The Ramsey Show - App - Get Laser-Intense and Emotionally Focused on Your Debt (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 18, 2019

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show. Where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Nick is with us in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hi, Nick.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My wife and I are in our mid-30s. We have about $30,000 in debt. We make about $90,000 a year. I'm in real estate school right now, also working my job. And my wife, for the last seven years, has been doing CPA work, and she wants to go back to school to get her CPA,

and we want to cash flow it. We have about $3,000 in savings. That was part of your program that we've been doing for the last few years. Can you give me any advice on that? Advice on what? On being able to cash flow that while paying off the debt that we have. Okay, you make $90,000 a year, and she's been doing CPA work for how long? Accounting work for how long?

About seven years. Okay. work for how long seven about seven years okay and um i think her going back to school and getting her cpa is a wonderful goal and i would do it next year after you're out of debt okay um we we don't own a house or anything we've've made a 1,000-mile move, so that's why we're renting a house right now. Good. We pay about $1,200 a month for rent. Good. Most of our debt's student loans, and one car note is what we have.

How much do you owe on the car? About $10,000. Okay. You make $90,000. Yeah. You make $90,000. Yes. You're debt-free in one year. Okay. $30,000.

$2,500 a month. Then you're free. You can breathe. Build your emergency fund and cash flow her school. But you're trying to do three things at once, and when you try to do three things at once, none of them work. There is nothing on fire here except her emotions. She's been an accountant for seven years,

so she's an accountant for eight years before she gets her CPA, instead of seven years. It's not a big deal. It's a good choice. It's not a big deal. It's a good choice. It's not a good choice in the situation you all are in. You need to finally focus on this debt. You've been screwing around the edges of this, and you haven't hammered it. How much debt have you paid off so far and in what period of time?

We've probably paid off about $10,000 in the last couple years. Yeah. See what I mean? Yeah yeah that's just completely wussified okay making 90 grand you paid off five thousand dollars a year for two years that's sneezing you follow me yeah absolutely you listen to the show you hear these people come on here do their debt-free screams you don't hear anybody say, I paid off $5,000 a year making $90,000. You don't ever hear that when they're doing a debt-free scream, do you? They paid off $30,000 a year making $90,000. So now is time. Now, you guys, you don't have to do Dave Ramsey's plan.

You don't have to get out of debt. You can live and be, you know, do your life. She can go back to school. You can keep the car debt, keep the student loan around the next 20 years. You can do all that. You'll and be you know do your life she can go back to school you can keep this the car debt keep the student learning around next 20 years you can do all that you'll just be normal but and i'm gonna be mad at you you'll still be my friend you'll just be one of my broke friends and i got a lot of them so but if you want to do the stuff we're talking about it's time for you all to turn up the heat it's time for you all to turn up the heat. It's time for you all to get really mad about this situation. And quit trying to do 73 things at once.

Because you're still eating out. You're still going on vacation. You're not doing a good budget. You're just wandering around the field out here hoping you can find the fence. It's time to get laser, intense, emotionally focused. And if you do that, you can clear this debt in one year. Then she goes to school. You'll knock that CPA out.

And I agree with her goal. I think it's a great field of study, great tool to have in your belt. And it'll probably up her income a good bit to be able to do that. All of that will be great. But it's just symptomatic of the way you all been doing this so far so this is the day you decide what are you gonna do you're gonna keep doing it the way you've been doing it you're gonna keep getting what you've been getting or you're gonna do something different it's up to you you get to choose that's the beauty

god gives you the dignity to choose. You have the right to choose. And I'll give you the same dignity. You have the right to choose. But you call me and ask me for advice, which means you're going to get my advice. That's how that works. Rob is with us in Chicago. Hey, Rob, how are you? I'm doing better than I deserve, Dave.

Thanks for taking my call. Sure, my pleasure. How can I help? Well, I deserve, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure, my pleasure. How can I help? Well, I am beyond blessed. I haven't left college yet, and I'm already on baby step five of your program. I'm considering looking into real estate investing, and I'm wondering if it's even appropriate at my age.

