason the marriage didn't work out, like I, on one hand, I would want to make sure that this significant amount of money is still being recognized as mine, especially for- Okay, so stop. So stop. So stop. Okay. The answer to the question is you are worried that the marriage is not going to work out.

The money stuff is secondary. Do you understand- I would say I'm worried about being stupid. Honestly, if I was going to get really to the butt of it, I don't think our marriage is not going to work out. I think there's an element of like, I don't want to be the stupid person. But wait a second, what would have to be true? And I want you to give me a specific answer. What would have to be true for you to be stupid? Yeah, I would have to go sideways for some reason reason and the marriage would not have to work out the marriage is going to work if the marriage is also a secondary opponent of like i wanting him to not feel like like i bought stuff i had the money at the beginning and therefore it's quote unquote. Now, now, now

we're getting there. Sarah, Sarah, now we're getting there. You have more money than he does and that freaks you out a little bit and you're worried about it. That's really what I'm hearing. So this is pre-marriage counseling. This is a good old fashioned steak and candlelight dinner. You look at him and you go, I'm worried that you're going to feel this way and this way and this way because when we bring our finances together, I'm bringing more to the table than you. Do you feel that way? George, I think this is a communication relationship, premarital therapy thing,

and get this thing solved and get this out of your head. And then when we merge the finances, we walk the baby steps out, we live that way. I think it's going to be fine. Yeah, I don't see it as skin in the game or adding up who's bringing what to the marriage. It's about commitment. It's about unity. It's about shared vision. And I think once you focus on that instead of the numbers, it will give you some peace.

I'm going to gift you guys Financial Peace University because I think it will give you confidence in your own futures together as a newlywed couple. Hang on the line. Austin will gift that to you. Wishing you the best. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined this hour by Ken Coleman, and we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Ken is here to help you answer those purpose questions, work, career, all of that. And there's so many of that out there, Ken.

People are going, is now the time? I got the toxic boss. I think it's my time to go. What's the general sentiment out there among the workforce? The general sentiment is that millions and millions of people change jobs. They call it the great resignation over the last year and a half. It was over 70 million or about 4 million people a month, staggering numbers. And so what that means is, is when all those people change jobs for a bigger paycheck, they left a lot of people behind. And so then it kept perpetuating itself. Like, well, Fred left and for a bigger paycheck, they left a lot of people behind. And so then it kept perpetuating itself.

Like, well, Fred left and got a bigger paycheck. I'm leaving. And that's continuing to happen. So I think a lot of people are now going, well, I heard that they weren't happy when they left. So should I stay? Should I go? I think there's a lot of angst about the pending recession that the news loves to scare the crap out of us with. So I just think there's a sense of uneasiness. the pending recession that the news loves to scare the crap out of us with, you know?

So I just think there's a sense of uneasiness and, and as the, as the Ramsey personality, it focuses on work, working for income and working for impact, the difference you want to make in the world. I'm here on the Ken Coleman show here today to just steady your nerves, give you some practical knowledge,

and then give you some confidence that, hey, I can take care of this. I can control this. Washington, D.C. has nothing to do with my future. I love that. Well, hey, if you've got questions of that nature, we'd love to hear them at 888-825-5225. I should point out that I'm extra serious today, George. Do you know why I'm extra serious?

Why is that? I've got the cardigan on. That is very serious, Ken. He means business. I mean, you're borderline Mr. Rogers right now. The only thing I'm missing is a pipe. That would add a little bit of flair to it as well. So let's help some people, shall we?

All right, let's get to it. Well, Ken, I want to get to this video that we stumbled across. As you know, I like to get riled up by watching videos on social media. You're in the rabbit hole. I know. You like to get on the old internet. But it's for the good of the people. Well, it is.

I got to have my finger on the pulse of what they're watching. Boy, I tell you, do you ever. And they're sending me the videos going, hey, what do you think about this? Is this wise? I'm going to tell you what I think. Well, Ken hasn't seen this video. I've not seen the video, folks. Full disclosure, I'm seeing it the same time you are.

