The Ramsey Show - App - I Won $1 Million in the Lottery - What Do I Do With It? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 15, 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, Dr. John Deloney.

Ramsey Personality is my co-host on the air today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Shelby is in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Shelby. Welcome to the show. How can we help? Hi, Dave. Hey, Reckon Tech, Dr. John. That's what I'm talking about. I like it, Shelby. Yeah, it guns up. All right. So my husband and I, we're on baby steps four, five, and six,

and we're considering immediately paying off our mortgage. Good. We have $140,000 remaining on the balance, and we would be pulling the money from roughly $280,000 of non-retirement investments. Why haven't you done it already? Well, okay. I guess our thing was we think that we would make more money on the investments and compound interest than what we would save by paying off the mortgage. But, you know, so in addition, my husband's job just announced layoffs last week.

So that makes things really fun and exciting. So my head says to keep the investments, but my heart says to pay it off. Okay. keep the investments but my heart says to pay it off okay well you are accurately describing that because what you're leaving out of your formula is risk and your head does math and your heart is where risk is measured right and so when you measure risk you will find that you will actually make more money as a result of having a paid-for house for multiple reasons. The sense of peace, the sense of well-being causes you to make different decisions with your money in other areas and with your career. Because you don't have to put up with crap if you have a paid-for house, and you have a tendency to prosper in your career field as a result.

And see, that's not measurable in your formula that you used, where you thought you would make more on compound interest. If you made more on compound interest, then you should borrow $2 million on your house and invest it on the stock market. But when I say that, that takes your breath away a little bit because that makes you realize there's risk. That make sense? Yeah. Yes.

Last point is this. A couple other points right quick, and there's two other. One is when we did the study for Chris's book, Everyday Millionaires, one of the key data points we found was that not all of them, but the typical millionaire paid off their home. It was one of the key components of their first one to five million dollars in net worth was a paid for home we almost never i won't say never but almost never found a millionaire with a mortgage and if we did they were in the process of getting it paid off

very quickly we might out of ten thousand i can't we didn't, but it might have been two or something who said they built wealth by using borrowing on their home to become wealthy. That is not something we ever hear among millionaires. They don't say, oh, I borrowed money and invested it and made the spread by investing in mutual funds. And that made me a millionaire. Never said anyone. Okay. And the last point is this. Pay off your house. by investing in mutual funds, and that made me a millionaire. Never said anyone. Okay? And the last point is this. Pay off your house, and if you really hate being debt-free,

you can go get your mortgage. Very true. All right, we'll pay it off today, then. Have at it. Thanks, Shelby. How cool is that? That phone call was worth its ROI, man. She already knew what she was going to do.

I know she did. It was that old Taylor Dayne song, listen to your heart. I its ROI, man. She already knew what she was going to do. I know she did. It was that old Taylor Dayne song. Listen to your heart. I love it, man. Is that not Taylor Dayne? No. All right, whoever it was. Rock set, rock set.

All right. Oh, we're getting help out of the booth here with our karaoke. Great. All right, we need to move along fast. Mavis is in Portland, Oregon. Hey, Mavis, what's up? Oh, hi, Dave. Such an honor to talk to you. Mavis is in Portland, Oregon. Hey, Mavis, what's up? Oh, hi, Dave. Such an honor to talk to you.

You too. How can we help? Yes, I have one simple question. We recently purchased term life insurance through vendors, but a friend of mine, she's in the insurance business now, and she highly recommends to get a whole you know a whole life insurance versus term life i don't you don't never recommend whole life but wait a minute wait a minute a whole life life insurance agent said you should get whole life i'm shocked well no she just she worked for a

different insurance company i told her i said you know i just got um term life with you know vendors through dave and then she's like you know thought, let me tell you all this good thing about whole life. It just sounded so good. Drug dealers want you to use drugs, too. They do. Yeah. And a lot of them are users, too. They make them sound so good.

