The Ramsey Show - App - How Should I Use My $10,000 Christmas Bonus? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today here on the air. Ken is host of The Ken Coleman Show, best-selling author of the book The Proximity Principle. In both and everything he does on KenColeman.com, they talk about, he talks about your career,

your job choice, getting a job, and getting in and out of toxic environments and deciding, hey, what are you going to do for your life? What are you going to do to earn money? And so if you're making career choices or money choices today, you've got questions about that, that's what we're here for. Phone number is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Craig is with us in Fargo, North Dakota. Hi, Craig. How are you? Awesome. Thanks in Fargo, North Dakota. Hi, Craig. How are you? Awesome.

Thanks for taking my call, Dave. Sure, man. What's up? Just looking for a little guidance here. I am in debt, like a lot of people. I haven't been a long-time listener. I try and practice your, what you preach here. And I, you know, I'm about a hundred thousand dollars in debts and I,

you know, I make close to a hundred thousand a year, but you know, not all that is guaranteed. I mean, some of the other side hustles and commissions and all that single dad and just trying to I mean, some of the other side hustles and commissions and all that. Single dad and just trying to, I mean, I've tried the baby steps, and it's just, you know, just to need to learn how to get some advice to get that gazelle intensity you always talk about. I mean, it's challenging Craig what's keeping you? You've been listening for a while

and we talked about this last segment. What's keeping you from that gazelle intensity? I don't know I guess I paid off about, you know, $12,000 in the last three months. That's pretty good. So I feel like I'm on the right track, but it's just, I want to be better for my kids, right? And show them how to learn from the mistakes that I've made in life

so they don't ever have to go through that. And these credit cards, I mean, fortunately, I'm getting down there on those. I think within a year, I hopefully have those taken care of. But I don't know. It's just hard. $12,000 in three months is $48,000 a year. That means you're 100% debt-free in two years if you stay on that exact track. Okay.

Have you figured that part out? I have. I have. Okay. You know, I've had a lot of... So then the only question is, once you figure that out, you say, okay, I'm going to be debt-free in two years. Then the next question in my mind, if I'm you you is what can i do to get out of debt faster and that means there's only two sides of the equation outgoing income what can i do to get

my income up well you're single dad and you're already doing some side hustles maybe not a lot i don't know maybe your side hustle sucks maybe you need a new one i don't know something to think about and then the the more fired up you get the deeper you sacrifice and the deeper you sacrifice the faster you get out of debt and the only reason you would get that fired up and sacrifice even deeper is because you believe it's going to work and you've really got three good months of track record here. Does that not feel pretty good? It feels great, Dave. Money was the reason why I got divorced, so that's kind of the hard subject of this. Unfortunately, I still get along with my ex-wife,

and that's actually made our relationship better you know i was always putting money first and it was always well that's all behind you now you don't have to talk to talk to her about this all you've got to do is say a hundred thousand dollars and forty eight thousand dollars a year which is four thousand dollars a month and i'm gonna kick this thing's butt that's all you got to do yeah you've got this heaviness over you it's it's weird you've got to do. Yeah. You've got this heaviness over you. It's weird. You've done pretty darn good. I mean, $12,000 in three months.

I mean, that's getting close to gazelle if you think you can do more. Did you really do that? Yes. You really did that? I mean, yeah. I mean, I had some other side hustles coming in, right? I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about if you really paid off $4,000 a month three months in a row,

then there ought to be some excitement about that. And if there's not, and there's not, because in talking to you, you just sounded like you weren't dialed in. When you gave us those numbers, it changed the conversation. He doesn't believe he can do this. I think the number is so big. I think he's ashamed to do it because it beat up the last marriage there you go so i don't care about your last marriage it's over

it's in the rearview mirror i'm sorry sorry you guys went through that and i'm glad you're friends now whoopty doopty kick this kick this dadgum death's butt man that's right roll it you said i want to do this for my kids double up your fist and punch this bully in the mouth it's threatening your freaking family. It's time to get fired up and get after it like it matters. And get that thing. I want to hear it. Next time I talk to you, man, I want to hear a warrior in your voice. I want to hear you mad at the bully.