Well, let's see what the internet is stirring up today. When it comes to real estate investing and why this is the best asset class, this is about as simple as I can make it. We're doing a light rehab and my flooring guy asked me, he said, Jason, why are you all in on real estate? Why are you not investing in stocks and Bitcoin? I said, that's a great question, Mike. Do you have a 401k? I asked him. He said, yes, I have $200,000 in my 401k. I said, great job. That's better than most. Scenario number one, your dad gets sick. You have to take him to a nursing home. They're charging $7,000 a month to keep him there. With your $200,000 in your 401k, how long can you keep him there? He thought

about it for a moment, 28 and a half months. That's not a long time for being in a nursing home. Scenario number two, your dad gets sick. You still got to take him to the nursing home and they're still charging $7,000 a month. But instead of having $200,000 in a 401k account, you took that 200 grand and bought 10 cash flowing assets that produced $10,000 a month. How long can you keep him there? He thought about it and said, forever forever and that's the power of real estate all right well that was a fast moving hard charging real estate guru right there ken yeah and this is the problem with the tiktok world we're in youtube i love it we're on all the things okay but it's like if i'm gonna take something and that complex that serious

and i'm gonna reduce it to a bunch of jump cuts in a video and go when it's done like i've just taken care of your debt come on this is this is clickbait stuff oh this is this is cotton candy what got me is sadly a lot of people are like oh yeah you're right i gotta dump my 401k and go buy a property right now. This is essentially what he just said. This guy probably has a whole lot more knowledge and experience. I don't want to bang on this guy because you say anything in this world. Now this is going to go out there.

And then we said something one time about somebody who gave silly advice and the lady wanted to debate me online. I got news for you. I don't care what you think. This segment involves what I think. And what I think is this is clickbait. It is surface advice that can get people really hurt. George, you know this. Why? Well, what happens when you take that advice and you don't know what you're doing? So this whole fast talking thing is to get you to do basically nothing down real estate. It's like down as little as possible. Cash flowing assets. That's the hot ticket item right there, Ken. If you hear that online, run. Those guys have an online course to sell you. I promise you he does. Cash flowing assets.

That's what it's all about. Don't invest your 401k. You got to get nothing down real estate because then your tenants will just pay your mortgage and you'll be a millionaire in no time. Yeah, no brainer. You can't jump cut your way to financial success. That's what that was. Tweet that. There you go. Whoever's on Twitter. Whoever's left over there.

Well, here's the deal, Ken. First of all, he totally faked this scenario where the flooring guy is going, hey, why aren't you investing in Bitcoin? Completely, yeah. The flooring guy. That never happened. Second of all, this weird thing about

what if your dad's in the nursing home and you gotta pay for the nursing home? I don't understand why that's the scenario he goes to, but It's called long-term care, George. We always recommend long-term care because of that scenario. So talk to your parents. If you've got someone who's

in the elderly stage and they may be going, you gotta get long-term care in place to cover this, number one. And we don't know. dad may have a bunch of retirement. Why is this on you? Don't set your kids up in that way to where they've got to tank their 401k. And the other point I have is that your 401k creates cash. It's invested. And with an average return, eight, 10, 12%, it makes money. And you can get as close to a guarantee with that. You can't guarantee that you're going to be able to buy 10 houses and they turn into all this that you're talking about, because you're talking about spinning off rent money. Oh, and the renters just

magically pay perfectly every month and don't damage the place in the HVAC and the roof and everything just stays perfectly fine. Yeah. And so what do you think the average, you know what, let's have some fun with this, George. This strategy, which by the way, the only thing missing on the end of that video was, hey, buy my product so you can buy your dad a castle on the beach with a hot nurse. I mean, that literally was the last thing needed to pay that off. We may have cut him off early. He may have gone into that. Yeah, might have got into that. What do you think the average person running that strategy, what do you think they're making on rent? Well, you got to imagine they've you've got to imagine they've got very little equity in the property. They've got the mortgage to pay, plus maintenance, plus HOA, plus expenses, plus their insurance.

And after that, their net profit is very slim. But let's just pick a number. Because what I don't want to do is critique this and not help you see the other side of it. So let's say they're making between, George, you're the math guy. Most people are making. 500 to 800 bucks. You're clearing that. You think they're clearing that?

That's my guess. First time out. From callers that call in who have investment property with mortgages on it, they say, well, we're making about 10 grand on it. Would you say, so the net would be between five and 800 bucks? That's fair. All right. So times 12 months.

