The Ramsey Show - App - Pause the Baby Steps if Coronavirus Is Affecting Your Income! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

Debt, Home Buying Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is done, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Well, we have to talk about the elephant in the room, my corona. We need the Bad 80s song to go with it, right? Aren't y'all just tired of this?

I'm tired of it. I just want it to go away. It's exhausting, all this hysteria. Oh, man. Toilet paper hoarding. It's exhausting, all this hysteria. Oh, man. Toilet paper hoarding. It's just tiring. And I know people are getting sick. I know it's a real thing.

I'm not making fun, but aren't you just getting a little, I'm getting corona fatigue. That's what it is. And the reason is, is I know that a lot of you are hurting as a result of this financially because of the economic impacts of it. And I know that some of you are, you know, there's a couple kinds of people out there. I mean, there's the, you know, I'm kind of the, I said this last hour, I'm kind of the fear-based, I'm sorry, the anger-based optimist, you know, abundance guy. My wife's more of the fear-based saver, security, glass-half-empty person, right? And you need both. You've got to have both in your life, and you could be abundance guy. My wife's more of the fear-based saver, security, glass half-empty person, right? And you need both. You got to have both in your life, and you could be either one

and still be a good person. That's not the point. But, you know, you're reacting differently to all this that's going on. Even people who are in a really good financial shape and have absolutely nothing to worry about, if they're fear-based, they're finding something to worry about. Oh, no! I mean, they're just worried, just they're fear-based, they're finding something to worry about. Oh, no! I mean, they're just worried just because that's kind of how they are. Now, if you're in a really good financial shape and you're just kind of not fear-based, you're not being freaked out about this, then you're looking around going, hmm, this might be the best week of the last three years to go on a trip

because you probably don't have anybody on the airplane, and the resort is going to be at a discount. So you probably ought to check on it. Or you're looking around going, man, if you were to buy a car this week, I guarantee you get some attention, and you probably get a discount because they're just going to be so happy to see anybody that's breathing on their lot. If you were to make an offer on a piece of real estate this week, while everybody else is freaking out in the toilet paper aisle,

you probably could get a deal. If you're buying in the stock market this week, you're getting a deal. It's on sale. Like when I was a kid, you'd go to Kmart and the blue light was on. And so what happens is the person who's in good shape, that's one of the situations they're in, they sometimes have to overcome the emotional fear, but there's tremendous opportunity for them. I made so much money in 2008, you guys, when the real estate went down. I bought millions of dollars of real estate, a hundred, tens of millions of dollars of real estate,

about a nickel to a dime on the dollar. And it's worth so much right now. It's ridiculous. I'm almost ashamed how much money I made on it, but I'm not. I mean, I got such a deal, but nobody's buying real estate. Everybody's freaked out. Nobody had any cash. I was sitting on a big pile of cash, and I turned into a serious, serious bunch of real

estate. a big pile of cash and i turned into a serious serious bunch of real estate and you know whatever it is you're thinking about buying or doing probably the next two or three weeks is going to be a great time to do it in terms of price if you're in good shape that's one type of person the other type of person this person is kind of in the middle and they've been kind of doing ramsey ish they didn't really do the baby steps in order because they're so freaking smart, and they really didn't have their whole emergency fund in place, and they went on and started doing their retirement, even though they don't have their real emergency fund.

And now they have an emergency, or maybe they've not been doing this stuff, but they've been listening to this show but not really doing this stuff, and now they have an emergency. So that emergency fund thing that Dave talks talks about he was suddenly i've been saying the same thing over and over for 30 years but this week i'm a genius you know i mean so but you know three weeks ago i was a moron but now i'm a genius you know so it's just but when you know like warren buffett said when the tide goes out you can tell who was skinny dipping so when stupid gets stress tested you see stupid for what it is these things you

thought you could get away with by not doing these basic financial things are biting you in the butt right now and i'm not saying this to say i told you so but it bit me in the butt in the 80s when the when the stupid snl crisis hit the banks freaked out and they called my notes and i went completely broke because i was an idiot and I'd signed up for too much debt. My stupid plan was stress-tested, and it came up short, and it bankrupt my little butt. I was 28 years old 30 years ago. And, you know, you just got to learn from it, in other words. So there's a second group of people who are kind of going through a little bit of pain right now.

