The Ramsey Show - App - How Should We Budget for Socks? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 29, 2018

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Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and a paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. It's all about you. The phone number is 888-825-5225. We'll talk about your life and your money.

It's common sense for your dollars and cents. Aliyah is with us in St. George, Utah. Aliyah, how are you, Aliyah? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Well, first of all, thank you for taking my call i'm just excited to be talking to you um me and my husband have been on your program for about a year and a half um and in that time we paid off 27 000 but we've we've been very like we live on less than rice and beans.

We literally, every single cent that we have, that's not our bills and groceries, goes out towards that. Good. And what's your household income? It's about $38,000. Wow. That's impressive. Yeah, you are living on nothing. Good.

Yeah, literally. I mean, well, you know, both of of us come from humble background so we're not used to a lot and we're used to living off hardly anything so it hasn't been a big change for us but my question for you today is um because literally we put everything besides grocery money and gas money towards our debt, things that come up even like hygiene products or changing the oil in the car, those things are like almost sound unforeseen to us. And they come out of our emergency fund that we put away because, you know, everything else goes to that. So I was wondering, do you have any advice on, as far as the budget goes,

things that a family typically should budget for, or maybe something that you and your wife, you put in your budget, because it seems like every time something like SOX comes up, we have to take it out of our emergency fund because we didn't plan for that in our budget. All of the things you've described are predictable, and so they're not emergencies, and they should be in the budget. Okay.

Because here's what's happening, okay? Basically, you're still taking them out of your income because you take them out of the emergency fund, then what do you do? You build the emergency fund back up, right? Yeah. So it's the same thing. You just ran it in one door and back out the other is all. But if it had been in the budget, it just would have gone straight to the thing instead of run through the emergency fund. Because it's not an emergency.

These are things that are predictable and that's why we have the budget forms. Have you got a copy of the Total Money Makeover book? No, we haven't had any of your books yet. Okay, I'm going to send you one. Everything's going to date. Okay. I'm going to send you one.

And in the back of it are the forms, the budget forms that we used when we designed the EveryDollar app for the budget. Okay. Okay, but use those forms and just make copies of them or just, you know, or use that similar system. But the whole thing is there's some items on there that'll remind you. You don't have to put something in every blank, but the blanks are down through there to remind you to go, okay, that's coming. I know I've got to do that, so I might as well plan for it in the budget.

Otherwise, it's going to come out of the emergency fund, then I'm going to put the emergency fund back, which is the same thing as having come out of my income anyway. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but it feels a lot more in control because it is, because you're actually planning for a known expense that's coming up. And that's why we use the budget form to look at that and go, that's a known expense. That one I can do without.

You don't have to put something in every blank. I don't think anybody but God's got enough money to put something in every blank, right? But you've done a good job, but you're fooling yourself is what it amounts to because you're acting like you're not going to do these things that you are going to do. And so you might as well plan for them. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's not doing something wrong. So hold on.

I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, which will help you put all of that together. Justin is with us in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, Justin. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing fantastic. How about yourself?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, so first of all, I want to thank you for everything you do. I've recently started listening to all your YouTube videos, and I'm ready to take control of my life. I've been stupid for the past several years, and being an impulse buying and all that stuff. So I've racked up a lot of debt over the last few years,

and I've always had a really decent income. I just recently got a new job where I'm making about $125,000 a year. Way to go. Yeah, and I'm excited, but I really want to start taking control of my debt. But the thing is, I know you said that you do debt from smallest to largest. Correct. But I do have all kinds of different kinds of debt. So I have some payday loans I want to get paid off, which are kind of recent.

Like I said, up until recently I've been stupid. So, you know, as of today I'm being smart. So I also have some charges off credit card debt, student loans, and then a car note and everything. So I'm just trying to figure out, yeah, does that still apply? Like, I want to make sure I don't have any type of wage garnishments or anything like that, because there is a judgment on one of the old credit card debts, and I just want to make sure I get it in the right order and everything without making things worse with

any garnishments or anything like that, especially with my income. They would destroy me. No, they wouldn't destroy you, but they'd get their money pretty quick. So what do you owe on the credit card that went bad? About $4,000. Okay. And what do you owe on the payday lenders? There's about four of them.

So about, I'd say, $3,000 total. All right. And how long ago did you pay on the credit card? How long ago has it been bad? I'd say since 2015, so about three years. Okay. You're not going to get a surprise garnishment on that, so don't worry about it. Okay.

