The Ramsey Show - App - I'm Addicted to Salt - How Do I Stop? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Chris Hogan, and joining me this hour is Dr. John Deloney, and we are very excited to be with you and to take your call. So, here's the deal. I know you're thinking of a money question or you've had some kind of thought about maybe a relationship issue or potential issue. And you're thinking, today's the day I want to get clarity.

All you have to do is pick up the phone. Call us, 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225. John and I both are excited to be a part of the Ramsey Network. I have the Chris Hogan Show, caller-driven show where I take your questions about building wealth and about retirement and becoming an everyday millionaire. You can find it also on YouTube and Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts.

It's exciting and it's a lot of fun. John has a show as well entitled The Dr. John Deloney Show. That's original. We got radical on that one. Yeah, you did. Boy, don't go out too far on that limb. But you can also find him on YouTube and be able to listen and watch the show. Here's the reality.

All joking aside, we have a great time together and opportunity to be able to give you information. But our desire and heart is to help people. The amazing thing is, is when you have received help from others, you've received encouragement from people. You have a coach's heart, which is a desire to be able to help other people move faster toward their goals. And it's unbelievable. I know you found on your show people are reaching out on some hard stuff. other people move faster toward their goals. And it's unbelievable. I know you found on your show, people are reaching out on some hard stuff. You've told me.

Things with relationships, things dealing with their past. But the thing that I get excited about is that they're reaching out. That's exactly right. Same with your show, man. I spent a decade wandering around asking this person, catching somebody in the elevator, asking them this retirement question, this, hey, what's the difference between this and that? And, man, I didn't have the courage to make a call that I spent my retirement because I thought I was a failure. I thought I was an idiot. I should just know that stuff, right?

That's crazy. And so, man, people are reaching out to you as well. So it's a blessing to be here. It's a lot of fun. And the main thing is, is in order for us to make progress, we got to get out of our own way. So I want you to pick up the phone and call us. We'd love to talk to you. All right. First up, we're going to take Adam.

Adam is in Columbus, Ohio. Adam, how can John and I help you today? Hey, guys. Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure, buddy. How can we help you today? So I've got a retirement question. I've heardave say multiple times

he has a formula that match beats raw beats traditional uh-huh and i'm a big numbers guy and i'm i'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around uh if that formula still works for my situation okay so my company they offer a traditional 401k, but it's a group policy. So like a third party company manages it. So I can't determine how that money is allocated. Okay. And over the last 10 years, it's brought in like 7%, which is good, not great. But the match varies anywhere from like 50 to 75 cents on the dollar which i think is really

good um so i'm just wondering like is there a formula or how do i when does match not become as good as a rock okay uh so here's the reality as you remember back in the day adam playing rock paper scissors and that's the mindset around this and And as far as you hit, match beats Roth, Roth beats traditional. Match, what you're talking about is you're getting dollar for dollar or 50 to 75 cents per dollar up to that match. So that's free money. So having people have that mindset of investing their 15%, regardless of the match, now is going to put you in a different mindset because that's extra money.

However, Roth beats traditional. Roth, whenever you hear traditional, what that is is a pre-tax thing. That means you're putting money in and you'll have to pay taxes on it later. 401Ks, 403Bs. This money goes in, but as you pull it out at 59 and a half, you'll have to pay taxes. However, with a Roth, because it is after tax dollars that you're dealing with now, you, uncle Sam doesn't get any more of it. You've already paid the taxes on this. So in your scenario, does your company offer a Roth 401k? They do not.

Okay. So in that instance, without having a Roth 401k, you would want to do up to the match, then from there go over to Roth, a Roth IRA that you'd set up with the SmartVestor Pro. If that doesn't get you to 15%, then you would go back to your company 401k to do the remainder. Okay. Okay. And so, like, what is your income? What's your income range right now, Adam? I'm around 90. You're around 90 90 so you totally can do the roth uh so i would go up to match and then go over you

can do the roth uh ira and then if that doesn't get you to 15 go back to your company's 401k for the additional so chris i'm learning something here so adam was doing a math question about the match plus x plus y getting to 15 and what you're saying is match is gravy money that's right we are investing 15 of our dollars of ours and if my company in a season decides they're going to match part of it add to part of it or stop stop. Or stop. That don't affect my 15. There you go. And the reason why, John, is in the middle of this COVID situation. A lot of companies halted it, right? We saw companies halt the match as a cash-saving measure to be able to keep paying people their

