The Ramsey Show - App - Overcoming a Gambling Addiction To Become Debt Free

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: The best way to pay off your mortgage, What to do with an inheritance, Should we go on a birthday trip for my sister during our debt snowball? What to do when you can't afford house repairs. 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

I'm out. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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, number one best-selling author of the brand-new book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future, is my co-host today. As we talk about your building of wealth, your work, doing work that you love, and creating actual amazing relationships. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Brian is in Chicago. Hey, Brian, how are you? I'm good, Dave.

Happy Thursday. Happy Thursday to you. What's up? So I just discovered your content. I've been binge-watching it over past couple of weeks and decided to make the decision to get really aggressive about paying off my mortgage. So I got a condo in Chicago about a year ago and I was looking over my budget. I feel like if I really get aggressive and go on the beans and rice diet, I could get this thing paid off in two years. Wow.

So my question, though, is I've got about 30-something thousand saved in the mutual fund. I'm wondering if I should be attacking this directly monthly with payments or if I should be putting it into the mutual funds and then doing a lump sum payoff in two, two and a half years. I would throw money at it as fast and as hard as I could from every angle, not counting your emergency fund. And I'm assuming you're debt-free other than the condo. 15,000 student loans that I'm paying off as well. Okay. So I would cash out the mutual fund in a retirement account?

No, I have a 401k that I'm not touching, which is through Vanguard, and I also have mutual funds through Vanguard. Yeah, I would cash out the $30,000 and pay off the student loan today. I would build a separate money market account as an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. I'd start putting 15% of my household income and no more into uh into your 401k and everything above that i'm going to throw at the condo monthly as fast and as often as i can but anytime you can get your hands on a lump sum that is not

a retirement account you throw it at that but it sounds like this mutual fund money is going to be used for other stuff. Do you have any money saved for emergencies other than the mutual fund and the 401K? I have $5,000 in a statement account. What do you make a year? Depending on bonuses and that, about $110. Good for you. Well, you're doing really good.

Yeah, you're doing good. Proud of you. So all we're doing is giving you a fine-tuned program using the system that we've used for 30 years with people that's led people to become millionaires. It's called the Baby Steps. Baby Step 1 is $1,000 in the bank. 2 is debt-free, but the house. So I immediately went after your student loan. 3 is you build an emergency fund by adding to the $1,000 account of three to six months of expenses

in your house. That's $15,000 or $20,000. And once you've got that rainy day fund and no payments but a house payment, you move on to baby step four. You put 15% of your income, so $15,000, $16,000 in your case, into good mutual funds in your 401k every year. And above that, any money we can find in the budget, I start chunking it on the mortgage. Now, that's going to mean your mortgage does not pay off in two years. That's going to mean your mortgage pays off in three to four years, which is just fine. How old are you?

31. You'll be 35 with a paid-for condo, and you will have been putting money in a mutual fund. You'll have no debt, and you'll have an emergency fund in place this is a beautiful picture we're painting and i would tell you this you may be different than me probably not if i'm just have another account or i'm just dumping like i said you got a thousand bucks a month extra every month after you pay off your student loan and you're just putting money in there and you think i'm gonna pay off my mortgage in ten thousand dollar chunks the chances of you having nine thousand and then somebody calling

saying hey let's go on a trip together that's just really hard so i would pay that every month whatever you got left i would pay that as you go once you fill up that emergency fund and not just save it for these big chunks john might see a prius that he wanted to buy. And he would just run out and buy a Prius. Or he might see a deer rifle. I could be both, yes. Yes. Which are incongruent, by the way. I told you that, right?

But such is John. I'll tell you that. But such is John. The first time I ever went deer hunting and I got my first deer, I had shown up to the place with my father-in-law and my son and my wife's prius the deer processing place and yeah i showed up to the deer processor and i opened the back hatch and it had a big 11 point buck in it and this high school kid looks at me as though i just pulled an alien out of the car he said sir i've never seen this before and i was like

it's not 11 point that he's never seen before. It's a big deer, huh? And he goes, no, the Prius. Yeah, exactly. That was good. Incongruent. Incongruent. I like it. Christine is in Springfield, Illinois. Hey, Christine, what's up?

Hey, Dave. How's it going? Great. How can we help? Well, my husband is 57, and I am 51, and we are debt-free, including our home. It's worth probably about $270,000. Wow. Good for you guys.