Age hasn't got anything to do with it. It's just money. I pay cash for my real estate. No debt. Okay. If you can do that, and you want to fool with it,'s just money i pay cash for my real estate no debt okay if you can do that and you want to fool with it yeah have at it so uh you're a baby step five you're in college you have kids i do not sir oh then you don't have a baby and i have paid our way through school i joined the army at 18 um taken my summers worked full time-time with them, and do scholarships. Love it.

So you're debt-free with your emergency fund in place. Do you own a home? We do not. We rent currently. Okay, cool. Cool. All right. Well, I mean, you graduate, you get married, you buy a house, you get the house paid off,

then you start saving up and you pay cash for your first rental is the normal course of events. But if you don't want to do that and you want to keep renting and you want to save up and buy rental properties, as long as you pay cash for it, I'm cool with that. What's your household? No, you don't have a household income. You're single. What is your income? We certainly have anticipated. So I've accepted a job and she'll be a nurse in Chicago.

So we're anticipating above 110. So you're planning to get married? Yes, sir. Okay, cool. That's the plan. I to get married? Yes, sir. Okay, cool. That's the plan. I just bought a ring today, actually. Oh, that's cool, dude. Congratulations. What a great day.

Thank you so much. That's a fun day. That's cool. I remember when I bought Sharon's ring. It was a little tiny thing, but I remember when I bought it. Exactly right. I kept it under 2K. I kept it modest.

Yeah, well, believe me. Mine was under 2K. Mine was under a quarter. It kept it under 2K. I kept it modest. Yeah, well, believe me, mine was under 2K. Mine was under a quarter. It was.23, baby,.23 carat. I'm not even sure that's a real thing. Anyway, so, yeah. Hey, you, congratulations. Good for you.

So you're getting ready to be married, making 110. You're coming out of the Army, coming out of school. What's your degree in? Yes, sir. It's in cybersecurity. Oh, geez, you're going to make a bank. Your 110 is going to double shortly. Yeah. Save up and pay cash for your rentals, sir. It's in cybersecurity. Oh, geez. You're going to make a bank. Your 110 is going to double shortly. Yeah.

Save up and pay cash for your rentals, man. You're going to be able to do this. You're going to be able to do everything you want to do. You are so goal-oriented. You're so focused. You are on fire, man. Wow. What a great day.

Thank you for your service to the country, too. I'm sure glad we helped pay for your education. Guys like you, I'm glad for. That's good stuff, man. Well done. Well done. Future everyday millionaire. Right there, talking to him. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Your goal this year is to get rid of your debt, but here's the deal. In order to keep your momentum going past January, you have to make small changes that get quick results. That's why you need to attack your debts smallest to largest. I also recommend you look for ways to find extra money to pay off your debt sooner. It's there, I promise you.

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NMLS ID 1591. NMLS consumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Two weeks down, one week to go on the Everyday Millionaire book tour. Chris Hogan on the road, baby. Out there running around making Everyday Millionaires happen everywhere. The book Everyday Millionaire is a number one bestseller. How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Do Too.

Congratulations on your second number one, Chris. Well, thank you, sir, David. It has been an absolute honor, and I'm very, very proud of the team. Very good times. And so you and Anthony did the Smart Money event last night in Colorado Springs, and then you guys flew to Phoenix, right? That's right. And, Dave, I have to tell you, the Colorado Springs Smart Money event was absolutely amazing.

It was sold out. We had an incredible group of people there at the signing that I did during the break of the event. We finished up with an amazing debt-free screen. Angel was fantastic. She had her two sons up there with her. And they just, everyone left out of there pumped up. Single mom? Single mom.

I love it. Touchdown, baby. That's right. And so she was so proud of herself. And we were all proud of her. And the crowd stood up and gave her a standing ovation. It was a phenomenal event. Very, very cool.

Now, our station there in Phoenix carries the Dave Ramsey Show twice every day. Thank you guys for that. So depending on when you guys in Phoenix are hearing this broadcast, whether you're hearing it live or a little bit later in the evening, Chris Hogan will either be doing or getting ready to do his book signing there in Phoenix. It's 6 o'clock on Friday, Desert Ridge Marketplace, Barnes & Noble. And so 6 o'clock tonight in Phoenix. Desert.

Desert. Why can't I say that? Desert. I think I'm thinking of chocolate pie. Desert Ridge Marketplace, Barnes & Noble. And $1,000 given away at each of these book signings brought to you by the SmartVestor guys. No purchase necessary. Must be present to win. And $1,000 given away at each of these book signings brought to you by the SmartVestor guys. No purchase necessary.

