The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Set Up Retirement as a Freelancer? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

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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 has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Ken Coleman. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. He is the host of The Ken Coleman Show, broadcast now on over 75 radio stations, a very popular SiriusXM show as well as podcast and YouTube star, too. So we're all YouTube stars. Thank you. Thank you very much. All of us are.

My kids don't think so, Dave. Could you write a note to the kids? Quick. Get a laser and have a cat chase it. But there you go. All of us are. My kids don't think so, Dave. Could you write a note to the kids? Quick, get a laser and have a cat chase it. But there you go. All right. So, but, you know, we're all over the place, and Ken is helping people with their careers, find their purpose, find a job, find work that matters, get in the zone, get in the,

you know, catch that edge. And, man, you can check in with him at the Ken Coleman Show or kencoleman.com, wherever you need to. And today you can call in if you've the Ken Coleman Show or KenColeman.com, wherever you need to. And today you can call in if you've got career questions and life questions. Phone number is 888-825-5225. Justin is in New York City. Hi, Justin. How are you?

Hi, guys. I'm doing well. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Great, great. I'm a new listener, so I just want to say thank you for taking my call today and thank you for doing what you do, helping us normal folk out there.

Well, thank you. So my question is about retirement. I'm a single-member LLC. I've been a freelancer ever since I finished grad school. So, you know, I've had to direct my own finances. And, you know, it's really hard. It's really difficult. So just to give some basis, I have about $200K in a Roth and SEP IRA combined. Good.

I got about $150K in cash. I've really been stocking my retirement the last couple of years. I've been lucky and blessed to have been making my retirement the last couple of years. I've been lucky and blessed to have been making money only the last couple of years, maybe five or five years or so, and I'm maxing out every year, trying to get it up there. So basically, and I've always heard the old adage, actively managed accounts never beat the market in the long run. I picked that up along the way. And so basically my question is, I don't want to retire and find that I missed out on, I don't know, 250k, 300k, whatever, because I had the money in the wrong type of account, like with too much fees or that

sort of thing. Because basically, so my accountants, to give a little back on my accountants, started my retirements way back in the day and when I was just putting in little monies. And now that my balances are kind of up a little bit, my bank kind of caught wind of it, and they want me to, like, move my retirement accounts and all my accounts over to them, saying, you know, they'll get better rates and all that stuff. And I just don't know what to do now.

Okay, good, good. Well, you're doing great. Congratulations. So here's the interesting number. As we have studied millionaires, the Actuarial Accountant Society, which is the Society of Nerds, did a study that said 78% of the reason that people become wealthy is that they actually invest, meaning just do it. What it went into was a smaller portion of the reason for their success.

We all want the magic pill. If we can find the magic pill, we put it in there. Now, you're asking a wise question, but I'm explaining to you that with all these letters and licenses after my name and having invested for decades and decades and decades, 85% of, well, number one, the number one cause of wealth is you actually save money. Duh. But people forget that part. So there's a lot of people out there with theories who don't actually freaking do it they get paralysis of the analysis so you've already beat that one that's step one then once i am investing because i joined the same club that you've joined i

actually do it um not discuss it it's not theoretical it's not a concept that's vague in a vacuum for some discussion for debate online somewhere. I'm just actually putting money in a real mutual fund, and I'm actually doing it every freaking month for decades. This is the formula, the number one indicator, okay? Now, once you're doing that, and you are, then we ask the questions like you ask. At that point, 85% or so, 90% or so of the way I select a mutual fund is its track record on return. How much money has it made over the past 10 years, 20 years, average annual return?

