The Ramsey Show - App - Here Are the Steps to Becoming Everyday Millionaires! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 25, 2021

Everyday Millionaires Theme Hour Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage is a big indicator you might be a Baby Steps millionaire. This is an everyday baby steps millionaire theme hour we're talking to real millionaires this hour only if you have a million dollar net worth or greater i want to talk to you i want to learn how you did that did you win the lottery did you

inherit the money um or did you work save and invest and live on less than you make how did you do it because other people want to do what you did if they can do what you have done. A lot of the reason people don't strive to be financially successful is they believe that the system is rigged against them. And if you believe that it's rigged against you, then you never work towards winning. If you thought the game was rigged, why would you play the game? You don't want to get in a card game where the outcome is already there

because there's a shark at the table, right? You don't want to do that. And that's logical. But what's not logical is that you've believed lies from people who have political agendas and or are just living in a victim mentality state and don't believe that they can win. And our goal around here is to give you hope. And people that steal your hope or ideas that steal your hope falsely, then, you know, it's my job, our job at ramsey to go to battle with those things and so when people say here's here's what people say stupid butt stuff absolutely false

statistically proven to be false almost all of america's millionaires inherited their wealth. Absolutely a lie. We did the largest study of millionaires ever done in North America. Airtight research technique. No question. I defy you to find anything we did that was statistically incorrect or against basic research doctrine. There's processes you use to do airtight stuff so you don't fall into your own self and prove what you think is going to prove.

So here's what we found. We studied 10,167 millionaires, in-depth surveys with them, everything we could learn about them, so that we could show you whether you can do this or not. 79% of them inherited zero. That's 8 out of 10. Another 5% inherited money, but it was less than $100,000, mathematically impossible for them to become millionaires

because they inherited money. I got $5,000 when my granny died from the sale of her farm. That did not make me wealthy. Okay? So another 5%. So that puts us at 84%. Another 5% inherited substantial money from a family member after they were already millionaires.

So they already got a million-five net worth. Granny dies, leaves them $250,000. But they did not become millionaires because of inherited money. Period. And so this great socialistic lie by the entitled socialist community, it's stealing people's hope. So we started doing this show why ever so often we do a millionaire theme hour we're going to take calls from those of you that are millionaires oh by the way that was another five percent so five and five and 79 is 89 nine out of 10 millionaires in america today did not become millionaires because of inherited money. So the great question is, what did they do?

That's what we want to answer this hour. And then you can decide if you can do that too. My contention is you can do it, and I can show you how. So an everyday Baby Steps Millionaire Theme Hour. Regular people just like you, just like me, becoming millionaires. We want to talk to them. If you have a net worth of a million dollars or greater, you call me. I want to hear how you did it.

Tim is our first one. He's in Des Moines, Iowa. Tim, what is your net worth? Net worth is about $2.4 million. Excellent. Give me a little breakdown on that between what types of and where is that money located and what categories? Let's see. Real estate, cash, and small mutual funds.

Okay. Real estate. Real estate is how much? We're pushing 1.6. Okay. A lot of real estate. Good. Okay.

How much in mutual funds? I'd say about most of the rest of that. There's a little bit of cash in there too. Okay. So is that retirement accounts then? Yes. So about 800K in retirement accounts? Yes. Gotcha. Okay. How old are you? We're 43. How much of this did you inherit? Well, I like to consider the fact that we invested it from the bst program it's a i call it the sweat and tears program so none zero okay we didn't inherit any of it so uh what was your best year working lifetime income household income in your worst year lifetime uh i'd say best year was 240 um worst year was 16 000 okay what do you do for a living

uh i'm a building consultant uh insurance consultant claims consultant okay what's your degree in i do not have a degree no no don't have a four-year degree. Okay. What was your GPA in high school? High school? Enough to get a diploma. Okay. You graduated like I did. Thank you, Lordy. Yes, exactly. All right.

