The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Manage the $1.2 Million I Won in the Lottery? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 10, 2020

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Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is Nora in California. Hi, Nora. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Well, thank you so much, Dave, for taking my call. How are you? Better

than I deserve. What's up? Well, thank you you well uh my husband and i have just been blessed uh with a lottery winning of 1.2 million dollars and it's a it's a lottery ticket and we have the option of having these 1.2 million2 million given out over 25 years as an annuity, or we could also get the lump sum of $696,000. We are blessed enough to have our home is paid off. We have a lot of investments, as a matter of fact, we're one of your smart investors here in California. And we have a monthly income, gross income of $17,863. The reason we're trying to figure out which is going to be the best move for us is my husband was a

state employee and his two pensions will be reduced in the event that something happens to him. Our pensions will be reduced by half. And his thought was, well, the $4,000 a month will make up for that lost income. Or we take the lump sum and invest for the 11 years that we paid college tuition that we couldn't use for investment and maybe work on some house projects. It's not an easy decision, is it? Actually, it is. It's a really easy decision. You will make almost twice as much if you take the lump sum and invest it.

Okay. We did talk to our advisor, and i asked her i said in order for me to let's say get four thousand dollars a month how much would i need to invest and she was saying between eight and nine hundred thousand to invest um well that's being pretty conservative. If you made 10% on the money and you invested, you said $690,000 was a lump sum, right? Right. That's before taxes, and we live in California, so we're estimating. Oh, so you're not going to get home with $690,000. No, it's going to probably be reduced to $5,000.

At 10%, you need $480,80 to create $4,000 a month. Oh, and by the way, the money that you take out from the, if you take the long-term annuity crap with them, every time you get that check at home, it's taxable. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And in 25 years, it's not going to be worth as much right as in present day so if you take the money

and invest it with a smart investor pro in good mutual funds you will end up with considerably more money so invest about 480 000 i mean if you didn't know let's see that's not apples to apples because your four thousand dollars coming home is not going to come home. It's going to be taxed. You're only going to get home with $3,000. Exactly. And so, you know, if you invest $360, that'd be $3,000 a month, $36,000 a year. If you're making 10% on your money. Now, I'm not sure you'll make 10%. Some years you'll make 14%.

Some years you'll make 8% or 6%. Depending on what the stock market's doing in good mutual funds you've got investments now you know how that works so but um but i know that i will come out more investing the money after taxes uh and then i will leaving it with those guys in that annuity. Believe me, that annuity is not paying what mutual funds will pay. Exactly. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you very, very much.

The trick is, the only reason I would tell you to do that is because everything else in your life indicates you'll leave it alone. If you were broke and had car payments everywhere and you had absolutely no money and you had mismanaged all your money up to this point, then you're probably going to mismanage a lump sum. But your indication is you're not going to mismanage this lump sum, that you would invest it, leave it alone, live off the income that it creates, which is what you should do, by the way.

All right, Matt is with us in Kentucky. Hey, Matt, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thank you for having me on. Sure, what's up? My wife and I paid off our house about two and a half years ago. We're both 37 years old, and we have, as you can imagine, we have kind of the way things are going now, we've opened our eyes, and we've got $116,000 or so sitting in our savings account.

And we would like to take a pretty good amount of that and do something with it. And we just want to get your advice on what you would do with that money. Way to go. Well done. Yeah, you're in what we call baby step seven, which is everything's paid off. And, you know, do you have money aside from this $100,000 that you would call your emergency fund? Or do we need to set some of this up? Right.

We're planning on setting some of that aside. We're looking at probably of the $116,000, probably trying to do something with about $75,000 of it. Okay. The rest of that's your emergency fund. Okay. And you're debt-free, 100%. Correct, yes. Okay. Very it. Okay. The rest of that's your emergency fund. Okay. And you're debt-free, 100%. Correct, yes. Okay.

Very cool. Good, good, good, good. What's your household income? About $110,000. Okay. You've done a great job. Well done. Okay.

