The Ramsey Show - App - FOMO Crypto Investing Is a Terrible Idea (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

George Kamel & Dr. John Delony discuss: • Why FOMO investing sets you up to fail, • How to help a relative who is a hoarder, • Dealing with higher rent prices. 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  

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money, your mental health, your relationships, your boundaries, or lack thereof. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey personality, joined today by the inimitable Dr. John Deloney. John, good to see you. Wow, look who's got a dictionary. Yeah, I've been hanging out with Ken Coleman. He's taught me a lot of $10 words.

I'm not going to be able to comment on that. I just threw a little grenade over there just to see what you do with it. Well, folks, it's open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. If you've got a question, a burning question, you want some confirmation, affirmation, you want us to talk you off the ledge of a terrible financial decision you're about to make, we are here for you today. So give us a call. Phone lines are open, 888-825-5225.

Mary kicks us off in Kalamazoo. Mary, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. How can John and I help? Well, my husband and I are kind of in a sticky situation with my mother-in-law, his mother. And we don't really know if we should help her, how we should help her. Right now she's going through a divorce. The reason of the divorce being that she is a hoarder

and her soon-to-be ex-husband says that he's been asking for help with bills but she hasn't been helping with bills. She also has a mortgage on a house that is unlivable. It's covered in mold and she wants to continue to live there. My husband's father passed away. I left her, I want to say about $200,000, but she's already spent it all. And while he was still alive, he bailed her out of half a million dollars in debt. She's not really being forthcoming about any of her debt situation. And she has even gone as far to ask us not to tell the rest of the

family about her divorce, which I think is going to be final in about 30 days. Um, so now it's a situation of, and I don't even know if this is the correct terminology or the correct thinking. Um, but is do we allow my mother-in-law to to live in a house that's covered in mold that's hazardous to her health and she's just gonna continue to be in debt and be a hoarder or do we intervene somehow how do i navigate this so mary i'll jump in here. I hear it in you that you're just at wit's end. And so a couple of things I want to walk you through about hoarding, and then we will get to some steps y'all can take. Okay. Hoarding is one of those words like narcissist that gets thrown

around a lot all over the place. If sounds like she truly is hoarding right she truly is a hoarder i'm not i'm not saying this lately i've oh no i trust i trust you i when somebody is fully there um when they get a rush uh on getting a good deal or they're unable to maneuver in their home. It's unsanitary. It's unsafe. And they are unable to move forward. I want you to begin to shift your language. You're going to practice this. I want you to shift your language from she's not forthcoming. She's not. Your mother-in-law is very, very ill.

Okay? Okay. And so let's take the moral stuff out. Let's take the character stuff out. Not long term, right? There's still going to be some reckoning here, and we need to change some actions and behavior. But right now, she's very, very sick.

She's not okay. And we could probably track this thing back all the way to when she was a little girl. There's some trauma here that's been there around for a long time, would be my guess. But we're here now. So here's a hard truth. You can't make an adult do anything.

Yeah. And there's few things on earth more devastating than watching somebody you love be in pain and not take your help or your support or your care because i know if she called you and said i need this house cleaned up this week you and your husband and everybody else would take the week off and go get that thing but it can't absolutely of course you would and so you are watching somebody that you love drown and you can yell all day long hey we'll come out and get you. We're here swimming,

treading water next to you. And they say, leave me alone, leave me alone. One of the cornerstones of true hoarding is a deep, resounding shame. She knows what her house looks like. And she's found herself in a position where she doesn't believe she can stop. She knows about the divorce and that some of her actions have led to somebody saying, I can't be in a relationship with you anymore. And it just, that shame mounts and mounts and mounts and mounts and mounts. So at some point, you can rally all of your husband's brothers and sisters, and he needs to lead this.

His brothers and sisters need to lead this. You need to support him in this. This isn't your lead to take. But they either show up with a mental health professional and do an intervention and say, we're getting involved here, knowing that mom can kick y'all out. And or you can call some of the resources in your community that says we have an adult who is no longer able to take care of themselves. And there is instances where the local government will get involved. That gets messy. Mom will say mean things to y'all.

