The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Make Fear-Based Decisions When Investing (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 26, 2019

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. We are so glad you are here. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Julianne starts off this hour in California. Hi, Julianne. How are you? I'm good. Trying to live the dream. Love it. How can I help? Well, I got an investment broker, and I invested $252,000 into American funds,

and I just keep hearing that the stock market is going to be so volatile next year. I was wondering if I should keep it in there or take it out. Did you invest it for one year or for 20 years? Until I was 52, and I reinvested it until I'm 65. But I could take it out if I wanted to. But you're not going to even take it out all when you're 65. You would just take an income off of it. True.

Okay. And so you're going to, so you're investing for 15 or 20 years, right? 30 years, 40 years, whatever, yeah. Yeah. It's not for five years. It's not for one year. Okay. Mm-hmm. And based on that, then you found out that the stock market is predicted to be volatile next year.

Yeah. Shocking. I know. The stock market's always volatile. Well, when your investment broker sends you the letter, sends everybody it saying that, you know, it's been predicted that it's going to be extremely volatile, one of the most that they've seen, that kind of scares me. Okay. Well, you ought to call the guy and ask him if he's suggesting to pull money out

of the stock market because he believes it's too volatile. If he is suggesting that, he should have never put you into a typical mutual fund and you need a new broker. It wasn't. It was in the Forbes 500 magazine, and then the brokerage just sent out the article to all of us. I know. Why did he send you an article to scare the crap out of you?

You know, I don't know. I don't't either i'm worried about this guy i don't know because let me tell you let me tell you what i'm doing with my mutual fund investments next year okay nothing okay nothing and you know how often i read forbes never yeah i don't either yeah okay because they're it's a journalism student with student loan debt that wrote that article it's not an investment analyst or an economist and even if it is a supposed economist economists are like weather forecasters they're the only people can be wrong most of the time and still keep their jobs so let me tell you what I know about the American economy. I'm 59 years old, come to think of it. I need to remember how old I am. And so I'm old. I'm older than you, all right? Here's

what I know about the American economy. It goes up and it goes down. But overall, investing into American businesses has made people wealthy. And so I invest in mutual funds with the mindset that I'm going to leave it there for a very long time, and no one gets hurt on a roller coaster except those that jump off in the middle of the ride. Yeah, and I'd be jumping, wouldn't I? You'd be jumping based on a rumor from a journalism student with student loan debt that writes for Forbes and isn't a real expert right so the difference in me is i'm not any smarter the only thing i know is i don't look at the short-term play i always look at the long-term play and you know a group of stocks

in the american funds which american fund are you in um well it's american balance fund american high income fund of america okay you're in very conservative type mutual funds then and so you've got some bonds you've got some uh some large cap stocks which is your high income idea there okay now what that means is you're asking yourself are companies like general motors, McDonald's, Dell, Microsoft, 20 years from now, as a group, in general, big companies like that, 20 years from now, are they going to be worth more or less? More. Right. If they're not, it'd be the first time in the history of the united states right that they're not worth more 20 years later regardless of what next year does

so if the journalism student for forbes is right and next year's bad whoopee i'm not taking it out next year anyway that's just part of the roller coaster ride i'm betting on a 20-year bet i'm not taking it out next year anyway that's just part of the roller coaster ride i'm betting on a 20-year bet i'm not betting on a 12-month bet right and i think you may need a new broker a new advisor someone that isn't sending you crap in the mail to scare you i don't know what he's trying to do whether he's trying to turn your account or whether he's just a panicked person himself boy I was careful with that. Okay. So, yeah, you just need to have people in your corner that talk you off the ledge, not

talk you onto the ledge when it comes to long-term investing. That's what I do. Personally, it's what I do. That's what our SmartVestor Pros will do. If you're not working with a SmartVestor Pro that's doing that, if he's trying to scare you into short-term investing in a long-term investment investment because the mutual funds that you're in are uber conservative if you go back and look go pull all charts up online on all three of those accounts all three of those funds and see how many times in the last 30 years how many times they've lost money

out of a given year out of a 25 year span you're going to find less than five times they've lost money. Twenty times they made money, five times they lost money. And what's the net result over the 25 years? They made a bunch of money. From 25 years ago to today, way freaking up. And that's what you're betting on because you're only 52. Twenty years from today, you'll be 72. 20 years from today, you'll be 72. 25 years, you'll be 77, and you'll still be eating off this nest egg.