They're kind of smacking themselves in the forehead going, I should have known this. I should have done this. This time I'm going to do it. The second group of people is the ones that got the wake-up call. And I'm not here to shame you. I'm with you. I'm your cheerleader. I'm glad you woke up.

I'm glad I finally talked you into it. I didn't talk you into it. My corona did. But there you go. You know, so it's good. It's not my corona. If it was mine, I would have put it up. But, um, I would have put it away and hit it somewhere. But anyway, and then there's another group of people who are just flat out. They're screwed

right now. They had no money. They weren't working the plan. Now they lost their job. They work in the travel industry somewhere, hotel, cruise line, airport. They're in hospitality at the restaurant or a bar, and they just lost their job because their whole freaking city was shut down by their mayor. And it's not that you're not willing to work. You're not allowed to go to work at your job. Hey, we're praying for you. We understand. I know it's scary.

If that's you, here's what you do. You're not working any baby steps right now. You're doing survival mode. You stop all baby steps, and you pile up cash from anywhere. You do not cash out your retirement except to avoid a bankruptcy or a foreclosure. And I don't think you're facing either yet. It's only been a week, maybe two weeks in some of your cases. But we just got back from New York. It was kind of eerie because there's like 25% foot traffic of what there usually is, like 75% less people. It was

weird. It looked like the zombie apocalypse or something in time square and we stay in this really nice time square hotel and we stay there all the time it's a wonderful property and we know the guys there and man we were just like they're like dave thanks for coming man because when y'all check out on friday you're the last ones and they're closing this puppy up and we're all laid laid off. And so they all lost their jobs. And so we're like handing out total money makeover books everywhere. But here's what you do. You go get something else because you can create an income.

If you're not in one of those businesses, you know how to work because those are all hardworking businesses. So you can go create an income doing something else as a temporary thing, maybe a permanent thing. It may be time for a career change and you pile up cash and you take care of only the four walls of your house you don't do anything fancy right now this is hold on until the hurricane is over and it's food shelter clothing transportation and utilities and you can do this you're going to get through it it just scares the crud out of you it's terrifying i remember when they cut our water off and the next day they cut our electricity off when we were broke it's terrifying and shaming and like those other people that got their wake-up call

you didn't get a wake-up call you got a brick dropped on your head so wake up and what i had you need to have the same experience I had when I went broke. Never again will I be in this position. Never again will I be in this position. I will not be at the mercy of idiots ever again. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs?

Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health care ministries or chm helps christian families churches and ministries join together as the body of christ to share their major health care costs christian health care ministries is the original health cost sharing ministry a better business bureau accredited organization chm members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years. And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills.

To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Brittany's in California. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Brittany? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Good, thanks. Hey, first of all, my condolences to anyone losing dogs, having to stay at home or working or taking time off from work to deal with school closures and all that stuff. Amen. But yeah, my, um, our question, my husband and I had a question. So because of this situation that we're facing, um, we're currently on baby step six. And so that means we're contributing about 15% of our combined incomes and we're throwing money at our house to pay it off right now. Good. We have about 90,000 in savings right now, which is well above our, our three to six months

savings. And we're wondering, I, you know, that's a great question. Um, we've been putting chunks at the house. Um, but having said having said that, our current question is, should we take advantage of the stock market downturn and temporarily pause paying off the house and put, you know, max out our Roth IRAs through the backdoor Roth IRAs and then dollar cost average or just continue paying down the house and then once that house is paid off, which should be the first quarter of next year, then continue to invest yeah it's a really good thought um and it probably would mathematically work out uh but one of the things i figured out is i i put things in my life

including how we run this business uh that are my values my value system, and my proven things that I know are right. And then that way I'm not tempted when I'm scared or when I'm greedy to violate those principles. I just stay right with them. And so, in other words, my decisions are already made. I just have to accept them kind of a thing. You know, it's like, you know, somebody here misbehaves on the team. They were told about that behavior, you know, in the interview process, and they were told repeatedly while they worked here.

