The Ramsey Show - App - Is $1000 Enough for an Emergency Fund? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

George Kamel & Dr. John Delony discuss: Staying in the military to get student loan forgiveness, Cashing out stock to pay off debt, If $1000 is enough for an emergency fund, Parents suing Fortnite for getting their kids addicted to the game. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, host of the Entree Leadership Podcast and co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour, joined by my good friend, Dr. John Deloney, bestselling author and host of the Dr. John Deloney Show. And we are enthused to take your call today, America, at 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your life, your money, boundaries, mental health, seasonal affective disorder. John, I've got all kinds of terms today. And you've got all kinds of ailments and issues. It's fantastic.

And that's why you're here, to help me and to help all of us. And so it's a free call, 888-825-5225. And we're kicking it off with our friend Nick in Cleveland, Ohio. Nick, welcome to the show. Thanks, Ohio. Nick, welcome to the show. Thanks, guys. So a little bit about my situation. I have about $44,000 in student loan debt, and I'm currently in the Army National Guard, which my contract is ending here next month. And if I extend for another six years, they'll pay off about 15% of that student loan debt per year, I think over the course of the next six years, of which I think

it's taxable income. And just want to get your thoughts on, do you think it's worth it to extend to get that debt paid off or try and pay that off with my personal or full-time job? What is your full-time job? I do IT auditing. And what does that pay? I make about $105,000. Oh, sweet. Well, making $105,000, I mean, is it taking a lot of your time? Are you passionate about the National Guard stuff? Or would you rather just lean into your full time job? probably within the next year. And I want to buy a house and use my savings towards a down payment on that house. So I could pay them off right now, but I don't know if it's worth it or not to stay in.

I'm not that passionate about it, but at the same time. Here's the deal nick don't don't absolutely do not do not risk the lives of those servicemen and women who will rely on you in the times of great stress and great fear and great need and in a stressful response situation just because you have a six-year plan to get your student loans forgiven. Yeah, and I feel like I'm doing it just for the money. Yes, the stakes are too high for you to do something this important and this dangerous, quite frankly, just for the money. One of my closest friends and colleagues in the world, she is in the National Guard. She does amazing things, but she is fully in. She's fully committed.

And it's taken a lot from her. And she is service-oriented, so she gives it that way. If she was in this just for, like, man, some cool perks, and over the next, dude, you make too much money, pay your stupid student loans off and get on with your life. You sound paralyzed by indecision across the board. This isn't about this job. This isn't about, do I pay my student loans off?

I kind of want to get married. You just start making some decisions and start walking forward some way. I know. I just feel like it's like this weight on my shoulders as a lot of other people do in the country. And it's just the thought of like, Hey, you know, I'm paying this back. It's I'd rather use that money towards something else. And did you sign your name on a piece of paper and you told somebody, whoever they may be, if you help me get through college, I'll pay you back.

Yeah. Then pay them back. You make six figures, dude. And on the math side, I mean, they're paying six grand for the first year. That's 15% of the 44. It's not worth it when you make 105 to wait six years to become debt-free instead of you taking control and going, I make over a hundred grand. I'm paying this thing off in the next 12 to 18 months. And that puts your future in your hands because now we're getting a home a lot sooner. Once we become debt-free, we're going to build a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months. Now we're starting to save up for the down payment. And now this isn't a six-year plan. This could be a three or four-year plan.

So I think you know what to do at this point. From the heart issue to the math issue, you know what you got to do. The question is, are you going to go about the business of doing it and saying, I'm done with this debt and I'm going to handle it myself? Okay. And listen, I can't tell you, brother, how many people have called over the last two and a half years, three years, I've been sitting in this chair waiting for the next student loan forgiveness thing that was going to come through. It's been a forbearance and a forgiveness and it's a, well, they're delayed and now they're just going to go into this forbearance with no, just pay the stupid things off.

Pay them off. Quit waiting for somebody to come save you, man. Just do it. And the day you pay your last loan off, the day you write that check and hit send, and they come out and they announce whoever they happens to be, we're forgiving all student loans. You'll be able to sleep at night because you signed your name on a piece of paper that said, I'll pay you back. And you kept your word to nobody, if nobody else, but just to you back, and you kept your word. To nobody else but just to you. And you will have proven to yourself you're a person of character. Move on with your life. Is that fair?

