The Ramsey Show - App - How Hoopties Help You Win with Money (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 24, 2019

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show. Where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life, your money. It's a free call, 888-825-5225. Christina starts off this hour in Atlanta. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Christina. Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? Well, first of all, I wanted to thank you. As a kid, my mom used to make us sit and listen to your show on the way home from school. And as an adult, I have come back and we are on step two, baby step two. We've already paid off $7,000 of debt. Good for you. And we still have probably about $30,000 left. Um, but last night I was able to get my husband on board. Um, the issue is, is that, um, my husband's brother,

my brother-in-law, uh, he just brought his wife over from a different country. They just got married December 1st, and he has spent every penny of his savings on her, mainly before he even brought her over. He had $34,000 saved up, and in two years he paid for her apartment, her master's degree, her medical bills, a phone and a laptop for her, and all the lawyers and legal bills. And basically, he has like $2,000 left in his savings. He's also making $35,000 a year, and that is their only income. He's living in his mom's house, and now she is very upset because she thought that she was going to be taken care of by him um and so they're both coming from different sides asking for advice from me

and my first thought was oh boy what would a good old uncle dave say so what what he's supposed to take care of his mother he's supposed to take care of his wife he brought his wife over from a different country yeah so what i don't understand he lives in his mother's house, and so the disagreement is what? She wants to be, she wants him to be more independent. She wants to have a place of their own, but he doesn't have the money for it. The new wife? And so, yes. Okay, well they make $35,000 a year, right? Yes.

And when's she going to work? We're really not sure. She, in her home country, she was a psychologist. She had the certification, and she now has to get recertified in the United States in order to continue that. She could work at something else while that's happening, though. Yeah. And she's she's being very stubborn. Like right now, they're not even living together.

And he's giving her all these different options on, you know, we're married. I'm sorry. Why are they not living together? No. They just got married. I'm sorry, why are they not living together? No. They just got married? Yes. Wow. So he's been taken to the cleaners with a mail-order bride.

What's happened? Pretty much. Yeah. But her family is actually here. She does have family members that live right next door to my parents-in-law, which is how they met. But, and the family is very much on our family side. Okay, so your question is what? I mean, this guy has marriage trouble, and it sounds like he's been scammed.

So how are you going to help him? I don't think you can help him. He's trying to figure out how he can make her happy. He can't make her happy. He can't make her happy. We've already figured out what makes her happy. Give's trying to figure out he can't make her happy we've already figured out what makes her happy give her everything she wants and then some and that's called princess syndrome so no you you can't you can't make a princess happy princesses have to

grow up and become women so what would i have to tell her just put on her big girl you don't get to tell her anything she isn't asking you she was actually she she sent me a message the other yeah and and that's the other thing is that she's she doesn't speak any english so we have to speak through google translate for everything and she's she's having a hard time uh coping with that fact as well so now this is not yeah there's nothing in this whole story that's going well um i i don't know uh i mean i if she wants my opinion then she's gonna live with her husband and she's gonna get a job um and uh we're gonna put on our big girl pants and quit asking for so much crap because we live with broke people now.

Okay. Thank you. That's the answer, isn't it? I mean, don't you think? Yeah, and I kind of told her that. I tried to. I don't think she's going to hear it. No.

She's very reluctant to. She didn't really want your opinion. Okay. I mean, you know, if you listen to this show, I get people on here all the time that call me, and they don't really want my opinion. They want my endorsement of their stupidity. You know? And that's what this chick's looking for.

She wants you to go take her side, and her passive-aggressive way is to ask your opinion. But, no, if you wanted my opinion, you shouldn't. If you didn't want my opinion, you shouldn't have asked, because I'm an expert on my opinion. You know? So wanted my opinion you shouldn't and if you didn't want my opinion you shouldn't ask because i'm an expert on my opinion you know so um that's that's what you do that i don't i mean if i were you i'd be very kind but very firm and just say if you ask me what i think and if i were in your shoes here's what i would do i think it's important that a husband and wife live in the same home and i think it's very important that you guys get a little cheap apartment and get out from under all the in-laws and all this other stuff and i think you need to get a job and i think the need to you need to get on a budget

but if you're not really asking my opinion then i'm you obviously won't do any of that so it's up to you though kiddo i mean that's that's what i would say to her um you just one of the things you figure out as you get older is you really can't make people do anything. They just have to decide to do stuff. And a lot of times you want them to win more than they want to win in different areas of their life. I've had friends that were addicts, and they wanted cocaine more than they wanted a good life. And you can't make them want the good life and drop the cocaine. You can't make people do that.