So you're a real estate guy. How much of this wealth do you feel like you have because you borrowed money to become wealthy? I'd say zero. Okay. So how did you do the real estate if you weren't borrowing money to do it uh because we cash flowed um and we just flipped houses um you took your profits and rolled them back in yes sir and so the you never really had a whole bunch of mortgage debt you didn't do like the uh uh nothing down real estate club no no no absolutely not just trying to make sure people hear what really is going on and so you're 43 years old what's your advice to the 23 year old version of you that's out there listening can he still do it and what

should he do um yeah he can do it um he should have done it 20 years ago because it is possible. We became debt-free 2018. We did the debt-free screen there at the show with the family. It doesn't matter how many kids you have. We have 11 kids. Whoa! the 12th or expecting in December. Um, and, uh, if you want to accomplish it, you can. And if you hear all of the different advices out there, financial advice out there, there's a lot of different advice. There's a lot of different good advice out there, but once you actually follow the baby steps and you actually apply it and you get your brain straight around, get your head wrapped around what this actually means and what you can accomplish, then I believe anyone can accomplish this. Anyone can become debt-free. Not to put words in your mouth, but I want to make sure I understand. You consider yourself a baby steps millionaire.

You did it doing the baby steps. Absolutely. Okay, cool. Hey, man, thanks for calling in. And congratulations on number 12. Whoa! Wow! You've got to be a millionaire

just to feed them, just to buy the bus. Wow, good for you, man. Wonderful. Large families are awesome. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, I'm Christi Wright. Listen, I know how easy it is to feel anxious in our crazy, busy world.

That's why I want to tell you about an app called Glorify. Glorify is the number one daily worship and well-being app, and it will give you tools that will help you ease stress and anxiety in your life. Just search for Glorify in your app store. It's free to download and use. And if you like it, you can access their entire content library at half price by using the promo code Christy. So download Glorify today.

If you're struggling with money, it's easy to tell yourself that you'll deal with it later. I'll start fresh next year, but then later rolls around, you're still out of control. You have to decide. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I've had it. This is the last month I'm going to do this. When you decide that, we're ready to help. This month, we're knocking $30 off a 12-month membership to our most impactful, life-changing class and money products and tools.

It's all included in a Ramsey Plus membership. When you do Ramsey Plus, you get access to Financial Peace University, which millions of people have gone through this class learning how to not only get out of debt, but to become Baby Steps millionaires like we're talking about this hour. You get the premium version of our budgeting tool every dollar, and you deserve a life free of monthly payments and constant money stress. Start your free trial of Ramsey Plus today by texting TRIAL to 33789. Text TRIAL for a free trial to Ramsey Plus to 33789.

It is a millionaire theme hour. We are talking to people with a $1 million net worth or greater. A net worth is calculated what you own minus what you owe, your assets minus your liabilities. It's not a feeling. It's not an income. Well, a million dollars isn't enough. It's not's not a point all people have a million dollars are evil this is not a moral construct it's an arithmetic formula that's the deal do you simply have what you own minus what you owe equals one

million dollars or greater if so you're a millionaire and i want to talk to you maybe it's worth 10 million dollars i don't care but i want to talk to you because you actually have done it and people out there need to hear what real people sound like not people on talking heads on stupid butt news channels they need to talk to real human beings and you're who it is so if you have a million dollar net worth or greater call me right now the phone number is 888-825-5225 greg is in des moines iowa hi greg welcome to the ramsey show thanks for taking my call dave sure what's up i was uh letting you know i'm a millionaire good for you how much so what is your net worth one million one million dollars, sir. And give me a little breakdown on that between the different classes. How much is in retirement, mutual funds?

How much is in real estate and so on? Roughly $450 in retirement, $450 in real estate, including a few rental houses, and about $100 cash. Okay. Good for you. How old are you? 38. How much of this $1 million did you inherit at 38 years old? You know, we got a few bucks when my mom died, but I blew it.

I think it was a couple thousand dollars is all. Oh, okay. And it had nothing to do with any of this. Okay, so you're not a millionaire because of an inheritance. That's the point. Okay. So, very cool. What do you do for a living?

I teach. You're a teacher. What do you do for a living? I teach. You're a teacher. What do you teach? I am healthcare. You teach healthcare? Yes. In what setting? Community college setting.

Okay, good for you. All right. So, what's your best year of household income and your worst year of household income? Combined, probably 200 best, and worst is probably 30,000 coming out of college. Okay. What's your wife do for a living? She also teaches health care. Ah, very interesting.