So this money will still be invested. You'll just be pulling some of the income off of it. And so that's the kind of time horizon you've got. And the funds you're in are not volatile funds. Matter of fact, they should have a beta of volatility less than the overall market with the funds you described to me so go back and look at the track records on them and say how many times i lost 25 years have they lost money and how much more are they worth now than they were 25 years ago and i think you'll find that

it's very very calm very calm american funds has a classical fund. Fidelity has Magellan. It's the big dog, right? Fidelity Magellan is a classic known mutual fund. You can go look at it. It's interesting to read the history on it. It's a huge mammoth fund. American Funds has one of the oldest funds out there. It's almost 80 years old called ICA, Investment Company of America. And you can go pull that one up on the internet.

I'm not recommending funds, but it's just an interesting study for all of us who get scared by these idiots in the news. I mean, these reporters in the news. And so you look at the ICA and go over almost 80 years, how many times has it actually lost money? And how much more is it worth today than it was 80 years ago? That's a pretty strong track record. Yeah.

And it just kind of gives you a feel for what the stock market's about on the long play. You should never be invested in mutual funds on a short play. Ever. Under any circumstances. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? 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,

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Rachel Cruz can help you make sure you got your every dollar budget dialed in. And old Dave is here to tell you the truth about whatever it is you ask him yeah get your butt out of debt and christy writes there christy's right there right is there to walk with the ladies especially those that are willing to start and operate at their own businesses. And, hey, we're here to help you. A whole team of people here at Ramsey Solutions. We got your back. We got your six.

We're here for you. And it's worked out pretty well for us. And we're glad you're there. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sean is with us in Illinois. Hey, Sean, welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave thank you for taking my call sure i am calling because last year i took out a loan against my 401k of my old job for my daughter for her to get through her senior year in college

and i i took out 16 000 i ended up paying off 2 000 but i ended up getting another job and didn't pay the balance now i'm nervous about that because they said it will go towards my income with a penalty yeah yeah so you have the ability to borrow do you have the ability to borrow 1414,000? No. You can't go to the bank and borrow $14,000? I probably do, but I'm already in debt. Well, you're already in debt. You owe $14,000 right now, and what they're getting ready to do right now

is they're getting ready to charge you $6,000 in penalties and taxes for this screw-up if you don't go get a loan and pay it off with that loan, and then you're not going to get charged $6,000 for this screw-up. Oh, Lord. You get charged a 10% penalty plus your tax rate for not repaying a 401k loan within 60 days of leaving your company this is why we tell people to never borrow on their 401k loans so if i were you i'd go borrow fourteen thousand dollars at the credit union that's going to save you about six grand now you're still low 14 but you're 14 now uh otherwise you're about to turn otherwise you're about to turn 14 into 8, and that 8 is going to get your 401ks.

I assume, well, there's more than that in your 401k, so they're just going to cash out enough out of your 401k and pay this loan off is what they're going to do. They still have my 401k. Yeah, they're getting ready to take the money out of that and pay this loan off and charge you the penalties so okay that's how it works so yeah what i would do is borrow the 14 000 repay that to the bank and roll your 401k out of there into an into an ira and that will save you $6,000. Otherwise, they're going to cash enough out of your 401k to pay off the $14,000 loan and pay the penalties and taxes. So they're going to take about $20,000 out of your 401k.

That's what they're going to do, to pay off a $14,000 loan. So this turned into a 55% interest rate or something by the time we're done here. Yeah, it's a bad plan. I'm sorry, kiddo. I wish you hadn't done that, but this is how you get out of it. Now you just got to roll up your sleeves and clean up the mess. We've all done the stupid stuff, honey. All right, Emily is with us in North Carolina.

Hi, Emily. How are you? Hi, good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So we're newer to following you, so thank you for all the information. But we're working on Baby Step 2, paying off some debt, and it's in the form of a family loan.

