The Ramsey Show - App - Over $200K in Debt and Don’t Know Where To Start (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Kristina Ellis answer your questions and discuss:   "We're over $200K in debt and don’t know where to start", from the blog: How to Get Out of Debt With the Debt Snowball Plan Dealing with a pension during a potential job change, "How should I be allocating my money?" Gold as an "insurance policy" during an economic collapse. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving and storage 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. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thank you for joining us, America. Christina Ellis, number one best-selling author and Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. As we answer your questions, the phone number is 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Laura is in Maui, Hawaii. Hi, Laura. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, guys. I'm so grateful for you guys. I wish I discovered you sooner. Well, we're glad you're here. How can we help? I just, I don't know where to start. I'm a new stay-at-home mom. My husband and I have three little kids, one on the way, one of them with special needs. And I just feel like we can't ever get ahead because we're always just trying to make ends meet. And I know that we live in expensive place housing-wise, but I don't really want to move

because my daughter can get services here. And, you know, I want my husband to bring in more income either by going back to school or getting a new degree or taking on another high-paying job. But I also feel like I need his help at home because our kids are so young. and I just feel so stuck. I want him to pick up his income, but I also just don't know if that's the answer or where to start.

I'm sorry, kid. You've got a lot on you. A house full of little kids is enough. One of them special needs adds a double dose, doesn't it? Mm-hmm. Yeah, a lot going on how old are you um 31 now okay and the kids are what ages three to nine months that alone just spells cray cray you don't even need debt to be overwhelmed. You've got it right there.

I don't blame you a bit. I don't blame you. This is just a hard time for y'all, okay? That's a lot of work. There's a lot of emotion, a lot of drama in the air, and then pile 200K of debt on top of it, right? Okay? Yeah. So there's not a magic switch we can throw that makes us go away.

Okay. In terms of the debt, um, as you have already figured out and alluded to, there's going to be some trade offs. Something's going to give, if you want this debt to go away and you're going to, you're going to pay a price of some kind for this debt to go away. I don't know what that price is,

but you've already figured out that that's your only way, right? Because it's not going to magically disappear. And it's not bankruptable. So it is an income versus outgo formula. You've already alluded to that. You know that. So it's income up, outgo down, student loan goes away. Now, what's going to give?

You guys get to make these choices. You're grownups. But you can't sit there and expect Puff the Magic Dragon to show up. He's not coming so hubby's not going to be around to help you and you're going to be a little bit even crazier in an already overwhelmed situation with three littles and one of them was special and um it's going to be hard and because he's working all the time because we got to clean the student loan debt up so we can have a future or we move and we find some other way to get services for the little or both or but you see what i'm saying something's going to give something's going to leave a mark something's

going to be ouchy right now the ouchy is the student loan. But if you want it to move away, you're going to trade it for another ouchy. Does that make sense? Yeah. So embrace the suck. Yeah, you're right. It's going to suck. You just got to figure out which one. And what I like about this is you get to choose your suck i mean if we could if we had a time machine we'd send you back and not do this okay

but you know hey you know if none of us ever made mistakes i'd never have a radio show so there you go right so i mean this is how this works so you're okay you're just a human being is screwed up welcome to the race you know we all do this right i got a phd in dumb kiddo i've done stupid stuff makes your stuff look smart so i mean i get it but it's i but you can't it's not gonna we can't just go i wish no so so something's gonna suck what is it and you and your husband sit down and put the kiddos to bed get them all asleep at one time, which is a minor miracle in itself. And we're not going to watch Tiger King on Netflix. We're going to talk about this crap, and we're going to go, okay, what is it in our life that for the next three years is going to suck and be really hard so that this sucky student loan goes away?