But they can just decide. We humans are given the dignity by God to just decide to change. Ready, set, go. You can just decide. Isn't that amazing? Have you ever met somebody who just quit smoking? They just decided. No patch, no nothing.

They just quit. A friend of mine just quit drinking. Just quit after years of being a drunk. He just quit. Just like that. Sometimes they have an experience with God that helps them do that, gives them the power to do that. But you can just decide, I'm going to quit.

And what usually precipitates that in all of our lives, folks, is that we come to this aha moment where we go, what I'm doing is not working. I'm going to have to change this. And you have that aha moment, and then you're ready to go. But you have the dignity to decide to change today and everyone's got that dignity but we don't get to tell other people how to do it or when to do it i can't make you behave even if i love you this is the dave ramsey show Are high health care costs getting you down?

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Open phones at 888-825-5225. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means, it's an unusual guarantee, actually. It's kind of a screw-up guarantee. If you screw up, if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color. And I'm perfectly capable of doing both. They will remake your window blinds for free.

You get free samples with blinds.com, free shipping and the new promos that they run every month. Yep. Check them all out. Always use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Bonnie is in Texas. Dave, I've read your book, The Total Money Makeover. I have Baby Step 1, Emergency Fund Starter of $1,000. With Baby Step 2, I don't know how to begin looking up my score and finding my debtors because I've ignored this problem for so long.

Instead of pulling a serious no-no and going through a credit repair company, please guide me on how to tackle this next step. You have no idea what debt you owe. Wow, that has been a long time. Sounds like drugs were involved. How do you not have any idea? You don't have a piece of paper, you don't have a file, you don't have anything? Okay, let's just pretend that that's the case because i'm obviously answering an email here so um

the only possible thing i could think of is if you're starting with like amnesia you have zero information then um you would just pull a copy of your credit bureau report, and there should be a pretty good list of people hunting you on there. And you can just use that as your starting point. The rest of them will just come around and find you eventually, or maybe you'll remember them. But I would just pull a copy of your credit bureau report and then begin to contact those folks, and maybe they'll start to come back to you what you actually owe

or what you originally borrowed. That is not a very good place to be because you're at a distinct disadvantage. They could just say you owe $10,000 and all you remembered was $1,000. But you didn't even remember that. So you're very vulnerable in this case to being hit with a lot of extra bad fees that you don't need to be hit with, and people marking stuff up for collections and ridiculous interests or whatever. I don't know. So anyway, your only shot, though, the only place I know where there would be any central casting for your debts

would be to jump on the credit bureau report and get a copy of that and start to work that backwards. Aspen is on Facebook. We have a Facebook group called The Ramsey Baby Steps Community. Over 100,000 folks hanging out with us. Be sure you check it out. Dave, I'm just now beginning my baby steps at 19 years old. I'm really nervous, but I think I can do it.

Do you have any advice on getting a cheap car or ways to save money on a car? Absolutely. Absolutely. You are looking for what's called a garage sale car. A garage sale car is a car that is ugly. It's ugly but it has great mechanical condition it was driven 25 years ago by a little old lady back and forth the church she's died and her family is having a garage sale and the car is old uh the seats are split because they've been sitting in the garage. The paint is faded.

And it's a bad station wagon from a bad movie of yesteryear. But it's in perfect condition mechanically because it's just been sitting there in her garage. It's got 20,000 miles on it. It's 15, 20 years old. And you can buy that car for 500 bucks. Because it's not got any value on the market but it's got a lot of life left in her and you have to give her a name because a car like that deserves a name this is old blue big red the hoopty wagon i don't know you give her a name

but you got it if you you have to give cars like that a name i had a friend working here a while back we've told this story a hundred times this is a few years back but it actually happened and um i i had dropped my car at the shop and he decided i said hey take me to the shop and drop me off and get my car and he pulls up and he goes i hope you don't mind riding in big red and i'm like no tell me about big red so big red was a 1994 Granada land yacht. Right? I mean, this thing was unbelievable.

