The Ramsey Show - App - Hustle Causes You to Be Successful - Not a Degree! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. My co-host on the air today, Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book The Proximity Principle, also host of The Ken Coleman Show, very popular on about 40 to 50 radio stations. We hit 50, Dave.

How about that? We did. Big 5-0. I didn't get the memo. I should have emailed you. That's awesome, man. Well, you know, I'm very grateful. Thankful to you and the leadership team to say, hey, we're going to syndicate this thing.

And we've been on SiriusXM for almost three years. And, of course, we podcast. We're on YouTube. But to go to traditional radio, talk radio, where, you know, you really broke the mold to get outside of politics and talk money. And now we're following another Ramsey Solutions program is nationally syndicated, and we're talking hope, but in a different space. Your work and work and money go hand in hand. So anyway, the team, Brian Mayfield and Hank First, the team has done a great job. It was quite a milestone, something that I, to be honest with you, I pinched myself.

It was a little happy dance in the Coleman kitchen when we hit 50. That was kind of fun. I'll do one with you. That's pretty cool. That's awesome. Yeah, so we're having fun. You and me doing a happy dance. That'd that'd be awesome that actually would be potentially viral yeah that could be that could go because of how bad it would be so bad it would be good yeah well i'm not i'm not suggesting excellence i'm just suggesting fun

that's right oh yeah that'd be good yeah the uh congratulations that's amazing that is our team has done a great job and of course they've got great content to work with. You're helping people with their careers every day on that show. And today, we're answering your questions about your life and your money, and your jobs and your careers are part of your life and your money. So it's all here. You jump in, we'll talk. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

Spencer's in Michigan. Hey, Spencer, how are you? Good. How about you guys? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Well, thanks for taking my call. I have been an associate pastor for about the last seven years, and during that time, my wife and I have pretty aggressively invested into a Roth IRA. Well, just recently started a new church, and they would like to invest 15% into retirement for us on top of salary, which is just fantastic. But they don't want to just basically give that to me as additional salary. They want

to make sure that it's spent on retirement. So my question is this. There's only one other employee that they give retirement to, and so I'm just curious. As a small 501c3 like that, what are the options available to the church to invest in our retirement? Well, typically you would just make a 403b available for a nonprofit, a church, a school, a hospital is where you see the 403b. And it's basically a 401k, but sits in those situations. Got a little bit more flexibility. I'm not sure that they could give you money that they don't give others. Whatever they match you, they'd have to match others, and that kind of a thing, into a classic 403B.

If you think 401K, that's how it is. I'm pretty sure that they cannot treat the employees differently uh okay among that so um i think they would have to just bonus you and then you would have to uh you could provide proof back to them that you made the contribution uh but but the in terms of them making the contribution for you i think that that's going to set up a different class um inside the retirement. I don't think that's going to happen. I tell you, it's fairly easy to set these things up, and there may be another way around it that I can't think of right now. Just click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com, and it'll drop down a list of the SmartVestor pros in your area. Any one of those folks can answer questions for you help you set that up help the church set that up and advise them on how to do that my guess is that you're going to find

that you would set up a 403b uh for that 501 and a lot of initials here for the irs but the uh and then they would just bonus you and um you know with the understanding that they're going to want proof that you've made the contribution of that bonus into that 403. And it can be pre-tax. I was going to ask you real quick on that. The larger denominations, if they're a national denomination, do they usually invest in their own type of fund for their employees? The only one that has that is the Baptist. Okay. do they usually invest in their own type of fund for their employees? The only one that has that is the Baptist. Okay.

And they have a plan that they manage the investments inside there, and you can donate into that. But the other denominations, as far as I know, or organizations or traditions or whatever you want them to fall under, pretty much run their own at the local church level, by and large. I mean, there may be one that has an old-fashioned pension plan denomination-wide or something like that. The Presbyterians might have that or something like that, the PSA. But it's not normal. The best-known one would be the Southern Baptists have one that they can participate in or not participate in.

