The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Start Investing Well? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: How do I start investing my money well? Paying for grad school, Employee stock purchase plans, Should I build back my credit after filing bankruptcy? Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance at $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSgvwy Shop our bestsellers during the $10 Sale! https://bit.ly/TRS10Sale Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving in storage studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruz, number one bestselling author multiple times, co-host of the popular afternoon Smart Money Happy Hour. I just assumed happy hours were in the afternoon. So check it out on podcast on the Ramsey Networks there,

and you can be part of all of that and enjoy her. She's with me today, my daughter, answering your questions at 888-825-5225. Sean's in Los Angeles. Hey, Sean, how are you? I'm doing well. How about you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Yeah, I just had a quick question for you guys. So I'm a first-gen American immigrant family, grew up with a low middle income, and so I went through college, got free. I made sure to go on scholarship. Then I recently graduated and got a job. In the first year, I made $180,000. I love it. Way to go.

What are you doing when you're out of college for $180,000? That's impressive. My job required me to do a lot of travel. I sold my car during the peak of the pandemic to get... Now, what do you do for a living that makes 180K? Oh, I am an aerospace engineer. Oh, I guess you are. Way to go, man. Amazing. Good for you. Yeah, I appreciate it.

I bet your mom and dad are just sitting around smiling. Yeah, yeah. My son, the genius so yeah my main question was basically um so i had to buy a new car when i came back like switch job um and now that i'm in los angeles you know i have i'm trying to max out my retirement and everything and i enjoy my job but it's kind of i grew up in a situation where you know we made sure to you save what we can, don't buy anything unnecessary. And recently, I've had a good amount of wealth in the savings and everything like that. And my question is more of how to get past the idea of scared to spend it.

And then on top of that, how to invest it properly so that I don't spend too much and build a budget for myself for the future. Yeah. Where's your family from, Sean? We're based out of... Oh, so my family's from India originally. India. Okay, okay. That's great. Yeah, you know, I think when it comes to

the idea of giving yourself permission to spend, it's always helpful for me, Sean, to have something visual that I see with my numbers. So that would be a budget. And doing it, knowing exactly where my expenses, where my money's going to know that my bases are covered, that I'm doing quote unquote what I'm supposed to be doing with money, right? So making sure retirement's good, we're saving for the future, all of that is done. And when you look at that and say, okay, and then I have some left over and actually putting it in line items and kind of like making yourself, forcing yourself to spend, which sounds kind of funny. But when we talk about money a lot, it's almost like building a muscle and spending is one of those muscles that you have to build.

If you're not used to it or you're scared and you have that kind of more scarcity mentality, it is very difficult to enjoy your money and just to spend. So if you're in a position where you do have that extra money every month, I would put it in a line item. And again, it can be a small percentage. You don't have to do anything crazy. But I would put it in a line item and make yourself spend it. Again, whether that's going to a concert, whether that's going out to eat, whether that's going on a trip, like whatever that looks like but uh practicing spending and enjoying it because

that is part of living yeah being generous investing and spending wisely these are the three things you can do okay and spending wisely is the enjoyment factor so to speak you'll find later as you go along that generosity is actually more enjoyable than all of it but anyway you need to be doing all three at all times then when you're doing a budget like Rachel's saying we have a the world's best budgeting app that you can use for free it's called every dollar and the reason it's called every dollar is every month you should give every dollar a name, every dollar a mission, every dollar an assignment. And here's what's interesting.

Once you're doing that, very few people mess up because we do stupid stuff when we don't see it in perspective to the other things. Like, oh, I can afford that. Oh, wait, I can't buy groceries. But if you've got groceries down beside it, you go, oh, oh i can afford that oh wait i can't buy groceries you know but if you got groceries down beside it you go oh i can't afford that uh but if you buy a couch and you go well uh and i've still got money to do all the other stuff and it was allocated with one of the dollar line items like rachel was saying then there's no guilt for buying the couch because you didn't

not pay your rent because you bought a couch. But when you just go, oh, I'm going to buy a couch on impulse, it doesn't have the holistic perspective of your whole picture that the budget gives you. That's when people make mistakes. But very few people do stupid stuff on purpose, you know? Right. We're going to write down and plan to do stupid stuff. People don't do that

so that's why the budget fixes that for you it'll cause you to to be careful in all of it in generosity in spending and in investing and do it very very intentional and then of course we're going to tell you to take the free money that you can find in that budget and work up what we call the baby steps, which is the shortest, fastest, right way to become wealthy. Gotcha. Yeah, because after my last job and I spent money on getting a brand new car, and I didn't take any loans because the idea of having to owe someone any form is kind of paranoia for me.