And it was originally red, but it had faded to pink. And it originally had one of those vinyl tops on it, vinyl roof on it, and it had peeled. So Big Red had whiskers kind of on the top. But Big Red was my buddy that works here's great aunt's car, and it had 14,000 actual miles on it. And it looked like crap. But 14,000 actual miles, and he bought it from the estate for 500 bucks. And he drove Big Red for about two years.

Big Red was a great car, great car to get started in. Now, I don't know how broke you are or how far down the rabbit hole you've got to go on picking out your car. Maybe it doesn't have to be quite as bad as Big Red, but you are not looking for a sex symbol in a car. You are looking for mechanical reliability, and that's how you start with a good hoopty. That's a $1,000 car, a $500 car, and it's got a lot of life left in her. You give her a name, and you drive her a little while, and you pile up cash, and then you move up to a $5,000 car

that you pay cash for. Instead of taking on $500 a month car payments, put $500 a month away for 10 months. Voila, you'll have $5,000. It's magical how that happens. Ten whole months that you'll drive your version of Big Red or the Blue Goose or the whatever. Whatever it is you want to name this puppy. But be sure you take pictures of it, because you've got to tell this story to your grandkids later.

You've got to tell them this is what we did back in the day. We walked uphill both ways in the snow to school. You know? I mean, it's without shoes. And I mean, you know, all the grandpa stories. You've got to have good grandpa stories later, and you've got to have good pictures of Big Red. I got pictures of our version of Big Red that uh that the ramses drove oh bad stuff bad stuff the one i didn't get a picture of is when i

tell the story about the guy loaned me and i drove it for three months when we went broke it's a 1978 cadillac with 423 000 actual miles on it. And it was a piece of garbage. And I drove that car for 10 years in one three-month period. It felt like forever. It was so embarrassing. Predominant color on it was Bondo. But that's how we started, back after we went broke because we weren't borrowing money anymore.

And we just saved a car payment. Saved a car payment. And we went and bought a $1,000 car, a $1,000 car, which was a sizable upgrade from my friend's loaner. And I took my friend's precious little loaner back to him. But it was a blessing. I'm not complaining. It was a blessing at the time because it beat walking,

and I wasn't borrowing money. And I saved a car payment. I saved $1,000 really, really fast and got out of that thing, that Bondo buggy. But, hey, that's what you do, man. You just think different. But, you know, the problem with most people is they buy cars to impress other people. I've got some really nice cars now, and none of them are for you. They're for me.

My need to impress you is zero. I buy a really nice vehicle because I'm a car nut. I love cars and I can afford it now because I used to drive the Bondo buggy and that put me in a position that I can afford it. And that's what you do. You drive like no one else so that later you can drive like no one else. A brand new car does not need to be purchased by any of you until you have at least a $1 million net worth. You cannot afford to take the hit. They lose 70% of their value in the first four years. Turns a $30,000 car into a $10,000 car in four years. And every time you turn $30,000 into $10,000, you better have some extra coin laying around.

Because you're destroying your net worth. And when your whole net worth is things are going down in value that's known as stupid i've been stupid so i know what stupid looks like i used to i mean i got a phd in dumb so stay out of new cars stay out of car payments buy something used buy a garage sale car if you're starting fresh or you're starting over. Get you something and give it a name. Get you a good hoopty. That's how this works. Then you're going to win.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I had a conversation with a friend recently, and he told me about a young man in his late 20s who died suddenly with no life insurance. Now, I don't want to sound unsympathetic, but this drives me crazy. What are people thinking? I don't understand how taking care of your family isn't a top priority. Most of you probably just spent a bundle on Christmas on things you didn't really need, and now you're making New Year's resolutions that are focused on yourself. But if you take in the time to do something really important like protect your family, if you want to use the New Year as a

reason for doing something right, then do it. Term life insurance is something every family needs, and that's why I talk about it every day. It's not complicated, it's not expensive, and you need to do this right now. Zander Insurance is the only place I recommend. Visit Zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282. Please learn from other people's mistakes and get this taken care of. Zander.com. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Carl joins us.