Yeah, I would just invest the 70. Now, the other thing you want to be doing at this stage of the game is maxing out every retirement option to keep the government's hands off of it right so that that was my other question we we we each have a roth ira okay you already are which we are which which we are going to be maxing out uh i'm going to be making that change soon and uh so yeah we were just wanting to know what to do with basically that lump sum. Yeah. Well, I buy two things. Number one, I found out when I started studying wealthy people after I went broke 30 years ago,

and I've continued to find this out studying wealthy people, that they really don't do super-duper sophisticated stuff with their money. They basically invest their money in things they understand and that they are comfortable with. Sometimes that's weird stuff, but most of the time, like for me as an example, I invest in two things, mutual funds or real estate that I pay cash for. That's it. I don't do anything else.

I don't have any other investments. And so, you know, what ends up happening is that the things you know that have caused you to make money and do well with investing, you'll just do more of it. So I would do mutual funds with this money. And as it gets big enough, if you want to pull some out and buy a piece of property that creates an income, if you have an interest in real and buy a piece of property that creates an income, if you have an interest in real estate, then that's what I would do from there. So, hey, good question. Congratulations.

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It's free. Download the EveryDollar app for your phone or your desktop and get going. EveryDollar.com. It's free. Download the EveryDollar app for your phone or your desktop and get going. EveryDollar.com. Ebony's with us in New Mexico. Hi, Ebony. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? And thank you for being you. I appreciate you so much. I didn't have step two, and we paid off all our consumer debt. All we have left is student loans, but it's a lot of money that we have to pay on student loans.

And we really want to try and knock it out in two years. Good. So we're trying to put every bit of extra money that we have on, on our student loans. Well, but we've also been talking about getting life insurance outside of my, outside of my husband's job. So he's covered and then I'm covered under his job as well. I'm not under mine because I am a contractor and then I have my own

business. So how old are you guys? We're nine years apart, so I'm 41 and he's 32. Are you healthy? Yes. Not smoke? No. Okay.

No. If you're not overweight, you're healthy, and you don't smoke, your insurance is not going to be very expensive and you need to do it now. Okay. So then how much do we get? We typically tell people to have 10 to 12 times your income on you, 10 to 12 times his income on him. The idea being, what does he make a year?

He's military, so I think as of right now it's probably 60 okay so if he had if he had uh 800 on him and something happened to him and you invested the 800 then you yeah and if it made 10 that'd be 80 000 if it made eight percent that'd be 64,000. The point being that the lump sum is big enough to create an income that replaces his income. And the same for you. Now he's military. They furnish him 200 K for combat life, right? Um, I know, I don't know that, but I do know that he has four, um, he has 400 through his job and then I have 100 through his job. Okay.

Yeah. And that's okay. Uh, and so if you want to get a little bit less than that, but generally 10 to 12 times your income in 15 to 20 year level term. And so if you want to dial that back a little bit based on the fact you've got some of this other, that's fine but the point being that the lump sum would create enough income to replace the income of the person who died that's what life insurance should do until until you're wealthy the kids are grown and gone you don't have any debt and you have a pile of money at that point

you don't even need life insurance so if you had a million dollars in mutual funds no house debt and the kids are grown and gone you wouldn't need life insurance or something happened to him you could make it off of that and so you become self-insured over time by getting rid of the debt building your investments and raising the kids to leave you are going to leave. You are going to leave. Amber is on the line in Oklahoma. Hi, Amber. How are you? I'm good, Mr. Ramsey. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Well, I kind of need some man advice. My husband has been in this job that he's in for about six years um it's oil filled so it's changed hands a bunch of times and uh if you know anything about oil filled areas it's kind of a toxic environment and an unsure environment as far as job security.

Yep. It's really hard work. It's a really rough situation, and you don't know what's going to happen. It's a volatile career path, but you make a lot of money. Yeah. Well, that's where our predicament is. My husband's kind of given up on being able to find anything outside of oil field where we live um it's small town i'm sure you understand everybody knows my husband's name everybody likes him they'd hire him in a minute he's hard working i mean dedicated as can be but what's he make a year um about 50 okay he's a high school graduate or college graduate

uh associate's degree okay and what uh just general education how old is he he is 31 what you want to be doing when he's 41 that pays 50 000 that's not the oil well that's where i've been trying to get it out of him. I don't think he really knows other than just day-to-day work. He wants to work hard, but he wants to go home, see his kids, not have to worry about tomorrow, not have to deal with. You can do all that if you just have a career that you make money. Yes.

