The Ramsey Show - App - Investing Doesn't Have to Be Intimidating (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 25, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Hannah starts off this hour in Orange County, California. Hi, Hannah.

How are you? Hi, Dave. Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So we're in debt of $300,000. Ouch, due to my husband's pharmacy school loans.

And we do plan to live on rice and beans to pay that off. And we're really motivated right now. So we're hoping to pay that off in about five years. But I'm wondering when and how we can buy a house and save for a down payment. Why is it? He's working. He went $300,000 in debt save for a down payment. Why is it? He's working. He went $300,000 in debt to be a pharmacist. Mm-hmm.

And he's working and earning what? So our household income is $200,000. Okay. About $200,000 a year. All right. And so why are you going to only pay $60,000 off in a year? Well, living in Orange County, I think it's just we are renting right now, and my son is in daycare, and I think we definitely just have, I think, expenses. Okay.

Do you think we can do it shorter? Well, I mean, yeah, I would like to see you be done in three years. That would have you living on $100,000 a year, which you can do in Orange County. $100,000 on debt, $100,000 to live on. And not to mention the fact that both of you can probably do some things over that three-year period of time that causes your incomes to go up. The beauty of being a pharmacist, he probably can pick up some side gigs, hospital work, emergency room work, that kind of stuff on the weekends, and probably kick another $50,000 into the pot here. And let's get this thing done.

Because I'm with you. I want to get it cleaned up so that we can buy a house. And when you say five years, it feels like forever. Right. And so I would turn up the heat i would turn up the heat on the income and turn up the heat on cutting the lifestyle uh really to beans and rice i mean you haven't cut it that far yet if you're only paying off 60 grand making 200 and cut cut cut cut cut and work work work work work and let's try to do this in three years

and then finish your emergency fund and then save up your down payment. And then you're ready to buy. But one of the things that if you're going to be wise, that's the step to go. Do. And that's one of the limiting factors when he made the decision years ago to go that far into debt for a pharmacy degree, which is kind of ridiculous, by the way. That's too much to pay for a pharmacy degree. But we talk to pharmacists all the time that did it for half that.

And pharmacy is a great career field as far as income goes. I mean, it's wonderful. And so I'm glad he's doing it, and he's there now. But when he made the decision to go that far in debt he made the decision if he's wise to not buy a house for a while and so we're just going to rent for a little while and uh three years hopefully uh hopefully shorter but certainly i would not have five years as my target in your situation the numbers don't add up megan is in portland maine hi me How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I am 23 years old. After taxes, I make about $27,000 and I have about $28,000 in debt.

18.5 of that is student loans. 10,000 is auto. And I was just wondering if you have any advice on how to work my way through the baby steps on such a low salary wow you got you got a pile of stuff here to work through kiddo but you got you got a lot of real good clarity on exactly where you are and uh you know i would wager that nine out of ten of your peers don't know as clearly where they are as you know where you are which is a really good place to start if you know where you are, which is a really good place to start. If you know where you are, then we know how to get there. Okay. And the bad news is, and the good news is, is that this is really simple to understand,

but very hard to do. You've already determined that this is a math problem, that the income versus the outgo doesn't leave enough margin. You've already determined that and so um you know but you're 23 and you're getting started what's your career field um i do recruitment oh good basically sales good so why is your income so low it's a nonprofit. Okay. We're probably looking for another job then. Because recruiters make $100 a year.

Okay. They don't make $20 a year. Okay. And good ones, anyway. Ones that get their job done. And so that's... And if I'm 70... I mean, if I'm 30% wrong, it still triples your income to go to 70 or 50. And so I don't think they can afford you anymore if you're good at it.

Have you been doing any good recruiting? You're recruiting employees? Volunteers, and it's Girl Scouts. Okay. Okay. That's fine. It's all right um so um but could are those skills transferable to recruiting uh for job positions in a company that is for profit

probably yeah okay and do you have a degree what's your degree i have a degree in communication good for you okay well a couple things i don't i'm not saying you got to quit today i'm not going to walk in and throw down my gauntlet i mean they're probably paying you all they can pay you in this situation i don't think there's i don't think they're ripping you off you agree to take the job and so forth but the answer to your question how do i get out of this debt is we need to create more income there's two ways to do that way number one is the dreaded part-time job working extra doing something somewhere. And you kind of are a go-getter, I can tell by just the energy in your voice. So I think you're going to be fine if you just did some of that.

