The Ramsey Show - App - Money is Simple. Behavior is Hard. (Hour 3)
Episode Date: January 3, 2019The show about you...
Transcript
Discussion (0)
🎵
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, and we take your calls and your questions here at 888-825-5225.
Ever done anything really stupid with money?
If you have, that makes you over 12.
Almost all of us have.
My wife, Sharon, and I started off with nothing when we first got married most people
do i think and i started buying and selling real estate and i got rich by the time i was 26 i was
a millionaire making 250 000 a year but i had done stupid i borrowed too much money bank got sold to
another bank and some guy another city looked down and said there's a kid 26 years old owes us
millions of dollars let's limit this relationship which is banker talk for ruin his life
they called our notes and we spent the next two and a half years of our life losing everything
we owned we were sued we were foreclosed on and finally we were bankrupt
i do everything backwards i met God on the way up when I was becoming wealthy.
Most people meet him at a point of crisis.
I met him on the way up.
I got to know him on the way down.
So, 28 years old with a brand new baby, a toddler, and a marriage hanging on by a thread,
we got the opportunity to start from zero again.
Only I had to figure out how money works.
Not what your broke brother-in-law's opinion is.
How money really works.
And so as a Christian, I decided I would figure out what the Bible has to say about money.
And I talked to old rich people.
I didn't want to talk to young rich people.
I'd been him.
I didn't want his opinion.
In business, we study successful people in a certain area, and then we emulate or copy what they're doing in order to have the same success they've had.
It's called best practices. It's why you hire a personal trainer. They have abs and you have a keg.
They know something you don't know. They do something you don't do.
And so we learn from someone that knows something we don't know
because they've actually done it, not have a theory about it.
See, I don't really care what your theories are about money if you're broke.
You're just arrogant and stupid.
You live in your mother's basement and you write a money blog.
Nobody cares what you think.
Dave Ramsey doesn't understand the power of credit cards.
Oh, my God.
Really, after 30 years, you're still writing that stuff?
You've got to be kidding me.
So we learned how to handle money.
And we learned that money really is fairly simple.
It's just hard to do.
There's only about four or five things you've got to do to win.
If you live on less than you make
you need to live on a plan a written budget
you need to get out of debt because when you don't have any payments you have money
your most powerful wealth building tool is your income.
You've got to learn to save and invest.
And you can't do that when you're
in debt, don't have a plan, and don't live on less
than you make.
You know why people don't put money in their
401k and their Roth IRAs? Because they don't have any money
because it's all going out the door in
stupid butt car payments.
And Sally Mae's got her own bedroom at your house
because she's lived there for so long.
This is pretty simple stuff, guys.
It may be primitive.
It may be easy to understand, but it is very hard to do because it has everything to do
with you changing your heart and the way you function and the way you live your life, and
you live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else,
because that's the last one.
There's a high correlation in all of our data between people who win with money
and those that are generous.
Generosity is a key element in people who end up winning with money.
And it's pretty simple.
It's because generous people are attractive.
Selfish people aren't.
They're ugly.
Attractive people seem to get more opportunities in life.
Would you agree?
We all want to help someone who's attractive.
I'm not talking about physically attractive, but they're likable.
The person that holds the door for you versus the one that cusses you for doing it.
The one that helps you pick up your groceries when they're rolling around the parking lot because the bottom fell out of your
bag that's a generous person it might be a person gives you some money because you're broke you
don't have money for food or you're going through a hard time and they help you out there's a high
correlation between generosity
and financial success.
And it's not that financial success allows
people to be generous. It's that generosity causes
people to be people
that are lovable, likable
more than selfish people.
And they have a tendency to prosper.
It's a pretty easy formula, really, if you think about it.
And when you're out of debt,
hey, Ramsey doesn't understand the power of credit cards.
Yeah, I've watched the power of credit cards destroy people's lives for years.
I absolutely understand the power of a credit card.
And I've watched stupid people write clickbait articles about me
and other people saying how to use a credit card,
the proper way to use a credit card,
and credit cards are good for reward points.
Yeah, I've never met a millionaire that said,
Dave, you know, I made all my money with airline miles.