Hey, Carl, how are you? Hi, Dave. I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where do you live? Sioux City, Iowa.

Whoa, bit of a haul to Nashville. A little bit. It would have been a 13-hour drive, but Iowa and the Midwest, we decided to fly here. That's a good idea. I think so. I like it. Well, welcome. So, here to been a 13-hour drive, but Iowa and the Midwest, we decided to fly here. That's a good idea. I think so. I like it. Well, welcome. So, here to do a debt-free scream. I've been looking forward to it.

We're glad you're here. How much have you paid off? Right around $125,000. Very good. And how long did that take you? That took me just over three and a half years. Good, good. And your range of income during that time? It was pretty steady, actually, about $60,000 the whole time. Okay. What do you do? I'm working retail sales and retail management. Good for you. Okay. What kind of debt was this $125,000? I owed about $15,000 on some credit cards. I never met a credit card I didn't like. I owed about $10,000 on my Jeep, about $10,000

on my camper that rarely got used, but I had to have it. And the rest of it was my house. You paid off your house? I did. Wow. Way to go, man. Thank you. Very cool.

What's your house worth? Right around $125. And how old are you? 38. And you have a paid-for house. I have a paid-for house. I'm looking at weird people. I love it, man.

Well done. Thank you. Well done, sir. Excellent. Very cool. Man, you said you're 38. 38, yes. 38 years old.

That is awesome, man. Thanks. So tell me, what got you started on this three and a half years ago? I wish I would have started this when I was in my 20s. Dave, if I can do this, anybody can. I'm the most stubborn man out there. I'm setting my ways. My whole family and friends will tell you that.

So if I can do it, anybody can. I'm the most stubborn man out there. I'm setting my ways. My whole family and friends will tell you that. So if I can do it, anybody can. Carl, five years ago, would never have seen this happening. There's no way that you could have told me from five years ago that I would be here in Nashville, Tennessee doing a debt-free scream. It actually started back when we were kids. I remember we were sitting around the family table and our dad was doing his bills like he did every month. And I think my brothers were there, and he said to us kids, he said, boys, you're nothing if, I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was something like, you're nothing if you don't pay your debts on time, you pay your bills on time, something along that regard.

It's your man of your word type of thing. And as I got older and into adulthood, I think I heard, as I saw the credit card commercials and everything on TV, I started worshiping at the altar of the FICO score. And I did everything I could to pay my bills on time, pay my debts, be a man of my word. But as that happened, my credit score went up, up, and up. And I had an 820 credit score before I knew it. And I was happy to share the fact that I had an 820 credit score.

I was getting a new car every two years. If it was two years and I didn't get a new car, something was wrong. I bragged about my credit score to all my friends and family. But what was interesting, Dave, is I was going along through this. Every year I'd go get my tax refund done, and they'd show me the statement, here's how much money you made this year. And I'm thinking to myself, where did all that money go? I make good money.

What happened to it? Where did it go? But I guess you should say I was normal. So about three and a half, about four years ago, a guy from another store transferred into our store, a good friend of mine. He actually stood here a couple years before that. And we became good friends. He didn't really talk much about financial stuff.

But I thought it was weird because he made the same money I did. He drove an older, paid-for car. He never had any credit cards. He didn't do debt. And I was so on the opposite end of that spectrum. I was thinking he was weird. And it was weird. But I'm like, why doesn't he have credit cards?

Why doesn't he want them? What's wrong with this guy? So I'd come in bragging about, look at this new credit card I have. It had a $4,000 limit. This has a $10,000 limit. This has a $20,000 limit. Let's go have a party on them. That's what I used to do. And he just wasn't biting on it. So what happened was he finally said to me something along the lines of, don't you ever get tired of making all this money and have nothing to show for it? Don't you know where your money's going? And it kind of resonated to what I said with the tax return every year, not where my money's going. And I think that's when I had that I had a moment. I'm like, where is all my money going? I work hard. I don't know where it's going. So he got me in touch with Financial Peace University and got me started

with that. And I can tell you exactly when it happened because I wanted to, for the camper that I never used, I had this grand scheme idea. I was going to buy a blow-up inflatable hot tub for this thing. I was going to use their electricity, their water. And of course, I was going to pay for it on a credit card for a camper that I never used. And that was going to be my thing to buy. But I said, nope, I'm not going to do it. I don't have the cash for it.