Yeah. Because you named everything you needed to do you just didn't want to do it and i'm i'm coaching you up here yeah this let the spear line in the sand moment i mean it's hard as a mom of little babies too it is it is a hard season but this is just gonna be a season this isn't gonna last forever both with the kids being tiny and it being hard and also with paying off this debt yeah it's not 10 years from now it will not be the same yeah it won't be i mean kids are easier to raise when they're older if you let them live that long they get better for that i wish i thought about a family in my 20s or younger so that i wouldn't have made all the stupid decisions i made well me too i wish i wished i hadn't borrowed three million dollars

when i was 26 and gone broke when i was 28 when Sharon had a brand new baby at home and would have left but we didn't have a car. She was so pissed at me she couldn't see. I wished I hadn't done all that. But I did do it, and then I had to embrace the suck to get rid of it. So do you recommend we move states? Do you think that would help us? I'm not sure.

I recommend that the two of you look at it and say what is it that's going to suck and we're going to choose okay we're going to choose your you're going to go back to school and take this job you're going to work 60 hours a week and i'm going to be like a single mom over here pulling my freaking hair out uh we're going to move states we're going to do all three of these things uh but you know or we're going to choose to sit in a student loan and look at it and it sucks because we're going to just keep doing what we're doing right now but at least choose don't feel like it's happening to you you choose and when you do that you're going to make a good choice and you're going to make one you're willing to embrace.

Laura, are you ready for that? I'm scared, but I feel like not being able to make ends meet means a lot, so I'm ready. I think you're ready. When people get sick and tired of being sick and tired, that's when they're ready to do anything. And it's in your voice. I can hear it. You're over it. You're done. You're like, something's got to give.

And all the fear and shame, let that go. Let that drive you forward. Like, don't live in that fear and that, oh, coulda, woulda, shoulda. Like, that's done. It's time to move forward. Because we've all done it, kiddo. The rearview mirror is smaller than the windshield for a reason. It's done. It's time to move forward. Because we've all done it, kiddo. The rear view mirror is smaller than the windshield for a reason. It's called grace. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm your host dave ramsey one of my friends for several decades now

and uh fellow authors fellow speaker speakers here in our community michael hyatt dropped by his daughter me Megan, the president and chief executive officer of Full Focus, their company is with him, and they've got a brand new book out. So I said, hey, Michael, get Megan, come over. We're going to talk about this thing because it's awesome because it fits right in with the stuff we talk about every day around here. We're all about intentionality. Get up off your butt, leave the cave, kill something, drag it home, right? Mind your mindset. The science that shows success starts with your thinking. When I saw that, I thought of that old, gosh, my mind, I thought of it,

and then it left my mind apparently, but Earl Nightingale. Yes. You know, the old, his first thing he did, and it's all about intentionality. It's all about you become what you think about, the secret of success. You become what you think about. What is the name of that talk? Oh, my gosh. I know what you're talking about.

We talk about it all the time. But anyway, it's a what? The Strangest Secret. Strangest Secret. Thank you. James got me from the booth. Yeah, The Strangest Secret. And you become what you think about.

The science that shows success starts with your thinking. And that's the path you all went down with this. It is, because one of the things we realized, specifically in our coaching work, is that if you want to change somebody's results, for most of us that are entrepreneurs and business owners, we kind of have an action bias. We think if we just redouble our effort, work faster, work harder, work smarter. But that gets you so far, but it's really your thinking that drives the actions,

and particularly the stories we tell ourselves. And so I had, I think you'll appreciate this story, but I had a business that I owned back in the late 80s, early 90s, and that business failed. Now, all the assets were pledged, so we couldn't even legitimately go bankrupt. There was no assets to divide up and give to the creditors. But a few years later, a friend of mine said to me, he said, you know, you're not very good with money, are you? And I accepted that story as my own. Never occurred to me to question the truth of that. And then I set out for the next several years to prove that. Because my actions flowed out of that thought. And when you buy a negative narrative or a positive narrative,

then you act on it because people act on what they believe. That's exactly right. And you don't do actions otherwise. Sometimes you think you do, but you just don't. Yeah. And James Clear's Atomic Habits, he talks a lot about resetting your identity, which in a sense is resetting your belief of I am not an overweight person. I'm a person who has too much weight.

Right. But that's a big difference. I mean, it is a huge difference. I'm a skinny guy who needs to lose some weight. You know, I'm a broke guy who's learning how to handle money, not I'm a guy who doesn't know how to handle money. Well, that was a story I came to, and frankly, you had a big part in that story. I don't know if you remember, this was decades ago that you met with Gail and me.

