The Ramsey Show - App - Get Rich Slow Like a Real Baby Steps Millionaire (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 23, 2022

Dave Ramsey talks to everyday millionaires in this Baby Steps Millionaire Theme Hour. 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, it's the 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. This is a Baby Steps Millionaires Theme Hour, a theme hour about everyday millionaires, about people who have become millionaires, however it happened. I don't care how you became a millionaire. I want to talk to you this hour. If you won it in the lottery, if your mama left you the money, if your rich uncle left you the money, if you've worked hard

for 832 years and saved your money, whatever it is is i want to know how you did it because people out there need to know the real story not the crap they hear on the news by some political talking head with an agenda and by the way statistically the stuff they say on the news about millionaires is crap so let me help you what a millionaire is and then if you are a millionaire you can call and i want to talk to you today during this what a millionaire is, and then if you are a millionaire, you can call, and I want to talk to you today during this hour. A millionaire is only one definition for it that is the correct definition, and that's not just Dave Ramsey. This is just how things work.

This is the reality, okay? A millionaire is not someone that makes a million dollars a year. A millionaire is someone with a one1 million or greater net worth. Now, your net worth is defined as what you own minus what you owe, your assets minus your liabilities. Now, sometimes people want to get chinchy about what they want to count in their assets. You can count whatever you want to count in your assets. If you can sell it and turn it into money, it's an asset.

You don't have to sell it fast, but if it could be sold and turned into money, it's an asset. And so if you have a collection of farm equipment, that is an asset. Not necessarily going to sell it, might keep it. If you've got a collection of whatever, it's an asset. If you've got a collection of money, it's an asset. asset minus what you owe is one million dollars or greater than you are a millionaire by definition well million dollars nobody should have a million dollars it shouldn't be done this is not a moral discussion it can be but millionaire is not a moral construct it's a math idea a million dollar net worth a million dollars isn't enough it might not be but that's not it still doesn't define what a million dollar net worth is and it's not a million dollars cash and it's not a million dollars only in investments your house counts in this you know you're what you own minus what you owe is your net worth so if you have a great of a net worth of a million

dollars or greater, I want to talk to you this hour because I want to find out how you did it so that other people can learn from you, and then they can go do it. Pretty simple idea. This Baby Steps Millionaire's Hour, Everyday Millionaire's Hour, is all about hope. That's what it's about. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

Jake is in Saratoga, New York. Jake, what is your net worth? $1,023,000. You're right there, huh? I love it. Okay, how old are you? 35. Oh, you're a young millionaire.

Good job. Well done, Jake. All right, and give me the mix on that, the breakdown. How's that million dollars made up? So we have $600 in 401Ks, $25 in Roth, $35 in taxable, $22 in 529 accounts, $8,000 in HSA, $33 in cash, and $300 in home equity. All right. All right. I like it.

Very good. Very good. How much. I like it. Very good. Very good. How much of this did you inherit? Zero. Zero. Cool. And what has been your best year household income and worst year household income during your working life? Our best year combined was last year at about $260.

Cool. And our first year together, we did about 80 while my wife was in school. Gotcha. Okay. What do you do for a living? I'm a mechanical engineer. I do construction oversight for a utility company. Your degree in engineering? I'm a physician assistant.

Oh, your wife's a PA? Mechanical engineering. Okay. Yep. And so you're an engineer by trade. And your GPA in college was what? I wasn't an A student. I was like a B, C student.

So like a 3.0, a 2.5, what? Yeah, 2.5, 2.75 maybe. Gotcha. Okay, cool. Very cool. Now, you did this really young. You know that, right? Yeah.

Yeah, so do you feel like you got some kind of a head start what what was the what what enabled you to do this by 35 and get your first million dollars the biggest thing was i just started investing in the 401k you know right out of school and you know knowing what i know now i would have hit that a lot harder. Yeah, because it worked, huh? That and your real estate and your house, I mean, these are the two things that got you there, basically. Yeah. Yeah. So are you guys, you and your wife, you're both professionals.

You both work really hard, I'm sure. You're making really good money, but you're putting in hours to do that, without a doubt. Are you guys in sync on what you do with money? How unified are you? Yeah. You know, we have a plan. We do the every dollar budget. We talk about it every month. We decide where the money's going to go before we get it.

There you go. Okay. Do you guys use an investment professional? We don't take on debt. Okay. No debt. Do you use an investment professional? We don't take on debt. Okay, no debt. Do you use an investment professional to help you? No, I never have.