We should have that paid off in January. But we also have payment on a truck that we bought in 2017. And that truck sits in our driveway. My husband gets a take-home car for work. And so we're just paying on a truck that just sits there in the driveway. So we obviously feel like we need to sell it, but we're like crunching the numbers trying to figure out if it's worth it. We owe $11,000 on it. And we're feeling like, my husband feels like we could maybe get like 20 000 for it

good um but that's just kind of a guesstimate and we need a car for him because when he's off um he needs to be able to get around so well let's let's play pretend let's play pretend for a second you go to kelly blue book kbb., and you look up private sale on this truck with the attributes, the extras, the add-ons that the truck has, and the mileage that the truck has, the actual truck. Right. You put it in there. Okay. And whatever you think the condition is, make it one worse. Okay. and if that is $20,000 when you look that up

that you can sell your truck for and you only owe $11,000 sell it and buy a car out of the $9,000. Right. And that's pretty possible, right? I'm sorry. It's pretty possible to buy a $9,000 car for cash?

I'm not a car person, Dave. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, I'm not a car person. Yes. I mean, it is. Yes, it's very possible. All right.

We just wanted to make sure that we would walk away with... You can buy a $2,000 car for cash. And we won't have to then worry about, like, maintenance and stuff. But, I mean, in all honesty... It sits in the driveway. We don't have to worry about maintenance. It doesn't get driven except once on the weekends to make sure it still starts. Right.

It's not a big, you know, because what you've got here is you've got something sitting in the driveway that's eating insurance and tags. And, you know, you've got to keep it up for environmental garbage and all that stuff and and it's going down in value while it sits there in the driveway yes exactly so you're about to turn a twenty thousand dollar truck into a nine thousand dollar or eight thousand dollar truck just while it sits there in the driveway it's going to go down in value or you put a five or seven thousand dollar truck in the driveway and it's going to go down in value too Or you put a $5,000 or $7,000 truck in the driveway, and it's going to go down in value too, but not as much because it's cheaper, and it doesn't cost as much to put tags on it because it's cheaper in most states.

Most of them are done based on value, and it doesn't cost as much to insure it because it's lower value. Half the value, half the insurance cost. Good. You're just coming out all the way around here. Yeah, this is just so smart. You're just so smart. How smart you are.

It's unbelievable. Yeah, you've got to do this. All right daniel's with us daniel's in texas hey daniel how are you i'm hot dave i'm moving uh sun you'll move north in the sun i'm gotta move north yeah i'm thinking about it cool how can i Well, my question for you today is actually for my fiance. She works for a big time real estate agent doing all the contracts for her and she's moving on and she's going to start her own business doing, just being a contract coordinator on her own. Cool. And we got to talking last night, and she has a lot of anxiety, and frankly, she's scared to do it. And where she has a very impressive resume with her stats on how much, you know, her history and how many dollars she's done

and transactions she's done, she's still very, very, very nervous to take the leap. And so I'm just wondering from y'all, you know, from the Ramsey Group. She needs to go to Business Boutique, man. I'll give her a couple tickets. I told her to bring a friend with her. Christy Wright's doing Business Boutique in November, and I'm going to send you a copy of Christy's book for her as well. It's a best-selling book, Equipping Women to Make Money Doing What They Love.

And that's what this is. And half of it is overcoming fear for all of us, even ladies. Hold on. Madison will pick up. We'll get you a couple tickets to the business boutique event in November. There's still a few left. And we'll get you a copy of the book. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Rolando and Emma are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave. We're doing great. Welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live? Houston, Texas. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you.

And all the way up here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir. We're ready. Love it. How much have you paid off? So we paid off $168,993. Woo! Love it. Way to go, man. And how long did this take?

28 months. Good job. And your range of income during that time? Started at $150,000, and then we got up to about $240,000. Wow. What do you guys do for a living? I am a lawyer. I'm a public defender for Harris County, which is in Houston. And I'm a business development manager at a public defender for Harris County, which is in Houston. And I'm a business development manager at a food service marketing company. Very cool. Very cool. So how does your income go up $100,000 in 28 months?

