The Ramsey Show - App - It's Time to Address the Student Loan Crisis (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 17, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, coming up at the bottom of the hour. If you want to talk to Anthony, you can jump into the phone lines and get in line to speak with him. He speaks to high schoolers and college students and parents all over America. He did one of the

smart parent events Tuesday night in Minneapolis. Very successful with Meg Meeker. This next Tuesday night they will be in Sacramento together. And this event is, man, it's full for you parents. It is

funny and fun and full of information. You will come away empowered, inspired, and ready to go back to the fight of parenting because it is a scrap. All right, Manny is with us. Manny's in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hi, Manny. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave.

How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm hoping you can tell me kind of what you were doing in my situation here. So the only debt that I have right now is $7,000 for a car and a car fleece, which will be up in January. Now, I just had my fourth kid two days ago, so now I need a van. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. I need a van.

I obviously do not want to go into debt to pay this van. I was barely going to get your baby steps started. I'm a new listener. I got $12,000 in my savings, so would you pay my $7,000 car off? That's what I was thinking of doing, but then I don't have enough to get a nice, reliable van. Or should I use that to get a van and then pay the car off later? Just making my priority as far as payments go. What would you do? So what's your household income? I'm in sales, so it's not stable. I made $80,000 last year. Okay, that's good news.

And the car that is on the fleece that's up in january won't hold all the kids uh no it's a rogue so no we all got to go out somebody's thing i'm sorry say that last part again you cut out oh sorry i said no it won't fit us all. If we all have to go out, somebody's staying. Oh, okay. All right. Four kids. Congratulations. Yes. That's wonderful. Thank you.

All right. And the other car is what? My other car is a Nissan Sentra, so I only owe $7,000 on that guy. I understand. Okay. And you have $12,000 in the bank and seven thousand dollars but you make eighty thousand dollars a year correct yes i'm about to get a new not a new job but i'm i'm partnering with a couple people to get my own insurance agency started so okay

that's good as soon as my opportunity to leave is up then that's that's what i'll be doing so hopefully i'm still going to make eighty thousand,000. I'm not 100% sure on that yet. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. A $5,000 van is not a nice van, but to assume that it's automatically unreliable is not true. And it would only be used right now, it would only be used if all of you were going somewhere uh in all in all our other instances you would use the other two cars until january and then the other car after january so i would pay your current car

off and buy a five thousand dollar van with the idea that sometime next year i'm going to have saved up and move up in van right so five thousand now and maybe a ten thousand dollar one next year because that five thousand dollar one you know over the next six or eight months it won't go down much in value true yeah so i'm talking about driving it for six or eight months while you save up to move up um and that gets you out of debt doesn't it it does yeah because i yeah, because I plan on returning this Rogue after the lease is up. I plan on returning it. I don't want to finance the rest of it. Exactly.

So I'm just going to have my Sentra, which will be paid off, and the van. Which will be paid off. Yeah, and then after that, I'll be debt-free. Exactly. And I'll start the baby steps. Exactly. And really, you know, by the time you turn the Rogue in, you'll probably be ready to move up in van shortly thereafter, right? Yeah, I mean, if all goes as planned with my new agency, yes, sir, absolutely.

If you keep making $80,000 and you all get on a tight budget, you ought to be able to save up another $5,000 by after Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. So let's move up in van in january or so and you know our early spring and i don't care if you wait and save up seven thousand move up to a twelve thousand dollar van doesn't matter to me but for a short period of time let's drive a van that is less than ideal but i think you can find something reliable it might be ugly but it'd be reliable you know you get something i don't really care how it looks all i care is it runs right exactly and my wife's going to be driving it more than me

so that's why you know i'm a little worried about it being reliable i was looking for like eight maybe nine thousand dollar vans and then you don't have eight or nine thousand dollars yeah because i was going to pay my car later but now that i think about it i was like yeah i'd rather just get out of there asap yeah let's that, and then let's just save. Again, it's a temporary measure because what you're doing is you're breaking the cycle of debt forever. This is your last time you're going to have a car payment in your whole life. Oh, yeah. How's that for cool?