Dave, those Discover points put me over the top.
That was my breakthrough financial moment.
Never met a single millionaire,
and I've met with thousands of millionaires.
Never met one that said that.
They all say, I can't's fault fall for credit card debt i can't believe people continue to use these stupid credit cards it's like somebody
the half the population is dying of lung cancer everybody's standing around going well i guess
cigarettes kill you well no kidding unbelievable the credit card is the cigarette of the financial
world used to be cool everybody
thought it was neat and people are catching on that it ain't a good idea hello this is not rocket
science people live on less than you make becky's on twitter do you literally mean beans and rice
or is that an exaggeration to make a point becky you've got to be kidding me do you really think people doing this plan
only live on beans and rice i mean really twits on twitter really of course not it means lower
your stupid butt lifestyle and quit spending money like you're in congress is what it means
it means quit going out to eat.
You're broke.
It means quit buying the most expensive thing at Whole Paycheck over there and
start getting your dadgum coupons out and have a meal plan and actually cook
from scratch because it saves money.
And don't go on vacation.
You're broke.
And don't buy that.
You're broke.
You have clothes in your closet stay out
of the mall live on less than you make that's what it means if you live on less than you make
in order to pay off debt in order to save and invest in order to be generous you can't spend
more than you make and end up anywhere but in bankruptcy court and people are doing it every
day everywhere see this stuff we teach here, folks, is not hard to understand.
It's very hard to actually go and do it.
This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Your goal this year is to get rid of your debt, but here's the deal.
In order to keep your momentum going past January,
you have to make small changes that get quick results.
That's why you need to attack your
debts smallest to largest. I also recommend you look for ways to find extra money to pay off your
debt sooner. It's there, I promise you. Take a look at your mortgage. If you call my friends at
Churchill Mortgage and request a five-minute checkup, they can help you find extra money.
Churchill Mortgage Checkup has helped thousands of my listeners save big.
In just a few minutes, the Churchill team can tell you how much cash they can potentially save you,
or they can restructure your mortgage to pay it off early.
Become debt-free in 2019.
Call Churchill today at 888-LOAN-200, or visit churchillmortgage.com for your Churchill checkup. This is a paid advertisement.
NMLS ID 1591.
NMLS consumeraccess.org.
Equal housing lender.
761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027.
Thank you for joining us, America.
We're glad you're here.
Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Sarah is with us in Houston, Texas.
Hi, Sarah.
How are you?
I'm fine.
How are you?
Better than I deserve.
What's up? I wanted to know if you had any tips to get my husband on board.
I'm just a beginner listening to your show, and most of the debt is my debt.
And he is like, well, you're the one that needs to save.
I'm good with money.
So I just want some help or any tips to get him on board okay how long y'all been married
uh five years what's your household income
um uh like 51 000 okay and how much debt do you have um 30 and student loans and 10 car payment credit cards okay all right and so you said
help me with this and he said what
most of the credit cards are all mine the car is mine and the student loan is mine. He doesn't have anything in his name. Mm-hmm.
So he says that I need to save.
He said what? That I need to save because I'm the one that's creating the debt.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So should I just leave him alone and focus on myself,
or I just wanted, like, a suggestion?
Well, I uh a different thing
about marriage than he believes when you get married you say in sickness and in health
for richer for poorer now i would agree with him that if you're going to keep doing stupid
crap that he doesn't want to help you do stupid crap right right right i don't blame him for that
and you don't either but if he gets if he gets
cancer he's gonna want you to take care of him right well you got cancer of the wallet oh yeah
okay in sickness and in health for richer for poorer and so go to him again and and i don't
want you to to laugh when you do this I don't want you to giggle.
You did a nervous laugh thing.
You were kind of nervous, and I understand.
I'm not picking on you, okay?
But I don't want him to think you think this is cute or him to think you think this is funny.
I want him to think that you need his help.
And you say, listen, you're better with money than I am, I'm really sick of being like this and I really need your help.
I really need you to jump in here with me
and let's do this budget stuff together.
I want to not ever be back in debt again.