And it's a sad day, but the decision's already made. If you're going to misbehave, you can't be here, you know. And so that kind of thing. So the decision's already made. If you're going to misbehave, you can't be here, you know, and so that kind of thing. So the decision's already made on this. I would have my emergency fund at three to six months of expenses. I'd be putting 15% of my income into retirement. And even though what you're saying is tempting, I'm still going to pay off my house. Okay, very good. And that's my reasoning behind it now if how stable is employment right now for us um it's very stable because we have we both are in the health care field so um probably we'll be working a lot more than the average person because we're

responding to the events that are happening so docs and nurses or something like that or what? I'm a nurse and my husband's a firefighter paramedic. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, you're stable. All right. Well, I mean, the chances of you losing your jobs in, you know, a corona-based economy, right, are very, very low.

As a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite. You're desperately needed, right. Are, are very, very low. As a matter of fact, there it's quite the opposite. You're desperately needed, right? Like you said. So, um, I, I would probably go ahead and take it down to six months. Now, if you're fretting a little bit and you want to just leave that 90 sitting there for a little while before you take it down to six months and maybe the summer, take it down to six months and throw it at the mortgage. And that gives you a little bit more peace. That okay if you want to do that but no i would not

invest it i'm going to throw it at you wouldn't do a backdoor Roth for like last year and just have that in okay no 15 15 of your income going into retirement above that everything goes towards the mortgage and you shouldn't have more in savings ever than three to six months of expenses, except if you're saving to buy an item. If you're saving up to buy a car, that would be a separate fund, or saving up for Christmas, that's a separate fund. Those kinds of things. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in.

We'll talk about your life and your money. Devin is with us. Devin's in Maryland. Hi, Devin. How are you? How's everything going today? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help?

I'm doing pretty good. So I have a question. I have a fleece, as you would say. Now my lease is up in July of 2020. So I'm working the baby steps and I'm working to get rid of that. The only thing I have left is my student loan, and I'm working to get rid of that. The only thing I have left is my student loan and I guess I will consider this lease. Now the question that I have for you is Dave that I got a couple offers to see if I can get rid of the lease early.

The buyout for this vehicle is about $33,000 and the offers, the value I have is about $26,000. So I do have enough saved up to pay the difference if I was to get rid of it. Yeah, but you're not going to pay $7,000 between now and July. I did the math. Just July of 2020, not July of this year, July of next year. This is 2020, honey. I'm sorry, 2021. Okay. All right. That helps. So 14 months?

Yes. Okay, all right. And how much would you pay out during that 14 months? About $9,500. Okay, or you can pay $7,000 now and give up the car? Correct. But I say I pay $7,000 now and I would have to buy i guess another vehicle to tackle my debt which would come up to about a thousand or fifteen hundred yeah you got to do that anyway next year yeah so that part's a wash it just uses up your cash but that part's a wash the point is we're just comparing seven to nine and so in a sense would you pay two thousand dollars which is the difference to drive that car for a year i think i'm getting rid of it that's enough of a spread i want out okay i think i think you did a good you did all your research you laid out your numbers beautifully you got your early

buyout you found out what the value is i mean assuming you sell the car for 26 i would not sell it for you know 24 25 because that's aeven. I'd rather drive it if I'm going to pay the money. But if you're not, if you can save money by getting rid of it, so if you could get $27,000, it starts to become like a no-brainer. Quickly, quickly. You know, the more you get for the car, the

better this situation looks. And that's exactly how you'll come out. So, hey, very well done. Good analysis there. Using your brain, man. Good stuff. Open phones at 888-825-5225. I remember when my second baby was born in April

and we filed bankruptcy in September. She was a little tiny thing. And we had a toddler. And we filed bankruptcy in September. She was a little tiny thing. And we had a toddler. And we were behind on everything. And the bill collectors were calling, and I was scared. I kept looking out in the driveway for a tow truck to repo my car. I remember being so scared I couldn't breathe. And some of you are there right now.