So a church can set it up independently or they could tap into that thing and look at the investment options that are in that and decide. But in his case, I think that they're trying to put 15% of his income into retirement and not do that for the secretary. And I think that's going to establish two classes of employees, and I'm pretty sure you're not going to be able to do that. That way you're going to have to do a workaround on it to be able to pull it off. But double-check with one of our smart investor pros, and I think they can advise you on how to technically pull this off. All right, let's go to Kevin in Idaho. Hey, Kevin, what's up?

Thank you, Dave, for taking my call. It's an honor to speak to you and to Ken. Sure. I'm 63 years old, owner of a business, a food truck business on my own with my wife. I'm the primary owner because I owned it before we were married. We've been married two years. And happily, we are both Dave Ramsey fanatics. And we're debt-free, 100% debt-free.

Now, I'm thinking about retiring at the age of 65 and selling or giving the business to my wife and then collecting the Social Security so that I can invest that, because I think that my smart investor pro is a lot better investor than the government. Well, that would be true. That was an easy idea. So what's your question? Well, is that a smart idea? I don't know if I should retire at 65 or 67, you know, when I could take more.

It's my opinion I can make more money investing in myself than letting the government do it. Am I on the right track? So in order to get Social Security, you want to step aside from the food truck? Yes. Well, you can qualify for Social Security while you're still working. It's just a matter of whether it's taxable or not. Okay, okay. You can take Social Security at 63, 4, security at 63 4567 while you're still working

but if you if you earn a certain amount then your social security will become taxable and i'm pretty sure if you um sell your wife a food truck that she has to work and you call that retirement that's not going to be a good marriage plan. Yeah. He's going to be involved. I'm thinking that's not going to happen here. Well, I'm just thinking, I can just see me trying to get Sharon to buy something from me. That would go over. And you check in with her when she comes home at the end of the day. Hey, how'd it go today?

Make sure she got her work done today because she's got to pay that debt to me. How many shrimp po'boys did you make today, darling? Come on over here for a shoulder rub that's not working i'm thinking you're still in the food truck business until you sell it to someone outside your family man just a thought but what do i know about this this is the dave ramsey show Most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays.

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Go to ShadyRays.com and use the code RAMSEY for 50% off two or more pairs. That's ShadyRays.com, code RAMSEY. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, my co-host today. We're talking money, life, careers, jobs, stuff we always talk about here every day. It's all about you. You're the subject hero.

Dave is next. Dave's in Minnesota. Hey, Dave, how are you? Good. How are you guys? Better than we deserve. How can we help you? I love it.

Thank you very much. First of all, my wife and I are debt-free. We do thanks to your program, and we are one week away from our fully funded emergency fund. Good for you. Thank you. Yeah, in crazy COVID land, that's got to feel pretty good. It is. When this happened, it was just like, oh, man, we don't have that much to worry about compared to most people.

Amen. Very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. But the reason why I was calling was I'm trying to help my son. I'm trying to advise him. It's just fun to see what you guys'. Thank you. The reason why I was calling was I'm trying to help my son. I'm trying to advise him. I just wanted to see what you guys' advice would be. He's planning

on going to college. He's just finished senior, senior high school. He's going to a college that they offer, a 3 plus 2 program, which would be, I don't know if you've ever heard of that, a master's degree in five years. We're in Minnesota, and he's already done one year plus a couple credits of PSEO, so

he's already got one year done. So basically, he'd be a two plus two. Wow. He can graduate college in four years with a master's. Very cool. And what? I kind of got that last call, or not last call, a couple calls ago. A master's in what?

Well, he's kind of just general business right now. He wants to do kind of sports science. Is he going to get an MBA then? Yeah, yeah, I think that's what he's planning on going to get, yes. Well, I'd do that for sure in four years. Sure, okay. Okay, like I said, I kind of got that one call, and you're just like, well, just to get a master's

or just to get a certificate. Well, it's not the certificate. It's the knowledge you get while you're getting an MBA. An MBA is going to give him knowledge that is actually applicable in the marketplace. But an MBA does not guarantee success, right? Even the knowledge he gains while he gets that. You know, it's character qualities, perseverance and integrity and hustle and grind. And these are the things that cause you to be successful.

