The Ramsey Show - App - I'm Worried That Baby Step 3 Will Take a Long Time (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 26, 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 dad 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. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. My co-host today here on the air, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, and my daughter. And the phone number here, if you want to talk, is 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. So, Rachel, we got a bunch of stuff happening. A lot of stuff. Around the Rachel Cruz stuff this week. This week. This is like your week. I wish it was. It's like Rachel like rachel i'll take it yes um i know a lot of fun things are happening so first and foremost uh my new wallet is launching today we had pre-orders last week but it is being

shipped all across america and it is my version of the envelope system so we talk about when you budget the categories in your budget that you tend to overspend on you can cash them out and and it is my version of the envelope system. So we talk about when you budget, the categories in your budget that you tend to overspend on, you can cash them out, and it helps keep you accountable. It helps you actually spend less when you spend with cash, all of it. And so... Very high-end. We created, yes.

Super expensive. Should be like $500, but it's not. But it's not. Well, it is real leather, for sure. Yeah. I mean, the people that make it are special too do it yes we partnered the company with join and they are an incredible organization and out of india and they take people off the streets um and take them out of really terrible

situations like trafficking and all that and give them the ability to make leather goods and so they make join makes purses all kinds of things beautiful beautiful stuff so we partnered with them uh to make this wallet which is so fun so you really got a leash so it doesn't get away it's got a wristlet or a leash however you want to call it like you could use that for the yeah yes but no but with join you get a card in every in every wallets on who made your specific wallet which i I love. Oh, the person's name, yeah. So then within it, yeah, you have 10 card holders. You have these built-in envelopes, so you'll see. Extremely nice.

They're plaid. I know you don't know much, but plaid is really cute. Plaid's a big deal. Super cute. Super cute. Oh, it's super cute. And then a change purse area over here where all of your change goes. And then, I don't know, it's just lots of compartments.

Where do you keep the gun? Okay, well, I was about to say there's kid crackers that end up in mine probably. But all women know this, big purses, big wallets, you have to have compartments, all these things to carry all the stuff that life has for you. It's all right there. It's all right there, and it's just really nice. We launched this wallet, a similar wallet. I mean, actually, it's not really similar.

But we launched the same type of wallet probably about three, four years ago and had the clip system in it because we're figuring out. Well, anyways, it wasn't great quality. The zippers kept breaking. It was a disaster. Well, we kept resending wallets to people because it was breaking. The zippers were breaking. It was bad.

It was bad. There's nothing worse than a broken zipper. So this is literally, like when I say this, I'm not exaggerating. it is literally the highest quality zipper on the market it is it's like one of the most this is this zipper this this zipper has been uh combat tested i'm just saying oh man oh man one this this something else may suck but this zipper is awesome i'm just saying we spent a lot of time on we have zipper pain here that's right that's right so it it's an incredible product you ever put something out that you're embarrassed by? Yeah, that's what that was.

I know. A little bit. It was. It was bad. Not a little bit. It was a lot. So we completely redid it. Obviously, found a new vendor.

And this thing's nice. And just smell it. You smell it? Oh, yeah. Oh, I love leather. I like going to a leather store just to stand there and go like this. It's so great. It's so great.

So the price point on that is, yeah, $68, which some people are like, oh, my gosh. Well, it's not $500. Well, some people, yes, it's not. We should charge $500. Okay. Well, some people, obviously, it's a lot. So if you don't have the money to spend, totally fine. You can do the envelope system with bank paper envelopes.

Get them for free. They're free. It's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The teller will give them to you. Yes, yes. People were a little bit upset that the price is a little bit higher, but it has to be because of the quality of the product.

Like, it's real leather. It's really nice. The zipper works and everything. And obviously, everyone listening via audio, podcast, and radio, you can't see it, but it's super cute. You can smell the leather, too. It's super, super cute. Put your nose up next to your radio.

You can smell the leather. The black color and then the camel. Do you know what it's called? Camel? Camel. After George. It's my favorite. It's named after George.