And it's fairly easy to pick up. You can find it in 30 or 45 seconds on their website of that mutual fund that should be in your SEPs and in your Roth IRAs. And that mutual fund, 60-something percent of the mutual funds do not outperform the market. But that means that, like, there's a 60% chance of rain. That means there's a 40% chance of sunshine. Okay, so there's 40% of the funds that do outperform the market, and so it really doesn't

take a rocket scientist to find a group of mutual funds that outperform the market. And so if you want to tune it up just a little bit, the way you tune it up is you find, you know, some mutual funds that have outperformed the indexes of the categories that they're in, meaning if you're in a growth and income or a growth fund, it needs to outperform an S&P 500, right? If you're in an aggressive, it needs to outperform the Russell and so on, whatever the index is of the area you're in. And so you want to outperform the index of what you're in. And I pick those mutual funds with my SmartVestor Pro, which is my investment advisors that we recommend, and I select those based on their rate of return in history. Now, the investment industry, because they've lied so much over the years and done things,

the regulations are kind of stupid, and they say stuff like, you know, past history is not indicative of future results. Well, of course it's not, but it is your only indicator. There's no way to select future results except based on the past. That's logical. Forecasting technique and accounting for 1,000 years is used past track record as your future indicator. And so, you know, if Tom Brady wins X number of football games as a future indicator, he's going to win a football game, right?

And so, you know, if he never won a football game in his life, it's a future indicator. He's not going to win a football game. So, of course, past performance indicates future results. But you can't guarantee it because he might have a good day or a bad day or however it works. Mutual funds the same way. So anyway, I'm picking it based on rates of return. So a tiny, tiny little portion of my investment time, once every two or three years, I worry about fees. But fees are not the problem. Not doing it at all, it being investing, and not selecting mutual funds that have outperformed the market indexes,

that's your two big things. Fees, you might be off at the end of your life $100,000 here or there, but you're going to be off a lot more than that with the other two things if you don't focus on those. So I don't spend a lot of time on i spend most of my time looking at rates of return on the historical data i pull up the rates on the mutual fund my smart investor pro goes okay here's three or four uh international funds you could put money in i like this one and uh you know and i why do you like that okay well

tell me teach me teach me teach me teach me teach. And you do not want your investments at a bank and you don't want your muffler fixed at the transmission store. Banks suck at investing. So you need a good investment advisor in your corner. If you want some help with that click SmartVestorPro at DaveRamsey.com I heard a statistic recently that absolutely blew my mind.

43% of Americans are not protecting their loved ones with life insurance. This drives me crazy, people. What are you thinking? Taking care of your family has to be a top priority. Think about it. If you died today, would you be the hero by making sure that your family had the money necessary to carry on their life without struggle and hardship? Would they be able to pay the bills and plan for the future?

That's what term life insurance is all about. Regardless of where you are in the baby steps, you've got to make this a top priority. Have I gotten my point across yet? That's why I talk about Zander Insurance every day. They keep it simple and make sure they find you the best rates out there. Zander will do their job to find you the best rates and make sure you're served like i expect but you have to take the first step go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282 Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Our famous $10 sale is back.

Now you can learn how to make faster and real progress with your money or your life when you check out the famous $10 sale. You can save up to 60% on over 40 of our best-selling books, including Ken's book, The Proximity Principle, which was a number one bestseller. And I help you with your whole job search process, your career mentality. The Total Money Makeover, number one bestseller. Been on the bestseller list for over 1,000 weeks. That's kind of wild. Total Money Makeover. And continues to be on the bestseller list.

Wow. Thank you, guys. We appreciate you, by the way. All of this, $10 each. The online store at Ramsey Solutions. And that's not all. We've got a gift for you. You can enter to win the Ramsey giveaway.

We're giving away $500 every week in cash. store at Ramsey Solutions. And that's not all. We've got a gift for you. You can enter to win the Ramsey giveaway. We're giving away $500 every week in cash and a grand prize of $5,000 cash. Enter daily for extra chances to win. No purchase is necessary. You've got to be 18 or older to win. Text the word CASH to 33789 to enter our giveaway. CASH to 33789. Aaron is with us in dallas texas hi aaron how are you i'm doing well guys thank you for having me on the show absolutely how can we help well i think i couldn't have picked a better day to call since both of you are on so my question

is multi-faceted so i'll get to the point uh my wife is about to be sitting on quite a large sum of money. So I'm wondering, one, what should we be looking into specifically in order to continue to allow the money to grow? Bless our kids, our grandkids. We already have a team of an investor and accountant on our side. So what specifically should we be looking at and learning about? Two, we are also interested in using some of that money to do a passion project. Where do we start when it comes to thinking of that? And then three, if I'm being transparent, I'm wrestling with a little bit of emotional stuff as far as being the in-law and wanting to lead our household well without seeming like a greedy, controlling in-law. So those are my thoughts and questions. In-law. Where's she getting this money from? Long story short, her mother passed away years ago, and she was given a percentage of a business, and that business just recently sold. Okay, so your wife from an inheritance is getting how much money?