You were kind enough. And you began to reset that narrative for me that, hey, I can learn about money, and I can get better with it. And the baby steps were all part of that. The book is Mind Your Mindset. The science that shows success starts with your thinking. Michael Hyatt, Megan Hyatt, Miller from right here in our own community and longtime friends of Ramsey family, Ramsey Show, Ramsey everything.

You need to get this book. You need to pick it up today. It came out today. It did. So today's launch day. Yeah. So buy it today, please. It helps them with their marketing on Amazon. We want to run the numbers up. Buy it today. Anywhere great books are sold and you can check out their website, which is fullfocus.co, fullfocus.co, which is their company. Megan, talk about the work you guys are doing at Full Focus around this subject particularly. Well, you know, we're helping people to unlock a part of success that

a lot of times feels like it's hard to access, you know, that we have something out there that we want, like we want to get debt free. We want to have financial peace, but there's something in the story that we unconsciously are telling ourselves that's keeping us from taking the actions that we need to take. And so a lot of our work, our coaching work, is not financial in nature, but it's helping people to remove those blocks in their mindset so they can get those actions in line and get the results. You know, Dr. John Deloney talks about if anyone talked to one of my friends the way I talk to myself, I'd punch them out. So how do you break out this thing? Because we all got these tapes running in our head. I don't care who you are. I don't care how smart you are, how studied you break out this thing because we all got these tapes running in our head i don't care who you are i don't care how smart you are how studied you are how many phds you have in psychology

you still got a tape in your head how do you break out this fact from fiction stories so that you can uh you know as you said i think beautiful phrase unlock yeah potential that's not been unlocked well the first thing to know is that your brain just wants to stay safe. It is wired to keep you safe, to avoid danger. And so the fact that you have negative thoughts, there's nothing wrong with you. That's just kind of how your brain works. But you can be intentional about actually training your brain by going through some of these steps that we talk about in the book, identifying your story, interrogating it, and then ultimately imagine something better that's going to give you the results that you want. I think, Dave, for a lot of people, the idea that the facts and the meaning

that we assign to the facts are two different things, that's a new idea. And that meaning that we assign can sometimes serve us. But as Megan said, sometimes it's just the brain trying to get us to play a small game, play a safe game, and not have the courage we need to to create the change we need to have a better life. Yeah, I think our brains are drama queens. They overstate it and go, get out of the road, you're going to die. No, I think we're okay. That car is like two miles down there. It's okay. Calm your butt down. And that's the thing, this narrative that gets to running, and it's like, you're going to fail. Yeah, right. I haven't even done anything yet. How could I fail? It's not possible yet. that's the thing that this narrative that gets to running and it's like, you're going to fail. Yeah. Well,

I haven't even done anything yet. How could I fail? It's not possible yet, but I, it's like these loud alarm bells go off. And, and so just recognizing separating fact, and that's a mental exercise. That's an act of your will.

And it's a skill. You don't have to know how to do it innately. It's something that you can learn how to do that will become automatic over time, which I think is hopeful. Yeah. We talk about this concept of this narrator that lives inside of our heads. So if you're watching an NFL game, there's what's happening on the field. Those are the facts of the game. But then there's the color commentary, these guys that can't stop blabbing, that are telling you every play, what it means, where the game's going. And all of us

have that guy living in our head. But sometimes that narrator needs to be defanged or given a different script, one that's more empowering, and we can do that. That's what we talk about in Mind Your Mindset. Exactly. I mean, if it was a Twitter follower, you would just delete them. Right. Ban them. Block them.

You wouldn't let somebody talk to you that way. Right. You know? At least if you're smart, you would. You don't let trolls happen in your real life. Why would you let them happen in your brain? Yep. You know, and it's reset the thing.