I understand. Been there, done that. And let me just tell you that broke is different than poor. Poor is a state of mind. Broke is I'm passing through. And when I hit that bottom and I hit it that hard, I had several things. I just said, never again, never again, never again. And you're going to say some things like, if you're facing that right now, you're going to

say some things like that. Never again. And once I said that and I started crawling out, I started showing other people how to crawl out and not only crawl out, but become very wealthy and extremely unbelievably generous. Once I started doing that, we developed a process to do it. We called it the baby steps and dadgum half of America is talking about baby steps. Now, millions and millions and millions of people have bought the books and bought the total money makeover books, been through Financial Peace University, been to our events and learning how to give outrageously. Everyday millionaires are everywhere because we went broke and learned these lessons and we said never again. I want you to say never again if you're hurting right now. You got to get something out of this pain.

If you're going to go through this crap, you might as well get something out of it. Get you a never again moment. Or you say, I'm never, hey, let me tell you, never again will a credit card company call my house unless it's a wrong number. I don't have any credit cards, and I haven't in 30 years. Never again, and I don't want to talk to those morons. Dave, you shouldn't say that. They're morons.

I do say it. I don't want them in my life. Never again. You want to learn this stuff? Check out Financial Peace University. Check out our Getting Started Assessment. Click start or text start to 33789 or DaveRamsey.com slash START. Text, it's free.

Text START to our YouTube channel. Donna's calling from New Orleans. Word is she's debt-free. Congratulations, Donna. Thanks, Dave. Excited to talk to you. You too. How much have you paid off? $228,200.

All right. How long did this take? 24 months. Whoa. And your. How long did this take? 24 months. Whoa. And your range of income during that time? Three months early on that 24 months. 60 to 120. Okay. So you must have sold something really large.

I did. What did you sell? I sold three whole life insurance policies and some land. All right. What did all of that sell for? $108,000. All right. So you still had $120,000 to go?

Yes, sir. And you did that in 24 months? What else did you do? Did you have money in savings? Nope. Nope. Just was Giselle Intense and beans and rice, rice and beans. So basically knocked out half of it selling stuff and pulled it off.

Yep. Game on, girl. And I sold a few other smaller stuff. My cats thought they were next. I love it. I love it. So what got you so fired up two years ago uh fpu at my church well there you go just like that financial peace university i was sick and tired of being

sick and tired okay and so when that class came up you went i think i need to do this oh i knew i needed to do it i was just saying prayers and and that was the answer to my prayers fun what church are you in uh saints community church here in metairie louisiana no metairie well great area i love it very cool congratulations how's it feel it feels amazing it's like it's it's just unbelievable it's so exciting so what'd you do to raise your income from 60 to 120 in 24 months well i have a physical therapy clinic and business you know just started working hard in my business and got it up to uh where i could pay myself 120 you know isn't it funny when you have a goal how you just end up making more money exactly it's like i got a reason to work now baby i got some stuff to do yes yes i do it yes truly truly it yeah i have to have a goal or i won't do

anything i'm just lazy as a bean but if i got a goal man if i got a goal i work like an animal you know exactly exactly i love it i'm so proud of you how old are you i am 56 years old all right youngster so who's the good looking uh uh military guy in your pictures you sent here for youtube that is my son patrick who just got married to that beautiful lady standing next to him my daughter-in-law who uh by chance are debt-free also, besides their mortgages. Wow. Well, tell him thanks for his service. I'm proud of them.