Yeah. So you're talking six grand eight grand versus a grand versus investing money in a 401k over the same amount of time well you got 200 bucks in a 401k and you get a return of 10 on that 200k that's 20 grand that year that you didn't have to do anything by the way you didn't have to mop the floor talk to a tenant who's got more cats than they do since. I mean, you don't have to do that. I mean, this is real numbers. Absolutely. And here's the thing. We love real estate around here. Dave's got a lot of it, but he paid cash for it, which changes the

way you view it. And the return on that investment is astronomical compared to you trying to keep up and pay the mortgage and net profit on that thing. And so you want to talk about cash flowing assets, pay cash for that investment property and add up what that amounts to. See, that's not in the video. The video doesn't explain how long it takes for all that rental income to equal the amount of money that he's promising. Absolutely. And the risk involved. So here's the deal. The more boring it sounds, the more I'm excited about it because I feel like, oh, I could do that. When it comes to handling, you know, 10 pieces of real estate with nothing down, that's a lot of anxiety in my life while trying to work a full-time job. Here's an old, old, old saying, and I don't know who said it, George. If it looks or sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

And that's the click-baity stuff that we got to be careful about. How in the world can someone give you this unbelievable sound financial advice in a one-minute TikTok or whatever it ends up being? I just got to tell you, folks, it's cotton candy. Well, our advice, hey, once you're out of debt and have an emergency fund, invest 15% into your 401k. Sounds boring. And guess what? It's the number one investment vehicle to becoming a millionaire based on the 10,000 that we studied.

Do with that information what you will. And by the way, you can have a great 401k and invest in real estate with cash. And a nice cardigan. And a great cardigan to match. There you go. This is The Ramsey Show. Are you sick of planned obsolescence? You know, when companies make products crappy, so you have to buy more of their crappy products?

Well, me too. And it's why I love companies like Grip6. Grip6 is all about quality products meant to last forever. That's why their comfortable, bulk-free belts, slimline wallets, and lightweight wool socks all come with a lifetime warranty and simple returns and exchanges. So check them out at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% off with the promo code Ramsey. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm george camel joined by ken coleman and we're also joined by a lovely couple on the debt-free stage we've got fernando and miriam with us how are you guys doing good doing great where are you guys from fort laud us. How are you guys? Doing good. Doing great. Where are you guys from? Fort Lauderdale. Wonderful. And you guys are debt-free.

How much do you pay off? We paid off $141,090. Wow. And how long did that take? 46 months. Awesome. And what was your range of income during that time? We started at $110,000 and just wrapped up last year around $250,000.

Whoa. Okay. Hold on. Story time. Got to dig in there. What happened? What was the cause or who were the causes of that increase in income? So it was a couple of things.

So promotions between the both of us. Nice. Change jobs, side hustles. Lots of side hustles. So I worked full time and then i did worked part-time at target i uh picked up uh i did some shifts with shipped um to deliver groceries and sold items on poshmark way to go in addition to target yes what do you mind me asking what you made in your side hustle at target what was your hourly rate do you mind sharing the hourly rate was 15

an hour which that does pretty cool it i say this every day on the ken colman show if you just need something to get through you did it as a side hustle to get out of debt yeah let me tell you something folks 15 an hour target what were you doing i was the um i worked at guest services um so i kind of moved around wherever they needed me i made myself available so i get more hours and learn different areas. Okay, folks, this is the poster child for the opportunity that exists right now in the United States. And I just want to point it out. Good on you guys. You just went after it. But the opportunity is there to get through the baby steps faster, is it not? Absolutely. Yeah, that's great. That's awesome. So what kind of debt was this 141 oh just a bunch

of normal stuff so credit cards uh our wedding uh two cars and uh the student loans wow and a partridge in a pear tree to add to that oh my goodness so 46 months ago this changed how long you guys been married uh we celebrated four years this past july so that's exciting so we're talking like you came back from the honeymoon and you're like all right time to stop being broke yeah basically and we we've been following the day ramsey show for you know about a year before we got married and we had a conversation we always wanted to be debt-free and uh to be honest the first two years we did a ish plan and it wasn't until about uh march of 2020 where we did fpu through our local church in tampa florida where we were living at the time and uh that's where everything just got serious. We did the first session and we looked

at each other like, look, we need to stop doing our plan and follow the plan and just submit to the process. And that same week we took what was in our savings besides a thousand dollars and paid off her car, you know, the phones that we owed and some other stuff. How much? I got to ask you this because a lot of people wrestle with this part of the plan when we take calls and I want to dive in here. How much was in savings that you just emptied to get to $1,000 to truly do Baby Step 1? How much?