All right, cool. Thank you. from you that is envy are you with me yeah i'm here okay so they got the phones going so i i was filling till we could get back to you so okay i'm guessing your degree is in health care. It is. Okay. And what was your GPA? 375, I think, for my master's degree. Oh, wow. Good for you. Okay, cool. So what's your advice to someone who wants to have a million dollars by the time they're 38? Congratulations, hero.

Well, thank you. Two things come to mind is one is, of course, invest early, and the other is more important is simply be intentional. Are you back with me again? Coming in and out. Okay. Sorry about that, Greg. I apologize. Apparently, we've not spent enough on our technology here.

We got a deal on it, though. I'll just tell you. There we go. So what's your advice to the younger version of you? You did this very early. Start early and be intentional. You know, do things on purpose. That's pretty much it.

Okay. Yeah. You know, do things on purpose. That's pretty much it. Okay, yeah. And do you feel like you guys didn't have any life that you just stayed at home and clipped coupons and never came out except on triple coupon Thursday or whatever? No, 10 years ago we went to Spain. We spent three weeks in Barcelona and had a great time. We had done everything we wanted to do. Okay. You've just been very careful, very intentional.

It's not like you're like super frugal dumpster diving or something for your food or something. You just made money, and you made good money. I mean, your best year is $200,000 between the two of you, and you turn around and use that to build wealth. Okay. Back to our construct because I'm jumping around all over the place here. But here's the thing. I have met tens of thousands of millionaires in my life because of what I do.

Several years ago, once I became a millionaire, I thought, well, I need to meet some billionaires because I don't have a billion. And so I need to talk to people about how to do that. And I've now met, I think, 40 or 50 billionaires in my life. I will tell you that out of those billionaires, and there's some strange cookies that are billionaires, okay? That's a different. That's a thousand million, okay? So this is a millionaire times a thousand is a billionaire.

And so it's a different world than, you know, somebody with $10 million net worth. They're not even close to billion. It's a different world, different mindset, different everything. But even among those uber-rich, which are definitely probably not one-percenters, they're probably one-half of one-percenters. Out of all of those that I met, I think 50 or 60 of them, I lost count somewhere around there of how many I've met, and had conversation with, not just drove by and said hi,

not just got a picture with, but actually had a five- or ten-minute or more conversation with, developed a plan, whatever, that kind of a thing. Out of those people, two of them are absolute tools. Horrible people that I really, you have to take a shower after you meet them. But two out of any 60 people you meet, whether they have money or not, qualify for that. So it's not really any different. So this idea that the only way to become wealthy is to be a crook or rip people off is ludicrous. Because by and large, the way people build wealth is they bring value to the marketplace.

They're serving someone. They don't just wait tables. They have a restaurant. Oh, wait, they don't have one restaurant. They have ten. Ten restaurants doing a good job taking care of people. Feeding them. Collecting money for feeding them. And they build a little miniature restaurant empire. You know? And so that's what's going on. So the idea that they inherit their wealth, that that's where money comes from? Nope. The idea that you have to

be crooked to be wealthy? Nope. This is all small-time thinking by small-time people that are jealous and envious. They're victims. You're not a victim. This is the Ramsey Show. Imagine a world where people never have to worry about money ever again. It's national at Ramsey Solutions, our mission is to teach people how to get out of debt and build lasting wealth.

And if that means we have to take on the toxic money culture that says you need debt to get ahead, then we're okay with that. We've seen millions of lives changed, and we will continue to create digital products and services to help people transform their lives. If you want to join our thousand-member team on this crusade, we're currently on the hunt for software engineers with expertise in Ruby on Rails, Java, C Sharp, and front-end technologies. Or if you're a UX designer or an SEO and content marketing specialist, we'd love to talk with you. Together, we will disrupt the toxic money culture in America. Find out about all the available jobs by texting careers to 33789. Text careers to 33789 to find out about all our open opportunities. It's an everyday Baby Steps Millionaire Theme Hour.

I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We're talking to real millionaires this hour. People who have a net worth of a million dollars or greater. Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. And that determines whether or not you're a millionaire. You may not have a goal to be a millionaire, but you are listening to a money show. And the reason for getting out of debt is not just to feel better. The reason for getting out of debt is to be able to increase your generosity, increase your net worth, increase the stability in your life, retire with your golden years, take care of your kids' college,

all these kinds of things. It's not money that matters. It's what money does that matters. The money is useless. I mean, you eat enough lobster, it tastes like soap. I mean, there's only so much you can do with money. But what you use it for is why people choose to acquire money. Now, how do you get to a million dollars? The fastest way I know is following the baby steps, and it is the most sure probability.