Yeah. So good. Yes. Yeah. So, okay. What can I, what can I, you obviously know we stand the whole life insurance sucks. Now, how can we help you? You're not going to convince your friend because she sells it.

Right. I, I guess my question is why don't you recommend, like what's the downside for a whole life? That's an excellent question. Okay. Whole life life insurance is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 times more expensive for the same amount of coverage. So, in other words, if we take a $100,000 policy or a $250,000 policy and it was $5 a month for term,

it would be $100 a month for whole life. Okay? Okay. So now we have established statistically, based on your age, with the probability of your death at your age, what it costs to cover your life should you die. We know $5 will do that, so why do they charge a hundred well the other 95 goes into a savings program inside the policy called cash value she probably mentioned that to

you it builds up cash value and they say it builds up equity like owning a house where term is renting well it's not at all that's a mixed metaphor and it's absolutely a lie okay so here's what happens you got an extra 95 dollars you're being charged that's going into in to the inside of the policy with cash value now here's how cash value works get any whole life policy out and look at it the first three years your cash value build up is zero okay so what happened to your 95 it went to a month by the way not a year what did your 95 go to it went to commissions and extra profits for them after three years it accrues nationally at an average of 1.2 percent then when you finally get past those three years and you finally get past the idea that the

rate of return sucks and it finally builds up some money now your 250 000 policy has a 20 000 cash value in it you have a savings program inside there. You die. The insurance company pays the face value of $250,000. What happened to your $20,000 you paid extra for? They keep it. So you have a savings program at a bank. The first three years, they keep all your money. After that, they pay you 1%. And when you die, they keep your money.

That's whole life life insurance. That sucks. It is the payday lender of the middle class. That's how all the towers in the skylines of every city are life insurance companies and banks. They didn't make that money themselves. Santa Claus didn't build those. You built them, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly

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to help the Olcheskis. To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. The very first time I ever spoke after I wrote the book Financial Peace, and I had some actual books, the little blue books, and they were at the back of the table, back table, after I finished talking at the Kiwanis Club or whatever it was with my overhead projector. I walked back there. A lady's reading through the book, and she says, Why don't they teach this in schools?

Why don't they teach this in high school? Well, guess what? We do. I've been asked that question since the very first day we started this business. And so now in about 30 or about 48 percent of the high schools, our Ramsey Solutions Financial Foundations, Foundations in Personal Finance is taught. Now, here's the thing. We also want to help you get prepared on a self-study basis. So we got your back. With a fully digital self-study courses,

your teen is going to know the right way to handle money. This is like the homeschool edition, and some of you are homeschooling. Lots of us are homeschooling. Didn't intend to, but now we are. That's right. The drinking starts at 9 a.m. Teachers drunk, and two students get expelled by noon. So homeschooling is there.

So DaveRamsey.com slash self-study. And we've got courses available for your high school, your middle school. And you can make sure your kids are prepared. Because, listen, parents, you don't teach your kids how to handle money. They will live in your basement until they're 30. They will learn it from their neighbors yeah for real 888-825-5225 annie is with us and annie is in albuquerque hi annie how are you hi dave hi john thank you for taking my call sure how can we help Okay, so I have a sister who's in her 30s, and she had a kid when she was 21 years old.

And she's been a bartender for about the last seven years before COVID. And for the last several years, my sister has been taking money from our father and grandmother, and they fund several parts of her life. For example, she's never had a car payment. Both my dad and my grandmother have both purchased cars for her, and so she's never really had to make any effort to improve her lifestyle. And she'll say that she's going to do things, and then she doesn't follow through. And so my question is more about I'm starting to feel resentment toward my sister because I feel like she's taking advantage of our family. They don't really have the financial means to be helping with these situations.