Okay. I've just done it solo. You just went and looked at the mutual funds and figured out which ones you wanted? Yep. And it worked. Good for you. Okay. Very good.

Man, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. So do you think that anybody can do this today in America? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. What would you tell them the secret is? Just don't take on any debt. Just save as much as you can.

Load up the 401K. I wish I was putting money into Ross when I was younger. That would have made a big difference for me now. Just don't take on the debt. I mean, we had debt. We had $120,000 in school debt long before we knew about you. And we just got after it

and paid it off, and that allowed us to build wealth. You must have been rid of that for a while, though. Yeah, very good. Well, way to go, Jake! Proud of you, man! Very well done. See see that's what a millionaire sounds like y'all it's not what your broke brother-in-law describes at thanksgiving this is not he does not know what a real millionaire is jake's a real millionaire that's

what they all sound like they all sound just like him i mean it's very it's like a it's like a club or something and you have to sound like that to get in the club. I don't know what it is. I mean, but we're going to talk about this hour, and you're going to hear a lot of the same things over and over and over again. Because it turns out the principles that cause you to build wealth haven't changed, are still available to you. And yes, you can do this in America today. And some people have a different starting line than others. There's no question about that. Some people have it harder than others to get there.

Hey, I'm so stupid, I had to do it twice. I was a millionaire by the time I was 26, but I had borrowed up to my eyeballs in debt, lost everything, went bankrupt because I was stupid, the mess I had gotten myself into and my young family and had the opportunity to start over with nothing at 28 years old so i started over with nothing well you you know you got you got rich by filing bankruptcy honey there bankruptcy is never a method of building wealth that's a a dumb-butt statement when people say that.

Bankruptcy never causes people to be wealthy. That's just dumb. So we're going to talk to real millionaires. Baby Steps Millionaires Theme Hour. The phone number is 888-825-5225 on The Ramsey Show. People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Healthcare Ministries. Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with healthcare expenses,

and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. It's a millionaire theme hour. If you're a millionaire, you have a net worth of a million dollars or greater. I want to talk to you this hour and find out how you did it so that other people can do what you did. Those of you listening, if you'll do what they did and not what you hear from broke people,

then you will go and be millionaires, and you will find these formulas to be proven and time-worthy and wise. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Scott is with us in Virginia Beach. Hey, Scott, how are you? Dave, I'm doing fine. I hope you're doing the same. I am, sir.

What's your net worth? Right just north of $3.5 million. Good for you. Okay, give me a little breakdown on that by category. Okay, I've got it broken down into three categories. The first one are retirement accounts, which are about $2 million, and we've got that between some self-directed IRAs, our current 401Ks, and then a couple of Roth IRAs.

Perfect. And then we've also got about a million just invested in non-retirement accounts, just multiple mutual funds and our emergency fund. And then the last um which is our house which is valid at about 550 000 and then i'm proud to say that as a lot of last august uh fully paid for so no mortgage payments we are entirely debt free so uh i guess you're talking to one of those weird people now i love it congratulations brother how old are you uh 59 59 good and how much of this money did you inherit uh about maybe

twenty thousand dollars i had a family member that passed away about a year ago but uh that is the only thing that um was actually i guess given to us so you were already millionaires many times over before you got this that's correct okay yep correct good all. And so your best year, household income working, and your worst year? Let's see. Best year, about $120,000. And that was about last year. And then my worst year, I guess my first year out of college, and that was back in the mid-'80s, was $18,000. And really, at that time, I thought $18,000, I had the world.

I thought that was really good. Yeah, that was a lot of money. I made $18,000 when I came out of college. That that was really worth it. Yeah, that was a lot of money. I made $18,000 when I came out of college. That's a lot of money. Yeah. So what's your career? I'm in sales in the transportation industry. Okay, good for you.

What was your degree in college? In business. Okay, good for you. And what was your GPA? I have to laugh because I knew I've been listening to the millionaire, female for a while, and I knew you were going to ask that question. So I want to give it to you in two parts, if I can. Sure.