I'm excited about it. Yeah, do it, man. Congratulations on the new baby. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Nathaniel is in Bay City, Michigan. Hi, Nathaniel. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

It's an honor to speak with you. You too. What's up? Well, I had a question. I work a part-time job, only work about five hours a week at it, but they do offer that I can invest through their 401k and they do match me up to 4% on baby step six. So we're already putting in 15% in our full-time jobs. What do I do with that part-time job? Should I put 15% in there or take it all over?

What do you make on five hours a week? I'm a pharmacist. So a little bit of it is also I work a very clinical job, my full-time job. So this is getting me actually interacting with more patients and dispensing the medication. No, I'm just saying, what do you make? In a week? On five hours, yeah. On five hours, probably $250, $300. So $1,000 a month. And so you could invest like $100 a month. Yeah, it comes out to about $100 a month.

Yeah, yeah. That's okay if you want to do that. It's not a big deal. Okay. I just wasn't sure if I should take it all home and help get out a baby step six, or if we should invest a little extra. We say 15% of your income, and this would include your income. And so, you know, probably we put 15% of this in. The downside is, the upside is you get a match.

It's a small amount because it's a small amount of money. But that's the upside. The downside is when you quit doing this, because it is a part-time gig, and someday you probably won't do it, you know, you're going to want to roll that over, and it's not going to be very big. Gotcha you don't have much money in there so it's kind of a lot of hassle for not much but the math is good you know it's the percentages are good but the total dollars aren't really ever going to amount to much so because you're just not you're not earning enough there for it to be a life-changing event for you financially.

But it's okay. It doesn't hurt anything. Saving money is never really a bad thing. Hey, thanks for the call. This is the news, guys. You need to stop and listen. The Fed decided not to raise interest rates. That means you've got a small window of time before rates

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That's 888-562-6200 or churchillmortgage.com. Cliff and Maria are in Indianapolis, Indiana. Hey, guys, I see on my screen you're debt-free. Way to go. And I guess it would help if I push the button so I could talk to them. Hey, guys, how are you? Congratulations. Thank you, sir.

Hi, Dave. Thank you. Awesomeness. Hi, Dave. Thank you. Awesomeness. How much debt have you guys paid off? $164,997. Wait, $164,997. Wow. How long did this take?

22 months. Wow. And your range of income during that time uh we started out at about 50 000 and ended up at about 150 000 oh whoa what do you guys do for a living uh i'm a clinical surveillance scientist i'm an application analyst for a phr company very cool very cool so what kind of debt was the 1655,000? It was mostly student loans, but we had a little bit of everything in there. Okay. So what happened 22 months ago that sent you on this journey? So before we started your program, we actually knew about you, but hearing on it kind of fell on deaf ears.

Everyone had told me, you know, you're going to have a lot of student loans, but you're going to have a great income, so it's not going to matter. So that's a little bit different when you're actually living it. And 22 months ago, I didn't have a job going out of pharmacy school, and I was super scared because I was never really good with money. And I had applied for a job and, you know, thinking hopefully we'll get it, hopefully things will come out because, you know, I was at the end of my grace period. And I, you know, by the grace of God, I got it. And we had learned about you through our church.

And we actually wanted to take SPU then, but they were already five months in or five weeks in. And then we just decided, let's read the book. I read it and, like, you know, Cliff, let's do this. I think he might have been a little bit hesitant about it because he was a little bit better than me with money. He already had some savings going on, but eventually we both got on board and we decided to attack our debt. Cool. Very good. What do you guys tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? The biggest thing is cooperation definitely between being on the same page, having momentum,

always being in the thought process of getting out of debt, being gazelle in times, of course. We originally took FPU, and then we actually ended up leading it a few times for our church we go to now. Wow, thank you. That's a lot of fun, isn't it? Yes, it is, and it's a blessing just to be able to be in a class with people who are in a very similar scenario situation that you are in, and people with different walks of life, helping them out, and it is one of the things that you always say, is that it's kind of almost like marriage counseling. I mean, you're getting on the same page with always say is that it's kind of marriage, almost like marriage counseling.