Yeah, I think that's fair. Be resolute, man. Stand tall. Throw your shoulders back. Put your head up. I don't think it's worth to the other people to stay in for another six years when i'm not fully invested i let me put it this way i wouldn't want you standing shoulder to shoulder with me if you were doing this for an extra 500 a month in student loan forgiveness

i would want somebody who was ready to jump in front of a bullet for me because i'm ready to jump in front of a bullet for you and if that's not jump in front of a bullet for you. And if that's not where you're at, no, that's all good. I'm not in the service, obviously. Then yeah, I think you've answered your own question. Okay. I appreciate all the advice. You got it, man. Yeah.

I think the person who you trust the least right now is you. You just feel indecisive. And I would say take a hard step. And I'll say this, George. There are people, I've worked in this industry for almost two decades. There are people who signed their name away to things. They had no idea what they're getting into. And there was entire swaths of people that I think were targeted and tricked. So there's no shame to sit down and say, Hey, I need help. Right. And that's a whole other conversation. But if you're sitting there making six figures

and you're thinking about trying to take this somewhat risky side gig for six years, just pay them off, for God's sake. Yeah, it's not worth the golden handcuffs at that point when there's really not that much gold. Those are like, yeah, those are like... Copper, maybe? No, they're like pipe cleaner handcuffs.

Pipe cleaner, oh my goodness. You know what I No, they're like pipe cleaner handcuffs. Pipe cleaner. Oh, my goodness. You know what I mean? They're like not very strong. Well, all of this conversation reminds me of our documentary, Borrowed Future, which you were featured in, John, because of your experience in higher ed. You brought some really cool perspective to this whole thing. So I want to encourage anyone who's in this world, you've got student loans, you're thinking about taking them on, please go watch our documentary, Borrowed Future.

It's on YouTube. It's free. Go check it out. It'll spark some amazing conversations from parents to kids. So we got more of The Ramsey Show coming up, and it's a free call at 888-825-5225. We'll be right back. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries.

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CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budgets. That's chministries.org slash budgets. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Encased it snuck up on you, Christmas is next weekend. That is weird to say out loud.

Oh, my goodness. I was going to make some fun, but it snuck up on me. I was doing something. It just got real. This is next week. Next week. Yikes. Well, if you're still running around like crazy, you're trying to find that last minute gift, quit worrying. We got you. We always take care of you. We've got an awesome gift for anyone in your life. And the best part, it's something that will actually change their life. It's called the Live

and Give Box. And it comes with an entire year of Financial Peace University, a copy of the Total Money Makeover, and Baby Steps Millionaires. All of that stuff is worth over 180 bucks. And for today only, that's right, just today, we are offering the Live and Give box for just $79.99. So there's someone in your life who needs this. You're probably thinking about them right now. They're struggling with money, they're stressed, they're anxious, and you can give them some hope. And when you order the box today, we'll make sure it gets there by Christmas. So get the Live and Give box at ramsaysolutions.com slash box. Again, that's ramsay solutions.com slash box again that's ramsay solutions.com slash b o x that's exciting well there's the rest of your christmas shopping john

it's done i know what you're getting sheila i have to say if i might do that just just because just to troll sheila yep just to be like hey check it out uh i thought you were going to gift her just all of your your questions for humans, the entire, all of the decks under the tree. She actually, when we took a road trip and we actually edited them in the car, like we did them together to see. And if she was like, that's dumb, then I threw it out. And if she started laughing or started crying,

I was like, that one's got to stay in. And so she's been through hours of those cards. She's done with the cards. I think she's good with them. My kids, on the other hand. They love it. They're all about it. Yeah. And I think kids love that connection with their parents. So it's good. So good. All right. Let's go back to the phones. 888-825-5225 is the number to call. You jump in. We'll talk about your life, your money, your mental health, your relationships, you name it. Andrew joins us up next in Austin, Texas. Andrew, welcome to the show.

Thanks, guys. How y'all doing? We're doing great. What's going on with you? Not much, man. Just looking for a little bit of advice here. So I've been listening to the show for a little bit, and I'm just trying to figure out the best moves next. Like I've saved up, started some of the baby steps, saved up a thousand bucks, you know, and I'm really just trying to get debt free at this point. I have a little bit of credit card debt, about 6,500 bucks, and then around $7,990 in student loan debt. Um, and I've got a, uh, a stock from a previous company that, you know, company that I worked for, they had a stock purchase program.