I mean, we all know highly intelligent, highly degreed, lazy people who have no life. Absolutely. So, you know, I mean, so we just can't. So sometimes people say, well, a degree is better, so a master's is always better. That much better, right? Yep. And, you know, but in this case, this kid's a go-getter, man. He's been doing AP classes.

He's got a whole year of college knocked out. He gets his MBA in four. Ding, ding, I'm doing that if I were him. And he could get there as well and see the sports science. He may go a different direction and still get the master's. So the master's in the same amount of time that most people get a degree, and quite frankly, more and more people are taking longer than four years. I think it's a no-brainer. I think he it it's gonna just position him really really well i just i

would keep the sports science almost as a minor yeah or if you got your if you got your undergrad in that and then did the nba following it sets him up to do whatever he wants to do he could you know he could you know be a general manager he doesn't have to be down in the science he could be in the business side of the equation if he wanted to go into professional sports management, that kind of thing. There's all kinds of options there. But the MBA, you know, in most places is a solid field of study. Does it give you a guarantee? No, a degree never does, right?

Never. You're still going to have to get out there and compete, and you're going to have to win. You're going to have to use your connections. But it certainly helps. I mean, we're talking about the education first. That's what's really, really valuable. And it has a degree of credibility to it. There's no question about it. To say otherwise is silly.

So it's a good thing. And, again, I love the fact that in four years, Dave, he's walking out with a bachelor's and a master's. And really for probably what he would have paid for the undergrad. Yeah. That's what it amounts to. That's the And really for probably what he would have paid for the undergrad. Yeah. That's what it amounts to. That's the deal. That's what makes it just a steal.

Yeah. He has to. In this case, you do it. Yeah. I think that's a good plan. Man, this is great. Ross is with us in the UK. Hi, Ross.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. I'm calling you from sunny England. Not so much, actually. But the reason why I'm calling is because I'm about to start a law, well, about to start a law degree in September, specializing in UK law, because it's at a UK institution. I've been in the UK for the past 10 years. I got my undergrad here. Very low debt, because the government does it in a certain way that prevents overburdening

of debt. My question is primarily, first of all, when you would recommend or when you think that situation or the economy will get better in the U.S. for me to move back, because that is my end goal, that's my intention. And my second question would be whether you think there's a market or whether you think it's reasonable for me to move back, having qualified as a lawyer or solicitor in the U.K., and if you think there's a market that specializes in that kind of thing in the US. So you would, your goal would be to get a position in the US helping a company with their UK law issues.

Yes, sir. Yeah. So it's an international law position. Okay. The answer is i have no idea um i i would think that that's available but i i would think that that's large companies or companies that have a lot of interaction with the uk obviously um and so uh but that's not everybody on every corner for sure that's going to be a very niche situation and i think that's not everybody on every corner, for sure. That's going to be a very niche situation, and I think that's something you'd want to land before you made the move.

And if that's your only outlet for this, it's pretty thin. It's pretty narrow. As far as the economy rebounding in the U.S. post-COVID, most indications are that by fourth quarter we're going to be back in boomtown. Art Laffer is predicting that that one of the leading economists and uh you know all all the states that the the first states to go back to work tennessee georgia uh florida parts of texas uh are pretty stinking normal right now uh just a few weeks later a bit of a check mark as they say uh down and then right back up uh the states and then now we're just seeing some of the

you know vegas is opening new york is opening and some other things um and it's going to get down to just a political battle on some nuances of human rights and freedoms after a while. But, you know, my personal opinion, and again, it's worth what you pay for it, is that by fall we'll be fine. Ken, what are you seeing? Well, let's look at real numbers. We know that mortgage applications in the month of April, so, folks, we're in June now. In the month of April, we're still in the COVID shutdown in many, many places, pretty much all over the place. Mortgage applications were

only 1.9% off of mortgage applications in April of 2019. That speaks to consumer confidence. I'm looking for things like that. I want to look at economic signs that people are now coming back out, not just out of their house, but actually spending money. That's a really good sign. We're also seeing the May unemployment numbers. We know, we saw a big job. In fact, more jobs added in the month of May than had ever been added before. Now, again, that's in the asterisk of COVID. But the reality is, is that in a service-based economy, and the United States is a service-based economy, as people get out and spend their money and get more confident, you're going to see the economy ramping up. And as you said, Dave, we've got sports leagues coming back online.