And they've been bailing her out of her situation financially for years, and I just want to know how I should proceed with a relationship with her. Have you ever talked to her about it? I feel this way. Have you ever talked to her? No, I have talked to my dad about it. My grandma is way old. It's hard to talk to her. Hold on a second. How come you ever talked to your sister about it? Well, we had a falling out. We're just now starting to talk again. We had a falling out because she had made some pretty bad relationship decisions with a significant other, and I didn't support it. Yeah, it was a very abusive situation, and I didn't know what to do. So I just said, I don't know what to do here. So this is one of those family conversations that sounds a lot more

complex in reality than it really is. Um, the, the reality is you don't have a lot of power in this situation. And so what you can control is the boundaries you want to set up and the conversations that you want to have. Other than that, your mom and dad, um, your dad and grandma get to decide how they spend their grown-up money and your grown-up sister gets to decide if she wants to continue to leech off other people or if she wants to get her life together the choices you have are to have a hard conversation with your dad and your grandma and say i think you're being taken advantage of by our sister and that's about as far as that conversation can go and then you can have a hard conversation with your sister and

say i don't like how you're treating grandma and dad. Other than that, you get to choose where you want to carry around a bunch of resentment and frustration. And because that pain is in your heart. That's not on anybody else that you're choosing. It's almost willfully choosing to wake up every day frustrated. Right. What do you think, Dave? Yeah, well, you're exactly right. One of the hardest things in our lives is when there are adults that we love that are being

stupid, and you can't keep them from being stupid. There's no law against stupid. Stupid is not illegal, and it's in almost every family, by the way, like every family, and so some put the fun in dysfunction, but I mean, it's just hard. It's hard to watch people you love. So the only way you possibly can do any good with your sister is just say, I think you could have a better life than you have. And it breaks my heart that your life is not good. And it's not good because of some of the choices you're making. And man, I would love

to walk with you and, uh, spiritually disciple you, whatever, uh, on making some different choices and, um, cutting the ties where you're being supported as a grown woman by mom and dad and grandma. Um, and if I can help you with that, I love you. And I think you can do, I think you can do better. And I think you're going to have love you, and I think you can do better, and I think you're going to have a better life. And make it about her doing better rather than how bad she is. And go ahead. Anne, do you want to have a relationship with your sister, or do you want her to stop? Yes, sir, so badly.

So you don't have one now, or you have a broken one now, right? Yes, sir. We're reconnecting now. Slowly. So what I'm going to recommend, a great way to heal a relationship is not to come out with somebody, letting them know they need to make a bunch of life changes, and they need to fix some stuff that you don't like. Sometimes the best way to start and repatch and reheal a relationship is to say, I love you.

How are you? How you been? How can I help you? I've missed you. How can I help you? And to start there and true life change comes through relationship. It comes through connection, not through somebody barking orders at you. And so I'm going to recommend if you want to, and the reason I asked you that question is some people just want their sister to quit taking their future inheritance they just want their dad to start getting taken advantage of that's different than man i miss my sister and i love her and i want to reconnect with her um those are two different processes and two different approaches but man i say call her direct and say i love you let's get together and we're going to start from there. As far as your dad goes, if you do want to have another conversation,

it could sound like this. Dad, you're an enabler. You're bringing harm to so-and-so by helping them because all of her character muscles have atrophied. Because here's the thing, your dad and your grandma, I know about enablers. One thing I know about all of them is they're the nicest people. And they love deeply. They just love.

They just want to be helpful. And if he can become convinced that he's actually doing harm, which he is, rather than helping, then he will suddenly grow a backbone and introduce a new word, no, because he is doing harm to your sister. And as a dad, if he ever gets that, he'll stop it. But as enablers all feel like they're helping, oh, I can't, I could never, oh, my child. I could never. They could never. And they say things like that with always a wisp in their voice.

That's right. You know what I'm talking about? The breathier it is, the more dramatic it is. It has to be. Oh, they would be homeless. The grandchild would be, I couldn't turn my grandchild out on the street. It's like as if she wouldn't get her butt in gear and get a job and probably figure this out. You will figure it out.