I mean, you're getting on the same page with your partner, and it's an amazing thing. Yeah, and when you're coordinating a class, it makes you do it for sure. Oh, yeah, absolutely. The first time we did it, we had not had our child yet, and then the second time we did it, we had to kind of work around our child's schedule, our baby, and it was a challenge, but it was actually really fun. It was a big blessing for us. Very fun. Very fun.

Well, congratulations, you guys. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? I think our coworkers, just trying to cheer us on. My coworker actually inspired me to take FPU and then eventually lead it. Who would you say, Cliff? Yeah, my coworker, Rachel. She had gone through your moneymaker as well, and she was a big cheerleader for me throughout the whole thing.

Very cool. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys. Very well done. We're proud congratulations you guys very well done we're proud of you very well done we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and you can too this is the next chapter for you guys for sure you're on the path man 165 000 paid off in 22 months, making $50,000 to $150,000. They don't have any student loans. Cliff and Maria from Indianapolis, count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We are debt-free! Yeah!

This is how it's done, baby. I love it. Very well done. Very well done. Well, congratulations, you guys. Proud of you. Very cool. Justin is with us.

Oh, Anthony O'Neill coming up at the bottom of the hour, by the way. If you have a high school student, college student, or you are one and you want to talk to a.o he'll be with us ramsey personality who travels the nation burns more jet fuel than anybody around here speaks at high schools almost every day somewhere this guy's on fire he's everywhere and he and meg meeker just completed the first smart parent event very successful successful, complete sellout in Minneapolis last week, or earlier this week, rather. This coming Tuesday, they will be doing the same Smart Parent event in Sacramento. And last night, we had a Money in Marriage event in Dallas with Rachel Cruz and Les Parrott, the last one of those for this calendar year.

Rachel will be taking the fall off with a baby on the way. So lots of cool stuff happening around here, I'll just tell you. And oh, by the way, I'll be in Kansas City this weekend, heading up there tomorrow, speaking at my friends at Westside Church for my friend Pastor Randy Frazee. And three services Sunday morning. Church is free. If you don't have church plans, come out. We'd love to have you. On Sunday evening,

we're doing an event that is sold out that's called Outrageous Generosity. I'll be teaching on that subject. Hogan will be teaching a little. Chris Hogan is going to go with me. We're going to do a little Q&A. That's going to be a very cool event on Sunday evening. Completely sold out, though. You can't get tickets

to it. It's gone. Sorry. We're running around all over the out, though. You can't get tickets to it. It's gone. Sorry. But we're running around all over the place, people. If you want to talk to Anthony, he's coming up at the bottom of the hour. 888-825-5225. Justin's with us in Denver. Hey, Justin. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, so I'm on Baby Step 2. I just finished paying off my student loans. The last thing that I have is my car to pay off. And my payment's about $928 a month on my car. Good Lord!

And if I refinance the car, I could cut the payment in half. But my goal is to still get it paid off by the end of the year. What do you owe on the car? About $40,000 today. Okay, and you can pay it off in six months or seven months, huh? Yeah, probably on my birthday was kind of my goal of next year. So by next April was my goal to have it paid off by then. I got you.

And what's your household income? The last couple years, it's ranged from $150,000 to $200,000. Okay. household income uh the last couple years it's ranged from 150 to 200 okay and um will you be 100 debt free other than your home when you've knocked the car out yep yes i will okay all right wow um no there is the interest rate high uh it's about five percent oh there's no reason to refinance that no Just pay it off. The payment being smaller is not the right direction. You want a larger payment because you're going to pay off $40,000. So you're going to be paying extra anyway.

And a smaller payment doesn't change the calculation. If you refinanced at 5%, there would be no purpose whatsoever. I mean, if you got a 1% savings or something, that might be, what, $400 in a year, so probably about $200 savings or something. But just pay the car off. Okay. All right. Just knock it out. And don't do that again.