I want to get out of debt and I need my husband to walk with me to do that.
What would he say if you said that?
He would definitely help yeah
because he's not a bad guy he's just like i don't want to keep giving you money and i don't want to
bail you out if you're going to keep doing this crap that's what he's saying
right right which is you know i don't want to be an enabler is what he's saying but
but if you just said hey honey i need your I need your help. You know, it's like, help me bring the groceries in from the car.
You know, help me put the dog out.
You know, help me by doing whatever.
I need your help.
And, you know, he loves his wife.
I love my wife.
My wife says, I need your help.
I'll help her.
But now she starts, you know, wagging her finger and starts telling me what to do.
We might get a different reaction.
Right, right.
I understand.
I understand that.
I think that, you know, I think he'll help you if he believes that this is, like,
something you're really serious about and you're not scamming him
and you're not – and you really want to change it.
Hey, after five years of marriage, I want us to have the rest of our lives debt-free.
And you're really good at this.
You don't have any debt.
And yet you've got me and i got some so let help me get this cleaned up so we can work together to really have a cool
future and i think he will and i think the more he sees uh you guys working together and winning
with this the more he'll pour even his income combine your incomes which you should do by the
way you should do you should combine your incomes and but you should do, by the way. You should do.
You should combine your incomes.
But he's going to be a little hesitant to do that at the start of this,
and that's understandable.
But I would keep pushing on him on this because it's very important
for your relationship that you love each other well in the area of money
with kindness and gratitude and those kinds of things.
It needs to show up in your money towards each other.
Generosity towards each other in your money.
It's a good way to be married.
It's a really good way to be married.
Rebecca is with us.
Rebecca is in Virginia.
Hi, Rebecca.
How are you?
Hey, Dave.
I'm better than I deserve.
How are you, sir? Just. I'm better than I deserve. How are you, sir?
Just the same. How can I help? So my grandmother passed away about a week ago. I'm sorry.
And thank you. And in making her final arrangement, I knew that she had prepaid.
She and my grandmother, grandfather had both prepaid for their funeral back in 2004.
But there were still some outline costs.
She actually outlived the insurance policy that was attached to that that would have paid any remainder.
And so my parents spent about $1,500 out of pocket for her final expenses.
I know you always say it's better to preplan and not prepay your funeral,
but could you please refresh my understanding on that?
Well, because the cost, if you take the, let's just use a round figure, okay?
Let's do a fairly expensive funeral and burial.
Let's say it's $10,000.
Okay.
And if you took, that's today, 25 years from now, what would $10,000 grow to if it were invested in a decent growth stock mutual fund 25 years from now
juxtapose that position or that number with what would the cost of a funeral go up to
okay funerals are part of the uh consumer price index are part of the things that we consume
and the average inflation rate of consumer-purchased items is around 4%.
So the cost of funerals, on average, have gone up about 4% a year.
Meanwhile, you could have invested that money, and it would have grown at 10% or 12% in a
decent growth stock mutual fund.
And so the $10,000 over 25 years, what it would grow to would blow your mind.
I mean, you could marry King Tut for that.
You see what I'm saying?
Right.
Versus what the cost of the actual thing has gone up.
See, the funeral business is like a lot of businesses.
It appears to be doing one thing, and it's actually doing another a lot of the time.
An example is this, the car business.
People think they sell cars,
and they do sell cars, but the biggest profit margin in the dealership is the finance office,
not the sale of vehicles. The second biggest profit margin in the dealership is the shop,
not the sale of cars. So getting your car worked on and financing your car at the dealership is
very, very expensive. It's where they make all of their money. They sell cars to get those two sale of cars so getting your car worked on and financing your car at the dealership is very very
expensive it's where they make all of their money they sell cars to get those two things when you
do funerals you do funerals so you can sell the prepaid insurance policies there's more margin
in those than there is in caskets you don't make as much on a casket as you do on an insurance
policy for the casket and so they would rather sell you the insurance policy, which ran out.
Unbelievable.
Yeah, we didn't know that it was possible to outlive it.
I didn't either.
She was 98 when she passed away.
Okay.
