The Ramsey Show - App - Normal Looks Good...but It Sucks! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 8, 2021

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Thank you. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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, Dr. John Deloney. Ramsey Personality, best-selling author and host of the Dr. John Deloney Show, is my co-host today. He has a couple of PhDs.
Starting point is 00:00:58 He's the smartest guy in the building, and if you don't believe me, ask him. Also the most humble. I agree. I agree. Continue. Continue. But anyway, ask him. Also the most humble. I agree. I agree. Continue. Continue. But anyway, you need to listen to his show. It's all about mental health and boundaries and relationships.
Starting point is 00:01:14 And you weren't scheduled to be involved in the show yesterday, but you got involved behind the scenes a little bit. Yeah. For those of you that were not around yesterday for whatever reason, I don't usually tell you what yesterday is with all that, but this is the time we're going to stop and do that. We had a young lady call in with Rachel and I on the air that it became apparent during the call that she was a victim of domestic violence. I don't even like saying that that way because it sounds so antiseptic she was a victim of her boyfriend beating the crap out of her is a better way of saying the truth
Starting point is 00:01:50 and uh we determined that and uh then uh while we were on the call we determined he was in the room that he had walked in and was not happy and so um so it went from a financial question to a question of her safety and her child's safety and so forth on the air, live. It was pretty wicked weird and wild, but I walked her through that a little bit, and John just happened to walk by the studio and stepped in, and I put her on hold, and he has done a lot of trauma and crisis intervention-type counseling over the years, and so trained in that but also experienced in that.
Starting point is 00:02:38 So you got on the phone with her, and we were able to get the uh the police over there very quickly and uh the young man is sitting where he should be now in a cage um which is where people like that belong um and so i think they call that a jail but i called it a cage um very similar either one is either one's fine with me but they're both similar situation here this is where this little guy needs to be and uh that was pretty wild discussion you were having in there off air yeah i i noticed at one point i didn't know who would who was in there you know you kind of zone out and lock try to lock in in face to face you lock eyes but in those situations you lock hearts with somebody and then i noticed
Starting point is 00:03:21 you'd come in there after a while but yet it was intense mainly because it was live it was happening live and she was not it wasn't philosophically unsafe she was unsafe now and somebody else had her kid and then you've got a mom who needs to protect herself but i'm not gonna leave my baby unprotected and now you've got a messy situation and um whenever i show up to something like that, I'm always looking at escalation trends. Is this thing slowing down? Are people separating and they're just yelling at each other? Or is it moving up?
Starting point is 00:03:51 And this one moved up real rapidly. And luckily, that police department there was super responsive and they showed up and I'm grateful to them. And at the end of the day, man, we're talking to a really brave, brave young woman woman brave new mom and she's got a hard row ahead of her but yeah things got pretty dicey there for a minute yeah and that's not that's not us hollywoodizing this thing no it got pretty dicey it was it was very real yeah and uh he's a violent dude and uh so the uh yeah of course so the end of the story is she's safe.
Starting point is 00:04:26 Her family's around her. And, of course, we've plugged her in with financial counseling. She does have some crisis financial situation as well. We've got her some resources there. But that really was not even on the table for discussion yesterday. But our team is rallying around her. We're plugging her in with counselors. Of course, no charge. And we're just going to walk with her and make sure she gets her life changed in a different direction
Starting point is 00:04:50 because it sure was going down the toilet pretty fast. And we did. We connected her to some domestic violence resources there in Tampa, too, so that she can have a local community that can be hands-on there. Yeah. So she's safe and good. For those of you that were listening, a lot of you have been emailing us and yeah so so she's safe and good for those of you that were listening a lot of you been you know emailing us and worried and so forth and uh so we thought we would give you guys a bit
Starting point is 00:05:10 of an update and you know it's odd you and i were talking i think it was last week on the air about this correlation between um extreme control over money issues and domestic violence yeah that there's a correlation between that because there's this where where a husband or a boyfriend it will not let you pick the cereal at the grocery store you can't go grocery shopping by yourself you can't buy detergent you can't do anything without his approval on every little nuanced thing where there's that level of weird toxic control over a lady a woman uh with the money it's it's a high statistical indicator that he's probably hitting her it's just about power right and i'll take that power wherever i can get it yeah it's about power and control and boy you know that was going on yesterday and you could smell it in the air so i put her on the air air it was um it didn't take a genius to figure