Well, it was my dream car, so. No, I don't care. It sounds more like a nightmare. What kind of car did you buy? It's an Audi RS3 Brando. Oh, they're sweet. You're right. It's a great car, but it ain't worth being in debt for.

So from now on, dude, you make $150,000. You save up and pay for your cars if you want to be wealthy, okay? You got it. I appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. $120 car payment.

Makes my brain hurt. What little is left of it is hurting right now. Oh, my gosh. Coming up here at the bottom of the hour in just mere moments, Ramsey Personality, Anthony O'Neill, AO, will be with us. You can call in now. The phone number, 888-825-5225. You know, I. Joining me this half hour, Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, national bestselling author and teen and millennial expert. Wrote the book, The Graduate Survival Guide, Five Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make in College.

This book is always a bestseller this time of year because everyone buys it for the graduating high school senior to make sure that they don't make the five mistakes that you can't afford to make in college. And this book, Anthony did it with Rachel Cruz. It's been a very, very big deal. Welcome back to Nashville. Thanks, Dave. Had a good time out there in Minneapolis doing smart parenting with Dr. Meg Meeker. Yeah, that was a great event. We got the reviews back.

The very first one we'd ever done. It sold out. Yes. And the turnout was incredible and so you guys got to it was material of course both of you know but to teach it together and teach it in a standalone event was a new experience and everybody loved it everybody loved it we had 1500 1531 people to be exact um and we got our reviews back and not one negative comment everyone just really loved how um it was just combined you had not one negative comment. Everyone just really loved how it was just combined. Not one negative comment?

Not one. There's something wrong with that. Not one negative. There's got to be at least one goober in the audience. I mean, really. Goober? No, Dave. Maybe the goober just didn't want to talk to us.

Okay. Maybe they just didn't. They were afraid of you and Meg. Okay. That could be it. I'm kind of afraid of Meg. I mean, more so probably afraid of me because they know I'll come back on the day Ramsey's showing it. We'll call him out in the air.

So they don't know. But, you know, I think out of the positive reviews, Dave, one thing that we really loved for the team and we're really excited about Sacramento is that parents are really excited to hear from Dr. Meg, who is a doctor. And she's been in that field for 30 years. And she's really talking to parents on how they can really become a better parent. They're already a great parent, but here are some things to help you out. And then I come on the stage, Dave, not teaching them how to be parents, but just really teaching them how their kids are thinking, how they're processing things, and what they are looking from their parents that they may be missing at this time.

So when you have all that information one night and then we even allow day for them to ask us real questions and when i say they ask us some real questions that these are questions that you and i just can't even talk about over the air um but you see yeah i mean you've seen tears you've seen parents emotional like hey i think I'm missing this. Or how do I respond to this if this is happening with my kid or what should I do here? And I mean, it was so good that I think we scheduled like maybe 20 minutes for questions. And Dave, we had to add 10 more minutes because the questions were just that good.

Rich. Yes, sir. So it was a great night. Packed out night. We got about 50 tickets left for Sacramento. I'm pretty sure those will sell out here today or tomorrow with 1100 people there. Just excited to be able to partner with Dr. Meg, with our team and impact the future generation by touching their parents today. Well, I mean, you do have a unique view on this whole thing of parenting because you probably have talked to more teenagers than just about anybody in America in the last two years. Yes, sir. In person, in live assemblies, and in lots of little discussions afterwards with Q&As. I mean, you really is not one area of the country, not one type of school, not high end, low end, nothing like that. I mean, all walks of life, all geography. You have been pounding the road. Yes, sir.