And that's just part of it, and that's okay because you're taking care of somebody. But there's not going to be some magic conversation that you, the daughter-in-law, can have. And she'll go, oh, I didn't think of that. That's just not where we're at. She's very, very sick. Okay. So, the reason I tell you she's very sick, I want you to approach her

with compassion, not with anger and frustration. Even though you're going to get angry and frustrated. And let's approach it from a compassion lens and then let's say we're going to give you an opportunity to be surrounded by people who love you and say we're willing to get the big dumpsters in's say we're going to give you an opportunity to be surrounded by people who love you and say we're willing to get the big dumpsters in here we're

going to help you get some care she probably needs to go see a doctor not probably she for sure does and if she won't do that then we're going to call in some professionals here in the community and say hopefully they'll reach out they may not they may not. This is a hard, hard, messy situation you are in. I'd let her know we're not going to loan you money. All the brothers and sisters, we're not going to give you money. We're not going to give you access to our credit cards. And we're going to go down those roads to make sure everybody's on the same page that we're going to start taking care of mom because she's not okay. Okay. The other issue that I'm having that I'm hurting with, it's just such a black and white difference between her parenting versus my parents. Yeah.

It's hard for me to deal with. And then I know as a wife and as a support to my husband, he's told me that he promised his father on his father's deathbed that he would take care of mom. That's right. And here's the deal.

Taking care of mom isn't giving mom everything she wants. Taking care of mom is calling the professionals and the interventionists who are going to help pull her out of the water because she is literally drowning. Don't compare your parents. You'll have two different sets of parents who have different sets of gifts

and skills. You love your parents and you love her. And how you love each other is going to look differently for both of you. You can do that. I'm sorry you're going through this, Mary. No matter what time of year it is, focusing on your family's financial plan is always a smart move. I get questions all the time about where to start and what to do first. One of the most crucial and affordable first steps to take is to protect your family and get term life insurance. I know it's not glamorous, but all

the other steps mean a lot less if something happens to you and your family has no financial protection. Getting term life insurance needs to be a top priority. I recommend 10 to 12 times your income and lock in rates for 15 to 20 years. This gives you plenty of time to get out of debt and build wealth. I've been recommending Zander Insurance for over 20 years and they understand and live this strategy and will take the time to help you find the most affordable term life rates. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. It's not that expensive, it's not complicated, and you need to do it now. You're listening to The Ramsey Show.

I'm George Camel, Ramsey personality, joined today by best-selling author Dr. John Deloney. John, we just took a heartbreaking call. A woman called in. Her mother-in-law is a hoarder. Oh, yeah. The way you unpack a clear path in this book for people who aren't scientists like me is absolutely incredible. So own your past, change your future. It's on preorder now. You get a free month from BetterHelp of weekly one-on-one therapy, which is incredible on its own. Lots of bonuses there.

But tell us what someone can use this book for to get well. So I think people think of mental health. They think of that woman in that call all right my mother-in-law is a has a psychiatric disorder that she is struggling for burning through money she's unable to help herself so we think about mental health we think of that you think of extreme cases and major cases this book is not for that situation it can it can support that situation but this book is for that woman who just called how do i keep myself and my family okay when we're trying to love somebody who's struggling how do i live in a world where this country just invaded that country and we're still coming out of pandemic and i

haven't paid my student loans off yet and or what's happening with our government i got debt how do i be okay in that mess? And that is all of us. That's me, right? That's everybody, man. That's Dave. That's all of us. Everyone's got levels of trauma, no matter if they think they do or not.

There's stuff that happened in their life, and when we don't deal with it, it comes out in weird ways, and then we wake up one day going, why does my life just kind of suck? Yeah, and so whenever it's just an expansion of, man, we hear mental health and relationship. We hear that stuff stuff all the time and we think that's for those people it's for all of us it's for all of us and so um most most mental health books talk at you all of them they talk at

you um it was really important to me that man this is this is my journey too like i'm this is just a couple folks sitting on the back of a tailgate going, which is a very Texas reference, by the way. I've never done that, John. Or, in your case, sitting in a brand new Nissan Leaf that's plugged in. Thank you. Says the guy who drives the Prius. Okay.

I used to until I slid it down the concrete barrier here on 65. That's for another day. That's another day. But it's for all of us. Just having conversations and I'm just walking alongside you. I love it. Well, folks, you're never too old. You're never too young to improve your health and make those relationships stronger to deal with those past traumas so that you can be well.