Good job. Very cool. And Dave, he even, me and him split the cost of him teaching FPU in his unit. Oh, wow. Very nice. I love that. I love that. Yes, and I've also put all my employees through FPU also. Well, thanks. We got you on board. I love that. I love that. Yes, and I've also put all my employees through FPU also.

Well, thanks. We got you on board. I love it. Thank you. Good to have you in our corner. What do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? A written plan, a budget, and because I'm single, accountability. Ah, I love it. A written plan, a budget, plan a budget who was your accountability patrick my son and billy my co-worker okay so how many times in 24 months i have to bust on you for getting out of line uh not really because we would like do it on a weekly basis at work and um like a

weekly basis at home so i was pretty giselle intense i was you know okay so just just knowing they were looking over your shoulder kept you online exactly i got you exactly and that really did do that for me because if they wouldn't have been over looking over my shoulder i don't know if i could have stuck with yeah because you were you were wide open i mean you're busting it. Well, so great. So great, Donna. I'm so proud of you. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaire's book for you. That's your next chapter in your story for sure.

You're on your way. You're on fire. Love this, love this, love this. All right, Donna in New Orleans. I'm sorry? So exciting. It is. Donna in New Orleans, $228,000 paid off in 24 months making 60 now 120 counted down

let's hear a debt-free scream three two one i'm dead free yeah I love it! Way to go, Miss Donna. Proud of you, kiddo. Proud of you. Thanks. So we were talking earlier. There's really three kinds of people out there right now. There's people that are really, really in a mess financially because they've lost their job or they're about to lose their job

or they're having to work from home or they're about to lose their job or having to work from home or they're being furloughed or whatever because their company's hurting all kinds of different things happening and they're just in they're having to stop everything and just take care of the necessities food shelter clothing transportation utilities then there's a kind of person who's just kind of been doing ish but now they're smacking themselves in the forehead going dad gum i wish i had an emergency fund. Dadgum it. And then there's the other kind of person who's been doing this stuff for years, and so they're in a position where they've got their emergency fund in place.

They've got some wealth. They're not fretting about the stock market. They're going to ride it down and ride it up and make money on it. They're actually, there's a lot of, if you're in that position you know you don't want to wish bad stuff on other people or anything but this is a prime buying opportunity for you in a lot of things if you're thinking about refinancing yeah the fed just crashed last night i mean they just drove the thing into the wall i mean they took it took it down to zero. I mean, it's like they were panicking back in 2008 again. And so, you know what, and then they dumped a bunch of bonds and bought a bunch of mortgage bonds off the market, which means mortgage rates are going to go down this week again.

If you haven't refinanced your mortgage and you're sitting on a 4%, 5%, 6% adjustable rate or a balloon, you need to refinance. If you're thinking about buying a house or a car and you've got the cash and you're in good shape financially, this is a great time to buy. If you were thinking about going on a trip, hey, nobody's there, and it's a deal, and there's nobody on the airplane. It's an amazing time to go on a trip. You don't have to worry about social distancing distancing there's nobody

on the airplane you got the whole freaking thing to yourself so don't worry about it so i mean it's pretty incredible so if you're in a position get your home refinanced if you don't have it paid off because you can get a zip a little bitty time go call churchillgage right now. Churchill Mortgage will get you lined up, baby. That's what's going to happen here. So pretty, pretty incredible stuff. And, yeah, those of you that invest in the stock market steadily, if you've got a little extra money and you're out of debt completely and you want to dump some money in there, it's on sale right now. There's a sale up at Wall Street.