This thing's been, it kicked your marriage's butt. It's kicking your butt. Your tongue's dragging, your tail's dragging, everything else. So you need to pop this thing in the head, man. You need to bloody its nose. And you need to get fired up, man. You're going to knock somebody down. That kind of thing is what we're looking for here.

Because in your voice, your numbers are much more successful than your voice tone and word choice. Which both said, my tail's dragging, I don't know if I can do this, and it's kind of hard. That's what he sounded like, Craig. Exactly. And, you know, instead, your numbers are like, ah, Rocky. You know, your numbers were great. Your numbers were Rudy, man. Which, by the way, Craig, when Dave asked you how you feel about it,

that was the first time in the call where your tone changed and your pulse kind of increased. And I'll tell you what I'm going to prescribe for you. I think you need to, to the extent that your kids understand it, if they're a little bit older, I'd tell them what you've done and how hard you're working and let them get in on it and let them see the commitment you're making. And then I think you need some great peers around you. People that are going to get excited for you.

Here, jump in Ramsey Plus. I'll give you a one-year subscription to it jump in there and go through the financial piece of videos but more most importantly get on the ask a coach and most importantly get in some of the communities the virtual communities and start sharing and get some people around you that are jazzing you man that's right you need a little bit of a cattle prod that that coach that just yells at you and says, get it! Yeah. You know. Yeah, he needs to feel the affirmation of the sacrifice.

And right now it feels like he's so lonely. Those numbers should be an attaboy to you, and they don't seem to be. Big time. Party time. They don't seem to be. You ought to be going touchdown, man. I just scored three freaking touchdowns in a row. 4,000, 4,000, 4,000.

Man, that's $12,000 in three months. That's pretty stinking good. Yes. You know, making $100,000, $4,000, $4,000. Man, that's $12,000 in three months. That's pretty stinking good. Yes. You know, making $100,000. That's, I mean, he really is living on a beans and rice budget to do that. It's pretty close to gazelle to me. He needs to realize it. I just want to hear it in your voice, and I want to hear it in your belief,

and hear that hope take root. So, yeah, hold on. Kelly will pick up. We'll get you signed up for Ramsey Plus. And we're going to walk with you, brother. You can do this, man. You can do it. Yes.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. The very last thing Christmas should give you is stress. So our famous $10 sale is going digital. For a limited time only, you can instantly get our most popular audio books and e-books, all for just $10 or less. Get my number one best-selling audio book, The Total Money Makeover, read by me. If you're serious about getting your money in order for 2021, The Total Money Makeover is a must-have. Plus, it makes the perfect gift. Or learn what it takes to build wealth with our Everyday Millionaires e-book.

And as a bonus, for the first time, we're adding Debt-Free Degree and our latest audio book, Redefining Anxiety, by Dr. John Deloney, to our new digital $10 sale. It's not too late to invest in yourself or a friend this year. Skip the lines and shipping delays and shop our new digital $10 sale at our online store at DaveRamsey.com today. Or call the Ramsey Concierge Team at 888-22-PEACE. I can tell you what's better than receiving, it's giving. And that's why we're giving away cash.

That's right, the Ramsey Cash Christmas Giveaway. You can enter daily to increase your chances to win. And we're giving away $500 a week with a grand prize of $5, dollars between now and christmas so go to davramsey.com slash giveaway and you can save up to 80 plus percent on life-changing gifts for your family for your friends you can give them something that'll change their life we have the week-long cyber monday sale and that means you can shop our best-selling audiobooks and ebooks starting at only $8 and get audio books for stuff like the Total Money Makeover or Ken Coleman's bestseller, The Proximity Principle, for just $8. The books are on sale for $10. And so that's a great way to get stuff. And if you jump on there now, we've still got time to get it to you shipping.

Shipping's working again. So we can get it to you. You can have it under the tree. And of course, we're also giving away a free call with a financial coach with every order this week. That's our Cyber Monday special, among others. So enter to win some free cash. Get some bargains at DaveRamsey.com. If you want to head straight to the giveaway page, it's DaveRamsey.com slash giveaway. Joel is with us in Topeka, Kansas. Hi, Joel.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. How's it going? Great, man. What's up? Hey, guys. I have a question for you. So I work a sales job right now.

