The Ramsey Show - App - How to Save for a Wedding (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 22, 2019

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🎵 🎵 Live from the new headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the new 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. Well, this hour and the other two hours of today's show are unique in that we're pausing a little bit and just saying, wow, we just moved into a new building and we built this incredible facility to be able to serve you guys that much better with extra broadcast

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But since then we haven't been. And so it's been a real thing for our team. And it's all about serving you guys. And taking care of you better. Getting us more efficient. Where we're able to spend our time. Working on energy that goes straight towards you. Not sideways energy. not distracted energy,

dealing with other miscellaneous stupid stuff. And so that's what happens when you get disorganized and discombobulated, and we're fixing that for you guys. So thank you. Thanks for listening. We appreciate you being with us. And open phones this hour as we take your calls, as we have for 27 years. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Scott is on the line, and he is in Raleigh. Hey, Scott, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Dave, thank you so much for taking my call, and thank you for being a part of my growing up, my financial growth. I've listened to you since I was probably about 13 or 14 years old. Oh, my goodness. Well, I'm honored.

You had a tremendous impact on sort of my financial situation, and I'm just blessed to have found out about you and just blessed from him. Well, thank you. How can I help? You know, there's one part of or one of your steps that I imagine you get the most pushback on, and I'm sure you can guess which one it is. No, I pretty well get pushback on all of them, so I'm not sure. Well, that's paying off the home mortgage. And I guess there's a little part of me that hopes that maybe my case will be different because it's something I haven't focused on.

And let me give you a little rundown about myself. My wife and I are married. I'm 32. She's 30. We're both state employees, which means we're fortunate to have a defined benefits plan after 30 years of service. We're sort of counting on that. We have maxed out IRAs. Both of us have about $35,000 in each of those.

And then when I was that 12-year-old boy listening to you, I decided to take my grass-cutting money and buy my first mutual fund and just sort of kept doing that. And we ended up with about $300,000 in a taxable fund. Good. So I feel like we're in good position. We recently had a great aunt pass away, and I was her sole beneficiary, inherited about a million-dollar estate.

Oh, my goodness. So I told you I was blessed, eh? Wow. So you're a 32-year-old millionaire. So not only did she, and a public school employee. That never happens, right? No, it actually happens more than you would think. Go ahead.

So how much do you owe on your home? So $403,000. Why would you keep a mortgage? You know, as I've waited on hold, the prospect has seemed less and less appealing. I guess the concept is that we expect to have it pay, expect to work for 30 more years, expect to have it paid off in 30 more years, and just that concept of continuing to be able to claim it on our taxes since we don't have dependents.

And then also the idea that, well, when I look back at my stock portfolio's performance, it's been more like 8% as opposed to the 3.85%. Let's walk through it for a second, okay? So $400,000 balance, is that what you told me? Yes, sir. Okay, and your interest rate is what? $3.85. Okay, so we'll just, for purposes of discussing it, we'll round it to four.

So that's $16,000 a year you're paying in interest, correct? Yes, sir. Okay, which means you get to write off $16,000. What's your household income? $145,000, $150,000. Okay. Which means you get to write off $16,000. What's your household income? $145,000, $150,000. Okay. And so we'll put you in for rounding up purposes in a 40% tax bracket. Okay?

Okay. So you send the mortgage company $16,000. You get to deduct that on your taxes, which saves you your tax rate on $16,000, which is $4,800, but it would be like $7,000. Okay? Okay. So you send the mortgage company $16,000 to keep from sending the government $7,000, and you want to keep that? Doesn't sound like a great idea when you put it that way.

Well, that's how the math works. You're giving up $16,000 for a tax write-off. The tax write-off benefits you about 7%, 40% of $16,000. Okay. Does that make sense? It does. Yes, sir. So the tax write-off is mythology of the middle class.