That's right. You know, so as if you are the sole barrier between your grandchild and homelessness. Right. Homelessness. Well, and I also know enablers who they love to be needed and they love to play that role of support and care. And sometimes that's that's they need to look in the mirror on their own selves. Right. care and sometimes that's that's they need to look in the mirror on their own selves right because if if my daughter does go get a job she does start start supporting her kid on her own then who am i

i'm not necessary anymore i'm not as valuable as i once was and that's a lie too but when you're participating in funding someone's insanity you are bringing them harm that's right what it's the equivalent of giving a drunk a drink that's exactly exactly right. Well, that's tough love. No, darling, that's just love. Right. Love is making grown-ups grow up. So I've got two young kids, and I know about this intellectually. You've got grown-ups, grown kids.

What do you tell yourself if they were to come back and say, hey, I need some support? Well, if they have an emergency situation, we would help them. Right. But it's not a pattern. Love it. The pattern is the problem. It's not a one-off. Kid needs to move back home, that's fine.

You know, a safety net is okay. A hammock is not okay. Ah, look at that. This is The Dave Ramsey Show, Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, on the debt-free stage right here at Ramsey Solutions. Sarah and Pedro are with us. Hey, guys. How are you?

Hi. We're good. Great. Good to have you guys. And where do you live? Hanford, California. Awesome. Welcome to Nashville.

And all the way here to do a debt-free scream. Yeah, we had to. I love it. How much you paid off? $62,043. Good for you. And how long did this take? About 12 months. Good for you. And your range of income? We went from $105,000 to $117,000. Excellent. What do you guys do for a living? I work for local government. And I work for quality management for correctional health care.

Very cool. Very cool. What kind of debt was this $62,000? It was credit cards, a mattress purchase. We had to get a king-size bed that our little daughter sleeps in. It's not just for her. She just overtakes our bed. And our van, and then the big one was student loans. Ah, how much was student loans? About $38,000 or $39,000.

Okay, so almost $40,000 of the $62,000 then. Yeah, wow, good for you guys. So you were normal? You had debt on everything, even the mattress. Yeah. Unbelievable. Even the mattress. So what in the world? What happened 12 months ago?

What blew you up and changed your direction? Well, we have five children, and after we were blessed with our fifth child, we were living in a 1300 square foot home. So we used to joke around that you can't swing a kid without hitting a kid around here, right? So we could afford to move to a bigger home and we did. And we just felt we made enough money to not have to live check to check with the increased mortgage, right, with our new home. We went to a five-bedroom home, and it was much larger. Not just the increased mortgage, but, I mean, with another baby, it's like more daycare, more kid expenses and stuff like that. And so we purchased, we moved in our home in January, and the following month we were in Financial Peace University.

Just like that? Yeah. How'd you hear about it? Through our credit union, actually. Oh, very good. Our credit union, the manager, she puts on a FPU class twice a year. So, yeah. Very cool.

Mm-hmm. Very cool. So you go to the Financial peace class the first night. What happened? Well, actually, we took our oldest daughters with us because we were told, like, just bring the family with you and it'll be a good step. After that first class, Pedro and I just sat down and we, like, looked at all of our debt. We started looking up our online accounts. And then we realized, we never really realized before how much all of our debt. We started looking up our online accounts and then we realized,

we never really realized before how much we were in debt. Never really thought about it and never was truthful to ourselves about how much we owed. We were normal. We could afford to pay our bills every month and it was just sort of accepted

that's the way it was going to be. We're just going to pay these bills every month, and that's how life will be. And I just figured, oh, I'm just going to be paying my student loan into my 50s. And I thought, oh, that's just fine. That's normal. She added it all up at $62,000. Did you pass out? It was jarring.

Yeah, it was jarring. We didn't realize how much we actually were in debt yeah i remember that first day in financial peace when they have uh all the testimonials from other people i remember thinking that's impossible how did these people do it and um you know 12 months later here we are we. Wow. So proud of you guys. Way to go, heroes. Thank you. Excellent job. How does it feel to not have any payments but the house payment?