Have they actually sued you? They have, and there's like a judgment, I believe. And then there's also an old car note that when I was married, I'm divorced, I'm a single father of three kids. So you have an outstanding repossession deficit? Yeah, so it was a repossession deficit that I took over in the divorce. But that one has been judgment and everything issued, but I just want to make sure that they don't.

And at this point, they could garnish if they wanted to, so I want to make sure I prevent that. So that's why I'm trying to think. Yeah, if they've been sitting on the judgment for six months or a year, they're not likely to just suddenly start garnishing. They usually will go right to execution if they're going to. So you're probably fine. Those are probably just old bad debts sitting there.

So not counting those two old bad debts and not counting the payday lender, how much other debt have you got? So I have my vehicle, my primary vehicle, which I have a lot of negative equity. How much do you owe on it? $25,000, and it's worth about, I'd say, $15,000. All right, here's what I'd do. I'd knock out the payday lenders right fast, and then the stuff that's current debt, like your current vehicle, I would do those things first. Then I would go clean up the old debt, the credit cards and the other stuff. And get your student loans back on. They will garner you in a heartbeat. So get them back on a payment plan.

Start paying your payments on the student loans again. And then work your way through the debts that you're paying payments on. Then go clean up the old car deficit and the old credit card later. But get the payday lenders out of the way first. Did you know, statistically, when it comes to life insurance and protecting your family, that women are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than men? This doesn't make any sense. Women make up half the workforce, contribute mightily to family incomes, and in many cases are the breadwinners and take care of their families 24 hours a day.

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That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Christine is on Twitter. Dave, I need advice regarding a timeshare. I purchased the timeshare almost 10 years ago. We've not been using it. No kidding. I've been trying to get rid of it, but it doesn't seem to be a way. Do you have any advice on what you can do with this? You know, timeshares are such a problem because you're just stuck in them.

There is no market for them. They have no value. No one will pay you, and the fees just keep going up and up and up and up and up. And like you said, it's just burning money because you're not even using the stupid thing. We, for many years here on the air, I didn't know what to tell you to do because I didn't have an answer. We did find a company several years ago that has done a great job and we've endorsed them for that reason they're called time share exit team and that's who you need to go to they're going to charge you an upfront fee that they refund if they don't get you out of the timeshare but they will get you

out of the timeshare it's what they get you out of the timeshare. It's what they do. And they have a legal, completely thorough method that works for getting you out of a timeshare. Timeshare exit team. Folks, timeshares are one of the worst possible things you can get into. And, you know, it's one of the few things in our culture today that is still sold by slimy, high-pressure salespeople. Very few things in our culture today are sold by the old-fashioned, slimy, high-pressure salesperson. Most things that have a salesperson around it today,

the salespeople have a sense of professionalism about them. But timeshare salespeople are like the lowest of the low. And they put people in a dadgum room and won't hardly let you out. It's almost intimidating. And people buy stuff that would never buy anything in those situations. And, you know, you fall for the stupid thing where you go to, you know, it's just dumb. You get a free room. We'll let you stay.

Let you stay in the condo for free. And you're going, I'll be the one. I'll go for free. And then I won't buy. And then they put you in there for six hours in a room somewhere. And until you buy. And it's just it's absolutely a scummy, scummy, scummy industry. Big time, folks.

If you are a smart shopper, you've probably been researching the best online deals and you've been getting like Cyber Monday deals. And a lot of people Cyber Monday has been the whole week with us. That's what it is. We're just making Cyber Monday, Cyber Week. And so through December 2nd, our online store at DaveRamsey.com, serious bargains. Almost all of our books are $10 each, and they're just about all number one bestsellers, and they're $10. $10?

I mean, you hand somebody a hardback Total Money Makeover book or a Chris Hogan's Retire Inspired book or Rachel Cruz's your life not there's my book I mean these are all number one bestsellers 10 bucks there's all kinds of stuff for kids there for teaching your kids how to handle money these are gifts that actually matter because you're helping somebody Dave Ramsey.com or call 888-22-PIECE 888-227-3223. David is in Detroit. Hi, David. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

How's it going, Dave? Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My question for you is, for the last six years, my wife and I, we've been cash-flowing everything from our cars and everything. We're on baby step six. Good. And what we're doing is right now is we stopped saving completely into our bank savings and we're paying five times the amount on our mortgage to get it paid off in two years.