Must be present to win. Chris, you've had 200 to 500 people at virtually every one of these book signings, haven't you? Yes, sir, I have, Dave. The book signings have been well attended. I mean, even in Colorado Springs where we did a noon book signing, we had at least 150 to 200 people there. So it was amazing. So I'm going to tell you, I'm expecting Phoenix to show up tonight. I really am.

It's 6 o'clock at Desert Ridge, as you said. It was the largest book signing I had with Retire Inspired back in 2016. So I'm expecting Phoenix to set a new record tonight. All right, baby. Let's bring it. Let's see if Phoenix has got it in them. I think they do. Good times.

Very good times. And then you guys are going to fly up to Las Vegas, and you're speaking at Central Church for Judd Wilhite this weekend, right? That is correct, Dave. I'll fly in there on Saturday, and then I will speak on Saturday night, and then do three services on Sunday, and then leave from there to go to Los Angeles on Sunday, and I'll be there on Monday, and then I will hit the ground running. I will do KTLA News, Go Banking Rates, and I've got several podcast things lined up on Monday. Then on Tuesday, I'll do KTTV, Good Day LA, then Hallmark Home and Family, then the School of Greatness with Lewis Howes, and then I'm going to stop over and talk and tape a segment with The Minimalist, and then I get to hang out over and talk and tape a segment with The Minimalist,

and then I get to hang out with you, Dave, the Smart Money event at Mariners Church. Yeah, that one sold out. Over 3,000, almost 4,000 tickets sold there, and a complete sellout. That's going to be a blast. That's Tuesday night, and it sounds like you've got a couple things to do by now.

Now, don't get nervous or anything, but Judd's little church up there, I think it's running about 30,000 people. Oh, it's got a few people there. There's a couple folk there at that little church there in vegas just just just want to let you know that that's what you're getting into i'm going to tell you something i've got a giving message that i'm excited to share with them on saturday night and sunday and i'm looking forward to it so i'll let you know how it goes good stuff good stuff all right tonight in phoenix Arizona, Everyday Millionaire book will be sold. Chris Hogan will be signing it.

Barnes & Noble, 6 o'clock, Desert Ridge, $1,000 giveaway. Monday night, Los Angeles, Barnes & Noble, the Grove at Farmer's Market is the signing. On Wednesday, well, actually, Tuesday night when we finish the event, we're going to jump on the plane and fly up to San Francisco because on Wednesday night next, Chris Ogun will be signing at San Jose Barnes & Noble at Stevens Creek Boulevard at 6 o'clock. And then over to Sacramento and then over to Seattle for next Friday, and you'll be done and heading back home. So two-thirds of the way done, and hit all the lists, as you should have, number one, on every one of them, and just very, very well done. Good job. Well, thank you, sir.

What do you think the – are you running into – you know, when we were working on this project, we were thinking that we would probably get some resistance, some people who were bent on being victims and bent on having people be victims. Instead of, as one guy said here the other day, we had an Army guy in here doing his debt-free scream. He said, you're either a victim or a Viking. I like that. But a lot of people just want everybody to be victims, and they're stuck in the mean old economy and the nasty world out there,

and they just feel like people can't pick themselves up are you running into much resistance on this message directly to you no not at all dave it's actually the direct opposite uh i'm shocking people and uh it is a lot of people that are looking me square in the eye they're telling me thank you thank you for encouraging me and helping me to believe that I can do this. So the people are believing it, and I can't wait to hear more stories and more just great feedback from people tonight here in Phoenix. Well, I'm glad they're believing it. I'm a little shocked, though, that somebody isn't just mad. I mean, maybe we just need to get you on The View.

You on The View with all that estrogen and that voice. i don't know if that would work or not dude that could be a problem babe yeah i think that's probably a bad idea i'll just pass on that one okay hey man congratulations we're proud of you this is a great message of hope the american dream is alive and well and that's not a philosophy or a patriotic statement. That is a statistical fact based on what we found as we did detailed airtight research. So well done, Chris Hogan. So tonight again, Phoenix, Arizona, 6 o'clock, Desert Ridge, Barnes & Noble. Be out there, people.