That's right. We named our little wallet after George. Mm-hmm. After George. It's my favorite. It's named after George. That's right. We named our little wallet after George. So, yeah. So, that is launching today. So, you can go to rachelcruz.com or davramsey.com and get the new Rachel Cruz wallets that has your envelope system built in. Really exciting. And then in three, two nights, three nights, Wednesday nights is the Know Yourself, Know

Your Money live stream with Dr. John Deloney, Dr. Henry Cloud, and Ian Cron. Did you find out if Ian's a doctor? We need to find out if Ian's a doctor, because you might be the only one that's not a doctor. There's a good chance, because I'm for sure not a doctor. That's for sure. Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. Squared Deloney. He's a doctor twice. Yes, yes.

So this live stream is really exciting, because we're going to dig into understanding your money on the avenue of really unpacking why. Why do you handle money the way you do? So we're going to unpack that. And then we have these experts, obviously, Dr. In the Cloud with Boundaries, Ian Cron with Enneagram. I mean, just some ways to understand yourself. So knowing yourself and knowing your money coming together really helps you win with money faster and you get the tools to help yourself, but also the relationships in your life. It's only $15. Yeah, $15.

And if you want to go and get the book with it, it's only 10 more and you got the book. So 25 gets you the book and the live stream. Does that, the whole pre-sale package in it too is $150 worth of stuff, probably. Yeah, there's a, there's an upsell for sure of a... Audio book, e-book, another video lesson later coming to you, all that stuff. When you pre-order, know yourself, know your money. And, I mean, you've got some big hitters on this. Cloud and Parrot and, you know, Deloney.

No, Parrot's not on it. I'm sorry. Ian Cron. Ian Cron. They're both best-selling number one and well-known. And Deloney is just like a star, so everybody thinks he's a big deal. And I think he might be someday, but he's not yet. But he's getting there.

Very smart, though. But, yeah, it's not just a money event, right, where you go through the baby steps and budgeting, getting on debt, but it really is unpacking who you are and understanding why do you make the decisions you make in life and in your money and really that it's that self-awareness piece of life that a lot of people kind of just skim over but really you all go over the seven tendencies yes i am yep so i'll walk through some of that seven money tendencies so it's like nerd free spirit yes spender saver quality of scarcity abundance yep yeah where where do you fall on these things and once you get to know yourself Any tendency. So it's like nerd, free spirit. Yes. Spender, saver, quality over quantity. Scarcity. Abundance.

Yep. Yeah. Where do you fall on these things? And once you get to know yourself, then you go, oh, that's the thing. I remember a thousand years ago, I took the disc. I mean, I was probably, probably 30 years ago. First time I ever saw one of those personality analysis things. And I took the little test.

I took it home. And I was so proud because it kind of reads your mail. You know, it tells you are and it's like i'm a high d i i that's me and i don't have any of those other things and sharing we're sitting in bed and i handed to her so this thing's awesome look it just i took 27 questions it just tells you all about you and it was pretty cool and she reads it and she goes oh that's what's wrong with you no that is me what do you mean not what's wrong with me this is like this is what you love about me you high d's you're aggressive you're aggressive this is what's wrong with you you're not aggressive though not me i'm a puppy no it's just a great just papa

dave that's not all but yeah so yeah but it's that same light bulb feeling you're like oh oh wow that that's me and that's why i'm doing these things and okay it's my fan you know this is where my family grew up and i never thought about how it affects me and this is the you know and when i'm looking at this through this lens and then my spouse is looking at through that lens and it gives you a whole different way to because some of the money problems really aren't problem money problems they're really other stuff disguised as money that's right a lot of bigger problems underneath they're disguised as money problems. That's right. A lot of bigger problems underneath. They're coming out as money problems, but a lot of stuff under the surface. So Know Yourself, Know Your Money live stream with Dr. Henry Cloud, Dr. John Deloney, and Ian Cron, and Rachel Cruz. This coming Wednesday night, $15 or $25 if you want the book included.

Pre-purchasing the book, of course. Go to DaveRamsey.com. Get signed up immediately. Right now. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy.

Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback, but thanks to Christian Health Care Ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a ton of medical bills. As members of CHM, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other. CHM is the longest serving health cost sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau accredited charity.

It's Christians helping other Christians and it shared nearly $97,000 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 Personality, number one best-selling author. My daughter is my co-host this hour. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Ann is in Austin, Texas. Hi, Ann. How are you? Hi, I'm doing well. It is a pleasure to speak with you both today. Thank you for taking my call. Our pleasure. How can we help? Well, my husband and I, we owe about $197,000 on our home. We should have enough to pay it off in March of next year. But there's a good 60-75% chance that we will move once our kids get out of elementary school,

which is in about three and a half to four years. So I'm wondering, do we go ahead and pay off our current home, or do we sit on that money until, you know, we figure out whether or not we're going to move in the next three to four years? Okay. Do you guys have, do you have your fully funded emergency fund in place, Ann? Yes. Okay, well, if I were you guys. We have about $36,000. Okay, yeah, so you'll be moving funded emergency fund in place, Ann? Yes. Okay. Well, if I were you guys.

About $36,000. Okay. Yeah. So you'll be moving in four to five years, but you can pay it off next year. Correct. Yeah. I'd go ahead and pay it off. And then as you guys start walking down the process of realizing, yeah, we're probably

going to want to move once the kids are out of elementary school and then back down and say, okay, you know, we'll save up some cash for a down payment on the home. But having a paid-for house at this point in your life. Yeah. Feels really good. Yeah. If you have the ability to do it. Because there could be something happen like a pandemic or something.

Right. And then you'd have like a paid-for house and you wouldn't be worried about anything. So, yeah, it's a different world to sit in, a different kind of peace when your house is paid for that you have. And, you know, it's not like you're losing the money. When you sell it, they'll give you a check for all of it. Right. And your rate of return is actually the mortgage interest rate, which is higher than they pay on CDs. Yes, that's very true.

Yeah, so you're actually, it's actually technically financially correct too, but this is more about just having it paid for being done with it. The money doesn't accidentally go in by a lake house or a bass boat or something. It's stuck in the house. You can't get it out. And it's a, it's a really, really good move on a lot of fronts to go ahead and knock it out. So I'd knock it out. And certainly the house will sell when you get ready to leave. And you'll get all your money out. And you'll be just fine.

Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Cynthia's in Philadelphia. Hi, Cynthia. How are you? Hi, Dave. Oh, my God. I can't believe I'm actually speaking with you.

You too. hi hi dave oh my god i can't believe i'm actually speaking with you um i i'm 60 years old and to be honest i'm not sure if i'll ever be able to retire i i was working a second job but last year i had some health issues so i'm not able to work a second job and then hit um i still have my regular job though, but I'm a babysat three, but I'm only able to save like 200 a pay or like 400 a month. And it's going to take me until next year, end of next year, just to save my emergency fund, which should be about 9,300. I just don't know what else to do. And I'm doing the budget. I just don't know what else to do and I'm doing your budget I just don't know what else to do

what do you make? I make $7,600 I bring home like $1,900 of pay I live in Philadelphia so they take out the municipality tax I'm sorry you make $76,000 a year $7,600 a month

no $1,900 what was the $76,000 a year? $7,600 a month? No, $1,900 a day. What was the 76? That's a year. $76,000 a year. But it's $1,900 a paycheck, which is, what, $3,800 a month? I have a mortgage. Yeah, that's, like, way off. That's $46,000 a year.

You don't make $76,000 and have $30,000 in taxes. I live in Philadelphia. I know you live in Philadelphia. Even Philadelphia is not that communist. Well, I pay. Okay, I have a pension. So they take out money for your pension. I have money to go to a disability, and I pay my health insurance. Oh, no, Cynthia.

And her phone bill. Oh, my gosh. Lost her. Oh, no. Okay. Well, keep going, though. There are people listening. There are 60.

Well, $4,000 a month, 1,900 times two, is $48 a year. Okay? And $48 a year is not take-home pay from a $76,000 gross. Unless she's... Oh, good. You got her back. That was quick. Good.