I probably would have popped it the first time I used it. But I didn't get that. I got connected with Financial Peace University. I started working at Baby Steps with FPU. And nine months later, I got done with Baby Step 2, which was awesome. So I just started attacking my mortgage. Last year, I led my first FPU class. And right now, we are in our second FPU class.

And Sunday, we meet for week three. Woo-hoo! Wow, now you're a coordinator. I'm a coordinator. Very cool. Very cool. Well, congratulations Carl. Thank you. Alright, so after all that, what do you tell people? You're the coordinator. What do you tell them the key

to getting out of debt is? The keys to getting out of debt, there's three of them. One, you have to be content. If you're not content, you want to keep up with the Joneses and you're always living off everybody's Facebook reel, you're never going to get anywhere. You have to be content, you have to realize you have a good life and you want to keep up with the Joneses, and you're always living off everybody's Facebook reel, you're never going to get anywhere. You have to be content. You have to realize you have a good life, and you have to be satisfied with what you have.

The second is budgeting, and I personally love the envelope system. I'll do the envelope system to the day I die. I love it, which is a total 180 from the old Carl because I was always, here's my credit card, here's my credit card, or my debit card. I never carried cash. Now I love cash. But the third thing, the big secret, is you have to make it personal. Money is personal. So what really got me fired up with the mortgage is I was trying to eat that elephant that took the most of the time was I work in retail. So my checks can somewhat fluctuate from time to time.

I thought in my head when the, I thought interest was just calculated daily on the mortgage. Apparently it's not. So I thought every time I got a paycheck, I would just send the bank the extra money and have that go as my extra principal only payment. And then I found out that they only apply principal payments once a month. The interest is calculated. That kind of upset me a little, lit a fire in me. And it's probably a good thing because I made it personal. So every month on that very same day, I took Benjamin Franklin's down to that bank and I laid it on the desk and said, here's my extra principal only payment for this month. Every month I did this. Benjamin Franklin's after Benjamin Franklin's every single month. I made it personal. I could have mailed it in, but the accountability of doing it every

single month and taking that money in there and throwing it on the desk in that bank, those girls knew I was for real every time I did it. And that's what really helped me with that. And you just have to think different. Think about how wealthy people think. The credit card companies aren't spending all this money on credit card ads to benefit you. I used to think they were. The H&R Block stuff, the tax refunds and big refunds, those aren't your benefit. If you're leasing a car every two years, you're not going to get wealthy that way. So those are the secrets, I think.

Very cool. Good for you. Congratulations. Thank you. So who was your biggest cheerleader? Cheerleaders, I had a couple. My buddy that got me connected to this was a big cheerleader. The guy that's helping me with Financial Peace University right now, him and his wife, they're great.

My family's been really good. My parents have been very supportive of this. And my brothers, they're really good with money. They don't follow your plan verbatim, but they're really good with money. They're big about anti-debt and everything. So they're really proud to see me at this point in my life, too. Way to go, Carl. Thank you.

We're proud of you, too. Good job, man. Good job. All right. House and everything is paid off. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaire's book for you because that is the next chapter in your story to be an everyday millionaire, and you are on your way. $125,000 paid off. House and everything. Three and a half years, making 60 grand. Carl from Sioux City, Iowa. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Glory be to God. I don't know anybody, anything. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Hold that note. Love it.

Good stuff. Good stuff. That's how it's done right there. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Very, very well done, sir. Very well done. So Perry on Instagram says, Dave, I have some money in a traditional IRA, but it's a CD type accounting, type account making a half a percent. Should I cash it out and lose $800 in penalties and taxes to put toward my $7,700 baby step two?

You should not be losing $800 in penalties and taxes. You would have already paid your taxes on a CD. Every year you pay taxes on the interest. So there's not any tax. Oh, it's a traditional IRA. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. We don't cash out IRAs. Now I see what you're doing.