Starting point is 00:06:04 out what was to you know to figure out what I was dealing with, what we were going into there. But I think the thing that you can't get away from on the positive side or the negative side of toxic behaviors is that personal finance is 80 behavior it's only 20 had knowledge so the chances of you being in a relationship that are that dysfunctional and being wealthy yeah uh becoming wealthy in a dysfunctional setting is just almost impossible right because these things don't live in one nice little compartment over here uh and then not bleed over or not not bad bad metaphor but don't don't reach over into the other areas of your life so i mean you can't be
Starting point is 00:06:51 a punching bag in one area of your life and then suddenly be prosperous and healthy and winning at your career and winning at your wealth building and that kind of thing they just don't it's not we can't compartmentalize that tight. Right. And one of the challenge with relational abuse of any kind is you accept that as a given. You accept that as, well, some days are good days. Occasionally he'll come in crying saying he's sorry and it's going to be okay. And so you start trying to solve that inner chaos at the margins. You start trying to think of, well, maybe I can get a better interest rate,
Starting point is 00:07:30 or maybe I should trade my car in, or it's probably my job. And you distance yourself from this core nuclear reactor issue that is, hey, you're not safe. Your baby's not safe. And this thing just escalates this way, right? So to anyone listening. Well, the decisions you make on the money on the fringe is to avoid the nuclear reactor at the center are never good decisions. They're not.
Starting point is 00:07:52 Because you're making them out of chaos, right? Well, and you're making them in order to mask. That's right. And instead of dealing with the core issues. And so, you know, Larry Burkett used to say, debt is not the problem, it's the symptom. There you go. And so it's a symptom of a behavior. Well, I heard you say something yesterday through the window
Starting point is 00:08:11 that I think is worth reiterating. You listened to her and you said, hey, hon, you are worth being safe. You're worth more than this. And so anybody listening is in any sort of abusive situation, exhale and drop your shoulders for a second and look up in the rearview mirror as you drive
Starting point is 00:08:31 and look in the mirror at your house. You're worth being saved. This is The Ramsey Show. Your number one wealth building tool is your income. For business owners, this comes as no surprise. As you're used to putting in extra hours and watching your bottom line. That's why Christian Healthcare Ministries or CHM is a great option for those who are faith focused and budget conscious. CHM is not health insurance, rather it's a health cost sharing program. It's not harder, but it is different. To learn if CHM is a fit for you or your business,
Starting point is 00:09:21 visit chministries.org slash budget. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Ellen is in New Jersey. Hi, Ellen. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? I was just curious. Me and my husband were trying to figure out what to do about our money because he's working at a sales job and he's not paying as much as we were hoping to be your phone
Starting point is 00:10:11 your phone sucks can you speak directly into it we're having trouble understanding you uh sure um hang on let me see if you leave me my fan is too loud hold on okay is that better yes ma'am thank you i'm sorry start again so maybe we can understand you now yeah um my husband is a sales uh insurance salesman and we're projected to make a certain amount of money but because of uh issues with his job and things we're not making enough um he has a bad history of like work history so we've been trying to repair it by keeping it jobs for a certain length of time but we're not really making enough money to make ends meet so i'm not sure what we should do so he's on straight commission and y'all
Starting point is 00:10:57 are starving to death well he has a little bit uh He gets like $2,000 a month of, almost $2,000 a month of base pay. So he can get that at least. Yes. But he's obviously not a good insurance salesman. No, unfortunately. Okay, so he does need another job. I don't care what his work history is. Yeah, when you say he has a bad work history, you're trying to repair.
Starting point is 00:11:23 What does that mean? It means he's not stayed on the job very long yeah he had a history of not staying on jobs very long why a few years we've been working on fixing that why um when he was working with his family his family needed a lot of help he's kind of off the work a lot and he'd get fired for those reasons but um i'm sorry he'd get fired because his family needed a lot of help. You mean because he didn't go to work because he was helping his family? Yeah. Okay.
Starting point is 00:11:52 When did that stop? That stopped, actually, after he started dating me. I started pushing him to work harder, and he did start working a lot harder. How long ago? He's been working a whole lot since then. That's about 2000, and I'd say it's about 2018 it really started improving. Okay, so he's held a job since 2018 fairly steadily? Yeah, he's held different jobs, but he's not, like, been fired from any of them.