Vegas is opening up. The New Jersey governor today announced that he's lifting the stay-at-home order. So these are all really good signs. And when people get back out and they get hired and they start spending money, the economy will follow. And I agree with you and Art Laffer. I think things are going to recover way quicker than we thought. That's hopeful. I think things are going to recover way quicker than we thought. That's hopeful. I don't have any facts. The economy thing I'd feel a lot more comfortable about than advising

you on the nuanced job position. Yeah, I was going to say very quickly on that, that if you can leverage your relationships over there in the UK, because you're studying UK law and you're in law schools over there, to really leverage connections, as Dave said, before you try to come over here, see if you can land an internship or an opportunity. And if you've got a day job and dream job a little bit to get in that, that would work. The other thing is, is just practice law. Go make some real money in the UK and build those relationships. Take your time.

Don't be in a big rush. I know you eventually want to get here, but let's really embrace that word eventually. And let's do it the right way so that you step from one thing to the next. It's not a big jump and a big wait. I don't think that's necessary. Yeah, you're going to be in a major metropolitan area in a company that is doing at least business with the U.K., obviously, that has some kind of a need for that. And, you know, you'll probably be part of a company that has a large law department. That's where it amounts

to they're doing acquisitions or they're doing trade deals or they're doing something on an international level i suspect i really don't know beans about it to be honest with you but that's what runs through my head when i hear that good luck with that sir it's honor to speak with you we appreciate you listening to us in the uk ken coleman ramsey personality my co-host today here on the dave ramsey show For over 20 years, I've recommended Zander Insurance and their term life programs. I'm still amazed at how many families have no life insurance or not enough and would be financially devastated if a spouse or parent died. It's inexcusable since the cost of term life is just plain cheap.

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Call 800-356-4282 or go to zander.com you pick the path to getting your family protected so live on the radio this is the dave ramsey show 888-825-5225 our question of the day comes from blinds.com find out for yourself why blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you save even more. Use the magic word, the promo code RAMSY, to get the best deal. Ken, our question of the day. Yes.

Sydney from Oklahoma writes, Hey, Dave and Ken, I recently got fired from my job for a mistake I made. How would you suggest I address this at any interviews going forward? I'm going to take a stab at that. Let's see if Dave agrees with me. I think, first of all, I would not address it unless it is brought up. And what that means is they are likely going to ask you, well, why did you leave your former employer?

At that point, I always am going to preach honesty and transparency to a point, meaning you're always honest, but we're not going to overshare, right? And so in this situation, I would say, well, I blew it. I made a mistake, and I learned a very valuable lesson from it. And to the extent that you can give the details without going too deep, I would own it and say, you know, if it truly was a mistake. Now, this gets to where I'm a purist, Dave. You know, a mistake is if I bump into you in the hallway and I've got coffee in my hand because I wasn't paying attention and I bump into you and spill coffee on you. That's a mistake.

A mistake is you over-order inventory by half a million dollars or something. That's right. If you were dishonest, right, or there was an integrity issue that's different. So let's assume it was a mistake. Then you say, you know what, I blew it. I learned a lot from that situation. Tell them what you learned. Left with a boss's wife is probably not one you want to cover here.

Yeah, and that would also fit into the category of overshare as well. So I think you own it to the point of saying you're humble and you say, I blew it, and I learned a valuable lesson. I wish I hadn't been let go, but I was. I'll tell you this, I'll never make that mistake again. And I think that's all you can do is own it with humility, but really share what you learned. I think there's two categories of mistakes. There's business mistakes. Yeah.

You made a mistake in business. Yeah. A business judgment error. You overordered. You transposed some numbers on an accounting sheet accidentally. Yeah. Whatever. And their tolerance for that kind of thing is like, ah, you're fired.

Right. Okay. That's an easy one. You just say it. You say, why aren't you there anymore? I was let go because I did this, and it was a stupid thing. I own it, but they had no tolerance for that, and they let me go. I understand why they let me go.

It's my fault. It's a mistake I won't make again, like you said. If you've got some kind of a moral or integrity or personal failure, the mistake was I was doing a line of cocaine in the men's room and they caught me. I mean, that's not a mistake. No. That's different.

