The Ramsey Show - App - I Panicked and Sold My Stocks! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 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. Open phones at 888-825-5225 Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Cal, starting off this hour in California. Hey, Cal, how are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks. Thanks so much for having me. I'm doing good. Hi, Rachel. Rachel is not here this segment.

How can I help? Oh, okay. Hi. So I just recently started the seven baby steps and we've got down step number one. My husband and I have been saving and we got $5,000 in our savings. That's what we decided that we had needed. So now we're on step number two, paying off our debt. and it basically consists just of my school loans, but that's still about $220,000 in school debt, and $175,000 of that is going to be forgiven after 10 years. No, it's not.

No, it's not. Oh, okay. You haven't read about the Student Loan Forgiveness Program? No, I mean, is there anything else? Obviously, there's something I don't know. Yeah, 93,000 people have made application. Less than 100 have gotten it. Oh, wow.

So you don't count on that to get rid of your debt. No, I didn't do that. What is your degree in for $220,000? I'm a pharmacist. Oh, that's good. Okay, good. So what are you making, $130,000? Yes. Good. And how long have you been out? 10 years. And you spent $220,000 on your pharmacy degree and didn't pay anything on it? Well, I was in the military for the first five years, and so I was making minimal to nothing payments on that.

And they didn't pay for the pharmacy degree at all? No, I joined after I went to school. Okay. All right, so you're out now. Are you single? No, I'm married with two little ones. Oh, good. And how much does your husband make?

He only works part-time. He's a full-time dad. Okay. Well, you guys are in the middle of a financial crisis. Okay. You have $220,000 in debt. And what that means is everybody works all the time. Right.

Starting right now. Ready, set, go. right starting right now ready set go and that means you are going to pick up uh like er on the weekends and use your pharmacy degree and add another thirty thousand dollars to your income working uh nights and weekends somewhere else as well so that you can start attacking this stuff and you guys are going to have what part of california are you in? Northern in Sacramento. Okay. All right. That's a little more doable, thank goodness.

It's still a tough market in terms of expense. It's still tough, right. Yeah. You don't live in San Diego, though. That's a good thing. You certainly don't live in San Jose, which is a really good thing. Okay. So anyway, you're going to have to live on nothing and increase your income dramatically and make these student loans go away. And so if we start doing like $50,000 a year on student loans, then it's going to take you about four to five years to clear these student loans.

But that's going to involve your income increasing and his income increasing. And you guys are living on nothing, beans and rice, rice and beans. You don't need to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there okay okay you are on scorched earth because hey look at what look at what you've been doing for the last since you got out of school what 10 years yeah what you've been doing towards your debt. Let me help you with what you did towards your debt since then. Nothing. Yeah.

You have got to change something. It's not working. And the more dramatic your change and deeper your sacrifice, the more dramatic your success story is going to be in terms of the speed of it. Because the formula is the deeper you cut and the more you work, the more money is thrown towards this debt and the faster you get out. So if you want to be a Band-Aid off slowly, girl, you can do that over five years. I'm a Band-Aid off fast guy, and I'm going to do this in about two and a half years,

and then I'm going to sleep. But I'm not going to sleep much during that first two and a half. Yeah, I was really banking on that student forgiveness, so this kind of puts me in a totally different perspective. Yeah, I'm sorry. I wish they were going to forgive it, but they're not. Yeah. In practical fact, I mean, the program is still in place,

and you can look up the website, and it still says all the same crap it's always said. Yeah, I've been applying, and I'm just doing annual updates with them. And they don't give you approval. They just accept your information and move on. And then when you get to the end of it, they have not been forgiving them because they're finding somebody didn't do something right one time. You're laid on one payment anytime during the two years you're baked you know you don't you're not uh in falling into

whatever category for any period of time you're baked and so uh it's a complete scam and um i wish they would just wave their wand and give well i sort of wish they'd wave their wand and forgive them but they're not going to. They're not going to. It's not going to happen. So you've got to count on you, not the government, to fix this problem. And that's what I would do if I were in your shoes, because we're pretty sure at this point Elizabeth Warren's not going to get elected.

So your student loans are not going to be forgiven. Bernie's not going to do it. Hope that helps. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Brittany is with us in California. Hi, Brittany. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. I'm really excited to talk to you, and bummed I missed Rachel, but excited. I have a question for you about I've been in food service forever. Also, you know, went back, got my degree, and I've been working with a caterer here and there. And she's been kind of a mentor for me.

