The Ramsey Show - App - How to Kick-Start Your Financial Goals at Any Age (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 27, 2018

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 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. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Thanks for joining us. Marquis is with us in Orlando, Florida.

Hey, Marquis, how are you? Hey, I'm doing pretty well, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm 18, and I'm fresh in college. I'm a freshman, and I do want to invest. I started my Roth IRA, but I'm wondering if I should save up for college

or if I should just start putting some money in my Roth IRA. You should pay for college. The best investment you can make, Marquis, is not a mutual fund. The best investment is named Marquis. You getting through school debt-free with a degree that's usable in the marketplace will make you more

money than a mutual fund will make you. So what are you studying? I'm actually becoming a dental hygienist, but that's the thing I wanted to talk to you about. My college, I was able to do my place of work. I was able to get it paid for. So that's why I wanted to. Should I have some extra money on the side, or should I just go ahead and do that?

No, I still want you to get through debt-free. Even if they're paying for it, let's go ahead and just save a big pile of money, as big a pile as you can get until you graduate and when you graduate and you and then you settle into your longer term career then we'll start investing and you got plenty of time to invest you're still very very young you got lots of time i'm glad you're thinking about this i'm glad you're working towards it i wouldn't cash out the roth ira but I wouldn't do any more until you get out of school.

How long is it going to take you to complete school? It will take me, after this year, it will take me three years. Okay. So three years in total, including this semester. And you work for a dental company? No, sir. I work for Chick-fil-A. And they're paying for you to go become a dental hygienist?

Mm-hmm. Yes, sir. 100%? Yes, sir. Yeah. Wow!fil-A. And they're paying for you to go become a dental hygienist? Mm-hmm. Yes, sir. 100%? Yes, sir, yeah. Wow! Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Very good.

How did you, I got to know, how did you qualify for this? I mean, any student that works there or what? Well, I mean, you have to have a certain, like, GPA level, and you have to have, like, there are certain, like, requirements, and also, like, you have to have certain requirements, and also you have to work there for a certain amount of time, but they do give out certain scholarships. Well, I'm well aware they give out a lot, millions and millions of dollars of scholarships. Oh, yeah. I've been friends with those guys for years, but I didn't know how universal or what process

they used in order to award them. So how long do you have to work there before you qualify? I worked there a year before I qualified, at least before I got the scholarship. But I mean, I've gotten multiple, and they've all added up to be able to pay for it. So I mean, it wasn't just like six or eight months. It could have been like multiple.

Oh, you got other scholarships too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I misunderstood. I thought you said work was paying for the whole thing. Oh, yeah, I missed that. That's okay. I'm just trying to understand what you're doing, because it's the way to do it, man. You work, you get scholarships, you go to a school you can afford, and you pay cash for it.

And then you come out a dental hygienist, and you'll make a great living. Gotcha. Go for it, brother. Go for it. Hey you come out a dental hygienist and you'll make a great living gotcha go for it brother go for it hey thanks for the call open phones at 888-825-5225 jennifer is in new york hi jennifer how are you hi dave i'm good how are you better than i deserve what's up um so my husband and i finished baby step three 3 last Friday, and I'm getting ready to set up my 401k for the 15%. Congratulations. Thank you. Before I discovered your plan, I had actually been saving in my 401k for about 20 years. So I currently have about $430,000 in traditional 401k.

Good for you. So I've never done, thank you. I've never done anything with Roth. And I think now that I'm restarting my retirement, I should be putting it into Roth like you suggest. Correct. But what I'm confused about is my company has a really robust 401k plan, and there's like nine pages worth of things I can put my investments in. And I can't quite figure out which ones match up to your recommendation. Gotcha.

Okay. Now, do they have the Roth 401k? Yes, they do. Excellent. And do they have a match ask? Yes, they do. Excellent. And do they have a match as well? Yes, they match up to 6%, and then we also get an automatic 2% at the end of the year. Very nice. Well, that's wonderful, wonderful. You're going to do so well. Well, so you have nine pages of mutual funds to select from.

It's like some of them are under what's called a mutual fund window, but then there's others that are like target life funds based on when you're going to retire, and some are just aggressive life funds. Okay, those are bundles of funds that are trying to make it easy for you to not have to look at the individual funds. So any of those groupings I would just stay away from because we're just simply going to try to select the individual funds that fit the four categories, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international.