Mind your mindset. It comes out today. The science that shows success starts with your thinking. Michael Hyatt, Megan Hyatt, Miller. You can get it on Amazon. You can get it at their website. And learn more about the coaching that they're doing as well and how you can connect to them with all of their process

to help you reset the narrative and get that success that you are due. how you can connect to them with all of their process to help you reset the narrative and we'll get that success that you are due. Fullfocus.co is, again, the website. Talk about one of the examples of somebody you've done this with when you're coaching, something that pops into head because I know there's lots of success stories. Well, one of the success stories is mine, actually. I had a debilitating fear of public speaking.

This is like the number one fear that everybody has. That's like all of America. All of America. But in my situation, I'm a CEO. At the time, I was a COO of our company. And I had kept this hidden for many, many years. And it had kind of developed in high school, never examined it. And my team came to me one day and said, hey, we want to do a big live event and have you keynote in front of 800 people. And I did kind of like that nervous laugh, like, OK, yeah, you know, I'll say yes. Inside, I'm thinking, this is my worst nightmare. And I thought... Can I just die now and get it over with? Right. I thought that if I got on stage, I would be publicly humiliated. I would lose

control of my body. I mean, you know, just talk about catastrophizing to the max. And so I hired a speech coach. I hired an anxiety coach. I got all the help that I could possibly get. And for six weeks, I went through the process of rewriting that story. And fast forward, I was able to step on stage in front of 800 people for the first time. And it was amazing. It played out exactly like the story that I had written. And I'm not talking about affirmations like, you know, I'm a TED speaker.

That's scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl. I mean, spike it, do the dance. Right. I know. You know what I mean? Ding, ding. It was amazing. And it was this exact process. It's part of the reason we wrote this book. Very cool. Hey, you guys, we appreciate your friendship all these years. We appreciate what you do for people. And if you guys have not plugged in for some reason to Michael Hyatt over these these years he's been doing this a long time helping people megan is uh obviously the heir apparent running the show today and uh allowing michael to work on books and these things mind your mindset the science that shows success starts with your thinking go get don't stop get it right now amazon click it right now shut up do it this is what you're doing.

This is a Ramsey recommendation. I don't tell you to read junk. I tell you what to do that's going to help you. This is going to help you. And it's right along the lines of the other stuff we're talking about on this show every day. Mind your mindset. Get it right now. Thanks for coming, guys.

Thanks, Dave. Thanks for watching. Thank you for joining us, America. Christina Ellis, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today, number one best-selling author. We appreciate you folks being with us. Hey, we kicked off our Building Wealth Live Tour here in Nashville a few weeks ago. On February 16th, just a couple of weeks, we're going to be in Indianapolis with Rachel Cruz, George Camel, and Jade Warshaw.

Austin, Texas, February 23rd with Ken Coleman, Dr. John Deloney, and Jade Warshaw. I'll be in all of these. April 24th, we're heading to Salt Lake City with Rachel Cruz, George Campbell, and Christina Ellis sitting to my right. Then Ken Coleman, Dr. John Deloney, and Christina Ellis will be with me in Anaheim for May the 2nd, the final Building Wealth live event of the season, of this spring season. If you want to come with us, that's May 2nd we'd love to

have you tickets are only 49 you can get a four pack starting as low as 175 seats are selling fast get your seats before they're gone 175 you pay four times that to go see a music concert and when you're done, you have a T-shirt and have had some fun, and that's a good thing. You should do that. I went to an Eagles concert a while back. It's fun. It's a lot of fun.

And, I mean, Vince Gill's an Eagle. That's pretty cool. So we go, and it's pretty fun, and they did a great job. And I spent more than $ than 175 to go to that concert and um each and with my bride so that was like more and so yeah and i i enjoyed it and i'm not mad at music concerts but don't be broke and go into a music concert instead of doing this and bring three of your friends right so ramsey, RamseySolutions.com slash events, 175 for four people. 49 ahead.