Good. So I carry about $70, about 70K as an emergency plan. I know I don't need that much, and I know I can invest about 40K of that. Yeah, then do. I have plenty of leftover. Then do. So I guess investing portion-wise, do you guys have any recommendations as far as how to make sure whether that's passive or have opportunities in the stock market or other ways to, I guess, further my wealth? Tell you what, I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, which is going to walk you right up the baby steps, what to do first, what to do second.

When you get to what's called baby step four, you'll start putting 15. It's the first time you invest. You'll start putting 15% of first time you invest you'll start putting 15 of your income into retirement savings roth iras and 401ks and good growth stock mutual funds so hang on we'll have austin the team pick up and send you a total money makeover book it's the um it's the baby steps on steroids it'll show you every little thing on what to do with the baby steps sam is with us in boston hey sam how are you i'm doing amazing how are you doing dave better than i deserve how can we help yeah so i'm calling in um i got a career question for

you guys i recently uh just moved into baby step three and just got engaged which is super exciting um so i'm calling because i currently i I work as an assistant project manager for an infrastructure company and I travel for work. I live in upstate New Hampshire, so kind of outside of Boston by just a couple of hours. I live in a small town up in the White Mountains. But I'm calling because I'm kind of struggling being, you know, newly engaged in everything. Eventually, I don't want traveling to be a long term. How much do you travel? So I'm out on the road every week.

Right now, for example. Five days a week? Yeah, it depends on the week and what's going on with the project, but I'm fortunate to be able to go home on weekends. Yeah, sounds like you're changing jobs. It's pretty simple. Not a sustainable lifestyle with the family. Not what you want to do. You don't want to be gone five days a week, you said, and I don't think they're going to stop you from doing that because they need you to go do that. That's why they hired you. Sorry to cut you short, but it is pretty that's pretty much that simple

rachel cruz ramsey personality is my co-host today justin is in austin texas hi justin welcome to the ramsey show thank you for having me it's an honor to be on. Certainly. How can we help? I have a kind of what would Dave do question. My wife is looking to leave education and go back to get her master's to become a therapist. And so I'm looking for the best way to approach to cash flow this and not take out any debt. We currently make about $200,000 a year. The only debt we have is our home and one rental, which we are aggressively paying off and trying to get paid off in the next three years.

And so my big question is, should I suspend retirement knowing I get a generous match from my employer to help cash flow this or just tighten up the budget? I'm curious what you would do. So a master's in counseling? Correct. Okay. To do what? To be a therapist, to counsel families, adolescents, families in need, those kind of things.

Okay. So as you're probably already aware, there is a vast spectrum of potential cost on this. You can spend a lot or a little. And we already have the cost, so I know exactly how much it's going to cost me per month. How much is it going to cost you? Right about $1,400. And that's the exact amount before tax if I was to pause my retirement that I'd be getting each month.

And you said your household income, those $200,000? Correct. Why can't you just cash flow $1,400,000 and keep doing your retirement? And that's what we're thinking about doing. We just didn't know if it would be wise to suspend, knowing that she could potentially come out of this making right around $80,000 to $100,000 a year, and then that would just make things not so tight. So, again, I don't want to sacrifice her retirement, but if I had to, I'm willing to.

I just, again, want to make sure I'm making the right decision. Yeah, it would be more sacrificing lifestyle, Justin, than retirement is what we would probably pick. And is it a two-year program? Minimum two-year could be two and a half-ish depending on her internships, yeah. Gotcha. And how old are you guys?

I'm 38, she's 34. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I would continue to probably just do retirements. Yeah, I would. And then sacrifice lifestyle. I mean, I know it makes it kind of tight and I don't know if even there's a extra work you could pick up just as a side hustle, you know, every other week for a little bit just to bring in some extra cash. You could do that as well. Does she quit while she's doing this? So she's going to, the first year when she's just doing classes, she's going to work part-time. So that will help offset a little bit of the cost. But then as she goes into her clinicals or internships, that will increase where she might not be able to work part-time.