You set the record last time. We need to see you turn out tonight and be there. So good stuff. Congratulations, Chris. All right, i think i lost him there chris hogan and uh of course ramsey personality and very very popular just ridiculously popular all over america and and with good reason with absolute good reason thomas is with us in new york city hi, Thomas. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Hey, so I just set a goal about a year ago when I started working to pay off my student loans, $35,000 in one year. So I did that yesterday. Yeah, it's great, right? I have about $10,000 in my 401K, and I have a car that gets me from a to b so uh you know i guess i'm kind of on baby step four i just i just found your show so i you know wasn't really following the baby steps but uh i guess that's where i'd be in your plan and my question is basically um you know i want to continue to avoid debt and that even to me means not even taking a

mortgage um you know i was originally looking i'm actually not in New York City, I'm more in central Jersey. Yeah. And, you know, there's a trailer park near where I work, and I was looking at that originally, but, you know, I looked into it and I said, you know, the price is low, but then I'm going to be basically, you know, not really owning the property. There's a lot of fees associated with that. Right. And it goes down in value.

What's that? And it goes down in value instead of up. So, yeah, good choice. You know, I'm looking to move out soon and probably just, you know, rent something inexpensive. How old are you? What's that? How old are you? I'm 25.

Way to go. What do you make? Started at about 65. Now I'm up to about 73. Good for you. Listen, the way you stay out of debt is exactly the way you got out of debt, on purpose. And the way you do that is you just start setting goals and you say, okay, I'm going to buy X in Y period of time.

And X divided by the number of months to Y tells me how much I've got to save to get there. I want to buy a $10,000 car in 10 months. I need to save $1,000 a month to get there, right? I want to buy a $100,000 car in 10 months. I need to save $1,000 a month to get there, right? I want to buy a $100,000 house in five years. I've only got to save $20,000 a month or $20,000 a year to get there. So it's almost $2,000 a month to get there. And so you just start doing your long division like that. If it's over a five-year period of time that you're saving for,

you can include some investment income to your benefit. But where you're putting money in just the bank savings account, you're not making any money, so it's just you doing it. So it's a straight division. And you just say, how do I pay off $30,000 worth of debt? Well, I'll do it in one year. It's $2,500 a month, right? I'll do it in two years. It's $1,250 a month.

And you just do the division like that and set the very clear goal and then do the written budget to accomplish that goal and uh you've been doing it um instinctively and what you need to do is just do it not only instinctively now but intentionally with doing a little bit of math to it and put it on your refrigerator door and then go get them you're you're man. You're killing it. With more frequency than you know, I get calls and emails from people dealing with the recent loss of a spouse or a parent. You can hear the struggle and the heartache that they've been experiencing. And at a time they should be grieving, what breaks my heart the most is the strain and tension that they're going through because of money. Especially when it's a situation that could have been avoided.

If you have a family, it is your responsibility to have term life insurance. It's one of the things you do to say I love you. And yes, this is an ad for Zander Insurance. But since this is one of the most effective ways I have to get my point across, so be it. For over 20 years, I've been telling you about the importance of term life insurance and protecting your family. Listen, you need to check out Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. I can't say it enough. Protect your family.

It's what you're supposed to do. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282 so In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Dustin and Darcy, or Justin and Darcy, are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey. Good, Dave, how are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome.

Where do you all live? Columbia, South Carolina. Very cool. Welcome. Good to have you. And all the way over to Nashville to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir. That's right.

Cool. How much have you paid off? We've paid off about $64,000. Excellent. And how long did this take? 21 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? About $91,000 to $99,000. Good. What do you all do for a living?

I do engineering work at a civil engineering firm. And I'm a dental hygienist for a pediatric dental office. Oh, cool. Good for you guys. Fun. So what kind of debt was the $64,000? Well, Dave, as you'd say, we're all normal. Okay.

A little bit of everything. A little bit of everything. We decided to get kissy face with the bank. So, you know, that kind of loan, we got credit cards, student loans, a wonderful van that we had to have. So now that's paid off. Driving like no other. I bet. Did you drive it up here?

We did. All right. A paid-for van feels good in our parking lot. Very much so. And just a few medical bills, and that's about it. Gotcha. So how long have you two been married? We've been married, just celebrated 11 years.