I think it was about $12,000. All right. So I have two questions. How freaking scary was that to do that? I was ready. She was not. I was not ready. baby step one how much i think it was uh about 12 000 all right so i have two questions how freaking scary was that to do that i was ready she was i was not i was not ready i you know stability security it scared me so much if if it wasn't for me we would have done it sooner all right so now the second question is once you did that and we've put eleven thousand dollars we paid off your car and some cell phones if i recall what did that feel like for you on the other side because you were the one that were afraid miriam so what did it feel

after we did that with the 11 so worth it oh just so worth it freedom even just a little bit yeah not the freedom i feel now because now that we're completely debt free it's just another i don't have a word for it but starting to feel the freedom that would come. I'm going to give you a word for how it feels. Good. Yeah, that's good. You guys are amazing. See, that switch flipped and you just went all in. Obviously, you were working multiple side jobs.

What was the hardest part for you guys on this journey for four years? I think that's for you. I guess getting on board 100% with the Dave plan. Really, I can't speak enough of the small group we had in March 2020. The Kraft family led it, they led it so well. We became good friends after that. We told them we were here, they're so excited for us.

And I guess it's hard to stay on track because you have to say no to a lot of good things to wait for great things. And so that's tough. Just drop that. What was the hardest thing to say no to? What was the thing you're like, gosh, we're on this planet. We can't. We just can't. We missed out on every other family vacation. So like my brother and family lives in Texas. And so they had like these cabin trips and these bigger things that happened. And we just had to say no

to it. It was like, sorry, we can't go. We're on a plan. We also had to push back our Europe trip that we had planned it was canceled originally because of covid but then it didn't feel right to do if we weren't debt free and it was that much sweeter when we got to go in september of this year after becoming debt free oh that's european vacation yes we feel like you earned it because you would have had to put that on the credit card and you would have justified it by going well we got some cash back out of the deal. Yes, we're winning. It was all paid for. And it was just coming back knowing that we didn't have to put it on a credit card.

It was cash flowed. We were like, that was great. Now we could just get ready for the holidays and enjoy that too. Wow. And there's such power in going through that financial peace class in person with real people. Yes. Because when you don't show up, they're texting you going, hey, what the heck, guys?

We would love to see you. why didn't you show up? And so there's such accountability built in and you go, oh, we're not alone. We're not the only ones sacrificing. We're not crazy for doing this thing. Absolutely. Definitely just for us, it just gave us the discipline and having those conversations.

And I think for another thing that happened during, when we took FU, we did the envelope system. We weren't doing that before. And when we just take the cash out and like, if the envelope's empty, like you can't use it anymore. And like, okay, well that's it until the next time. Our poor restaurant and groceries envelope is falling apart right now.

I need to get a new one. I might have to pick up a wallet. Yeah, but what- I think we know somebody. I think we can get you one. By the way, I have the spiritual gift of giving away Dave's stuff. Love it. I want to point that out. So you guys did this stuff. There's another couple out there

who probably just got married and they're sitting there with a pile of debt and payments. What do you tell them to actually get them on board with this plan? It's totally worth it. The peace that you get from paying off your debts and the freedom, there's nothing that can really just, you know, you can't, you just have to experience and feel it. So actually a thing that happened to us, I was laid off in December. And when I received that news that I was, you know, going through, you know, a layoff for me, it was kind of like, okay, this is interesting, but it didn't feel like complete panic mode. It felt like, well, we paid off our debts. We have our six months emergency fund funded. We're going to be okay. We're going to be fine. So when we got, I got home, we sat down together, we looked at the budget and like, we were able to just know

that we're going to be okay and we're not going to struggle and we're going to get through this. And if I have to go to Target or anywhere else to pick up a job, it's going to be fine. Hey, I've got to ask you about that so you had financial freedom that gave you a different type of freedom yeah freedom to choose where i want to work yes am i right yeah we're not panicking i'm not acting out of urgency i'm acting out of uh intentionality correct wow i think also what i would tell someone who's newly married is that it's very important to live below your means because we choose to live that way. We didn't even have to dip into the emergency fund because we can survive off of one income. And it was just time that for vacation for him for the

last month, he did actually turn down an offer, not once, but twice after they came back because it didn't feel right, which is interesting and and very difficult but we really trusted god in that season yeah but again the confidence that comes from freedom yes this is a choice no desperation yes exactly i'm so proud of you well and you guys have a resilience where you're not victims anymore you're not whiners you just go oh we have opportunity we can just go get a job we'll do whatever it takes we'll live on less than we make you know it turns out it's a great negotiating tactic as well you're not whiners you just go oh we have opportunity we can just go get a job we'll do whatever it takes we'll live on less than we make you know it turns out it's a great negotiating tactic as well you're not even trying to negotiate you're like no what a flex i'm good well yeah nice flex we are so proud of you guys we've got the live and give box for you which includes the total

money makeover baby steps millionaires as well as a year of financial peace university you can use that or give it away to someone to get them started on their journey. And we are so honored to have you guys. Let's get to the moment we've all been waiting for. It's Fernando and Miriam, $141,000 paid off in 46 months, making $110,000 up to $250,000, multiple side jobs, living on less than they made. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yes, they are. Another debt bites the dust, Ken. No, I like that.