So when all of that happens, what's the household income? Well, so my income is what the 200 is not what she's making right now so anything she makes will be additional to that oh so you make 200 okay correct yeah that's great then because if she's working part-time a little bit next year then that's going to give you guys some breathing room and then it's really only a year and maybe a few months of it being really focused on just cutting some lifestyle if you need to she makes 15 000 a year she cash floated correct yeah which is what we're going to try to do just we're not sure the workload just yet but ideally we would like to not sacrifice retirement if we didn't have to

i don't think you have to i think you have to sacrifice something else you make 200 you need 15 000 i agree yeah i think i think you cut i think you don't go on vacation because we have a greater goal i think we back christ on vacation because we have a greater goal. I think we back Christmas down because you have a greater goal. I think we quit going out to eat Sadad gum much because you have a greater goal. Or whatever your lifestyle, whatever you want to lump into the lifestyle category, what Rachel was saying is dead on. Yeah, this is a lifestyle cut.

And, again, it's temporary for a greater goal. And it's a wonderful greater goal i mean what she's going into is good uh what you're paying for it is a reasonable amount i mean she's going to get this degree in the 30 35 000 range um and you know be helping people this is this is a good move this is this is education the way it's supposed to be used uh to actually cause you to make more and do good. You know, that's what education is for, as opposed to getting a degree in left-handed puppetry, which some people do and this kind of stuff. So, yeah, this is very, very good.

Everything you brought to us was wise, except you guys just haven't looked at we need to scale back lifestyle and keep on our investment goals. Yep. That's what I would do. So, good question. Thanks for calling. Tommy is in Augusta, Georgia. Hey Tommy, what's up? Hey Dave.

Wow. I'm so happy I got through to you. Me too. We're happy you're here, Tommy. What's up? Can we help? Hey, um, I, I've been listening to the podcast every day for maybe a month and a half. So much of your stuff just makes a whole lot of financial sense to me.

And I admire the fact that you guys bring Christ onto the radio every single day, and you guys are not ashamed of the gospel. Well, thank you, Tommy. How can we help you today? I have, I'm getting married June 2nd. Yay! I'm 52 years old. I've never been married.

And I'm a little anxious, but I'm very excited. My fiance and I, between the two of us, I'll just talk about my debt right now. I have about $18,500 in student loan debt, probably another $3,000 in furniture debt, and I also have my mortgage, $98,000. So when we get married, I will be moving to her house that she has, and we'll be selling mine. The market value right now, I believe on mine is roughly $165,000. So I think I'm going to come out a little ahead.

And I also have $20,000 in a high-yield savings account right now. I've been reluctant to pay off this student loan debt all because of this wishful thinking that they're going to forgive it. But I also understand that I received that money as a loan years ago. Tommy, how can we best help you today? I'm just trying to, I guess I'm confused. Where to start? I just don't know enough yet about what you guys are teaching. I'm very interested in it, and I would like to.

I've been telling my fiance about it, and the little bit that I know that I'm telling her about, I don't know if it's really clear. If I'm getting through clear to her. Okay. So, Tommy, what we're going to do, first and foremost, is Austin's going to pick up and we're going to gift you and your fiance, who will be your wife in two weeks. Our wedding gift. A wedding gift.

So, congratulations, Tommy. You get a wedding and financial peace university coming up And so you go through that together so you guys can at least be talking out of the same You know with the same language out of the same perspective But what you're going to do tommy Yeah, is I would take that money that in the high yield savings account pay off the furniture first get rid of that three thousand dollar loan And then start tackling the student loan debt and the beautiful thing is, Tommy, when you guys sell your home, you're going to come out with about $65,000. And if she has any debt, then you're going to use some of that money to pay off hers.

You guys together are going to combine your finances. So you're going to look at all of your debt together, lined up regardless of whose debt it is, and start working a plan to pay that off. You guys are going to combine incomes. You're going to be budgeting together. So that's really the first big step. And then get an emergency fund. Then you'll go on to baby steps four, five, and six. But you're going to dive deep into all of that with Financial Peace University. So I would sit down and you guys go through that together because that is the plan. And working together is a really key part of this. And I know all this is new to you, maybe even new to her, of just this idea of being intentional with your

money. And so I think it's kind of a fun thing for you, Tommy, that you're entering a new season of life as a married man for the first time. And there's probably this level of feeling like other changes are going to happen and your money is probably going to look a lot different a year from now, which is very exciting because you may actually end up controlling it and feeling in control of it for the first time ever so hang on the line tommy austin will pick up rachel cruz ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us america we're so glad you're here we love to give away money around here i know that sounds weird a place that is all about helping you with your money we give money away and we're giving away five hundred