Yeah. We had an accident several years ago and ended up with a settlement, so we paid off our home and then put some money into our retirement account. We've got about $1 million in our IRA. There's about a million in the 401K up until probably this last few days. And our youngest is going to be 21. Kids don't have a bunch of debt. We've helped them as much as we could. They got good scholarships.

But I had a family member die in the last month, and so there's going to be a chunk there. So I'm guessing maybe 20, 30,000 max. What should I do with that? And now that we're completely debt free, no credit card, nothing like that. Where should we put that several thousand dollars a month that we have just sitting in a bank account because right now my husband's like i want to have cash on hand and i'm like honey we have over a hundred thousand dollars cash on hand we can't afford it in a bank account enough nothing yeah prepper yeah enough yeah okay so what do i do with those two bits yeah and by the way we do have plenty of life insurance his his um uh his offer and sorry his

work offers really good rates on term insurance okay so we've even insurance we've got plenty of term insurance on both of us you guys have done a wonderful job congratulations your everyday baby steps millionaires very very very well done can you call my husband and tell him that he's afraid we're going to starve yeah Yeah, you're not going to starve. He's so nervous. You're not going to starve. He's afraid that in retirement we're not going to have enough money to live on. Turn the news off.

Turn the news off. Turn the news off. Walk away from the computer. Use the off button. Get off the computer. Do not look at all of the conspiracy theories. Okay. Yeah, you're going to be just fine.

You've done a wonderful job. There are three things you can do with money, and you steadily ought to do that with your monthly income and with this inheritance. And I'd recommend you write it out in both cases. Take the dollar amount and give every one of those dollars an assignment. How much of this is going to fun? How much of this is going to more investing? And how much is going to generosity?

I think your husband needs to increase his fun and his generosity. But you need to be doing all three things. It'll be good for him to practice those muscles. They're kind of weak for him. This is the Ramsey Show. People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Healthcare Ministries. Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, is a non-profit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with healthcare expenses, and they have successfully

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Anthony's in San Antonio. Hey, Anthony, what's up? Hey, Dave. Hey, John. what's up? Hey, Dave. Hey, John. Pleasure to speak to you both. You too. So quick background here. I'm on baby step number two.

Me and my wife are. Our household income is about 90K. Since January, when blessed, the Lord has given us good jobs, we've been able to pay about a third of our debt. So we've got about 24K paid off already. We've got about 40 remaining. Years ago, before we realized how bad we were with money, we did have a conversation with my little sister about going to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday.

Our hearts have changed completely. We're obviously trying to get out of debt. And, um, my whole family's going to Vegas. We did the math. We're, we're really leaning towards not going, but at the same time, it's, it's her 21st. She's only, and it's probably going to be her last 21st birthday or last birthday ever before she gets married. She's in a very serious relationship with a delightful young man, but we just don't know what to do. We did the math. It'll probably set us back maybe a month,

not even a month, if we paid for this trip. Obviously, we're done with credit cards. We're done with all that, so we're going to cash flow it if we go, but we're really leaning towards not going. So what's it cost to go? Probably about $900. You drive it?

If we drive with gas prices, I did the math for that as well, it may save us like $30 or $50 at the most. We drive together to Tacoma. I'm not sure. It seems like with the gas prices, we're spending 75. I don't think you want to go not because of money. What's the other reason you don't want to go?

I, I want to go, but I also, it's just, it seems like a lot with how dedicated we've been to paying off debt. It seems like a lot of money to drop to go do something that my wife and I aren't even really that pleasure. I don't know. You don't want to go to Vegas. Like you don't want to go. Part of it. But it's also my little sister's birthday.

My whole family. I feel a little bad. How long are they going to be there? If my wife and I go, we're only going for a night. They're going to be there for, like, Thursday through Monday. $900 for a night? Well, we would have to probably get a hotel on the way out there as well, just because, and on the way back if we drive,

because plane tickets are absurd right now. So we would have to book a hotel on the drive out there book a hotel on the way on the drive back and then one hotel night in vegas i think that you want to want to go i think you love the idea of celebrating your sister i don't think you want to go to vegas whenever i don't want to do something i inflate how much it's going to cost by one and a half or two times. I'm like, that's going to cost a thousand bucks. Probably 500, maybe 600. When I do

want to do something really big, like I need this new thing. It's like, ah, it's probably like a hundred bucks and it's way more than that. Right. Something tells me you don't want to go. You want to celebrate your sister but you don't want to do the trip. I guess that's partly true