But long term, I don't really 10 years from now see you doing this for $27,000 a year. And I don't see there being an upward trajectory to triple your income there do you right no so you probably are looking for another position long term and uh you know and an adjustment to your career track of some kind and um but we don't do that today but let me just here's the thing with part-time job or a job change, if you add $10,000 a year to your situation, you're out of debt in a year and a half. Right. You know, because, you know, you're used to living inexpensively.

And Portland, Maine is a wonderful place to live inexpensively. It's a great town. I've been there several times. I just, my mouth's watering thinking about the lobster right now. But, yeah, just let's try to get your income up short term and then think about your long-term career path and where that's going to take you. Really good question.

Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Colby says, I'm working on baby steps and baby step four. I have no kids, no house yet. Should I consider saving up and paying cash for the house? Sure. Take me four or five years. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I mean, what if you had a paid for house? How much wealth would you be able to build then? Your most powerful wealth-building tool is your income.

When you don't give it to other people in the form of debt payments, you have money. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization,

CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. you know how to lose all your money well there's a lot of ways to lose all your money? Well, there's a lot of ways to lose all your money. But you know how most of these athletes and music people or whatever that you read about that made $100 million and they don't have any money? You know how they lost all their money?

They did not manage their own money. They turned it over to someone else blindly. So let's say, guys, I got me a guy. I meet these NFL, speaking of the NFL team, and a kid comes up to me and goes, I got me a man. I'm like, what do you mean you got you a man? What are you talking about? I got me a man.

I got a money man. Translation, the kid didn't have a clue what he was doing. He turned it over to some guy who was slick, and that's how you lose it all. Now, the Bible says in the multitude of counsel there is safety. It is wise to take input from advisors. Advisors are different than babysitters. It is your job to manage your money. How do you do that?

Well, if you don't know squat about money, then you need some help, but you don't turn it over to someone blindly. You are responsible for that money. So you learn from the advisor. An advisor gives advice. They are not a caretaker. They give advice. They are not a caretaker. They give advice. And you need to learn from the advice and decide what you are going to do. The problem is, in some segments of the financial services world,

arrogance is taught as a chief methodology for marketing. And you sit down with these people who have their nose up in the air to the point that their upper lip is sunburned, and they're God's gift to mutual funds or God's gift to insurance, and you're supposed to just bow down and give them your money because they've got an attitude. There's a lot of that out there. And sometimes there's an enthusiastic ignoramus, someone that doesn't have an attitude but has no brains.

But boy, they're fired up. Man, I've been that guy. I've been an enthusiastic ignoramus. 100 miles an hour in the wrong direction. Wow. So, what's all this mean? It means when you get ready to do something in the financial world, you are required to understand it.

If the advisor that you're working with, the estate planning attorney, can't explain it to you, you don't go, well, just do whatever you think's best and walk away. This is your life. You are responsible for this. No, you have to lean in. You have to understand. If the insurance person says, well, this is what everyone does, that is not a reason to do it. This is what I believe. That's not a reason to do it. I'm sorry. I don't care what you believe.

All I want to know is why. Be that little 10-year-old boy that won't quit asking why. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why do you want me to roll this over? Why is it a good idea to roll this over?

Show me. Teach me. An advisor that does not have the heart of a teacher in the financial world is a salesman. Get away from them. If your real estate agent is strong-arming you instead of teaching you as you're looking at houses, then you need a different real estate agent. And some of these people get busy. They don't mean to be bullies.

They don't mean to be bullies they don't mean to be slick they don't mean to be salespeople but they forget why they were originally got in the business most of them got in the business to help people and their job is to teach you 85 percent of the people in the financial world are taught how to sell. They're not even taught what to sell. They're just told what to sell, and they're taught how to sell. They're good-hearted, but they're just dumb. And they're good salespeople, but they don't know much more about it than you do when it comes to actually how the investment works.