Okay. I'm 34, my wife's 32. Is this like the right thing to do? Make five times the payment per month just to get our mortgage paid off. Well, what we teach folks to do is to be debt-free other than your home and have an emergency fund as the first three steps. It sounds like you're there. Yes, we are.

Okay. We're on baby step six. Okay. And are you putting 15% of your income away for retirement? Between both of us, we're putting 12%. And when you say 15%, do you mean individually? No, I mean 15% of your household income should be going into household retirement somewhere. We're putting 12% right now.

Okay. Then I'd probably raise that up by 3% to where you had 15% going into retirement. And then above that, do you have children in college that you need to plan for? Nope, we don't plan on having kids. Okay, no kids and no kids college, so Baby Step 5 does not apply. And then the answer is everything above 15% that you want and can throw at the mortgage, yes. So if that's five times the payment, fine. If it's ten times the payment, fine.

If it's 20 times the payment, fine. If it's two times the payment, fine. We just throw all extra money at the house until the house is done. But it sounds like we're going to crank your Baby Step 4 up just a little bit, and so you're still going to pay off the house in two years. Okay. Then after our house is paid off, if we don't plan on having kids, what would you recommend doing with this extra cash flow?

Well, there's nothing left to do in Baby Step 7 except become very wealthy and give. And that's what it's all about. And so you max out retirement. You go back to those retirement accounts and you make sure all of them are full. All you can put in the 401Ks, all you can put in your Roth IRAs, and then there's just extra money

for generosity and for wealth building and for enjoying. That's the only three things you can do with it. Invest it, give it, enjoy it. And you ought to do some of all three, by the way, all the way along. But certainly by the time you get there, and you guys are doing a great job, man. You're killing it. Well done.

Well done. Scott is in Colorado Springs. Hey, Scott, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, Mr. Ramsey. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you, sir. How can I help? My wife and I are currently on baby step number two.

She's working on her undergrad. And we're hoping she'll be done with that by the end of summer 2019 or, worst case scenario, fall 2019. Great. And we're wanting her to go directly, possibly directly into her master's. And I'm wondering if we should just work on baby step two until we get close to her master's, for her starting her master's program, and then cash flow her master's and put baby step number two on hold, or if we should wait to finish baby step number two. What is she studying for her master's?

So her master's would be in psychology with an emphasis in ABA. So she's essentially working with kids with special needs, autism, things like that. Okay. And does she have her master's to be licensed in your state, I assume? She can make more money for sure. Right now she's hourly. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Right now she's hourly. She just got a raise. She's actually a dollar away from her cap before getting her master's, so she won't be able to make any more money until she gets her master's. What does she make? So she'll start full-time in January. When the new semester of school starts, she'll do online. She'll probably do about $33,000 if she works full-time, doesn't have any cancellations, anything like that.

Wow. Her master's would be about $17,000 in an 18-month program. The company she's at right now, if she got her master's, she would just about get a $17,000 pay increase. So she could go from 33 to 50. What do you make? Right now,'m making, I'm salary plus commission. I'm thinking I'll finish out around 60, 65. And then I'm actually getting a raise myself effective January 1st. And with salary and commission. How much debt do you have left?

We have 92. Okay. All right. So that's everything. We're normal as you can be. Yeah. Okay. Well, I think you can pay all everything. We're normal as she can be. Yeah, okay. Well, I think you can pay all your minimum payments and something extra on the debt while funding her master's, it sounds to me like. Yes, sir.

Yeah, so I think she just continues on and finishes this master's. $17,000 to make $17,000 more a year is a great investment, obviously. When you can break even in one year on an investment, and education is an investment, then that's a wonderful plan. And from here on out, of course, she would make that $17 or more extra as a result of having that. So, yeah, I don't think it stops your debt snowball. I think it just slows it. And you've got to plan the cash and be ready and so forth. I don't think it stops your debt snowball. I think it just slows it.

And you're going to have to plan the cash and be ready and so forth. But you can do it. You can do it. Hey, way to go, man. You're thinking about it. You've got a plan. You're laying it out. When you do this stuff on purpose, you tend to do smart stuff.