Starting point is 00:12:18 He's been working all the time. So that he has been doing. Here's the deal. He's got to go get another job. He's got to get two or three of them, and he's not going to make a lot of money at the hourly wage, but he needs to start making some money. That's where you're at.
Starting point is 00:12:34 And I know you'll have a dream right now of, hey, we're going to make this, and this is going to be the job that bails him out of all the other bad jobs. That's not where you're at right now. You've got to eat. You're in an emergency. So he's got to go to Lowe's, and he's got to go drive uber at night and he's got to get up and i don't think they have paper routes anymore he's got to find a morning job too and he's going to be working
Starting point is 00:12:52 three days three jobs six days a week seven days a week and he's just got to get cracking so um ellen you sound like you're taking care of a little boy to me that's exactly right like he doesn't want to work much like he's lazy and you're covering for him in this call that was the case originally that's not anymore i'm actually a state home mom but he's been doing most of the actual working i know but he but he's not working. It's not working. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, like the reason he sucks as an insurance salesman is because he doesn't do it.
Starting point is 00:13:32 He's not making sales. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so what do you need to do? Are you guys in a good church? Actually, we just joined a better church. Wonderful. We were a church that was too far away, but now you guys in a good church actually just joined a better church wonderful church was too far away but now we're at a good one wonderful okay i want you to i want him to plug in with some guys they're a little bit older than him and start to develop some
Starting point is 00:13:56 relationships with some guys who have a high quality work ethic and and who have big goals for their lives and let him start hanging around with those guys because I think no one has ever taught him how to do those things. He's got some family challenges. I get that. Well, I think his family that didn't allow him to work much, so he had to stop and help them, they don't work much. That's what I'm saying.
Starting point is 00:14:23 He doesn't have any picture of what that even looks like. It's like, you know, yeah. But I also know guys like this that it's always a scheme. It's the next thing. Yeah. And, well, you look for, when you're desperate, you look for stupid ideas. There you go. You just need to work real hard for a long time.
Starting point is 00:14:37 Yeah. And don't jump on pipe dreams. Just go get something where you can hustle and grind and grind out some money and just be steady and be the tortoise. And somebody will quit ahead of you and you'll get hey i need you to take this shift we're going to make you assistant maybe that's how that'll work just just if you just show up work and work while you're at work and smile while you're at work and work while you're at work and smile while you're at work and you show up all the time and you do that all of a sudden magic stuff starts happening it just does i mean it's just incredible what ends up happening.
Starting point is 00:15:06 Because here's the thing. Most people don't show up and work at work. Or they show up at work and they're jerks to be around. Yeah. That's the magic. Do your job and don't be an idiot. Ta-da. Make a million dollars.
Starting point is 00:15:17 That's like the slogan. I'm going to write that book. Do your job and don't be an idiot. How about that? But, I mean, that's all of it. That's kind of it. It's like, you know, if you just show up and care fun to be around and care all day long and smile while you're there dad gum man you're just like you're just like in the top percent right there before you did anything else you don't even have to be that good out of the bar for life gets so
Starting point is 00:15:41 low just show up to the job that you... It's not just him. No, I know it's not. Ellen, we're not talking about your husband. We're talking about everybody now. Yes. Okay, so just, yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:53 Be at work while you're at work. Work real hard. It's a formula. And don't be an idiot. Get off of Facebook. You're supposed to be working. You're supposed to be working. You're supposed to be working.
Starting point is 00:16:06 Don't be watching YouTube cat videos. You're supposed to be working. To every guy. Work while you're at work. Who has had a past where they've struggled. And now you're in it. And you've got an incredible woman like this by your side. And this is going to be the job.
Starting point is 00:16:20 And you get in and you're trying to sell. You're trying to sell. And it's not working. Be honest. Be open about it. and transition to something else. Don't think you're saving anybody by drowning your whole family. And that's how people end up, you know, two years later and $60,000 in secret credit card debt, nonsense like that. Scott's in Dallas, Texas.
Starting point is 00:16:38 Hey, Scott, how are you? I'm doing all right. How are you guys? Better than we deserve. How can we help? Okay, I got a question for you. I am 47 years old, and my fiancé is 39 years old. We are getting married for the second time.