I'm going to school full-time, and my wife is going to school full-time right now. Okay. Your phone is cutting in and out, dude. You're going to have to get where we can hear you because we're just getting part of your line up here. Try it again. You said you're going to school full-time and your wife's going to school full-time and say that again. Yes, sir. So I'm going to school full-time, my wife is going to school full-time, and I work full-time. Currently, we bring in $50,000 and the next year, the situation is kind of going to be changing i'm going to leave

my job and start going to school full-time in person and so we'll be losing a lot of our income by then my wife will have graduated and she'll be making about fifteen thousand dollars out the gate um and currently we have forty four thousand dollars in. So why are you leaving your job when you're this broke? Well, I'm going to school full-time. You said you already were. Yeah, so I'll be going in person. Okay, why are you going to school full-time? What's the goal?

Because I'm passionate about finance, and I want to work in investment banking in New York City. Okay. But you're broke. We have $44,000 in assets and $28,000 in debt. Okay. So did you say your wife is going to make $15,000 when she gets out of school or $50,000? Yes, $15,000, $15,000. How old are you two? I'm 22 and she's 21.

Okay, so you're in a traditional college situation. I think you're going to be working while you're in school because you can't make it on 15. Yeah, I agree with you. So my question specifically is we've been able to save a lot of money. So I had to go saving $15,000 for this next upcoming year where I won't be working. And I've just been doing that over the last six months. And I just didn't know if I should be doing that or paying off the debt. You don't need to worry about debt right now.

You need to pile up cash and get through these periods of time with school. Only when you've got excess money later will we knock this debt out. All this debt student loans, isn't it? It's just going to sit there until you get out, right? Yes, sir. So goal one is to add no more debt and that does mean and you said right after i said you're going to need to be working while you're in school you said next year when i quit and so you don't need to quit yeah you know you're going to have to work

doing something and earn an income of some kind when your wife's making 15 you guys can't eat on that and you can't cash flow the balance of your school on that. And so pile up as much cash as you can pile up and plan on working. Let me just tell you, the vast majority of people with college degrees worked while they were in school. The vast majority of us did. And so you can do that and graduate. It's an amazing thing. There's no positive tradeoff here for you to go in person. You're already going online.

Go in person. I'm fine. If you want to go in person, that's fine. Go in person, but keep working. Well, what he was saying is he's online right now. I know. So he's going, well, I'm going to go in person, so I have to quit. No, you don't.

You don't have to quit. Keep going online. You don't have to quit. You can go in person and work. That's true, too. That's what I was talking about. Oh, yeah, I got you. Yeah, don't stop to quit. You can go in person and work. That's true, too. That's what I was talking about. Oh, yeah, I got you. Yeah, don't stop working.

Yeah, I did. I worked 40 to 60 hours a week and graduated in four years. I worked all the time. I mean, well, you didn't have a good life. I had a great life. I didn't have any student loans. It's an amazing idea. I had $3,400 in student loans, but, I mean, it was nothing.

And, of course, back then that was a lot of money. But, anyway. Derek's in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Hi, Derek. How are you? Good. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. So I'm a 21-year-old college student, and I'm going for an education degree. I'm going to be about $100,000 to $115,000 in student loan debt when I graduate, and I'm just wondering what steps I can take whenever I'm getting ready for the next big step in my life. So what are you going to teach? I want to teach something in pre-k to fourth grade. Are you qualified to teach other grades when you get the degree that you're lined up for? I will be qualified to teach pre-K through four, but then I'll also be qualified to teach special education in pre-K through eight.

What pays the most? Because you need money. Special education probably pays a little bit more, but probably not much. My experience is the lesser grades like that, the pre-K through four, doesn't pay as well as, say, a high school teacher. Am I right? Yes. So at what point are you in your education? Can you add things to your transcript that are going to allow you to maybe teach in high school?

