The Ramsey Show - App - Should We Be Worried About AI? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss:  "Should we be panicked about AI?" "Should we sell our rentals to pay off our home?" The Vikings stadium is about to be paid off, Learning to overcome fear and spend money, "Should my husband have a Roth IRA?" "How do I stay motivated on Baby Step 3?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 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 we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thanks for joining us, America. George Campbell, Ramsey Personality, host of the George Campbell YouTube show. You should check it out. Plenty of snark there.

Lots of fun there. You're going to learn something, and you're going to giggle and laugh and everything. And our phone number here today, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Peter is with us in Eugene, Oregon. Hi, Peter. How are you? Hi, Dave.

I'm doing well. I'm looking for some advice on handling the financial aspects of the panic that's starting and is going to continue around AI, artificial intelligence. Where is the panic? Well, first of all, they're looking at it as an existential threat. I understand all the philosophical panic, but you're talking about a financial panic. I missed any financial panic. Yes.

I've worked in the AI field for over 40 years, and we're turning a lot of things over to AI, including... I'm aware of that. Where is the financial panic actually occurring? It's on the horizon, and we're going to see bank accounts and mortgage paperwork that's moved around and gets lost, and I'm wondering how to protect ourselves during this transition over to more AI when those kinds of errors can come up. Okay, so there's not any.

Let me stop a second. I just want to make sure i'm real clear oh yeah i don't disagree with you that ai is a big freaking deal i'm yeah but what but and that there's going to be a lot of things that we don't even know are going to happen are going to happen as a result good and bad by the way um there's a lot of reason to be concerned and a lot of reason to be thrilled with the potential of AI. What I'm trying to point out is that there hasn't been any financial panic happen yet. Yes.

Except in people's minds. But are there things that I can do where I can, what sort of documentation, what do I need to get together? To protect yourself for what in particular? A couple of things, well, they're all associated with assets, like mortgages and paperwork that's at the bank. It's not beyond the scope that what I have in the bank could be transferred over to someone else who has a name close to mine who lives in Timbuktu. So do you keep banking records other than digital?

I keep some. They keep trying to get me to go digital. I'm thinking, well, should I go back to asking them to send me paper copies of everything or just hit print yeah is that i mean if you want to if you want to put a discipline in place for a period of time because you're concerned about that if you hit print that's fine um i do not um okay unless the entire civilization as we know it is collapsed by AI, which I'm not willing to go with that scenario, but unless that occurs, the mass transfer of banking assets to the wrong people is not going to happen. Now, is there going to be some of that oh absolutely there is some of that today you have eight dollar an hour people coding some of this crap and it gets in the wrong account now escrow accounts i bet you i bet you 40 of them are out of balance

they can't even seem to divide their insurance and taxes by 12 and properly charge it into the mortgage payment so i mean so we've always had a level of error the question is is do the institutions is the is the level of error so massive that it's uncorrectable if it is i don't think there is a protection for that if it's minor and you're the one uh are,000 customers out of 500,000 that had a problem and you've got to prove it to get your stuff put back, then, yeah, you probably do want to protect yourself against that, but you probably ought to be doing that anyway. Yeah, AI is using data that it has been given.

And so unless your bank records got hacked and fed into the AI systems, it feels a little verging on paranoia versus the reality. No, I think the hackers could use AI to actually clean out some accounts, to his point. I would go with him on that. I don't think that's paranoia. I mean, I think the hackers are going to see hackers use AI in a way that we haven't even dreamed up.

I mean, these buttholes can steal stuff that's not there regularly as it is this is just going to help them so ai is going to be uh it's a more efficient way to do fraud yeah that's what it amounts to but that doesn't mean that the bank is going to not be responsible for your ten thousand dollars that was in your account before some ai aided hacker cleaned your account out it just becomes one more way fraud could exactly more it's more efficient for everyone uh to you know to do content to create fraud to violate copyrights or trademarks or steal images it's a you know if you want to be crooked it's a more efficient way to be crooked that's the downside of this technology it's uh highly innovative and highly efficient oh my god it's amazing uh but also it's got such a powerful thing for good and uh it kind of feels

like when the internet was on the horizon we all went this is scary but also amazing i think we're just going to all adapt yeah but but i think um to go a 100% dark on it and predict the end of time because of it as an existential threat, no, because I still think humans have this weird idea that we want to be in control of crap. We're not going to let the robots take over. I just don't think, I mean, I don't think we're going to need Will Smith on this. I think we're going to be all right. And so, because we just, we, you know, people, thinking people are going, wow, powerful tool, scary thing, but wow, the vehicle versus the horse and buggy, powerful tool, scary thing.