Starting point is 00:16:59 Each of our second marriages next month. We've been together for about six years. She's a super great woman, and I'm very confident that this one's going to work for me. But we're at two ends of the spectrum when it comes to our finances. She is a 10-year professional. She's an audiologist, and she has about $160,000 in debt, most of it student loans. And I have approximate net worth of $1.9 million debt-free except for my house. So my question is, how do we attack it? Attack her debt? Attack it? Attack her debt?
Starting point is 00:17:48 Attack what? Attack our debt. It's not our debt until you're married. Once you're married, you write a check and you pay off our debt. I don't have that much cash. Why? You have $1.6 million. $1.9 million, you don't have $160,000? What's it in?
Starting point is 00:18:07 I have four paid-off rental properties, and I have about $375,000 in retirement. Mm-hmm. And I am down to 60 grand in cash, and that's why I feel comfortable because I'm a small business owner, and I got 30 grand in my business and 30 grand in my emergency. I'd sell a rental property. Sell a rental property, maybe debt-free. After you're married.
Starting point is 00:18:44 I'm not walking around with $160,000 in student loan debt and rental properties on the books. Comes with a package, brother. Yeah. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Dr. John Deloney Ramsey, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Heath and Morgan are with us in Columbus, Ohio. Says on my screen, you guys are debt-free. Congratulations.
Starting point is 00:20:01 Thank you. Awesomeness. How much have you paid off? $127,000 in two years and 19 days. Good for you. Wow. Good job. Well done.
Starting point is 00:20:12 And your range of income during that two years? Right around $108,000 to like $123,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm a project manager at a public utility. Your phone cut out. You're a what, Heather? I'm sorry, Morgan. I'm a teacher. You're a teacher. Great. Okay, wonderful.
Starting point is 00:20:34 So what kind of debt was your $127,000? It was like $96,000 in student loans, like $25,000 in cars, and around $6,000 or so in credit cards. So how long have you all been married? About five years? Yes. Because that's about the level of stupid stuff you were doing. You have about five years worth of stupid. Y'all were normal, huh? What happened? What woke you up two years ago? So I was at work one day, and a co-worker dropped your name on my way home i
Starting point is 00:21:07 listened to the podcast and a couple did their debt-free scream with almost the exact same income and the exact same amount of debt oh there it is oh man now you're doing that to someone yeah yeah i learned how possible it could be and uh if I recall correctly, I think they were right around the two-year mark as well. So I came home, told Morgan about this plan, and she was on board from day one. Wow, just like that. Yeah. A podcast on the drive home after a quick mention. That's right.
Starting point is 00:21:38 And boom, here you go. You guys are easy to convince. And so Morgan, he comes home and says, hey, I've got this wild idea. And you said, high five, let's do it? Yeah, because the student loan debt was mine. Okay. And there was no fun going on with all this stuff, right? It wasn't joyous.
Starting point is 00:21:57 Oh, no. No, there were some dramatic moments, I'm sure. Yeah. Morgan, I know the answer to this question, but I just want you to tell America. So put us in the teacher lounge at whatever school you're teaching. And as teachers sit around the table and talk as they do, you've got $96,000 in student loans for a teacher's certificate. And I know you're not the only one. What is the debt burden like on these teachers? It's quite extensive. A lot of teachers have student
Starting point is 00:22:26 loan debt, and a lot of them only have bachelor's degrees. I ended up with a master's degree, so that increased that loan, obviously. But yeah, I would say probably 80% of the teachers that I know have student loan debt. Well, congratulations on working hard and getting out. So good. Thank out so good proud of you guys you're just amazing what you've done so when one of them asks you how did you do it what do you tell them the key to getting out of debt is so one we we were both on board and both we held each other accountable uh we were willing to make the big sacrifices like downgrading in our vehicle choice and working together. And then also having a support group.
Starting point is 00:23:10 We had a couple of friends that really helped us through the journey and did the journey with us on their own accord. Oh, cool. Okay, so you had some cheerleaders and they were also working it. Absolutely. Our friends Treg and Courtney were our biggest cheerleaders by far. Very cool. Good. So you got all the information you, were our biggest cheerleaders by far. Very cool. Good. So you got all the information you needed off the podcast, or did you do something further? We took Financial Peace University. After the podcast, I said, well, what else is there?