That's all you've got to do. I want to be home. I want to be home is not the goal here the goal is um have a good career and and be making some money and then you can go home yeah you don't have to work all the time one thing i want for him and i think he likes the idea of it is there's a an old business in town he used to work for the man who owned it just a tire shop and i'd love for to be able to you know own a business and him be able to just work his day to day but owning a business that you don't like is harder than working for toxic people yes because when you own your own business your boss is a butt yes he will drive you into the ground trying to make that thing

successful and so you better love what you're doing when you own your own business and just But he will drive you into the ground trying to make that thing successful. And so you better love what you're doing when you own your own business. And just buying a tire shop just because it's your own business is not a plan. You need to have a plan that involves him owning a business, doing something he loves. Yeah. I think that's the thing for him is he's still just trying to tread water. Yeah, but listen, here's the thing you need to figure y'all need to sit down on the back porch with the kids in bed cold cup of coffee or

something else and sit there and look out at the sunset and say gosh when i'm 41 what do i want to be doing if i could do anything i want to do which by the way this is america you can do anything you want to do now then what steps have i got to take oh we can't do it in a small town we got to move okay oh i've got to have some more uh training on that area okay uh oh we are going to save some money and get out of debt okay but if you can lay out what has to be true that's not true today in order to be doing that 10 years that thing 10 years from now then the thing starts to open up because if you say you know what if i handed you a million dollars and i said now go do anything you want to do that's the way you ask the question do anything

you want to do do anything you here's a million dollars go do anything you want to do but you have to have a career making money you're not going to sit on your butt and cash a million dollars. Go do anything you want to do, but you have to have a career making money. You're not going to sit on your butt and cash the million dollars. That's not the point. The point is you don't have to worry about money. So what are you going to do? Anything you want. There are no barriers.

You can use the million dollars to create whatever career you want to create. Okay, then go do that. I'm not going to give you a million dollars to do that, but if you'll just start thinking that way, it opens your brain back up. Instead of going, well, the little man can't get ahead and all the guys at work say, well, all the guys at work are stupid. Well, it's not all the guys at work. They're at work. You know, you need to have a plan that says, I'm going to live the dream.

So hang on. I'll send you a copy of Ken Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle. Oh, and throw in that book called Start, because this guy needs to start. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Business Business leaders, right now you have the opportunity to take your business to the next level this new year. You can start by hiring the right people to help your business grow. At Ramsey Solutions, we post on LinkedIn Jobs because they are the best at matching the right person with the right job. LinkedIn Jobs screens candidates with the skills you're looking for so you can hire smart and fast. The thing I love about LinkedIn is they look beyond just the work skills and put your job post in front of qualified candidates who match your business requirements perfectly. That's how LinkedIn makes sure your job post is seen by the people you want to hire. People with the skills, qualifications, and other

interests that will help your business grow. It's no wonder a hire is made every eight seconds on LinkedIn. So this year, set your business up to succeed. Get started today and get $50 off your first job post. Visit linkedin.com slash Ramsey. That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Matthew and Lena are on the debt-free stage. Hey, guys, how are you? We're good. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live?

We live in Knoxville. All right, good. Love it. Welcome. So all the way over here to Nashville to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir. And how much have you paid off? $80,000.

Good for you. And how long did this take? Two and a half years while also cash flowing, having a baby, doing HVAC repairs, a repair to our basement for safety, and a water heater. Oh, yeah. Of course. That's how that works. And your range of income during that two and a half years? Started at 60, worked all the way up to 130. Wow. What do you guys do? I'm a physical therapist, and my wife is the hardest worker in the family. She stays home with the kids.

Got it. Cool. How many kids? We got three. Oh, and they're with you. Okay. Yeah. We'll introduce them in a little while.

All right. Good. So the $80,000 in debt, what was it? Physical therapy school loans. Of course. That's it? All student loans. All student loans.

How long have you guys been married? Almost eight years now. So what happened two and a half years ago set you on fire for this? Oh, man. I looked at the interest and thought we were losing a cup of coffee a day just to burn into money. And then just we wanted to change our kids' lives, and we wanted to leave a legacy to them. And just seeing that and wanting to do that

and just got tired of being sick and tired. Yeah. Yeah. So how did the conversation come up? What happened? Well, I mean, we had read your book when we first got married, and, you know, we were really frugal in PT school, and it would have been a lot more. So I feel like that really helped us. But then we kind of looked around, and we were got married and, you know, we were really frugal in PT school and it would have been a lot more.