Okay. I was just looking at a CD account. No, you haven't paid any taxes and you would have penalties. Yes, you would. No, we do not cash out retirement accounts except to avoid bankruptcy and foreclosure. No. You roll that to an IRA and a good mutual fund. So get with a SmartVestor Pro in your area.

Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com. We'll drop down a list of people you can choose from, and they'll help you to do a direct transfer rollover, Perry. And that is what you need to do. You need to roll it over into a good mutual fund. Half a percent will not get you there with an IRA. That's a bad idea. You got your IRA poorly invested. That's what this amounts to. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. hogan's in the house well not really but he's on the phone chris hogan on book tour for everyday millionaires uh last two days of the book tour wrapping up today in Sacramento and tomorrow is Seattle. So, Chris, how are you holding up? Hello, Dave. I'm feeling fantastic. I'm still energized and having an absolute blast meeting people at these book signings. It's been amazing. So what is your

biggest takeaway? Have you gotten philosophical yet or are you just trying to hold on and get through? No, no. I mean, my biggest takeaway is that people are hearing me when I told them the American Dream is still alive. This message is resonating with people, and I'm seeing it in their eyes as they light up. And they're excited. They're talking about being plugged into Financial Peace University, our nine-week course that helps them get there. They're telling me about the debt snowball. They're telling me about their investing. People are engaged in hearing this message.

And the book signings, I mean, you're having two, three, 500 people show up at these things. Oh, yeah, Dave. I mean, it has been unbelievable to see about the Los Angeles signing. We had at least 300 there. The winner was Arturo Cervantes. He was from Inglewood, and he and his wife are newly married, only five months in, and they're going to use the $1,000 toward their death snowball.

All right. And then from there, yeah, oh, it's amazing. And then we go to San Jose, and we had 250 people at that signing. I met several of the everyday millionaires, including a man that came to America, couldn't speak English days, and now he is a millionaire. It's just an example of the kind of work ethic that American Dream is still alive. But Terry Karp was the winner in San Jose, and she was from San Francisco. She was debt-free, but she plans to donate part of the winnings to her church. So just amazing stories.

Very cool. Good stories. Good stuff. So each of the book signings, the Everyday Millionaire book signings, SmartVestor has sponsored that, a local SmartVestor pro, and they are giving away $1,000. You must be present to win. No purchase necessary.

Got to be 18, all those rules. Two more of those to go to stop in if you want to meet Chris in person and see him. The next one is in Sacramento tonight. Now, where are you tonight in Sacramento? Sacramento, Dave. I'm going to be at the Barnes & Noble on an Arden Fair. So I'll be there tonight. That's on 1725 Arden Way at 6 o'clock tonight

and then tomorrow is Seattle right? yep tomorrow wraps it up I'll be in Seattle we'll be at the Barnes & Noble Northgate there on Northgate Way at 6 o'clock as well so I'm looking forward to it Dave I'm ready to go two more weeks if we need to

I think you're done man you guys have been going hard I'm ready to go two more weeks if we need to. I think you're done, man. You guys have been going hard. You guys have been going hard. I don't know about you, but your team is tired. I saw them in California. They've been going 16 hours a day, man. This is amazing.

Well, congratulations. We're proud of all your hard work and sharing this message of hope out there that millionaires are not. In America today, 79% of the millionaires that know millionaires are not um in america today 79 of the millionaires that are millionaires did not become so because they inherited money because they inherited zero so this is this mythology that is out there uh floating around is being destroyed by the by this book by this study and by america's millionaire. I think that's what I'm going to start calling you. Oh, I like that, Dave.

That's not a bad title. You've had worse, probably. So, The Voice, Mr. Chris Hogan there, and good stuff. So, one more time, tonight in Sacramento, the Barnes & Noble at 6 o'clock, $1,000 cash giveaway, the Barnes & Noble at 6 o'clock, $1,000 cash giveaway. The Barnes & Noble at Arden Fair tomorrow night, Seattle, Friday night, January the 25th. Barnes & Noble at 6 o'clock on Northgate Way there. And again, $1,000 will be given away.

