The Ramsey Show - App - I Don't Trust Financial Advisors...How Do I Grow My $1 Million? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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. Christy Wright, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. You guys jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money.

Abby's with us in Lexington, Kentucky. Hi, Abby. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband and I are awaiting the arrival of our first baby any day now. Congratulations.

Hey, thank you. What is it? It's a boy. Awesome. And we have wonderful and supportive families who are, you know, wanting to help invest for this baby. And so they brought up the idea. Someone mentioned to them that they, like, are interested in purchasing a life insurance policy for the baby once they're born. And my husband and I don't particularly feel like that's the best idea, but we don't know how to articulate why,

or even maybe what we would prefer instead. We do work with investment professionals for our, you know, our investing that we do for retirement. And so I guess what would be the best option to suggest? You know, should we set up a 529 should we set up a roth um how can they can what would be easiest for them to just contribute to when they want to what what would you suggest there's nothing as stupid as a brand new grandparent i know i have lived it i am that guy we want to do i mean this you wouldn't believe the crap i bought for babies on their first christmas stuff they can't use till they're 16 i filled up the whole living room my daughters were so disgusted with me they're like you're keeping this at your house i'm not

taking this home it doesn't even make your kid can't drive until he's 16 but you bought him too yeah oh yeah they're sweet they're sweet uh but they're just being dumb you're right how do you how do you always explain the life insurance policy it's to replace income right if someone was to pass away whoever's dependent on that person's income this baby has no one dependent on you well and what's happened is some stupid life insurance agent got a hold of them and told them it was a way to invest for college and let me tell you where they're going to college if they do it off a life insurance policy. They're not going to college.

So it's just a horrible investment. They're sweet, but they're just doing it wrong. So we just need to guide them a little bit here and give them a lot of grace because truthfully, they're so excited their brains aren't working. Yeah, right, right. So I think you're right. I think you go to your investment professional and you set up a 529 and you go, hey, guys, any of you that are wanting to invest in their future, we would consider it an honor if you would contribute to the 529. Yeah, for college.

And hint, hint, the insurance is a stupid idea. If they go buy it anyway, you know, it's just one of those things a stupid grandparent did where they wasted their money i mean but it's a you know but you don't just advice from the other side of the aisle here because i'm on the other side of this is you're probably not going to keep them from doing all the stupid things you want them to not do this is just this first i'm curious abby did they ask you if you wanted that or are they saying they're going to do that no they had just mentioned that oh we heard this was a good idea we thought about doing it we're going to talk to our it's not a hill yeah it's not a hill worth dying on just say i would just do a drive by on it at some point and you don't have to do it immediately but at some point go hey you guys mentioned that

life insurance thing we don't do investing in life insurance at our place. We do it in mutual funds. And so we've got a 529 set up, and if you'd put it in there, that would be the way we would prefer you do it. But if they do it anyway, don't get all mad about it. It's just them being stupid. Yeah, that's what we figured. It's no skin off our teeth either way. But just if there was a better way to suggest.

How would you suggest it from her side? may have had to handle in-laws i i have and i think if you just it's not so much no to this idea as it is hey we really like this idea so focus on the yes focus on the the positive keep it positive but what i would find appealing what i would think the grandparents would find appealing about the 529 is it's something so tangible you're investing in their future their college their education and just say hey like we tangible you're investing in their future, their college, their education. And just say, hey, like we want to start investing early and saving for their college education, for his college education. If you want to do that, that'd be really cool that you could participate in investing in his future in that way. When he's 18, he's going to get to go to school because this money we start to paint this picture.

I will be able to point back and go, you know, grandma and grandpa were the ones helped us fund this. You're going to college because of grandma and grandpa. And, you know, they get the credit and stuff are part of the credit or however, all that kind of thing. I just keep it positive. Focus on what you do want them to do, not what you don't want them to do, and maybe they'll move in that direction. Yeah, because here's what's going to happen. After there's six or seven grandkids running around,

they're going to get bored with all this. Yeah. The novelty wears off. Well, they're not going to be as big a problem because they're going to be their their sugar is going to be dialed down a little by then so like i'm a lot more chill with number seven than i was with number one right i mean i had to have yeah i was i was the problem papa dave with number one how do we rate them in i told um the team today dave during one of our shoots my

my dad one of the ways that he shows love he thinks the larger the present physically larger the more love i'm like dad i don't have any more room in my house get it out too much large plastic things with motors in them for boys yes i'm like no more no more six of those cars if one is good six is better yes oh my gosh absolutely yeah so funny yeah you do get it's that way with kids i mean the first one went off to college we cried and the second one we cried for 10 minutes and the third one we pointed college as i go that way and so you know it's just like you know rachel talks about this she's still scarred by it you know yeah she's scarred by it she's got a lot of scars but uh so yeah, it's choose your battles because they're not going to always be there.