You can run over the neighbor's dog. Hard to do that with a horse. That's true. You know, I mean, it's, you know, but it, but, you know. It's a good reminder to actually make sure you have good passwords and it's not just password on those old bank accounts. Keep your dog out of the street. And keep your dog out of the street. But the two life, you know, I mean, it's two life hacks.

But no, he's he's idea that there's already some kind of like stocks are have lost value in anticipation of what ai is going to do let me give you an example of that okay y2k anybody remember that old people young people kool-aid drinkers are you out there y2k yes yes remember the world was going to come to an end? I have a friend who wrote a book about the end of the world on Y2K, made millions of dollars doing it. Big bestseller. Wow.

Huge bestseller. He's written several bestsellers since then. None of them were like, I was wrong about Y2K. But anyway. But yeah. And I mean, but did stocks go down? They went down. What in january when the fireworks went off did the grid shut down did the world shut down no nope what happened nothing oh

wait a minute stocks went right up through the roof january that year was one of the best years ever look up january 2000 you'll love it this This is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is The Ramsey Show. For 30-plus years, we've been here on the air answering the same questions exactly the same way. Eventually, someone will hear us. You got to say what? A thousand times for it to click.

7,000 is the rule. Yeah. So, hey, we got people who tune into every episode of The Ramsey Show and they know everything we teach about money and they still feel stressed out and stuck. Why? Because knowing what to do is different than doing it. Ooh. Knowing what to do is different than doing it. Ooh. Knowing what to do is different than doing it.

Like the mute button. It does that. There we go. Yeah. I figured it out. I couldn't figure out where that was coming from. Okay. Yeah.

Personal finance is 80% behavior. The problem with my money is the guy in my mirror. If I can get him to behave, he can be skinny and rich but he has issues he likes donuts chocolate oh wait a minute this feels very personal i digress i digress real personal wait a minute this is not my personal counseling session i'm sorry okay uh the proven way to change your behavior with money is by getting in a situation where you're accountable and encouraged by other people turns out it is not good that man be alone. Remember the Fauci quarantine?

I remember the Fauci quarantine. It is not good that man be alone. No one liked being alone. We went full cast away. People got fat, went crazy, and remodeled their houses. It was not good, you know? And so it is not good that man be alone. Now, the proven way to do it, getting into a Financial Peace University class, 10 million people have done that.

And what happens is not only do we teach you the things you should have been taught when you're in high school, and no one teaches except us in high school. So there you go. And in case, you know, not only, but just knowing it doesn't do it. So the teaching, so you need to be in a group, in a class, whether it's virtual or in a local church. And that's why this class has worked for millions of people. Go to Financial Peace University, ramsaysolutions.com slash FPU. And let me tell you, folks, it's the best time you'll spend because you'll break some habits that some of you have had for 23 years.

Oh, 23 years. Was I talking to you? Must have been. Must have been God's voice. Did you hear it? Yeah. Ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. That was a joke.

Calm down. You can hear them freaking out. For those of you that are over-saved, calm down. So, George, guess what I found out? What's that? The state of Florida is genius. Okay. Tell me more.

At least on one thing. They have passed a law. They're one of 22 states now that has a mandatory personal finance requirement to graduate from high school. Ding, ding. We love it. Just went through. And the school boards are all going around now. The districts are all going around now. The districts are all going around, and we are at Ramsey,

the Foundations in Personal Finance, Ramsey Curriculum for High School Students. Our personal finance stuff is one of just a handful of approved curriculum. We got our final Florida approval this week. We meet all the standards. We meet all the standards, all the backup. That's awesome. And so your local district, if you're in florida has the requirement to teach something and they can choose ours so if you want if you're in florida and you want your kid or if you're just in florida and you want kids in general to go