paychecks. Right. So I tell people, don't even count the match. It's just gravy. It's just gravy. Now, granted, some places out there, it's some significant gravy. Well, yeah. But if we flex the muscle

of doing the 15%, regardless of what that company decides, we know we're going to be okay. I love it. Okay, that's a paradigm shift for me, man. I've been sitting on this desk for nine months, and that's a new one. I like that, though. Yeah, and I think the main thing I try to get people to understand is the difference between traditional and Roth. And getting that, if you have a Roth 401k option at your job, take it. Because it's after-tax dollars. You won't have to pay any more taxes on that. When I see that number in my envelope every quarter, that's my money.

That's what's there. And so with a 401k, you're going to have to pay taxes on that money as you start taking it out. So it's just, again, people, there's all kinds of acronyms in the financial world. I've been doing this stuff a while. Literally, it's almost, again, people, there's all kinds of acronyms in the financial world. I've been doing this stuff a while. Literally, it's almost like the military, the acronyms and the meanings and all this stuff. I've got a free investing guide at my website. It's about a 40-page PDF, but it's free. Go to ChrisHogan360.com.

You can find that. Start to read over that stuff. But here's the beauty of it. Regardless of what it is you retained or still have questions on you're never alone you've got a smart investor pro you can reach out to that you can sit down and talk with i promise they're going to guide you through this and to be able to give you answers to your questions hey real quick we had a debt-free scream in the last hour and i just need to want to park on it for a second. We talk about smart investor pros a lot here.

And I think it can sound pitchy. Like, hey, we're just trying to sell a product. Here's the deal. We are. We're trying to pay our bills. But smart investor pros are different people. The couple that did this debt-free scream, their smart investor pro who walked with him drove on his dime from Pennsylvania to share in this moment.

That's how invested he was in this walk. That's exactly right. So are we making a pitch? Yes. Are we trying to change your life? Yes. You better believe it. And these are people that we use. That's right. Dave uses, I use.

I use, yes. And so it's one of those where we want you to work with quality people that have the heart in the right place because we know how they're going to treat you. It's real, people. Get on board. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. You know, I hate to see people waste money, but that's exactly what happens when you buy an identity theft plan that guarantees, quote, you won't become a victim.

Well, the reality is you can't prevent identity theft. All these credit monitoring and preventative plans with their fine print guarantees are just a bunch of hype. Our personal information is everywhere, and you can't control who gets access to it. Why do you think there's so many data breaches? Thieves steal your personal information and use it for medical ID theft, social security, IRS fraud, and even criminal activity. None of this shows up on your credit report, which makes these plans a waste of money.

You need a plan that protects you against all types of ID theft and takes over all the work if you become a victim, since that is the real nightmare. That's why I only recommend Zander's plan, and I have for years. I have it on my family and all my team members. It's the only plan worth buying. Go to Zanderinsurance.com or call them at 800-356-4282. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. And here's the reality. We really value the input from the listeners of The Dave Ramsey Show.

And it helps us to know what's important to you so we can deliver the right kind of content as well as teaching. We've launched a brand new survey and we would love your feedback. Check it out at DaveRamsey.com slash survey. It'll only take a couple of minutes and there's a $100 Amazon gift card up for grabs. Just text the word survey to 33789 or visit DaveRamsey.com slash survey. Again, if you want to take it on your phone, just text the word survey to 33789 or visit DaveRamsey.com slash survey. John and I, we are wanting to let you know that only um incredible compliments are accepted in the survey um it will bounce back if you put anything else in there uh about us too and uh that's just important for us but out there that's just factual the truth is if you've got

something negative to say about me that's fine my wife likes me on most days and my kids like me on most days chris on the other hand has lower self-esteem than the rest of us so be gentle in your critiques of chris hogan okay wow we are going to take a very long break at some point because i'm about to lay hands on dr deloney i can't do that i'm just feeling everybody i'm feeling anxiety he's also a preacher let it go causing anxiety in my life right now. You've got to put it down, Chris. Help me. You've got to put it down.