Nothing can stop them. They've built the habits. They've got the discipline. They've got the resilience, the perseverance. Whatever comes their way, they're going to get through it. They didn't just change their money, folks. They changed their life. There's so much evidence of that. What a fantastic couple.

They're on their way to real legacy. That's what it's all about. You can do it too, America. It's available for you. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by my good friend Ken Coleman. And Ken, it's a big day today because it's Quitter's Day, apparently. Oh, is that right?

A new holiday. And a lot of people, they've got career goals. They're starting to give up. And I thought you could give them some hope. Can you do that? How about we give them a tool? That's good too. Hope and a tool? Okay.

Both and. Both and. So quitting, right? Here's what happens. Quitting is an excuse, and it makes a lot of sense when we're in the midst of hard things. So let's just get real about the baby steps. We have a lot of people watching and listening that are, whether they're Dave-ish or they're all in, they're in the midst of this journey, right? And I think of baby step two as the hardest stage. It clearly is.

It's brutally hard because we feel bad about ourselves. We got into this mess. Now we got to get out. And we believe in the baby steps, right? People go, it makes sense what these folks are saying on the Ramsey Show. And then what happens is we get to a point where it gets really, really hard. And then when it gets hard, I don't know if you're like me, but when things get hard, marriage, parenting, work, the baby steps, life, can we just, can I get an amen? Like life is hard. So what happens for me is, is I start to feel like it's impossible. So my emotion, George, is that the harder something is, the more unattainable or the more impossible it becomes. And then what happens is I start to reason, I start to think

and logic my way into, well, if this is impossible, why am I doing it? And so then what happens is our human nature, we just kind of go, well, it's the smart thing to quit, but it's not. It's easy. Quitting's easy, but quitting's not smart. And so what I found out in my own life is that the right things are always hard. Being faithful, committed to Stacey for almost 25 years, it's been harder for her than me, to be honest. Bless her heart. But it's hard. Really hard. Parenting three teens is brutally hard.

All you parents out there, by the way, with little kids, and you think it's hard? Nope. You're exhausted. It's just not hard. Wait until the emotional. Your kids are driving. They're dating. They're trying to figure themselves out. It's brutally hard. Wait till the emotional, your kids are driving, they're dating, they're trying to figure themselves out. It's brutally hard, brutally hard. I'm just being honest. But those are the right things for me to be a dad, to be a husband, right? Getting out of

debt is brutally hard. It's the right thing for me, for my family, for my freedom, my livelihood. We understand that. And so that's the challenge. I want to encourage people that we come on this show every day and we answer your questions and we tell you practically, here's how you get out of debt. Here's how you build an emergency fund. Here's how you pay for a house cash, you know, pay your house off, all these things. And the steps are simple, but it's really hard. and I just want to acknowledge some people today that are really feeling like they're going to quit because they don't think they're ever going to get there. Well, it turns into a lot of negative self-talk and a lot of self-doubt,

and it's a lot of going, yeah, Ken, of course you quit again. You're that kind of guy. You know, the way we talk to ourselves, we would never talk to someone else. That's a great point. You got to get back on the wagon and go, that's not my identity just because I screwed up the budget once or I'm in a career I don't love. That's not you. That doesn't define you. You can always change. That's right. And I think the challenge is just if you're doing something hard and you know it's right, you can't quit. Now, let's just be real. If you're doing something that's really, really hard and you know it's the wrong thing, okay, there's your permission.

Quit that, right? Yeah. But if it's a right thing, ask yourself, is this right? Is this worth it? And if the answer is emphatically yes and getting out of debt, working in a job that you are good at,

that you love, that produces results, seeing purpose in the Monday morning, that's worthy. Starting that business that is going to solve a problem that's very deeply personal to you, maybe from past pain, that's the right thing. It's hard. And so I just want to acknowledge, George, that some of you are doing some really hard things right now. And I know what it's like. And it's worth it. So don't quit.