She'll get about 2.2 into her savings, another 1.6 in a trust that she'll be able to access when she's 30. And how old are you all? I'm 27, and she is 25. Okay. And you'll be able to access the whole thing at 30, or what did you say? 1.4 when she's 30, and then 2.2 whenever the accounting team gets done figuring out taxes, distribution, all that stuff. It's expected to happen within the next couple of weeks. So it's a total of 3.6?

Yes, sir. Okay. All right, cool. What do you all make now? About $100,000. Okay. Are you people of faith? Yes, sir. Okay. All right, cool. What do you all make now? About $100,000. Okay. Are you people of faith? Yes, sir.

Okay. Well, one of the things that has helped me as I have built wealth is, and Ken and I talk about this a lot, is the idea of stewardship, meaning that you're a manager, not an owner. Mm-hmm. God owns it. You're managing it for him, and so is your wife. is the idea of stewardship, meaning that you're a manager, not an owner. God owns it. You're managing it for him, and so is your wife. And so the two of you together will manage your life together. You're not on the outside as an in-law. You're married.

For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health, you're married. And does that mean you need to trampoline there with a bunch of muddy boots and be tacky in your interactions? No. But does it mean you're supposed to stand on the outside and suddenly your wife makes all the decisions independent of her husband? No. And by the way, if the roles were reversed, you shouldn't make decisions independent of your wife. So we do it together and we do it from a stewardship position, Ken. Yeah. And I think that the stewardship comes down to, okay, the investing questions, you know,

how do we invest this after we tithe it? So you get your tithe right off the top and then investing this and then what's this passion project? And then saying, okay, again, good stewardship is a key phrase that Dave's using. You know, we don't just want to, because we've come into all this money and we've got this big passion project, we don't want to just be all passion. You know, we want to think this thing through. And so what is that? You said you wanted to bring that up. I'm curious to know what this big passion project is.

Well, we're not sure. She's in PA school right now. So I'm in fitness. So we've tossed around the idea of creating some sort of healthcare facility, multifaceted. We're also very, we were very involved with foster kids, and that's a huge passion of ours as well. So those are a couple of avenues that we've discussed. Not really sure tangibly what that exactly looks like. Sure. Well, I'll just address that very quickly because it's a straightforward answer. So just because you're coming into big money and you can do some things doesn't mean you

should do some things. And so healthcare facilities, all this kind of stuff, this is an enormous amount of research. And I would start with, honestly, as a couple, and I teach this as an individual that everybody's got their unique contribution, and it's pretty wide open as long as you're using your talent, you're God-given hard skills and soft skills, you're doing work that you really, really love. It's not about the money and success. It's just, I love this work. And then that work is contributing or creating a result in the world that there is deep, deep personal value around. And so I would put that same lens on a business, certainly that you two would do together. So you'd have to be in alignment there.

But that's after we do some actual research, what I call clarify and verify. And let's really as a couple sit down and go, what are we dreaming about? Would we rather do the help out with foster kids and things of this nature from a giving standpoint? Or do we want to be actively involved in running an organization? Same thing with the health care. Do we really want to be involved in that from a day-to-day? She's in PA school. Where does all this fit?