So I graduate in December of 2021, but I can take one class and add on special education high school, but nothing that I can do for general education for high school. Well, take the class because you need options, right? And I'm not saying this is your career path forever, but you ask how to get out of $ hundred thousand dollars worth of debt. And the answer is make money. And the more money you make, the faster you'll get out. And so you obviously have a heart for small children. And that's amazing and wonderful. And I would love to have you teaching in that when you get this cleaned up. But if special ed high school pays double, then you need to go do that for a couple of years and get your mess cleaned up but if special ed high school pays double then you need to go do that for a couple years and get your mess cleaned up okay and then go and step into the other or if you can find some way that that k-4 or k-4 plus a tutoring business that you start on the side or something uh i want to put throw some caution out here because uh you're going to start running these numbers and you need to do the research here. And you need to understand that there's a trap when you say, okay, if I want to make more money, Dave said, I need to make more money. Well, now I'm going to have to get a grad

degree to be able to get better salary. The median income in the United States, this is a median and average for special ed is 61,000, where it's 59 for that elementary. But it can go as high as 98,000 if you've got those grad degrees. But that's a trap, Dave, that I hear a lot of callers on the Ken Coleman Show call in and go, well, I'm making more money. No, you just went into more debt. Don't fall for that. I think he's got to get into the online tutoring. The world's changing 2020.

I've got some good friends. Stacey and I have got a good friend in Atlanta. They were neighbors, really good friends. And they got out of debt because she began to teach. She was a Spanish teacher on the public school, high school level, and then started teaching online and made serious bank as a side hustle. Online tutoring. Online tutoring.

So he's got the chops. He's got the qualifications. I would look for all of the side hustles that I could look for, or I'm okay with the day job until I get to the dream job. I'm going to throw that out there. So really what you're saying is the difference in special ed and pre-K was not significant. It's $2,000. It's not worth it.

It's not worth it. So go take the job that you love and smile about every day, but plan on generating an extra income with an online tutoring idea or something like that. And also plan on living on nothing. You don't get to buy a car. No. And, you know, you're going to be sitting on a used couch. Yeah.

That you got at a garage sale for $100 from the rich end of town, and it was $6,000 when that rich lady bought it. It's still a good couch, but that's what you're going to be sitting on. Live like a college student and clean your mess up. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Josh and Holly are with us from Pittsburgh. It says on my screen you guys are debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. Well done, wellfree. Congratulations. Thank you.

Well done, well done. How much did you pay off? We paid off $218,279. Goodness gracious. How long did that take? 18 months. Okay. And your range of income during that time? So we started around $230 230 000 and we ended at 310 oh there's the answer to that math problem okay so what in the world do you two do for a living you're slaying it um i'm in public affairs and i'm an attorney ah okay both of you okay two great

incomes then yeah wonderful way to go you $218,000 with an attorney. Do I smell law school debt? You may. Yeah, just about a little over $200,000 of that is student loan debt. Oh, wow. So it's almost all debt, student loan debt then, and just a little bit of other miscellaneous. So how long have you guys been married? A little bit of a boat and then some medical.

Okay. How long have you been married? Well, about 18 months ago we got married. Okay. So that was your first order of business then when you got married. We've got to clean this mess up. Yes, sir. We got married.

Well, actually, when we were dating, we started talking about finances. We'd both been single for the better part of our 20s and kind of had a really serious discussion on how we approach finances. And Josh told me how much debt he had, and I was like, what? And so we agreed. And you went back out with him again. What did you say? After he told you how much debt he had, you went out on another date with him. Well, at that point, he kind of had me in deep.

He had the hook set. All right. We exchanged books. I gave him your book. He gave me Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and I wasn't going to read it because I knew it was Dave's way or no way. And he read your book, and he came back to me and said, you know, I don't care what plan we're on, just that we're on the same plan. Oh, good answer. Good answer.

All right. So we get married, combine these two fabulous incomes and you're two obviously goal-oriented people. So this just became the new goal or am I missing something? No, I think that's exactly right. Yeah, we got engaged a few months after that conversation, and we actually did FPU as part of our premarital counseling. And then when we got married, it was then just pedal to the metal. And, yep, got after it. I've got to ask Josh. Now, she refused to read your book.

You were really mature and understand the key to a happy marriage is happy wife, happy life. So you read Dave's book and did it. You're just like, okay, whatever. I just want to be on the same page. Now on the other side of this thing, how do you feel about Dave's plan? I mean, after I, it wasn't just that we want to be on the same plan. I mean, I saw a lot of simplicity and well, the baby steps and also just a lot of how you include what God says about money and everything, which really spoke to me. Cool. So I think I saw both of those things. And actually, I think in hindsight for her,

I think I actually went a little crazier about it than she did, so she may have regretted it a little bit. Oh, yeah, look what you got started here, yeah. Well, congratulations, you guys. All kidding and all aside, you're pretty impressive. This is amazing. You must feel really accomplished. Yeah, I think so.