Yep. The battles aren't going to always be there. Yep. And so it's a bigger deal to you right now than it will be with the third kid. It's a bigger deal to them right now than it will be with the seventh grandkid. Because the emotions do. You just kind of calm down a little bit. Totally.

And I think how you approach discussions totally are different if the decision doesn't directly affect you. Like if you're talking about something like they want to move next door to you because they want to take care of the kids every day, like that affects you. If they get a life insurance policy on the baby, that doesn't affect you in a real practical day-to-day way. And so that changes how you approach it too. Yeah, you can ignore the stupidity because it's doing no damage yeah it's not really affecting their bank account yeah yeah that's exactly right but i think a good thing is just a way to redirect it but i always

think of my granny gave us uh uh savings bonds which suck i mean a horrible rate of return like two percent or something it's just what she wanted to do and she gave us a 50 or 100 savings bond for each kid every christmas for chris for college i would instantly cash them out and put them in mutual funds because they suck yeah you know but i always lied to her i mean no i told her the truth sort of but i mean she would say how's those savings bonds doing i say they're great granny they're getting great returns in my mutual fund because after i cashed them out and put them in mutual fund they are great but so that was partially true but yeah i got rid of them as soon as I could. But she was doing a nice thing the wrong way or the least efficient way. And so, you know, we just had to redirect.

Because there was no talking to her about it. She was a savings bond generation. I see. That was the thing. You know, put all her money in the CDs and all the kids' money in savings bonds. Because we're children of the Depression. All that stuff. There you go.

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No purchase necessary. Must be 18 or older to win. To enter our giveaway, go to RamseySolutions.com slash giveaway. Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Ramsey Show. Christy Wright, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sarah's in Pensacola. Hi, Sarah.

Whoa, wait a minute. Let's hit the right button there. Sarah's in Pensacola. Hi, Sarah. How are you? Hi. Thank you hit the right button there. Sarah's in Pensacola. Hi, Sarah. How are you? Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Sure.

What's up? So I just finished my first semester of grad school yesterday, and I was a resident assistant on campus, but my contract ends in about a week. So after that, I'm moving back home to continue school online. I have another job, but I make five or less hours a week, and it only pays 11 an hour, and I'd really like to set myself up in my career to be financially stable. So I'm wondering, should I hold off on baby steps forward to make sure I can pay for school? Yes. Yes. Okay. And then how can I make sure that I actually set myself up financially to go through this? Because

I'm clearly not making enough money. Yeah, you obviously need to work more. Yeah. Five hours a week? Yeah, it's supposed to be 10 to 15, but it's a remote position, and the work that I'm actually getting is not much. But I don't really know whether I should look for, like, an internship or go another route. What are you doing now?

So I just received my bachelor's degree in communications last semester, and my program now is in strategic communication and leadership. Why? I mean for work. What are you doing for work, that five hours? Oh, for work? I currently work as a student assistant for the Center for Cybersecurity at my school. Okay.

But I'm doing, like, community and public relations kind of work. So it is in my field but it's not really exactly what i'm trying to do i really want to like get a salary-based kind of job and make sure i can cash flow my college basically yeah i mean you need to get your income up your hours up and your pay up and it doesn't matter if it's in the field of what you want to do you just need the money right now to pay for school. If you're doing it online, what would keep you from just going and getting a job that is in your field, as if you just graduated from college, because you did, and take that income and use that to pay for your online and work a full-time job?

You don't need an internship. So do I need to focus on finding a job in my field first? That'd be wonderful. That'd be wonderful. Okay. That'd a bachelor's degree. That'd be wonderful. Okay. That'd be great. But if you can't, then just get something. No, I think I would, and I think I would.