I guess they all have some kind of limitation on them, I guess.
But, wow.
You know, how disappointing, though.
She thought she had it all taken care of
and you're still coming out of pocket you know wow so anyway if she'd had a hundred thousand
dollars in a mutual fund right now because of the money that she prepaid that turned into that
you guys would have just taken that money out paid for the burial and everything
and um you know had a little left over. Just a little.
Yeah.
And I don't know if that's what it would have grown to.
I don't know what the numbers are in this.
We didn't talk about that, and we didn't put it in the calculator and so forth.
But the premise is, to refresh your memory, if we knew the date that she prepaid
and what she prepaid, if we took that figure and put it into a mutual fund,
it would be a lot more than the cost of her funeral.
Yeah.
And you would have had that in a mutual fund.
And Grandma would have said, when I die, go get that mutual fund and pay off that and y'all keep the rest.
Yeah.
You know, plant me and pay off the rest.
You keep the rest.
That's what my grandma would have said.
She said, plant me, you know.
So that's the reason.
That's the reason right there. and it's not the end of the
world the good news is only 1500 out of pocket and you know grandma lived a long life 98 wow
very cool very cool stuff but that's why we don't prepay a college same reason that's why we don't
prepay hardly anything that's long, way out there somewhere.
Because the money you could have made on the investment, called the opportunity cost, is a lot more than the value of prepaying.
Now, preplanning a lot of stuff is a good idea, including funerals.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that if you combine the data breaches that have occurred in the past 12 months,
almost every American has had their personal info compromised or hacked?
Over 50% of our listeners and viewers tell us that they or someone in their family has been a victim.
And 70% of those folks have had it happen more than once.
See, this is unbelievable.
Once thieves get your info, the risk never goes away,
and they can use it whenever and however they choose.
It truly has become an issue of not if, but when.
That's why the only plan I've ever recommended is through Zander Insurance.
I actually sat down with them, and we put together a plan
that I felt provided the best protection,
but didn't waste dollars on things you could easily do yourself,
or were just gimmicks.
The key is getting protected before you're a victim, and it's too late.
Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.
We are all at risk, and it doesn't make sense to wait.
Numbers don't lie.
That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Thank you for joining us, America.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
Open phones at 888-825-5225.
How many times have you made the same New Year's resolution?
You're going to pay off your debt.
You're going to cut up your credit cards.
You're going to stop living paycheck to paycheck.
And then you run out of energy, and it goes away.
And you're right back in the mess.
Well, this is not going to happen to you this year.
This year, you actually are going to take control of your money,
because you can do it.
You just need the right plan, and Financial Peace University is that plan.
There are 1,600 classes starting this week alone in America.
There's over 5,000 starting this month.
And we've upgraded the class in a major way.
Not only do you get the kit to go to the class in your area,
but you also have one year's worth of online access to all the videos,
all the audios, all the lessons, the entire community, everything
having to do with it, and one year's access to EveryDollarPlus, which is the premium version
of our budgeting app that connects to your bank and allows all of your transactions to
automatically download into your budget.
Very cool stuff.
The world's best budgeting app, the world's best financial class,
and shipping's completely free.
$129.
This is a deal.
Over 5 million people have been through this class.
It changes people's lives. You can do this.
You got this.
We'll show you how. We're the best there is at showing
you how so jump on Dave Ramsey calm get your kid ordered get your get signed up for your every
dollar plus as a part of that as a part of that get signed up for the online the shipping is free
pick out a community a class there in your community go jump into it maybe it's at your
church or church down the street I don't know go jump into it. Maybe it's at your church or a church down the street.
I don't know.
Go jump into it.
It's God's and Grandma's ways of handling money.
It's the class you should have been made to take before we let you out of high school.
But nobody taught us this stuff, did they?
So go to DaveRamsey.com or call 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223.
Russ is with us in St. Louis.
Hey, Russ, how are you?
Pretty good.
How are you doing, Dave?
Better than I deserve.
What's up?
Hey, I've got a question.
I know that you want everybody to get term insurance.
I had cancer three years ago and can't.
What should I do?