And no, you don't have to buy a book, but come out, bring your book. If you've got one of the retire-inspired books, bring it. If you've got whatever, but come and purchase an everyday millionaire's book, number one best-selling book, Chris's second number one, How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too. So, Chris, keep after it, man. We're proud of you. Well, thank you, sir. I will keep it up.

All right, good stuff. This book is on fire. It has done very, very well, to say the least. I will keep it up. All right. Good stuff. This book is on fire. It has done very, very well, to say the least. Very proud of him. Very proud of our team and all the work that's gone into this thing. It's absolutely amazing stuff. Everyday Millionaires. By the way, Tom Stanley's daughter, Sarah, he did the book Millionaire Next Door.

And she has a follow-up book called The Next Millionaire Next Door. Brand new book came out back in the fall, came out in October. I believe it was. We had her on the air and interviewed her about it. She's also helping people in this millionaire space, continuing her father's legacy. They're highly recommend that book. And, you know, the millionaire next door, it's hard to believe, but that was 25 years ago that Tom did that book and um you know the millionaire next door it's hard to believe but that was 25 years ago that tom did that book uh seemed like 20 minutes ago in my mind but uh that book's it's

been a it's been a stalwart for years and um you know sarah continues she's a researcher like her dad and uh she's continued to stick with it and and the research is good stuff and uh it's good material so be sure you check out the next millionaire next door. And be sure to check out Everyday Millionaires. Listen, a guy asked me in the Q&A when we do a backstage VIP ticket. And we do question and answer with the backstage VIPs at the smart money events. And he asked me, he said, we're getting ready to get married. What do you recommend?

And I said, I recommend that you become a student of things in your life that matter. If you're going to have children and raise children, you need to read books by Meg Meeker on parenting. If you're going to be married, you need to read books by our friend Les Parrott, you know, on marriage. And anybody else you can get your hands on on those subjects. So, I mean, if you're married for 20 years and you haven't read at least 20 marriage books, that's a problem. You know, if you have a two-year-old, you should read at least, have read at least two books on parenting. You know, you ought to at least average one book a year on a subject that matters deeply to you. If you want to be a millionaire, read some millionaire books.

Read the original Millionaire Next Door. Read the new one, the next Millionaire Next Door. Read Chris Hogan's number one bestseller, Everyday Millionaires. Compare the data. Compare the conclusions of the data. Compare what's going on, the different styles and writing styles and so forth. But become an expert on stuff. And you can do that by reading books.

You can take a class. You can do whatever. But kids and spouses don't come with manuals, and money doesn't come with a manual. And so you have to get the manual and the total money makeover and the legacy journey and everyday millionaires and love your life not theirs. And you start when you graduate with a graduate survival guide, right? I mean, you know, we've got the books here on the money piece, and other people do too, and we recommend lots of other people.

And, um, you know, we're proud of, uh, the work that Sarah's doing to continue her dad's legacy there. And, uh,

it's incredible stuff. And the conclusions of that are, are, you know, that they're finding the same things that we found. Uh, and so it's no shock. It's not like it's new,

uh, conclusions, but it is new data. It's fresh like it's new conclusions, but it is new data. It's fresh data. And so, um, you know, be looking at it. It's very interesting to think about. So, you know, just think about that stuff and be, you know, what is it I want to be really good at? Read books on that.

You want to get in great physical condition? Read books on getting in great physical condition. You want to, you know, be a race car driver? Good. Read books on how to be a race car driver. You know, get the manual, man. I mean, read. Study.

Study. Instead, we become experts on a Netflix series, which benefits you how? I'm not against it. I've watched two or three series on Netflix with my wife in the last two or three months. She gets all up there about one of these things, and we watch them all the way through. It's nothing wrong with that, but, I mean, if that's the only thing you're putting into your brain is watching other people be successful, well, something's screwed up, people. That's a bad idea. You know? You're entertaining yourself into oblivion.

So, grow your brain. The Bible says don't be conformed to this world. Don't be normal. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Your mind is very powerful. And some people completely waste theirs. Different form of wasted, but it's still the same thing. As a same result.

That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer, and a phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back with you before you know it. Hey, guys, it's Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for the Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rantsz, Deathly Screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Rantz Show YouTube channel

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