It's pretty amazing. Well done. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees. And if you're thinking our low cost means less coverage, think again. We'll be right back. the U.S. to ensure you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime, anywhere. Plus, you can keep your same phone and number and add multiple lines to save more. We're so confident you'll love Pure Talk USA that we invite you to try our service risk-free. Just visit puretalkusa.com, enter

promo code SAVEDAVE, no spaces, and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com, promo code SAVEDAVE. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Mario and Cindy are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, we're doing great. Welcome. Where do you guys live? Brentwood, Texas. All right, welcome to Nashville. And all the way up here to do a debt-free screen. Yes. Love it. And how much have you two paid off? We paid off $89,502.45. Cool. And how long did this take you? 16 months. Wow. And your range of income during that time?

$116,000 to $129,000. Very good. And what do you guys do for a living? I'm a cat producer. I work with Revit doing the blueprints and Cindy. I'm a high school ESL teacher. Okay, great. Very cool.

What kind of debt was the $90,000? My cell phone, dishes, credit cards, a loan from Cindy's father, both of our cars, and student loans, half of it being student loans. Dishes? Yes, dishes. You financed dishes? So as soon as we got engaged, we went to all of those bridal extravaganza shows. Uh-huh.

And we went to one booth, and they're like, oh, do you want two free champagne flutes? Sure, why not? Just come to this little, I guess, like show or whatever. And it was dishes and they kind of convinced us to buy them. I love it. That's so fun. So how long have you two been married?

It's about to be three years in June. Okay, very cool. Very cool. So you hardly made $90,000 during that 16 months. Did you sell some stuff? No. Not really. At the very beginning, Cindy had some money saved.

Oh, okay. Okay, so pretty much what happened was we didn't start our journey until after we got married. Right. And so I was the one, I'm the saver, and so I was the one that got all of the checks from the wedding, and I deposited them, and I put them in the savings account, and he didn't know how much it was. Ah, okay. So how much did you have in your savings account? $15,000.

Oh, okay. So that gave you a jump start on the 90s. Yes, it did. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. So what inspired you to go this crazy on getting out of debt? And I'll let Mario take that, because he's the one that started it.

I started it. Pretty much we got married and I started going nuts because, well, with that comes a lot of financial responsibilities. Everybody's telling me you need to buy a house. You need to start a family. You need to start a family. I had coworkers talking about investing. I had never invested ever in my life. And so I just kind of freaked out, started Google searching, how to invest, how to get out of debt.

Get out of debt. Your name popped up. Talked to another coworker. She was like, yeah, he's great. And I was like, I'm thinking about buying his book. And she ended up buying it for me for my birthday gift. Wow. So I read the book, started listening to the podcasts and then trying to get her on board was another story. Okay. So you kind of, you kind of started going, I can do this. We got to do this.

And so what'd he do? Cindy come in and start telling you what you had to do? Pretty much. He was just kind of like, Hey, anytime we're in the car, guess what? Podcast. And it was always your podcast. And at the beginning, I did not want to hear it. I hear you. That's what I used to sleep. But pretty much there was one of the podcasts that I heard that really rang true to my heart.

It was pulling some strings. And it was pretty much about, it was a couple that got married. And shortly after, the spouse, the husband, he ended up getting cancer. And it was because they were able to pull together. They were able to be debt-free. He had money set aside for her.

And so she was set for life after he passed. And that's when it really clicked for me. What would happen if anything like that happened to him or if it happened to me? And so pretty much December, like right after we got married for Christmas, that was our Christmas gift. She wasn't too happy. And we pretty much started the FPU at our local church in Friendswood at Mary Queen. And pretty much after the first class, that's whenever I looked at them and I'm like, okay, I'm in. All right. Just like that. Just like that.

Wow. Wow. I'm proud of you guys. Well done. Well done. So the book and the podcast led into Financial Peace University, led into you working together and getting her done. I love it. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

You paid off $90,000. That's impressive. Yeah. The key of getting out of debt is, one, the budget. Two, for me, is contentment, just being happy with what I have. Me, I love fishing uh a lot of money that i spent before was you know thousand dollar reels okay i'm gonna buy it um but i had to be content with what i had because everything um you know everything's new always coming out every year.

Oh, yeah. So I should just be happy with what I have. Yeah. So that's what I learned in this journey. And, yeah, I don't need to go out. What was it about the first class, Cindy, that you saw that you said, okay, let's do this? It was pretty much, I think, in the first class, whenever they were talking about having an emergency fund and setting aside that $1,000 in case something happened.