Well, that means you can't get life insurance
correct yeah okay i mean so so but are you uh are you maybe are you completely in no whole life if
you can't get term you can't get a whole life okay they're the same i mean it's life insurance
if there's a statistical probability of you dying soon they don't want because, because of a cancer issue, they don't want to give you insurance.
I mean, that's how it works.
So are you in remission?
Are you clean?
Yeah, it's been two years now since I've had a complete, clear body scan and stuff.
Good, man.
That's wonderful news.
Yeah, it's great okay the further you get from that date of of
clear body scan in other words the further behind you cancer is the more insurable you are
right so this is not a permanent diagnosis of life insurance it's not a permanent ban from
life insurance it's a temporary thing. Okay?
That's good news.
It used to be back in the day that if you ever had cancer anywhere near you,
they just ran and you couldn't get near them, right?
But nowadays they're really getting more sophisticated about their underwriting,
the life insurance companies are,
and someone who has faced cancer in the past can move towards insurability.
So the first step I want you to do is I want you to jump on the telephone,
not the Internet, with the Zander insurance people and talk through with them what your timeline looks like
as to when you're going to be insurable.
But you'll be rated.
It won't be cheap. But when you'll be insurable at a, you know, but you'll be rated, okay? It won't be cheap, but when you'll be insurable at any price, and then later on when you'll
be insurable at better prices, okay?
And so kind of start to, you know, figure out what your options are, and if you figure
out that it's three years from now or two years from now, then we know what we got to
cover in the interim.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Right.
So let's get the long-term big thing figured out,
and then we'll back into how to backfill the cracks in the short term in the meantime.
Now, what do you do if you're permanently uninsurable?
You're not.
But if you're uninsurable, what can you do?
There are guaranteed issue policies.
There are these gimmick-type policies that you see on cable TV, like,
no checkup necessary, that crap, right?
And it's a whole lot more expensive than regular-term insurance
because they don't check medical, and they issue it, okay?
It's a guaranteed issue policy.
They're usually not very big.
Like, as an example, you might get a $10,000 one through your checking account at your bank.
That's a guaranteed issue, okay?
And if you kind of hodgepodge, piece together, weave together five or ten of those,
it at least gives you an expensive, it's not very money efficient,
but a way to keep some life insurance in place until your insurability starts to come back as you stay clear of cancer going forward.
So I would throw some of those in place.
Do you have a mortgage?
Yes.
Okay.
A mortgage life insurance policy is roughly 5 to 20 times more expensive than traditional term insurance for the same
amount but again it's guaranteed issue so call your mortgage company and buy a mortgage life
insurance policy that pays off your mortgage and right it's not a good deal but it's the only deal
you got yeah that's that's my problem with that too is my mortgages with a local bank and they
don't even offer anything like that you sure you sure yeah i've already i've already talked to them
yep but they do not issue mortgage life insurance they do not yep okay it's a small hometown bank
they've got two branches and that's it yeah because i because my wife is concerned because
i make 99 of the income and we're on baby step two and if something it yeah because i because my wife is concerned because i make 99 of the
income and we're on baby step two and if something happens to me i mean she wouldn't be able to
afford to stay there right well let's do this i don't know if mortgage life insurance is available
in the open market i haven't looked in a decade or more but i'll bet again you can jump online
and find mortgage life insurance companies okay that are guaranteed issue that just cover your mortgage, even if it's not through your bank.
Okay.
And so let's try to do that.
That is the largest guaranteed issue policy I'm aware of, one that would cover your mortgage.
And that takes a lot of the fear off the edges of this.
And, again, this is a temporary thing. It's maybe one year, two years, three years or something before you're going to be insurable at some rate,
a high term insurance rate, which is lower than any of the rates I'm talking about.
Yeah.
You drop all this other crap as soon as you were able to get even a rated regular life insurance policy.
So call Zander.
Let's figure out when you're going to be able to start getting stuff.
And then you can back in with some of these, weave together some of these cheapo policies,
these guaranteed issues and mortgage lifetime policies, to just give you some stopgap until then.
But you'll get there.
You'll get there.
And thank God you're clear.
That's very cool.