And so the good news is you guys are in such a great financial situation because of this inheritance where we can relax, we can really do our research and say, does this fit? These dreams and big ideas, do they fit? Do they make sense? Do we want to do this as and say it does this fit these dreams and big ideas do they fit do they make sense do we want to do this as a couple is this separate so really look into it spend time with people that are doing that i agree it keeps me from doing stupid things when i remember it's not my money i'm managing it for someone else and that that that relieves me of guilt it relieves me of uh you know this this uh this sense of there's a little bit of arrogance almost that goes with with having the capacity to do some things um and uh because it's not mine and i have to ask the boss okay god you want to buy this piece of property what

but oh wait a minute you already own it do you want to transfer the title to me well you want me to manage it for you instead of that other guy that's managing it for you what about this house i'm sitting in god you want to sell it it's your house and and it kind of it's almost this little uh emotional spiritual exercise that allows you to detach from all the emotion and the power of, oh, I could do a foster care facility. Oh, we could do a major medical facility. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Wait a minute. Hey, God, do you want us to do that with your money?

And it changes the conversation between my ears. Yeah, it's reassuring. It's a type of prayer, and it slows me down. I move at a little slower pace, a little wiser pace, because I have this fiduciary responsibility to the owner. I've got to report back to him what kind of job I did, and so I can't screw this up. It's almost as if I would be more irresponsible with my own money

than I was with someone else's. That's my personal experience of walking through handling wealth. And so I've transferred that to my kids even as an inheritance and say, you know, you really didn't hit the lottery. You've got the responsibility, not the privilege. You've got the responsibility, not the privilege. You've got the responsibility to manage this. It's a big, dead-gum responsibility. Because part of the time is you wake up feeling the weight of this, don't you?

Yes, a lot. Yeah, that's normal. And that's a little bit healthy, by the way, that you feel the weight of the responsibility to be wise. And that's that stewardship bone that's activating in your spirit. That's a good, you're a good man. You're going to do good with this. So go slow, be wise, and take a step back and detach and go, I'm not the owner. I'm managing this.

Okay, boss, what are you going to do with your money? And if I just ask God what he wants to do with his money, it slows me down. I make different decisions when I'm managing it for other people instead of for myself. This is The Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Matt and Desiree are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi. Hello, so good. Welcome, welcome.

Where do you guys live? We're from Stickney, South Dakota. Okay, and what is that near? Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls. Okay, on that side. All right, cool. Welcome to Nashville.

It's a bit of a haul. Yes. All the way down here to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? $61,504.79. I love it. How long did this take? 22 months.

Wow. And your range of income during that time? $84,000 to $90,000. Cool. What do you guys do for a living? I'm a registered nurse at a local cancer center. And I'm a power sports mechanic. All right.

Very cool. Which would mean lots of snowmobiles and four-wheelers in the South Dakota area, huh? Yep, exactly. Very fun. Good for you. That's fun. I've broken a few of those, so I need a mechanic. That could happen, yeah.

Good for you guys. So what kind of debt was the uh 62 000 uh some credit cards um medical bills couple cars uh home equity loan which uh actually was our only mortgage because we paid cash for the house because of the small town we live in okay so uh you're kind of normal except for that part yeah i mean a little bit of everything right yeah how long you two been married it'll be 16 years in june awesomeness very good very good she looked at him like this is a test yeah he rolled it right he had it yeah very nailed it good job good job so what's happened after all these 16 years of being normal? 22 months ago, your fuse got lit, baby.

What happened? We were gifted an FPU class by my parents. We both kind of very reluctantly went to it, kind of dragging our feet, because we didn't really think we needed help with our finances, nor my parents' input. Yeah'm loving this yeah this is good the in-laws there's a little too much truth right there yep so um but once we started it just it just blew up from there we learned so much and we started our our debt snowball and um just matt got a couple of side jobs and we just nailed it so yeah i even took a little paper route in our local town all right that's old-fashioned yeah there's not many papers

left much less i mean we've got a little pamphlet here in nashville's all that's left and it's irrelevant but yeah you guys are incredible well done thank you yeah so who who initiated the gift did your mom or your dad my dad your dad okay so matt her dad hands you this thing what was your reaction this financial piece gift in quotes air quotes you know i was i was okay with it i just i was kind of dreading bringing it to her i was like i don't know what she's going to say. It's not my parents telling me what to do. It's her parents telling her what to do. Yeah, we talked about it and we kind of got a little upset right away

actually. They thought we were irresponsible. It's like somebody giving you a diet book. I mean, oh my gosh. What are you saying? I could use one of those too you know me too but i mean it's it's a hard it's a hard gift yeah yeah yeah interesting so yeah you kind of had to get over that but you kind of said well we'll go to the class yep actually was the best thing that happened to us that's for sure so how far into

the class did all that wear off and you went, okay. I mean, like three or four nights, three or four different nights in or the first night or what? I think it was about three nights. Okay. And you start going, this might work. Yeah. It's kind of tip the scales a little bit. Yep. Very interesting.