You know, here's your A-plus, okay? A job that's 40 hours a week or more, and you do your online nights and weekends, and you finish up your master's or whatever it is you're working on, your grad work there. That way. Oh, and by the way, this new or whatever it is you're working on, your grad work there. That way. Oh, and by the way, this new job not only is in your field, but they have a tuition reimbursement program, and they pay for it. Wow, I'm just getting a lot of home runs here. This is going to be awesome.

But, yeah, you're still trying to act like a college student. I think you just go ahead and be the adult stuff. Yeah, I'm only 19 in, you know, grad school, so I'm kind of like still trying to save money and figure out what I'm going to do. So you blew through the four years real fast, huh? I definitely did, yeah. That's amazing. But now I'm like, okay, what am I doing now?

She's like, I'm acting 19 because I am 19, Dave. Give me a minute. What in the world? What is it you're wanting to do when you're 30? What do you want to be doing? If I'm being completely honest, I started thinking about this a little bit more now that I started listening to your show, but I would love to be an author one day. Okay. What do you want to do as a career path between now and then? So I was looking into that, and some jobs that I was looking to apply for were actually content marketing specialists. Yeah.

Not exactly communications, but I can see where that's working. Oh, no, it is communications. All the journalism students are filling up my content room down here. I've got tons of content folks on our team that are writing in our voices and helping us get stuff out of here because we're putting out so much product out of here every day. And content specialists, yes, you are totally qualified for that. Oh, and by the way, you're under 40, which means you can use a computer. Yeah, definitely.

Yeah. That's definitely my path. That was age discrimination, wasn't it? I don't think she even thought that's a joke. She's like, well, of course I can, Dave. Of course I can use a computer. What a weird statement. I have better keyboard skills with my thumbs than you do, Dave.

But, yeah, so, yeah, that's what you get. Yes, go get a job as a content marketing specialist with a company that will pay for you to finish your master's. And that is a great springboard into becoming an author 10 years from today. Okay, awesome. I just wanted to make sure I'm still on the right path with that. Yeah, because you're going to write. You know what writers should do? Writers should write. Yeah, I started a blog, and I'm like, I kind path with that. Yeah, because you're going to write. You know what writers should do? Writers should write.

Yeah. I started a blog, and I'm like, I kind of want to continue that, too, on the side. Yeah, absolutely. That's a good place to practice and do all kinds of stuff. But there's not much money in that probably right now. But, yeah, I mean, you get a job as a content marketing specialist making $50K, and then you have a tuition reimbursement benefit, and you're working 40 hours, and you're doing your own line to finish up your grad work, and you're pumping out keyboard material all day long that is actually relevant in the marketplace, you're starting to learn how to do stuff.

That's awesome. And just flexing that muscle. It's amazing how on the other side of this, on the other side of your grad school graduation, your writing muscles will be so much stronger because you spent time writing, not just in the classroom, not just for homework, but in real world scenarios and on your blog. All of that's going to strengthen you as a writer. Sarah, let me tell you what's underlying both of our answers on this. We're both looking at you going, you think your master's degree is your secret sauce.

We are talking to an incredible rock star, 19 year old. We think you are the secret sauce. And I think you've been putting the weight on the wrong sauce. You is the answer, kid. Get it. it get it you know how to do it you went ahead and got you so goal freaking oriented she got a four-year degree in 19 years old get it get it i mean that's it man it's until you asked her age it was like you were saying she's seeing herself as a grad student she's seeing herself as a college student money and i'm like no, you are a college graduate, at 19 by the way, that has a degree, should go get a job, and oh, by the way, is taking grad school classes.