So let's walk through it a little bit. And if I can't get you all the way there, I will recommend that you get with one of our SmartVestor pros, and they'll help you pick the fund within your 401k. They don't make a commission on it, but they'll be able to walk you through it if we can't get to it on the radio. So first, the most easygoing of the four is growth and income. Okay.

That is also called sometimes a large cap fund. Okay, I didn't see that. Cap stands for capitalization. Large capitalization means lots of money, big money companies. They're big old boring dinosaur companies in those funds. Alcoa, General Motors, Yawn. It's not going to do anything exciting up, but it's not going to do anything exciting down. That's the large cap. There's sometimes called a blue chip fund

because the blue chip on the poker table is the most expensive chip. We actually have both of those. Okay. Those are all large cap. I mean, they're all growth and income. Growth and income, blue chip, large cap, all the same.

Okay. Just a different way of saying the same thing. And so you can look at any of those that have a good long track record and you like the highest average annual return, and you pick it that way. The second one, then, is the growth fund. Now, the growth fund is kind of in the middle, and guess what? It would be called a mid-cap. If they don't have a good growth fund or a mid-cap, I'd be shocked if they don't have one that's just named growth fund,

but they might not, or mid-cap. You can settle for an S&P 500 index fund, which would be the mean of the stock market. That's the median of the stock market. That's the median of the stock market. Then the third one is aggressive growth. Guess what that's called? Small cap. These are the little companies, the volatile ones.

Sometimes they're also called emerging markets. You might see it called that. Then the fourth one is international. And guess what? That's overseas. So that could be called foreign funds or something along those lines as well. Then the fourth one is international. And guess what? That's overseas. So that could be called foreign funds or something along those lines as well. If that doesn't give you enough guideline to get there, jump online at DaveRamsey.com,

click SmartVestor, and get one of the SmartVestor pros, and they'll walk you through this. Hey, thanks for calling in. It's time to take another look at your budget. That means scouring every expense and making sure you're not leaving any money on the table. One of the biggest expenses is your mortgage payment. I recommend a quick Churchill checkup. In just five minutes, our friends at Churchill Mortgage can tell you if you could save some cash each month. They've helped thousands upon thousands of my listeners keep more cash in their pockets through a smarter mortgage.

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Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Eric is with us in New Jersey. Hi, Eric. How are you? Hi, Dave. It's an honor to speak to you. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir.

How can I help? Yes, sir. Okay. I'm on baby step two. I'm married with two beautiful daughters. And I have a question for you. My wife, she believes mostly on everything that you said, but there's an issue. She works on a bank, so she sells those products, those credit cards, loans. She actually got a

training two days ago about HELOCs and mortgages and stuff like that, and she also gets compensated when she sells this type of product. So I'm trying to pull her away from that world, but at the place she works, it's like a fight that I'm constantly living. So she actually believes in that, but at the same time, she's trying to follow the plan in order to work together with me, and I need wise advice from you. It's very difficult to be good at something that you don't believe. Right.

And whether that's her coming home and working beside you and saying, okay, we're going to be good at getting out of debt. When I think debt is awesome, if you think debt is awesome, you're not going to be good at getting out of debt. When I think debt is awesome. If you think debt is awesome, you're not going to be good at getting out of debt. On the other hand, if you're trying to get out of debt at home, then you're not going to be good at selling debt at work. Right, right. Right now, the last thing she agreed on the plan. It was a seven-month argue and fight.

I put in some videos of you. I was able to convince her for her to allow me to pay her credit card so we can put everything together. We have combined finances. And the only debt we have so far is our car. And she's pretty much following every advice I'm giving her, but I'm a little bit concerned of what she's doing at work and what we're doing at home. Well, it's just a conflicted thing. I mean, that's reasonable.

It's hard to do that. And so I understand. I understand what she's facing. What does she make a year? She's making $31,000. Okay. And how long has she been at the bank? Well, this year will be her 10 years of experience in banking.

Right. And what do you make? I'm making $46,000 right now. Okay. Well, I mean, what we might do is start setting a goal that allows her to change careers and maybe do something that she likes better. She says she likes real estate. She likes real estate?

She says that, but she has no knowledge whatsoever, and she is already 38 years old. Well, that's okay. So why don't we start working towards getting your real estate license while she stays at the bank? She can do real estate part-time. Yeah. And learn about it and get going,

get her career moving, because if she started making as much money doing real estate on the side as she was at the bank, she'd quit the bank, right? Yeah, definitely. And she'd be doing what she loves. Right, right. She's been there for all these years because that's the only job opportunity she found. Yeah, well, there's lots of job opportunities.