I mean, I just spoke at a school this morning, a group of 120 students who are graduating from Republic High School, the first graduating class from Republic High School this morning. And you'll be where is Republic High School? It's on the other side of East Nashville. OK. Yeah. So just excited, you know, gave them the five mistakes you can't afford to make in college. you'll be where is republic high school it's on the other side of east nashville okay yeah so uh just excited you know gave them the five mistakes you can't afford to make um in college and just the type of questions like what do you mean by make a plan have a plan for my money and i'm like

wait you don't know what what is a budget what do you mean a budget you're about to graduate high school you do not know what budgeting means which is why dave i'm just so passionate about our message because it bothers me that we can give them the government will give them a student loan which pisses me off but then we can't teach them how to budget i mean it just seems that we want to throw them out there make their life and their future worse but we don't even want to set them up properly so this is all walks of life of young people that I believe that they want to know, how do I win and what's the right way? We have the wrong people teaching them, but here at Ramsey Solutions and myself and yourself, Dave,

we're the right people trying to teach them the right way. The wrong people being the banks or the wolf is in the hen house. We'll give you a financial class on how to use our visa. Yes, sir. And how to take out your student loan and go $200,000 in debt. Almost named some banks, but I don't want to get in trouble. I wouldn't. You're not going to get in trouble here.

I name them all the time. You know, folks, we've got something really exciting in the works. Anthony and our production team are working on a student loan production. Yes, sir. That we're doing. The student loan thing is a problem obviously we know that and uh anthony is just um sick of sick and tired of of watching these kids be led to the slaughter so if you have been seriously impacted by student loan debt we need to hear from you

email us your story or email us and tell us you have a story and we'll get back to you um just put student loan in the subject line and email to dave on air one word no spaces no dashes dave on air at davramsey.com and um our our podcast and and broadcast and video and audio teams are working with Anthony to put together some stuff. It's time that some of the student loan stuff, the bizarre stuff that's out there, some of it comes to light. Because it's just, it is absolutely out of control. It's really out of control, Dave. The average student is graduating with $37,500 in student loan debt. And a recent stat just came out that every 28 seconds,

a student loan is going into default. This is every single day, every 28 seconds, a student loan is going into default. This is sad. And it's time for us to address it. We're addressing it. It's time for Congress to stop making student loans available. There you go.

Federal government should not be insuring a loan that is bringing this much harm to our young people. This is no longer a blessing. It is an epic failure. Yes, sir. It is a catastrophe, and it's caused by Congress. It is. And we're really going to get in Congress's face until they remove this. I mean, there's a bunch of these folks wanting to help the people in student loan mess.

They're saying, oh, well, let's make it where it's bankruptable. We can talk about that, but you can't talk about that if you're going to keep making the loans. Yep, that's true. And it's not just the government, too, Dave. We've got to talk about these colleges raising the student loan prices. I mean, it's just all this stuff is frustrating to me. And I don't want to have as many people coming to the college because student loans are gone. Their prices will come down.

You know, Dave, I was about to say that. But I don't want the colleges thinking I'm discouraging education. No, no, I'm not discouraging education, but I am discouraging stupid. Yes, sir. And, you know, going into student loan debt, and you and I as taxpayers, we the people guaranteeing $150,000 debt for an 18-year-old is straight up stupid. That's stupid. It's stupid.

And the proof is that they've not done well with it, and it's caused epic problems. It's caused social problems. It's caused psychological problems, emotional's called social problems it's called psychological problems emotional problems relational problems so many people's development their their growth is stunted yes they don't know what to do they don't know how to do they're stuck they're overwhelmed and and it's all because we did this to them uh well no they they were dumb they signed up for it but i mean we we the people congress has got to stop this so if you've got a student loan story we want to hear it email us

your story yeah we have one story that i won't say the names and in particular but you guys will hear about it later but we even had a um a parent say that her son committed suicide because of his student loan debt wow he just had so much. And so, again, I don't want to get ahead, but I'm frustrated. I'm ready to attack it, and I cannot wait for America to see what we're coming out with. This is going to be huge. So email us your stories at DaveOnAirAtDaveRamsey.com. If you've been impacted by student loan debt, your family has been.