I mean me and my wife kind of talked about even if we went go we would probably not go to the clubs and do things like that that they would want to do because obviously we're in debt and to be completely honest with you that's not our scene we would love to go and see the shows and things like that

but the clubs and all that and drinking I mean that's not something my shows and things like that, but the clubs and all that and drinking, I mean, that's not something my wife and I really partake in. Yeah. So in that sense, John's right. The only part of this that you want to do is celebrate your sister. You don't want to do anything that they're doing, and you don't want to go other than just you do want to do is celebrate your sister that you don't want to do anything that they're doing and you don't want to go um other than just you do want to celebrate her and that that's because

you're a good guy i mean that you should you should want to do that that's a good thing so dave you tell me on the comes to baby steps when it comes to a milestone like this i wouldn't have a problem it's going to set you back 25 days on your journey if you pay cash and go and do your thing that didn't bother me i also doesn't bother me if you have your set of values and say hey we're not going to do this thing um i hate it when somebody gets boxed into an either or i just don't like is there a way to do something different but it doesn't sound like there is here i don't know what to tell you to do this different yeah um yeah and it sounds like also the

rest of the family is going to be like the weirdos are back at home you know yeah yeah that too and then we know i know in my parents i know that if i say hey me and clare aren't going that's my last name we're not we're not going due to we are in we're doing this david everything we're trying to get out of that don't blame it on me yeah this is a new choice brother this one's on you no no my parents they'll just offer to pay for it i know and i don't want that either anthony here's the thing if i'm you i would go that's me okay and dave you may say differently i would probably go and i like you i don't i don't go to the clubs. That's just not my thing. I wouldn't do that.

I'm a nerd. I go to bed early. But we'd go and celebrate and have the dinner and say it's great, and then we'd head out early. Five nights in Vegas, that's a lot. The other side of it is don't blame anybody if you decide to not go because of your values. Say we're not really interested in going to there.

We'll celebrate when she gets back. We'll have everybody over for dinner. We're in the middle of this thing. Say we're not really interested in going to there. We'll celebrate when she gets back. We'll have everybody over for dinner. We're in the middle of this thing, and we're getting out of debt, and right now we just can't do it. We're just sorry. And it's okay to say either one, and it's okay to cheap out on a couple of other things and get the $900 down to $500 with your hotel choice or whatever else.

And it's also okay if your parents want to pay for it if you want to go that's okay there's nothing wrong with that at all i'm thinking of a parent if i'm if one of my kids was working on something and they're training hey we don't want to go because we want to hit this goal i'm like well if you would like to go we really want to have you we're not going to guilt you and i'll cover it for you if you want to come because we really want you there that bad and um that wouldn't bother me as a parent a little bit yeah and so and i and i would hope my child could could accept that uh but if if that you know but if they say no we just don't then i gotta i gotta respect their boundaries and go no they don't want to come okay so that's okay and and so i mean

i've been in lots of situations like this over the years with family um i remember sharon's family kept you know we kept having more and more and more and more grandkids on that side and so buying gifts for every stinking person got to be the federal deficit and the year the year we went broke i just rolled into sharon's parents house, and Sharon wasn't even happy with me. But I'm like, hey, we can't do this. We don't have any money. We can draw names. We'll buy for kids that are under five, and we're drawing names for the rest of you goobs.

And one of the other sisters goes, well, finally, somebody said it. Let's do it. But everybody's all worried that Dave was about to break the thing. The family tradition was about, oh, it's's all gonna go down in flames because of dave but it turned out okay and now they draw names for 20 30 years now you know so this is the ramsey show Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Andrew and Courtney are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, good. How are you? Welcome. Where do you guys live?

We're from Madisonville, Kentucky. Ah, okay, up in the Hopkinsville area. Welcome to Nashville. And here to do a debt-free scream, how much have you paid off? $62,447.16. Love it. Not that we're counting in the penny. How long did it take you?

22 and a half months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? About 85, down a little bit, and then back up to about 95. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm in manufacturing. I work for GE.

I started out working for the orthodontist in our town, and then I switched to the Board of Education. Ah, okay. And was that a good raise? It was not. It took a lot of prayer and talk. We did a pros and cons list, and it was a pay decrease, but we adjusted our... That was when it went down a little bit.

Yes. And then it came back up. Yes. Okay, good. Yes, sir. Very good. Good for you guys. What kind of debt was the $62,000?

It was mostly a few credit cards, a couple personal loans, a couple 401K loans. Okay. All right. What were the 401K loans for? What did you buy? A lot of our debt stemmed from a gambling addiction I had. So that's what a lot of it was. Wow.