I mean, it's hard to believe, you know, when you start, you're in the trenches, and you're like, I don't really see when we're going to get to an end here. And coming on the other side of it, it's like, oh, we could do anything for 18 months. Yeah, there you go. I love it. What did you specifically do to move up from 230K to 310? Was it just more cases? I'm just curious. It's actually, Holly got a promotion in the middle of it that was a significant increase in our income. So I got a minor promotion, but hers was the major portion of that. Yeah.

Wow. Way to go, you guys. You're heroes. I'm so proud of you. Who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you? We had some friends that were doing, that had done your plan, Adam and Claire Kennard, Stacey and Alex Gianetti, Lorelei. And then actually towards the end of the journey, we led an FPU class. And it was just so rewarding to walk alongside folks who were just starting the journey and being kind of towards the end of hours.

It really makes you have to be accountable to the plan. And they were also big cheerleaders, the folks that took the class. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You did it. You're professionals. So I think for me anyway, I think you've got to stick to the plan. You've got to know why you're doing it. If you overspend on something, don't give up.

Just stick with it. We also communicated so much. It wasn't just a monthly budget meeting. It was, we always were communicating about expenses. It was really tough, you know, getting married in our 30s and being single for so long and having our own kind of separate budgets that once we combined our income, it was sort of tough. I was kind of used to spending money when I wanted to, being able to get that single girl swag whenever I wanted to shop. And it was tough kind of being accountable to one another, but I think that was just a huge key to it. And I think also, for me, it was like definitely

having grace with yourself. I think there was a lot of times, like you said, we're very goal oriented and you're not always going to hit every single goal that you set. And I think we would get tripped up by like 10 or $15. We get into fights over 10 or $15. It was like misspent or something like that. And you have to have a lot of grace with each other and be willing to figure those things out, which actually, um, then the other thing would also be generosity. I think just for us also,

like we always felt very called to continue to give and you'd always be doing your budget meeting and you'd always look at the giving section. You'd be like, oh, maybe this month we could cut some of that back and we could cut more into the debt or something like that, but we never did. And then God was just so faithful with us with like giving Holly's job promotion. And I mean, when we started this journey, we thought it'd be a two-year thing rather than an 18-month thing and he just showed us how much he can do and we're just following what his plan is as opposed to what we always want to do so amen well done you guys well done man that's amazing numbers very very impressive well we've got a copy of chris hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires.

That's definitely the next chapter in your story. This is not over. It's just you just turned the page and hit another chapter now. Time to keep going and a little less intensity, but with the same intentionality. And you're going through your other baby steps now, and you're going to be in great shape. Just extremely well done, you guys. We're so so so proud of you all right it's josh and holly in pittsburgh 218 000 paid off in 18 months making 230 to 310

count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt-free! Yeah! Well done, well done, well done. Oh, that's fabulous. Speaking of generosity, and he said generosity was a key part of their process, we always do, for Christmas, our annual giving show. We do three hours of this show on giving. It consists of you calling in and talking about the time that you gave a gift that was meaningful and transformative and impressive and those kinds of things, or the time even that you received a gift from someone.

We want giving stories, great giving stories. And this is one of our listening audience's favorite shows to do this giving show every year. So what do you do? You go to DaveRamsey.com and you, Kelly, do you want them to email them or do you want them to go on the website okay email to dave on air at davramsey.com and kelly will pick those up put giving stories in the subject line put a little bit about the story in your email she'll get back in touch with you learn more about it and schedule your call we don't tell you what to say or not say we don't edit this or anything like that this is just a matter of we're lining up the caller so that we've got a solid three hours of giving stories or receiving stories. But it's all about generosity.