That's a bad decision. A whole lot of bad is going on. Morality, yes. The point is people qualify under the heading of mistake. Yes. You know, I slept with my coworker for six months while I was married. And it turns out our company's not okay with that. Right.

You know, that's not a mistake. That's a major character flaw. That's an integrity breakdown. And so that's a whole different category of discussing things at that point you're a known liar and you know you you you got real issues and nobody needs to believe anything you've got to say at that point uh and so you know you don't have credibility and so you know that that's different than you know i screwed up the order you know so i don't know what kind of mistake we're going to qualify this as but i hear

a lot of things under the heading of this so and by the way this this this underscores the importance of what we teach at ramsey solutions which is really to make good connections and so that you're not just applying cold to a job and you're just a name and just a resume. You want somebody really recommending you for the job so that all of this stuff is taken in stride. It's with a shaker of salt. If it's tactical, you just own it and do it. Most people have made mistakes on the job. If it's a character flaw issue, that's a whole other thing.

I don't know how you're going to handle that. Well, that's where you're going to have to, again, have a true multiple list of character references who say, let me just tell you about this person. And they made this error in judgment. They had these problems. They've gotten healthy. You can recover from that as well, but you're going to have to have a litany of people backing you that you have healed and that you have made reparations. Absolutely. Josh is with us in Georgia.

Hey, Josh, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys, thanks for having me. Sure. I have a question kind of balancing my Baby Step journey and my career journey, so I hope you guys can help out with that. Okay. So currently I'm in Baby Step 2. I've got about $15,000 in student loan debt that I plan to have paid off by the end of the year. And I have the chance in the next couple of weeks to accept

a promotion. The problem is that that promotion is essentially in the same set of roles that I have now, which is not something I'm crazy about doing. If I accept it, I'm locked in for another year. So the other option, I guess, would be, you know, wait, risk not getting one and try and move into a role that is something I'd be more passionate about doing later on. How long before you pay off? I want to make sure I heard you correctly. How long before you pay off the 15K? What's your payoff date? It should be by the end of the calendar year. Okay.

Without the promotion. Without the promotion, yeah. Yeah, promotion would make it easier, but without the promotion. Right. So let's just assume, let's play this out. Option one is you stay put, okay, in a job that you don't want long term, and you finish out at the end of this year, are you immediately going to look to move positions and move into the career field you want to go in?

So it's less the career field and more kind of the set of responsibilities. But, yeah, I probably would want to look around either kind of later in the fall or at that point. Okay, so that's what you have to weigh, all right? Now, if you take this opportunity that you've been offered, you're going to pay off the 15K much quicker, right? But you're locked in for a year. Are you saying that's a contract? I want to make sure I understand what you mean when you say I'm locked in for a year. So it's a company policy. After each new role, you essentially have

to stay in for a year before you're eligible to move within the company. And I do want to stay with the company that I'm at. Okay. Well then, okay then. So this, this is pretty simple. Do you want to pay this off faster, you know, or do you want to risk a situation where you pay it off faster and then you feel I'm stuck and I got to sit for a year? What do you make now? What would you make after the promotion? So currently I make 60 and after the promotion I'd make $70,000 to $75,000. I wouldn't take the promotion. Yeah. Okay.

Because then you're stuck. You feel stuck, and you've got your eye on something else within your current company. Just be patient. Just be patient. All we're doing is adding one, maybe two months to your debt payoff it's not the end of the world here you're going to be fine okay and the way i answer the question is number one what does it change on your debt payoff not much number two uh because your monthly income does not change that much uh in terms of is it going to double or something like that no it's

not so uh then the second that way i answer the question is five years from today, ten years from today, that version of you looking back at this decision, which is going to have been the wisest decision for your career track, your income, your financial health overall, and moving the most quickly towards the area you want to be in is always going to cause you to prosper faster and bigger. Ken, there's just all kinds of data that when you're doing something you love, you just are better at it and you have a tendency to prosper.