So I feel like that really helped us. But then we kind of looked around and we were like, wow, we're this is going to take us forever making what we're making if we don't just make some kind of changes. And so we just started praying and asking the Lord and somebody introduced him to a different type of physical therapy that paid a lot more. And we're like, wow, I think we should do it. But it's commission based. So that was a big jump for us. Like, OK,'t have patients you don't get paid but if you do a lot of patients you get paid a lot and so i mean he just he just worked his tail off and we just got on the same page and all right yeah we do i do a visit a day really that i didn't want to do and we would

call that our day visit yeah sorry dave but that. Game on, man. That's a hustle and grind. Okay. Okay. So you sat down, you said a cup of coffee a day is burning, and we kind of know this stuff, but we're really going to have to get serious about it. Then so what? You took the new job, and then what did you start doing with the money stuff? Well, I got to pay honor to my grandfather here, Julian in Winchester.

That's where I grew up. He planted a seed of you, listening to you, when I go to baseball practice. So we knew where to turn. We sat down, we made a budget, and we stuck to it. And we took FPU, and we started coordinating FPU. Oh, wow. And that kept us really accountable because you can't tell all these other people to do something you're not doing. So we kind of had to lead the way.

And that kept us, I think, just having some public accountability, you know, really helped us a lot. Yeah. And we would, my wife, we were in the video where you have the chains on you. Yeah. My wife was like, we should have our own chains. So we made these paper machete chains. Yeah. And every thousand dollars we would do we

would cut it yeah and it was i mean it was hard to look at that every day out the doors is motivation yeah but it was also really fun to snip make you do that extra visit yeah it would make me do it yeah very very cool so you literally are a financial peace grandbaby that would be right we've had some financial peace babies lots of them on the air. Not many financial piece grandbabies. I met your grandpa at one of the breaks, and he has one of the original financial piece books when I very first wrote it back in 1992. He brought it in for me to sign today.

And so this is truly a legacy situation. Yeah, that's my father. My grandfather is in Winchester. Okay, well, your father's in Winchester, too, then. Yes, sir. Yeahchester too then yes yeah okay yeah all right very cool he's in winchester right now you mean okay yeah all right so i met your dad then he brought the old books in yeah original book right there okay yeah it's the original it really is what started this whole thing that's awesome wow you guys well congratulations okay you're coordinators you're a success. You paid off $80,000 in debt. Nobody can argue with you. You did it. So when somebody says, how do you do this? What do you tell them? Oh man, I tell them that,

well, when you have to get on the same page, I think you have to know your why. Like our why was we wanted, we wanted to do so many things in our life and we just felt like we couldn't do them being in debt. So we had to keep our why in the forefront. Reconciling with every dollar was huge for me. I'm like a big fan of that because when I have to come face to face with my spending, when I have to say, oh, I went rogue at Target and I really have to apologize to you. Rogue at Target. Oh, yeah, baby.

Rogue at Target. I love that phrase. Rogue at Target will kill your butt. Oh, man. A lot of women probably feel me on that you know i just we had to be real with one another and it brought us closer because there was um we just had to be so unified so i think that was a huge part of getting out of debt yeah he's taking an extra case you're going rogue at target that ain't gonna work he's like listen target i don't know

all right oh yeah you know you hear it all the time people the marriage is just get a ton better i feel like we went from walking together, then running together, then holding hands, and then now just arms locked together in this thing. So it's just been incredible marriage training. Very cool. Very cool. Good for you guys. Thank you.

So how's it feel now that you did it? It's awesome. Good. It's awesome. We know this is the step, like baby steps. We know that we see those kids, and we know that their lives are going to be changed. And so we're thankful for my grandfather, the seeds he planted, and my dad, and just going down to them.

So it feels just incredible to have that. And I think when you do something hard, too, it gives you confidence to go out and do other hard things. It does. So I'm actually, like in hindsight, grateful that the Lord you confidence to go out and do other hard things. It does. So I'm actually, like in hindsight, grateful that the Lord led us through this journey. Especially doing them together. Yeah, yeah, true. Doing hard things together.