Dave, you're like a good Netflix series. Three shows in, they were in. They were hooked. They were in. Listen, I've been through some Netflix series that I went all the way through it just because I felt like I had to clean my plate, and I wished I didn't. Oh, there you go. But a couple of them, the first one hooked me, too. It's really true.

So that's my question. When did you see momentum? So you start this. You start walking this thing out. Was there a point in this 22 months where you went, oh, we're really making progress? What was it? I would say when we started paying extra on things and watching our P's and Q's on everything else, and we still had money left over.

Yeah. We weren't looking at a negative bank account. And then the first little debt falls off, and you're like, hey, yeah, this is going to work. One down. Wow. And then about a year in, we decided, well, Desiree came to me and said, we should do our own class. So we coordinated the class, and that really lit the fire. Yeah.

I mean. It's hard. It's almost impossible to not do this stuff like crazy when you're leading the class. Yes. Because most people are not hypocrites. You know, you've got to go do it once you're teaching it, man mean you're no way around it wow yeah our class was big it's like 23 25 people something like that yeah for our little town that's pretty that's a big class either way in any town that's that's a great job thank you for leading i appreciate it thank you a lot of

people though in the back half of their debt snowball get that last little bit of rocket fuel by becoming a coordinator and leading. We hear that story a lot on this stage. Yep, it helps. That's very interesting. That is interesting. I need to prescribe that, actually. Because you guys are a year in, and things are really working. Then you start telling everybody it works, and that gives you even more motivation.

Well, and you're going, yeah, and I'm a walking poster child yeah this is great so 16 years of marriage have you ever been debt free until now never and you paid off the house and everything yes we're looking at weird people you got no debt nowhere no payments yes how old are you two 38 wow you're so whacked i love you guys you're heroes man you're absolute heroes very very well done man that's two today with paid for houses yeah not just debt free but debt free house and everything man that's pretty so good so very cool. So what do you tell people now that you're coordinating the class, now that you are 100% debt-free?

Because it's not a theory. You did it. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? For me, it was the budget, sticking to it, sitting down together, going through, actually seeing where all our money was going. That was the biggest thing for me. Yeah, I would say for sure. And then just being mindful of what you're, you know.

It can be something as simple as a soda or a pop or a Coke, as you guys would call them down here. Ah, there you go. We knew what you meant, though. Yeah, just something simple like that. Do you really need that? I mean, it's only $2, but, you know, it might be the $2 you need to save. Do you really need that? I mean, it's only $2, but it might be the $2 you need to save. Do you really need that?

It all adds up after a while. Yeah, death by a thousand cuts. Yes. Yeah, it's a big deal. Very big deal. That's important. So when you started the budget, how long did it take you for it to start actually working? How many months?

Probably four. Yeah, I'd say about three or four. Yeah, about what we tell people. It usually takes about three months to get it dialed in. Four, something like four is not unusual. That's very good. But then once you get it dialed in, it becomes, instead of something I dread, it becomes a place of power because you're going, this is the track, man.

This is where I'm getting my traction. Yeah, so very well done. Who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you? Obviously, the in-laws now not only did you have to take the class now you got to tell them they were right oh that's awful i love that oh that's fun well they got to be jumping up and down proud. Yes, yes. Well, we're proud of you here at Ramsey.

I can tell you that. You're a sharp young couple. Very well done. And you brought the kiddos with you. What are their names and ages? Corbin is nine, almost ten. And Brock is five. All right.

Have they been practicing their debt-free scream? Yes, they have. They know their stuff. Guys, you ready for your debt-free scream? Shake your head. Say yeah. You ready for your debt-free scream? Shake your head. Say yeah. You ready for your debt-free scream? Huh?