Monica is on Facebook, at Facebook.com slash slash day remsey what's your advice for credit cards
when traveling uh my advice on credit cards is always cut them up and close the accounts
whether traveling or not
i have visa debit cards on my business and on my personal account,
and I travel more than any two of you put together.
And everywhere I go, they take a Visa card.
It's the most amazing thing.
Travel all over Europe, travel all over everywhere.
Anywhere they take Visa, they'll take my Visa debit card.
Check into hotels, rent cars, everywhere. Now, some rental car companies don't do it. Check into hotels. Rent cars. Now, everywhere.
Now, some rental car companies don't do it.
You can't rent from everybody.
And some hotels will put a little bit of a hold on your account for a little while until you check out of the hotel and all that kind of stuff.
But, so you've got to have a little bit of money in your account.
But you'll have a little bit of money in your account if you're not paying credit card debt interest.
So, get away from credit cards. There's
a high correlation between broke people and credit cards. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 4.25,
Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you.
Martin Luther King Jr. said, if you can't fly, then run.
If you can't run, then walk.
If you can't walk, then crawl.
But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.
Laura is with us in San Bernardino, California.
Hi, Laura.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Better than I deserve.
How are you, Dave?
Just the same.
How can I help?
Well, my husband and I are on Baby Step 4.
We are both teachers, and so we are obviously, through our teaching,
setting money aside with our state
pensions we know not to rely on that um but my question is do we still do you still recommend
putting down the 15 as far as our retirement on top of our state pensions or what are your
general thoughts on that well later when your home is paid off and you're at baby step seven
obviously you'll put down all you can in anything.
Okay.
Because the more you save, the wealthier you become.
No kidding, right?
Right.
But in the meantime, while you're at Baby Step 4, 15% of your income going in,
what's your mandatory contribution?
It's about $800 for each of us.
No, no.
I mean, what's the percentage?
They have a percentage that's a mandatory contribution, don't they?
You know, to be honest with you, I do not know what the percentage is.
I know the V-given amount, and then it's matched by our district.
But you have to put that in.
Correct.
Okay.
How much do you put in?
It's about $800 for each of us a month.
Okay. And what do you put in? It's about $800 for each of us a month. Okay.
And what's your income?
Between the two of us, it's $120 a year.
Okay.
Well, it's $10,000 out of $120.
Or $10,000 out of $60 is what you're putting in.
$800 a month is $10,000 a year.
$833.33 is $10,000 a year.
Okay.
Is $800 a month or a paycheck? A paycheck.
Well, a paycheck is a month. Oh, it is a month. Okay. So basically
you're putting in $10,000 and you make $60 each, correct?
Yes. Is that right?
Well, it's...
That's the average for the both of us, yes. Okay. Well, it's, yeah, that's the average for the both of us, yeah.
Okay.
Well, that's 17%.
That sounds high.
Are you giving me the gross of the net on your incomes?
That's what we bring home.
Oh, what's your gross that you bring?
What's your gross pay?
What's your total household income that you pay taxes on?
Gosh, I'm embarrassed that I don't know right off, but we bring home about $120.
Yeah, so you're probably making about $150, $160.
That makes more sense.
Okay, so let's see here.
All right, that's more like it.
That's probably 12%.
That's usually around what it is.
Okay, so you probably have a 12% mandatory withhold on you. All right, that's more like it. That's probably 12%. That's usually around what it is. Okay.
So you probably have a 12% mandatory withhold on you.
And given that, how much of that do we count toward your 15%?
Now, you have absolutely no control over what that's invested in,
and you can't take it with you when you leave until you are a certain age, right?
Correct.
Okay.
So that money's stuck, and ififornia mismanages it you're screwed
right which could happen actually we pray not but that could happen
all right so uh you know i would count some of it but i wouldn't count it all
right so let's say it's 12 of your 15 15. Maybe you put in, you know, 6%, 8%, 10% of your own, somewhere in there.
But we'll count some of it, but I wouldn't count it all,
because you don't have control over it,
and you don't have access to it in the event something happens.
So early retirement type stuff.
So, yeah, you know, put in an extra 6 to 10.