Are you there, Cynthia? Cynthia. Pick her up again. We'll just keep working on this until we get it. Hey, Are you there, Cynthia? Cynthia. Pick her up again. We'll just keep working on this until we get it. Hey, are you there? I'm here. Okay. Your call dropped out.

Sorry. Okay. So, anyway, we need to really dig into this take-home pay because how much is your health insurance? It's like $20 a pay. Okay. How much is your pension deduction? How much are they taking out for the pension? It's like $170, $173.

Okay. I haven't found it yet. I need something that's over $1,000. I'm telling you that... All right, work with me here. Let me give you a couple numbers, okay? Okay. I'm telling you. All right, work with me here. Let me give you a couple numbers, okay? Your take-home pay is under $48,000. You said your pay is $76,000.

That means we have $30,000 missing, $2,500 a month, $2,500 a month. So far, you gave me about $300 worth of stuff. I still can't find the $2,000. But taxes, Cynthia, is what you're saying, $76,000. Are you getting a huge tax refund? Last year, I got, it was like $900. Okay, not it either. Your federal income taxes aren't that high. Philadelphia does have some weird taxes, but they should not amount to 30% of your income. As a matter of fact, I know they don't. Okay. And so I'll tell you what, I'm going to have you get with one of our financial coaches that have been through the training because the numbers aren't adding up and you really need to get to the bottom of it. You need to find out where your money's going. And I can't find it.

I haven't found it in this conversation yet. So you need to get to the bottom of that because someone that's making $76,000 should be able to save a lot more than $400 a month when you don't have any debt anymore. There ought to be wiggle room. So, Rachel, the ratio that we always use is three to six months of expenses and so your expenses uh you know taking her to 9300 she said was our her ideal emergency fund that's not that far off but the point being 9300 as a percentage of her your expenses are somewhat related to your income sure sure i mean you know and so if you've got if you're if you have a goal of a ten thousand dollar emergency fund and you

make 76 000 you should be able to do that in six to nine months somewhere in there right if you have a goal of a $10,000 emergency fund and you make $76,000, you should be able to do that in six to nine months, somewhere in there. Right. If you don't have any payments but a house payment. And that's where it shouldn't be $400. In other words, it ought to be $1,000. And then you'd be there very quickly. And so very seldom do you look at a situation, you or I, when we're sitting down with someone's budget, where they cannot do their baby step three in six to nine months. I was going to say six months. Right. Correct. Yep. Because it is three to six months of expenses and you're you're as a rate it's

somewhat related to your income even though your expenses should be lower than your income. It's not it's not three to six months of your income, but it is related enough that it ends up being a short period of time. Yes. But for Cynthia, six years old, she doesn't think she'll be able to retire. She's having a tough time funding that baby step three. And this is where we say you're still gazelle intense. As you're paying off debt, you have that mentality of sacrifice and extra jobs, doing it all. That goes in and bleeds into baby step three. And so even though i know she said covid took away that second job but any any other income you can bring in just to beef this up

walking alongside figuring out where where the money's going but let's pretend that we found 1500 of the missing 2500 a minute ago we get into it and we find that. That's $18,000 a year. Okay. That finishes her emergency fund in six months. Ta-da. Almost like I've done this before. And then you start saving $1,500 a month, $18,000 a year. You're not going to retire broke.

If you work seven more years, that's going to be $150,000 to $200,000 plus growth. So, you know, you're going to be okay, but you've got to find the missing money. That's what causes you. The point of getting out of debt is not to be out of debt. It is. But the big point about being out of debt is then you use what you used to pay the stupid bank so you become rich or wealthy or more secure or more generous or all of the above. This is The Dave Ramsey Solutions Lobby because it can only mean one's standing on the debt-free stage in the Ramsey Solutions Lobby,

because it can only mean one thing, they're debt-free. And we super love it when it's one of our team members, and Rachel super loves it when it's her senior social media specialist that she works with all the time. I know, I was like, oh my gosh. So Julia and Sam are with us. Julia's on our team as a senior social media specialist, which takes a senior one to keep up with Rachel's social media. A junior couldn't keep up with her social media.