They've got a big sign out front going out of business sale. No, it's not going out of there's a sale up at wall street they're got a big sign out front going going out of business sale no it's not going out of business but that's what some of you think but it's a great time to buy the blue lights on at kmart you know i mean none of you know what that is if you're not old but anyway there's a i mean it's a great time to buy it's definitely not the time to sell listen if you've got a really nice big piece of real estate and you you if you want to sell it like in the next two weeks you're gonna have to give it away because people are freaked out and when they're freaked out they're not thinking clearly and they give stuff away and you should be standing there when they give it away with your money

and get a deal on it and that includes getting your mortgage refinanced right now, baby doll, right now. And you do not cash in your retirement. Good Lord, no. The worst possible time. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you were going to do anything right now, buy more, but don't buy more. Just stick with what the plan is. 15% of your income going into retirement. Now, if you're on baby step seven and you got some money laying around that you haven't deployed and uh you want to drop some into some mutual funds you can i got a business i got to run through this downturn so i'm not going to be deploying any money excepting to keep this place open but uh man i wish i could drop a couple million right now into that thing because it

turned into about five pretty quick. Oh, oh, great. Hey, then you can, hey, if you're one of the ones that's terrified, that was me a few years ago. You could be over here on the other side taking advantage of these things. And it's not because we want bad things for these other folks, but you're here and stuff's on sale, baby. This is how it is, yeah. Take advantage of it. These mortgages are on sale right now.

Refinance, call Churchill. Get your refinance done. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Common Sense for your Dollars and Cents. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We teach you to live on less than you make, a concept Congress can't grasp. We teach you to save money in the house of the wise or stores of choice food and oil. But a foolish man devours all he has. If you spend everything you make, you're a fool.

On a plan. Live on a plan. A budget. Jesus said, don't build a tower without first counting the cost lest you get halfway up and you're unable to finish. And all who see you begin to mock you and say, this man began to build and was unable to finish. We teach you to stay out of debt because the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave. Some of you are feeling that right now.

Slave to the lender. We teach you to be outrageously generous. God loves a cheerful giver. And we teach you to hang out with people who you want to be like. Be not deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. You become who you hang around with. We teach you these common sense gods and grandmas principles, and here's the beauty of these principles. They work when things are going really good. When the economy is white hot

and everybody has a job and there's no worries and skittles and rainbows everywhere. They work. You can become very, very prosperous using those principles. These principles also work when there's a coronavirus, and everybody's preoccupied and scared to death and can't breathe and terrified. Then they kind of lost their minds a little bit, some of them a lot. Hysteria is in the land, and people are losing their jobs left and right. These principles work then, too, because if you're out of debt and you have an emergency fund and you're investing, that works in good times, and you have a plan and you're generous.

That works in good times, and that works in bad times. It's the only set of financial principles that work all the time. They're not situational. Because your values that you use, the principles that you use to run your life and handle your money will be tested when

stupid shows up. And when stupid stress tests your ideas, you get to find out if your ideas were crap or not and you got to decide what are you going to base your life on are you going to base your finances your marriage your kids your career your peace of mind i wear some stress out there right now i got a little around here there's some stress out there right now. I got a little around here.

There's stress around. The difference is where does your peace come from? I know where my stress comes from. But where does the peace come from and is it bigger? Is the source richer and is it deeper? The peace that passes understanding through Christ Jesus. There's a peace that's got some depth to it. That's a real one.

That's not Pollyanna. It's not to say that I won't have stress. I've had stress for the past 24 hours. It's freaking unbelievable. Last week I got the rare opportunity to cancel a sold-out cruise. Now that was a joyful freaking moment. So, yeah, we get stressed, but the question is, are we going to be overwhelmed by it, owned by it?

Is the world going to come unraveled inside of our brain? What are you basing your life on? What's your foundation? The principles that we teach work in great times, and they work in bad times. And they're the only set of principles that we teach work in great times and they work in bad times and they're the only set of principles that do and i didn't invent them i stole them from god and your grandmother i just have been the best marketer of them in the last century to convince people to do this and when people have done this um it's all over social media today dave ramsey all those dave ramsey people are happy they got their emergency fund.

The Dave Ramsey emergency fund people. And, yeah, well, shut up. It's a nice place to be. When there's an emergency, you know. Hey, I'm the guy that's been selling umbrellas and it's raining, you know. I'm popular right now. So there you go. So all of a sudden I look like a dad-blamed genius.