All right. Here we go, man. Because your mom and dad, they're like incredible people. Yes. They have changed your boy's life. They changed your whole... Your kids are changed because of your mom and daddy. It's pretty incredible, y'all. Very, very cool.

All right. Matt and Desiree, Corbin and Brock, we got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you. My latest book, because that's the next chapter in your life, and an extra copy of the Total Money Makeover to give away to pay it forward with. So count it down, $62,000 paid off in 22 months. Make an 84 to 90, count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt free!

There you go! That's a family tree that has changed. Yes. This is why I come down here and work still. I love it! This is The Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day galatians 6 9 let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. Maya Angelou said, I've learned that you shouldn't go through life where the catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.

That's good. That's a nice touch. Nice touch. Hey, I'm doing an Entree Leadership Theme Hour for small business people in a couple of weeks. If you're a small business person with any kind of a question, email me at askdave at ramsaysolutions.com. Or Dave on air. I'm sorry, daveonair at ramsaysolutions.com. And just put Entree Leadership or Entree in the subject line.

Let Kelly know what kind of a question you want to ask. We'll contact you, make you part of the show. We don't tell you what to ask or how to act. We just put you on, but we'll try to arrange some calls for this. Kelly will tell you how to act. She's pretty bossy, but it's like a spiritual gift. But, yeah, just jump in. Send it to DaveOnAir at RamseySolutions.com. Jabari is with us in New York City.

Hi, Jabari. How are you? Hey, Dave. Thank you so much. Massive fan. Because of you, I paid off my master's all cash, and me and my wife paid off over $50,000 in less than six months. Wow.

Thank you so much for all you do. Great job, man. Congratulations. Massive fans. I watch you way too much. But for my question today, me and my wife, we just got out of baby step three, so we have our four-month savings. And we're debating on when should we start donating to charity.

So I would like to start now, but my wife would rather us save up for our larger goals. We're going to move apartments. We're planning for a baby. We obviously want us save up for our larger goals. We're going to move apartments. We're planning for a baby. We obviously want to save up to buy a house. So when is a good time to start donating? You're already late. Oh, no. Yeah.

You need to build the giving muscle from day one. Substantial giving would be different, but like, like, you know, uh, big dollar to giving or something, you may want to set that aside for some, after you've hit a few goals here or there, but a monthly rhythm of steadily giving a part of your income keeps that muscle of, uh, to where your hand is always open. And the strange thing about an open hand is money can not only get away, but it can also get in. A closed fist can't let any more in.

And so it is an illusion that we can live and hold it all for ourselves and come out ahead. Yeah. Stacey and I learned that early on by watching our parents give. And a lot of times it's always a huge amount. I'm curious to know what you think on that. When someone is paying off debt, is that a line item in the budget? Of course, we believe in giving tithe from our income,

but I'm just curious what your take is on that for folks. Well, tithe is a tenth of your income to your local church. If you're not a person of faith, then obviously that would not apply. But it's not a bad guideline, right? Just the same. And so something like that, if you're not attending a house of worship. But evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews all give a tenth of our income. And many other religions practice. But it's just a matter of, it's just a good spiritual, emotional practice to have a giving be a part of rhythm of your life.

And it's not a condemnation or shaming if you don't. It's just that it turns out generous people are more attractive people. It's hard to find someone who's consistently generous who's depressed. It's hard to find someone who's consistently generous who doesn't smile. It's hard to, and generous, you know, it's the person who holds the door open for you when you've got two bags of groceries. You know, generous is the one who helps you pick them up when they fall all over the parking lot of the grocery store. In the grocery store, right? That's right. You know, a generous person does all kinds of stuff.

It doesn't have to be necessarily writing a check or only. It's not necessarily. It's only. Because, yeah, it is necessary that you give. Yes. We find among wealthy people a fairly, even if they're not people of faith, a fairly steady pattern of generosity. This idea of Scrooge, the rich guy who holds all his money and doesn't give any of it, one of the reasons Scrooge is such a character in literature is that he was so unusual.