Starting point is 00:23:37 I'm a teacher, so I need rules and expectations. And he was like, well, there's a book, The Total Money Makeoverover so we both read that and then after that and listening to podcasts we went ahead and purchased financial peace university and and went through that to help and we still use the every dollar app to this day for our budget awesome yeah and all the baby steps from there so very cool very cool well thanks for plugging into ramsey plus and doing all that i'm'm so proud of you guys. Very well done. Well, that's how I'm like you. Once somebody convinces me of something, I'm like, okay, what's the plan? Right.
Starting point is 00:24:11 What's the plan? What's the path? I need a path. Just show me what to do, and I'll go do it. I'm not real smart, but I can go do that. So, yeah. So, way to go, you guys. Very, very well done. Very well done. What was the hardest part of the last two years um i would say just staying the course you know the the first couple months are fun and exciting because you're making big progress and then the last 16 months are not that fun and exciting but if you keep your goal out in front of you and just stay the course, stick with the plan, and just don't give up. Yeah. Okay. Way to go, guys. It's awesome.
Starting point is 00:24:51 Very, very, very well done. We've got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you because that's the next chapter in your story for sure. You've changed the legacy of your whole family in the last two years and 19 days. You changed the whole direction. You're really powerful people. Very well done, heroes. Very well done, heroes. Very well done. Thank you. And I also got a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you. You already have one, but I'm not giving it to you for you. I'm giving it to you so you can give it
Starting point is 00:25:14 away and pay it forward and get someone else started, and you can be their cheerleaders, just like that guy that had the same numbers as you and called in and did his debt-free scream, and y'all are doing yours today. So very very well done i'm sure somebody's listening that's going to have the exact same numbers as you that's the way this works guys it always works this way it always works this way nothing happens in a vacuum so cool yeah very well done all right heath and morgan columbus ohio Columbus, Ohio, $127,000 paid off in two years and 19 days. They did it on $108,000 to $123,000 income. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.
Starting point is 00:25:54 Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah! I love it. Now, you've got to understand the math here, okay? They've got $108,000 coming in, and they paid off $50,000 a year, and they downgraded their car.
Starting point is 00:26:16 And they had two little kids. And after taxes, that means they lived on nothing. And she was a teacher during COVID. Beans and rice. Rice and beans. That's what they did. And if you're listening, you are out of excuses. You're out. No more whining
Starting point is 00:26:34 allowed. You can't. They lived on nothing. So shut up. Ah, man. No more excuses. Yeah, really? Heath and Morgan, incredible. Yeah, that's just, but you know. Well, you know, I have my Starbucks every day.
Starting point is 00:26:52 I can't not go out to eat. I mean, what kind of life would it be to not go on vacation for two years? Got rid of $127,000 worth of debt. It's a life of 50 years of going wherever you want to go. Hey, there it is. Man. Good for you guys. So Dr. John Deloney and Rachel Cruz will be doing another money and marriage live stream
Starting point is 00:27:14 one week from this Friday. That is on July the 16th, and it'll be a live stream. That's why we call it that. It's live. The two of them talking about money and marriage. They are fun and funny. Up in the chaos this time. It's going to be a live stream. That's why we call it that. It's live. The two of them talking about money and marriage. They are fun and funny. We're up in the chaos this time. It's going to be a hoot, man.
Starting point is 00:27:29 I bet it's going to be a hoot. It's going to be a hoot, man. It's only $20 to go through it. And you need to go ahead and get your ticket now. You can do that by texting MARRIAGE to 33-789. MARRIAGE to 33-789. Or you could just go ahead and go over to ramsey plus and sign up for financial peace university and ramsey plus and take a free trial by the way if you're in ramsey plus you
Starting point is 00:27:52 guess what get to watch the if you're a member you get to watch the money and marriage event as a part of your membership and i had people ask hey can i watch if i'm dating somebody of course can i watch it if i'm not dating anybody? I just want to learn. Yes. It's a good time, man. It'll be fun. Yeah. It's going to be fun, funny.
Starting point is 00:28:09 And actually, it's great pre-marriage counseling. Yeah. And it's great middle of marriage, what are we doing counseling? She's like, whoa! Yeah. There you go. So the proven plan that is Financial Peace University, that's what they did. They went and signed up for it and got out of debt.