You get a discount, they'd buy the stock for you essentially. And it's done well for itself. And I've got about $12,000 in that. So I was thinking about selling that stock and then using that money to pay off the majority of my debt. I'm just trying to decide if that's the best idea or if I should still hold the stock. But if I do pull the stock or if I do sell it, should I put it towards my credit card that has interest on it right now? And then the remainder towards my student loan debt or vice versa. So that's kind of just where my thought process is right now. I just can't decide what the best move is. I love it. Well, welcome to the club of weirdos who do money differently. And one of those things is cashing out those stocks. Now, beware,

you want to work with a tax pro, there's going to be a tax implication here on the gains. And so make sure you have that set aside to pay Uncle Sam when that time comes due. But yes, use the rest of that towards your smallest balance. So if that's your credit card, regardless of interest rate, we are attacking the smallest debt first. So you're going to knock out the credit card tomorrow, and then most of the student loan is going to get knocked out too. Do you have money saved in the bank as well? Yeah, I've got, let's see, well, I've got about $2,000 or $3,000 just saved in the bank, and then I've got around $36,000 in a 401k and about $8,000 in a Roth IRA. So I haven't done terrible saving, but I'm just trying to knock out the debt so I can save more. Yeah. Well, definitely do not touch any retirement accounts. Don't pull any money out

of that. But these stocks sound like they're outside of retirement, correct? Correct. Yeah. It was just an offering from the company and an additional benefit, essentially, that I was like, no, I can save up for this. It'll be money pulled out of my paycheck that I won't see. I won't miss it. And then hopefully it'll work out. And this stock has gone from, at certain times, it was bought at around $120 a share. And now it's around $350 a share. I'm cashing out while the getting's good, man. Because three weeks from now, you're going to say, I'm going to hold it just to see what happens.

And then for some reason, it tanks. And all of a sudden, your debt-free date just got pushed out. So we tell anyone, if you've got volatile things like crypto, single stocks, and you've got debt, just cash it out, man. You can't beat the feeling of debt freedom and you're going to get there so fast. You're almost there. If you cash everything out of the bank, except for that thousand for your starter emergency fund, cash out the stocks, throw all of that on it. You're going to be like pennies away from debt freedom. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's kind of where my head was at. And I just was like, yeah, I just didn't know the best way to go about it. But yeah, real close and just want to be done with the credit card and student loan debt. Be done. Never look back and

cut up those cards, close the accounts. You will not miss it, man. I'm telling you right now. I love it. All right. Let's move on to Waco, Texas. This is like the Texas theme hour. John is here for it. D'Andrea is calling in from Waco. D'Andrea, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi. Thanks for taking my call. How are you doing? Good.

I have a question for you guys. So we just started Financial Peace University, me and my husband, and we've got over the first baby step, $1,000 saved up. So question is, I'm a travel nurse and we make good money, but sometimes it's not consistent compared to like your normal like salary-based job. So our question is, should we add more to our emergency fund just to make up those possibilities of not having income coming in, or should we just stick to the plan? Now, DeAndrea, do you really think there's a month where we're not going to need nurses in today's society? Well, the only thing is there's a large amount of travel nurses now.

And so... Are you a good one? Yeah. Listen to her. We need the good ones more. I'm sorry? We need the good ones more. When's the last time you got laid off

for more than like a week and you found yourself with one two or three months with no work at all um three weeks was the the most okay but yeah and how'd you make it through the three weeks well at the time we had um some money saved up um but we put a lot of that towards debt and so um doing the baby steps. And so we're trying to figure out if we should still have about a month. We had about a month worth. Okay.

How much debt do you have? A total, including our house, about $200. What about without the house? Just the consumer debt? Without the house, about $115,000. Okay. And what's the household income right now? Household income right now is about $140,000. Okay. So this debt's going to get paid off in under two years if you keep this up, if you're intense about it.

So the way I'm looking at it is if something really did happen where one of you was laid off, you still have one income and you'd go down to bare bones expenses, which means we're cutting everything and you're probably going to find some kind of work in the meantime, if that happened, right? Right. And so there's never going to be just months of $0 coming in. And you're also going to change the way you're living your life if you're in a storm mode and so if that does happen we tell you hey pause all the baby steps and stack up as much cash as possible until life is back to normal okay when do you find out um because we get this call with some regularity if you were to if you knew that um like your travel assignment was was running out how much notice do you get um not much notice so we start i start looking for a job um a month left from my current contract and um i try to have one set in place a week after my last contract ends. Okay.