It is. It's fun. Yeah. It really is. It's such a... So we became debt-free in February. A few weeks later, coronavirus and the whole world shuts down. We don't really feel like we were affected

too much because we were already used to not going out anywhere, not going to movies, not going out to dinner. It hasn't been too much of a change. So it wasn't really that much of a difference. You probably piled up some money since February. So we didn't realize we were already living that quarantine lifestyle. Yes. Kept swinging the kids around.

Yeah. That's good. So, yeah. But it's just really fun, nice to know that every dollar that we bring in for income, other than our monthly bills like utilities and groceries and things like that, that's ours to keep and save and do whatever we want to with it. So it's liberating in that sense. You're building, not digging, right? Yeah. That's so great

makes a lot of difference well congratulations you guys so what do you tell people now that are that are just now having their wake-up call they're listening and they went i just added up on my debt last night oh my god yeah so what's the secret to getting out of debt it is um budgeting the budgeting um the budget and following the plan your plan the baby step plan exactly um we had a lot of money in our savings account before like almost 22 000 in our savings and baby step one is to have only a thousand dollars in your savings account so that's why we're able to pay off so much so quickly was because we had that big leap forward yeah um we had that discussion like are we really going to do this and i remember thinking that's what he said to do so that's that's what we do and i

remember walking into uh the credit union and writing them a check for the rest of our vehicle i remember calling calling the different credit cards and they don't make it easy to close them either. No, they don't. Yeah. It took some work to find the right place and to actually get them closed. But I remember calling them all and in the matter of a couple of days, we spent $21,000 in debt. Wow. Yeah. But you saw some instant progress. Instant. Yeah. You're like out of the blocks fast. Yeah. Yeah.

And another thing I wanted to mention was that, so we have five kids. Our oldest is 14, soon to be 15. They're 14, 12, 7. Four. Four. And two. Sorry. It's cool.

Don't leave that one out. Yeah. Sorry. It's cool. Don't leave that one out. And before this, we never had really thought about, we knew we would want to help the kids go to college if they wanted to. And we never really had a plan for it. We always just figured we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But with this baby step plan, we actually have like a roadmap for how we can pay for our kids to get to college. Touchdown. Yeah. I feel very confident about it now.

Before, it was like hope. Like, I hope we can do it. But now I feel like I know we will. Yeah. I love that. That's powerful, you guys. You totally took control of your life. I'm so proud of you.

Thank you. Really heroes. Very, very well done. Congratulations. So how many of the kids did you bring with you? Two. The two oldest ones that went to FPU with us. And they went to the class with you? Yeah, they attended all the classes with us. Okay, so they probably know it better than like me now, right? I hope so. All right. So this is Violet and this is Penny. And they're how old? She's 14

and Penny's 12. All right. Way to go, gals. Good job. Very, very cool. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, and that's the next chapter in your hero story. You need to go on and be millionaires now and send those five kids to school debt-free. You are rocking it. You're just awesome, man. Thank you. I'm so proud of y'all.

Well done, well done. All right. Okay, have they been practicing their debt-free scream? Yeah. Yeah. No. She said no. She's. All right. Okay. Have they been practicing their debt-free scream? Yeah. Yeah. No. She said no. She's psyching me out here.

All right. Here we go. $62,000 paid off in 12 months, making $105,000 to $117,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah.

I love it. They're changing legacy. I love it. Five kids. Five kids. Can't swing a kid without hitting a kid. I'm going to use that line. Me too.

That's a keeper. I love it. Sometimes I hear, well, you can't do Dave Ramsey stuff. You can't do this. Common sense doesn't work if you've got a bunch of children. They busted it all. Unless it's them. They busted it all.

Five kids living in California, working for the government. They're busting all the things you can't do it. That's right. You can't do any of the things they did. No. But they did them anyway. They did them all. And she's beautiful, and this guy's shirt is incredible.

I mean, they just look great. They look great. They look great. They brought it, man. This is celebration day. I'm just, y'all have made my whole week. Thank y'all so much. Very cool.