It's not helpful. All right, listen. We're getting back to the phone, people. If you're out there and you've got a question, call us. 888-825-5225. Money questions, life questions, relationship, or even dealing with stress. In these times, people are feeling real things. So reach out so we can talk. When you have

the courage to ask, other people can get help. So we're going to get to the line here. We're going to Ellen. Ellen is calling us from Chicago. Ellen, what's your question for Dr. Deloney? Okay. I've got to get off the cycle of being in the hospital once a month. Wow. Yes. I don't even know what the thing is, and I'm agreeing with you. What's putting you in the hospital once a month. Wow. Yes. I don't even know what the thing is and I'm agreeing with you. What's putting you in the hospital once a month? I have chronic heart failure. Okay. And I'm going into fluid overload on an average of once a month. Yikes. I am addicted to salt. Addicted to salt. Okay. Yeah. How do you consume salt? It's not chips.

It's not salt shaker. It's not, I don't add salt to the food I make. It's fast foods. It's bread. It's salad dressing. Things where you don't necessarily even taste the salt in it. Right. And it's, I've just not made, everybody says, oh, you can go four weeks

and you make the adjustment, and I've never made the adjustment. I don't think I've ever been able to make it that long. How come, Ellen? Why not? I don't know. Ellen, when you to make it that long. How come, Ellen? Why not? I don't know. Ellen, when you pull into a drive-thru, when you are at a salad, you're in one of your three or four days and you're working really hard to try to, quote, unquote, do right, and you see the salad dressing at the end of a salad bar and you let it roll,

what are you trying to protect yourself from? What are you hiding from? I don't know. I don't know if I believe that. What are you hiding from? What are you numbing? I don't know. I wish I knew.

We're on baby switch too. I'm getting over a compulsive spending that I've had. Where does the compulsion come from? I've never been made to do anything but go to school and nothing was expected of me other than to make good grades I guess I don't know you have good folks good parents Good parents? My dad passed away. He was a functional alcoholic. There we go. And my mother is a narcissist. There we go.

So I want you to redefine your salt addiction. Take the word addiction off the table for me and just add it into compulsion. Okay? Okay. Add it into the compulsion language, which is the same as buying language, which it wouldn't surprise me if you have a super, super clean place, clean car, or the opposite, a super messy, messy, everything just goes in the floorboard car.

Is it one of those two? Yes. Which one? The latter. There you go. Okay. So what we're talking about here is you trying to regain control that was taken from you the moment you entered planet earth. You had a mom that was about serving her needs. You had a dad that was about serving his needs. How old are you now? 55. 55. So you were born into planet chaos and you have spent 54 of those years trying to make sure everyone around you is okay so that you're safe. And out of those behaviors, I mean, out of that, your body has

adapted out of that chaos. It will try to get control wherever it can. And here's the deal. Here's your brain's one job. We mistake this. Sometimes your brain has one job and that's to get to tomorrow. That's it. Period. It's in that sentence. It will smoke today. It will snort today. It will find some way to sleep with today. It will do whatever it can to get tiny little itty-bitty bits of control, little bitty itty-bitty bits of dopamine and serotonin and oxytocin, wherever it can get it, and then it'll just get tomorrow. And it'll deal with lung cancer tomorrow, but today is about today. And it will get to the point where you end up in a hospital once a month trying to regain control. Results, who cares, right? So the question you've got to, not the question,

what you've got to do is you've got to put your heart down. You've got to put your shoulders down. You've got to submit to the fact that you're trying to control things that you can't control. And you're at a stage now where you're in a hospital every month. That's professional help. That's getting with somebody who you trust. That's getting vulnerable with somebody. If your husband is an enabler, that's bringing him along with you.

If he is someone who loves you and desperately wants you to be well and whole, bring him along with you. But compulsive behavior starts with vulnerability. Ending compulsive behavior starts with putting things down and saying, I can't control this anymore. John, I would say for Ellen, she's got to find the reasons to live for. That's right. Instead of stopping controlling things. Yeah. And so in the crisis world, we had this little signal here.

And if you're not watching it, it was just starting at the back of your neck and pulling it up to the front of your head, over the top of your head. And it was a signal. And we'd walk into a room. Let's say somebody had just experienced a shooting or just a loved one. Their amygdala sets every alarm they have off. You're not you're not safe and i'd see my crisis partner across the room and they would just bring it up and they would just say we need to get them here to their frontal lobe they're okay right now they're safe right now right and what her brain is trying desperately to do is to live out of this compulsive this narrative of you're not safe the two people on

planet earth who were put here to guide you and relate to you and connect with you didn't. Didn't. They didn't. And now you're going to have to, at 55, relearn this. You're going to have to relearn new patterns. You're going to have to relearn new things of new ways to look in the mirror and say, I can't control that.