But do you have 30 days notice or 60 days notice or five days notice? I guess 30 days. Okay. Like George was saying, that feels like enough time for you and your husband to say, whoa, we're cutting the spigot completely off and we're going to throw. That's when you could take some money you'll make 140 grand a year and then you know it's like hey we're going to save some money we're not going to pay anything on debt we're going to go into to store mode right now that i like that a lot more i think you're terrified to have a thousand dollar emergency

fund that's what i really think And I want you to use that energy to get this thing, these debt out of your life for good. Don't get comfortable. Comfortable is what got us here. Thanks for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. Are you sick of planned obsolescence? You know, when companies make products crappy so you have to buy more of their crappy products? Well, me too. And it's why I love companies like Grip6. Grip6 is all about quality products meant to last forever. That's why their comfortable, bulk-free belts, slimline wallets,

and lightweight wool socks all come with a lifetime warranty and simple returns and exchanges. So check them out at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% off with the promo code RAMSEY. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by Dr. John Deloney. And it's time for one of our favorite segments on the show, because on the debt-free stage, we've got Eric and Amber joining us. How are you guys?

We're good. We're doing great. How are you guys doing? Eric and Amber joining us. How are you guys? We're good. We're doing great. How are you guys doing? There's the happy couple. Where are you guys from? We're from a small town right across the river from St. Paul, Minnesota. I love it. All right, and tell us, how much debt did you pay off?

We paid off $72,000 in 19 months. Whoa. Praise the Lord. What was your range of income during that time? Roughly $110,000 to $130,000, that range. Love it. And what kind of debt was this, $72,000? It was all range of income during that time? Roughly $110,000 to $130,000, that range. Love it. And what kind of debt was this, $72,000? It was all kinds of things.

It was personal loans. It was car loans, student loans, 401k loans. Credit cards, 401k. Yeah. Wow, that's like a terrible Dr. Seuss book. Oh, my goodness. You're just collecting them all. A little bit of everything.

Which one was really bugging you? Which was the one that you were like, we got to get rid of this thing? Credit cards are always just an anchor around the neck. But I think the one I hated the most was my 401k loan because it just kind of hid in the background and just siphoned money off every month. And we didn't even realize. In fact, when we first came up with our number that second week of FPU, we didn't even see that one. Like, I had to go like, wait a minute, this thing that's just been there since 2008. We need to knock that out too. Oh my goodness. Yeah, that one's like punching

yourself in the face and just robbing future Eric. Yes, exactly. So that's awesome. We're so proud of you guys. Well, thank you. So tell us, what do you do for a living? I'm in public relations. And I'm an elementary special ed teacher. Awesome. Well, thank you for that. That's some incredible lines of work right there. So what happened 19 months ago that you guys said, we're done, we're drawing the line in the sand, we're done with debt forever? Yeah, absolutely. So I was sitting at the kitchen table, had my laptop up in front of me and got an email from work saying that one of my colleagues, Karen and her husband Dwayne Stone, were leading an FPU class. So I yelled into the other room, I'm like, hey, Amber, you want to do FPU? And she's like, sure.

Grew up in church, know what financial peace is. That sounds like a woman married to a PR guy who just knows whatever, I'm in for whatever. In for the ride. Whatever you say. So we signed up and we were excited and we went through the first two weeks of the class and it was awesome, right?

Like we enjoyed the camaraderie and the talk and we had that hard situation where we put those numbers down on the card and said, okay, this is what's in front of us. And I remember I was on a trip. I travel a fair amount for work. I was sitting in Minneapolis, St. Paul airport. And it was a Sunday afternoon and I was just running numbers through, I went to Ramsey's website and was doing the debt snowball there. And I went through a couple of others online. And I remember texting Amber and I'm like, dude, this might work. It stopped being a theory. And I'm like, every one of them is saying 27 months, we could have this $72,000 worth of debt knocked out if we budget and stick with

it. And it ended up taking 19 months, not 27. Wow. So what do you attribute that eight months of saving? Was it just intensity and addiction to the plan attribute that, that eight months of saving? Like, was it just intensity and addiction to the plan of like, what else could we do? Yep. Well, we, we sold a pickup truck to pay off the pickup truck to, um, we had two old pickup trucks. Um, and then it just snowballed from there, budgeting, watching every dollar. Um, God is good. We're just so thankful. That's incredible. What was, what was your favorite was your favorite disagreement over those 19 months? What's the one that you both, because there's one that you're both like, whoa.