There's a question. So let's just use this example. So he stays put, and in six months from now, he's debt-free, and he's going to look to move into a different position that he's already identified. He gets that position. Two things are happening. Number one, he's got some personal momentum coming off of being debt-free, and he's now in the position that he really wanted. So he's feeling really good, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of momentum.

Well, now he begins to actually define himself in that new role and get that experience. And so he's on a new rung of the ladder, and he's preparing himself for the next rung, and the next rung, and the next rung. It's just always going to add to being promoted when you do what you love to do. You're fired up. It's really hard to be good at something you hate. It really is. It's a great point.

By the way, everybody can tell you hate it. And so it's not an attractive quality. Nobody enjoys it. So you walk around like Eeyore all the time. Yeah. A little cloud over your head. That's right. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. hey folks father's day is just around the corner. If you're looking for the perfect, unique gift to give dad, I've got it.

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And a lot of people did buy houses, by the way. It was an amazing real estate month. And we still tell home buyers that no matter what the market's doing the way you make your decision on when to buy is when you are ready you don't go oh if i don't buy now while interest rates are down even though i'm broke and can't afford it no you don't do that crap now you you buy when you get your act together you're out of debt you have your emergency fund. You have your down payment. You do a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage or less where the payment is 25% of your take-home pay or less.

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I think it would be fun for you to, you taught me this several years ago. We were, personalities were together and Dave was teaching us some money stuff and we were talking through stuff. I think it'd be good. I heard you talk through that. I thought some people misunderstand, Dave, that when we see the interest rates, they think that the interest rates and then interest rates on a mortgage are tied on a string and that's not really true.

I'm just curious the correlation between the two, and is that a little confusing for people, and why do the mortgage rates differ than maybe the national, the Fed, interest rate? The Fed interest rate does not cause mortgage rates to happen. The Fed rate is what banks borrow money from other banks for. It's the wholesale cost of money between two wholes wholesalers two banks and so that's all the fed is but it is an indicator if those that the fed is raising rates then it does trigger movements in the market indirect but influences and what actually does cause mortgage interest rates is

the bond market because mortgages like a Fannie Mae mortgage, a Federal National Mortgage Association, those loans are underwritten, meaning they are produced, with identical guidelines, conforming guidelines. They're called conforming mortgages. And then you can take those conforming mortgages that have all conformed to the exact same set of guidelines, bundle them together, and sell them as a bond, as a security. It's called securitizing and MBS, mortgage-backed securities. And so, you know, you may have heard your grandmother was sold by her broker some Fannie Mae bonds. And all that is is a bundle of mortgages together in the form of a bond and uh so as bond rates go

exactly so do mortgage rates so that's what we want to be looking at are the bond rates watch bond rates and you can tell what's happening with the mortgage what's the bond market doing uh it's not the stock market it's the bond market it's not stock stock. It's bonds. And it's not the Fed. It's bonds. Because that's exactly how those mortgages are sold. So let's say that a mortgage broker like Churchill Mortgage that we've endorsed for 25 years or 30 years sells you a mortgage. You get a mortgage from them at 3%. And the bond market goes up before they can get it sold off of their books, and it now is 4%.

It would never move that much, but just as an example. That mortgage now is not worth what Churchill put out. They're going to lose money on that transaction if they don't get it off their books before the market goes up. If it goes down down the bond or the mortgage sells at a premium because if you can get three percent on your money uh but the markets only pay in two and a half then that's that makes that makes that more valuable and so if the market if the bond market dropped down while they're holding that mortgage so and so the same exact if you bundle a whole bunch of 3% mortgages together and make a bond at 3%, and then the bond market moves up or down, it affects the value of that bond.

And it's an inverse relationship. So why then, Dave, have we seen the bond market be so low that we've seen the mortgage rate be low for a really long time? Historically low mortgage rates. What are the economic indicators that we've seen the mortgage rate be low for a really long time, historically low mortgage rates? What are the economic indicators that you've seen? What's causing the bond market to stay where it is? Really, it is the pressure from the Fed rate being down. It is because banks can borrow money by buying bonds, or they can park money in bonds, or they can park money with another bank.