But I was a genius all along because I stole it all from God and your grandmother. I didn't invent any of it. Never was really a genius. I'm just really good at talking about it and making people believe they can do it and getting them to go do it. And it changes everything when you do. That's where you are right now. That's where you are right now.

So if you're really scared right now and things are really tough and some stuff piled up on you, hey, I've been there, I understand. You're going to be okay. You're going to get there. You're fretting and worrying about the virus. You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. Something's going to kill all of us.

You don't get out of this alive. So whatever, you know. Sometimes you get to choose what it is. Sometimes you don't. But something's going to kill all of us. So, I mean, I'm not going to sit around and go, you know, all these people die in a car wreck, so I'm walking. Wait a minute. Pedestrians get hit, too.

So now what do I do? So now I'm screwed up. You know, I mean, as soon as you try to alleviate all these things that are, you can't do it. You can't do it. You've got to find your peace in something other than a false cocoon living in a bubble. You can't do it. It won't work for you. So embrace this life.

Embrace it. Smile and step into it. And, yeah, sometimes it's scary as crud. I understand. And sometimes you don't know how the lights are going to be kept on, and sometimes you're worried about how we're going to do this. But, listen, you're going to be okay. You're going to be okay.

Keep your wits about you. Stay calm. You're going to be okay. You're going to be fine. It may get a little rough. I've been there. I'm not saying it's going to be okay. You're going to be fine. It may get a little rough. I've been there. I'm not saying it's going to be perfect, but you know, when we get to this time next year, you're all going to still be laughing about the toilet paper. It's going to be the great toilet paper rush of the spring of 2020. That's what people are

going to remember. It's going to be a memory. It's going to be a thing. Some of you can't tell me about Y2K. Some of you can't tell me about 2008. Some of you can't tell me about the swine flu. Almost none of you can tell me about polio. But all of these things were going to bring the world to an end at one point, if you don't remember. And people were over-dramatizing them and hysterical about them and scared to death and there was no peace in the land because there's always something that will come and challenge your little values.

And if your little values aren't based on the rock, they're going to crumble. They're sinking sand. You're going to have a problem. And this is the time you're stress tested. And the horrible news is you're stress tested. And the horrible news is you're stress tested. The great news is you get to determine what's real. It's going to show up. It's going to go, that doesn't work. That does work. I'm never going to be here again. I'm going to have the

emergency fund. I'm going to be out of debt. See, I don't have any payments anywhere. Would that be different in this situation for most people? Yes. I mean, I can't sell it for groceries or toilet paper, but I'm sitting in a $70 million paid for building. That's a pretty cool place to be when there's a storm outside. I feel like the little pig in the brick house, not the one in the straw house when the big bad wolf came and he huffed and he puffed and he blew your house down you know but i was in the straw house before and i went this straw house thing ain't working man i'm out of here next time the big bad wolf comes around we're gonna be in the brick house cue brick house from disco days but anyway yeah right so i mean really wow Q Brickhouse from Disco Days. But anyway, yeah, right? So, I mean, really?

Wow. So, not bragging, and I'm not shaming, and I'm not condescending. I'm right there with you. I understand. But there's something for everyone out there right now in these unique moments. And you get to discover in these unique moments who you is or you get to decide who you is maybe you didn't like who you is and now's your time to change you can make a decision to decide just decide i'm not never again man when we hit bottom i said it so many times never again

never again while i do business with American Express. Never again. Under any circumstances. Freaking thieves, man. Liars, cheats, scoundrels. Never again will I do business with Fifth Third Bank. Liars, cheats, scoundrels. I mean, you get these opportunities where you just go, I've learned my lesson.

I'm not reaching my hand back in there. Burnt my fingers. No, not reaching my hand back in there. Burnt my fingers. No, thank you. You get to decide. There's something in this for everyone. Something in this for everyone. And I'm here to help you find it. This is The Dave Ramsey Show.

Did you know over 16 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country to find the station near you head to Dave Ramsey.com slash show.