I don't know that we had one. This is a cop out, but we don't really fight that much. Like we just, gross. You guys should write a marriage book. Gross. Okay, so I'm just going to be straight up with you guys. The biggest battle that we had wasn't with each other. It was with ourselves, and it was after we got done with Baby Step 2.

Because we had gone through Baby Step 2. We were right on the cusp, just getting through it. And we had these two beater old cars and then one nice one. And our daughter who's with us, who's our rock star, she turned 16. So we went from, we had two cars breakdown. So we went from having three cars for cars breakdown. So we went from having three cars for two people to one car for three people. And I'm going to be honest, for about three days, this just happened overnight, for about three days after baby step two, in baby

step three, we're like, maybe we should get a little bit of a bridge. Not alone. I'm not going to say the word lone, but maybe we should get a little bit of a bridge. And she instantly stopped sleeping. Our stomachs turned for about three days. We fought this internal battle until we decided, lying in the sand, we are not those people who are going to do debt anymore. We will not go back into debt. You had a new identity. Yeah, exactly. And so instead, rather than getting her a nice all-wheel drive SUV we wanted to get, we bought her this little green Chevy Spark that we were able to go and peel off these little green $100 pills. Wow, that's like no-wheel drive. And it was the most fun we've ever had.

I had a baby blue 1988 Tercel EZ hatchback. Very similar, except your car's nicer. It's the modern version. Yes. There's nothing but roads ahead of you. Good for you. Good times. That's incredible

well it sounds like she was a part of this journey as well yeah what was the the biggest sacrifice that you guys are looking forward to kind of having back in your life now that you're debt-free vacation yeah vacation's good so so the one thing the one thing we wanted to do was so sitting there in that airport in in minneapolis st paul i said if we can do this, if we can get through this journey, said we should do that big Disney dream vacation you've always wanted to do, debt-free. And because I travel a lot for work, we were able to rack up the Marriott and Delta points.

Not on credit card. Not on credit card, doing it the old-fashioned way, getting on airplanes and going to hotels. But we were able to get our hotel at Disney. We were able to get airplane tickets at Disney. We were able to get airplane tickets for the three of us plus two of Emma's friends. And so we just had to cash flow the tickets. And so we had this great trip where we were able to talk to a bunch of Disney employees and tell them about how we're debt-free. And they celebrated us and it was a lot of fun.

That's amazing. That's incredible. We're so proud of you guys. So you guys did this stuff. And know there's another eric and amber out there who aren't on the same page yet and maybe they just tuned into the show for the first time what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is go for it um doing a budget is a big deal um having the same why is huge too so yeah same page with a plan changes everything it really does man you guys are rock stars well is emma doing the debt-free screen with us we gotta know she she's our y and our biggest supporter she's coming up to do it all right you come on up emma how old is she she is 16 a bona fide adult and she got to watch mom and dad sacrifice at a time where she can really

remember it for the rest of her life and i i have a feeling she's going to stay far away from debt. She is. Here's what I love. She got to see y'all sacrifice and work through it, and then she got to see a real-life family temptation. Like, hey, we're thinking about this. This isn't us just playing around. We actually need another car because one car and three drivers is insane.

And we need it, and we're still not going to do it and you're going to drive a neon green roller skate for a while and we're just going to all smile about it looks like yoshi with an engine exactly what happened it's amazing i don't even know what that means you know john so how does it feel you're on the other side how does it actually feel to be debt free amazing it's there's so much peace that goes along with it, guys. If I could just appeal to everybody, just do it, man. Just get on a budget, get debt-free, because it makes such a difference in your life. It's so much fun now to be on this side of the journey. And rather than working to pay somebody else, we're working and seeing our bank account

grow and our emergency funds grow. And I just appeal to those people out there who are on the fence, just do it, please. The amount of peace we had the moment we started the moment we jumped in we didn't have to get to the end just the moment we had we we got it under control it's a world of difference man i love to hear it well we we have a parting gift for you it's the live and give box that includes financial peace university one year of that d Dave's best-selling books, The Total Money Makeover, and Baby Steps Millionaires. That is absolutely the next chapter of your story, and you can feel free to give those away to start someone else's journey off, and maybe you now send that email to some colleagues and go,

hey, we're leading FPU. You want to join? How cool is that? All right, let's get to it. The moment we've all been waiting for. It's Eric and Amber and Emma from the St. Paul, Minnesota area. $72,000 paid off in 19 months, making $110,000 up to $130,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! And the crowd goes wild. You did it! That was not Minnesota nice. That was Minnesota aggressive.