Wow. Yeah. So what were you gambling? What kind of game? Just any kind of sports online. Sports book. Yeah. Okay. Online stuff?

Yes. Okay, cool. What did the healing journey look like on the way out of that? How did you break that? Well, we had hit a pretty rough patch in our marriage. I bet. uh well we had we had hit a pretty rough patch in our marriage we had some um disagreements some arguments and when we got married we joined our our finances together and when i realized the first couple of consolidated loans that hit our bank account i was not comfortable so i

withdrew my understatement you were the like queen of understatement we had a rough i was not comfortable i almost killed him while he was asleep a little bit we had a disagreement there were some nights i looked at him and was just like so i took the high road and i took um my money out of the bank account and opened my own bank account, opened up the kid's bank account, and I still continue to see no change. I was still uncomfortable with where things were going. And so I reached out to my sister-in-law and we talked. His sister?

Yes. Well, his brother's wife. Oh, okay. And we finally opened up to his parents. His parents had no idea what was going on. We both kept it very hidden because we were a little ashamed. Sure. And so we basically had a little intervention for him.

And I just let out everything that I was worried about. And they were kind of our go-betweens. And so they really, from the second that they knew everything, they were our support system, and they were our guides. How long ago was that? March 21st, 2020. So that's your dry date? Two years sober?

Yes. Way to go, bro. Hey, way to go. Congratulations, man. Proud of you. Thank you. I'm proud of you thank you that's incredible i wish you could see the way she's looking at you yeah it's so oogie it's making me uncomfortable she likes you a lot incredible so the um yeah that you so your

family and your wife come at you and you just said okay they're right yep i mean time to change yeah uh prior to that you've been kind of uh ducking and shucking and jiving and hiding and, am I right? That's a normal pattern anyway. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

So, America, in case you didn't know, the fastest growing addiction in America today is online porn. The second fastest growing addiction in America today is online gambling. That's tough and it's those two things are destroying more families than all drug addiction and alcohol addiction put together and the people don't understand the numbers oh this is one of the evils of the internet the internet's not all evil in and of itself but uh gambling has exploded and i can't tell you the number of times one of our coaches is dealing with someone who's trying to get out of debt on one hand but on the other hand they're really struggling

particularly sportsbook sportsbook is a big one and so what you did what you had there was not unusual i'm so proud of you man that took a lot of strength so andrew often people roll out of an addiction and i don't say they trade addictions but they lean into healthier behaviors and it sounds like your healthier behavior was, hey, let's get on a path to help us get control back, right? And so tell us about that. Yeah, that night, I mean, like she said, we all met and had a long talk.

And that night, I worked third shift at the time and I was scrolling through the internet and came across Dave Ramsey. And I'd heard the name before, but I'd never really listened to anything. And I started listening that night and got hooked. Like everything you were saying was slapping me in the face. Usually when people say you got hooked, it's a good thing. I'm not sure when you say that I like to say that.

That was his healthy switch. I'm kidding. I'm kidding with you. He did. He came home from work, and I was barely awake, and he said, hey, we're going to do this. This is what we're doing. And I was like, who? What?

What? I'm okay. I'll sleep here. I was like, okay. We're okay. Sounds good. So you were game on then. Oh, yeah.

And that gave you something to focus on while you were moving those stuff. Now, did you go to like GA? No, I didn't. Okay. Did you see a coach, while you were moving those stuff. Now, did you go to, like, GA? No, I didn't. Okay. Did you see a coach, a counselor or anything? Nope. Just said, I'm stopping. Yeah.

Well, it made it a little easier. That was the start of the pandemic, and there were no sports going on. That's helpful. That's helpful. The supply dried up. Made it a little easier. Well, there you go. That's true.

I hadn't thought about that. So then you guys just lean in, and together you start doing the details. Now, how much further did you get plugged into our stuff? After a couple weeks of listening to the podcast, just nonstop, I bought a couple of the books. And I guess it was a few months later we did a FPU class with our church. Oh, good. Okay. It took me a little while to get heard on board with me. I can't believe it. What?