So where are they going to make the most money? And if they can borrow money at one rate from each other and another rate from the bond market, they're going to take the best deal. And so they do affect each other, the pressure, but it's an indirect pressure. It's not a direct mathematical correlation. And so you start to see that happening. So when you hear the bond market's down, you can know that mortgage rates are down or they'll be down within a few days. It's like saying oil is down, and so watch gas at the pumps.

Yes. It's going to come down because gas is made from oil. Hello. And so, you know, have you looked at our gas prices at the pumps? Incredible. Incredibly low. Why? We had this huge glut.

Oil went to $0, sub-$ dollars for a short period of time there because demand went to zero. And we had all these tankers sitting offshore because nobody's driving cars. And so gasoline demand went down. So oil demand went down. And they couldn't store it for what it was worth. And so they got in a real problem. And it's driven. I mean, this is cheap as gas prices.

I went to fill the boat up last weekend. I went, they used to cost $200. Oh, yeah. And it was like $70. Yeah. I filled up the old car the other day for $32. Yeah. Felt good.

Kind of blew you. That's like college or something. Yeah, right. It's a whole different thing, man. But, you know, we don't notice when it goes down. But you let gas go up to $5 a gallon, you would think that people's hair was on fire. And so, oh, children are canny eating the children. Everybody's starving and the world's coming to an end.

Everybody goes into drama mode when it goes up. But they don't notice that it's gone dadgum in half in the last few months. And so, look at the pump. You know, people don't look at the pump like they used to because they don't pay for it anymore well they put it on a card that's a good point you've been teaching that for a long time when you have to do the cash it's a big difference yeah if you count out that 32 you know you spent money and you start to go what was that dadgum price per gallon but a lot of people they don't even care they just put the pump in run the debit card run

the credit card in there they don't even know what it is per gallon they don't think about it and it's just it is what it is i gotta have gas in the car because i gotta drive you'll appreciate this i was telling uh we were talking the other day in the office and we've got a bunch of young people around here i'm no longer one of them folks it's very hard to admit that uh being i'm middle-aged you know i hate to say that the police. Well, I'm middle-aged. I'm middle-aged, you know? I hate to say that. I talked about full service at a gas station, and this person looked at me like I had four sets of eyes. What do you mean, full service?

I was like, you'd pulled up to the pump, and a nice gentleman would come out. Most of the time, it was nice, as I recall, from the 80s. Most of the time, it was a gentleman. Most of the time, it was a gentleman. And they would come up, and they'd fill up, do the windshield, the whole nine yards, full service. Yeah. My dad never got out of the time it was a gentleman. Most of the time it was a gentleman. And they would come up, and they'd fill up, do the windshield, the whole nine yards. Check your oil? Yeah.

My dad never got out of the car. And I was always like, I always thought those people were cool, too. And I was like, oh, look at this guy. He's coming out. And we never left the car. And nobody knows what that is. But apparently, in the conversation, it came out that in New Jersey, they still do this. And maybe other states.

I was unaware of that full service at a gas station still existed. Yeah, it's very rare. But those were the days. You didn't even get out of your car. It's kind of one of those things where the cost of labor has made something. It's impossible to pay somebody to do that and make a profit on your gas pump. When they raise the minimum wage, hello, we got asked this on the Fox Business News Town Hall. Listen, that's why when you raise the minimum wage, companies are going to adapt.

And so they automated gas pumps. They automated the whole deal. So I get $15 an hour. Well. No, you don't because there's no job. Right. Because we're going to let a gas pump do it for you. We're going to get laid off.

Your job at pumping gas is gone. Yeah. And, you know, the equivalent of that, it'll be a generation later, you'll be going, yeah, they used to have people that did this, but now we don't have people to do this anymore. Well, let's think about young people who need the minimum wage jobs. Just before COVID shut everything down, the Ramsey personalities, we were in New York doing media, and there was a McDonald's day. We walked by. In fact, John Deloney and I walked by a McDonald's. You remember that, John?

And there were only chefs in there. Everything else was automated. Those are jobs that... R2-D2 gives you your Big Mac. That's right. This is so unappetizing on so many levels. Yeah, special sauce lettuce cheese. Oh, that puts us, Howard, the Dave Ramsey Show, in the books.

This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top four most popular podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from The Ramsey Network, subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.