dollars a week this month and a three thousand dollar grand prize in the Ramsey Cash Giveaway. No purchase necessary. You can enter up to once a day. Must be 18 years old or older. And there's great deals in the RamseySolutions.com bookstore. And all the books, just about all of them are bestsellers. And just about all of them are $10 right now. And that includes the Questions for for humans cards by uh second edition the conversation cards out with dr john deloney so there's all kinds of things there so be sure

you check all this out ten dollar sale and five hundred dollars a week at three thousand dollar total grand prize giveaway all available at ramsey solutions dotcom slash store. John is in Dallas. Hey, John, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you. It's an absolute pleasure speaking with you guys today. You too. What's up? So my employer offers an employee stock purchase plan at a 15% discount, and I'm the type of guy that buys and buys and buys and buys stocks and

just holds and holds forever. And should I, when it comes to employee stock purchase plan, should I buy it and then wait for a year for long-term capital gains and sell it? Or should I buy it and sell it right away? What would be the strategy for that? Well, I generally don't recommend you buy it at all. If you're going to buy it, don't let it become more than 10% of your net worth. Single stocks are much too risky. And the 15% discount is nothing special. Every single company that has an employee stock option plan has a 15% discount. They're all set up that way and so um and if you'll pull up your 52 week charts on the stock unless it's a very unusual stock you'll see as much as 15 variance during the 52 weeks so in other words you could lose anything the discount is in one move of the stock and so

it's not like it's a huge discount 50 discount would be huge 15 and the single stock as volatile as they are not that big a deal so if you love your company and your company has a great track record and the stock looks like a great stock to buy and you're just absolutely chomping at the bit to do it don't allow single stocks as a category to become more than 10% of your total net worth. John, I don't buy any single stocks. I don't own a one. Yeah. And there's, I feel like a lot of employees, because we get this question on the regular,

I feel like, because I feel like for some people too, they, if they have a good work experience and they love their company and they believe in it. Doesn't mean the stock's good. No, I know. But that's what I'm saying is like it's a, there's an emotional tie for people with work as well when this comes into play. So you do want to, if that becomes, if those two collide, you want to detach the emotion from it.

But I mean, I've heard, I've talked to people and they're like, I just love my company so much. It's just so great. And I'm going to be here for it. And I just believe in it. It's like, it's a more of an emotional yeah type of investment and that's not a wise way really bad idea yeah but the thing that the lack of diversification is what we're talking about here when you've got all your eggs in one basket some fool is twirling

the basket you know and that's that's the old uh financial thing. The first time I ran into this early, like 25 years ago, I was sitting one-on-one doing a coaching session with a lady who was 70 years old, and she had worked for Procter & Gamble for 40 years. And she had all of her 401K and all of her wealth, $780,000 in Procter & Gamble stock. Well, I don't remember what happened. I don't even remember what year it was. But that year, Procter & Gamble had some crises, and they lost 38% of their value.

And so her $780,000 turned into like $400,000. Yeah. And she was freaking out. But the reason was she had left herself vulnerable. That's a high-risk play because you bet the farm. You went up to the booth at the Kentucky Derby, and you bet the family farm on one horse. And then somebody shoots the horse. I mean, you know, this is what happens, right?

This is the kind of garbage you get into. Or the horse didn't win. I know. Well, I mean, it could be just that simple. But, the kind of garbage you get into. Or the horse didn't win. I know. Well, I mean, it could be just that simple. But yeah, it'd be more dramatic if you did it my way. But I mean, this is what happens in these companies, right? Yeah, totally. I mean, it's just you lose your mind.

I'm now in the George Camel camp now. Ramsey does not hate horses. I've now got the horse haters after me. But I wasn't killing horses. It was a bad metaphor. Oh, my gosh. Anyway, the whole booth is in the floor laughing. My kids love Spirit, the cartoon.

It's great. We love horses here. Yes, yes. Regardless of what comes. Anyway, don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Don't bet the farm on one horse. Don't have a large portion of your net worth any more than 10% in single stocks. Tons of research projects, like hundreds of them, that will show you that individuals

buying individual stocks, thinking they know what they're doing, lose money more often than they make money, and on average, only make about a seven percent rate of return on their portfolio because they don't know what the flip they're doing they're not diversified and it's a bad idea so i only buy mutual funds for that reason and i know a lot about it i mean i can i can i know how to pick a stock uh and it wouldn't be based on the fact that i like the color of the company that was on the sign or some kind of crap that people do all the time. So, I mean, you know, none of that.