And you get a free month of one-on-one weekly therapy from our friends at BetterHelp, which will give you some tools that you need to change your future. And you're going to get matched with a therapist based on your specific needs. So I love this combo. Dr. John Deloney's new book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future, plus a month of therapy from BetterHelp. This book's going to make you laugh. It'll make you cry. It's going to challenge you. It's going to help unpack some of those bricks that you've been carrying around for way too long. And when you take these steps that Dr. John outlines and take advantage of that free therapy, you will be transformed. And that's what we're all about here at Ramsey. We're in the transformation business. So go get yours. It's 20 bucks for all this stuff. That's amazing.

RamseySolutions.com is the place to do that. And they've got some cool bonuses with the conversation cards, the questions for humans right now. So go check all of that out at RamseySolutions.com. All right, let's move on to Olivia. She's on the line in Miami, Florida. Olivia, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, George. Hi, John. How are you doing? Great. How can we help? So I recently moved to Florida and my rent actually increased. I've been following Financial Peace University since 2020, but I didn't really kind of follow all the rules. I kind of messed up and got myself a little bit deeper into debt. So I kind of started doing it all over again.

But my rent increased, and I'm thinking, should I put the baby steps on hold and focus on finding a cheaper apartment, or should I just stay where I am for now? Well, I don't think this is an emergency situation where we put the steps on hold. What we do have to do is look at our budget and find margin. And there's only two ways to create that margin. Number one is increase our income and number two is decrease our expenses. And the combination of those things hopefully will get you to a point where you're going to be able to afford that rent and keep on with the baby steps. So when you say you did something dumb, what'd you do? I got a car. I financed the car. Oh, you're calling about, should I get a cheaper apartment? And then you made a bonus.

What's this car loan? What is it? Yeah. So I got a car loan in 2020. So that ended up kind of being the mistake there. So it's kind of the expense of paying for the car and student loans and credit cards and everything. It's just kind of kicking my butt, plus the inflation. Well, the good news about cars is that it's usually a reversible decision. So what's the car worth? The car right now, the last time I checked, it was like $10,000, but my car payments are $15,000. The total, I should say, is $15,000. So the loan is for $15,000? Yes. And the car is only worth $10,000? Yes.

I would go check on that. That feels really low. Since you bought that in 2020, cars have appreciated it in the most bizarre way. Have you checked on it recently? Yeah, I have because I was trying to trade it in for something cheaper and it turned out that I would have negative equity. Okay. So what's your take-home pay right now every month? I take home about 20, sorry, I take home $2,000 a month. And what's your rent? My rent is $1,250. Ouch. You can't even breathe. Olivia, what are you doing? I know. Is this a one-bedroom apartment? Yeah. Okay. And you're living alone, obviously. Yes. Okay. It may be time to move out and move in with someone else as a roommate.

Have you thought about that option? I actually just came out of a roommate situation, so I kind of didn't want to go back into that. Okay, Olivia, let me say this because George is really kind. You are broke. You're drowning. You can't breathe. Okay. How do we get this income up is another part of the equation.

You definitely have to move out. You can't afford this even if you got a raise today. This is insane to be paying this much with your take-home pay. Yeah. So what are you doing for work? I work in a pharmacy as a pharmacy tech. Okay. And you're making $24 a year after taxes?

$30 a year after taxes. Okay. I think we need to find a way to get this income up. Yeah, maybe temporary. So here's what happened. You found yourself and you're broke. You followed America to Florida, and shockingly, when all of America wants to live in a place,

then the rents go way up and they can just move them up willy nilly because there's a line of people from California and New York who will take that spot behind you you're going to have to be radical for a season and a season I mean probably two years and I mean radical like you're going to work a full day as a farm tech and then you're going to go over and work

another shift at a local hospital or you're going to go deliver pizzas you're going to drive for Lyft You're going to drive for Lyft. You're going to do whatever for two years and you're going to pay this sucker off and pay your stupid student loans off and you're going to have a knuckle headed roommate that's so annoying. They're safe, but God almighty, they're annoying. And every day you're going to say never again, never again, never again. You hear what I'm saying? Yeah. How old are you?

I'm 26. Just close your eyes for a second real tight and think about being 28 and not own anybody anything. As you move into your new apartment and you'll have gotten a new job because you're going to have so much new muscle, you'll be a gangster. Yeah.

Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, so I know I'm sounding like, man, that guy needs to take a couple of Xanax and chill out. I know I sound like that, but I don't know you realize how scary things are for you. Yeah, I actually do realize what I mean. But like, my budget has been really tight. Like, I've been really good with my budget,

so I've just been able to kind of stay afloat. But it's really hard. Yeah. Have you gone through Financial Peace University? I have. I just started the Baby Steps. I'm at Baby Step 1. Good.

Awesome. Well, how much debt do you have total? In total, it's about $48 Step 1. Good. Awesome. Well, how much debt do you have total? In total, it's about $48,000. Okay. You can do this, but like John's saying, you're going to have to do some radical things, sacrifice, get the roommate, take the second job, take the third job, get your income up, slash the budget even further for a season. Six and a half days a week. And if you can sacrifice for two years,

the next 20 after that are going to be amazing. 30, 40 after that. 50. We'll keep going, John. She's going to live forever. She's going to go forever. That's financial freedom. Well, we're pulling for you. Thanks for the call.

This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next week. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Gamble, joined today by Dr. John Deloney. And in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Greg and Becky join us. How are you guys? We're us. How are you guys? We're great. Where are you from? Darth Maykato, Minnesota. Minnesota.

All the way to do a debt-free scream. That's right. How much have you guys paid off? $158,000. Let's go. How long did that take? Four years and nine months. Nice.

Awesome. And what was the range of income during that time? $85,000 to $115,000. All right. What do you guys do for a living? Four years and nine months. Nice. Awesome. And what was the range of income during that time? 85 to 115. All right. What do you guys do for a living? I'm a controls tech, and Becky is a fitness instructor and manager at a gym. Awesome. What is a controls tech?

That hurt my brain. I do programming with programmable logic controllers, PLCs. Do you understand the words? I do not understand those words. But it sounds like you're a really smart and that you could blow us all up. So I love you and I'm glad that you're here. It's awesome. He knows enough to be dangerous.

Okay. So this $158,000, what kind of debt was this? It was mostly a lot of it was student loans, and then it's our house, too. Whoa! Whoa! Yeah. Okay, mic drop. We're looking at weird people, John.

We've got a Minnesota house. Yeah. That's amazing. It's exciting. So casual. Yeah, just the loans and a house. No big deal. Dude, he's a control tech.

He doesn't have to. Look at him. He's awesome. Like a cyborg. He's so chill. Wow, this is incredible. Okay, so let's talk about this. Four years and nine months ago, you guys had the loans.

You also had the mortgage, and you just went, we're just doing this thing. What happened? Well, we were invited. We were meeting with some friends, and they were all going to go on this sandals trip, and they invited us to go. But we were like, well, we weren't married yet. We wanted to be married. We were like, well, we have all this debt, too,

and we don't want to go on this trip and like have all these other expenses and come back and be stressed out still so for us it was let's take the time now and pay off this debt and then we can go on these trips and actually go and enjoy them and have fun wait you guys just like made an adult decision to just have patience we really did haven't you seen the sandals brochures, though? They're beautiful. They still have lunches for us. Brochures, John? I don't know. On the covered wagon I take home.

So were you guys always kind of disciplined but just kind of ish? I think I always, I bet, was working really hard to get debt-free before I met Greg, and he was definitely more financially savvy than I was. And then once we met and we were talking about getting married, he was like, have you ever heard of like Dave Ramsey or these other like finance, whatever? And I was like, no, I don't know anything about it. I'm just trying to pay my car off. Like, so, and he was really good at guiding me and getting me on track with that. So. How'd you get connected, Greg, with our crazy crew? Um, I think just internet research, just reading and learning about what is money,

what should you do, what you do not do, and came upon Dave Ramsey. Wow. Anyway, this guy's got a good head on his shoulders. Let's go with his plan instead of mine. Yeah, exactly. Wow. Well, four years and nine months, that's a long journey to a lot of people to become debt-free. I mean, obviously house and everything. That's absolutely incredible. How did you guys stay motivated on this path? Well, some big motivations where we have really good friends who have paid off their mortgages too. So that was like huge. My mom paid off hers too. It just was like, when they would do that, it was more inspiring for us to be like, okay, our friends can do this. Like we can do this too. We can crack down and keep going and do it. So you saw it done from people that are just like you and you went, wait, if they can do this. We can do this too. We can crack down and keep going and get this done. So you saw it done from people that are just like you,

and you went, wait, if they can do it, we can do this. We're not that different. Exactly. So over the last four and a half years, recount your most legendary marital fight over this budget. Well, budgeting for me is always just a little stressful and very emotional, and I pretty much always just a little stressful and very emotional. And I pretty much cry every time.