And now that my husband's done with school and we are out of Baby Step 2, she's kind of mentioned in the next year or so phasing out of her catering business. And the nice part is it's kind of Monday through Friday because she works, there's a huge winery in town and she works for a specific department within there kind of doing their trainings and everything. And has had this business for about 10 years and it's a really solid business and it would be great. We have two kids. And I just want to know, we're going to meet with her and her husband

and just what questions to ask because I love what she does. I've worked with her. I've kind of seen the ins and outs. I would ask all the technical and operating questions that you've already written down and that you know to ask and ask her what you don't know that you need to know. And then as far as the financial part goes, the business is not worth a ton. The only thing it's worth really here is its customer list and the income that that customer list creates. And that's about the only value to a business like this. And so roughly four times

the net profit after a manager has been paid. And so were I buying the business living in Tennessee, I would have to hire a manager to run the business like you, right? If I hired you to run the business, what's the net profit as an investor I'm going to receive after all the labor has been paid, including the manager? And so calculate it that way. If she's been paying herself and that's all she's making, then all she owns is her job but i mean in other words if you take a manager's salary out of it there's nothing left the business has little to no value if you take a manager's salary out and there's 30 000 left about four times whatever's

left so it'd be worth about 120 000 in that case and that's how you can calculate the value about four times the true net this This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and

spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Thank you for joining us, America. Catherine is with us in Georgia. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show, Catherine. Thank you, Dave. I appreciate with us in Georgia. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Catherine. Thank you, Dave. I appreciate you taking my call. Sure.

My husband and I are both old enough to retire, so we still both kind of work some. We panicked in February and sold all of our investments, all of our IRAs and everything. So I'm sitting on some cash that I don't want to put back into low-interest cities or money market. I was wondering if you have some recommendations of some safe things that we could have some interest on. We just needed peace of mind at our age. How old are you? And we're afraid of losing what we had. I'm 67.

Oh, okay. Well, I'm 60, and I didn't need peace of mind that bad. All right. Well, we did. We did. Okay. Well, we teach people to invest in two different things, and that's all I invest in, and that's good growth, stock mutual funds, and real estate I pay cash for.

There are no federal guarantees on either one of those. Right. We have real estate that we pay cash for. Okay. So what happens when it goes down? Are you going to panic to sell it? I don't know. Okay.

Who knows? All right. But so... Well, the problem is not the investment vehicle. The problem is your critical thinking skills and how you're approaching the investment vehicle. Okay? The way you look at an investment vehicle, the reason you're calmer about real estate than you are about the stock market or mutual funds is because you have more knowledge about it. You're 67 and you've watched real estate your entire life go up. It's gone down a couple of times, but in general, every year it's gone up some. And so you don't panic about real estate as quickly because you're comfortable with its historic track record, correct? That's correct, but we've been in the stock market for many years as well,

and we've been through a lot of ups and downs and corrections on that too, but we just are able to manage. You used the word panic. I didn't. Yes, we did panic, and our panic came from the fact that we are older and we don't have that many years. We don't know what we have left but you know we don't assume we're going to have 20 or 30 years the long term anymore for something to to correct it but panic involves fear that is no longer thinking rationally

that's what the word means okay and so we were there yeah and so um and then you tried to explain it away rationally for the next five sentences after that. So it's one or the other. It's either panic or you lost faith in the stock market, which is fine if you don't want money in there. I'm not mad at you about that. But my point is, is that no matter what you invest money in, you are losing money at some time or another. And you have to be able to think through that and emotionally ride through that. If you put all your money in a 1% savings account, you are losing approximately 10% a year on missed opportunity.

In the investment world, we call that opportunity cost because you've got money basically in a fruit jar in the backyard, and you're making no money on your money. So you still have lost money. If you put money in the stock market, you have a more volatile situation that 90-some-odd percent of the five-year periods have made money. If you bought in at the low of 2008 at a 6,300 Dow, it went all the way to 30,000 Dow, 5x what you put the money in at in 2008 at one of the worst stock market events in history other than the Great Depression.