There's the first two years and then the last two years. Well, there's a story behind this. The first two years, when I went to college, I was only 17 years old, and I was just a stupid, immature kid. So I can truly say that I was the fraternity and campus champion in beer pong, and my grades reflected that. So my grade in the first two years was just enough to stay out of academic probation. Got it. Okay. So then, yeah, so then I came home after my sophomore year, and then this is long before email. My dad got a hold of my grades. And then all I can say is when he saw

those grades, we had a little come to jesus meeting and um i will never ever forget that conversation it was 39 years ago and basically he lit into me like a firecracker so uh i got myself turned around probably well the word conversation may be a little different because it takes two people to have a conversation and all our memory it was my dad that did all the talking. That's great. But as a result of that, my last two years, I went back to school. My junior year, refocused, just had a whole new strategy. And then my last two years, my GPA was about a 3.2. So I think when you average out the first two years and the last two,

I think I finished up with about a 2.5 or 2.6. Okay. I love it. That's great well done all right how much uh of this net worth this wealth that you have built you feel like you got because you used debt to build wealth i never the only thing i have borrowed money for was to buy the house okay so there's none basically no no no sir cool so uh if um your 25 year old version of you that's in business school just gotten out of business school and is starting their sales

careers out there listening right now what would you tell them is this possible and if it is what should they do well let me tell you i've got a daughter who is just getting out of college and i've actually shared her story uh my story with her on how we got to where we are. And my, first of all, you can do it. And my advice is to invest and start early. Since day one, when I got my first job, you know, I've always invested, you know, in the 401k with every paycheck. And as I tell my kids, as I entered the job market, you know, when money is deducted before you get in your paycheck, it goes directly into your retirement account.

You never see it and you never miss it. So how can you miss something that you never had? So my advice is to start early. Um, and just, it's, it's a marathon. It's, it's not a race. It's not a get rich fast scheme. It's a marathon, and you can win. And it can be done with anybody with any type of revenue. You and your wife spend more time in books or in TV? Right now we're empty messers, so we spend a lot of time in front of TV. Okay. Fair enough.

Fair enough. But, yeah, I mean, as far as doing books, I'm not really a avid reader. I never have been, but I'll read about maybe two to four a year. Mostly, you know, business, self-help, and self-motivation. Mm-hmm. Best show that you guys have watched lately? What's one you're just stuck on? We are, what is one we're watching now? The Morning Show on Apple TV is pretty good.

Oh, okay. All right, good. Fun. Well, man, you're incredible. Congratulations. You've got to man, you're incredible. Congratulations. You've got to feel accomplished because you are. Well, we're on a few years from retirement. I think we have basically paved that path.

So when retirement comes in about three years, I think we set ourselves up for pretty good success. Yeah. I mean, basically it'll double again in seven years. So when you're 66, you're going to have $7 to $8 million. Looking forward to it. That's where you're headed. That's a pretty strong place. And so, you know, we're looking at a $10 million plus net worth

when we get to your estate plan. So, well done. Very, very well done. Man, that's amazing. Impressive, impressive. Thank you. Thanks for talking to me. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

If you're a millionaire, I want to talk to you. Jennifer is in New York City. Jennifer, what's your net worth? Hi, Dave. My net worth is about $1.4 million. Good for you. Give me a little breakdown on that by category, please. So about $375 is our paid-for house.

We have about $62,000 in savings accounts, about $67,000 in 529 accounts, $20,000 in a Roth IRA, about $20,000 in paid-for cars, and the rest is in my 401k. So you got close to a million in that 401k? Yes. Okay, good for you. All right. Well done. How old are you? I am 48 and my husband is 52. Excellent. Cool. How much of this 1.4 million did you guys inherit? I inherited 10,000 back in like 2003, but I was stupid back then and I spent most of it. And then I inherited another $10,000 in 2018. And at the time, we were just starting Baby Step 6.

So that $10,000 was my very first Baby Step 6 payment on a house. Very cool. But it's fair to say mathematically you're not millionaires because of inheritance. Absolutely not. Right. Okay. So what's your best year working income, household income, and best and worst year? So this year we're set for our best year at about 225.

When we first got married, we were making about $100,000. That was about 18 years ago. Cool. What do you do? What's your career? I'm a software engineer. Okay, all right. Your degree is in what?

Computer science. Okay, cool cool what was your gpa it's about a 3.85 good for you good very cool all right so again same question but uh i think it's bears repeating because everybody's got their own take on it um if if you've got a 24 year old version of you that's listening, and they are, by the way, can this still be done in America, and what would they need to do to do it? Yes, this absolutely can be done. Just four short years ago, our net worth was maybe $200,000, and we followed the baby steps, and we're now millionaires four years later

absolutely 100 baby steps millionaires and i would tell anybody in their 20s do not chase the new car smell because that will keep you broke your whole life and if i had not bought so many brand new cars in my life i think our net worth would be well over $3 million by now. Well, two anyway. Yeah. Very good. I love it. Well, thank you for sharing, Jennifer.