The addict comes with another scheme, right? Yeah. Oh, I got a plan. I got a plan, right? Yeah, it was read this book, listen to this podcast, watch this on YouTube, and I was like, gosh. What did I do? I got her listening to Rachel I was like

if you don't want to listen to Dave you know I think you'll like Rachel she's you know your age and she's funny I think you'll you'll like her

instead of old and grumpy Dave's not funny we've got young cute and funny or old and grumpy hey so Andrew yes you're not gambling anymore

no totally clean yes when you're talking about it your body folds up with shame and guilt and today you walk off that stage and you're going to leave that crap right there right yes sir you're done with it yes sir you're announcing to everybody your sobriety and we're proud of you amen i don't want you

carrying that stuff around i can see it on you today you set it down when you walk off that stage you're not that that's that guy used to be he's not anymore game yep thank you that's fair way to go guys thank you guys i'm so proud of y'all we are honored to be a little part of your huge journey you're both very very courageous people and uh you're you're impressive you're heroes i mean the stuff you when you stare that demon down and you beat it that's a big one and i honey i don't know where they make you i I don't know. You're one of a million. You're a saint. You're incredible. I mean, I had my – Except for the understatement part.

Exactly. She can carry a house around with understatement. Well, I guess I'll just – I just won't eat any dinner tonight. I guess I'll just go inside and eat dirt. I'll just wear the drapes. Why, y'all, eat pizza. Thank you, Scarlett O'Hara. That's right.

That's right. No, you're – I mean, I had my weaknesses, too, and mine stemmed a lot from wanting my kids to have what I didn't have growing up. So I'm not guilt-free from getting a credit card and saying, hey, you want to wear that name brand outfit? Okay. You want to go to this place? Okay, let's do it. So we really had to sit down especially with

our oldest and explain you know it's not that we won't ever catch up because we're gonna run up against the clock here i'll make sure we get your screen sorry so we got all the books and everything for you and stuff for you to give away and stuff for you to enjoy thank you so much for being here andrew and courtney hopkinsville kentucky mattisville kent62,000 paid off in 22 months, making $85,000 to $95,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Yeah! Woo! John, those are two special people. Very people. Free people. Free people. Amen. Free.

In Jesus' name. This is the Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we talk about your life and your money. Lindsay is with us in Las Vegas. Hi, Lindsay. How are you? How are you doing, Dave? I'm doing good. Good. What's up? I just got a quick question for you, maybe some advice for me if you have it uh i currently own my house outright i don't own anything on it uh my dad and my grandpa helped me purchase it i want to say in like 2013 i currently don't have anything saved up and i do need to make like some repairs it It's to that point where I had about $2,000 in savings, which I tried to spend to fix the roof to get the insurance back on it.

So it's kind of like now the insurance has rejected me for the roof. That didn't work. They still rejected it. And I have about maybe $20,000 is what they quoted me to fix some of the plumbing. It's an older house, like 1963. I'm thinking about selling it and i kind of want to go back to school because i'm only making about 25 000 a year i want to go back to school for a sonography which is like a two-year course and i'm thinking about maybe

getting i don't know something else to live in or maybe rent during that time frame how old are you want to pick your brain 33 okay why are you going to stenography um i kind of have a passion for it and i wanted to get a better career going i'm kind of just doing whatever for right now that you know i do agree you need a new career i'm not arguing with that i'm just wondering how you picked stenography um nurse like medical field has always been a passion of mine i kind of i dipped my toes in the the nursing for a little while and i didn't really find that too interesting but one of my friends had gone to stenography and i kind of found it really fascinating and kind of had interest in it what were your house so what were your house so far as is without doing the repairs 320 000 i got a cash offer for it good lord my concern with the uh stenography is again this may be two years out. This may be five years out. I'd hate for you to do a two-year program. They're getting so sophisticated with the voice-to-text software programs.

You may become obsolete. It feels like one of those fields that in five years is going to be really obsolete. I may be incorrect there, but, man, that seems like a large financial and time commitment on something that may just evaporate underneath you. Okay. Let me put three or four facts on the table, okay? Okay. Fact number one, you have a house that needs a bunch of repairs that you can sell for $300,000-something.

Fact number two, you make $25,000 a year. You have a career that's a non-starter. You need a new career. You need a path that is long-term. Fact number three, you're probably going to have to do some kind of training for some kind of new career fact number four uh john and i are calling a question mark on stenography i want you to explore your career options further before you make that part of the decision does all those all sound like facts definitely okay so i would agree you

need a new career i would agree to sell the house go rent something and execute some kind of a training program to move into the new career if i can beg you to find five other things to seriously consider in addition to stenography because i think you pick stenography without a lot of thought okay i'm accusing you of that okay so um now what i would what i want to do is i want to help you on the career side because i don't you you got one shot at this if we sell the house and move into a rental and you take off down some bogus road on the career, then we blew the, you know, we had one bullet in the gun,

we already shot it, and the deer got away, right? You follow me? I totally agree. It has to be something that I'm definitely going to follow through with, and it's definitely going to be. Well, it needs to make you $300,000. Yep. Okay, because you got $300,000 there that we're betting on this.