Julia's amazing. Julia is amazing. Julia's a legend around here on this whole social media stuff. So are you, Sam. How long have you been with us? Yeah, Sam, you too, buddy. Oh, thank you, Dave. Thank you.

Glad you could join Julia. But you've been with us how long? A couple of years? April of 2018 is when I started. Two and a half years. Okay. Two years and almost. Yeah, okay.

Good. Wow. Very cool. So how much have you two paid off? $100,000. Boom! And how long did this take you? 34 months.

34 months. Okay. And a lot of that, approximately 30 months or so, you've been here. Yes. Okay. So what happened four months before you came to work here? Because I know what happens after you come to work here. Right, right.

You've joined a cult. We check your wallet every day. We don't check your temperature, but we check your wallet for credit cards. So, oh my gosh. No, we don't. It's just a positive environment where everybody's cheering for you, right? So what happened that got you guys started on this journey? So when we got married in April of 2017, we spent those first few months just doing the normal things,

like we bought a house even though we were in debt. We started making improvements to that house with debt. Just, you know, really wasn't making a lot of sense. And when New Year's of 2018 rolled around, started making resolutions for us of like, hey, we probably should get our money stuff together and just kind of made a loose plan of, okay, we have credit cards we need to pay off.

We've got a car loan that's killing us. But then mid-February, I kind of felt a stirring in my heart that I wanted to work somewhere that had had more purpose than what I was doing. And thankfully, Jeremy Duke from the Smart Dollar team is one of Sam's really good friends. And he spoke to us about... It's all Jeremy's fault. It is Jeremy's fault. It's all Jeremy's fault.

Exactly. So we began talking about the position that was available to help launch the Rachel Cruze Show. And the rest is history. Oh, my goodness. So you came on when we launched that show? Yes. That makes sense. Okay.

Incredible. Okay, so for you guys, because I know you personally, so I feel like I'm cheating in all of my questions. It's an underhand pitch. Yeah, but so many couples are like you guys, right, listening right now, and they want to begin this journey. So what would you say? Here's the hardest part of the journey.

And here was actually the easier thing that I didn't realize was going to be easier. I think for us, when I started working here, I was coming back home every day and saying like, oh, wait, like Dave says that we should do this. And Dave said we should do that. And Dave kind of became a cuss word, even though you were signing my checks every day. And so once we – Tell Dave to shut up and sign the check. I know. So for us, really the turning point was starting Financial Peace University.

We started that probably just a few weeks into me working here. And for me, that's when I saw Sam really get on board. Yeah, I'm listening. And I was like, yeah, that sounds great. Whatever, just make the budget. Just let me know how it goes. And I'm listening and I was like, yeah, it sounds great. You know, whatever, just make the budget. Just let me know how it goes. And, uh, I'm on board, you know? And, uh, so we went to financial peace university and, um, we were driving, we drove two, two

different cars because we were coming from two different places all the way to Clarksville to take it. And, uh, so as soon as we got back in the car, our separate cars to drive home, I'm calling, I'm like, we could do this. We could sell this and go get an extra job. Like we get, let's do this. Let's do this. So the night one, yeah. I was was like let's run he said let's run this run you know i was really excited about it and uh i think for me it was mainly the conviction because i brought 80 of the debt that we had into the marriage um and uh so you know i brought most of that in i wasn't honest about the amount that i had on my credit card and um so it really kind of, kind of put us back. I, you know, we felt like we were doing a lot of work, but I also felt like that we were fighting a monster

that we both couldn't see, right? Because she didn't know everything that, that I knew. So that was probably the hardest part of sitting down and being honest about the amount of debt that I actually had. Which is hard, right? Super vulnerable and hard. How early in the process did y'all have that conversation? Well, the credit card was pretty early on in the debt snowball so it was pretty quickly um at first i was like yeah you know we could probably put a couple thousand dollars a month at it and it'll get it taken care of and she's like no no how much do we need to take care of and then that's when i was like eleven thousand dollars there it is a couple thousand for six months yeah exactly so the hundred100,000 was what?