Let's talk to some real millionaires. Amy is in Dallas. Hi, Amy. How are you? I'm great, Mr. Ramsey. How are you? Better than I deserve. What is your net worth? $1.8 million. Okay, Amy. How are you? I'm great, Mr. Ramsey. How are you? Better than I deserve. What is your net worth?

$1.8 million. Okay, cool. Break that down for me by category a little bit. I'd say $750K is about 401Ks, Roth IRAs. $700K is in other stocks and mutual funds, house, and then cash as well. Okay. So you've got about $250K in cash. So stocks is about $700K, and then house is about $400K, and then plus other cash,

and then plus the $750K from the 401Ks and Roth IRAs. Gotcha. How old are you? I'm 32, and my husband's 31. Wow. You did this really fast. Congratulations. How much of this $1.8 million did you inherit?

None on my side. I think my husband got like $15,000 before we got married, but obviously that's not indicative of why we have what we have. Right. For sure. Okay, what's your best year of working household income and your worst year of working household income? So we got married about three years out of college, so our best together was about $120,000.

Or sorry, worst together is about $120,000. Our best was probably last year at about $320,000, but we got a couple big bonuses. That's not the average. Okay, cool. What do you all do for a living? Surprise, surprise. We're both engineers. Okay.

Well, you fit the model. Oh, my gosh. And obviously, you have engineering degrees. What were your GPAs? We do. Mine was 3.3. my husband's was 3.1 that's not indicative that i'm smarter than him though i don't know i'm going with that i'm going with that narrative i'm just saying all right so this is an impressive number in a very short

period of time by 32 and 31 years old 1.8 million as engineers as engineers making a high of 320 household income so you on that high year you had an unbelievably fabulous income but you guys have killed it what was your secret um i mean if i could be honest i would say it's it's four things one i'm going to give my parents a shout out. It's listen to them. They've been around the block. So my dad, you know, he sat me down as soon as I got out of college and said, hey, don't get enticed by the shiny object. You're going to be making a lot more than you made previously. Set a budget and live by it. And I did. And then number two, treat it as not your money, but it's a gift from God that you're just stewards of, you know, so it's never yours, it's his, and he's trusting you to

be a good steward for it. And then three, same page as your spouse. You know, my husband and I have never had a disagreement about money ever. And, you know, before we got married, we went to this, you know, pre-marital counseling with our pastor, and he joked that we were 99% compatible on financial principles, which like, okay, great, because that's the number one cause of divorce, so we're good there. And then it's the fourth one is live below your means. We've never lived on any more than 60% of our income, And we've never changed our lifestyle. And by the way, 60% of your income is pretty dadgum sweet. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough.

Yeah, I mean, it's not like you're living, you know, in somebody's basement or something. I mean, you guys are killing it. Agreed. This is so well done. I'm so proud of y'all. This is excellent. I appreciate it. Absolute heroes.

Okay, so you just gave us the formula, live on less than you make, Well done. I'm so proud of y'all. This is excellent. I appreciate it. Absolute heroes. Okay, so you just gave us the formula. Live on less than you make. Be on the same page with your spouse. Keep the nobility factor going, knowing that you're a steward. You're not an owner. You're a manager for God. And just use some common sense and, you know, don't be a bass because bass get caught by shiny objects.

Yeah, I mean, we've never changed our lifestyle. I mean, I think I remember you guys asking what's your most expensive pair of jeans. I think you've asked that before. Yeah. Man, I think mine's like $30, and it's not even the amount of money I spend on jeans, but I think it's the amount of money we spend on clothes per year. I think our budget for the year is $150 on clothes per year. So you're not clothing motivated what are you motivated by what is what is your thing what is your what is your guilty pleasure you do spend money on if i could i don't i don't i don't even know i guess it's kind of weird i don't know how to

answer that because i think my guilty pleasure is giving to others. Like I love it. So like, like if a family member calls me and says, Hey Amy, I need your help with this in a heartbeat, you know? So, and I love doing that. And I think my husband teases me all the time because I won't get expensive things for myself, which he loves because then he starts, you know, hey, anniversary, I'll get her this. Christmas, I'll get her this. Yeah. I won't get it for myself. But, yeah, I think that's –