And brain, don't set off alarms. No one's going to hurt me now. They did. They're not now and here's the thing she can't do this one by herself chris she's gonna have to get some professional help some professional intervention and when i say hey where's this come from she says i don't know except for my narcissistic mom and alcoholic and my guess is there's going to be trauma behaviors all along there too um so you think the salt is a coping mechanism? It's just a control mechanism. It's a control.

Yeah. And Ellen, if you're not watching the show, go back and look at this because I'm looking directly in the camera. I need you to hear me say, I don't care what happened to you. Your dad was that way. Your mom was that way. Not because something was wrong with you, but because they were struggling. And Ellen, you are worth being loved. And you're worth figuring

out how to have relationships you're 55 you're halfway home sister you got another half to go you're worth the investment in yourself getting well you're worth the investment getting well that's fantastic people we are here for you if you've got questions we want you to call us 888-825-5225 Ellen thank you for reaching out thank you for being brave Ellen that was very brave and someone else got help because you were brave enough to ask this is the Dave Ramsey Show Hey, guys.

At the Dave Ramsey Show, we really value your input. It helps us to know what's important to you so we can deliver relevant content to help you crush your money goals. We just launched a brand new survey, and we'd love your feedback. It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the survey at Dave Ramsey Show. Chris Hogan here, hosting along with Dr. John Deloney. And we are very excited to take your call.

Dr. D, I don't know what he's doing. He's a live wire. I'm half collaborating, half babysitting. I don't know what he's doing. He's a live wire. I'm half collaborating, half babysitting. I don't know what's going on in here with this man. But his heart is pure. So if you're out there and you've got a question, call us. But his heart is pure. 888-825-5225.

Again, that's 888-825-5225. We'd love to hear from you. That's like middle school. Hey, man, is he cute? Listen, he's really sweet. He's real sweet. Okay, first of all, I'm never saying that about you. I just said your heart's pure.

That's all I got. All right, if you're out there and we want to hear from you, call us. All right, Caleb. Caleb's on the line calling us from Missouri. How can we help you, buddy? Thank you very much for your time and for taking the call first of all. I'm trying to

start baby step one, which is building a $1,000 emergency fund. I'm kind of paycheck to paycheck right now. My biggest question is, I know that Dave Randy talks about car payments being one of the main things, if you can, to try to knock out to free up.

Mine is almost $400 a month. So if I had that going into these other debts, that would make that a lot more feasible quickly. The problem is because I don't have a savings, if I sold my car, I'd be lucky to break even if not still be in the hole a couple grand. And so I guess my problem is, okay, build $1,000 and then start attacking debt, but I'm going to need probably another four or five grand on the back end if I need to sell the car and then still have savings to go out and get a used car for cash. Right. So I guess that's kind of where I'm stuck.

Okay. Well, before we get to that, Caleb, why are you now deciding you want to get out of debt? Well, I actually just got out of a marriage, just divorced, and I'm just really reevaluating a lot of my finances, and obviously this year there's been a lot of changes in general, and I'm kind of just tired of playing the victim you know there it is brother caleb there it is buddy and i'm i'm fed up with feeling this way man i want to i don't i don't want to be like this there you go like and caleb i i love that you got to that and you know that because that's the thing to hold on to right we can get into the tactical weeds and talk about the car and the this or the that but i want want to know your why. I want to know what's the thing that's going to get you up, that's going to get you moving

in that direction. Because, see, the heart side of it won't allow the numbers to stop you, okay? It really won't. So let's talk about, you got your car payment, what other debts do you have? So my total debt is $32,500. Really, it's the car and then just credit cards. So $11,000 of that $32,500 is the car, specifically $11,360. And then the rest of that difference is just loans and credit cards. Okay. All right. Now, the credit cards, were you using that during the marriage, or was that after the marriage ended? No, that was during the marriage.