What did that combine? Credit cards, windows on our house, my car, and my student loans was the most of it. Yep. Amazing, you guys. And you did it. You did it. Proud of you. So who were your biggest cheerleaders?

Because I know you've got cheerleaders at Ramsey all around. For sure. I mean, there's a few dozen of them around. Half the team's not working. They're watching you. But definitely, we have some of our family here. First off, they helped us make meals on Sundays when we were trying to save on the grocery budget. But it was really cool, too.

We coordinated a few financial peace classes um in the past year and i feel like that's another layer of accountability we're like when you're doing it when you're doing it you don't want to be hypocrite and talk about yeah exactly and so getting to sit down with people who um are also like in the thick of it and needing help making budgets like i can make budgets all day long i love it um but like that was a really great cheerleaders and then just the conversations that opened up afterwards when people knew that you were being honest about your money journey and how you're getting out of it,

they're more likely to come to you and say, like, okay, but, like, wait, how do I pay off my car? How do I refinance my house? Like, that's what's been really awesome is just being able to share our story and hopefully change others as well. Yeah. So All of America wants to know the answer to this question. What is it like being the senior media specialist for Rachel Cruz?

It's great, Dave. I really enjoy doing it every day. I really love coming to work here. It's great. No, I love getting to work with Rachel. She knows this. I love Julia. You are a joy to work with, and I am super thankful to be on your team.

And it's just been a fun ride. Well, Julia takes care of everything. She's a master. She's wonderful. And I'm just so proud of you guys. I really am. Again, we say it over and over, whether you work in this building or not. And I can say it because we're around the same age.

But I'm like, you know, young couples, young families, it's such a journey. And doing it early on, making the sacrifices early on, like you just set your life up so well. Like the last call we took in the last segment is like, yeah, you get out of debt, not just to be out of debt, but to free up your income to do incredible things with it. Like now it's not going to the car loan and the credit cards and all that. Like you now have a pile of cash every month. And you're like, oh, wow, okay, what do we want to do with it? And it's just, it's really exciting because you get to just build that legacy. So I'm,

I'm so excited for you guys. You're a hundred thousand dollars lighter. How's that feel? Man, it's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. I tell you when we decided to, we, we were getting really close and last thing we were left with was my student loans. And, uh, two things happened. First is we kept putting off finding out exactly how much I had in student loans. We had estimated $45,000 because that's what I remembered that I had when I left. And we sat down about, I guess, six, seven months ago and decided this is our last part of our snowball. Let's figure out how much that is. And in five years, it had gained $7,000.

And we were sitting at $52,000. Going the wrong way. Paying double the minimum payment that we had originally decided. So then COVID hit, and we're like, we've got to do something to get out of this. We'll be done by April of 2021 if we just keep going, but we could do something else. So when COVID hit, we were walking every day trying to stay active, and we just started talking like, what if we sold our house?

We sold our house right now, took all the proceeds of that, and got out of debt? And we did it. The one with the windows. Yes. The one with the windows. We paid off the windows first. We paid the windows off first. But then we sold the house.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So we sold our house and paid off our debt. We got the check on Tuesday and paid it off Tuesday night, and we were debt free. Was it worth that? Oh, yeah. It's so worth it. Yeah. Absolutely worth it yeah absolutely worth it yeah well you get your another house exactly yeah it's not like you're broke forever or something like you could never have a house again it's not that's not a rule or anything so right way to go you guys so proud of you

you're heroes well we've got a copy of chris hogan's book but you probably already got it i'll get you a copy of rachel's book, but you probably already got it. I'll get you a copy of Rachel's book, but you probably already got it. All right, good stuff. Well done. All right, Julia and Sam. Julia's a senior social media specialist on our team working with Rachel's brand for the last two and a half years. $100,000 paid off in 34 months. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! That is how it's done, ladies and gentlemen. Wow. And you see that last part of that story coming. So good.