Most wealthy people do give. The giving in America is amazing. So it's a great question. I appreciate you letting me soapbox on it for just a second, not on you, but on the subject. And my answer to you is I would start steadily giving. It doesn't have to be a lot. Maybe your wife has tens of thousands of dollars in her mind, and you have a few hundred in your mind so it might be that we put an actual amount to this and and you know pick something that you believe in that that's uh obviously that has some virtue to it that is uh something that you align with that you want to give into and it can be random acts of kindness

you can find a a single mom and needs a thousand dollar car um it can be you know it doesn't have to be you know necessarily a certified charity so to speak i tell you the other day dave i was picking up my son from uh workout one evening about 6 15 on the way home he was starving of course after his workout jumped in a line and uh got up to pay and somebody said the people in front of you've paid for your meal and i was like well that's, that's really great. It wasn't much. And so what did I do? I immediately did it for the person behind me. You started the chain.

And it's just – It was a drive-through. Yes, sir. Yeah, of course. You started the chain. Yeah, but, you know, those are ways that even in a bunch, even paying off debt, even in the snowball, you can go, you know what? I'm going to take $10, $15, $20 and bless somebody. It's amazing what it does for you. You walk a little taller, and you go, hey, I contributed, $20, bless somebody. It's amazing what it does for you.

You walk a little taller, and you go, hey, I contribute. I did something for somebody. Very small, but I gave. And you're right. You do develop that muscle to the when you get debt-free and you live like no one else. Now you're going, I've been giving this whole time. Now I can really give like no one else. It's something about taking your eyes off yourself.

I love his question. I love his question because, you know, you're sitting in a restaurant and you just happen to notice the lady bushing the dishes is kind of out of place. She probably shouldn't be there bushing the dishes. Something's wrong with this picture. You know, a lady that age walking like that having to carry that tray it's just you know something wrong with that and you just have this sense you know and you go you know i wonder what 300 would do for her day oh my goodness so true you know i mean isn't it fun i mean it's just about the most fun you ever have so you gotta you to be able to keep that as a part, you know, random acts of kindness, tips, whatever you want to call it, as a line item.

Now, again, you don't want to be people. The problem is it's addictive. Once you get started on it, you'll overdo it if you're not careful. Oh, yeah. You can overdo it and mess up your plan and all that. So we don't want to do that. You've got to be disciplined. That's right.

But the interesting thing is it's not about what happens to other people. It's about what happens to you. It changes you. It changes you. You cannot be generous and not be changed. It's impossible to be generous. Now, I guess you could write a check to some faraway land

or some faraway organization that's cold and just a P.O. box and you don't know anything about them. And it doesn't have that effect. But when you hand $300 to that lady, you pay for the people behind you. You do what? Even if it's just little stuff. It's just little stuff. Here's one for you. Look for that maybe mom.

You don't know her whole story, but maybe she's got three or four kids in the car and she's in her uniform or whatever. Go up and buy her gas. Mm-hmm. Just that, you know, 50, 60 bucks, whatever it is, situation, and watch. Just watch what happens. That means a lot to that lady. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's not hard to look for opportunities to give.

We went during COVID, a bunch of us, a bunch of our team went down to the Ramsey Foundation and just stood. And there's a gas station in front of two different hospitals and just filled up all the nurses and docs, any of the medical workers. We filled up their cars. And it wasn't a ton of money, but it was, you know, like $5,000 a station or something. I think we dropped $10,000 that day. It wasn't a huge, huge sum. But it was like I stopped by both of them and cleaned their windshields and stuff just for the fun of it. And Dave Ramsey out there cleaning their windshield freaked them out.

Yeah. It's like that freaked them out. Wait, I know that guy. Wait, wait. Who's that on my windshield? And so, you know, but I'm not bragging, but I'm just telling you, it was the most fun I had during dadgum quarantine. You know, because we needed some fun during quarantine, right? Yes.

And just to say thank you to those folks. And, you know, none of them were worried about anything except saying thank you. It was pretty cool. 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. Did you know you can listen to The Ramsey Show on your smart speaker? Just tell Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri to play The Ramsey Show podcast.

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