The biggest amount of that debt, so I have a couple small dental loans, you know, one for like $22, one for $1,600. Those aren't really the biggest problem. The biggest problem is on the main chase car, we had almost $14,000 because we had put uh our bills on the credit card because my ex at the time was not working and i wasn't making enough and so we have almost a year's worth of i got you the bill okay so you were you were using the credit cards to supplement your income correct yeah what is your income range right now so in 2018 i made 35 uh, I actually made 51. I'm in a commission-based profession. So last year, we had a good year. There was a lot of bonuses. Right now, year-to-date, I'm at 32. Realistically, it's probably 35 to 40. Like I said, last year was a little bit above average because of bonuses. So probably 35 to 40. What industry are you in?

I'm a fitness manager for a health club. So I a personal trainer and i kind of manage the personal training team as well okay and you get commission off of what the team does yeah i get an individual commission based on my own session service and my sales but then i also get a percentage of the club's total revenue. Okay. And so that's, yeah. Now, not to, like, go off on a tangent, the second half of my question is, you know, my father is an insurance agent, and one of my clients that I've been training several years is an insurance agent, and both of them have really prompted me in the past that they feel based on my drive, my sales ability, my interpersonal skills, that if I applied the same amount of time and work ethic I do at what I'm doing now in the insurance industry,

I'd be able to trade either less time or the same time for triple the money. And so I guess another part of this question is, because I know Dave talks about sometimes your problem is just your shovel's too small. I'm working 40, 50 hours a week for less than 40K. That's not a lot to show for that. And at what point do you just try to scale where you're at or look for something that gets you a bigger shovel? Okay, now, and you're right. That hits on a whole other level there.

You've got to ask yourself, right now you've got freedom and flexibility as a trainer. You're wearing, like, workout clothes and tennis shoes, hanging out training people. Do you want to trade that for a suit and a tie? That environment, that work structure. As a commissioned salesperson, whenever I start to hear, you know, 40 and 50, from a commission standpoint, you don't have a limit. Right. And so I'm thinking, well, we've got to shift into higher gear. And you're right. You're going faster, Caleb. What so I'm thinking, well, we got to shift into higher gear. And you're right.

You're going faster, Caleb. What can you do to get to 80 in your industry? What can you do to get to six figures as a trainer where you are? And so I think it does involve beginning to look at those things and talk about it. But maybe you get information about the insurance agency. I don't think you necessarily stop one thing to start another, but gain some knowledge, have some conversations, and find out. But either way, this is the situation you've got to earn your way out of. You've got $32,500 in debt.

Life has happened. You're divorced now. You now have no one else in the way to stop you from being able to grow forward, and you've got to make some decisions. But I would say, John, and I want to hear from you, getting some people around him in his life, the right kind of friends, the right kind of people. I tell people, you need four people in your life. These four groups.

You need a mentor. You need a coach. You need some cheerleaders. And you need some friends. And getting those four people in your life will help you become a little bit more well-balanced. So I've got an opinion on his second half. Let's get to the car question about how he's about breaking even with this car. He owes $11,000 on it.

If he sells it, should he get a bridge loan and back out at this point? A, for him right now, that is an option. Or taking a look at what is it going to take to pay this thing off. Okay. Right? Because either way, he's going to have to get to and fro with a job. Right? So either paying the thing off going to have to get to and fro from with a job, right? So either paying the thing off, selling it, getting a bridge loan, you can go to Kelly Blue

Book to get the payoff, see the value, call the lender to get a payoff on it. Sounds like he's done a little bit of the work. I'd say get focused. Let's pay this thing off. Okay. The second part is I had a similar experience where I was wearing shorts and t-shirts. I was, um, a coach. I worked with high school kids. I loved every second of it. And I got to a point where I wanted to move up in a career. I wanted to try new things. And that came with wearing a suit and tie. I remember having that conversation with my wife and she was saying, man, you're going to go wear a tie. And I was, for that season, I was ready for it. Right. And the people around me, like maybe his dad, maybe somebody was saying, I think you're ready for this and so yeah have permission to jump industries i just did it nine months ago

it's been the most extraordinary thing i've ever done i was nervous i was freaked out people are saying you're gonna give up this for that it was the right moment the right season or like you said brother owns 32 000 bucks he's single now it's the the weeks of 40 hours a week, man, that's over. It's 80-hour week season until he gets this stuff paid off, especially when you're 100% commissioned. You don't have anything standing in your way. Crush it. You've got two years to absolutely hit the gas and get after it.