And one of them is real estate. I would pursue some real estate. I mean, she doesn't have to quit today, but quit her banking job today. But you know, hey, she's 38. By the time she's 42, I want her being a real estate agent. Yeah, we're going to be debt-free in a year and a half.

So I guess we're doing pretty good. But to be honest, that's my... The way the answer is, the answer to your question, how do you get your wife on board, is how does my wife deal with this conflict of selling debt at work but getting out of debt at home, is help her gradually, step by step, step into her dream of being a real estate agent. You be a good husband, serve her, help step into her dream of being a real estate agent. You be a good husband. Serve her.

Help her live her dream. And when you do that, it's going to solve all of this stuff. But it's going to take a little bit of time. It's not going to be quick. It might take two years. She's going to stay in the banking job for the next couple of years probably. But she gets her license. She gets some knowledge knowledge as you said starts

to learn about the business makes a couple sales working on the weekends and evenings when she's not at the bank which is by the way when most people look at houses anyway and uh gets a couple transactions under her belt you guys are out of debt you start to build up some savings you feel more comfortable with her uh because she's making in real estate, but maybe not quite making as much as the bank, then she could quit the bank and make the transition. And I think you help her live her dream. Sounds to me like. Thanks for the call.

Dee's with us in New York City. Hi, Dee. How are you? Hello, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. How you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up?

I own a house in Orlando, but I live in New Jersey. I would like to know if I should put it up for rent or sell it. I would sell it. Sell it? Yes. Very few things happen that are good when you long-distance landlord. It's very hard to watch over the property adequately. I do not own rental property that is more than 50 miles from my home.

Even if I get a management company to do it for me? So are they going to watch it as close as you do? No. I hope so, but I will have to pay 10%. Why do you want to keep it? I wish to move down there eventually in the next three years or so. Well, buy a house when you move down there. Okay. That house is not anything magic, is it? It is a dream home for me because I've been wanting to. It was an emotional decision. I've been wanting to own a house for a long time. It was a dream to own a home, but that particular home is not anything magic, is it?

No. Okay. So sell it, and when you get ready to move to Orlando, buy your house. Okay. So I would have to take it lost since I just bought it this summer. Why did you buy it when you live in New York? Because I was planning to move down there, and my cousin helped me to get into it, and I realized that the money that I get paid here compared to Orlando wouldn't be near the same.

But you're not living in it. If you were living in it, that logic would work, but your logic's flawed. All you did is you're just a person that lives in New York and you bought a rental property in Orlando. That's all you did. You've never moved in the house. You never lived in it, right? No.

Okay. I mean, if you want to keep it, you can keep it. You call and ask me what I would do. I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. I don't own as long as this rental property. I think you're going to get yourself in a pinch. That's how you end up with a tenant changing their Harley oil in your living room. Some management company is half-butt watching something.

They half-butt collect the rent, and they double charge on half the repairs. And not all management companies are that way, but some of them mail it in. And you're in New York. You're watching over a property in Florida. I think it's a good way for you to have a really bad, nightmarish real estate experience. That's my opinion anyway. You can do whatever you want to do.

I'm not going to be mad at you either way. So good luck. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life, your money. It is a free call. Dave, my work offers SmartDollar. Is Financial Peace University also recommended as my wife and I go through this journey?

We're on baby step two and knocking them out. Now, if you've got SmartDollar and you and your wife are going through it, you've got access to the information and most of the very similar teachings on the videos. SmartDollar is a very comprehensive program. It's basically with some changes, but it's basically your company offering to pay for Financial Peace University for you is what it is. And I would just make sure your wife and you are both on it, Kevin. That's the big thing. But SmartDollar has been very successful.

We've got huge companies in America paying for their entire employee base to go through it. It's great. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I get asked all the time about what people need to do to improve their family's money situation. Two of the most overlooked things are term life insurance and disability insurance. Both plans make sure that you have income to pay bills and take care of yourself and your family if something were to happen. For term life, you need to carry 10 to 12 times your income, and I recommend 15 or 20-year plans for most families. Stay away from cash value or return of premium plans. They're just a ripoff.

Disability insurance is just as critical. How are you going to pay your bills if you're unable to work? Disability is the leading cause of bankruptcies and foreclosures, and that's why I send you to Zander Insurance. They've been helping my listeners find the right plans at the lowest cost for almost 20 years. Call 800-356-1780 or visit zander.com and compare online. That's 800-356-1780 or zander.com. What if you never had another student loan payment? You never had another credit card bill. You never had a mortgage payment again. Wow.