And so you've got to get with a professional that has the heart of a teacher. Now, when you meet with a professional that has the heart of the teacher, would you feel intimidated? You shouldn't. Unless it's just on you. I mean, sometimes you're just being around smart people is intimidating. I get that. But I'm saying if you're sitting there and you're feeling overwhelmed, you know, because all they're doing is throwing around $92 words on a $4 concept, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's not what we're doing here. Their job is to teach you. When you sit down with a financial advisor, you should leave the room knowing something that you didn't know before you sat down. And your spouse, too. I just feel good about him. Well, that's a good thing. I want you to feel good about him.

I want you to trust them, but don't trust them and turn it all over. It is not their job to make sure you end up wealthy. It is your job. Their job is to show you how. Not do it for you and then place the investment once you both agree on what we're going to do and so that's what we do here you get with a financial advisor advisor that has the heart of a teacher. And guys, listen to me. If you and your wife meet with a financial person and she comes away and she says, I have a bad feeling, run. Run.

Because that bad feeling is called the holy spirit proverbs 31 says who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above rubies the heart of her husband safely trusts her and he will have no lack of gain if you have a virtuous wife and she sits down and she says this feels slimy that i have a bad feeling this i don't know what it is. I can't really put my finger on it, but it just doesn't feel right. Run. Run. When you have a sense that something's wrong, it's usually because something's wrong.

Run. Run. Dave and Sharon Ramsey do not do investing, giving. We don't do large business transactions with people, but what Dave and Sharon Ramsey sit down with the players, and Sharon very seldom says a word until we're driving away. So what do you think? It's actually not the right question. The right question is, how'd you feel about that?

Because she really wasn't thinking that much about it, but she was feeling it. Get with someone that has the heart of a teacher. You'll know they have the heart of a teacher if you learn something when you meet with them. Did you understand something? If I'm paying you $400 an hour to be my estate planning attorney, your job is to make me smarter, not impress me with how smart you are. And if you don't do your job, you're going to get fired. Your job is not to do something for me, not to tell me what to do, but to show me a couple of really good ideas and why they are good ideas.

Teach me something. Show me something I didn't know before, and then execute the trade for me. Cause it to happen. But I got me a man doesn't cut it. When you walk in and you blindly trust someone and you dump the stuff on there because they have a title and because they were a little bit intimidating, you mess up. So here's what we did. When you meet with one of our SmartVestor pros, you click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com,

you enter your information, it'll drop down a list of the SmartVestor pros in your area. It can be a little bit intimidating, just the whole idea around it, right? Especially if it's your very first time meeting with a financial advisor. That's why we created the free financial advisor question checklist for you to take when you go. You can get the free guide at DaveRamsey.com slash questions to ask. It's a free guide. DaveRamsey.com questions to ask. The free financial advisor question checklist. That'll equip you to get the interview done. With more frequency than you know, I get calls and emails from people dealing with the recent loss of a spouse or a parent. You can hear the struggle and the heartache that they've been experiencing.

And at a time they should be grieving, what breaks my heart the most is the strain and tension that they're going through because of money. Especially when it's a situation that could have been avoided. If you have a family, it is your responsibility to have term life insurance. It's one of the things you do to say I love you. And yes, this is an ad for Zander Insurance. But since this is one of the most effective ways I have to get my point across, so be it. For over 20 years, I've been telling you about the importance of term life insurance and

protecting your family. Listen, you need to check out Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. I can't say it enough. Protect your family. It's what you're supposed to do. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282 Bradley and Ashley are with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave.

Hi, Dave. Welcome. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Yay. How much have you guys paid off? We paid off $380,000 in four and a half years. Love it.

And your range of income during that time? We started at $84,000, and now we're at $165,000. Doubled it. Good for you. What do you all do for a living? My husband's a teacher, and I'm a pharmacist. Excellent. Very cool.