That's the afterthought, not the money and work piece of it. And man, that's going to set you up so well. Moms and dads, teach your kids that education is important, but it is not the secret sauce, that the person in the mirror is their secret sauce no one cares about your degree or where it came from they care can you do stuff out here in the real world and you have to be able to look at me and articulately as the potential employer articulately describe that you can do crap and when you can do that i don't really care uh you know where you went to school i don't care what your whatever you are i don't care man woman black white pink purple i don't care what you are we have a lot of pink people that work we do we've got a few look

like they fell in a tackle box but it's it's good you know they're beautiful and they they they they can do stuff man and that's all I care about. I know. I mean, we love them. That's all I care about. They're creative, and they get stuff done. And so that's what moms and dads, teach your kids, take their little face in your hands. You're the secret sauce. And, yes, you need to know stuff and get the degree, do the academic work,

but then don't lean back and go, well, I've got a degree. Nobody gives a crap. The other thing that Sarah's going to learn when she starts writing is whether or not she wants to keep writing. Yeah. Because she may start writing and realize, I hate this. I don't want to do this. I want to do a different path with my skill set, with my degree. Dave, do you know my degree is in advertising?

I'm not working in an advertising agency, but I use that education every day in what I do, teaching women through Business Be Cheek with marketing, even on our team, strategizing how we're going to market and advertise stuff. But it doesn't have to be this perfect linear path of using your degree exactly like you think you're going to. You're going to learn a lot about yourself, Sarah, in these next few years through doing some stuff of what you want to do more of. And it's going to pull from your education, but maybe not exactly like you think it will. Yeah. And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, we can't keep keep christy from writing it's impossible to stop her from writing keep her away from the keyboard she's doing it again dave when can i write my next book he's like you haven't even released this book and would you please make it thinner you got lots of words i do you got lots of words i do it's wonderful and uh and i'm in the middle of a writing project and it's

i'm quite the opposite i got lots of words but they're not on paper i have to put them on paper now rachel says every time she writes a book she says i can't believe you like this yeah i feel like i'm right i have a term paper due but um yeah, it's good. I enjoy what books do, but putting them together. So there's a beautiful thing happening here, y'all, that there's something you take away from that last call, and that is that we do not want to say education is not important in America just because there's an epic student loan crisis and fools have gotten degrees in left-handed puppetry and feel entitled. That is not an education crisis. That is a wisdom crisis. And so wisdom says

knowledge is important, but it is not the thing. It is part of the thing. The thing is you. You. Get up, leave the cave, kill something, drag it home. This is the Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Jason and Keisha are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey.

Great. Welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live? In Memphis. Memphis, Tennessee. All right. Just down the road. Well, welcome to Nashville.

And here to do a debt-free scream, how much have you paid off? $165,000. Love it. How long did this take? 26 months. Wow. And your range of income during that time? We started with $109,000 and finished at $218,000.

Okay. Had a few increases and bumps. A little. Sounds like it. What in the world? Well, tell us the story. What happened 26 months ago and what happened to this income to cause it to double? November 2018, it was Thanksgiving.

And I always take off a couple of weeks for Thanksgiving. And I was wandering around the house. I said, we have too much debt. And where is the money going so i came in and i said hey i know this guy that i was working for he would always listen to you i went in the garage and this is no joke turned on the am dial and there you were on 990 wow yes i was i told my wife, I said, we're going to do this The wrong thing to say What did you say? I had an attitude

I was starting to make a lot more money Well he's in the garage listening to AM radio That'll give you an attitude He comes out of the garage with a declaration You're not there for it Exactly, so just the way We've been married 21 years now And I always would tell him, it's your tone.

It's not what you say. It's how you say it. And so I just didn't want to be told that day. Amen. Amen. So I wrote down everything on the budget, wrote it out for her, made it clear where we're going to start. This is how we're going to do it. I said, first, just listen to me.

She said, I'm not listening to this old guy i did not call you old i did not uh it would have been accurate it's okay hey i said the same thing keisha it's okay careful careful so we started and we knew our uh 20-year wedding renewal vow was coming up, and we wanted to pay for it cash because I told her we can't do it unless we're out of debt. So we paid off that time $80,000. I told her, I said, once it gets paid off, we can cash flow that. You can upgrade your ring, do all these things right here, but we have to pay this debt off. And believe it or not, I won a trip on my job for a cruise we were in charleston jacksonville jacksonville she had an interview the first time for the promotion that

she got it seemed like everything started falling in line once we got the ball rolling. I mean, the more we start tithing, giving to God, more time with him early in the morning, it seems like things just start opening up for us. And before we knew it, we were out of debt for our 20 year. Wow. Well, not totally. Not totally. We still have one big one, which I have it written down to the team. But you asked, too, just what happened. But I had been at one job for like over 10 years, and I hated it.