Wow. Because Greg has like, I would like to do it this way. And I think we should really watch this. And I'm like, oh, so I'm the more emotional one for sure. It's a little bit this and this. And I cry every time. That's fantastic. Greg, what about you, man?

Um, I just remember, well, the first time she cried. We were talking about, we were actually getting rid of a little credit card. And we fell for the Delta thing where, hey, we're going to get a bunch of points. Get those sky miles. Yep. So annoying. Yeah. So we were trying to then redeem, and it was such a hassle.

And it turned out we couldn't redeem and get the trip we wanted to get. Oh, it turns out there's all these hoops to jump through, and it just didn't work out. Yeah, if you want to go to Nebraska in 2027 on a Tuesday, we got the points for you. Yeah, exactly. And you're on a Delta flight. That's right. Wow. And here you guys are, house paid for and everything.

Yes. Talk to that couple who may be sitting there with $158,000 and they go, well, we're just never going to pay this off. Oh, it, I mean, it definitely, we talked about it on our drive down yesterday, how like getting to the end point was just, but just writing out the goals and having like visuals and listening to the show and hearing other people pay off their houses too was huge and inspiring and kept us motivated. I mean, it's definitely hard.

But when you really sit and think about the rewards at the end and to start out like we're going to have a baby soon and so we know we don't have to worry about that stuff. Congratulations. It's going to be so nice. Yes, bring it into the world debt-free. That's the way to do it if you can. Exactly.

When you surround yourself with a bunch of negative Nancys who go, you will always have a car payment. No one pays off their – it's actually stupid to pay off your house. Actually, I talked about that too, how they were my cheerleaders as well. I loved when people said that to me because I was like, I'm going to show you that I'm going to get this done. I don't want to have a car payment. I don't want to have a mortgage for the rest of my life. I want to live our lives and travel and do what we want to do.

So it was just motivating when people would tell us, oh no, you'll have that forever. You love both. You love the support and you love the negativity. Both fueled you in their own ways. Yes. So you've done this stuff. Greg, what do you tell that husband who's sitting with his wife over across the table and they're doing their first budget and she just starts crying? I think just be patient. And you might have figured out mathematically how this could be done the best.

But listen to her because she may have a really good solution that you just didn't think of. Dude, you should start a marriage podcast. Hold on. The key to a good marriage is patience and listen. Yes, and I know you've got it all figured out, but maybe she's got an idea too. Dude, you're a genius. Got it. Wow.

So you've done this stuff. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Well, we definitely like we know everyone says budget, and it is. It's huge. To work on that budget and do the zero-based and figure out where your money is going is just, yeah,

it's the best part. So yeah, for us, that was the biggest thing. And like saying no. And just keep listening to the Ramsey Show and keep listening to other people as they pay off and like fight through these things too.

Have you had the moment yet when you've got your checks deposited and you don't have any payments? It's our money. Yeah. It's really crazy. It still doesn't feel that real, but we're a few months into the new year and we're like, oh, we can do what we want with this. It's just all deposits and it's all...

Yeah. Look at Greg. Look at you smiling, man. It's a good feeling. That's the biggest text smile I've ever seen. That's fantastic. He's beaming. So how does it feel to be completely 100% debt free and not owe anyone anything? It's awesome. Very good. Yes. It's incredible. We love it. So it's hard not to love John, you know, there's a lot to love there when you don't have any payments to make at the end of the month and you get to keep it.

Now you can go to Sandals every month if you want to. Oh, sure. Yes. And your friends can go, hey, we can't. Sorry. We're broke. And gender reveal, little girl, little boy? It's a little boy. Little boy? Yes. I'm just saying, John is a better name than George.

Congratulations. Both are kind of lame, but you can do better is all I'm saying. Well, guys, we're so proud of you. You guys are heroes, and you're going to inspire a lot of couples out there who didn't think it was possible, who may be in the journey with you trying to pay off this house, and they heard Greg and Becky, and they went, this is keeping us going. So thank you for being here.

Thanks for making the trip. We got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires. That's Dave's number one national bestselling book. That's the next chapter for you guys as you build wealth and give outrageously for the rest of your entire lives. And we also have a copy of Total Money Makeover, and I want you to give it to that person who was super negative and go, hey, just slip it over and say, I know this is going to be a coaster for a little while, but you'll get there. And maybe next year you can come to Sandals with us. Boom. Boom.