And that's how I grew up. I grew up, everybody wanted a tax write-off. And I got in the real estate business. They told us to tell everybody to keep a up, everybody wanted a tax write-off, and I got in the real estate business. They told us to tell everybody to keep a mortgage because they wanted the tax write-off, and then this old farmer said, son, you're trading a dollar for a quarter. I think that's a great expression, and it sounds exactly true.

Yeah, it is. So that's part of it. The second thing, then, is the rates of return of 4% versus 8%, and you've done good with your stock portfolio. That's wonderful. You did not adjust for risk. You don't have a ton of risk in your life because you, because you, you know, you're a teacher, you have a very stable income. But in, you know, if you're doing graduate level studies in finance, they teach us to adjust investments for risk. You don't compare a risky investment with a no-risk investment, apples to apples,

because one of them makes a higher rate of return. But when you adjust mathematically for risk, it neutralizes the benefit. And that's what happens on the spread. So what we found is we studied 10,000 millionaires that did not inherit their money that became millionaires. It's not a put-down. It's just a point being that most of them don't. You're an unusual millionaire, and that's a wonderful thing for you. But I'm trying to take you to 10 million now.

And as we studied them, the average millionaire pays off their home in 10.2 years and steadily invests. You have steadily invested. You've just not paid off your home. And so if I woke up in your shoes, I would be debt-free by in the morning. And then I would take that cash that you used to give to the mortgage company, and use that to build additional wealth

as quickly as I possibly could. And you're going to turn your $1.6 million into $10 million fairly quickly. It's going to surprise you how quickly that happens. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options?

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We are finishing Baby Step 3 this month. That means they're out of debt and they have their emergency fund. And I'd like to hold off on Baby Steps 4 and 5 so we can pay off our house. If we put everything towards a mortgage, it would be paid off in two years. Is this a good idea? No. That's why we call it baby step six instead of baby step four. If we wanted pay off the mortgage to be baby step four, we would have called it four.

It would have come after this. It's not a good idea. You need to start putting 15% of your income away. Here's what's interesting, Jeremy. When you take the actual dollars that you're talking about not putting into 15% of your income, 0.15 times your household income, and I'm not going to put that towards the mortgage. If you can pay off your home by using that money in two years, you can pay off your home between three that money in two years, you can

pay off your home between three and four years and still put the money in. You're still going to be debt-free in a very, very short period of time, and you're still going to have started your investments. No, I would not wait. Now, if you could do it in two months or something, that's fine. But no, I would not sit on the sidelines of investing for two years when you could still be debt-free in three to four years. It doesn't change the numbers that much. It's an illusion. You're just hyped up and excited because you knocked out your baby step two.

You've gotten out of debt for the first time in your life. You've gotten control of money for the first time in your life. You're finishing your emergency fund. You've got debt for the first time in your life, you've gotten control of money for the first time in your life, you're finishing your emergency fund, you've got savings for the first time in your life, and now you're going to change the plan that brought you here. That's not logical. Don't do that. Nathan is with us in Phoenix.

Hi, Nathan. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for taking my call, Dave. Sure. What's up? Hey, so I'm getting married in April, and I just have kind of a quick question because the last couple of years I've focused on paying off all my debt that I've had, so it's been about $18,000 that I've paid off. Mm-hmm. And I have about $89,000 that we have saved up for the wedding for

for april great but i'm trying to figure out how to still save for the wedding but also have a savings for uh in the future as well because i mean i've cut back on a lot of things and we're just you know putting everything into savings so are wedding right now. So are you debt-free now? Yeah, I mean, other than my mortgage, yes. Okay, good for you. Way to go. And what's the budget for the wedding? What do you need?

Right now, we've set about $20,000, but, I mean, her family is going to help out, but we're just trying to go about it as in, you know, like, if we're going to have to pay for everything ourselves, then we're just going to pay tax for everything. No, this is screwed up. You don't have a target. You need to verify in detail exactly what we're going to spend on the wedding. Okay? It sounds like this.