I can say it now. I hated it. So I just wanted to go. I mean, I had been working, but I really think, like Jason said, everything fell in line when we started to line up our finances and, you know. Prioritize. So everything just fell in place. It gives you a different level of confidence to face something like a job change.

It does. And so once that started, I mean, my interview was like on Valentine's Day in Jacksonville, and it changed our life. Wow. It did. It changed our life that day. And then after the wedding renewal and all that done we had a student loan hanging around let me tell you how much day yeah she grabbed that paper

it was well it started at about when we first got married about twenty three thousand dollars i'm not a doctor i know you ask all the time who's the doctor lawyer whatever i'm not a doctor. I know you ask all the time, who's the doctor, lawyer, whatever. I'm neither. It started at about $23,000. By the time we paid it off in March of this year, it was $84,451.74. And we paid that off in 11 months. Wow. Ding, ding. So you just took all this new wonderful income and dumped it. Just acted like it wasn't there and threw it on that loan.

Yes. No vacations. And done. Nothing. We did. Only vacation we got is if I win a trip on the job. Yeah, which is COVID, so he didn't win anything this year. But, I mean, I just can't believe it.

I mean, even with the student loan, and we've used this as a lesson just to anyone. Our children will never have a student loan. I wouldn't advise anybody. So scholarships or cash, that's it. So it's been a life changer. 20 years of marriage. 21. 21.

You ever been debt-free before now? Never. When I was like 18? Yeah, before marriage. Before marriage. Never. Wow. Congratulations, you guys. I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you. You 18? Yeah, before marriage. Before marriage. Never. Wow. Congratulations, you guys.

I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you. You're rock stars, man. You're heroes. This is amazing. So the kiddos were watching all this happen. Were they going, oh, we got no life because mom and dad have gone crazy and joined a cult? Or were they learning?

They were learning. We made them participate. Okay. And what I mean by participate i don't know if they showed you the pictures but we got the bubble on the wall yeah that we would color in every time we send student loan their money and yeah i mean oh there it is we got it on youtube yeah there you go it was just and then we had another one that we paid every month we just lined everything up so you could see it on a poster board. Yeah, that helps.

You need to see the traction and the progress. Right, and it took a long time, I will say, once we got probably midway. It seemed like at first it was going really fast, and then about the middle, I'm like, oh, my goodness. You know, I knew we were going to do it, but it did. It got a little tiresome, and so we did take a mini little break for a moment just to get like new appliances. I'm like, we got to do something. I'm going to lose. Yeah.

Yeah. We took a little break and we got right back on it. OK. But I'm a car guy today. Oh, I'm a car guy. OK. And that car got me in trouble. Oh, but it saved us because i paid it off okay and now that

everything is paid off you can enjoy it it's nothing like going to the gas station just filling it up and just yep saying that drives different when they're not dragging a payment book oh man exactly we'll never do never never do it again again what do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is no No secret. I would say be intentional. That's one of my favorite words. So you have to be intentional. You have to make just a definite decision. I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do it. That's it. And write it down. And I'm a big writer, too. So write the vision. Make it plain. So write it. Stick to it.

And check your progress. You know, check in. How does it feel now to keep your money? You get paid and you get to keep that. Wonderful. Although we're about to start now tackling our mortgage. That's all we have left. But it's still, I mean, it's spring, not knowing you have $84,000 plus hanging over from years ago.

Well, $165,000. Well, really, yes. Yes. hanging over from years ago. Well, 165. Well, really, yes. So the student loan debt was, I guess, the biggest thorn in my side. I tried to tell him when we first got married. Well, he knew I had the debt, but he didn't think it was important. I said it'll go away. Like everybody said, oh, it's going to go away. It's just going to disappear.

I deferred, deferred, deferred, and hid from it. And so I'm like, you just got to do this. And I think you said, too, before, Dave, you made the debt. The honest thing to do would be to pay it so I can't defer it or get someone to take care of it. Not waiting on the government to do it. Amen. So the kiddos' names and ages, let's get them in the shot with you. What are their names and ages?

Joshua, he's 17, and Madison is 15 today. All right. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. All right. Great birthday present. Very cool. All right, Jason and Keisha, we got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you.