DaveOnAirAtDaveRamsey.com. There's enough blame to go around, but it needs to stop. It needs to. It needs to stop. It's time. Anthony O'Neill is with us, national best-selling author, Ramsey personality, teen and millennial expert. Your questions for Anthony are, phone lines are open at 888-825-5225. We'll come back with your calls. 888-825-5225. We'll come back with your calls. 888-825-5225.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Joining me this hour, talking about high school, college, and millennials, teen and millennial expert, Ramsey personality, Anthony O'Neill, national best-selling author of the book The Graduate Survival Guide, along with Rachel Cruz. Five mistakes you can't afford to make in college. It is an excellent gift for a graduating high school senior, and a bunch of high school seniors are graduating right now. So this is a great time for you to be looking at The Graduate Survival Guide for the high schoolers in your life. Also, those of you in the Sacramento area, the second, and it is within about 51 or 52 tickets are being sold out. The second Smart Parent event with Anthony O'Neill and Dr. Meg Meeker will be in Sacramento this coming Tuesday, the 21st.

We'd love to have you attend that. There's just a handful of tickets left. I think there's 52. I looked on my report a minute ago. So they will be gone. It will be a sellout. It's just a matter of whether you will be going. So jump on there.

Get your tickets. Brian is with us in Seattle. Hey, Brian, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Your question for Anthony. Hey, Dave and Anthony. Actually, it's Breanne. Oh, I'm sorry. I looked at it wrong.

Kelly actually typed it correctly, and I said it wrong. You know, my husband's name is Brian, so it works. We get that a lot. That keeps everybody confused. My question for Anthony is we have a 13-year-old AAU basketball player in our house. He is already looking at a private Jesuit college in state, thinks he's going to get there on a basketball scholarship, has no real idea how he's going to pay for college otherwise. Family's been doing a little

bit of saving, but between the age of 13 and 19, if an injury were to sideline him from being able to play basketball for this private college at that level, how do we talk to him about having a plan B? Yeah. Or if he, because you're not going to have the money to send him otherwise, right? Correct. Or maybe he just ends up not being good enough. That also. That could happen. Okay. Because 13, his career up not being good enough. That also. That could happen.

Okay. Because 13, his career is not exactly set yet. No. Okay. All right. That's a good question. Breanne, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm just going to say, you know what, son, I like your goals. I like your dreams.

Let's aim for that. But let's have an honest conversation. And I think that you and your husband need to sit down with them and say, hey, listen, this is where we are. This is what we can afford. We can afford an in-state college. We're going to help you out with that. But you need to be working on your grades, working on your ACT, working on your SAT, depending on wherever you guys are.

And let's talk about that. What's your game plan number two in-state? Do you want to go to community college, maybe play there if you don't get the scholarship or if you're not good enough? I wouldn't want to kill his dreams, but I would want to use his dreams to come up with a plan B. Maybe that's academics or something like that. But what else is he good in outside of sports? Is he strong in math? Is he strong in reading?

What are we looking at there? Math. Math. So what I'm looking at is what are some good careers around the math space that my son can go into, and I'm going to expose him to those careers and say, all right, we have this, but then let's also look at this, and this is the route he goes that you will need to take to get there. Okay. So Rachel's brother-in-law played basketball on a scholarship at Holy Cross,

and it was a wonderful experience. And he will tell you it was, you know, he got full Scott, full ride. And he has four children. He's in his 30s. And he does not play basketball for a living. So this ends at college for most people. It's a wonderful thing to be a college athlete if you have that level of skill and can do that. But in other words, what I'm saying is if he's mine, I'm going to coach him and say,

basketball is a vehicle for you to get to go to this school. It sounds like a cool thing. Let's work on it. Let's do it. We'll help you get coaching. We're going to support you and cheer you on. But if you were sidelined with an injury or if you didn't make the team, as Anthony said, we're just going to have a plan B because that's wisdom. And my job as your dad is mom is to guide you in making wise decisions because you're not going to be able to afford to go there at that place

if you do not make the team and they don't give you a ride. So, you know, and if that happens, it's not the end of the world because when you're 34 with three kids, it will not have mattered. Right. That's the thing. So, in other words, we don't want to set this goal up. Thirteen-year-olds are full of drama, to say the least. Okay?