So it's our annual generosity show that we always do around Christmastime. And Kelly's setting all that up. Email at DaveOnAir at DaveRamsey.com. DaveOnAir at DaveRamsey.com. This is The Dave Ramsey show. We'll be right back. ken coleman ramsey personality host of the ken coleman show where we talk about careers jobs getting in the uh sweet spot for making money and doing something you love all of that is with me this hour this day as my co-host and we're taking your calls about your life, your money, and your careers. 888-825-5225.

Antonio is with us in San Francisco. Hi, Antonio. How are you? Good. Thanks for taking my call, guys. Sure. What's up? All right.

So my question, Dave, is I'm getting a Christmas bonus, and I'm in baby step number two, and I want to know what I should do with the bonus. I basically have $25,000 left to pay off for my last debt, which is a credit card, but I'm also in a lease. So I'm wondering if I should use that Christmas bonus to pay a big chunk of the last debt or if I should buy a car and get out of the lease. I like it. How much is left on the lease? The lease, it's kind of like a flexible lease, Dave, so I can get out of it whenever I want. I'm paying $370

a month. So how much is your Christmas bonus? Go ahead. How much is your Christmas bonus? It's going to be around $10K, so I'll probably see like $7K of it net. So you're going to buy a $7,000 car? Not my ideal. I'm driving a nicer car than that right now but you know it could happen well it's kind of pointless if you go into debt after getting out of the lease isn't it that that's the point yeah so so it's a seven thousand dollar car unless I missed something. Did I miss something? No, you didn't, Dave.

Okay. So, I mean, you know, if you will buy a $7,000 or less car with cash and get rid of your flexible lease, yes, I would do that. If you're going to use part of that advice and use it as justification of going to debt to buy a car, car no i wouldn't do that what's your payoff date on the 25 000 in credit cards when were you planning to get that done um that's sometime early next year okay so you're making good money you're making good money what do you make yeah i make 150k a year dude yeah so if he buys a seven thousand dollar car and you take the 370 bucks a month you've been paying on the lease

and add that to your already existing debt snowball, you're going to get through there a lot quicker. Yeah, so you're going to be out of debt early next year, and then by summer you're going to move up in car with cash. Am I missing something there? Nope. So we're not driving a $7,000 car for six months. Yeah. And then you'll buy a $17,000 car by adding $10,000 to it.

Yeah. Easily, right? Yeah. So, I mean, my concern, Dave, was like I was thinking that if I put that $7,000 towards this $25,000 credit card bill and then just keep my snowball going as is that I could get out of it that way as well. You can, and you can keep driving the lease car. But at the end of the $25,000 credit card debt,

you've still got to turn the lease car in, and you've still got to come up with some money to buy a car. Yeah, that's right. So you might as well go ahead and do it and be done with it and then just say, all right, I've got to drive this $7, thousand dollar piece of crap which is compared to what you're driving is a piece of crap it's not really a bad car but watch what you're doing you can get a lot of car for seven grand but uh um it's just it's it's my six month car be sure and take pictures because you'll forget you owned it later you know you unless you you need to be able to tell your grandkids you know

back in that that year 2020 with a pandemic i, I got me a $7,000 car. I just went all turned around and I became a multimillionaire. I don't think people realize, Dave, how decent of a car you can get for $7,000. I'm telling you, go on autotrader.com or any of these websites and just look. Just look. Well, the thing you have to, yeah, that's what I would do in your case, Antonio. But to your point, Ken ken you're exactly right the trick is when you're buying an a car in a situation like this you are not buying a car for fun you are not buying it for sex appeal you are not buying it because it

makes you the cool kid because you don't get those for 10 grand and under but can you get very reliable in really good shape transportation absolutely for seven grand you dadgum right you can't all over i mean there's enough toyota camrys on the planet that are seven thousand dollars that have 10 years of life left in them or honda accords that have 10 years of life left in them let me tell you what you taught me that i've done over the years when Stacey and I got out of debt when she worked for you years and years ago. I did the old Dave Ramsey where I actually took $7,000 in $100 bills and you go to a car lot for $7,000 and go, hey, I'll give you $6,000 and put it on the hood of the car and watch how quickly he takes the deal. Yeah, yeah. I can't forget that. Or you buy it off a Craigslist, you know, from some guy who needs to sell it because he's in debt.