True, true. Yeah, that's a big part of it. It prepares you for all kinds of cool stuff in the future. Yeah, I'm excited about that. Well done, you guys. Thank you. Very well done. Who were your biggest cheerleaders?

Oh, man, well, our family. Yeah. A lot of them are here. And my grandparents, especially Julie and my grandfather. Yeah. Our church. Shout out to the blonde budget on Instagram. She was always cheering us on.

Yes. And she was awesome. Yeah, that's cool. The digital age is getting a ton of people around you. And our church family was massive. And, you know, people cutting the chains with us. And so, absolutely all that. Yeah, it's been incredible.

Cool. Way to go, you guys. Thank you. We're very very very proud of you thank you this is so neat and i know your grandpa's proud of you i know your dad's proud of you very good stuff very good stuff it's got to feel good it does got to feel good and those kiddos all right bring the kiddos into the picture let's go guys let's get an introduction for the debt-free. What are their names and ages? This is Eli. He's five. This is Luke. He's three.

And this is Nola. She is one and a half. Nola. Found her voice. We heard a while ago. Oh, yeah. Awesome. Yeah. That's fun.

Good job, guys. Thank you. All right. Matthew and Lena, we got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. That's the next chapter in your story. And someday we'll be talking to your kids as they continue your grandpa's legacy on through this whole process good stuff matthew and lana knoxville tennessee eighty thousand dollars paid off in two and a half years making 60 to 130

count it down let's hear a debt-free scream let's go three two one we're dead free there we go that's fun you want to change your family tree i never thought when i started this show that i'd be doing this 30 years later and I would be talking to a young man whose grandpa turned on my radio show when he was a little character going to baseball practice. And I'm now looking at his little kids. Wow. That's a legacy right there. That is a, you guys are a family tree that has really, really been changed. And that's what happens when God's ways of doing things intersect a family,

and they buy in on it. Oh, yeah, there's some ebbs and flows, some bumps and bruises along the way, but there's an old, blue 1992 financial peace book out there in that dad's hands right now. And that's not breaking on me. That's this family. Our heroes. Look at what they have done. Look at what this grandpa did, what this dad and mom did.

And now what Matthew and Lena are doing. Absolutely incredible stuff. That is inspiring. Hey, why don't you be that grandpa? Or that dad and mom? Or that dad and mom? Or that Matthew and Lena? Somebody's got to do it. It might as well be you.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. our scripture of the day psalm 23 4 even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me dale carnegie said if you want to conquer fear don't sit home and think about it go out and get busy you know it's interesting that um we've worked with a lot of people over the years that struggle with depression and depression is a very real thing and And, um, especially folks that are bipolar struggling with it, uh, because it's, it really causes money problems, especially bipolar, because again, manic depressive, when you go manic, they go spending crazy and then they're depressed about it. And, uh, so I,

you know, I'm certainly not a clinician and I'm certainly not a medical doctor, but I've come to appreciate and empathize with the process that people go through to conquer that, sometimes with medicine, sometimes always with some coaching and some counseling. And I have heard some of the most wonderful stories of people doing what Dale Carnegie just said. If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. In a sense, if you want to conquer depression, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. There's something that happens when you're out moving around that, you know, you're doing something, you're tired because you did it. It's like exercise. If you'll start exercising, it releases all these wonderful self-healing chemicals inside your body, endorphins, proteins, all kinds of wonderful things are released.

But when you're sitting, obviously you get none of that. And so it's pretty amazing. If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. It's almost as if, you know, if you want to conquer the stuff we're talking about, the getting out of debt, you know, how you conquer that. You go out and get busy. Well, you know, I wouldn't want to be a workaholic.

I'm not asking you to be a workaholic. I'm asking you to work like a workaholic for a year so that you never have to again. You know when I work now? Whenever I want. I work a lot because I like to work and I like what I do. I'm leaving here and going to Florida in the morning. We're going to speak down there in Claremont for a church this weekend that's kicking off. Real Life Church is kicking off Financial Peace University and we're going to be there. So for those of you down there, come visit. I'll be speaking all weekend on the Saturday night services and Sunday services. Church is free.