And so you would have, if you had written that out, and you probably did, it sounds like you wrote it all the way up to a 30,000 Dow and then back down. But something about watching too much news this time scared you and made you jump out. But the statistical data on the stock market does not justify, I'm going to lose all my money at 67 years old. There's not been an event in the history of the stock market that would cause you to lose all your money at 67 years old. There's not been one, nowhere, in the historical data. So that's what

you've got to do. You're taking the risk of the market going up or down. You're taking the risk of real estate going up or down or making a bad purchase in real estate, which is actually more probable than it going up or down. It's pretty much going to go up. Most people, when they make a mistake in real estate, usually they just pay too much for it and they don't manage it well because it's a higher hassle factor to manage it. So you've got to decide. In other words, you've got to pick your poison because every investment has a downside. A 1% CD has a downside. You're losing out on another 10% you could have had were it properly invested.

The mutual funds have a downside that the market's crazy, and the only time the news reports on it, the only time the news reports on it is when it's down. You never have them have an open. Tonight, when you turn on the television, they will be going, Stock market is crazy! We're all going to die of the coronavirus! That'll be what's on the TV tonight. As soon as you turn it on when you get home, that's what all going to die of the coronavirus. That will be what's on the TV tonight.

As soon as you turn it on when you get home, that's what's going to happen. They never lead with record highs in the stock market. They never lead with that. And so you cannot use the news media as your source to make your decisions on investments because they are unreliable. They lie. They're a bunch of drama queens. to make your decisions on investments because they are unreliable. They lie. They're a bunch of drama queens because what bleeds leads.

They never lead with it's going to be sunny tomorrow with the meteorologist as the opening salvo on your local news. They only put the meteorologist up front as the opening salvo if there's a bad storm front coming through you're gonna die of a blizzard that's what they put out front right and and so it's all about because it drives ratings and so you cannot listen to drama queens to make your decisions on investing you have to have critical thinking skills and go i'm going to put the money in at one percent and i know that if i put $100,000 in there, I'm losing $10,000 a year by doing that.

Or I'm going to put $100,000 in a rental piece of real estate, and I know that I've got to deal with renters, and I've got to deal with repairs, and I will make some money on that, whatever the rate of return is on that particular piece of real estate. Or I know if I put the $100,000 in mutual funds that it could be worth $60,000 or $50,000 or never in history, but it could be worth $30,000. By the way, if you had $100,000 in there at the high of the market today, you've lost $ 000 bucks and you haven't lost anything unless you sold because a guy asked warren buffett one time he said mr buffett you lost 10 million dollars today based on your stock price the stocks you own and the value going down he goes i didn't lose anything because i didn't sell it so um that you know but if you wanted to say on paper I lost, which would be a proper way of saying it today,

if you had $100,000, it's probably down 15 or 20 grand depending on what it's invested in right now, if it's in your 401K. Is that the end of the world? Did you lose your whole retirement? No, you didn't. So you've got to get out of the drama queen business because that's when you're panicked. And as my friend Art Laffer says, people who are panicked and people who are drunk don't make good decisions. And so you don't want to make decisions based on irrational, over-the-top fears that there is no logic or historical data points to support. You don't want to make decisions based on that.

You want to make decisions based on,. You want to make decisions based on, you know, this volatility is scaring me. I'm not going to tell everybody I was afraid I was going to lose everything because that would not be a true statement, but I just don't want to make this right anymore. Okay. That's a valid way of saying it, and you want to get out. And I'm not going to make anywhere near as much money because I'm going to put it in something where there's not that volatility. And if you do that, that's okay. You can choose to do that.

But you're choosing to give up the income off of your nest egg. The goose is going to lay little tiny golden eggs. Little tiny golden eggs. Little bitty golden eggs. And that's what you're going to get. That's why they call CDs certificates of depression. Because you get depressed when you get the check. And so you just got to decide. You're going to get it one way.

You're going to get it the other. You've got to decide as an adult which emotional roller coaster I want to take. Because you're going to take one of them. So that's, you know, you got three choices as far as I'm concerned. Money markets, CDs, or or real estate or mutual funds. I'm in real estate deeply because I love real estate and I'm in mutual funds. I'm cashing none of it out and I'm not making a single decision in my entire life right now based on the coronavirus. If you come up, I'm going to give you a big old hug and a handshake. Corey and Katie are on the line from Medford, Oregon.

Hey, guys, how are you? Better than we deserve, Dave. I hear you. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. And see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. And how much have you paid off? We've paid off $68,043.

Cool. How long did this take? Oh, sorry. It took us four years and five months. Good. And your range of income during that time? So we started at $35,000. We peaked at $90,000. And now we are at $75,000. Cool. What do you guys do for a living?