RamseySolutions.com slash events. Come out. We'd love to have you. It's a big pep rally for those of you that are on the plan. You get to be around a whole bunch of people doing what you're doing. Dixie's with us in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Hi, Dixie. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi. It's an honor to be talking to you today. You too, what's up in your world? Well, I am wondering what you would advise. I'm a teacher, this is my 25th year of teaching, but I do have a unique living situation and I am considering finding a new career, but I'm wondering if I should take an early retirement, which would involve a penalty in my pension, but I would have coverage with my medical insurance until Medicare at this age, or should I freeze my pension and take a career with a lesser income,

kind of starting over, and no insurance guarantee. What kind of career are you thinking? Corporate training. Since I'm a teacher, I have a degree as an instructional designer as well. So what would you make as a corporate trainer? Maybe $60,000. What are you making right now as a teacher? $92,000. Okay, you're going to be an independent contractor corporate trainer or working for a certain company? Probably working for a certain company. Well, they would have insurance.

Okay. Wouldn't they? A company big enough to have corporate trainers is big enough to have an insurance policy okay right i think so too yes i'm just i'm just worried that maybe it won't be out there i don't think i would make this decision based on the insurance i would go buy insurance before i would take it on the chin on my pension now the other the other side of the coin for different reasons i might take the pension now. The reason you take less now, how old are you? 48. When does it kick in, 65 or 59?

Full. Insurance? No, full pension, not counting insurance. We're not doing this on insurance. We're doing the pension. I believe I can, I think I can take early retirement at 55. And start getting a full pension then uh 57 okay i'll have i'll have enough time okay so nine years if you wait nine years you can if you freeze it you can get full right yes if you take it early

you get less than full so the question then is a financial calculation question that you would sit with a smart investor pro so even if you don't need the money and you don't need the money because you're going to go be a corporate trainer and you don't need the insurance because you're going to go get insurance even if you don't need the money you may want to take it early because of the what's called the present value of money a thousand dollars today invested in 10 years would be $3,000. Okay. Okay. And then, okay.

And so that lesser pension invested for nine years might offset for the rest of your life the lesser pension. And the money's in your hands because if you die, you know what happens to that pension. Bye-bye. It goes away, yes. And so if the money's in your hands, if you die you know what happens that pension bye-bye it goes away yes and so if the money's in your hands it doesn't go bye-bye right so i'm going to try to take it early and not use it and invest it wisely in good mutual funds if the math says to do that if they're discounting it too heavily, you wait and take the chance anyway. But if they're not discounting it that much, because probably what they're using is a present value calculation based on about a 7% rate of return,

which tells me that if you were to invest it at 12, that you will come out ahead taking it early. Yes. Okay. That's probably what you're going to find. But you could be all over the map as to what they use to run these calculations. And pensions, there's not a regulation that makes them do it a certain way. So you have to get with somebody to help you do the math. So click SmartVestorPro at RamseySolutions.com.

And the only reason you take it early is to reinvest it and end up with more money because you did that. You don't take it early because of the insurance. And Dixie, stay on the line. We're going to get you a copy of From Paycheck to Purpose by Ken Coleman just as you navigate this transition. Because I can hear a little bit of fear in your voice and some of that hesitancy in this transition. And I think that could really help you just kind of walk through it. That's a big career leap. Yeah, and you're pretty much done in the classroom. We can all hear that too. Matt's in

Sioux City, Iowa. Hi Matt, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey Matt, hey Dave, this is Matt. How are you guys doing? Better than we deserve. How can we help? Hey, just I've been getting all intense for a while, about a year and a half and And now I'm at baby step four through six, and I'm just curious where I should be allocating my money. It's pretty easy with baby step four, 15%. I have one kid, so I'm just wondering. She's about a year and a half. How much should I put into my 529?

I'm looking at term life insurance. I've got a mortgage of $135,000. And then I'm interested in S&P 500. So just curious, if you were in my shoes, where would you allocate your money? Well, congratulations. That's great. Baby steps four through six. I love it. Yes, it's been really exciting. And, you know, being at Bell Intense, listening to you guys definitely helped me. So I appreciate you guys'

wisdom that you've given me throughout that time. Well, we're excited for you. And I love that you've broken down the numbers. So you have a pretty good handle on it. And I know with Baby Step 5, the college portion, it can be a little bit confusing because you're not really sure what that future looks like. But we have a really good calculator on our website at ramsaysolutions.com. You can look at the college cost calculator.