Okay? We're going to spend $20,000 on the wedding. We're not going to spend $20,000 on the wedding. We're not going to spend $20,001. If mom and dad give us some money, we might increase the budget by that much only. But out of our pocket, we're going to spend $20,000. And you start laying your budget out now because you need to start planning this wedding. It's in 20 minutes. Yeah, tell me about it.

Yeah, it's going to happen fast. And if you don't have a budget, when you go to sit down with the caterer, the reception is going to eat every dollar of this. It's not going to be the bride's dress. It'll be the photographer and the reception that's going to eat your lunch if you don't have a budget. Because you can spend $20,000 on a photographer if you want to go a full feature film, and some people do.

And if you want to go, if you want to party with all your friend anybody you've ever met then even people that don't know you that crash the wedding then you can spend 20 grand on that reception in a heartbeat you can spend fivefold that actually so you gotta have a detailed plan or this thing's gonna eat you guys alive and this kind of sort of i think we're figuring it out it's gonna kill you man uh-huh so you and the bride sit down and say this is what we're gonna spend i think 20 sounds reasonable i think what do you guys make um well i don't really count her uh income um uh i make about i'm sorry why don't you count her income she doesn't she doesn't make that much oh okay oh she's in school yeah uh no she No, she works for the hospital, but she just doesn't make very much.

What does she mean? She works full-time and doesn't make any money? Well, the bills that she has, she uses her money to pay. That wasn't what I asked, honey. I asked what she makes. I didn't ask about her bills. About $30,000. Okay, and about her bills. About $30,000. Okay, and what do you make?

$67,000. Okay, so your new household income when you're married will be like $100,000, right? Yeah. Okay, cool. So spending $20,000 on a wedding is very reasonable. That's what I was trying to get to. I was trying to look at the ratio of the wedding to your income. That's what I was asking.

Okay? So that's what we're doing. So $20,000 is the deal. You've got $8,000. We need $12,000 more. How quick are we going? So that's what we're doing. So 20 is the deal. You've got 8. We need 12 more. How quick are we going to get that? We lay that out. When the 12 is done, you have a separate little savings account called the wedding account.

When it is empty, the wedding quits spending. Gotcha. No more. So you need a budget. You need a detailed wedding budget. This is how much we're going to spend on the reception. This is how much we're going to spend on the photographer. This is what we're going to spend on the dress. This is what we're going to spend on the photographer. This is what we're going to spend on the dress.

This is what we're going to spend on the location. This is what we're going to spend on X and Y and Z, okay? And you guys lay that out, and then that gives her a guideline so when she's out there looking, she's not looking at the wrong thing in terms of picking out, you know, the food line for the reception or whatever it is. I've been through this several times. We've had three big weddings at our house, and we love weddings. They're big parties. I love them, but they'll kill you.

So anyway, you get your detailed budget laid out. Then anything you can save above $20 between now and April is for your next savings, which I would assume is your emergency fund, right? Okay. And then once your emergency fund's done, of three to six months of expenses, which in your case is another 20 at least. Okay. So if you had $40,000, 20 for the wedding and 20 for your emergency fund by next April and you're debt free, I would say touchdown. I'd say you killed it.

Right. And that's going to take a lot of work right there. You're going to have to be really detailed and watch what you're doing. And I don't know why. Does she live at home? Yeah, does she live at home? What? No, she just moved in with me.

Okay, so her expenses are not that much. No, not at all. Does she have a bunch of debt? No, just her. She makes about $800 on the check after taxes, and her bills are about $1,200. What kind of bills has she got? Um, her car payment. Oh, she's got debt. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, okay, so she needs to get about the business of cleaning up her debt while you save up for this wedding. Okay. Yeah, let's get, you know, and then the next thing you guys got to do as soon as you get married, if she's not debt-free, you got to pay off all the debt immediately. Yeah. But 20 is reasonable. Set your budget.

Dial it in real careful, very intentionally, and then don't spend more than that on the wedding. So moral of the story, have a detailed wedding budget. Treat a wedding like it's a project and you're project managing it, like you're building a house. You're project managing it. This is our budget for the house. And we can't spend more than X on carpet and we can't spend more than Y on tile. And oh, we found this other tile.