We're not going to spend all the $300,000 on it. No, definitely not. But it needs to, you need to not make $25,000 there that we're betting on this. We're not going to spend all the $300,000 on it. No, definitely not. You need to not make $25,000 anymore. When we're done with this, you need to make $100,000. Okay. That's what I want for you. And, Lindsay, I just heard it in your voice. You don't even think you're worth making $100,000,

and you've got two people telling you you are. You never even thought that. Well, you may not be, as a person, you're worth it, but your skills may not be there yet. But I think you're trainable into some skill set that will get you there. Definitely. I totally agree. Yeah.

All right. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to send you a copy of Ken Coleman's book, From Paycheck to Purpose, and we're also going to sign you up to take the career assessment. Now, he has a seven-step process for figuring out about the career the first step is to become clear on what it is you what you're what you what it is you're going to do and are the first the third step but the first two steps are getting to know yourself and really guiding into that so i want you to pick a career that um that has a huge upside and that that is something that as you start talking about it, it makes you smile.

Your heart starts beating when you start talking about it, and that pays really good. Definitely. Okay, but I don't want you to get something that pays really good that you hate, and I don't want you to get something that you think you love that sucks on the pay, because you should make a lot of money at something you love. Anytime you can do that in life, you have really got it dialed in, and that's what I want for you.

So you hang on. Kelly will pick up. We're going to get you the career assessment by Ken Coleman. I want you to jump on KenColeman.com and start reading everything on his website about finding and getting the right kind of job, what is the training once you identify what it is then you back up and you start identifying what the training is and we've got three hundred thousand dollars to do that with and we're not trying to fix up a house for twenty and forty and sixty thousand dollars worth of repairs on twenty five thousand dollar income which just sounds exhausting and And, Lindsey, whatever you do, when you sell this house,

you're going to have a $300,000 check deposit in your checking account. Don't touch it. No cars, no shopping sprees, no running down to the strip. No vacations. That's not what that money is for. That stuff will go away like sand through an hourglass. Don't spend it. It'll go up like flash paper.

You'll look up and in a year it's gone. So you can only spend it on two things, bare bones necessities, food, shelter, clothing, and education to accomplish your career goal. That's the only two things you're allowed to spend it on. Don't you touch it. Accept that. I'll come smack you. Don't you touch it. Because this is your shot, girl. We want that for you. All right? That's it. Don't you touch it except that i'll come i'll come i'll come smack you don't you touch it because this is your shot girl we want that for you all right that's it don't you touch it all right i'm kidding with

you but seriously kiddo this is dangerous what we're playing with here and john's right he can get away from you so you hang on and kelly will pick up and we'll get you signed up for all the ken stuff and start listening to ken coleman show call ken and talk to him he'll help you with this or call in when he's on this show one time he'll help you it's what he does open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five earl nightingale used to say a thousand years ago in that old talk that i often reference it's the first million selling talk ever done on audio yeah the strangest secret he said it used to say that no it's not in the strangest secret it's in a uh it's in another talk he did where he said what you can conceive

and believe you can achieve but in that talk he says um people spend more time picking out a suit of clothes than they do their future career isn't that wild wild? They spend time obsessing for days on the Internet, picking out something, getting the right shirt, getting the right thing. There wasn't an Internet then. But, I mean, today that's what they do. Rather than sitting and really looking inward, the unexamined life is not worth living, Socrates said, looking inward and figuring out what it is i'm made to do under ken coleman lingo right and what what is it i've got talent at and then going and getting

the training to accentuate that and moving into a career field that every monday morning you're smiling yeah that's right it's it's in the same with picking a spouse we'll spend four years dating or two years dating and we'll spend spend like, well, dad was this. I guess I'll just try that. Or I got this job in college. I guess I'm still going to stay here. I was at the bar drinking beer, and they said they're hiring down there. That's right.

I went on down. 38 years later, I'm still there. That's right. You know? Oh, my God. This is not how you pick what you're going to do with your life. Yep. You know?

You know. You're worth the investment. my god this is not how you pick what you're going to do with your life yeah you know it's you know you're your friend who is a dead-end dube you're going to be just exactly like him if you go to work at the same place doing the same stuff he's doing you know oh my gosh don't do this people and lindsey's not going to we're going to make sure of it because this is the Ramsey Show. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.