through young teenage brilliant people to go through uh foundations and personal finance contact your local district and say hey we want ramsey we want ramsey we want ramsey if you're going to protest with pitchforks and uh and like uh torches and everything do it for a good cause you ought to just do something positive because you know how many times somebody calls a school board district or school board or a school district and says something positive that's none none this is like calling your preacher and giving him a compliment they never get one they always hear what was wrong with the sermon we

don't like you got this curriculum we don't like this book in the we don't like this we don't like that just what we like is we like ramsey in our schools and we would like it to be there and you have to teach something you might as well teach this so call them florida call your districts and let them know there's a big gap in those curriculums because some of the other ones, Dave, they're teaching all about credit and the importance of the credit score and how to lead this life of debt. It's exhausting. So we're out here going against the grain.

Now we could complain, but no. We were trying not to complain. Trying to be nice. There we go. Marilyn's in Houston, Texas. Hi, Marilyn. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, George. Hey, what's up's up thank you so much thank you for answering my call sure uh

i need some help with a decision before i make it okay um me and my husband would like to know should we sell our rental and our land we have a rental property. We have some land, and we also have my mother-in-law's home we need to sell to pay off our principal in the home we live in. It's a newer home. We bought it new. Would you share some numbers with me, please? How much do you owe on your present residence? $254,000. What is your land worth? My land, I got a call today, and they're trying to get me to sell it for $20,000. Okay. Although I was asking for $35,000.

What is the mother-in-law's property worth? $220,000. Is it paid off? It's paid off, but he has to share with two nieces. Oh, so what is your share of the $220,000? Is it a third? I'm sorry. You're getting one third?

I'm sorry. You're getting one third? He's getting 50%, and they're getting $25,000. Okay, so he gets $110,000 out of that. Okay, and then you had a rental. What would you get out of the rental? The rental appraised for $210,000. We have a mortgage on it.

How much? So $109,000 we owe. Okay, so you get $100,000 out of that. All right, so $100,000, $110,000, and $20,000 would give you enough to pay off your house, almost, but not quite, if you sold all pay off your house, almost, but not quite. If you sold all three of those things, correct? Yes, sir. Okay.

And why are you wanting to do all that? Because my husband, I feel like a workaholic, and he's just driving himself working, working, working, working. And he's 61. He's been on the job 37 years. And I'm just ready for him to relax more. So I'm telling him, you know, I'll call you guys. Y'all have any more money?

At this point, we have our emergency fund. That's all we have right now. So you got rid of all your bills, but you still got no money if you do this, right? Yeah. And we do have a vet that I owe $30,000 on. A Corvette? Corvette. Okay.

That's interesting. Well, that's because I was working and I was paying for it, but I ended up having a hip replacement. So now I'm at home still healing, but I am paying for it. I'm getting money to pay for it. Are you selling off everything inside to pay off your house, and then you're trying to tell me how you're keeping this $30,000 car? You're not driving.

That you can't even drive with a hip replacement. There's something funny about a hip replacement in a Corvette. I'm sorry. Oh, no. What's it worth? I have to make a decision. I've got to climb up in my truck, and I'm too sore to do it today, so I know exactly what you're talking about.

Okay. They told me it's worth $35,000. Okay. Yeah. I'm willing to get rid of it. I think if you got rid of everything and you had the house paid off, that'd be an awesome start. But I don't think I don't.

You sound like you think you're through when you do that. You got no money now. You got a paid off house, but we're going to dig up the bushes to eat. That's right. Yeah. We're going to have to have some money in addition to getting all this stuff paid off. And so I love the idea of it sounds like you're cleaning out

your closet and having a garage sale but it's a rather sophisticated one you're getting rid of a whole lot of clutter in your life and it's a great start but it's not a silver bullet like dave mentioned so i think these are all great things to do but we still need a game plan of how we can is there stop working one day is there any one of these items you're talking about selling that you other than the Corvette that you went, oh, man, I think we really shouldn't do that. We ought to keep it. No, I'm not.

Well, my husband wants to keep the new house. He thinks he worked hard. The new house, the one you live in. The one we live in. Yeah, but we weren't selling it. We were just paying it off, right? Yeah, but I was trying to tell him, let's do the Dave Ramsey way and go back our old house, pay it off, and pay our debt off, and we'll see how it goes. Yeah, I don't think that, I don't know where we got that being the Dave Ramsey way.