That's your next steps into completely changing your family tree. You are well on your way. Well done. Thank you. And an extra copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give to someone else and pay it forward with that. So, very, very well done. Jason and Keisha, Joshua and Madison,

happy birthday, Madison. $165,000 paid off in 26 months, making $109,000 to $218,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream! 3, 2, 1. We're debt-free!. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Thank you, Jesus!

I love it. That's how it's done right there, boys and girls. I love it. 165,000 rock stars. Man, those people are heroes. Well done. This is The Ramsey Show. Well, if you're tired of feeling stuck with your money like you'll never get out of debt or you'll never save to the future, it sounds like you should go to the garage and turn on your AM radio.

Yeah. Find some inspiration there. But you don't have to. You can make progress with your money and faster than you think. The only way to make it happen is with a budget. And that's why you need a Ramsey Plus membership. You get access to the premium version of our Every Dollar Budgeting app, which is world class. It'll help you plan out every dollar, that's why we called it that,

that you spend and save before the month begins. You connect your budget to your bank so it automatically enters your transactions, and you get custom budget reports. Of course, you've got access to Financial Peace University, the nine-week class that has changed millions of families' lives, and many, many, many other things. Coaches, community, tools, Ramsey Plus. You get a budget.

You get intentional with your money. People are doing their debt-free screams. We always ask them how they did this, what the secret to getting out. They always say budget, budget, budget, budget. If you want to do a free trial to Ramsey plus and check this out it's a free trial all you do is text trial to 33 789 trial to 33 789 our question of the day comes from blinds.com they have a 100 satisfaction guarantee that means even if you mismeasure you pick the wrong color they'll remake your blinds for free you get free samples free shipping and

with the new promos they run every month you'll save even more use the promo code ramsey to get the best possible deal today's question comes from mckenna in delaware i'm currently working full-time while starting a small business selling fabric and notions for quilters and textile artists i feel like i'm behind even though I only set my focus two months ago. How can I not be so impatient? Well, one of the things that I noticed in this question, Dave, is this is the first couple months of adjusting to this side business and getting started. And so you're getting used to a new schedule. You're trying to figure out, okay, what are the times that I can work on the side business and work on my goal? So there's going to be a grace period. You were just talking about the budget. Even when we start a budget, you're learning how to do the budget those first couple months. You're

adjusting and figuring out the same thing with your time when you've got a new schedule. So I'd say there's a little bit of grace in those early months for figuring out when you're going to work, when you work best, and making sure you actually have those hours set aside. But you also just need in a really practical way, you need goals. What are your goals that are realistic for the time that you're able to allocate? And how are those goals reflected in writing? Again, similar to the budget. And on your calendar and hours. And when you can see it on paper, it gives you more of a sense of control and reduces some of that anxiety.

But I will tell you, Dave, this sentiment of I'm behind, it is something I hear almost every day from women. I feel like I'm behind. I feel like I'm behind. And there's a little bit of, hey, you're not behind. This is not a race in life. You are doing what's right for you in your season. You're not behind. Unless you're literally behind, just this sentiment of feeling like you're behind, that's something that you can set straight with yourself that you're not behind. You're in control of your business and your time and your schedule, and you're not behind. When you set your goals, they'll help you do that. Yeah. They'll help you do away with that sense of being behind because you either are on track

or you are behind. It's not a feeling. Right. It's an objective, measurable thing. And just to help you with business, especially when you're starting a new business or around here when we're launching a new business within our business, a new product or a new idea or something, there's no way to know if you're behind except you guessed and you set a goal.

Right. Now, the closer your near-term goals should be very accurate, and that means that they should stretch you but not be unrealistic. You don't want them to be sandbagging like, oh, I can get that. No, I don't even – I can sleep in and get that goal. No, you've got to get up and get it done. Right. So it's not sandbagging. But on the other end, it's not pie in the sky on the near term.