So we were both blessed with new jobs shortly after we started Financial Peace. There you go. And my job came with the opportunity for overtime. And then towards the end of the process, the beginning of this year, I picked up a job waiting tables as well for about four months. Whoa! You make a quarter million dollars a year and you're waiting tables. That's right. Ding, ding.

Look at you, man. Get after it. I love it. What kind of debt was this $169,000? So about $140,000 of it was student loans thanks to the attorney right and then uh well i had an mba in there as well so i'm not going to put it on okay come on but she contributed to that um then we also had one vehicle about 20 grand and then we had eight grand in credit cards so you're kind of normal just normal normal plus or minus attorney mba right now but uh yeah very cool so how long you guys been married?

Good question. Five years. We haven't celebrated our anniversary since being in this process, so we've lost count. It's five years. Okay, very good. So about halfway through your marriage, though, 28 months ago, you know, a couple years into your marriage anyway, you look up and you go, oh, we're going to have to

do something different. What happened? What was the catalyst that spurred this along? Yeah, so you actually came to our church, Second Baptist. Yeah. And you got up there and you pitched FPU, and part of that was your illustrating borrower being slave to the lender with the chain. And we went home. I was a little skeptical at first.

I figured I'd always be paying off my student loans since mine was about 90 grand. But we realized that we had to do something about it. We had our daughter who was about to be one. And I said, we can't be paying these student loans and paying her college at the same time. That's just not right. So, yeah, we decided to take FPU. Very cool.

So you went through the class, and that reset some things from the MBA training. Yeah. Reset the idea that a lawyer is always going to be in debt. Right. And you decided to get after it. Yeah, we did. And part of that training was I got real in-depth into analysis. I'm a spreadsheet kind of a guy.

So we looked at the numbers. We sat down. And at first, we looked at it and it was like, man, it's going to take about six years. But then we started looking at cutting back in the areas. We got the EveryDollar app. Hey, look at where all our monies go. Before, it was spreadsheets and it was more of an expense report at the end of the month instead of a budget. Ooh, that's a good distinction.

And we started doing it right. We started budgeting, sticking to it. Our food going out was about $800 a month. We said, we've got to reel that in. We got a few months in there where we had $0 restaurants because we were that serious. Very good. Very cool. So you pay off $169,000.

How old are you two? I just turned 31. Wow. And I'm 33. Wow. I'm sorry. I just turned 32. 32.

I was like, wow, you've been lying to me this whole time. No, she's 32. You didn't remember the anniversary. Back off. Oh, man. Way to go, you guys. Way to go, you guys. Way to go. How does it feel to get rid of $169,000 in debt?

Very freeing. Very, you know, going through the process. There were some times where it was hard. We were like, man, we're missing out on a lot of things with our friends. We said no a lot to this process. I mean, to our friends during this process. It was like not going to birthday parties, not going out, not going on vacations with our family and stuff like that. But, um, you know, we, we, when we, when we, when we got in those ruts,

it was, there's a goal and we know that when we're done with that, it's going to be so freeing. And we are at that point now to where we don't have to worry about owing money to anybody else. Yeah. You're done. It's a very comfortable, obviously we have have future goals but it's a very comfortable place to be knowing that we're doing what we can um you know security wise for our kids yeah you've set up a whole different thing you changed your family tree so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is for me um it was just remembering why we're doing this what is the benefit uh what am i trying to accomplish by becoming debt-free?

That was not an end of itself. It was a means to an end. Just show that. Absolutely. So just remembering that daily and having a reminder that you look at daily of your why and also your progress. And so we had these charts on our refrigerator and also a Bible verse that just reminded us the reason why we want to be debt free. And that's, we're called to live in freedom so we can love one another. And for me, it was, again, it was originally because we follow you, it was like, oh,

we're going to be millionaires after we do this, right? So originally it was that. But then it changed to the giving component, being able to help change other people's lives, whether it's helping friends in need or through the church or whatever it is. And that in itself is so much more fun, I think, is being able to give to folks. Yeah. And actually what's going to end up happening is you're going to do both. You're going to be outrageously generous and you'll be everyday millionaires. Because the process is unfolding right in front of me.