Well, you really can take control of our money. You can take control of your money, actually. It's called Financial Peace University. Our easy-to-follow steps will teach you how to spend wisely, actually save up for purchases and pay for them, be ready for emergencies, get out of debt, so that you've got control of your most powerful wealth building tool, which is your income. Then you're ready to start investing. We'll show you how to do that.

And you'll build wealth. You'll become wealthy. And you'll be in a position to be outrageously generous, which kind of is the point of the story, isn't it? To get started with Financial Peace University, just check us out at DaveRamsey.com or call Customer Care. They'll help you at 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223. Ben's with us in Cincinnati.

Hi, Ben. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you very much. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I just started a new job recently, and I was curious on which of the retirement plans that I should go for. The job is with the state, and so I have to choose either the PERS program or the ARP, Alternative Retirement Plan program, both put in 10% and both they match 14%. So one's more for the pension and the other one is you have a little bit more control over.

So just wanted your input. Always take the control. Always take the control. Even though the PERS program has, you know, health care or Medicare even earlier for retirement? Probably. I mean, it depends on where you are. But most of the time, your control will equate to more than enough to pay for those things. Gotcha.

And on top of that, the pension dies when you die, and money that is in your name that you have control over, it sounds like the alternative plan is more like a traditional 401K, that the pension dies when you die, and money that is in your name that you have control over, it sounds like the alternative plan is more like a traditional 401K, and that way you own it. And if you ever left the state, you just roll it over to an IRA. When you leave the state with a pension, you lose it, or you have to wait until you're 65 to get it. Perfect. Yeah, so I'm always going to take control when I get the chance. That's always my plan. Thanks for the call.

Maxwell is with us in Maryland. Hi, Maxwell. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for having me, Dave. Sure. What's up? Hey, so basically I'm about $25,000 in debt from my student loans and everything like that. And I had an app idea that I have about 55% funded right now,

and I have to come up with $30,000 to invent it and get it all made and everything like that. So I just kind of want to hear your input whether I should kind of tackle the debt or go after the app. Are you a programmer? No. So the company that's making it is actually, you know, saying, hey, we need $70,000 to make it. They invested $40,000 into it, and I just have to come up with the extra $30,000. They already have invested? Yes.

Well, it's based off of if I can get that 30%. I'm sorry. Has any work been done? No, no, no. It's all, you know, when it's the investor, which is me or another investor, puts that $30K up, then they put up $40K. Where did you find these people? Cubix.

It's a pretty well-known app developer. Okay. I suspect you could hire someone to write an app for the money you've got. Mm-hmm. I mean, I've got guys sitting here all day long writing apps at our place. So, and yet you're not even going to own this thing 100% when you're done with this, right? You're just getting a piece of it. Yeah.

No, I'll have 80% ownership. Yeah. After having – listen, I want you to investigate different ways to do this. I think you can do this cheaper than you're talking about. Okay. I'm a little shocked at the price tag to develop an app. I don't know how complicated this app is, but you understand, too, when you're developing an app, you're talking about putting it on iTunes, and then you're going to try to monetize it at whatever rate, right?

Meaning you're going to try to make your money back. Yep. Yeah, and you understand that's a roll of the dice. Mm-hmm. I do. I really think it's kind of a one-of-a-kind monetized app. Of course you do. Of course you think that. You wouldn't go into it if you didn't think that.

But, dude, all the stuff that I have tried that hasn't worked, I can promise you, some of the things I think are going to work, and I'm pretty smart, don't work. So it might work. I'm not saying it don't work, i i think you need to figure out another way to skin this cat i i'm gonna pay cash for this uh i want you to get out of debt too what do you make a year i'm about 50 000 right now okay um i don't think i can stop you because i think you're already on the bench doing this so but um i think the money you have laying there you probably get this app developed.

If you found a couple of good developers and maybe give them a couple of points of ownership in it if it took off. And in order to discount their rate, instead of trying to go with this out-of-the-box deal that you're messing with here. I wouldn't do the deal you're doing. I smell overpriced is what i smell because we do apps around here all the time and and ones that have made lots of money we got five million people on every dollar and we got a lot more money than 70 grand in every dollar but um a whole lot more than that in it but uh uh now I think you pay cash for it and you own it and you take your business risk that way. That's what I would do. Or get yourself out of debt, and then when you're out of debt, save up the money and then do it.