See, I mean, commission, you don't have a limit. So now it's just a matter of, hey, what are you going to do to impact more of your future? And it is going to sacrifice. I think, John, in our society these days, we have this and mentality. We want to do this and get that. And I think it's got to be or. We've got to make sacrifices.

We've got to be willing to give up some sleep to gain some progress. We've got to be willing to give up some comfort to get better. Or maybe it's not or and. It's then. I'm going to do this for this season, and then summer's coming, baby. There you go. Right? I like that. And I can relax, I can get a different job. So it gives you a time frame to be able to focus.

That's right. Alright, you make sense every once in a while. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Dave Ramsey Show. You know, a lot of people right now are looking at their money decisions and they're probably slipping into some impulse purchases these days, dipping into savings, or maybe you're disagreeing with your spouse and wondering why did you just do that? Well, if so, Rachel Cruz has a new book out called Know Yourself, Know Your Money, and it's for you. For the first time ever, we go beyond the baby steps and get to the root of some of your choices and mistakes with money. Rachel explains the psychology, the strengths and challenges

that come with each of her brand new seven money tendencies. Figure out exactly where you are, why you handle money the way you do, and how your personal tendencies impact every decision you make. Learning where you land inside the seven money tendencies will change your mindset and fuel your motivation. Plus, we're throwing in over $100, $150 in free stuff if you pre-order the book for just $20. Don't miss out. Pre-order online at DaveRamsey.com or call our concierge team at 888-825-22PEACE. Again, that's 888-22-PEACE.

I just tried to blend the show call numbers. Yeah, that's what happens. You give me too many numbers. I'm from Kentucky. I got to go slow. All right, we're ready to take your calls. And the number to call to get to John and I is 888-825-5225.

But also be sure to find us on social media. You can look us up at Ramsey Show Show as well as find John at John Deloney or at Chris Hogan 360 on all the social medias. So here we go. Let's get to the phone. We got Brian calling from Connecticut. Brian, how can we help you? Hi, Gary.

I got a quick question. I'm actually lucky and my family is selling a beach house for an excessive amount of money. My dad and his two brothers are going to split it three ways and then my dad's actually going to give me about 15%. I'm looking at somewhere between $50,000

and $80,000 distribution. I'm in a crossroads. I have a personal loan and a credit card, and that's about $35,000 on those two. How much on the personal loan? Like $20,000 and $15,000. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So a credit card and a personal loan. And then my car unfortunately blew up at the beginning of the year.

It needed a whole new engine, so I went out and bought a new car because it was zero percent financing of course you did yeah well how much how much do you owe on the car how much do you owe on the vehicle uh so i actually managed to the the um car dealership I sold it to. Actually, I didn't owe anything on the car. They gave me two grand, and so I owe like 26 on the new car. But I get a disability check from the Army every month, and that basically covers that, so I don't even pay attention. How much is the payment on the car?

It's like $365, and my disability check's like $400. Okay. All right. I automatically just pay for that. Okay. So go ahead. car? It's like $365,000 and my disability check's like $400,000. I'm actually just paying for that. Okay, so go ahead. You've got around $61,000 in debt. Yeah, and I'm coming, and when I get this money, I don't know, I don't really,

I make $80,000 a year, so the car I'm not worried about. I want to pay off the personal loan. I just don't know if I then pay off the credit card or just work my way down and then take the rest of that money and then throw it into like a 401k just because me and the wife are thinking about having kids and just have like a nice flash fund or something.

Right, right. Well, here's the deal. Looking at this, the mindset is do you want to get by or are you ready to grow up and move forward? If you're ready to grow up and move forward, once you get that dollar amount in, you're going to start to attack the debt smallest to biggest. Now, you said you might get anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000.

You're $61,000 in debt. So I don't want you, don't say my disability check and the payment in the car, it's a wash. No, it's not because it's $26,000 in debt. So I want you to take the grow-up route of when that money comes in, instead of you thinking of upgrading vehicle, instead of you thinking of going to do something fun, what I want you to do is be a grown-up and let's start to clean up this mess and delete it out of your life. You're making $80,000. You've got a great opportunity to have this inheritance now to help you clean up. And so that's exactly what I would do. I wouldn't add a thing. I would be very intentional. Call, get the payoff on this vehicle, the credit cards, cards the personal loan i would use it to clean

up and allow yourself to move forward as you guys are talking about adding to your family and all these other things to me that's the route man he mentioned that he doesn't have to think about it right i don't even worry about that because i've got a payment that i could cover with another payment and so i'm all good i don't about it. I want everyone listening to hear this loud and clear. Every single company trying to sell you something, they have one goal, and that is to make it as easy as possible so you don't quote-unquote think about it.