We're going to get into the actual financials on it. But all of that to say, I don't want to make a 7% rate of return because I've made over 12% by people who pick stocks for a living all day long for a billion-dollar mutual fund. They're smarter than me yeah and they're more specialized and they spend their whole life on every little nuance of that well and what's interesting today and because of apps technology and just the ability for the average person to jump in to the market well i mean stuff like robin hood is an easier it's there's an easier access point so people are doing it more and more because it's accessible i mean stuff like robin hood is an easier it's there's an easier access point

so people are doing it more and more because it's accessible i mean like you can just it's right there you just well robin hood has acted like they have democratized trading no you didn't you're just an app where people can buy stocks and do stupid butt stuff and they do it all the time that's all it is and that's how you got into the game stop thing right that's how you got into all this other what i'm saying is the average consumer back in the 80s it was a it was a much traders yeah it was a much it was a it was a whole thing we had computers and we could connect in the 80s yes barely internet though yeah and we could buy stuff and do stock trades i had a friend that was a stock trader that's what he did for a living.

He lost 78% of his money in one year. It was just dumber than a rock. You know what I mean? It's just, I've seen it over and over and over and over again. So all that to say, John, not saying you're dumb and I'm not saying what you're doing horrible. I'm just giving you some guidelines and the reasons behind them. Don't do more than 10% of your total net worth in a stock. Pick the stock for the right reasons. 15% discount is not much. Those are our comments on your question. So really, really good thing to think about.

So it even says it in the Bible. Spread your portions to seven, yes, to eight, for disaster may come upon the land. Or the horse. Or that poor horse. Disaster could come. You know, disaster could come. Sad about or the horse or the poor disaster could come you know disaster could come sad about that poor horse and so yeah but the metaphorical horse yeah don't bet the family farm at the racetrack on one race and that's essentially what you're doing right because you got all your net worth tied up in a single play and versus a mutual fund

which is 90 to 200 different stocks in there so that's the safety of it that's where yeah the spreading out of your money spread your money around that's diversification you hear financial people say i have a well diversified portfolio well that's all that means you spread your money around money is like manure it makes more when you spread it. You know, left in one pile stinks. Spread it out, grow stuff. That's how it works. So, same exact thing.

And just keep it simple. Don't try to be fancy. And you'll always make more money, people. You'll always make more money in the long haul. This is The ramsey show rachel cruz ramsey personality is my co-host today number one best-selling author kc is in new york city hi kc how are you hey dave i'm good How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm kind of a newer listener. And before I actually found you, I had filed bankruptcy.

Mm-hmm. And my current bank, they offer a, it's kind of like a loan, but it's not an actual loan to help you rebuild your credit. And what you do is you make payments every month to them, and they turn it in as you've made on-time payment. And then at the end, you actually get what you've put into it. And they were telling me that with me wanting to buy a house within the next two years, that that would be something that I should do because the bankruptcy would follow me for so long, and I was just kind of wanting to get your opinion on it.

So you filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a total bankruptcy. Yes. Wiped out all the bills. Yes, sir. What happened? So to be quite honest, I am in recovery. I was an addict pretty much my entire life. How old are you?

And I had a lot of things. I'm 38. What were you on? Heroin. How long have you been dry? Two years. Congratulations. Yeah, congrats.

Proud of you. Thank you. Okay. And what was the size of the bankruptcy how much debt did you have uh all in total it was about uh 68 000 okay all right well kc in 1988 i filed bankruptcy my wife sharon and I lost everything because I was stupid and I went too far in debt. One of the conclusions I came to coming out of that bankruptcy, and as you said, you're kind of new to our stuff, was that I want to avoid debt. I hate debt. If you look up Dave Ramsey on the Internet, about the first thing you're going to see is he hates debt.

You know, right after somebody's pissed off at me about something. But somewhere around in there, I'll have Dave hates debt, right? You follow me? Yes, sir. And the reason is that, obviously, it didn't land well for me. It didn't land well for you. And, you know, it landed us in a mess. It was not a blessing to us.

And your most powerful wealth-building tool going forward is your debt, is your income, staying out of debt. And I'll give you this. I haven't seen the statistics in a while, and I wish Dr. John Deloney was here. He could probably quote one for me, but the recidivism rate, in other words, staying sober versus not staying sober, has a lot to do with controlling your life and keeping it very clean, peaceful, and simple. Would you agree with that? Yes, sir. As opposed to hectic, out of control, chaotic, all those kinds of things. Debt is all of those things. It's hectic.