Starting point is 00:28:23 And if you're a member, you do that at Ramsey Plus. And if you want a free trial of that, just text TRIAL to 33789. TRIAL to 33789. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for joining us. Phone number is 888-825-5225. Brian is with us. Brian's in Pittsburgh. How are you, Brian? Dave, I'm good. Thanks for taking a minute to talk with me.
Starting point is 00:29:46 My pleasure, sir. How can we help? So I want to tell you, about six weeks ago, I ran into a friend of mine that retired, and he was telling me how great it was and asked me, how much longer do you have? I said, 12 years. And he started telling me, get ready, debt free. That's the only way to go i hear him don't pay a lot of attention to it my son tells me a week after that hey i'm listening to this ramsey show never heard of it before i said what is he new howard stern i don't know i've never heard of it yes he is a couple more hours got much better hair than i've got yeah um So he tells me this a couple more times. I'm on a trip for work.
Starting point is 00:30:27 I got a lot of windshield time. I turn it on. I listen to six podcasts back to back to back, and I'm going to tell you, I'm hooked. I get it. I am bought in. Wow. So I heard you say, hey, you got to know everything that's going out, everything that's coming in, and what's your debt. So I did that.
Starting point is 00:30:43 I spent about 30 hours on that last week. And let me tell you, it's scary. It's emotional. It was tough. And so I've got some debt. And my question for you is, I have about 12,000 and change that we have invested in the stock market, single stocks. And is it smarter to leave that there as a savings? I know there's a risk there. Or is it better to pull every penny out of that and put it towards the debt that we have? And that might take care of, I don't know, 20%, 25% of it. But my goal, I mean, I want to be debt-free.
Starting point is 00:31:22 I've got 12 more years to retire, and I want to be debt-free when we get there. And I wanted to do it. I made my wife spot in on it now. Okay. So you've got about $50,000 worth of debt and $12,000 in stock. $66,247 to be exact. All right. Good deal.
Starting point is 00:31:36 What's your household income? About $180,000, $190,000 annually. Okay. All right. So you've been listening, and you know some of the lingo now and some of the process and the baby steps and all of that, right? And so baby step two is where you are, paying off all debt except a house using the debt snowball, listing your debts smallest to largest, paying minimum payments on everything but the little one, attack the little one. We stop all investing temporarily, and we use all money that we can get our hands on that is not in a retirement account to throw at baby step two. And that's a standard baby step two answer,
Starting point is 00:32:16 which would lead us to cashing out your stock and paying off a fourth of your debt. Okay. Not saving a lot. When you talk about emergency funds let me leave that there i mean we got no cash saving how much cash do you have in savings uh i don't know 11 12 grand something like that okay we always baby step one is one thousand dollars saved anything above that goes on baby step two until baby step two is done and so i'm going to use that money as well down
Starting point is 00:32:43 to one thousand dollars which is going to scare the p. Wadden out of you, by the way. That scares the hell out of me. I know, I know. And it should, but you're not going to live there for very long because now we've paid off $23,000 of your $66,000, if I did my math right just now, and you have enough income to clear the rest of it very, very quickly. And as soon as it's cleared, then the first order of business is maybe step three,
Starting point is 00:33:14 and that's build your emergency fund back up to a full three to six months of expenses, which it's not now. It's kind of anemic right now. It's weak. The two together would make a decent emergency fund if you didn't have any debt. But that's what we teach. And here's the reason. It's not to induce fear, but the fear will also help be one of your motivators.
Starting point is 00:33:36 That oh crap moment you just had, that thing where your stomach just kind of jumped up in your throat, just at the mere suggestion of doing this. And we haven't even done it. But just the idea, you go, you know, we we all do that we all have a physical reaction to that um that is going to drive you to stick with the plan now to suggest that you keep a one thousand dollar emergency fund for five years or something would be ludicrous and i don't suggest that but we're talking about just mere months here again what was your household income 180 190 okay so how fast do you pay off fifty thousand dollars six months 40 or no i'm sorry forty thousand dollars like
Starting point is 00:34:12 what i mean less than six months right well my goal was two years i mean i wanted to do it before i'm 50 so that's that sucks that's way too long you make 180 000 a year i need 40 000 of 180 this is six months how much is this is five thousand i want five thousand dollars a month on this debt i want you to smack the crap out of it all right and then you're so you're done by christmas dude now chris by christmas you're done by Christmas, dude. Now, Chris, by Christmas, you're starting to rebuild this emergency fund from $1,000 up. And then as soon as you've got that three to six months of expenses, then you restart your 401K. Oh, by the way, you putting money in the 401K right now?