So was this pharmacy debt? Yeah, both of it was school debt. Yeah. Okay. Wow. All of it was all student loans? Yes. Yes, all of it.

Oh, my goodness. So how long have you guys been married? Four and a half years? Seven years. We'll be seven years this year. Okay. So a couple of years into the marriage, you look up, and this student loan is, Sally Mae's got her own wing on your house.

Yes. And you said something's got to give. Tell me your story. How did you come into deciding you needed to get out of debt this fast and this with this much intensity so we in august 2014 um we bought a car for cash for 25 000 and it crushed me to pay for an entire vehicle without even with still paying like a hundred100 a month on our loans. So it made me feel so sick inside to do that.

So we decided to look online for financial advice. And I came across your podcast and listened to it. And I remember the first time hearing a debt-free scream. And that's exactly what caused us to start our debt-free journey. It was for these debt-free screams, the one that we're actually doing today. I love it. It meant a lot to hear it. Amen.

Very fun. Okay. So once you heard the debt-free scream, you said, we're going to do this. What did you do? Well, we just started a budget, and ours was paper and pencil budget, and we became really aggressive with it. For instance, we used to spend like $130, $150 a week on groceries, and we knocked that down to $75 a week.

Woo! Yeah, so I actually spent like four hours each week, one day a week, grocery shopping, where I go to so many different grocery stores or different stores just to get that. But we were really intense about figuring out how to get rid of this debt and throwing thousands a month on the debt. Yeah, way to go, guys. Congratulations. So how long ago did the income. Yeah, way to go, guys. Congratulations. So how long ago did the income come all the way up to $160,000? It was in August 2014 when we bought the vehicle.

Oh, both of you. So the $84,000 was not for very long. $165,000 has been most of the time. It's been, yeah, most of the time. Okay. All right. Very good. Congratulations.

All right. Very good. Congratulations. All right. What advice do you give to someone who's out there on the other side now? You were sitting there watching a debt-free scream, listening to a debt-free scream yourself, and someone's getting ready to do their debt-free scream, and they said, here's what you do to get out of debt. What are you going to tell them? It is just a lot of hard work and a lot of patience and a lot of sacrifice but i mean if we can do it then anyone can do it okay um it involves a lot

of prayer and um but it all comes from god and just hard work very cool actually what do you say um what would i say um it's the, really, really, really is what happens. We traveled from Pennsylvania to Arizona for these jobs. We spent most of all of our married and figuring out how to be married to each other. But we've had to sacrifice so much. Was it worth it? Yes, it was completely worth it, yes. Good, good. Well, congratulations. Who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you?

I would say my parents, Nancy and David from Erie, Pennsylvania. They would send a box of just goodies for us each month, and they actually did it for five years. They were our huge cheerleaders. Wow, that's very cool. Very neat. And then we have some friends here, like Kim and Rachel. Just lots of people who have helped us out over the years and just got us to this point. Now it's our turn to kind of maybe turn around and help other friends that we know that are struggling. Amen. Very good. Yeah, good times.

All right, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, and how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you can, too. That's the next chapter in your story, and how to be millionaires and outrageously generous as you go along. Congratulations, you two. All right. It's Bradley and Ashley.

$380,000 of student loans paid off in four and a half years, making 84 to 165. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. Glory be to God. We're debt-free. There you go. I love it.

Boom. Just like that. Very well done. Well, guys, we're entering the live event season here around Ramsey, and that means that the Ramsey personalities and I are running around all over America doing all kinds of live events. February the 5th coming up in just about a week away, coming up a week and some change away, Rachel and Anthony, Rachel Cruz and Anthony O'Neill will be in Raleigh doing a

smart money event. Then on February the 20th, I'll be in Grand Rapids with Anthony O'Neill doing a smart money event. The day before, on February the 19th, Christy Wright, Ken Coleman, and I are hosting the only Entree Leadership One Day event of the spring. Now, the lessons we do in Entree Leadership are not theory. These are the same tactics, philosophies that we use here at Ramsey Solutions that have grown us from a couple of people around a card table to now over 800 team members. These ideas have been proven in the real world. We run this business every day, and we talk to you about how to run a business,

how to grow your leadership team, how to hire, how to fire, all that kind of stuff. And so if you're in the Grand Rapids area, seats are still available for Entree Leadership One Day, February the 19th. And if you can join us live at the event, if you're outside of Grand Rapids, we're going to be live streaming this to the entire country. And so if you have an interest in you and or your team watching the Entree Leadership One Day event with Christy Wright, Ken Coleman, and I, February the 19th, Just go to entreleadership.com, or you can call customer care. They'll help you out at 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223.