I'll give you one thing. We splurged on a vehicle. Okay. But it was the best thing ever when we could pay cash. Yeah. Yeah. So what was the splge vehicle what was it it was a uconn excel recently okay recently and you've got a 1.8 million dollar net worth

yes yeah you're not broke with six student loans and four car payments and a master card hanging around your neck and then you go get a new uconn and, I deserve it. You didn't do that. First you went and got a $1.8 million net worth, but by the time you're 32. You guys are amazing. I'm honored to talk to you. Very cool. Carol, how are you? What's your net worth?

I'm good, Dave. Great speaking to you. My net worth is $2.2 million. Good for you. Give me a little breakdown on that by category. $245,000 in real estate, $100,000 in cash, and the rest is 401K and IRA. Wow. Big 401K. Okay.

Killing it. How old are you? I am 61. Okay. Cool. And how much of the 2.2 did you inherit? Zero. Zero.

Okay. A lot of hard work. Okay. Are you married or single? I am single divorced. Okay. A lot of hard work. Okay. Are you married or single? I am single divorced. Okay. And how long ago were you divorced? Four years ago, and I was told I'd be bankrupt in a year, but instead of being bankrupt,

my portfolio has grown, so yes. You don't look bankrupt to me. No, I'm not. Yeah. You don't look bankrupt to me. No, I'm not. And that money, that 2.2 does not even include my daughter's 529 plan, which is about $100,000. Wow, way to go. So what has been your average income over the years? When I first started out contributing to my 401K, it was about $45,000, and now I'm up to about $130,000. What do you do? i am a risk analyst

a risk analyst okay that makes sense all right and uh what's your degree in i have an associate's degree in business administration wow and what was your uh gpa during that time well let me see it was a while ago but I was about 3.9. I went as an adult, so I was a little more focused than as a teenager. Gotcha. Okay. What's your advice to the younger version of you that's listening to be able to have 2.2

million at 61 four years after a divorce? I would say slow and steady, absolutely. Take advantage of every program your employer has to offer. If they have a 6% match in the 401k, you put your 6% in. And live below your means. I know I hear that a lot on your show, and absolutely, we live below our means.

Well done, Carol. Proud of you. Excellent job. Oh, by the way, we usually don't talk to people that are savants either. The average GPA is around 3. Mine was 2.97, and I'm still pissed off about that 3.01. John 1-5 is our scripture of the day. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Abraham Lincoln said,

Character is like a tree and a reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it. The tree is the real thing. It's a millionaire theme hour as we talk to real millionaires, people who really have a million dollars or more. Not your broke brother-in-law with an opinion. Not your little socialist left-wing college professor. But people who really have a million dollars.

How did they really get it? John is in Virginia Beach. John, what's your net worth? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. It's an honor to speak to you. It's $2.15 million. $2.15. Good job.

Give me a little breakdown on that by category. IRAs from various rollovers are at $1,229,000. And both the wife and I have two Roths at $155,000. And then we have a joint, like, electronic fund in there at $57,000. And then we have a home that's got about $134,000 left on it, but valued at $620,000. Half a million there. Yeah, we count that as $486,000 left on it, but valued at $620,000. Half a million there. Yeah, we counted that as $486,000. And then with our current jobs, we got about $132,000 in company 401ks.

Wow. Okay, cool. How old are you? I'm an emergency fund. I'm going to be 57 in November, and the wife turned 62 this year okay great how much of the 2.15 did you inherit oh nothing okay and um they always sound surprised like nothing of course okay so what's your uh best uh your best working year year household income and your worst working year household income. All right.

Well, in the 80s, we were married in 86. So combined together, I would say we were maybe at $50,000 a year. And peak earnings were early 2000, say 2005, 2006, before she semi-retired, and we were probably at $170,000. Okay, cool. What do you do for a living? I'm a SATCOM engineer. Okay. Okay.

So work with the military. Gotcha. And what about your wife? What did she do? She is semi-retired, but she worked her way up from a part-time cashier job to being a district manager for a major, major fast food company. Okay. All right.