And with that, you can type in how many years you have left to save, where you anticipate she might go to school, and it'll break down about how much you should be saving a month in order to hit that tuition goal. So I would go ahead and do that so you can kind of have an idea of how much you need to be putting aside in the 529.

And then once you've done your 15% towards retirement, you've got your 529, then it's just time to go crazy on the house. Do what you can to pay that off. Yeah. S&P 500 is a baby step seven thing. You don't need to do any of that until you get there. But everything else you mentioned, it's just a matter of how much.

And sometimes people say, I'm going to put $100 a month towards college, and then I'm going to pour all of it on the house, get the house done, and then I'll cash flow college. Sometimes people say, I'm going to do college the proper amount with the calculator the way christina said and that's going to reduce how much i put on the house i'm going to have the house dead a little bit longer either one of those are great answers stupid is not in either one of those columns you are right on track and you're heading the right way you're doing the right kinds of things and so the trick is again, just for to make you stay on track with four, five, and six. If it doesn't fall in four, five, or six right now, you're not

doing it unless you're intentionally saying, I'm going to punish five or six so I can buy a car. I'm going to punish five or six so we can go on this vacation. I'm going to punish five or six so we can dot dot dot and if you punish them completely there'll be nothing there so you know you can't do that but it's okay to say hey time to get a couch uh the heat and air is out we're going to pay cash for it and that's going to mean we put a little less on the house this month or next month this is the ramsey show Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day matthew 11 27 and 28 come to me all you who are weary and burdened and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

The words of Jesus. Corrie Ten Boone said, Now I know in my experience that Jesus' light is stronger than the biggest darkness. Well, amen and amen and amen. It's beautiful. Christina Ellis Ramsey, personality, is my co-host today. Patrick is with us in Tucson, Arizona. Hi, Patrick.

How are you? I'm great. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, so I just had a quick question here. I was going through some of your older Dave rants on YouTube and heard one about gold. And I agree with you that mutual funds are definitely a better investment in the long term than gold. the event of a major economic collapse. But where I would kind of challenge a bit is, as far as gold goes, I would look at it more as like an insurance policy to kind of preserve the

wealth in the event of some sort of major economic situation. If you had some of your wealth in gold, then presumably, if there was some sort of collapse of a currency and a new currency were to come up, that wealth would maintain its value at least somewhat through the transition. And then when you're out at the other side, you still have, you know, you wouldn't have lost everything, right? The problem is that since the Roman Empire, you can't find an example of that happening. Of people using gold to preserve their wealth. To survive an economic collapse, and it holds its value, and they come back and turn a corner on a currency. It never has happened.

Well, I mean, if we look at, I know in your previous rant on gold, you had mentioned the Confederacy, right? And if, you know, at that time, people did use gold as currency, and anybody who had gold as currency, and if they kept that instead of transitioning to the Confederate money, then once that Confederate dollars collapsed, they'd still have that value in the gold. Same thing with, you know, the economic collapse in Germany in the 1920s and, you know, and so on.

Well, I mean, you can convert to assets of all kinds of things in the event of an economic collapse that will ride it out. You know, I think the thing you've got to think about here is where can you find what you're talking about actually being used by wealthy people, people that have built wealth, to cause them to hold on to wealth and to grow wealth. You just can't find it, Patrick. And you're spending too much time on the Internet. Yeah, Patrick, what are you worried is going to happen?

I mean, I'm somewhat of a prepper myself, so I'm not worried, so to speak, that everything is going to collapse tomorrow. But I think when you look at a long enough time frame... For your theory to work, in your lifetime, the U.S. dollar would have to completely have had no value like Confederate money did, or like Iranian money did under Saddam Hussein. You would have to have the U.S. dollar, the largest economy in the history of the world, become worth nothing for your theory to work. And I'm sorry, I'm not buying it. So would there be something else that you would say is a better thing to look at to

protect yourself from a financial catastrophe? I'm not planning for the apocalypse. I don't do financial planning for the apocalypse. I don't have anything for the apocalypse. The best thing I've got for apocalypse is several thousand rounds. So I'll be eating. But other than that, I'm not planning for the apocalypse. I'm not doing financial planning for the apocalypse.