Okay.
And then once the house is paid off, then we can bump it up all the way to that $15,000?
Exactly.
And that includes Roth IRAs.
You could just do it.
You don't even have to do it with them.
You can go over and just do a couple of Roth IRAs.
That's, you know, $11,000 a year more.
And, you know, that's about 6%.
So that's getting, you know, you can do those two to start with.
And if you do that and this, you should be okay.
If you fully fund Roth IRAs your whole life, you'll be rich.
If you do it in good growth stock mutual funds, the way we teach, you know,
spreading across the four types with good long-term track records, growth,
growth and income, aggressive growth, and international.
William is in New York City.
Hi, William.
How are you?
Hi, Dave.
How are you doing?
Better than I deserve.
How can I help?
Hi.
So my situation is I'm currently 23 years old.
I'm graduating university and dismayed with a degree in political science,
and I'm going to be commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States National Guard.
My question is, would you suggest that I pursue a master's in political science, and I'm going to be commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States National Guard. My question is, would you suggest that I pursue a master's in political science,
or that the Army will pay for it, or should I continuously wait for, like, responses from the police departments? I just applaud for my whole intent is to build wealth.
That's my ultimate goal, and I'm debt-free.
Pretty much, I already completed up to B-Step 3.
I already have a three-month emergency fund.
The Army, then congratulations and thank you on your service.
Congratulations on officers.
So what are you going to do with your life?
And what education do you need to do that?
I mean, 10 years from today, you want to be doing what?
Career.
It was to be Army officer full-time, but something happened at Appalachian State part-time,
which is in the National Guard.
Uh-huh.
So, like, I guess the next big thing is for me to become a police officer.
So your long-term goal is to be a police officer?
It was to be in the Army, the military.
No, now it is.
I'm asking now.
Given your situation today, what's your long-term goal?
Just to retire early, preferably around 45.
No, I'm asking about your career, sir.
You're how old today?
23.
Okay. When you are 35 years old, what do you want to be doing with your life that earns you money?
Between still in the military, full full-time or police work okay is there a way to
work yourself back into full-time military that has kept you from it so far yes but i'll probably
take two years okay national guard time until they have openings again okay all right um if that is
your main goal then work towards that goal.
Does your political science degree master's help you in your officer training?
The thing is, the Army will already make you get a master's. That's within the military training if you plan on staying long.
So by default, I'll have to have a master's anyway in their own light.
So if I pursue a political science master's,
I'll still have to get another one with the military for something else.
So the political science master's does not take you into the career field, either one of them that you are pursuing.
Your primary pursuit is two years from now be full-time military, get back in the officer's training program.
If that doesn't work, you want to go into police work.
Is that correct?
For the most part, yes.
Like, I'm already going to be an Army officer.
It would just be part-time.
Yes, I would like to switch over to full-time.
I understood, but you said two years from now,
there's a chance for you to qualify for full-time military, correct?
Yes.
Okay.
In neither of your scenarios, neither one of them,
does the master's in political science help you?
No. Right?
Right.
So why bother?
I mean, we're not collecting degrees here, dude.
I mean, if you want to go study something, go study something in criminal justice
that can be used in the military and maybe has some overlap when you do get into officer training.
But if you don't get into officer training, it'll assist you in moving up through the ranks in your police career.
Otherwise, study something that actually has mechanical use, utilitarian use in the career field.
One of the two career fields that you're planning to end up in by the time you're 35 years old.
And I don't think your political science master's degree is going to assist in either one of those.
I don't think.
I mean, you might as well get criminal justice or do something on military flair to it that's got overlap for the officer stuff,
and then you could take it either direction.
That's what I would do.
If you took a military-type master's, I don't know what you call that, that would work
if you went into officer training.
And if it didn't, it has application
to a police
career, criminal justice
career, then you got the right
thing to study. But I don't think that's political
science. Could be wrong,
but I don't think it is.
Hey, thank you for calling in, sir. We appreciate you
joining us. Thanks to James Childs, our producer, Blake Thompson, our senior executive producer,
Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. 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.
Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show.
I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.