Very cool. Well done. Well done. This, you don't hear this anywhere else You can't turn on the radio anywhere else and hear that Nowhere else, no time People with five kids say forget you guys I'm debt free

You can't hear anything positive out there We're all gonna die That's all you hear on the other shows Not these seven This is the Dave Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day second corinthians 9 10 he who supplies the seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness our friend friend Christine Kane says, sometimes when you're in a dark place, you think you've been buried,

but you've actually been planted. Ooh, I like that one. Christine, she's good. That's good. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Anthony is in Canada. Hi, Anthony. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me. Sure. What's up? So earlier this year, I got really lucky, and I won a million dollars in the lottery. And up here in Canada, you don't get taxed on it, so I got a check for a million dollars and I was getting harassed by investment people. So I got annoyed and I just ended up paying off my mortgage and all my debt. And now I found you way too late in life and I'm discovering your baby steps. So I've sort of fast forwarded to paying off my home early. But then I'm wondering how baby step four, which is investing 15% of your household income plays into baby step seven, which is just building

wealth. And if there's something else I should be doing. No. Yeah. Wow. What an incredible deal. How old are you? 35. What do you do for a living? I'm a lawyer. Oh, good. Okay. What do you make? Well, so I make $240,000, and then my wife is a veterinarian, and she makes about $90,000 working part-time right now. So we were blessed already kind of working our way through our debt.

Yeah, I think. Yeah. Wow. Is this all true? we were you know we were blessed already kind of working our way through our yeah i think i didn't yeah wow this is this is like is this all true this is amazing this is kind of like a kick galoney while he's down show man congratulations man this is awesome wow that's so impressive so you're making you're making tons of money and you're 100 dead free due to this lottery hit yes okay cool all right and what i gotta tell you what actually spurred it was i was on youtube and you're 100% debt-free due to this lottery hit. Yes. Okay, cool. And I've got to tell you what actually spurred it was I was on YouTube one night and I was looking at Purdy shotguns and thinking how I could never afford one of those fancy guns.

And then a lottery advertisement showed up on YouTube. So I went that night, bought a ticket, checked it the next morning, and then found out that I won. That's bizarre. So you played one time? Oh, no. I've bought tickets in the past, but, you know, it would be filling up for gas or whatever on random occasions, and this one, it was just spur of the moment that night. Well, I don't want this call to encourage other people to do this, because it's not a proven plan of building wealth. You just were freaking lucky, okay? But I'm happy for you, just the same.

I want to acknowledge that, too. It is a statistical improbability, and I got lucky. Yeah, good. I own that. Okay. But anyway, yeah, I'm happy for you. I'm glad you've been blessed. Man.

So, okay, there's three things that we can do with money, and I'm glad you guys are continuing to work and continuing to pursue your callings and continuing to find dignity in doing what you're trained to do. That's wonderful. Keep doing that. Keep earning the money. And there's three things we do with money.

One, we enjoy it, and you need to do some of that. Probably need to get that shotgun if you didn't know already. And number two, you are outrageously generous, which you will find once you learn how to do that with care and

intentionality will become the most fun you ever have with money. And then the third thing is we invest it. And you should do that with this fabulous income, and you should do that with whatever money is left after paying off everything out of that million dollars. Okay? So have some fun. And what I do is, and what I suggest to high-performing, high-income producers like athletes that we work with

or the occasional Hollywood type or whatever that we run into, and they're living this weird amount of money dream, I just say, listen, put percentages on it. Set a household budget that you're going to run your household on, and everything above that, which would be an excess on your income and the excess of this million dollars, put percentages on it. Say I'm going to put this percentage on my giving and this percentage on my living and this percentage on my investing. And I don't care what the percentage is, but then it doesn't matter what you make.

You're always going to enjoy some of it, give some of it, and invest some of it. And it's already preset, so you don't think about anymore and what that does it takes some of the it causes you to intentionally invest intentionally be generous and it takes some of the weird guilt crap off of enjoying some of it so if you you know i mean like i got a guy that was with not long ago. He's making $10 million a year. Okay. And he wanted to buy like a $200,000 car, which is weird for most people. But most people don't make $10 million a year. So it's really a very small percentage of his world.