And I like it. That came from here. There's some tater tot hot dish on the other side of this. I don't even know what that means. Man, John, you'll learn one day. We'll get you there. But man, I just love, I mean, their happiness and joy is just contagious. Like my face hurts from just smiling the whole time.

But watching her, watching 16-year-old Emma smiling and joy is just contagious. Like my face hurts from just smiling the whole time. But watching her, watching 16-year-old Emma smiling and crying and being excited, this is so cool. This is why we do it, right? This is exactly why we do it. So parents, if you're like, I don't know how to connect with my kid, I don't know, just sacrifice and become debt-free, and that bond will form with you and that child. Here's the thing.

We don't want our kids to be uncomfortable. We don't want them to say no and get upset. We want to give things to our kids, and I get that. But you want to give your kid true joy. Sign them up for an adventure. And you lead the way. Give them purpose. Give them adventure.

Give them a light at the end of the tunnel. And that, you get that kind of smile right there. We're looking at it right here. That's what it's all about. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by Dr. John Deloney. You heard us in our last segment with that debt-free scream talking about that live and give box. And today only, we've got a killer deal on it, $79.99 to get the live and give box. It includes a whole year of Financial Peace University, the Total Money

Makeover, and Baby Steps Millionaires. And it's an awesome gift for someone in your life to show them that you care and that you want to see them win with money in 2023. So check that out at ramseysolutions.com slash box. All right, George, listen to this. I'm scared. You should be scared for all of us. Parents file lawsuit. This is an article from foxbusiness.com. Parents file lawsuit saying their kids are addicted to Fortnite.

For those of you who don't know, Fortnite is a video game. A video game. Lawsuit's been filed in Canada by parents who say their kids are addicted to the video game Fortnite. They say that their kids are so addicted, they don't take care of regular everyday hygiene such as showering. Some kids are so dependent on Fortnite, they've stopped eating and sleeping according to bbc news and reported by insider the court concludes this is a serious

issue to be argued supported by sufficient and specific allegations as to the existence of risks or even dangers arising from the use of fortnight they're equating the in the suit they're equating this to the the makers of the game to tobacco manufacturers right so you could replace fortnight with cigarettes and read that article that as is that's right so here's my thought um there's a lot of crazy in this story push back if if i'm out of bounds here, okay? There's no secret. I'm pretty open about my disdain for video games. I would rather, instead of my kids playing baseball on a video game,

I'd rather them go outside and play baseball with people. That makes sense. Or maybe just weather and a ball and like a stick, whatever. So I'm not a huge fan of video games. I also understand that they're fun and there's some data saying that they're a way for people to engage and partridge, blah, blah, blah, blah. Where I struggle here is

you're the parents. You're the parents. But it's more fun to blame someone else, John. You're the parents. If your child is addicted to a video game, smash the video game controller and throw it in the fireplace. Rip all the cords out of the wall. But then they're going to be mad at me as the parent, John. Wow!

That is called parenting. That is called setting boundaries. Cut the internet off. But then I can't look at my... Cut the internet off. Do whatever you have to do. If somebody you love who is a dependent on your care is an addict and unable to get these services on their own,

but they'll just do it on their phone, smash their phones. Get rid of all, you're the parent. The cool thing about all these electronic systems is they've got this, and I didn't know this until recently, on the side of them, there's a button and it has the letters O-F-F and you can just push it and the whole thing turns off. I've never tried that. That's amazing. What a life hack. What a life hack it off turn it off turn it off this is different than being told i think being told hey uh cigarettes are in fact they're not addictive at all um they're not great for you

right but they do calm you down they do make you feel a little better or whatever. And then they're being troves of data hiding this. We can't let anybody know that, hey, this is actually killing everybody. It's different than parents simply unable to say, sorry, this is over. And if this is a true, true addiction, then you need to get your kids the mental health care that they need after you've done the thing that a parent should do which is take your kids out of danger which in this case means using the off button because you're the parents my okay so am i am i crazy no i'm just picturing what would happen if a parent went and just turned the tv off while the kids playing fortnight and the kid just explodes in rage. I want to be in the room for that because it's entertaining to me personally.