Come on out. We'd love to have you. But if you're in the Claremont, Florida area, right outside of Orlando, I like doing that. A couple weeks, I'll be up in Chicago with my friend Pastor Tim Harlow at his place doing the same thing. They're doing a church-wide launch on Financial Peace University. I'm there to kick it off.

And I'm going. I like like it i like doing stuff and and so it's interesting though you get energy from doing things not from thinking about it that's the point of the whole thing so all right steve's with us steve is in new y. Hey, Steve, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Dave, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So my wife and I are working on the Baby Steps. We're currently Baby Step number two. And my wife's about 80% of the way there. So I got her to relatively easily to allow me to start my contributions to my role at 457. I was doing 10%. And I also have the option where I can contribute additional money to my pension,

both pre-tax and post-tax. Currently, I'm doing about $800 and I'd say about three quarters of that is post-tax. And I'm having a hard time getting her to agree to let me stop that so we can really knock out the baby steps and get moving and I don't know what to do right now. Okay um but you all have discussed that the fastest way to become wealthy is to get out of debt. And the reason that she is pushing back is because the money that that extra money that's going to my pension is it's a guaranteed eight and a quarter percent return and she's just having a credit card is a guaranteed 18 interest i i know i'm 100 in and she's almost there yeah well let me just tell you the deal is this is a temporary decision.

You can do whatever you want to do, obviously. So you can do your plan if you want to do your plan, but you're calling me about how to do our plan, and so I'll answer it that way. So, obviously, you can do whatever you want. I mean, that's not – you guys are allowed to do whatever you want to do. But in terms of the thing is, if I hire a personal trainer and he has a six-pack and I have a keg, if I don't want to listen to him, that doesn't make sense. Even if what he's saying to me feels weird, I want to understand why he's saying to me what he's saying to me. But if he says, do this type of exercise, do this type of nutrition, if I want to look like him, he looks like a Greek god,

and I have a big, huge belly, which I do, then I need to do what he says to do because he has the proof. My theory has gotten me a big belly. Right? Right. And that's what we're dealing with here. So the point is, you know, your plan, her plan, your best thinking, her best thinking has gotten you to where you are.

You're trying to do a new way of thinking to get a different result. That's all positive. All of that's good. So you need to embrace that. And as a friend of mine says submit yourself to a different process to get a different result submission for me is really hard submission for most people is really hard submission for your wife to a process is really hard she's struggling with that and that's that's a. That's okay. It doesn't make her a bad person.

But it's a human thing. So anyway, the answer as to why we teach you to do this might be important in this discussion. So you can try discussing it this way, I guess. Why we teach you to stop all investing, even though it's not mathematically correct, is simply this. What you focus on is what you win at, and this is a temporary thing. You're not going to stop investing for very long. It's not going to take you very long to get through this. In the scope of your life, this is one, two, or three years. This is not 30 years. It's not 10 years.

It's not even five years. It's for a very short period of time. So this truly is a hypothetical, theoretical discussion. The math really doesn't change much in two years on this. So stop it for two years because what you focus on is what you win at no one wins on something without focusing on it and sometimes focusing exclusively on it when you guys got married how long ago was that that was 2003 okay so you've been married 17 years?

Yeah. Okay. The reason you got married is because you focused on her, to the exclusion of all other girls and, for that matter, all other things. You couldn't think about anything else right then but her. She couldn't think about anything else but you, and you ended up getting married because you focused on it you were completely absorbed with it you completely

bought in you drank the kool-aid you see what i'm saying and so what you focus on is what you went at the reason you got married no one hardly unless it's a toxic relationship gets married because someone didn't care you know you're like i'm freaking all in here right and that's how you win so that's my argument for this and that's why our stuff has worked and actually the disgust with missing out on the return the guaranteed eight and a half percent return the disgust with missing out on the return, the guaranteed 8.5% return, the disgust with that will drive you even harder to get on out of debt. So I do recommend turning off all investing temporarily because what you focus on, you win.

And this is more about behavior and focus than it is math. It will, it is the shortest path to wealth for you, even though that feels oxymoronic. It is the shortest path to wealth. That's the deal. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. 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 Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for the show. You know, you can listen or watch Be Anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone.

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