Well, we can't afford it. And that's what you say to yourself in life, because always money is finite, always. The amount of money you have at your fingertips has an exact amount, and it always will slip away from you. You have to be very, very, very careful. So good job. Good job, man. You got this dialed in. You can do it.

And if I can help you more, I'd love to. I'm honored to be in your corner, and I'm excited for your new life that begins in April. Thanks for calling in. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're with us. We are celebrating today being in our new studios, being in our new headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. And again, I mentioned at the top of the hour, but we want you guys to join us.

Come hang out with us. the top of the hour but we want you guys to join us come hang out with us be part of the program you're going to be amazed at what you get to see and participate in when you're here all kinds of fun activities to do here in our lobby all built just for you guys so make plans to come beginning in about a week we'd love to have you

this is the Dave Ramsey Show. Big day here today as we're celebrating the opening of the new headquarters of Ramsey Solutions and today our first broadcast from the new Dollar Car Rental Studios in our new headquarters. Ramsey personality Anthony O'Neill, best-selling author of The Graduate Survival Guide, Five Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make in College, joins me. We've had each of the personalities on today to kind of mark this milestone. It's a big day. It's exciting around here. Man, it is exciting, Dave.

The studio is beautiful. Man, I'm just excited for where we're going in the future. I mean, compared to our old one, you can run laps in there. I mean, it's just crazy. You know, I'm a gym guy. I mean, I can do some sit-ups, push-ups, and do a lot of stuff in here, Dave. Yeah, I've seen you on Instagram. You're kind of sickening.

I love it. Hey, the team's got a lot of energy out there on the floor, don't they? Yes, sir. A lot of energy. I walked in this morning. I was like, man, the energy is just electric. I mean, and it just gives off so much good vibes. So I'm just excited.

Good times. Good times. Good times. So one of the things we're doing with each, we had Rachel and Christy, of course, and Hogan and Coleman on. And I ask each of them to make sure that our audience knows kind of the story of how you became a Ramsey personality. Your story is a little different than theirs. It is, actually. You know, I was at that time, Dave, about four years ago, actually, last week, last Tuesday, made my fourth year here with this amazing team. But, you know, four years ago, I was pastoring. I was a youth pastor out in

Omega Church, and I was out there just really spreading a good message to young people, helping them to really make good decisions with their spiritual walk. And also, I focused a lot on their financial walk. And you and your team here was looking for someone to come in and represent for the youth personality. And right around that time, I was praying about what's next. And the two just met, you know, you guys wanted this youth personality. I wanted to really get out there and expand and touch as many people as I possibly can. And I met up with your team and met up with Jeremy, Jim and Suzanne. And we just started connecting.

And it was great. I got to say, though, I felt like I was interviewing for the FBI when I joined because it took about eight months for the process. But I definitely see why, because it's a lot. We're doing a lot here. Well, and we invest very heavily into you guys. Yes, sir. We got to make sure that we're dealing with the quality people, which you obviously are.

So you were youth pastoring Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville, Florida. And that youth group was what size? We ran about 5,000 a week. 5,000 kids. Yes, sir. And when you started youth pastoring it, it wasn't that big. No, we only had maybe 30 coming out.

Oh, whoa. So you started kind of ground up. Ground up. Raised it to 5,000. I know the numbers were ridiculous, but I didn't remember they were that big wow we were very well known for our friday night uh um i pray services we just would shut down uh the entire church and after the football games we'll bring in kids and we'll have a big service and it was just very very very good when we first got there my team and i first got to the church we actually shut down the whole youth

ministry went out into the community and started learning why why are the youth not coming to the program and then once we relaunched it it was just history from there okay cool it's kind of what we've done here yes um you've gone out there in the highways and byways I mean you've been in schools I mean have you kept count how many high schools you've spoken in in four years i haven't no sir it's been a lot it's it's probably thousands thousands easy i mean you're gone all the time you burn a lot of jet fuel yeah and we're starting to get a lot more colleges reaching out just just next month alone i'll be in four colleges just in that next month so i'm just excited with high schools colleges and just really helping these teens and millennials start right. Yeah, you're getting a lot of reaction in the churches and in the colleges both. It's starting to move.