Because I remember that as a kid. You know, the parent comes on and turns off the TV and you're playing the video game. It's like game on. I mean, you go full adrenaline rage mode as the kid. Here's what one of the company spokespeople said. Parents can receive playtime reports that track the amount of time their child

plays each week and require parental permission before purchases are made. And so the company stopped short of saying, hey, you can turn the game off and not let your kid play because they don't want to do that. That's an option. Because they want to sell the game. But built into the game is this idea that, hey,

parents, we'll send you a report of how much your kid is on, right? Maybe you're working three jobs. You don't have to, you're not at home a lot. We'll help you out. Nah, I don't want to look at that. Or, hey, we can go ahead and we'll give you a specific passcode

just for you parents so your kids can't get on and buy a bunch of stuff. That makes sense. sense now let's just i'm suing you but this is equivalent john i mean you devoured a pack of gummies earlier and you love a gummy bear it's like you suing haribo gummies for being like i'm addicted to your gummy bears and it's your fault hey i want millions i actually covered this on my show i think there's something to that um i think there are there are addictive elements to pre-packaged foods and i think that given enough time that data will emerge it's there

we know people are addicted to sugar and humanity and i got a choice to make i looked at those gummy bears on the way in and thought i'm John is going to feel not that great. But right now, John is going to feel awesome. And I nailed him. And you even looked at me and said, oh, I thought we weren't doing that today. I'm your accountability partner. I thought we weren't doing it. Even my wife will occasionally put her hand on my arm and be like,

just think about tomorrow, John. Just think about tomorrow. But I have a choice because I'm an adult. I'm not going to sue them for tricking me. It's a bag of gummy snacks. I'm not going to sue them for tricking me. It's a bag of gummy snacks. Get out of the gate. That's not probably wise.

But this, parents, at some point, either, and this is me being completely serious, at some point, if you look at the data on the mental health crisis we have in our country with kids, I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the quote unquote mental health crisis is simply the bodies of our children responding to, they've been left completely alone. They're isolated. They're not a part of their families because mom and dad are super busy and super stressed out and super raged out and super stuck on the news and they're sitting there swiping on their own phones and these kids are completely alone and they're locked in these schools and they're we've created this system for these kids to exist and fortnight is their only way out and as parents at some point either their bodies are going to

revolt or we are going to have to step up and be actual parents which means saying no and making a 14 year old mad at you or turning the box off or throwing it out the second story window whatever you got to do to keep your kids safe. Stop blaming and start parenting. Yeah. We can't outsource this to technology, which is kind of what's happened at this point. Digital babysitters, man. Yeah. And I mean, I was part of the generation that grew up, we played video games, but we also went outside and still did stuff. And my parents loved me and I, you know, they didn't have super strict, you gotta, but they just raised me in such a way to go, Hey, maybe don't spend your entire

day glued to a screen either. Right. That can't be good for you. I don't know that we need studies to even prove that. It's sad, like study show. It's like, I think, I think you and I had this conversation. I was part of a brain science study, a lot of questionnaires and yada yada. And they brought us in and gave us like the six or seven or five things whatever and i remember my grandmother had literally told me

six out of the seven or seven i mean it was like go outside spend time with people turn off this electronics it was like oh is this this is neuroscience i thought this like literally my grandmother told me that and so so, anyway, all that. A lot of common ground between common sense and neuroscience. Yes, and hey, I might let my kids play video games this upcoming year. I've thought about it. That's big. Right?

It will be for a very, very limited time with supervision. Will you play with them? I feel like that's a key. Maybe. I might. I might. Makes it more fun. But I'm not going to cash in my parental responsibilities just because they're holding a controller and they're transfixed on a screen. I'm still their dad whether they're holding a video game controller or not. Parents, you are in control.

That's right. As long as you pay the bills, as long as they're under your roof, you have a matter. You have a choice you can make. That's right. Good conversation, John. Appreciate it, man. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to all the folks in the booth making the show happen today. Austin, James, and Zach, and Andrew, and so many more. And you, America, thank you so much for listening.

We will be back with you before you know it. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.