I'm looking at it. Well done, you guys. Thank you. Very well done. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? They're actually here, but it was each of our parents. Oh, wow. Everybody came.

Yeah, they did. Party in Nashville. They did. I love it. Very fun. And we also had a lot of friends who were very supportive, understood why we were saying no. They didn't push us to do certain things that we said no to. So that was a great encouragement. And also some of my coworkers who I was always at work doing

overtime and they would just keep encouraging me and asking about my progress. She actually did about a hundred shifts of overtime last year. They were asking her if she was okay, and they had to tell her to go home sometimes because they were worried about her. But again, like I said, it was knowing what the end goal was there. Not afraid of hard work, huh? No. I love it.

Very cool. And you brought the kiddos with you to celebrate too? We did. What are their names and ages? So we have Camila. She is three. And then we have Junior, and he is three. And then we have Junior. And he is one.

He's about to be two. And we have the third on the way due in December. When's number three due? In December. All right. Very good. Beautiful family. Very pretty.

Love it. Well, that right there is a good why. I'm looking at them. You guys are beautiful, beautiful people. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us very very very well done all right it's rilando and emma 169 000 paid off in 28 months making 150 to 240 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Way to go! Woo-hoo! Love it! That's fun. So our debt-free screams today, all of them were very, very serious. 308,000, 183,8 183 169 000 all done in five years and three years and two and a half years and all increased their income during the time that they were getting out of debt and all had a transformational spiritual experience while they were doing it, where they learned that they did not need as much as society told them they needed to live the good life.

We all know this, somewhere in the back of our mind, that we all spend ridiculous amounts of money to buy things that we don't even really like to impress people we don't even really like and then we get into debt we have to get the mess cleaned up and how you how you clean the mess up you reverse the process you cut the freaking spending quit acting like you're in Congress you're not it's time to get control and then you get to be one of these heroes like that couple

they're heroes they just change their lives they just change their family tree and people like them are changing America this is the Dave Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Andrew Murray says,

Pride must die in you or nothing of heaven can live in you. That's a good one. Financial Peace University is our nine-week class that now over six million people have been through. It's no longer a question of if it works the only question is are you going to do the stuff that we teach and are you going to bother to learn the stuff that we teach and then actually do it the typical person that goes through the class pays off fifty three hundred dollars in debt and saves twenty seven hundred dollars that's $8,000 change in just the first 90 days. They get on a budget.

They learn to work with their spouse. They start thinking about how to invest for retirement when they do get out of debt. They're in a community of people in a small group discussing winning with money instead of hanging out with their broke friends who are saying, Oh, I just buy that. Yeah, you're always going to have a payment. Because if you hang around with losers, you know what you become, right? Loser.

You become who you hang around with. So sometimes you need to set your peer group up to cause a change. It's not any different than that right there. So, Financial Peace University. There's about 10,000 classes available for you to join right now, and you can even do the digital online version if you want. Just go to DaveRamsey.com or call us at 888-22-PEACE. And when you buy our overall membership, you get Financial Peace University free.

You get the Smart Money Smart Kids class free. You get the connectivity with every dollar to your bank free. We run our live events streamed to members free. I mean, you get a bazillion dollars worth of stuff as a part of your membership and the way you start your membership is in the class and we're going to you know walk with you as long as you let us walk with you we'll walk with you all the way into everyday millionaire status and coach you every step of the way along the way And you'll be in communities of people plugged in that are doing exactly the same thing. Financial Peace University.

Check it out at DaveRamsey.com. Tim is in Montana. Hi, Tim. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Hi, Dave. Hey, what's up? So I've got a question.

My wife and I have just recently made some life transitions here. And the position we're in right now is I have about $10,000 in savings. I have about $21,000 in debt. $12,000 of that is some student loans from completing two master's degrees. And then I have $9,000 in an interest-free credit card right now that expires next September. So I've got 12 months to get rid of that before I accrue any interest or late fee penalties, anything like that.