But I don't think I can stop you. I think you're already on your track. Ryan is with us in Orlando. Hi, Ryan. How are you? Great, Dave. How are you? Better than your track. Ryan is with us in Orlando. Hi, Ryan. How are you? Great, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Well, I've got six months ago I started a new job, kind of making decent money. And I'm stepping into the adulthood, as my parents like to say. And I've been thinking about investing recently. And I look into the vanguards and the fidelities, and it's kind of sensory overload. I see mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, and I was curious what your opinion is on the best route to begin a portfolio. Are you out of debt? Well, I owe about $13,000 on a truck, and other than that, that's all.

Okay. You need to clear that before we implement what we're going to discuss. So I want you to clear that out, okay, and have your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses in place. That's what I would do. But the index fund is simply following an index. The most popular is an S&P 500. Standard and Poor is a company that rates the top 500 stocks in the stock market, and the S&P 500 is the baseline of what the stock market does.

If it outperforms the S&P 500, it outperforms the stock market. If it underperforms the S&P 500, it underperforms the stock market. More than half of mutual funds underperform the S&P. So you've been better off to just buy an index fund half the time, if you're going to guess. But I don't guess. I buy funds that have a long track record of outperforming the S&P. Most of the ETFs are index funds, and they have lower fees than index funds.

So if you're going to just buy an index fund, an ETF is a way to go. But I don't do any of that. I buy mutual funds that outperform both of them, that have long track records of outperforming both of them. And inside of the mutual fund prospectus, or if you're looking at the information online, they'll show you. You can pull up any mutual fund, pull up the details on that mutual fund. It'll show you what its rate of return has been since it started on a trend line, on a graph, and it'll show you the S&P trend line on the graph. If the S&P line is not below the other trend line, then don't buy it, right?

Right. And that, you know, it's really a difficult thing to do. Not at all. So that's how I pick them. And I buy four types of mutual funds inside my retirement accounts. Growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. Hey, thanks for calling in. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Romans 12.12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Richard Branson said, Treat failure as a lesson on how not to approach achieving a goal

and then use that learning to improve your chances of success when you try again. Failure is only the end if you decide to stop. Josh is with us in Roanoke, Virginia. Hi, Josh. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, Dave. I just wanted to let you know that I've been following your program now for the past two months and just wanted to say that I'm on a solid two and a half year plan to get me out of debt and be

debt free. And I'm very excited about it. Good for you. Basically, my question is today, I've been trying to follow more principles of the Bible, not only just about life, but also about money as well, and also what have you been teaching. And basically my question is, how can I work on getting out of debt and also be generous and give back to others at the same time? Well, they obviously both pull at the same checkbook, without a doubt. And Scripture breaks giving, for those of us that are Christians, into two categories.

Tithing, which is a tenth of your income, and offering. Tithes and offerings. There is not an instance that I've been able to find in scripture that an offering was given except from surplus meaning extra money after you've gotten yourself out of debt and you're building some wealth and that even includes the example the widow's might we can discuss that another time if you go through legacy journey you'll see some different um renderings on that scripture and look at it but But anyway, even if you set that in there, if you said the widow's mite is one time, then that's the only time in scripture that anybody gave from anything except surplus other than the tithe. Now, every time the tithe is mentioned, a tenth of your income, it's called first fruits,

which means off the top. The first fruits that come out of the harvest go to the Lord's house before you do anything else. And so the baseline that I've used is this. First and foremost, God's not mad at you either way. He's your dad. He's your heavenly father. He loves you.

He thinks you're awesome. He thinks you're smart. He's your heavenly father. He loves you. He thinks you're awesome. He thinks you're smart. He's not going to be mad at you. He's not going to wait to give you good things until you do it exactly perfect according to him. It's not all that freaked out, okay? So let's not get legalistic about performance-based Christianity, okay? We're not going to do that. So we're going to walk in grace and in the light and with a lot of love,

and everything's going to walk we're going to walk in grace and in the light and with a lot of love and we're just everything's going to be okay and we're going to say so the tithe is a principle it is not a sin issue okay and people get that people get them confused they make them very very legalistic i don't i'm very diligent about it but i'm not legalistic about it so because i'm very sure that my dad who loves me put his arm around me and says son the best way to live is with your money the first thing you do is you give 10 to your local church then here's some other stuff you do with money if you want to win with money but he's going to love me whether i do it or not you You follow me? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so the tithe is your baseline. You start there no matter how broke you are, 10%. But I wouldn't give a dime more than that, and I didn't.