I like that. Well, let's get to the big moment here. It's Greg and Becky, Minneapolis, Minnesota area, $158,000 paid off, house and everything, in four years and nine months, making $85,000 up to $115,000. Count it down, guys. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Woo! Yeah! Woo! Just like that. Another couple gets set free. We love to hear it. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, Ramsey personality and host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast,

joined today by Dr. John Deloney, host of The Dr. John Deloney Show. Okay, John, it's America's favorite time. We found a new TikTok video for you. I know how much you love the TikTok. With all of my heart. Just as much as you love the internets. I love them all. And with any social media platform,

there's a lot of great things that can happen on there, and there's a lot of not great things. And sometimes, just sometimes, John, we like to highlight the not so great things. Bring it on. Let's do it. A lot of financial advice out there, especially when it comes to crypto. A lot of FOMO. A lot of people trying to get in on the next big coin.

And so I thought we would watch a video together and just see how you react to it, John. You ready for this? I am. People getting nutritional advice and mental health advice and now money advice from teenagers on the TikToks. Congratulations, America. We've done it. Roll the clip. Everyone gets a platform.

Okay. Everybody gets... That's right. Let's see what we got here. Remember, John, your mic is hot, so choose your words. Here's what would have happened had you invested your $1,200 stimulus check that was first issued on April 12th, 2020 into these top 10 most popular cryptocurrencies. $1,200 investment into Bitcoin today would now be worth $7,538. $1,200 investment into Ethereum would be worth $22,929.

Into ADA would now be worth $76,363. Into BNB would now be worth $76,363. Into BNB would now be worth $28,720. $1,200 investment into XRP would now be worth $5,873. Into Solana would be worth a whopping $210,389. Into Chainlink would be worth $8,544. I think he's just making them up. Into Dogecoin would be worth $8,544. I think he's just making them up. And Dogecoin would be worth $126,000. And Delitecoin would be $4,595.

And a $1,200 investment into Terraluna would now be worth $180,000. Well, George, my hemorrhoids are back. There they are. Hemorrhoids are back. They're back, John. Wow. You know what else is cool?

If I had not gone to Taco Bell yesterday, I wouldn't have indigestion. Is that how that works? You know what else is cool? If I had not gone to Taco Bell yesterday, I wouldn't have indigestion. Is that how that works? You know what he didn't play? He didn't play the other 10th. Gosh, dude. So let's just recap what just happened, John. First of all, I think he made up about 17 words in there.

How do people just keep up, man? And here's the other thing. Hindsight is 20-20. John, you're an idiot. If you invested in Apple in 1984, just $100, you'd be a millionaire by now. Did you know if you'd gotten off your horse in 1806 and put some money in Ford shares, you'd be a gajillionaire. So, John, I was just in Vegas, and I put 16 black, and I went all in on it.

I won big. You should also put 16 on black next time you go because that's the winning number. This is such a terrible use of statistics. Everybody – oh, jeez. I don't know if we can call it statistics. I think professors all over are angry right now. Well, it's just this. It's this – oh, man.

You got John all breathy, America. You do have me all breathy. Look what you did. Because I hate the manipulation of data to, A, make people feel dumb for choices they could have made. And I'm even going to go with should have because we actually have real data of what these things are worth today. Oh, yeah. Producer James pulled that first. I can't stand it when people say, well, if you had of, so you should. Because there is zero, zero none zilch correlation

right and it left out 10 000 other crypto like like whatever cartoons drawn with some kid's laptop it left all that out who people lost their their minds right so you take a narrow snapshot of those things and it makes you feel stupid and left out and then that's going to encourage people to go make some reckless choices with their money and it's that kind of nonsense hurts people it's not helpful no it's not helpful not at all it just gets you it makes you feel more so you go i missed out i missed out again on the next big thing right and as we know timing the market is the most dangerous thing you can do. And we say it's not about timing the market. It's about time in the market.

It's about consistency over time when it's up, when it's down. You're consistent. You're investing in things that have a stable, long, proven track record. That's why we recommend mutual funds over the next meme coin that just came out. So Producer James pulled up some, using the same logic, pulled up some interesting stats here. If you had invested $1,200 into Ethereum in November 2021,

as of January, you would have $840. There goes $400 right there. If you invested $1,200 into Bitcoin in early November 2021, as of mid-January, you would have $660. Congratulations. Just lost half your money. Way to go.