Man. Well, we could just sell the house. Sounds like something I would do. Just be debt free. Do it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Reminder, this week we have launched Rachel Cruz's new wallet, handmade, authentic leather. Not only designed with high-quality materials, it's a full-scale envelope system, and will hold up to 10 debit cards. It's got an actual coin purse in it, a wristlet, the leash.

The leash. It's got a leash. And they're handmade, one-of-a-kind. Every time you purchase one, you're helping. We've partnered with an awesome fair trade organization in India that gives people a chance to get out of poverty and have the kind of future they want. People making these wallets, it's changing their lives. And you get an incredible wallet that really would be a $300, $200 product. It's $68.

It comes out today. So you can get it at DaveRamsey.com or call 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223. Talk to the Ramsey concierge team. They'll help you get one. You can also, of course, pre-purchase the new book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. There is a live stream this coming Wednesday night with Dr. Henry Cloud from Boundaries, with Ian Cron from the Enneagram, famous for that, best-selling book there, and, of course, our own Dr. John Deloney and Rachel. They'll all be talking about the reasons that you do things with money that don't have anything to do with the math.

It's your behaviors and where do your behaviors come from and your predispositions towards certain types of decisions. And if you can get all of that figured out, you just accelerate your whole process, and you insulate yourself from the stupid that you do to yourself. Well, yeah, because then you start to say, oh, here's why I do the stupid things I do. Here's why I cope with money. Here's why I spend the money I'm spending. Here's even why I'm saving the money I'm saving. I mean, there's so much in that behavior change.

We always say personal finance is 80% behavior. It's only 20% head knowledge. And here we're really great at showing you how to get out of debt, how to budget, how to invest, how to refinance, how to do these things to set yourself up well. But this is now we kind of go underneath the how to to the why. Why are you making these decisions? And that's a big part of the behavior change. In order to change your behavior, you have to know why are you doing the things you're doing so that you can course correct and create better habits. Yeah.

What is it you're overcompensating for as a coping mechanism? You know, money and food are alike in that regard. Oh, yeah. Oh. You can use them both as a coping mechanism, and, man, it'll mess you up. Yep, for sure. You'll be broke and fat. You can get there.

Man, during COVID, I put on so much weight. I was eating every donut in the dadgum county. It was ridiculous. I got so fat. It was unbelievable. And you look great. Hey, man, I've lost 37 pounds. I'm proud.

Yes. I quit eating every donut in the county. It's amazing. It's a neat formula. Even though you brought donuts to our kids on Saturday. I brought them to you, but I didn't eat them. You didn't eat any? That's impressive.

I gave them to your kids. Papa Dave does a donut run for the grandbabies. I get both houses early in the morning, on weekend morning, and do a little donut run, which I didn't understand how crowded the freaking donut place was going to be. It took longer to get in and out of there than it did bring you all the donuts. But I didn't eat any. I stayed out of it. That's impressive.

That's impressive because I just didn't want to be fat again. It was not fun because I just got huge. All right, open fire. Look at some of those commercials on YouTube. That blinds.com commercial looks like the Marshmallow Man or something from the... From you? Yes. Oh, my God.

It was right at the peak. We got to change that commercial out. It's like Fat Dave Does Blinds.com. It's bad. It's really bad. Isn't it, James? Come on, James. You look a lot better for sure.

Thank you. But it's the behavior right you can know how to lose the weight but doing it yeah it's the same thing with money you have to get under why are you doing this and uh you know you have to figure out why you're eating every donut in the county you have to think about why are you doing that what's the coping mechanism that you're doing yours is donuts mine is amazon okay That's probably it. You eat Amazon? I'm so confused. Amazon is my thing. And literally, when I was writing the spending chapter of the book, the section. And it convicted you?

Oh, and I wrote it literally in the manuscript. I was like, this is convicting me. Literally, as I'm writing this. Yes. Because you see, what's that dopamine hit do when you spend it? And you can kind of just, you can get numb out if you're stressed or if you're bored. Just keep pushing the button. Buy some more.