So I am currently serving in the Air Force in the military here in Klamath Falls, Oregon. And I now, because we are debt-free, am able to be a stay-at-home mom. Okay, very cool. So the $35,000 to $90,000 was you both jumped in and took jobs, and then when the debt was gone, you stepped back down and you're making $75,000 then, Corey. Is that right? That is correct. Yeah, very cool. What kind of debt was the $68,000? The $68,000 was two personal loans that we had, and then two credit cards, one car, one RV that we bought, and then student loans. It was all kind of combined into that. Gotcha.

How much did you owe on the RV? Nothing. No, what did we owe? Oh, what did we owe? It started at $22,000. Whoa. What did you owe on the car? $15,000, I believe, when we started.

Okay. So 37 of the 68 was those two vehicles. Yeah. And then our, actually, I think the car was down to 10 when we started. And then the student loans were at 20. Let me check. Hold on. Gotcha.

So the trailer was $23,000, and then the honda was 15 yeah but then the student loans were really the hard part that was 22 000 yeah wow wow okay so what happened normal yeah you were you had everything what happened four years and five months ago that got you guys lit up so i wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. We had just had our first child. And so a friend of ours, Uriah, he planted the seed about you in our heads before we got married, but we didn't need you, supposedly. Well, then when I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, we got our budget written out and we saw some extra money. And then we decided on a whim one night, we were kind of bored. We went and looked at those trailers and we went and bought

it in secret. We didn't tell our family. We didn't tell friends. We just went and did it. And then we came home and told actually Corey's dad, Corey's dad, I'll never forget the look on his face was kind of like, well, here we go. They're going to learn their lesson. So you're going to the woodshed. Yep. And we knew it was a mistake, but we did it anyway because we wanted to be like everybody else. So we bought that trailer, which started like a kind of a spiral of bad things happening. And then there was a payroll mistake with Corey's job. We had to take out some loans to get us through.

And that's when I realized, you know, it's not going to work. We got to do something. So I went back and did a part-time job for about a year and a half. And then we saw we brought all our finances to Corey's parents and kind of laid them out. And his dad looked and realized we were paying a lot in interest on our mortgage. So we refied our mortgage and got 2% less than what we were paying, which really helped us kind of free up that income. Yeah. So we refied, got that snowball going. And then I realized, you know, I want this to go faster. I'm willing to sacrifice, and I went and got a full-time job.

Okay. So every single month that I had that job, I didn't even see my paycheck. We gave it straight to our debt for almost two years and got it. It was really the last two years was the most we paid off. We paid off $43,000. So you kept everything. You didn't sell the stuff. Oh, so that's another cool part.

That's when God came in. I felt the Lord really calling me home to stay home with my kids when I was pregnant. And I just felt him saying, trust me, trust me. And it was after I paid off our student loans. And so I said okay lord all I have left is this RV I don't know what we're going to do with it but we got to do I'm trusting you and so Corey and I prayed about it and I decided to stay home before that RV was gone well we put that RV on Craigslist three times in the last four years and there was nobody ever

interested so I told Corey I said I'm putting the RV up. We are not taking it down. And so I put the RV up and it sold the next day. God had that. God just aligned it to happen. And the guy came to us with cash, paid the whole thing in cash for what we owed. Um, I think we made $2 on the RV. Wow. But God arranged that, and it was cool to watch him just, we trusted him. Yeah. And I think that's what this whole thing was, was just trusting God that we were doing, like you say, you are a slave to the lender. We wanted to be free, and we prayed that God would just set us free, and he did. He arranged everything.

Very cool. Very cool. So, Corey's dad was a big help then. They all were, actually. They always, both our parents, when we got married, they prayed over us, and ever since that day, they've always been there to support us, both sides of our parents. That's very cool. Very cool.

So, Kelly said a bunch of your family has gotten out of debt while you all are. They have, yes. So Corey's parents have been debt-free for a couple of years, and then my parents just paid off their house as well last year. Wow. So all of them have really been huge in it and have been great examples as to get out of debt and don't be a slave to the lender. I love it. Very, very cool. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I always say the key to getting out of debt was budgeting and honesty

with your spouse and yourself and then your commitment and hard work and dedication and selflessness and i say discipline because giving away our money every month um it's hard well you guys had a really good reason a big why to get out of debt and that was called you being home with the babies you were that was really motivating you guys. It was huge. Every day I drove away from my child, my firstborn, and left him with somebody broke my heart. And I'd look in the rearview mirror and see him with family or with his babysitter, and I just kept hearing God say, just wait. It's only temporary.