Very cool. Yep. What's your degree in? We're dinosaurs, Dave. My wife had one semester, and that's it, with a college diploma. And I had a, or not a college diploma, high school diploma. I had a high school diploma and I did a bunch of different, you know, techie courses because I grew up with the technology. into it so um i may have enough matriculated credits for an associate but i have they told me to graduate at age 40 that i would need uh i don't know math english and philosophy and basically at that time i was already making good money and i said screw it it's against your philosophy yeah yeah i love it so what's your advice to the uh what's your advice to the 24-year-old version of you that's listening out there?

Do you think they can still do it today? And if they can, what should they do? Oh, absolutely. Definitely start in your 20s. We got started late. We were on credit card merry-go-round for years until we finally got tired of it. But, yeah, start early, invest early, and, you know, live below your means and pay for everything in cash.

Save up and pay for cash except for, you know, obviously the house is a big-ticket item. But, I mean, it can be done. Yeah, so you didn't take any huge risks. You just got out of debt, lived on a budget, and invested. Oh, absolutely, yes. take any huge risks you just got out of debt lived on a budget and invested oh absolutely yes we have we've had an investor for the last decade now that helps us a fiduciary investment firm gotcha well hey man way to go john we appreciate you sharing with us congratulations you did it so the 10 167 millionaires that we studied, here's what we found. I've already told

you 89% of them did not become millionaires because of inheritance. 79%, that's 8 out of 10. By the way, when you're doing statistics and you have something that's 79%, that is a significant freaking number. That establishes like a principle. It's not just like, oh, 52.4% and we're not sure we've got all the votes we need to actually make him president. I mean, it's not that. This is not hairline stuff here. 79% is like everyone, okay?

When you hear a number like that in a piece of research, it's statistically devastating. 79% of millionaires did not attend prestigious private schools. Turns out where you go to school don't matter. Help you with that. Except for the grammar when you're doing talk radio. But which it turns out you can have bad grammar and still succeed.

62% graduated from public state schools. 8% attended community college. 9% are high school graduates like our last caller. 68% of millionaires that's statistically significant, use a financial advisor to help them on their journey. 73% of millionaires never had a penny

of credit card debt. Seven out of ten never had student loans. By the way, half the population has had a student loan, but seven out of ten millionaires didn't top three jobs i already told you engineer accountant and teacher 96 enjoyed what they did for a career i hate my job is not something millionaires say very often i hate the place i work is not something millionaires say very often. If they feel that way, they leave. That's kind of like integrity and stuff. One-third of millionaires never had a six-figure household income, not even one year. 33% became millionaires without ever making $100,000 household income.

That one kind of blows my mind. I mean, it does help to earn more money. No kidding, you know? Wow. The average millionaire lives in a 2,600-square-foot house that they have lived in for 17 years. The average millionaire paid off their home in 11 years. The average millionaire in the Ramsey tribe that we did some separate research on pays off their home in a little under 10 years.

94% say they live on less than they make. 93% use coupons. Most of them hit millionaire status right around age 49. 97% of millionaires believe they control their own destiny. 62% of the public believes that. Belief matters. That's why we do this show. 70% say they set some of their income aside for generosity every single month. So, turns out there's a formula to building wealth that is highly predictable.

Invest in your 401k steadily, like baby step 4, 15% of your income going into retirement, after you've gotten out of debt and have an emergency fund in place and then work to pay your house off if you pay your house off in 10 years or less you're putting 15 of your income away into retirement and you make an average household income and you start that process at 40 years old you will retire with more than a million dollars probably more than five million depending on your household income. It just works. These baby steps that we teach, it is the shortest path. It just simply works. But everybody's got to mess with it.

Everybody's got to gripe. Everybody's got to whine. Everybody's got an opinion. And so we do these shows to go, guys, these are real people that do this. This is why we call them Baby Steps Millionaires. It's because they really freaking did this. Does anybody do it perfect? Do most of us have regrets?

No one does it perfect, and all of us have regrets. We all could go back and go, well, if I'd started then, think about how much I would have. If I hadn't done that stupid butt thing, how much I would have had. We all have that. But the point is, this formula is a predictable outcome. It is arithmetic. It's not happenstance.

It's not by people like you. You are people like this once you decide to be. 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, guys, this is Gene, senior producer for The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week?

And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to theramseyshow.com.