And then, you know, on Smart Conference, you and Dr. McMeeker got to know each other. And we're all sitting and watching you talk about teenagers and her talk about parenting. And we went, wait a minute, those two would make a great pair. And you have. You did the Smart Parent event. Yes, sir. And the first two last spring. And they were both a sellout, both successful.

Both successful. And it was good, Dave, just to hear parents saying, you know what? I actually loved coming to the meeting, coming to the event, hearing from a parent perspective who talks to parents as a doctor. But then also hearing from Anthony, who has a heart and passion for young people and helping me understand my child a little bit better. And when you combine Dr. Meg and myself, it was just a great event. I'm excited. We're going to be announcing here soon some other ones that we're going to do later this fall, and we're going to sell those out as well.

So you've been on national TV multiple times. You've been on a bunch of really big stages with anywhere from 5 000 to 10 000 people that we've events we've done and so forth what one of those you remember the first one of something you did that just scared the pants off of you i said this first smart conference was a very i was nervous and that was when i did in a very first smart conference was in orlando and we had about 5 000 people there and i had to give my very first talkART conference was in Orlando. And we had about 5,000 people there. And I had to give my very first talk and I had 15 minutes.

And I was so scared because I came from preaching and I was like, you're a long-winded Anthony. You got to do this in 15 minutes. But it was just absolutely amazing. The crowd was amazing. You were amazing. Our entire team was amazing. I was scared, but I left the stage

just ready for what the future brought and from there on it's just been amazing since then now i remember distinctly you nailed it i remember it distinctly i also remember sitting in a green room getting ready to go on fox and friends one morning and your eyes are kind of like focus yeah that i mean hey i'm on the stage with you i'm on the stage with chris hogan these other you know ramsey personalities i just want to make sure that i'm doing my part on this team and representing our team and this amazing company uh correctly before millions of people so we're working on a big project around here right now um we're all pretty disgusted like

america is with this whole student loan debacle. And we don't think government is the answer. It never is. And so we're working on some podcasts, a detailed, in-depth podcast-type documentary that you guys have been putting a lot of time into. Not ready to announce that yet, but that's in the future. And you've already mentioned on your Instagram that a new book is yes um in the fall go ahead and tell us what that is i'm really excited about this one dave it's called debt-free degree you know our team here has spent a lot of time just researching because i'm sick and tired of the world saying to go to school if you don't get a scholarship then you

have to take out student loans and that is not the route at all. You know, Dave, you know my story in America. If you follow me, you know my story. I took out ten thousand dollars in student loans not to pay for school, but to fund my lifestyle. I had a scholarship, so I just took out ten thousand dollars so I can eat good, look good and buy things that I didn't even need. And I got into debt, became homeless for bad and poor money decisions and so this book is really to help prevent young people from getting into student loans and really get into that period because you can go to college 100 debt free and so i'm just really excited about but it's a full planning guide oh this starts you know when the kids when your child is in middle school the things you need to do the child is in ninth grade 10 grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade.

Here's what you need to do. And it's not just the savings part. It's all the different pieces that we've talked about bringing it together and discussing the whole student loan subject is quite a hot topic right now. Hot topic. You know, we're talking about community colleges, trade schools, four-year universities. We're talking about the ACT and the SAT and how you can use those to your advantage, how to even really learn more about those to really effectively accomplish that test. We're even talking about FAFSA. Dave, we talk about so much from literally

seventh grade through 12th grade on exactly what you need to do every year down to every semester. Yeah. And bottom line is you go to a school you can afford, and here's how you can afford it. Exactly. And I say this in the book, Dave, your dream school is a school you can afford. Oh, otherwise it's your nightmare school. There you go. That's good.