So we've started to look at your strategy, and my question is, so what do I do? I have this $10,000 and just sitting there in savings. It's a cash right now. And I'm wondering, do I throw it all at the loan? But what do I do? And the hiccup for me, the reason I'm not just doing that is because my new career that I've changed from a non-profit industry to a for-profit to make a little more money um i'm in sales and so the last since april when i started has been very good um but i don't know what the next you know i mean there's always a question mark for me and so i'm just a little nervous about depleting too much okay not in terms of the fact that you're on a commission, but in terms of the actual logical facts of what you're selling,

is there a real reason to expect your income to go backwards? No. Okay. So you don't sell a seasonal product. You don't sell a product that you've just gotten lucky for 90 days? It's structural integrity of homes. So we're a construction company that does non-cosmetic stuff. We're structural integrity.

So your foundation is failing, we fix it so you don't lose your investment in your home. Gotcha. Okay. And you're selling the work. You're going in and giving an estimate and closing the deal, and then the team comes in and does the work. Correct. Okay. Yeah, I don't see any reason.

Is there any reason to think that it would go backward? I can't hear any, I think. So, no, in that case, you know here's the thing ultimately we're only ultimately we are all on straight commission you people that are on salary don't think you're on straight commission try not going to work for a while see if they keep sending you money okay you work you get paid you don't work you don't get paid that's straight commission right and so we all ultimately are on straight commission. So the only difference here is that you went from a stable, low-paying job to a less predictable, high-paying job. Right?

Yeah. Okay. For the most part, yeah. So does your wife work outside the home? She does not. She's home with three kids. Gotcha. Cool.

All right. she's not she's home with three kids gotcha cool all right well what we teach in your environment then is that uh it is scary and we understand that but we want a we have found that people would go completely laser focused on the debt and we start with one thousand dollars only in an account any amount that you have above that that is not in a retirement account, any investments you have that are not in a retirement account are liquidated to pay off debt, and you pay off all your debts, smallest to largest. So you have $20,000 in debt, $10,000 in income, or $10,000 in savings, $9,000 of that's available because we're going to leave $1,000 sitting there,

and we're going to knock out the smallest $9,000 worth of debts immediately. It sounds like that's a car in this. No, the $9,000 was to take the new job. We had to move cross-country. No, no, no. What is your smallest debts? I have $9,000 on a credit card, but it was an interest-free credit card. Oh, yeah, you just had a credit card and you had a student loan.

Student loans. That was it. So I have six student loans at varying different percentages of interest, and I was wondering if I should pay off some of those. Yes. So it gets a little more complicated. Do I pay off some of the higher interest loans? No.

No. Just list them smallest, balanced to largest, and it's not a category. It's an actual loan. And so a bunch of those six are going to be gone with this $9,000 that's available. And then you're going to get to the credit card, because what's your household income?

What are you making? Well, see, so I've only been doing this since April. No, but this is September. What are you making? I should net right around $55,000, $60,000 this year. Okay. We need $11,000 by September in a year. It's $1,000 a month.

You're going to do that or you're lame. You're going to be 100% debt-free before this time next year. Follow me? That sounds nice. Well, I mean, you've got $20,000 in debt. You have $9,000 in savings that we're going to use. That leaves $11,000. $1,000 a month for 11 months makes you debt-free, doesn't it?

Correct. And you better do more than that. I mean, you need to cut your budget. You need to get on a budget you better do more than that i mean you need to cut your budget you need to get on a budget cut it more than that i'd really like for you to be debt free by about may and that means no vacations and knowing you don't see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there's your extra job so uh you sell so much stuff the kids think they're next and so on we're gonna live on scorched earth here baby baby, and you're going to knock this thing out. That's the program we teach, and the reason we keep teaching is it keeps working.

It's funny. You can wander into debt, but it's really tough to wander out. You've got to lay your ears back and get after it, man. You've got to get them. You've got to go for it. That's how you get out of debt. And you can do this. You call me back if you need some more help. I'm here for you, man.

I trust you. I believe in you. I'm proud of you. You can do it. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in 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. If you would like to do your debt-free screen live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.