And I always thought, well, I always have money in case something does happen. But I never, at that time, our finances were separate, and they weren't joint. And so I didn't know how much student loans he had. And after that class, we kind of sat down, we went through everything and I was completely shocked. Whoa. Because I didn't have any student loans. I was thankful enough that my parents were able to pay for college. And so I was just like, oh my gosh, you have like $60,000 in student loans.

And so that's just kind of what really turned it for me. And then we got a couple car payments we got to knock off, too. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Look at you guys. Well done. Well done.

Who was your biggest cheerleaders other than each other? Pretty much family and our coworkers, our friends. Some friends, yeah. Yeah, the coworker that bought you the book. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Very cool. Very cool. Very cool.

We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you. It's a number one bestseller. We want that to be the next chapter in your story that you not only are debt-free, but now we move on, become millionaires and outrageously generous. You're in a position to do that. I'm so proud of y'all. Well done. Thank you.

You guys are amazing. Very cool. Mario and Cindy Houston, Texas. $90,000 paid off in 16 months. Making $116,000 to $129,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Alright.

3, 2, 1. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah! Woo-hoo! Well done, you guys! Boom! That's how it's done right there, man.

Doesn't get any better than that. Open phones this hour. Matt is in San Diego. Hey, Matt, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, good to have you. Thanks. Sure. What's up?

Hey, so I just recently graduated from high school, and now I'm a full-time college student working part-time. Good for you. What are you studying? I'm studying computer science. Good. Good for you. Yeah, so I've been fortunate to find a paid internship where I can be able to put away a good amount of money. And I'm looking into investing. So as a young adult, I was looking at what are some of the best ways for me to start investing. I wouldn't.

I think the best investment Matt can make is Matt. And I want to ensure that you finish your degree and that you do it 100% debt-free. And I would just pile up a big pile of money to make sure that that happens i wouldn't start any long-term investing right now you are a good investment you get that computer science degree it's going to be worth it's going to be worth its weight in gold and uh that's the best thing you can do is to ensure that you get that covered that you get that done without any debt and when you get out of school if you've still got a big pile of money and you didn't need it and you worked and, you know,

say you graduate with $50,000 or something, okay, well, you start your baby steps at that point. You put your emergency fund in place and you start investing and you've got plenty of time to do your investing. The fact that you're asking this question already, just out of high school, tells me you're going to be okay. As long as you keep your eye on that ball, graduate 100% debt free, come out, whatever money you've got at that point, you use for your emergency fund, you use for setting up

your new life, you use for whatever, and then you start your long-term investing, you're going to be just fine. But you getting that degree is a great return on investment. And you pay cash for it, no debt. And you have a big pile of money to make sure that happens. That's a good investment. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Our scripture of the day, 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand,

that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Bill Gates said, it's fine to celebrate success, but it's more important to heed the lessons of failure. Sean is with us in Shreveport. Hey, Sean, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Mr. Ramsey, thank you so much for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Hey, so I'm about to get married in May.

Congratulations. Thank you so much, I appreciate that. I'm just wondering what steps do me and my fiancee need to take, because I've been listening to your YouTube channel for about over a year now, and I've kind of been wanting to go head first into it all in, but she's kind of lackluster on getting in with me. Okay. All right. Well, are you guys doing any pre-marriage counseling?

No. You should. You should. It's very valuable, and there's a lot of statistical evidence that indicates that a good pre-marriage counselor will increase the agreement on four things prior to marriage, that you increase your chance of success on the marriage almost completely. I mean, it's amazing, the difference. Number one thing that people argue about in marriage, number one cause of divorce is money fights and money problems.

So being in disagreement about money is a problem. That's a big deal. You've got to solve that. Number two, being in agreement about kids, whether we're going to have them, how we're going to treat them, and so on. I want 19 kids. I don't want kids is a problem. I want to let our kids run wild and buck naked down the street.

No, I want to make our kids behave. That's a problem this third thing is to be in agreement about your uh extended family the in-laws and how you're going to deal with them because there are problems in your families and you need to have an be in agreement on how we're going to treat each other how we're going to handle them and so forth and the last one is be in agreement about religion if you're in agreement on how we're going to treat each other, how we're going to handle them, and so forth. And the last one is be in agreement about religion. If you're in agreement on those four areas, you're going to have a very successful marriage on average.

That's what the data tells us, okay? Any one of those, and you've got a problem, any three of those, and you're not going to make it statistically. Right. Okay? So all of that to say the number one one is being in agreement about money. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a Financial Peace University membership as my wedding gift. Awesome. Thank you so much.