That's one thing I wish I could tell people. It is only temporary. Because now I'm home with both my kids. Yeah, the sacrifice is worth it. Yes. Way to go, you guys. We're so proud of you. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you,

Everyday Millionaires, How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth, and How You Can Too, number one bestseller, all about how millionaires happen and where they come from, and you guys are on your way to being one. So we want to share that with you. Can I just say one more thing? So both sets of our parents are here with us, and we'd love it if they would join in with us that our whole family is debt-free.

Yeah, let's do a family-wide debt-free scream all at once. I love it. Let's do it. Multiple generations. All right, whole family, Corey and Katie, Medford, Oregon, paid off $68,000 in four years and five months, making $35,000 to $90,000 to $75,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

All right, three, two, one. We're debt-free! That's the sound of the whole bunch being changed. One, two, one. We're deaf-free! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! That's the sound of the whole bunch being changed. I love it! That is very, very cool. Very cool. Absolutely fabulous.

Doesn't get any better than that. Well, that's how it's done, folks. You sacrifice. You work hard. You sell stuff. And in the middle of that, God shows up. The Bible says when you're faithful with the little things, then you will be given more to manage.

When you're faithful with the little things then you will be given more to manage. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture of the day, 2 Peter 3.18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Vincent Van Gogh said, Normality is a paved road. It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow.

That's good. That's true uh can't get flowers there there's always manure oh my goodness we'll get this americans owe 1.6 trillion dollars in student loans that's about 35 000 a student and if you're sitting on a pile of student loans and think they're just going to go away or the government will magically forgive them, the bad news is you're wrong. You've got to have a plan to get through this. Financial Peace University is the best plan for you to pay off any loans you've got, including student loans. And we've been teaching gods and grandmas ways of handling money for almost 30 years. And over 6 million people have gone through Financial

Peace University and learning how to pay off debt so that they can have a future, so that they can be outrageously generous, and that includes student loans. You hear these debt-free screams here on the air, and you hear how many of them went to Financial Peace University, and, you know, it's not unusual at all, 18 to 24 months for people to pay off all of their debts except their home. That's a matter of fact about the average. I mean, some do it faster, some do it slower. It's time to get these loans out of your life so you get a life. Change your family tree, increase your generosity, and live your dreams, right? Check it out. Go to DaveRamsey.com and check out Financial Peace University

or call the Ramsey Concierge Team at 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223. Mike's in Massachusetts. Hey, Mike, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How's it going, Dave? Great to talk to you. You too, sir. What's up? My wife and I are debt-free, and we are selling a two-family home,

which is going to give us our emergency fund and then leave us about $100,000. So my question is, we don't have kids. Should we invest the money, or should I put it down on my single-family home, which I have a 30-year note on, cut that note to a 15? I would put it down on your single family. We work what we call the baby steps. Baby step one is $1,000 saved. Two is debt-free, but the house, you're there. Three is you've got your emergency fund.

You're there now. Four is putting 15% of your income into retirement. You start doing that if you haven't already, and that's just budgeting out of your monthly income into retirement. Five is kids' college. You don't have to worry about that. And six is pay off the house early. Once the house is paid completely off, then you're in a position to build ridiculous wealth

because without a house payment, boom, boom, the math really goes into overdrive. And so you're in a situation where you're at baby steps four, five, and six. We work simultaneously. to overdrive and so you're in a situation where you're at baby steps four five and six we work simultaneously so you start you start putting 15 of your income into retirement and you would skip over baby step five because there's no kids college you have to fool with and then any other monies you get beyond that other than living i mean if you want to spend some of this money on a luxury item or something that's okay i mean if you want to go on a cruise or you want to buy a car or whatever, it's okay. But I wouldn't spend it all on that, and I'm going to start throwing extra money at the house

because all the data points we have on the millionaire study that we did shows that there's two ways people become millionaires, and they almost always involve both of them, and that's getting their home paid off. A paid-off home is a big chunk of net worth, and then 401K and roth ira and mutual fund investing and the people that have a net worth of one to five million dollars it almost always is made up of their retirement and their paid off home now you start getting above five million dollars they start doing some other stuff later on that'd be another step beyond

baby step seven even but baby step seven has just become very wealthy after the house has paid off and be outrageously generous so what do you owe on your home total uh we owe 300 000 okay and you can throw 100 at it that'd leave 200 and your household income is what uh about 150 160 okay i'm self-employed, so it varies. Right. Okay. And so, I mean, if you threw 50 of that at 200, you'd be done with the house in four or five years. Yeah, that's what we're looking at. Maybe five, six years, yeah. Yeah.