Facebook marketplace. People are selling person-to-person transactions all the time. They'll really respond to the cash. Yeah. Because you know what they want? They want a headache-free transaction. Yep. They don't want to cash your check.

They get all worried about all this because you walk up to somebody with six grand and $100 bills. When you lay cash on the table it says done deal they will take it it's no hassle i don't have to worry about being scammed unless this is counterfeit benjamin's it's a done deal right and it says instant deal it says done deal it doesn't say i have to check with my banker or my mama it's got benjamin smiling done, deal, and you can get the cash discount for that. And there's a cash discount that goes with having the Moxie to do that with a little flair. I've never told you this story.

Okay. And I'm proud because you taught me this. I did this in a nontraditional situation. I bought it when big screen TVs were a big deal. Say you said I'd been married two years. So it was a huge deal for me to get a big screen TV. We were living baby steps. We were out of debt. And I walked in, and it was a huge deal for me to get a big screen TV. We were living baby steps. We were out of debt.

And I walked in, and it was a well-known chain, and I looked at the sticker price on that TV. I asked the guy for his business card, some young sales guy. He gave me his business card, and I turned it over and wrote the amount of money that I was going to pay for that in cash right now. I've got it in my pocket. This is what I'll give you for the TV. I handed it to that guy, and I said, I'm going to keep looking around the store. You'll know where to find me. that in cash right now i've got it in my pocket this is what i'll give you for the tv i handed that guy and i said i'm gonna keep looking around the store you know where to find me that's what i'll buy this tv for today and it was it was about a thousand dollars difference whoa

and i was playing a character that i'd concocted in my head you never told me to do it that way but i was i was you know wrote it on the back of my business card that guy's business card yeah yeah i didn't have a business card with me in the store. Anyway, I got it. He chased you down later. It was cash, and it was walk-away power. I thought I was... Now, again, you never said to do it that way.

I don't want these people to think that Dave said that in some lesson. You didn't. But I was kind of doing my early on, and what do I have to lose? If he thinks I'm a lunatic, fine. I didn't want to pay that for the tv walking out a thousand dollars in my part so the cash and the walkaway power i gotta tell you i've only done that once so i wouldn't recommend that to everybody but you know you never know yeah before i was dave ramsey i could get away with that stuff now i get now i get the

well i get the side eye well first of all you don't go into stores and buy stuff, do you? You're right. That's true. Thank you very much. Come on now. All right. I would actually like to see that, the old hidden camera. Well, I mean, can you imagine, though?

You know, it just doesn't. What if we did like that? What's that show where the boss, the undercover boss, we need the undercover buyer, and it's you? I'd have to get a wig. A wig, and we'd have to give you a full dark beard no glasses and then watch you go in and do it that'd be it might be a good show that would be that would be coming soon to ramsey solutions productions i'm making stuff up now that'd be that'd be time consuming you would hate it it would never he would never do it in a million years that's why i said it

in a million years you wouldn't do that but it would be fun but the yeah it is a good thing to remember and here's the thing too for those of us like antonio and me and you that are lovers of cars we love cars i love cars i love the older the better i enjoy a car i i you like the new fast ones i don't mind a new one new one because they don't make them like they used to, thank God. But anyway, when you enjoy a car and you enjoy something that's a little different, like he's got probably there. He's got a car he really likes. The thing that when you step down out of that into that $7,000 car,

the thing that I always have to remember and I always want you guys out there to always remember, is it's just for a little while. That's right. Six months. That's what you won't even remember. When you're 27 years old, six months, when you're 37, you won't even remember having owned that car. If you don't take pictures of it, you'll regret it. Because I would love to have some pictures of the cars that we owned early in our marriage, and I didn't keep them. Me too.

Because I wish I had a full catalog of every car I've ever owned in a picture file. Well, you know how you tell people the grass feels different? Yeah. So does that car. Yeah, it drives different. The one that you buy cash that you love? It drives different. It seems like it's a little louder, a little faster.

Yeah, it's a little more fun. Yeah, no question about it. I like it. All right right good stuff that puts this hour of the dave ramsey show in the books our thanks to james childs our producer kelly daniels our associate producer and phone screener i am dave ramsey your host we'll be back before you know it This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. On your smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill.

From there, you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like, how do I invest my money? Or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at daveramsey.com.