Pretty easy stuff. Dave, should I sell my 04 Dodge Durango that gets 12 miles to the gallon? It's having problems at least every three months. I have no debt except the house. We have a $1,500 emergency fund, and I want to finance a $14,000 car, but my wife is against it. What should I do? Chris on Twitter.

Well, Chris, we teach people not to borrow money. And the reason we teach them not to borrow money is because the shortest distance between you and wealth is to avoid debt and keep control of your most powerful wealth-building tool, which is your income. Middle-class people finance cars, and as long as you keep financing cars, you're pretty much going to be middle-class, because a car payment is the biggest payment we have other than our house payment, and you're financing something that goes down in value.

Sounds to me like you need a car, though. I mean, you've got a worn-out 04 Dodge Durango. It's just, I mean, it's worn out. And so you need to save up aggressively and pay cash for a car. You're probably not going to be able to save up for a $14,000 car this round, but save up and buy a $5,000 car, and then keep saving and move up to a $10,000 car. But pay cash as you go, Chris. Don't get into the land of car payments.

It's a black hole. If you go down that vortex, you'll never get out. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Romans 12.2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Ronald Reagan said,

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things. Don't be conformed to this world. If you see people doing something and they're not winning doing it, why would you emulate that? If you see a bunch of broke people driving cars they can't afford, taking vacations they can't afford, posting their fake life on Facebook, spending more than they make, no plan for retirement, no plan for wealth building, no plan for kids' college. The number one cause of divorce in North America today is money fights and money problems.

Normal is broke, stressed out, disorganized with no vision. Why would you want to be normal? That's most people. 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Why would you want to be most people? Normal sucks. Why would you want to be normal? Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed.

How? Well, by the renewing of your mind. So look around and ask yourself, how's that working for them? Am I going to emulate the actions that are causing failure? It's absurd. We live in the wealthiest country the world has ever known, and people can't seem to get their crap together. You do not want to be normal. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us.

Nathaniel is with us in Toledo. Hi, Nathaniel. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. How about you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

So right now, I am in my second semester in college at a local community college, Owens Community, and I'm looking to transfer to The Ohio State University in August, in the fall. Okay. Majoring in accounting. They kind of switched around on me just to make sure I'd be successful at Ohio State. And I was really wanting to not have to take any loans out for my tuition. Tuition there is about $10,000 per year.

Housing is about 12 grand. I don't know if I can swing $22,000. Right now I'm sitting on about $900 probably total in my savings and checking account. Just had to purchase books and stuff. So right now I'm sitting on about $900 probably total in my savings and checking account. Just had to purchase books and stuff. So right now I have a job. I'm looking to get another job. I have an interview coming up on Monday with the YMCA.

Maybe even get a third job over the summer at a golf course and just try to bang out $10,000 over the summer just so I don't have to take out a loan. So I was looking for some good advice from you on how to do this. I think that's exactly what you do. $10,000 is $800 a month, and that's what you've got to continue to earn while you're in school, and you've got to figure out your housing as well. So it's looking like you need a couple grand a month continually. So how can you do that? Well, you can make $1,500 a month delivering pizzas five nights a week. Yep. I can't deliver, though. Do what? I cannot deliver, though, because insurance

won't cover my car if I deliver, and the business I work for, they don't have their own car, so I have to use my own car, so I cannot deliver, but I do make some tips change insurance um insurance that i have to switch to progressive and uh my parents looked into them the prices were absurd so they don't want to do that well let's shop around a little bit i mean there's other people that have insurance anyway there's all kinds of things you can do to earn money and i would not i don't think you can make it on minimum wage you're not going to work enough hours and go to school on minimum wage to pull this off but um maybe you start your own business i don't know cutting grass delivering whatever uh walking dogs i don't care but um