I'm not predicting the end of time, and I'm not going to predict my life as if everything as we know it in America today becomes valueless. I'm not going to set my mind on that track. I'm not going to set my friends on that track, and I'm not going to set my mind on that track. I'm not going to set my friends on that track. I'm not going to set you on that track. If you want to get on that track, Patrick, you can find a way to rationalize all that negativity if you want. But I just don't believe it.

And I think it leads you to ridiculous places to put money. And so I buy real estate and I buy mutual funds. So, you know, you don't have to agree with me. You get you a show and you talk about gold. That'll be great. But I'm not doing it. I'm not going to suggest you do it. Right. Well, and one of the best ways to prepare for financial collapse, if you're thinking that might be a thing, is to walk through the baby steps and actually become wealthy. His point is all that wealth would disappear right but here's the thing i have talked to preppers before who are still in debt that's a problem like that is actually well that's believing more in the collapse than it is in the non-collapse right because in the non-collapse you would want to get rid of the debt but in a

collapse the debt would be a great thing because you never paid it back. And you're counting on the end of time. I mean, this is like, you know, it's a theological doctrinal problem as well as just a philosophy of life. And so, you know, I'm not a prepper. Not mad at you if you're a prepper, but I'm not a prepper. I'm not predicting the end of life as we know it while I'm not mad at you if you're a prepper, but I'm not a prepper. I'm not predicting the end of life as we know it while I'm alive. And so I'm not going to say that the U.S. dollar is going to become worth absolutely the same thing as the Iranian dollar with Saddam Hussein's face on it, which is absolutely paper money or monopoly money or Confederate money

or any other collapsed economy and former currencies. You would have, for this idea to work, you would have to assume the U.S. dollar is going to do that. And I just think that that's an asinine set of assumptions. I mean, it's just there's nothing that indicates that. But even if you are a prepper, get out of debt. Start there. Like if you're really trying to be prepared for some financial collapse

like financial collapse probably wouldn't happen overnight anyways it could drag out for 10 or 20 years so it's like even if you think that's going to happen get out of debt pay off your house build wealth that'll help you be prepared for anything i own real estate a lot of it and so but guess what in a financial collapse a communist regime comes in takes over all private property potentially so that can be taken away oh by the way they could come take your gold bars too because they just decided to they come take your farm they shoot people and take their stuff this is how russia was formed hello i mean the bolsheviks the the gulags i mean that they went and killed the farmers and took their farms uh that's what communism does so if

you how do you protect gold bars aren't gonna protect you from that you know and neither's debt free and nothing you know so i'm just not going to financial plan for the apocalypse. I'm not going to do it. If you want to, you can. But you can do a lot of stupid stuff if you want to. But it's loud out there. But it's not what we're going to teach you to do. Well, and it's living in that world of fear. It's living in that space of everything is bad, the world is going bad.

And it's like when you're in that space of fear. I will tell you one thing. He did get me on one thing that he's exactly right on. That if you took your Confederate money and you converted it to gold bars before the Confederacy collapsed, the gold was worth something after that and the Confederate money wasn't. And he's right. I was wrong about that. So it did cause you to survive the collapsed economy because you could have tucked the gold and sold it for northern dollars, right,

called U.S. dollars now, and you would have converted your wealth and not lost your wealth. So he is actually right about that. But for him to be right, though, to do this, you would have to assume the collapse of the dollar, like the Confederate dollar become worth nothing. And I'm just not going to set my life up on that hinge. If you want to, it's okay.

I'm really not mad at you. I just think you're wrong. And you think I'm wrong. So there you go. So go do what you want to do. That's how it works. It's okay. It's okay.

It's fine. It's fine. If the U.S. dollar collapses, I'm wrong. Well, I just say let's not live our lives in fear. There we go. Let's follow the baby steps. Let's build wealth and choose joy. It's not a plan.

That puts us out of the Ramsey Show on the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Christina Ellis. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps,

go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.