I tithed, though, all the way into bankruptcy court and all the way out. And so, I mean, I've tithed my whole Christian life ever since I got saved and met God. And so I believe you give a tenth of your income, and evangelicals have taught that for hundreds and hundreds of years, that our grasp of the Scripture is that we give a tenth of our income to our local church because it's a New Testament representation of the Old Testament storehouse. The storehouse took care of the widows and the orphans and fed the priests, the Levites. So the

local church's job is to take care of the widows and orphans and pay the pastor. That's their primary job. So being active in the community, taking care of single moms, loving on widows and children and that kind of stuff. If your church is doing that, you're attending

that church, you trust that church, and you shouldn't attend there if you don't trust them, and you give them a tenth. And then other giving I would wait to do until I got myself out of debt, got my emergency fund in place, and at that point when I'm doing Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6, I would increase some of my generosity at that point, when I'm doing baby steps four, five, and six, I would increase some of my generosity at that point. And, of course, you're going to really increase it when you get to baby step seven above 10%. But I kind of break them into those two buckets. Not kind of, I do.

Now, again, you can do whatever you want, but that's how I have interpreted Scripture. Absolutely. That helps out tremendously. That was really pardoning to me, and I really appreciate the insight on that. Cool. Thank you for calling in, man. We appreciate you listening. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

By the way, a lot of you that are listening are not people of faith. I understand that. That guy was asking me from that perspective, so I'm answering from that perspective. If you're not, you still ought to apply the principle, because the principle will still work for you the principle is give something 10 it's not a bad guideline and uh get you know give 10 and then do your budget with the other 90 you'll make it you'll make it and something is activated in you when you're giving that that, okay, it's not all about me. I'm not going to try to squeeze every penny until it screams. I'm going to hold this with an open hand.

This is not all about some weirdness. But you can't grit your teeth enough. and there's something that happens when you learn to give that it moves you along the selfishness spectrum from selfish to less selfish and for those of us that are believers that's why God tells you to do that he's trying to teach you a lesson not because he needs your money he doesn't need your money if he wanted your money he'd take it and there would be a greasy spot where you were sitting. He didn't need your money. He's got money. He's God. Okay. So, and if his church needed his money, he'd get it from somebody other than you. Don't worry about it. That's not the problem. The problem is he's trying to teach you how to win and how to be a better person and how to grow.

And in our case, again, people of faith be more like christ more christ-like more like god and so become better grow in your spiritual walk and that's that's where giving comes in and that's why we say live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else because giving is the most fun you will ever have with money, by far. Nothing comes close. Now, you can go out and have a $300 dinner at a fine dining establishment with some of the world's best food and wine, and you should. I want you to get to the point that you can do that.

But you can also have more fun than that with that $300 giving it away. Finding someone that you learn a little bit about their situation so you're not giving a drunk a drink, we're not going to be an enabler, but we find a situation, and you know, you ever been in a situation where $300 will change your life? I have. I've been that broke. I've been that scared.

And you just catch somebody just as they're leaning over, just as they're about to fall over, and you hand them $300, it changes everything. They stand straight back up. It's amazing. And it's, my friend Chris Brown says that generosity works like this. If you do not position yourself for your intentions, you cannot do your intentions. You can intend to be helpful.

You can intend to be giving. But when you get yourself in good shape financially, then you are positioned for your intentions. And you can be generous then. And that's a beautiful thing. Intending. A lot of people intend to do stuff. But if you intend

to send your wife flowers on your anniversary, but you don't, you don't get points for your intention. You only get points if you sent the freaking flowers. Okay?

I don't care what you intend to do or what your heart says or how you feel about something. What you actually do is what you get points for, right? She's not keeping score. Oh, I know you meant to do that. It's okay. No, that isn't how that works, darling.

The flowers actually need to hit the table, baby. They got to show up at the front door with the little man from the florist. That's how that works. Intention doesn't matter. You got to do it. I intended. I don't care what you intended to do. I care what you did. That's how that works. Intention doesn't matter. You've got to do it. I intended. I don't care what you intended to do. I care what you did.

That's how you measure that. So put yourself in a position to be outrageously generous and quit talking about it. And quit talking about everybody else being generous when you're not. Man, there's some people doing that, isn't there? That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in 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 guys, this is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.