I like that. Debt-free degree coming this fall. Be watching for it. We'll be talking about it a lot more, as we always do. We'll let you guys know about it, but it's not only possible, it is entirely what you should be doing. As a matter of fact, we're going to straight up call you stupid if you don't do it. I mean, you've got to do this. You've got to live this

way. I've been talking about it for a long time. Rachel's been talking about it. Anthony's been talking about it. And so some of our team had kids going off to college, and they went through the whole experience of weeding through the FAFSA mess. It's a mess.

It is. It's a dadgum barrel of fish hooks, you know? And so, Debt-Free Degree by Anthony O'Neill coming out this fall. We'll be doing our launch on it next month. Yes, sir. On the pre-sales, and then we'll give you our actual street date and so forth at that time. The future is bright.

Be listening to Anthony's podcast. Be watching his videos uh he's all over instagram for sure thanks for stopping by thank you dave thank you america ramsay personality anthony o'neill We'll be right back. Our scripture of the day, Psalm 98.1 Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. Louis Giglio says, If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Yeah, it is slower to go as a group. You don't want to go by the slowest common denominator, but it is still slower to go by the group, but you will go further. Yeah, good stuff. Good stuff, Louie. I love it. We're celebrating today being in our new headquarters. I promise we won't yak about it continuously,

but it is Christmas morning for those 900 of us here at Ramsey, and we are a wee bit excited and enjoying ourselves in the new digs and in the new environment, the new spirit of this place. It is constantly amazing to me that places do have a spirit, and this one has a spirit of service on it, that we're here to serve you guys. And we've made sure of that in the way we put it together physically, but also the way we've prayed about it. And so it's been a pretty incredible process.

All right, Anthony is with us in Pittsburgh. Hi, Anthony. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call today. I appreciate it. My pleasure. How can I help?

I'm calling because my place of business, I currently lease the space for that and have just about outgrown the space. And right down the road, there's a building that would be a pretty good fit that's for sale. And it looks like a mortgage on that, the mortgage payment would be about the same thing as I'm paying for my lease right now. So I just wanted to kind of get your thoughts on that. Like I said, it's a pretty good fit and roughly the same payment that I'm paying each month right now, but just wanted to see what you would feel. Yeah. Okay. And how much is it? The building is $239,000.

Okay. $239,000. Okay. And how many people you got on your team? 20. How long you been open? Five years. And how long ago did you have 10? Probably a year and a half ago.

Okay. So the building that you're buying won't hold you two years from now? I think it could due to the office space that we could actually we could build a few more offices on the inside of it okay and then another year later you're gone possibly yeah here's the thing i love real estate okay and and i don't mind you buying real estate owning real estate uh particularly if you pay cash for it. I'm not going to recommend debt. That's a separate subject or another subject we'll get to in a minute.

But I love real estate. The thing from business people's perspective I have to recommend all the time is be careful because when you buy something, before you know it, the tail is wagging the dog, meaning you are trying to conform your business to fit a building instead of having the proper building to conform to your business. Your 20-person payroll is a whole lot more than your rent. Yes. You invest a lot more in the human element that creates the business than you do in the physical place where they sit. And so I just experienced this, okay?

I'll tell you the story. We leased the building that we just moved out of 17 years ago with an option to purchase. We had five years to close on the purchase. I didn't have the money to buy it, and I wasn't going to buy it until I had the money. It was $5 million. I didn't have $5 million. I didn't have any idea when I leased it how I was going to get $5 million. It blew my mind to even think about it.

But I took an option on it just in case, a right to buy it, not a contract to buy it. So in the fifth year, I actually had scraped the money together out of my, you know, the coins out of the corner of the couch and all that kind of stuff, right? And we put it together, and we were able to close on the building. It's 55,000 square feet. When we moved in it, there were 59 of us. By the time I closed on it, five years later, I almost had it full. And it started occurring to me, wow, my business is outgrowing my building.