And that would be about normal. How old are you? I am 44. Cool. Okay. And so, when you're 50, the house is paid for. And how much have you got in retirement now? About $200,000 that my wife has in IRA for work.

Okay. If that's in good mutual funds, it should double by then as well. And so that would be $400,000. What's the house worth today? About $400,000, $450,000. Okay. And so if you got $400, hundred in mutual funds because you're probably going to have more than that since you're going to continually invest in addition to what's already

in her 401k you all are going to start putting 15 of your income away um that plus the 200 doubling plus the house going from 400 to 500 you should be millionaires by the time you're 50 is the calculation I'm hearing. That would be fantastic. That's what we're going for, and that's why we listen to you. Yeah, there you go, man. I mean, that's just your first million, but you did it by 50. That's pretty cool. And by the way, that's the average.

The average millionaire achieves the first million at 51.3 years. That's what we've discovered in the data. So you're you're like a case study as long as you play it out i mean if you if you don't you're gonna be one of those other case studies you don't be one of the other ones hang on i'm gonna send you a copy of chris's book you'll enjoy it it's called everyday millionaires and it is uh there's 140 of the statistics from that study that we did in that book uh It is not a white paper for you nerds. It's a lot of stories and a lot of good stuff

and a lot of stuff that will motivate you, but there's 140 of the stats in there. If you want the white paper, it's $9 on the whole research project, and you can get that online at DaveRamsey.com too. But we'll send you out a copy of the Everyday Millionaires book. We'll be doing a Millionaire Theme Hour here a little bit later in the week, or next week, I guess it is. And if you don't know what that is, we take calls from real millionaires.

And that prompted us, because we kept hearing these stories from these people who started with nothing and became millionaires. And the vast majority of the callers, maybe the people who inherit money, just don't listen to this show. I don't know. But we almost never get someone who inherited their money. And you always hear, well, everybody inherits. All the rich people who inherit money just don't listen to this show. I don't know. But we almost never get someone who inherited their money. And you always hear, well, everybody inherits. All the rich people inherited their money.

They inherited their money. All the money's trapped in the wealthy families, and the little man can't get ahead. And you always hear all this crap. It's really a bunch of political crap is what it is because the actual data points don't support their theory. We ended up, just because we got intrigued with it, and we did an airtight, man, oh, really detailed research project, and it ended up being the largest study of millionaires ever done in North America. My friend Tom Stanley passed away a couple of years ago, and his daughter Sarah carries on his work. He wrote a book in 1992 called The Millionaire Next Door, where he studied

millionaires. He studied 750 millionaires. Now, if you have had a class in statistics, you know that 750 is statistically significant across the population, considering there's only about 11 million millionaires. And so that study should have yielded good results, and it actually did. But one of the big knocks on Tom Stanley by the wealthy quality people and the lefties was that the sample size wasn't big enough to be real, that he just found 750 unique people and they didn't represent real millionaires.

So I said, well, let's do 10x. Let's do 7,500 people. And we got carried away, and we ended up doing almost 11,000 millionaires. And we had a research company out of New York came in and studied our research process that we used, and it's all detailed in the white paper. It's airtight research. You cannot argue with it. If you argue with it, you just have a political agenda, and you live in an echo chamber.

You're just wrong. This data is solid. And we know where millionaires come from. We know that 79% of them inherited zero. We know that another 5% inherited less than $100,000. And we know another 5%, if they inherited money, inherited it after they were already millionaires. So we know that 93% of America's millionaires did not inherit their money to become millionaires. Folks, that's almost all of them. So what's the point of that?

The point of that is to give you hope that you can be one too. That if you do the stuff we teach, you can change your family tree. It works. And that's what's in the book, Everyday Millionaires. That puts this hour we teach, you can change your family tree. It works. And that's what's in the book, Everyday Millionaires. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer. Kelly Daniels, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host.

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. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can listen to Dave anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone. Catch the full show, browse by topic, or send clips to your friends. Head to the app store and download the Dave Ramsey show app today.