Golf clap, America. If you invested $1,200 into Dogecoin in May of 2021, as of January, you would have $360 instead of $1,200. And I know this for a fact, John, and here's why. When we were doing the episode on cryptocurrency on the Fine Print Podcast, which you can go listen to wherever you listen to podcasts. Middle school boys everywhere were angry with you. Yeah, they're very upset with me. Here's what I did. I had to know the experience of what it's like to actually

invest in something. So I didn't spend more than I was willing to lose. I put $40 into Dogecoin. It was 40 cents at the time, so I got 100 Dogecoin, and I went, all right, let me just see the experience. Number one, it's traded 24-7, so I can be up at 3 a.m. watching it zing up and down like a roller coaster going, oh, there goes my money. Oh, I made a dollar. Oh, I lost $5. This is very stressful. So then we wonder why there's rampant anxiety in society. It's like following your wife around and be like, you like me? Do you like me now? Do you like me now? How about now? How about now? So that was one piece of it, but that $40, can I tell you what it is today, John? According to that dude on the TikToks, it's worth $111 million. It's worth $14.

That $40 turned into $14. Just ride the wave, George. And this was before Elon Musk was saying, hey, doge to the moon. And he went on SNL and everyone thought, this is our chance to get rich quick. And Doge crashed after he went on SNL and mentioned Doge Coin. So don't let billionaires dictate how your investments do. Hold on. With one thing they said on SNL. I'll even give billionaires. I think that's a good... how'd you how'd you if i see somebody who's in great shape i might ask them hey what are some things you do in your life that put you in a great shape and i got to filter that through my life and my body and my blood types and my experience

blah blah who i'm not gonna ask is some nameless hand on the tiktoks i don't know who that is i don't you know what i mean yeah i don't know who that is. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't know who that guy is. I'm not going to say, you're right, I screwed up. Because I don't even know if that data's true. I don't know if that's accurate. It's certainly not accurate right now.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Gosh, those things are true. And generally, if you're telling someone to invest in a certain coin, it's because you invested in that coin, and if they invest,

then you make more money. It's like a multi-level marketing scheme. Especially, I think I'm glad you brought that up. And this is me being totally serious. If somebody who's a billionaire comes out on a platform, and I'm not saying they're evil guys, but they come out and say, here's where I'm putting my money. They know that a bunch of people will rush out and put their money there, which props up the price, and they can get out. And they've got a million followers

or 10 million followers or 100 million followers and so if you are trying to it's like this how often have we not you i'll say me thank you john how often have i watched a pro athlete documentary and i look at their workouts and i'm like that's what i'm doing tomorrow and i'll look start watching their like the weights they're lifting and squatting, and I'll think, all right, I need to up my game. No! They play for a professional team. This is their job. Mine is to run my mouth on the radio, right?

I shouldn't be lifting like a pro athlete. Following the dollar amounts and the scale that some of these folks are investing in, if that thing goes down, you know what they still have? A billion dollars. You know what you have? Fourteen. That was your whole life savings. You know what you have? $14. That was your whole life savings while you're strapped with payments. So they can drag you into this thing, prop their thing up and get out, and it's a much different game they're playing even though the process looks the same.

So, man, don't make choices with your life. And don't invest in things that you don't understand. And I'll tell you, John, I've done a lot of research on crypto and NFTs. And the more I research it, the dumber I think I'm getting. I'm like, maybe I'm just not a smart person because this is so complicated, which makes me think maybe it's not designed to actually make me rich. It's designed to help other people get rich and then get out. So there's your little pro tip for the day on cryptocurrency. If you want to learn more about this stuff, we did a whole episode on the fine print,

all about the hidden truths that are keeping people broke. It's called, Could Bitcoin Be Your Ticket to Wealth? And if you want to join us, we are going to be going to Orlando with a Building Wealth event where we show you the right way to build wealth. So you can check all of that out at ramsaysolutions.com. Thank you for making me dumber today, George. You're welcome.

It wasn't hard. I don't know what that says about you. It's a low bar. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to my fantastic co-host, Dr. John Deloney, all the folks in the booth, keeping the lights on, keeping the audio going. And of course, you, America, appreciate you listening. We'll be back with you before you know it. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.