Don't get bored. It's a real thing. Buy stuff. Chris is with us in Baltimore, Maryland. Hey, Chris, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How can we help? Hey, Mr. Ramsey. Hey there, Rachel.

Long-time listener. Followed your plan. Your wife's been through it. I'm having trouble hearing you. Can you speak directly into your phone, please? I'm sorry, sir. I said a long-time listener. I said me and my wife followed and my wife followed your best plan. We've been out of debt for about six months. That's the time I'm calling, exactly. We have a special needs child, and some things

recently had happened that I can't get in detail with, but essentially we're at this point sitting on seven figures in our hand that was given to us to help take care of our daughter we've met with three or four financial advisors so far and every time i've gone in to speak to them or with covid the phone calls or video conferences they'll make the hair stand on my neck i don't trust them i have a bad feeling about them. I'm a little emotional. I apologize. Just looking for some advice on where do I start and how do I go about managing this to help take care of my daughter long term. Very good.

Well, you're a very wise man to trust the hair on the back of your neck. You're a very wise man to trust a feeling. We've got a saying around here from a leadership perspective when we're dealing with a situation inside the building. If something feels weird, it's generally because it's weird you know that's why it feels that way and so you know trust that instinct uh what you're looking for is not someone to do it for you that you have to trust what you're looking for someone to teach you then you make the decisions and they do what you tell them to do after

they taught you. About 85% of the people in the financial world are taught to sell, not to teach. Stay away from them. That's why you felt like you needed to take a shower after those meetings. Because you were slimed by a sales guy. Okay? And so what you're looking for is the heart of a teacher now you'll know you found someone with the heart of a teacher when after meeting with them you know something

that you didn't know before the meeting meaning you were taught and you'll have this sense of peace where they're not just grabbing at your wallet right yes sir okay and you want several different kinds of people on your little uh so to speak personal board of directors you not only need a financial advisor you also need a tax person you also need a good estate planning attorney and wills need to be put in place with special needs trusts and all kinds of things here to make sure this money's set up for this kid. You also need a good insurance person that knows insurance that's in your corner. And in each of these cases, if you're going to buy real estate at some point, you need a good real estate person. In each of these cases, you want someone that has the heart of a teacher. But because you're not accustomed to managing seven figures it suddenly was thrust upon you

you don't have the tools in your belt and you've got to put a board of directors in place so to speak that are people that you can tap they might not all ever meet together that's not my point but you can pick up the phone and go this is my tax gal this is the guy that i work with on real estate this gal does my investments and you got your team built and they all have the heart of a teacher and you do not put money in something until you understand it. And if you click SmartVestor Pro or SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com for investing advice, you'll find people we recommend. They don't work for us, but in order to be in the SmartVestor program,

we vet them very heavily, and they have to have that heart of a teacher. It's just essential because it gives you a sense of peace. Well, it does, and Chris, I mean, this money is being used for your daughter of special needs, so there's like an emotional level of all of this that's attached to it, right? So you feel this level of responsibility, and I'm sure if she's not able to care for herself, if something happened to you guys, really, really feeling that responsibility and that burden to do this really well. And so I think that that's the key is that not everyone in that industry is slimy. There's some incredible ones, but having things in place that you understand and you have a plan is what's key. And so for me, and this may be even a question for you, Dave, but I'm like, for a special needs child they do

have specific wills and trusts set up for that process so even finding an expert in that world for as a mom i'm just speaking from that side of my heart would oh that would that would give me peace that's an estate planning an estate planning attorney to make sure your wills are set in place because if something happened to you and your wife this money needs to go into a special needs trust who's going to manage that and what what are the dictates of the trust? And you want to tell the trustee how the money is to be invested as a part of the trust being formed upon your death. And then that child has got the money to take care of them the rest of their lives if something

happened to you guys. So really, really good question. Rachel, congratulations on the new wallet. Thank you. Wednesday night is the big live stream. Be sure and check it out at DaveRamsey.com. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry.

We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head over to DaveRamsey.com and click Dave Recommends. Thanks for listening.