And I started to kind of feel bad. I started to think, oh, maybe I don't need to grow so fast. And all of a sudden, the building started messing with my psyche because it was this fixed asset. And what we ended up doing was spilling out of that building into renting spaces all around the whole neighborhood. Now we've bought another. Now we just built this project that we've moved into that's, you know, ridiculous numbers. And paid cash for it and moved into it. But we will not allow a building to shape our business. And that's what you have to be very careful of.

So if you're going to buy, you need to be prepared to move later emotionally, financially. And that's probably going to be five years. You're probably not going to be there very long. Right, right. Because otherwise you're going to end up doing stupid stuff, which is letting this building tell you what to do instead of growing your business. Because if you're growing at a, you know, if you're doubling every two or three years in size,

then you're not going to be there very long. Right. I guess I just feel a sense of pressure because the place we're in right now everybody's already kind of on top of each other and it's feeling like we need exactly and you're going to be there again only this time you're going to own the stupid thing that's what i'm warning you about you follow me i just i just i just left that like last week we just moved out of that it's exactly what i just experienced the only difference is i pay cash for all of it so that other building is sitting up there empty right now for rent as a landlord now and that may be what you do with this thing uh so what is your profit on your business

what do you what'd you make net profit last year your personal income 130 000 good for you good for you thank you if i were in your shoes doing if i were in your shoes i want you to buy real estate and i don't mind you buying it to house your business as long as you're willing to move and not let it you know end of sermon right but if i were in your shoes i would lease the next one okay because i think your business concentrating on your business instead of concentrating on real estate ownership is where your money is. Am I wrong? Did you make more money last year than you've ever made in your life?

That is true. Yeah. That is true. So just keep doing that again. Yeah. Keep putting bullets in that gun, baby. That gun's hunting. Okay?

I appreciate that. Yeah, and then go buy you something and pay cash for it maybe in the next move okay and i'm talking about probably you're probably talking about a million dollar building and you're going to save up and pay cash for it okay and that's like seven years from today okay write that go write that down when we get off the phone go write that down and see if it doesn't happen if If you keep growing on the trajectory you're on, that's where you'll be. Now, if your growth curve slows for one reason or another, then I'm going to be off. But your current growth curve, that's where it puts you.

You'll pay cash for a million-dollar building seven years from today and go lease the next one in between. And concentrate on your business. Don't concentrate on real estate. I love real estate, but I like remsey solutions a whole lot more it's the it's the girl that brought me and i'm gonna dance with her it's that simple and so the real estate is a side gig it's where i park some of the money that is the profits but it is not the gig we did not build this building because it was a great real estate investment although it is. We built this building because of what it will do for this company.

This building serves this company not the other way around. It's real easy to cross that line. I almost did it a couple times because I kept going, dadgum, I finally got this, I bought this $5 million thing. I never bought anything $5 million in my whole life.

I finally put together $5 million like 15, what was it, 17 years, 12 years ago I did that, right? I'd never seen anything like that in my life. And I did it. And then I went, wow. And then it still didn't do it, you know? It's just because the thing's growing. And all of a sudden it's like, that building's not enough. Well, it's not about a stupid building. It's about what happens in the building and the customers that you serve

and how your profitability is reflected in that. Profit is the applause your customers give you, Ken Blanchard says. And he's exactly right. If you help enough people, you don't have to worry about money. And these are the things we say around here inside these walls all the time. And that's exactly where you're headed, Anthony. Seven years from today, you will buy a $1 million building seven years from today, and you'll pay cash for it. And it'll be enough to house your team at that time.

That's where you're headed if you keep your current growth curve up. And you can do it. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. And this day of our very first broadcast from the new headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. We're honored to work with James Childs and Kelly Daniel in the booth. Great job, guys. Great job to the team who put all these wires and switches together and made this flawlessly work on its first day.

Not a single hiccup. That shows preparation. That puts this hour 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, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the show. You know, you can listen or watch anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone. Catch the full show or watch the highlights and check out Dave's upcoming guests. Head to the App Store and download it today.