Don't quit. Just get your eye on the prize finish line. One step in front of the other. Just one. Win today. If you win today, then you can win tomorrow. And getting out of debt, losing weight, starting and launching and growing a business, discovering who you really are in this world and what it is you want to do, whatever it is, fixing your marriage, becoming a better parent, rescuing the heart of your kid who's wayward. I don't care what it is. It is not a get it done right now. It is going to be one step at a time. And so if you're in that, know that we are here for you at Ramsey Solutions and all the different shows, all the social media accounts, the tools, everything. We're here because we all know what it's like, including Dave, to walk through the hard times when you just don't feel like you're ever going

to get over the mountain. You will, and we're going to walk alongside of you. That's what I want people to hear. I love it. Well, if you are a new listener, which I know we had several hundred thousand tune into our live stream, if you just kind of stumbled upon it on YouTube and you're going, who are these people? What is this plan that they're talking about? Well, if you want to learn about it, we have created an awesome tool for you to get started. All you need to do, go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the get started button and we will guide you. We'll give you the right tools and resources based on your answers to the questions. It's a completely free tool and we want to help you do that. It's based on your specific

situation because, Ken, I've heard you say this, clarity leads to confidence. And so many people just need that clarity. Tell me exactly what will work. Show me that other people have done it. Show me that I can too. Yeah, you know, that's really true. I want you all to think of a time where you've been driving and you hit maybe a dense patch of fog to where you can barely see beyond the hood of the car or a torrential downpour and you can't see. What do we do? We immediately overcome a fear and we slow down and we pull off the side of the road. Why? Because we can't see the road. And not being able to see a clear path forward to progress and breakthrough in my life means I become paralyzed. And so clarity does lead to confidence. And this is the best part.

Confidence leads to courage. When I'm clear that I can get out of debt and live like no one else so that later I can live and work and give like no one else. That gives me confidence to step out on the path, but then the courage to stay on the path when life throws its curves and potholes and challenges at us, right? It shakes us. And what do we do? We retreat back to clarity. Oh, I blew it this month. Wait a second. What's the key to winning a baby step too, right? Get back to the snowball, right? Get back in. I get clear. Oh, I got to get some momentum. And so that's the key to winning a baby step too? Right. Get back to the snowball. Right. Get back, get back in. I get clear. I got to get some momentum. And so that's, that's the idea. Clarity leads to confidence and confidence leads to courage. Well, Ken, you got a tool called Get Clear, which I think is apt for, for this segment right here.

Sure, sure, sure. So for those that maybe are in the careers, they're going, this isn't it. Whatever I'm doing right now for work, it ain't it. I need to get that clarity so that I'm confident, so that I have the courage. What does this tool do? So here it is, folks. If you had 20 minutes to be able to fully see yourself as you are, what you are good at, what you love to do, and what motivates you, what if I told you in 20 minutes you

could get real clear answers on that, and then those answers turn into a purpose statement that become essentially a job description, an overarching job description of the professional contribution that you were put on this earth to make, where you increase your income and increase your impact, money and meaning. That's the tool. It's a great tool. Check it out, ramsaysolutions.com slash get clear, ramsaysolutions.com slash get clear. It's the get clear career assessment. And it's not about you just getting slash get clear. It's the get clear career assessment. And it's not about you just getting a good job. It's about you making the difference that you were put on this earth to make. And Ken, we went through mine on the show recently and it was like reading,

I mean, you were reading my mail. I was shocked at how accurate this thing was, not on just like listing out potential career paths, which were literally what I'm doing today, but also giving me a purpose statement that helped me go, that's how I'm wired. That's right. See, that's self-awareness. And a self-aware person is a confident person. Now you're not trying to keep up with the Joneses on Instagram or try to do the business that your cousin did.

You're like, no, no, no, I'm being me. I'm doing me, baby. And we got millions and millions and millions of people in this country that John Deloney's helping, that are dealing with anxiety, depression of all sorts. And it's because they don't know who they are. We know a lot about a lot of things in this world. You know, we don't know enough of who we are and what we're supposed to do with our life. That'll preach. So we're here to help. The Get Clear Assessment. Check it out. RamseySolutions.com. Well, strong way to end the hour. Thank you, Ken. Good stuff there. Appreciate it. Thank you to all the folks in the booth for keeping the show afloat. We got Austin and Will and James and all sorts of people in there. And of course,

you, America, we thank you so much for tuning in. Don't go anywhere. We'll be back real soon. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.