You guys are heroes. I'm proud of you. Very, very well done. Another Baby Steps Millionaire. People like that that inspired me to write this last number one bestselling book that we have called Baby Steps Millionaires, how ordinary people People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too. This is The Ramsey Show. Well, over the last 30 years, I've walked with millions of people and their families to help them overcome financial stress. We've seen all kinds of stress out there.

And right now, people are struggling with stress, anxiety, loneliness, all kinds of issues. It's kind of gone crazy out there. And you know what? Here's the good news. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, has a new book called Own Your Past, Change Your Future, where he'll walk you through a not-so-complicated approach to relationships, mental health, and wellness. Through his personal stories, decades of experience, and research, Dr. Deloney shows us how to transform hurt into healing and move from hopelessness to hopefulness. And Dr. Deloney's book is available right now for pre-order.

Own Your Past, Change Your Future will help you deal with different kinds of trauma, get connected to a community, talk about how to make friends as an adult, and all the steps you can take to change your thoughts, your actions. Yes, it's possible. This book is incredible. Your mental health matters. And here's why you should pre-order it you're going to get free bonus items including a month of free one-on-one weekly therapy so pre-order your own copy of own your past change your future for only twenty dollars at ramsey solutions.com today it's a millionaire theme hour an everyday millionaire theme hour a baby steps

millionaire theme hour we're talking to millionaires regardless of how they got there when they got there we want to know how people become wealthy in america today not someone's theory i want to talk to people who really did it see when i went broke when i was 28 years old lost everything after I was a millionaire, I decided I wanted to learn how money really works. So what did I do? I studied best practices, we call it in business. I went and started interviewing old millionaires, old rich people. Any old rich person I could run into, I would ask them how they did it. Where did their money come from? How did you do it? How did you do it? I didn't want to talk to young rich people.

I had been him. He was stupid. I didn't want his opinion. And if you're young and rich, I'm fine with that. It doesn't bother me. But that isn't what I did. I talked to old rich people, and they taught me this thing called common sense that I didn't have any of. I had plenty of academic prowess, and I could spout you all the theories that broke people off and spout

about money but none of them had led me to wealth as a matter of fact they led me to misery and so i decided i was going to learn how money really works i talked to old rich people so that's what we're doing we're talking to rich people some of them old some of them young some of them from any all of them had different starting points some of them it was easy to do some of them from any, all of them had different starting points. Some of them it was easy to do. Some of them it was hard to do. You know, but how did you do it? And once you hear enough of that, then you're going to know two things. One is it can be done, meaning you can build wealth in America today. And two, you're going to start hearing common themes that if you want to be wealthy,

these are the themes in your life. This is how you want to live your life. Tim is in Austin, Texas. He's a's a millionaire tim what's your net worth 2.2 dave good for you man well done so give me a little breakdown on that what's the categories all right so 401k is about 1.4 between me and my wife we have have about 40K in just savings. That's emergency fund, very liquid. We have about 135K in just various mutual funds, about 50K in IRAs. I've got about 6K in company stock and some unvested stock. I don't count toward my net worth. And then the house, which is paid for, praise God. And that one i i waffle on because the tax of praise value is 460 but the market here in austin is crazy so it's probably actually more

like 700 yeah but that's that's the breakdown yeah it's not tax value doesn't matter all it matters what you sell it for and you probably saw it for 700. That's absolutely right. Yeah, good for you. Well done. Boom. Fun. How old are you? I'm 56. Good for you. Okay, cool. And how much of this $2.2 million did you inherit? Well, the only thing we've inherited is my in-laws.

When they passed, they left us a house and about $100K. So when we got the house, it was at the bottom of the housing collapse in 2007 so didn't make a whole lot out of that it's about 200,000 but that was 10 years ago we were already on the path it wasn't the thing that pushed us over the top if you if you know what i mean okay but you did inherit 300k 200k 200 plus the house, right? Well, the house is 100K on top of that. So it's 200K total. Oh, I see. Okay.

Cool. Good for you. Well done. All right. And the range of income during your working life, best years and worst years? All right. 27K when I got out of college eons ago, and 180K as a couple last year. Okay.

What do you all do for a living well uh i'm in i'm a security and it manager uh for security so you can imagine with all the russian ukraine stuff we're going nuts at the moment my wife my wife was a stay-at-home mom for most of uh that period of time in our marriage but she's just recently in the past several years started up an Amazon FBA business. Oh, wow. Good. Okay. So is your degree in computer science? It's computer engineering. Yep. Computer engineering. Okay. What was your GPA? 365.