The Dave Ramsey way would be paying off everything by selling everything, keeping the new house, and then work a few more years and let's build us up a nest egg. You don't have to work like a maniac, but you do need to be aggressively saving in the next five to seven years. This is the ramsey show george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt free stage the, the Vikings football team. That would be incredible. What a tease. I was like, I don't know where Dave's going with this because that stage is wide open. James is going. The producer's in there going, nobody's on the stage, Dave.

Nobody's on the stage. What's going on? Dave's stage. James just had a heart palpitation from that. Yeah. But this is exciting news. Is this the first time that you've... It's the first time we've done a debt free screen with an NFL team?

Wow. I've not done one. We're not technically doing one. We're just doing it on their behalf. They didn't even ask us to, but we want to give them a big shout out and congratulations. You take it. The Vikings paid off their stadium. What was it?

27 years early, 23 years early. This is crazy. And they saved hundreds of millions of dollars in interest. I love the line. The Vikings can send their mortgage to Valhalla. The writer was having fun with this one. That's good. Way to go, writer. Wow. Oh, it's Mike Florio. No wonder. Okay. On Pro Football Talk. That's where the article's from.

Okay. Thanks, Mike. Good job, Mike. I like it. A new tax bill will dramatically accelerate the process of paying off U.S. Bank Stadium. Before July 1st, $377 million in bonds on the building will be retired at a savings of $226 million in interest. Wow. So the Vikings, I tell you, it's a nice stadium, too. You ever been? I don't think I've been over there. I've been there a couple times, and we've done a bunch of stuff there in minneapolis and uh a lot of the churches and things we work with and businesses we work with

have suites and so we've gone a couple times it is a beautiful stadium congratulations to the vikings it'll be paid off before the 2023 season so they're on the verge so they're and here's here's your invite if you guys want to come how does a viking scream i'm debt-free. And here's your invite. If you guys want to come. How does a Viking scream, I'm debt-free? Probably in a frightening way. Whether it's a football player or an actual Viking, still scary. But they have an open invite to come do their debt-free scream. Well, we definitely, we wouldn't even make you come here. We would allow you to do it over the phone.

If anyone from the Vikings organization wants to scream, I'm debt-free, we would be honored to. And if you want to invite us on the field during the game. I think it might be the only NFL stadium in America that is paid off. I could be wrong. These stadiums are insane. Is Jerry Doan paid off? Jerry might have paid off Jerry Doan.

He's got the money. Well, yeah, there's that, but I'm not sure. You never know. You never know. I honestly don't know, but this is the first time I've heard of this. And so. Would you go on the field and do the debt-free scream if they invited you? Oh, you bet.

To open up the season? Absolutely. I think this is some brilliant television. On top of that, the Vikings actually win, too. They're actually a good football team. That's helpful, too. It also helps with their revenue to pay this thing off. That's true.

Winning teams. We stayed at the, we were up there the last time doing an event we stayed at the omni oh yeah which is right next to their practice facility and there and i walked over we had some time i was doing my walk and i walked over went through the the museum and no one was in there but me but it was uh and all these ghosts of christmas passed but um a football pass but it's a fascinating museum i I mean, Fran Tarkington, all the, you know, the whole thing. It's just very, very cool.

Very cool. So, hey, way to go. Way to go, Vikings. Vikings are debt free. Well,

I like when a stadium's not desperate for revenue. Now they can actually make, you know, make the experience great for the fans and not jack up prices on the hot dogs

and all that good stuff. I'm thinking the prices on the hot dogs are probably going to stay the same. They're still going to be $17. Dang it. I'm thinking. But we're going to eat for free when we go.

Are we? I don't know. Just because we did this. Just because. Just because we loved on them. We'll mention you guys on air. We're not above a schmooze for a free hot dog. That's all we're saying.

But yeah. Hey, cool stuff. Very cool. The stadium's already been in existence for seven NFL seasons, hosting a Super Bowl and a Final Four and various other events. Lots of various other events. The building is in first-class condition, and it is. It's in excellent condition.