Starting point is 00:35:03 I took your advice and I backed it down to the minimum that the company matches. Okay. That wasn't my advice. My advice was advice was stop it oh stop it altogether well i misunderstood i thought you you were saying you know don't let the free money go to the company matches no no not when you're in the hole man you're just getting started on all this you're trying so what i'm what i'm doing is i'm not making fun of you and i'm not picking at you but i'm giving you the the the detail that you haven't gotten in the last couple weeks of exposure yet. And so what I need to do is I'm going to send you the game plan with all the nuanced detail,
Starting point is 00:35:33 the baby steps on steroids. It's a best-selling book called The Total Money Makeover, and I'm going to give it to you as a gift. Hold on. Kelly's going to pick up. I'm going to mail you one. And you read that thing, and your wife read that thing, and you'll see what I'm talking about. 180 minus 40, you can make it on okay or 90 minus 40 90 in the next six months minus 40 and you're done by christmas you can make it on and i just put 11 and 12 on the debt
Starting point is 00:35:59 so i know i put 23 out of there so it's 43 left. And so, yeah, you're there. You're going to be there. And that's what I would do if I woke up in your shoes. The great news is you've found a new thing here, and you're fired up about it, but it's about to get real. So imagine this. This is the feeling you had, Brian. When you spent 30 hours, and you put that debt down and you got emotional, that's you on the plains of Africa and you're a gazelle and you just stuck your head up and you just saw that lion in the grass.
Starting point is 00:36:36 And now you've got to take off running, man, and that's what the next six, seven months is going to be. It's going to be an all-out, gut-wrenching sprint. Gazelle intensity. That's right. Because they're all intensity. That's right. Because they're coming for you, man. They're coming. You've got to run!
Starting point is 00:36:49 I want to mention this. I don't want this to fly by, Dave. I know this makes me sound sappy. It takes a special level of courage for a grown man making this kind of money, which means he's got some ego, some strength. His son came in and said, Dad, I think you should look at this and most dads in this situation go shut up and he listened he just listened that the
Starting point is 00:37:13 approach on the call was humble it was a humble call and i want everybody out there if your son comes says hey can we just talk dad take that talk take that that breakfast take that conversation man um that took a lot of courage for a son to do and I'm proud of him, but I'm proud of that dad for listening, man. That's cool. Yeah, it doesn't happen very often. Brian's got a thing going on. He does, man. I like Brian. He's comfortable in his own skin,
Starting point is 00:37:35 strong, but making good decisions. So yeah, you're going to go do this, Brian, and then you're going to call us back, do your debt-free scream. We're going to hear a great story from you. It's going to be awesome. You know what I love about Brian is I guarantee you he's a leader. And as a leader, he approached this with the appropriate skepticism, and then he did the math. And then as a good leader, he went, oh, crap.
Starting point is 00:37:52 You know what I mean? That's a good leader, man. Not that everything's perfect. Not that I've got to come up with some stupid excuse. But I can see the data, and I can go, whoops, we need to change course quick. I don't think I did that one right. I love it, man. I love it.
Starting point is 00:38:05 There's a formula here for course quick. Yeah. I don't think I did that one right. I love it, man. I love it. There's a formula here for everybody listening that involves life change. The Bible says, be not conformed to this world. This world's broke. Yep. I mean, normal is looking good and no money. Yep. Normal is you're driving a car with a big butt payment on it. Normal is you've got a student loan that's been around so long you think it's a pet.
Starting point is 00:38:27 Normal is you've discovered MasterCard. Yes. And discovered bondage and American distress. This is normal. Normal sucks. But it looks good. Everybody's walking around with a smile on their face. You and your wife don't like each other.
Starting point is 00:38:42 Living in the land of denial. And you don't sleep. I'm talking about a river in Egypt. You know, I mean, seriously. But when you stick your head up and you go, game on, baby. I'm not going to be normal anymore. Be not conformed to this world. Be transformed by what Brian's doing.
Starting point is 00:38:57 The renewing of your mind. New information will set you free, baby. This is the Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast
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