I just want to make it easy. Hey, just wave your keys in front. It'll just pay for it. Just wave your wallet in front of it now. It'll pay for it. Just blink. Yeah, use your face. Use your face now. You don't even have to carry nothing. We'll just pay for it just wave your wallet in front of it now it'll pay for it um just blink just blink yeah use your face use your face now you don't even have to carry nothing we'll just use your face all of that is so we will become more and more and more unintentional yeah we're

just gonna let stuff ride okay this will cover that cool now i can it just becomes the spinning plates of standing on things and it becomes an acrobatic way of living. And then you're going to bring a kid into that chaos. You're going to bring a kid into that stress and this and that. Just stop. Think about walking on a firm sidewalk out of the hospital. You got $400 a month, $360, whatever, just pumping into your account every month on top of your $80,000 income. You owe nobody nothing. Now you're talking about peaceful now you're talking about i'm just gonna stare this baby in the eyes because i'm not worried about nothing i'm not thinking about

other stuff floating around in there you put yourself on a whole new stratosphere when you are intentional intentionality is a decision yeah no it really is and it's going to require you give up something and you know i think you know, Brian, following the plan we just talked about, what you're doing is paving the way for you and your family's future, not having stress in your life with these payments. So don't normalize payments. Speaking of this, John, did you know it's starting out on the West Coast? It's coming this direction.

Seven- and nine-year car loans now. See, people buy based off payment like you were just mentioning and so people don't know how long the term is they just know that it's a payment oh i can afford that seven and nine year car loans and so we're coming we're gonna we're going to take a loan out on a depreciating asset for a decade yes you want to hear the other thing that's coming 40 and 50 year mortgages. It's another one. It's starting out on the West Coast. It's coming. Not a 30 year or 50 or 50 year mortgages. These are all products that are about to come into the market and we're going to

see more of, which means if we don't help people start to understand the danger of payments, we're going to have people in debt for much longer than they should ever be so here's a fun thought experiment my wife's grandma so my kid's great-grandma was born in a dugout literally in a hole in the ground and before she died she facetimed on an ipad with my kids from her nursing home wow and so if you want to know what the world's going to be like in 50 years, you don't. You don't. So here's the deal. Don't chain yourself to something and get thrown off the other side of a cliff and you don't know what's at the bottom of that thing, man.

That's insane, Chris. Yeah, we do. We have to learn to count. We have to. We've got to begin to look at this and acknowledge, hold on a minute. This is not a payment that we're going to say it's okay. Because when we do math, we're going to say it's okay, right? Because when we do math, we got to understand.

I'm going to give everybody a PhD in economics right here. Interest that you pay is a penalty. Interest that you earn is a reward. If you use someone else's money, they penalize you and you pay a fee, their interest. But in your investments and in your savings, when you have it and you earn interest, you're being rewarded. So just make a decision on what side of the equation do you want to be on? Do you want to be penalized? Do you want to be rewarded? And when you make that decision, you start to see things clearer. I'm going to give everybody a PhD in stupid. Don't take out a nine-year car loan. Don't take out a car loan. That was free. That's a free certificate you just

received from Deloney University. Don't take out a nine-year That was free. That's a free certificate you just received from Deloney University. Don't take out a nine-year car loan on a depreciating asset. That will be worth a bucket of, I don't know how to say it, man. Deloney University. What a frightful thought. It's got one certificate. A certificate in stupid. Don't do it.

A doctorate in dumb. Don't take a nine-year loan. Hey, let's make sure not only, and we listen, but let's help our young people learn how to count, too. We've got to help them avoid some of this stupid so they don't repeat it. It's before counting. We do. Don't get your identity out of a car. That's right.

Don't get your identity out of a pretty front yard. Oh, everybody, we had a blast this hour. I want to thank producer James Childs, associate producer Kelly Daniel, and I want to thank all of you for taking the time to tune in. This has been The Dave Ramsey Show. Dave here. We just launched a brand new survey, and we'd love your feedback. You'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card.

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