So if he allocates 5%, that's a half million dollars a year to screw around with. Think about it. Just to screw around with. I mean, that's pretty good blow money. That's all right. You know. You're getting there. And so you can still go buy that car and not. Think about it. Just to screw around with. I mean, that's pretty good blow money. That's all right. You're getting there. And so you can still go buy that car and not even think about it. Matter of fact, you can buy two of them and drive one of them off a cliff for fun.

I mean, whatever you want to do. But what it does, it sets you free from all the weirdness that that many zeros does to your brain, and you can just say, I'm going to enjoy this. I'm going to give this. I'm going to invest that. And that's what I would do in this situation. And it's nothing to do with baby step four. You need to be systematically investing a percentage that you predetermine of your income

and of this remainder of the million dollars after debt free for the rest of your life. You need to be systematically giving and outrageously generous. And by the way, with your numbers, it doesn't take – it's like his numbers. They're not quite as bizarre, but it doesn't take a large percentage to have a great life that's right i mean it really doesn't when you make that kind of money dave i've run across a lot of people i've yet zero never met somebody who wished they didn't give have you ever run across that person i've yet to christian atheist agnostic mean kind i've never run across somebody who gave money that didn't say that was awesome yeah as a category yeah but i mean i've had um giving experiences that were less than i wish i'd given something

to this person i get that yeah but just as well or I gave to this and then I find out later that it was a dadgum, you know, bad thing. There you go. So or something like that. I've done that. But as a category, as an ethos, right, as a category, generosity has brought me more joy with money than any other category. And that's not just a philosophical Christian fluffy statement.

It's just it's a fact. That's right. Because it gives you traction psychologically spiritually and you go that just i mean a thousand dollars buys a single mom who's below the poverty level a car you bet changes her life it changes her life ten thousand dollars does it for ten wow i mean it that that that's freaking fun yeah it is i mean and you have to be you know intentional and you don't get a junk car and might be a three thousand $3,000 car, it might be a $1,000. But, I mean, the point is you're just thinking through this, and you're very precise and very careful, and that magnifies the joy of it. But, yeah, I have had giving experiences where I had regret that I wished I hadn't done it.

But as a category, no. Never, never, never. And I've never met anybody that did, that said, oh, I... I don't give. I'm not a giver. Well, I've met people that don't give, but they're not usually happy people. There you go. You know, givers, there's a thing about giving, about generosity.

You know, when you say someone's such a generous person, when someone says that, that sometimes they mean they give away money but sometimes they're speaking as a character quality that's right it's like that's a person of integrity they look me in the eyes that's a person that smiles yes they're generous they they you know they they give of themselves they they carry the groceries the car for you and even if they're a billionaire you know they they help you pick up the rolling around all over the parking lot because the bottom fell out of the bag or whatever. Right. That guy picking them up, look at the truck he gets in. Yeah.

Usually that's a generous person, and usually they're a successful person. But that's an ethos. That's a way of being. Exactly. It's a character quality. I love it, man. And guess what? Like all character qualities, it's a choice.

That's right. You decide. You can just decide. I'm a generous person. And then start right now. You can just decide. I'm a generous person. And then start right now. Just start right now. I'm just going to hold the door. I'm going to put others before me.

I'm going to, you know, serve. I don't have to be at the front of the line. You know, all that. And you can just decide. It's just a decision. And you just walk through life lighter. Oh, much lighter. You just walk through lighter.

Much lighter. I'm so proud for you, Anthony. Oh, much lighter. Just walk through lighter. Much lighter. I'm so proud for you, Anthony. Congratulations, my man. And I hope all this continues to bless you. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there is 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, Rachel Cruz, Chris Hogan, or the rest of the Ramsey Network anywhere with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Catch all of our full shows, browse by topic Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Catch all of our full shows, browse by topic, or send clips to your friends. Head to the App Store and download the Ramsey Network app today.