The further out the goal is, the more in the fog it is, the more it's okay for it to be a little weird and a little large. Yeah. I mean, Jim Collins calls those BHAGs, big, hairy, audacious goals. And when I look out way in the future on Ramsey, what are our goals? Those are like almost vision kind of things. The fuzzy. Versus budget numbers that somebody by god better hit right you know which is like in this quarter right immediate or by august or

whatever you know and so you know if we're launching a uh a new book of christy writes which we are uh in the fall oh i'm not supposed to tell that but i just did anyway anyway but yeah i just i guess i just launched it but it's great you get nowhere you can buy it yet so it's okay but i mean you know we're sitting in the meeting and i'm saying okay how many of those are you thinking what are our projections and i'm going to call our guys on that i mean that's a goal that should be precise right and then you could tell if you're behind right once we launch it we go okay we were supposed to sell this many by this date and you haven't or you have right we're ahead of goal or behind goal, so we're either ahead or behind. You very seldom exactly own it, so you're one or the other then.

But if I said, okay, what is the vision in 2030 for Christy Wright, that's a more abstract painting rather than precise. Well, and it goes back to what you teach on goals, Dave, where you talk about the importance of a goal being specific measurable and having a time limit because so many people think they have a goal and it doesn't have those qualities it's not a goal and they feel behind because their goal is this i want to lose weight and they always feel behind because they never made it specific or measurable to measure be able to measure it against like you're saying and knowing are we on track or not so making sure how much do you want to lose in what period of time right and it's very specific it's

very measurable is it your goal or is it your mama's goal you know all that kind of stuff and so you go okay i want to lose 30 pounds well great how many times yeah yeah yeah it's uh you know or are you gonna do that in 30 days? Are you going to do that in three years? It changes the situation, right? And so you need a time limit on it so you can do the math on it and lay it down on the near-term goals. And it transfers a feeling of I'm behind. Okay, then if you're behind and it's a new project like hers, then you have to assess, okay, was my goal unrealistic?

Was it a little pie in the sky? Because it was brand new. We were guessing. It's a guess. Right. You can call it a forecast. You can make up all these words for it. It's a guess.

You don't know. Unless you've done something very similar to parlay onto it to do as an overlay to figure out the math, you are guessing. Right. Never sold a book in your life. How many books are you going to sell? I don't know. Yeah. There's no way of knowing.

Right. You don't know. Right. And so, but, I mean, the last two books, three books we've done around here with Ramsey personalities, and, okay, Christie's fits in that genre, and it looks like Rachel's in this regard. It looks like Anthony's in that regard. We can use that as forecasting technique and figure out, we think we can sell that many books. And then we'll either hit that or we'll do better or we'll do worse. I mean, you know, but very, very precise and give yourself a little attitude of going, okay, it's brand new.

I've never just started this business. If I didn't hit the goal, do I have to freak out and go, oh, well, I didn't hit my goal. I guess I got to quit. No. I mean, the goals I set early in this business, I hit none of them. But they took me down the road towards where I was supposed to go. You got a lot further than you would have had you not had the goal. I had them written down.

Right. And I didn't have that sense of being behind, even though I really wasn't behind. Yeah. Aaron is with us in Colorado Springs. Hi, Aaron. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thanks for having me on here. Sure.

What's up? I probably have a good situation, but I'm kind of really afraid of inflation. And I've gotten to where I'm at by just, kind of like you said, instead of budget. Six years ago, I had no money. My wife and I worked our butts off. We pay everything off but our house. And we have about a million dollars sitting. 250 is invested in certain things, but 750 is just in cash. And I don't want to be left behind, but I think this whole market is kind of propped up with a toothpick. And I think it's going to come down at some point.

So I'm really trying to figure out what's my next step, and I don't really trust financial advisors much of them. So I just kind of want to see what your thought process is and where you're at on maybe helping us with a good scenario. Okay. Well, the thing you have to have is your right to not trust someone to take over your life and run it for you. It's your job. You have a million dollars. It's your job to manage the million dollars.

Way to go, by the way. And so what I do use financial advisors for is not to tell me what to do, but to teach me and to give me information I didn't have before. You need to know some things about the market that you don't know right now. Because you think you know some things that are causing you to make these assumptions. The market's propped up with a toothpick. And it sounds like you've been reading too much on the internet to me. So you probably need to learn some things about historical rhythms of the stock market. They're fairly easy to understand. But you need someone that's in that world that very calmly teaches you, and then you can decide, based on that knowledge, how you want to invest.

But, yeah, you need somebody in your corner that's not telling you what to do, not doing it for you, but that's teaching you. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.