Well, congratulations. Thank you. So after nine years of marriage, something happened. What happened? Something happened before that. Well, I'll bet. Four years prior to that, we took FBU for the first time and decided to ish it. And so we only did about half the classes and never really committed to it.

And it doesn't work. You're right. It doesn't work. You're right. It doesn't work. And so over, I don't really know what happened, but I'm just going to credit God for it. Just January of 17, just put it over my heart just to be done and go ahead and change our family tree. So from that point is when we started to.

So both of you just woke up January of 17 and said, we're going to do this or what? How's that happen? I did. Oh, you did. I did. I was ready. She was. She's been ready for the last four years before that.

Oh, so you were the ish. I'm the ish. Okay. She was on. She was game on and you ish it. I wasn't going to throw him under the bus. He threw himself under. He just he did it. I saw you do it. That's right there. and you ished it. I wasn't going to throw him under the bus. He threw himself under it. He did it.

I saw him do it. That's right. Blump, blump. There it is. The funny thing is that we had gotten back into that lifestyle of just payments or whatever, and she got mad at me for wanting to get back on. She's like, well, we're pretty comfortable. So it was about another month or so of her coming back around.

So did you go back through the class? We actually started to coordinate one. Oh, good. That's even better. Right. So we started in January, February. People who have failed at it make excellent coordinators. Yes.

You do. Because you know what ish looks like. You can smell it a mile away. That's right. I love it. This is a great story. You guys are awesome. So you start coordinating a class after flunking.

And it's game on, and you did it, man. You knock out $64,021 months. I mean, that's $32,000 a year, $35,000 a year pace, making $90,000. You were on beans and rice. We were. We could have been a little more. Some of that was a lump sum. We had sold our house prior to that.

Okay. How much of that was lump sum? About 10 or 11 we put on it. Okay. And then before we realized that we needed to change our W-2s, so we had a little bit from that come as well. Okay. So that was another couple grand.

Okay. So then you adjusted the W-2s, did the budget. Yeah. Went on. So what's the secret to getting out of debt your coordinators well for me it was losing my sense of entitlement and really just kind of getting into back of a servant heart as well because like i was just too selfish and trying to make these decisions and trying to make myself happy all the time and instant gratification i just had to really lose that you know that that's really good and you know what occurred to me when you said that when i first started teaching this stuff 25 years ago nobody used the word entitlement but a lot of people said i work so hard i deserve and they were entitled i deserve this i deserve this i work hard and i would just smack them you know

i mean it's just like you don't deserve squat. You're broke. You know, but that word entitlement that popped up about a decade ago, I guess, everybody started using it. There is, that's a beautiful explanation of that. Really insightful, too. Because there's something that happens when you lose that. On the other side of that is contentment, really, isn't it? Right.

You relax. Right. on the other side of that's contentment really isn't it right you relax right because there's there's a striving kind of an anger almost an angst to entitlement isn't there yes yeah that's beautiful well done good for you so what about you justin what was your uh what's your keys to getting out of that uh well mostly just staying focused um she talked about entitlement you know it's being okay to say no to others and to ourself was the thing and uh the well over the four years what really did it for us is being on the same page yeah so no no four years of me being not smart no ishing yeah exactly i like it so give me an example of because everybody faces this a time that someone came to you all to do something,

and it was kind of embarrassing to say, no, we can't do it. You kind of wanted to do it, and on top of that, it was embarrassing. You know what I'm talking about? To say, no, we can't do that. You said one of the keys is saying no to other people right yes yeah well one thing i can think about is going on um whole family vacations with your like brothers sisters mothers or dads whatever yeah so we didn't go down to disney world for a couple times yeah and we're both fanatics oh that would have killed Rachel Cruz. She's a Disney fanatic.

She'd have been curled up in the corner crying. That's awesome. That's hard to say no when your whole family's going. That's big pressure. Yeah, so how did they react? They reacted good. Yeah, they're okay. Okay, that's good.

Of course, disappointed that we couldn't be there, but they're okay. Sure, sure. But they understood your goal. Yeah. Okay, that's good. Well, you've got a good family. That's good. That's good. Well, you've got a good family. That's good. So who were your biggest cheerleaders?