And so if we set this goal up that his life is over, if he doesn't hit it, even if he hits it, it doesn't really define who he is past college. Right? Thank you. Yes. past college right thank you yes so we want to we want to define him as a young man in our house as a man of god a man of faith and this is what your life is going to look like basketball can be a great part of that but we don't worship the hoop absolutely absolutely and so you know it's a great you know so yeah we're going to keep this in perspective, in other words. And that's going to cause us to have a plan B. And we're going to celebrate with you and walk with you if you can do plan A.

That's awesome. Yeah. But, you know, we're going to go ahead and have the, you know, the emotional letdown that if you don't make the team, you're not going to that school. Santa Claus is not coming. He's not. You know, but Brianne, thanks so much for calling in

and to everyone listening. If you're like Brianne and your child is in the middle school saying, I want to be this basketball player. I want to be this. One of the key things,

Dave, I teach parents is that teach, not teach, but have your son, have your daughter write out a vision for what they ultimately

want to do. And if that is to be a celebrity, you have to train their head that celebrity is that's a cool route. But let's focus on the career and then work backwards. When kids can see their future in front of them on a daily basis, they really start working towards that. So I'm very big on having a plan written down on paper that kids can follow. I got to get good grades. I got to practice my SAT. I'm still going to play basketball. I'm still going to use that as my goal, but I got to have something to fall back on. I got to have a plan written down.

Yeah. And, you know, I sat on the athletic board of the University of Tennessee and the statistics that they showed us were less than 1% of college athletes go pro. Yeah. So you have to have a vision that looks past college, not just at college in terms of your athletic career. And so you're not going to play on Sunday if you're in the NFL. That's just the rule. That's the rule. I mean, you start with that unless you are a very unusual person.

Yeah. And that's why they get paid so much they're very unusual people uh in terms of their physical abilities so good stuff joanne is with us in louisville joanne your question for anthony o'neill well we are going car shopping myself and my 17 year old son yay that's fun today and he's looking to buy a car with cash, and we want to do this the smart way. Good. He has been through financial management, one of the personal financial management. Anyway, it's your course with our homeschool group.

Right. But that's been a little while ago, and so we just want to do this right. And so we're just wanting to know. And the biggest question for me as a parent is insurance. Oh, my gosh. We had a car that we had quoted to our insurance, and they quoted us that it would raise our insurance to add him as a driver. Because right now he's got his permit. He's not to his intermediate.

And in Frankfurt, you know, you don't have to pay until uh they're intermediate anyway here's the thing i'll let anthony jump in but the um i don't want to run out of time the the uh the insurance on a teenager is outrageous period but uh the type of car he chooses to buy could be could double it so you need to quote you know, look at different types of vehicles and quote those out. And you may go, well, that's a nice car, but we can't afford the insurance. Yeah. The cheapest car, Dave, between the ages 15 and 18 for a teenager male is a Honda Accord or a Nissan Maxima.

Okay. Okay. So that's what I would recommend. I would always recommend something in between 80 and 120,000 miles because you can find something in between two and four thousand dollars. So I'm going to recommend to you is that do not get your son. Do not allow him to purchase anything more than four or five thousand dollars as his first car. I mean, if he has more than that, he needs to save that to go towards college. But look into that Nissan, Honda, Toyota brands.

Those are the cheapest ones for teenagers. And the insurance, too. And the insurance, too. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Interesting. Very cool stuff.

All right. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality joining us. And thanks for hanging out, brother. Thank you, Dave. Thank you, America. Proud of you, man. Proud of you, too, Dave. Good work you're doing.

And Meg Meeker and Anthony doing Smart Parent in Sacramento this coming Tuesday night. And we'll all be together again in the fall at the Smart Conference, also in Sacramento, on November the 16th. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.