Good for you. Okay, cool. All right. Again, the question you often hear me ask, I'm sure, is the 24-year-old version of you that's listening, can they still do this? And if they can, what should they do? All right, so my first thing that I would always communicate to anybody at that level is you can't out-give God. You have got to make, you need to make giving a priority in your life. And what I've lived by my life is Malachi 3.10.11.

It's not a guarantee of wealth. God doesn't promise us if you give him 10%, he's going to give us a lottery ticket. You know that. But he does have a way in Malachi 3.11 of rebuking the devourer. And that doesn't mean, you know, you talk about Murphy living in your back bedroom. Well, with God, Murphy's got a padlock on the door, and he only lets him out every once in a while to give you a few trials and to help you persevere. So it's kind of a scenario for me that giving has got to be a priority, and that's something that my wife and I have made. The second thing for me is I wish for my

25-year-old self, one of the things I did right was getting into my 401k. Very first month I was on the job that I was vested to do so. My problem is I only put in the amount that up to what they would match. And I wish now I had heard Dave Ramsey back then and put 15% because now I would be retired instead of just putting in 6%, which is what I put in at the time. So that's what my advice would be. Get the max you can put in and that you can afford to put in and ramp yourself up to 15% at least. And the last thing for me is don't use credit cards to buy stuff you can't afford. That was my train wreck between my 20s up to age 30 before I got married is use the credit card, and I would sit there and say,

oh, that's only $1,000. Well, it's $1,000 with minimum payments. It'll take me 10 years to pay off, and I'll pay $10,000 for it. That was the foolishness of that thinking. As you said, I was normal normal and i shouldn't have been normal well done sir well said and well handled congratulations i'm very very very proud of you open phones at 888-825-5225 as we talk to real millionaires uh the lies that are out there, millionaires all inherited their wealth. It's a lie.

Statistically, actual data, actual research known as facts tells you that that's a lie. Here's what we know. We did the largest study of millionaires ever done, airtight research in North America, here at Ramsey Research, studied over 10 over 10 000 millionaires and they weren't all ramsey listeners it was airtight the process the the research methodology was studied by an outside firm to ensure that it was accurate 79 of the millionaires in america did not inherit a dime five percent inherited a small amount like a $5,000 or $10,000, which obviously does not make you a millionaire. And another 5% inherited some money that was substantial

after they were already millionaires. 89% of America's millionaires are not millionaires because of inherited money. That is a lie. It's a lie. It's a lie. You can do this. You don't have to depend on a rich uncle because you don't have one. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day,salms 104 24 how many are your works lord in wisdom you made them all

the earth is full of your creatures albert einstein said creativity is intelligence having fun well i love it that's great This is a millionaire theme hour, a baby steps millionaire theme hour, because a lot of the folks calling in have followed the baby steps and have become millionaires. But lots of people call in regardless of how they became a millionaire. We only talk to millionaires during a millionaire theme hour because we want to let you guys out there know that aren't yet millionaires how these other folks did it so you can do what they did it's a pretty simple formula and it also defeats all the mythology out there all wealthy people are crooks nope hadn't talked to a crook today yet and these are all wealthy people i'm

talking to none of them stole the money they're're not crooks. As a matter of fact, the percentage of crooks among wealthy people is about the same as the percentage of crooks among poor people. It turns out that just a percentage of the population are crooks. It has nothing to do with the money. The money just happens to show up bigger and splashier when the crook is rich or gets rich being a crook. But it's not a proven method to build wealth to when the crook is rich or gets rich being a crook but it's not a proven method to build wealth to be a crook quite the opposite as a matter of fact well all wealthy people are famous entertainers or athletes you have to be in the nba or you have to be a country music star or a rock star or a music star and no less than one percent of wealthy

people people with a milliondollar net worth or greater, in North America fall into those categories. Most of these people, you walk past them at Walmart and didn't even know you were next to them because they don't dress that much different than you. They just act different than you. They save instead of spend. They give instead of take. It's a different thing thing that's all it is well you got to be brilliant to be a millionaire you have to have a 4.2 gpa and i just don't have that kind of brain matter almost none of them are 4.2 gpas the average gpa among millionaires is about a 3.0 turns out you these are they're bright i mean they're not dumb people but they're not