Well, we had a lot of people whenever we did the FPU class, they were cheerleading. That was about, what, nine to 12 months into the process that that happened. For me, I listen to your podcast every day. And we had a lot of people that were, I guess, happy that we were doing it. That's good. Nothing super rah-rah kind of stuff. Okay. But not as much detractors as people pushing you off. Right.

We had a lot of people encouraging comments here and there. We had people at work that would say, you know, I'm proud of you. Gotcha. It was just those that kind of strived us and feeding off each other as well. Cool. And you brought the kiddos with you. What are their names and ages? We have James, that's eight, and Meredith is four.

Okay. And all the way from South Carolina practicing their debt-free screams? Yes. All right. They know what's happened? Do they understand? Yes, yes. Because Meredith was tiny when you started this.

Yes, she was. Okay. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaires book, number one bestseller, because that's your next chapter in your story for you guys to be everyday millionaires. You're on your way, right? Yes.

Yes, sir. And give like no one else along the way. Good job. Justin and Darcy, James and Meredith, $64,000 paid off in 21 months when they quit the ish. I like it. $91,000 to $99,000 income. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

All right, guys. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! This is how you do it. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Love it. Love it. Excellent, excellent job.

Well done. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. See, you can do this stuff. Have you ever started something and you didn't do it right the first time and you had to do it again? Well, every time. How many times do you start something and it goes exactly perfectly?

Never. Right? So that's what happened to them. They started Financial Peace University and they didn't do what we taught them to do. They ished it. So they got the opportunity to do it again. When you screw it up, you got to do it over. I mean, that's how everything works, right?

Screw up riding a bike, you're laying in the grass. You got got to do it over. You've got to learn how to ride a bike. Screw up driving the cars in the ditch, right? We've got to learn to keep it between the ditches. This is how life works. We course correct. We course correct. We course correct. You can't sort of do stuff and win at it. You have to demand excellence of yourself. Find a plan that works and submit to it. This one works. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for being with us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Jeff is in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Jeff. How are you? I am well. Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? So we're going to pay off my car here in a couple of months. Yay. And that will make us debt-free except for our home. Good. So super excited about that. So I have some questions about Baby Step 4, the 15%. The first one is I'm assuming it's gross, not net.

Yes. And you exclude bonuses? No. I'd look at my household income. Okay. So that would include bonuses. Yeah. What do I think my household income is going to be? Okay. Okay. Okay. So that would include bonuses. Yeah. What do I think my household income is going to be?

Okay. Okay. And then, so second question is, a little background. I'm 53. My wife is 40. Mm-hmm. And she's a grant-funded employee. Mm-hmm.

So we were going to match her job will match up to 4%. So we're going to do that, but then we're going to cover the rest of the 15% out of my salary. Does that sound like a good idea? Well, the way we teach budgeting is there's not a yours and mine. It's our income. And wherever, you mean, which 401k we use, your 401k, her 401k, whatever is fine. So does your company have a match it does okay up to what uh four percent we would well exceed um we make 175,000 combined so okay

we're going to well exceed the four percent i know i understand um but what i'm trying to do is just lay out the order of things, okay? So what we're trying to get to in your case is about $26,250, okay? And that's a year. So a couple grand a month, give or take, plus a little bit, right? And so the first thing you do to get to your 15% is you take all the matches that are available to you. That's the best thing. The second thing you do is you go to Roths,

whether it's Roth 401ks or Roth IRAs, or both. Okay? And once you've maxed out Roths and matches, if you're still not at 15%, then you would go to just traditional 401ks. So let's go back to her grant-funded deal at 4% match. Do they have a Roth 403B or 401k available there? Hers is, so she works for a university.

Right. I don't think it's a 401k. It should be a 403b they call it probably 403b yeah do they have it as a roth no okay do you have your company 401k available as a roth unfortunately no okay all right so what we're going to do is we're going to take both the matches and uh four percent and 4%, however that works out, and try to add up nominally actual dollars, what that is, because we're trying to get to 26,250.

Then we're going to do two individual Roth IRAs, and at your age you can do 7,000 each. That gets us to 14,000 in good mutual funds, plus your 4%, her 4%, still not probably going to get you to $26,250, and I would pick up the balance of that in your 401k. Okay. You see how I did that?