It's chaotic. You're no longer in control of your money. It has to go to someone else and all that kind of stuff. So I'm making a case here for you to consider that part of your sobriety even is connected to your continued sobriety is connected to keeping your life real clean, real simple. And that's no debt. So I'm going to try to sell you as hard as I can on you staying away from debt. Now, once we've done that, then we say, okay, why would I need to rebuild my credit? Because the credit rebuild thing is a joke. It's all about, I need credit. Why? So I can go into debt.

Why? So I can get credit. Why? So I can go into debt. Why? So I can get credit. Why? So I can go into debt.

I mean, it's a dog chasing its tail, this whole I'm going to build my credit thing. Can you get a house after filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in two years using this bank program. I doubt it. I think they lied to you or they don't know what they're talking about. I don't think you're going to get approved in 24 months from a discharge date on a chapter 7 for a traditional mortgage. I think you might 36 months or 48 months later get approved for a mortgage with absolutely no credit at all after your

Chapter 7 bankruptcy. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays on your credit bureau report for 10 years. It does not count against you for purposes of a mortgage, but three to four years. I don't think you're going to get a mortgage in two years, no matter what you do, unless you get a subprime ripoff mortgage from this bank that's teasing you with this i would stay away from those people casey okay you following all this makes sense yes sir that makes sense cool how's your family uh we are all back together now and uh doing doing fine back together with your wife or what?

My wife and my children. Wow. That's awesome. How many children have you got? Three. Okay. I want you to get a house. I don't want the house to get you,

and I don't want you to step into a trap pursuing a house too aggressively. Okay. That's what we're trying to avoid here. So renting, Casey. Renting is not bad in your case. stop pursuing a house too aggressively. Okay. That's what we're trying to avoid. So renting, Casey. Renting is not bad in your case. You're okay. Just rent for a little while. We're putting our life back together after a traumatic life experience.

And dude, let me just tell you, we work with addicts all the time because 100% of addicts have financial problems eventually. So I've worked with addicts for 30 years, and if you beat heroin, you are what's known as an unbelievably courageous, strong guy. That is a tough one. You've been dry two years. You're amazing. You hang on.

Thank you. I really appreciate that. Yeah, you play through. You're fighting the big dragon, and you can win. You're the guy that can do it. But, man, I'm telling you, you're a beast. You get it. We want to help.

We want to be part of your recovery. We're going to put you and your wife through Financial Peace University free, and you guys go learn how to handle money. Really? Absolutely. Not joking at all, man. We love people like you. Thank you.

Yeah. You go get that stuff, and we'll get you into a house the right way, man, and not let that house get you. And you stay away from banks. You can't trust them. If you can tell their line, if their mouth's moving, most of them. Yeah, and if it seems too good to be true. There's a few good bankers out there, but good gracious, the rest of you people.

Go ahead. Well, I was just saying, if it sounds too good to be true, and they're probably feeding on exactly what they know that you want, which is a house, so they're going to create a formula, do something in order to convince you to stay with them. You know, it was 1988. Yeah, I would say, Casey, Dave said it earlier, but truly, I'm like, just you guys rebuilding your family after this and slowing down, renting, not making like massive big decisions, right?

Getting a steady income, you guys budgeting together, start saving. You know, there's just a beauty in rebuilding this and it's going to take time and it's going to be a slower process. But that's actually, I think, the wisest way to do it. And so that includes something like a purchase of a house. Yeah. Filed bankruptcy in 1988. A banker told me, go sign up for every financial magazine. Subscribe to Money Magazine, Forbes, anything like that.

And I did. And within five months, I was getting pre-approved credit cards. We had decided not to borrow money money so we just chopped them up but i mean that's how dumb the system is and how dumb a banker is okay you just filed chapter seven bankruptcy on millions of dollars with real estate because you're an idiot so the first thing you do is go sign up for a whole bunch of financial magazines so you can get pre-approved credit cards to really prove you're an idiot this this was me, okay? I mean, this is like, how dumb can you be? But there's always somebody who wants to build your credit.

Just shoot me. Oh, my God, to build my credit. Yeah, why? So I can get into debt. Why? So I can build my credit. Why? So I can get into debt.

And then we worship at the altar of the great FICO. Great FICO, you bring us offerings. We bring you offerings so you can be our provider. You bring us good things, great FICO. We get good things because we have big FICO. Everyone wants big FICO. How dumb are we? Man, you people have lost your minds out there.

And I was the, I used to be captain of you. Now I'm not. This is the Ramsey show. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to ramseysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter.

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