and they don't have an uncanny brilliance they're just steady and follow a process that's it all the mythology that's out there running around with these wealth inequality morons and these people that are morons that want socialism to come in because they feel entitled to other people's money instead of going and getting their own and then they spread a lie that the american dream is so broken that you cannot exist in this country today in the current environment of cultural meltdown and build wealth and the answer is yes you can regardless of your color your sex your region regardless of your income you can get there you can get there now different people have harder time than others they have more things to overcome yes racism is real yes sexism is real yes regionalism is real there's a lot of areas of

the country that um especially in a more rural environment that you move into that not being you ain't from around here are you boy and it works against you you get a weird accent a southerner living in manhattan as an example works against you because some people in the north are so stupid that they think a southern accent means a lack of intelligence and there's people in the south that are so stupid that they think that all folks with a northern accent are mean and angry and crooks or whatever. You know, it's just ridiculous. So, yeah, all of that stuff is in the soup.

All that stuff is negative things are there. The only difference is all of us exist in that exact same thing. Some of us with a different starting line than others, but we all have the same finish line. And the finish line is did you get to a million-dollar net worth or not? That's what we want to know. Dave is with us. Dave is in Chicago. Hi, Dave.

What's your net worth? Hey, Dave. It's $1.07 million. Good for you. Just over the line, baby. How old are you? Just made it last year. I'm 46.

Good for you. Well done. Give me a little breakdown on your million-dollar net worth. So it's about $800 between IRAs and Roths, $60 in a taxable brokerage, $170 in a paid-off house, and $40 in savings. Cool, cool. And how much of this did you inherit? If I could say less than zero i would zero had a negative inheritance i'll take it all right your range of income in your working life best year worst year household income um worst year first year out of college about 21k best year a couple years ago with some bonuses, about 200.

Good for you. What do you do for a living? I lead operations for an electronics manufacturing company. What was your degree in? Liberal arts, actually. Okay, good. What was your GPA? Like you, I finished around 2.9, and I'm still not happy about it.

That story's gotten around, huh? Yeah. I like you. I finished around 2.9 and I'm still not happy about it. That story's gotten around. I like it. Well, congratulations, Dave. All right. What advice would you have for the younger version of you? You know, a lot of the same things that you've been saying. Being an adult is not a license to buy whatever you want or whatever you think you can afford, you know, live on less than you make, um, and start investing early. My twenties was littered with stupid. And, uh, and one of the things I did though, was from the first time it was offered, I started putting 10% in 401k and you don't miss it. You don't miss it when you're investing it. And also, I do believe the Lord loves a cheerful giver, and that's always been a big focus of what I've done for many years.

Yeah, perfect. Well done, Dave. Congratulations. Jeff is in Dallas. Jeff, what's your net worth? About $2.5 million. Cool. And you're how old?

57. Cool. Give me a little breakdown on that $2.5 million. It's about $1.8 in a 401k profit sharing, a couple hundred in Roth and cash, and then the rest is real estate. Okay. So like a million dollars in real estate. About $500,000. No, I missed that. Okay. You're i missed that okay you're right 500 okay i got it okay cool and your how much of this did you inherit uh none of it zero okay and your range of income best year and worst year uh probably household income worst

years maybe about 30 up to about 170 cool what do you do for a living i am a software engineer another software engineer they're everywhere okay cool good your degree in computer science or what uh it was actually uh information systems information yeah okay all right cool and your gpa uh right around 3.5 wow good for you congratulations. Thank you for sharing your numbers with us and your story. Absolutely incredible. OK, so we got a one million three point five one point four two point two one point oh seven and two point five million dollars that we talked to today. Thirty five years old. Fifty nine. Forty eight. Fifty six. Forty six and fifty seven. Zero of them were millionaires because of inheritance. They were in business in computer computer liberal art i'm sorry that was their degrees let's see here uh engineering sales software

engineer it manager election ops for an electronics company another software engineer those were the degree the career fields gpas two and a half uh was the low up to a 3.85 as the high across them so this is a fairly standard and we don't set these calls up I mean we we invite people to leave a message and Kelly can call them back but we don't select calls that fit our agenda anyone that has a million dollar net worth can call we actually had a guy call in that won the lottery one time. And I don't care where you got your million dollars. I want to represent what we really found in the study was people just like these. This is the typical millionaire.

And they were from 35 years old, 35, 59, 48, 56, and 46, and 57 years old. So there wasn't any ancient, I'm 80 years old, I finally got there, I never took a vacation, and I never had a life. You didn't hear him say that. They were 35 years old up to 59 years old, not even any in their 60s. These are very typical millionaires in America today, which means you can do this, people. The book is Baby Steps Millionaires, if you want to know how. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show and the books.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's 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.