yeah you're right through the summer you've got to pile up some cash and get started and you've got to continue to work to get through the other thing i want you to do start looking for scholarships and apply i want you to apply for like a hundred scholarships in the next 90 days and you'll get turned out you'll get turned on for most of them but if you get one it's worth the trouble i mean one for a thousand dollars if it took you if it took you 10 hours well that's 100 bucks an hour you know it took you 10 hours, well, that's $100 an hour, you know. If it took you 10 hours to apply for 100 scholarships, well, now you've got your new job. And your new job then is applying for scholarships. But if you'll keep your costs down, your housing costs down and your transportation costs down,

if there's anything your parents can do to chip in, that's fine. But you do not need to get a loan. This is doable it's it's really reachable and um you may have to adjust your insurance on your car i don't know you got to decide what you're going to do but you find a way to do it and you just take the option of borrowing off the table that's not an option so i have to find a way and then that will change the way your brain works towards solving the problem. Scott's with us in Atlanta, Georgia. Hey, Scott, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome. So long story short, my dad passed away last year. He was a very successful businessman. I never knew how successful. So it turns out we inherited about a million dollars. And this year we have to take a required minimum distribution.

And, you know, nothing's super crazy, but my question is long-term, we're kind of getting some conflicting advice from two financial advisors that we're working with. One is telling us just to take the minimum distribution, nothing else. We have another one telling us to potentially take above and beyond the limit to maybe help it and put it in a non-qualified account for when we retire to give us some cash flow. Just want to see your recommendation tax-wise. Well, I mean, the more you take out, the more you're going to pay taxes on. You've got an inherited IRA that it's all in, it sounds like. Yeah, some have been an inherited IRA, and the other has been an inherited Roth IRA,

but not much, about $50,000 in the inherited Roth. Gotcha. And when you say we inherited a million, you mean you did, and you're married? Yes, I am married. Okay. And so this is your money? Yes. Okay.

It's not like split with your mother or something like that. You got a million dollars. That's correct. I did get a million. Okay, cool. All right. So the good news is that you're asking the right questions. I want you to discuss with these advisors the exact implications of their advice and decide then what you want to do.

You need to understand what these options mean to you. What is your household income? We take home about $70 to $75 a year. Do you have debt? We have no debt, no. What about a house? We're actually about to move into a house. And that's going to be?

Go ahead. And we will have a mortgage. Mortgage is about $195,000. Okay. I would consider pulling that much out and paying cash for the house. Okay. And have taxes on it. And you'll have taxes on it.

Anything you pull out of this is going to have taxes, with the exception of that Roth portion. The Roth won't have any. I'd clean the Roth out, and I would clean out enough pay cash for my house um and then i'm probably do want to take the required minimums is all and let the thing sit there and grow and you know leave leave your hands off of it and learn to live on 75 000 or less which is what your dad obviously did lived on less than he made and um But you pay cash for your house. You stay out of debt. You avoid debt.

You live on a budget. And you let this money grow, grow, grow. I would take the required minimums just because I want it to grow. If you take it and start moving it around, you don't need the money is the point. Right. Yeah, no, we don't. I like to tell myself I'm actually married to the female version of you, so it helps. Okay.

But, I mean, since you don't need the money, this money just becomes a very, very large pile of money later on. And at any point, you can pull out any amount with no penalty and pay taxes on it. And that includes the required minimums. It's all taxable as it comes out in this. So I'm going to pay the taxes on enough to pay cash for the mortgage, pay cash for the house and not have a mortgage, and then let's take the required minimums and let it grow. That's what I would do. But get in there and learn why.

Get in there and dick around and get somebody you're comfortable with. 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's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. I'm Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the show. You know you can listen or watch anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone. Catch the full show or watch the highlights and check out Dave's upcoming guests.

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