It's a one-year membership. There are nine lessons that you go to at your local church there, and you sit through those nine lessons together, and that will be part of your pre-marriage counseling. Even if you both agree that Dave Ramsey is a fool and you don't want to do any of it, at least be in agreement. Okay? Okay. You know, so I think that'll help you start with a really, really solid foundation. A lot of people actually use Financial Peace University as part of their pre-marriage counseling. It's not a substitute for pre-marriage counseling, but as part of it, because when you

can get on the same page about money, you're really agreeing about your life. Jesus said, your treasure is where your heart is. So you spend your money on, and you handle your money on what's important to you. You prioritize. It shows up. What you believe about life shows up in your checkbook. And so to be in agreement on your values, to be in agreement on what you value, to have a oneness, a unity about that is a huge head start in a new marriage. So I'll give that to you.

You hold on, have Kelly pick up. I don't want to give it to you and you go by yourself. If you go by yourself, you'll probably end the engagement. I prefer that you go together because I want you to grow together. I want this to be a bonding time, a thing that creates unity, a thing that creates communication, a thing that creates agreement between the two of you, because that will be a huge gift to your new marriage if you'll do that.

So hold on. I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll get you signed up for all the stuff in Financial Peace University. Thanks, Sean, and congratulations. Zedem is with us in Seattle. Is it Zedem? Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. How are you, Dave?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, anyway, I have a little bit of a dilemma here. I've been following your program for a couple years now, and we've actually reached a point where we are pretty close to being debt-free except the mortgage. Good. And I just got excited, and I kind of went out to get a new truck.

I've been averaging to pay taxes probably 10,000, 11,000 in the past couple years, and I thought the tax breaks are worth getting a new truck. So I didn't pay it off. I'm going to have a payment, of course, but I'm just trying to ask if it's a good idea or not. Well, you know the answer to that. Well, I just want to consider the benefits, the tax benefits. I mean, I'm coughing up extra taxes every year.

Trucks don't give you a tax benefit. Well, I'm a contractor, so I'm getting a tax break, a business write-off, basically. Yeah. What do you make a year? Take home is around 65 to 70. Okay. And so you're in a, what, probably a 15% tax bracket in the year 2018, and so for every $10,000 you spent, you saved $1,500.

How is that smart? Well, it's just this year has been a pretty good year, so I'm kind of... No, you misunderstood. Let me try again. For every $10,000 you spend, it saves you $1,500 in taxes. Okay. That does not equate to smart. Okay, that brings up another question then.

There's a new law where I can write off up to $18,000 in depreciation for this current year. Yeah. So if I can write off... So you're going to go borrow $18,000 to create an $18,000 write-off. Dude, you've got to stop playing these games. You're going to be broke your whole life doing that crap. So, no, no, no, no, no.

A write-off is not smart. You don't do stuff for tax reasons. It never equals 100 cents on the dollar, ever. And so, I know the new law. I run a business. So, no. I mean, you do whatever you want to do. Okay, that's what you get to do.

But you called me and asked me. After you said, I'm working your plan. And so, no, no. You know, what I'm going to teach you to do is the shortest path to wealth. And no one has ever gotten wealthy going, tax breaks made me wealthy. That's complete BS. Tax breaks don't make you wealthy.

There's not a chance of that. You wanted a dadgum truck. That's all it is. And you went and bought a dadgum truck. And now you're trying to figure out some way that that's smart when you had to borrow money to buy the dadgum truck. And so, no, there's not a way that that's going to turn into smart. There's no amount of mental or mathematical gymnastics that you're going to be able to do that creates smart out of this.

So, no, no, you shouldn't have done that. And, yes, you need to sell it and whatever else. I mean, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. There's always a way you can rationalize stuff, folks. You can always figure out a way to talk yourself into something being smart. But the things that some of the most profound and sophisticated things that you'll ever do or understand in your life are very easy to understand. They're just hard to do. Things like tell the truth. You know what to do and you can skirt it and you can figure out a way around it. Love your neighbor.

Well, I'm doing this to love them. No, you're just not loving them. That's what it comes down to. You're just doing the bones to love them right. Right? And, yeah, you can go borrow money and try to figure out some way to sophisticate it. But it doesn't work. It doesn't work, folks.

That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener. We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread the word.