Yeah, I did. No, that makes total sense, and I didn't think about it that way, so that's a much better way to do it. One last question so on my 401k at my age everything i've read says that i should be in a moderate or i'm sorry in a conservative model yeah it's a bunch of crap you need to be in it you need to be in what they would call aggressive okay because and because the other thing too is my wife being 13 years younger than me we're she's still going to have time on this anyway.

You've got time, too. You've got time, too. Here's why. You're going to have a large nest egg because you have a large income and another decade to build it. So when you're sitting on $500,000, $750,000, you're not going to use that money. You're just going to use the income off of it. So you can afford the risk of it going up and down some during that time and same thing's true with me i'm 58 okay mine is invested my personal 401k is invested in what your category would call aggressive okay and because i'm in

growth growth and income aggressive growth and, spread across the four types that we teach. That would be considered, in that parlance, it's not really aggressive, it's not really high risk, but in that parlance, that's what they name it. And so, but here's the thing. I will never touch that money. It'll sit there. I'll just take the income off of it. And so if it goes from a million dollars down to 900,000

up to a million one down to a million 50 up to million two you know if there's some volatility in the actual goose i'm not touching that anyway i'm living off the eggs okay and so that that's the point and and so that's the uh fallacy in what's called the asset allocation model, which is what you've been reading. Okay. Super. Hey, man, you're doing great. Congratulations.

You've got a great income. You've got a great plan. You're being very focused, very intentional. You will very soon be an everyday millionaire. Hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of Chris's number one bestselling book. You're going to love it because you are doing exactly the stuff that you need to do to be one of them.

And you're going to be worth well over a million dollars when you hit retirement age. If things go, if things stay very similar to what they are now or better. So well done. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thanks for being with us. 888-825-5225. Thanks for being with us. 888-825-5225. Alicia is with us in Charlotte. Hi, Alicia.

How are you? Hi. I'm great. Thank you, Dave. Thank you guys for taking my call. I'll make it super quick. So my husband and I, we've been married about three and a half years. So I started your plan.

Okay, your phone is coming and going. If you can speak directly into the microphone, I'll be able to hear you better. Can you hear me better? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Awesome. So my husband and I, we've been married for about three and a half years now, and we officially started your plan July of last year.

My husband technically wanted to do something similar three years before that, but here we are today. So my question is, we're going back and forth because we just bought a townhome January of 2017. So this is our second year of having it. And we're trying to figure out if the house is the problem or not. You live in it? Yes, we do live in it. How much is your payment?

Our payment is $1,456. What's your household take-home pay a month? Take-home is approximately about $6,000. Okay. Now you're right on track. We tell people not to have a payment more than a fourth of their take-home pay, and that's right where you are. Yeah, I feel like we're right on it.

Yeah, house is not your problem. Eating out is your problem. So we did do the budget, and we've cut our grocery bill, honestly, from $700 to about $400. Nah, that wasn't your problem. That's crazy, but we have a daycare bill as well at about $1,100 a month. That's not your problem. That's not your problem.

How much debt have you got, not counting the townhome? About $100. On what? A credit card, two credit cards, about $18,600 on that, $18,600. $20,000 on a car and $63,000 in student loans. Okay. Your strain is that pile. That pile is the strain.

As you whittle that pile down, your strain is going to start to go away. The daycare is not the problem. It's the credit cards and the car payment. Got it. If you took those two out of your budget, you could breathe right now. Yeah. budget you could breathe right now yeah so yeah so getting very very intense very very intentional very very focused on that debt snowball listing your debts smallest to largest everything but the house and attacking that smallest debt have you cut up your credit cards yet

yeah we don't use them we've not you cut them up yet no it's not cut them. Yeah, tonight. You gotta clean this mess up. Right. You're gonna have to do some things that are dramatically different because you've been dramatically running in the wrong direction. And the $100,000,

that's where your pain point is. I know your household income your household income is approaching a hundred so you're it's going to take you three years to clean up this mess of beans and rice rice and beans no vacations you don't need to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working their lifestyle on your every dollar budget and that's where you guys have got to do you got to have no life and clean this up as you do that you're going to start to feel the relief, the financial peace.

Two words that don't go together like airline service. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. It's Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for the Dave Ramsey Show. This hour is over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Ramsey, debt-free screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment.

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