It's a $1.1 billion stadium. It's pretty amazing. It's a beast. It really is. And the old one, remember, in the old days, you probably know, the one year they had the blow-up roof type thing over it, and it collapsed with too much snow on it back in the old days. This is the one before this.'s minnesota problems right there not issues we have in tennessee unless

humidity will collapse something but you know open phones here at 888-825-5225 connor is with us in uh atlanta georgia hey connor welcome to the ramsey show good afternoon dave and george how are y'all better than we deserve deserve, man. What's up? I have been living on rice and beans for years, and I am scared to live a little. How many years? Oh, about six. Why? I'm currently 22.

I've been in, yeah, I took your class in high school. My parents taught me to leave the randy way uh tripped and fell a couple times but uh i didn't go to college and just instantly started saving every penny i made you know didn't live off none just save save save how much money do you have now i'm currently about 200 000 good for you how old are. 22. You're an old man. And what's your household income, sir? About $160,000 a year. What do you do for a living?

I am a car or truck driver. Wow. You're killing it. Okay. Okay, let's clarify a couple things the ramsey way is live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else that's the ramsey way not living in a cave and collecting lint and only coming out on triple coupon thursday the rest of your life that's not the ramsey way okay so generosity and enjoyment should increase as wealth increases.

Okay. And I think you're just stuck on the saving part of the button, aren't you? Yeah. I'm, you know, I'm, I'm scared to really touch any of it.

Um, yeah, we've got a flat tire, so we've got give, save, spend. That's the only three things you can do with money. And you're great at the savings part. And so what I would do if I'm in your shoes is I would force myself to have some goals in the giving arena and the spending arena that feel frivolous, that feel crazy for Connor at 20. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm spending this much on a vacation. I can't believe I'm going to tip that

waitress a thousand dollars. But man, when you you do it it is going to be so freeing connor uh if i were to step back if if you were to step outside of your body for a minute and just look at your life from a distance and you were looking at your whole situation what's something connor should be spending money on that he's not? Oh, man. I mean, I'm not sure. Just give me two things. There's two things. You are sure. You know exactly what I meant.

I mean, I'd eventually like a vacation. A vacation. What would be an outrageous vacation for you in your mind? Australia. Okay. And what would you spend on this outrageous vacation? Oh, I don't know, maybe $10,000. Okay, and you have $200,000, right?

Yeah, most of it's tied up, though. What's it tied up in? The stock market. In mutual funds or stocks? Mainly stocks. Retirement account? I have 401k about 60 000 that's in 401k it's not tied up if it's in a stock honey you put in a sell order and you have the money by tomorrow it's not tied up at all there's no rope involved in the stock market they don't use

rope there okay okay it's it's you're thinking of it properly as a long-term investment not something to jump in and out of but let's pretend that tomorrow you had 190 000 instead of 200 would you still be okay oh yeah okay so i think george is right maybe even we baby steps maybe we don't spend 10 000 maybe we spend 5 000 and we go somewhere other than australia because you do need't spend 10,000. Maybe we spend 5,000 and we go somewhere other than Australia because you do need to spend 10 if you're going to go there. But let's baby step it and say I'm going to – because what's happening is George is exactly right. The tire is flat and those muscles haven't been worked. And we need to work a giving muscle and we need to work a spending muscle. So pick out a number that you're going to splurge on giving and find something that

makes you cry hungry children children in the burn ward or the cancer ward i don't know what is it that makes you cry and give them some money and find something for you and take that same exact amount of money and go do a trip and start to build this muscle. Maybe find a hobby. Dave picked up golfing. Oh, no, don't do that. Don't do that. That causes all kinds of...

Too much stress. Too much mental illness associated with that. No, but yeah, find something that's fun. Yeah, don't do that. This is The Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jill is in Milwaukee.

Hi, Jill. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave and George. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my husband and I are new to Baby Step 4, and we're wondering if we should open an IRA for my husband.

So we both have matches with our employers' 401Ks, and we're doing that. Then after the match, I already had an IRA, so I'm maxing that out, but we still have a bit to go to get to our 15%. So we're wondering if it's best to open an IRA for him, or do we go back to our 401ks, do the rest in the Roth options, or what would you recommend? You got Roth options on the 401ks. So the difference in a Roth option and a Roth option for an individual, there is no difference as long as the mutual funds are the same thing. If you got crummy mutual funds on the 401k, you could do the individual. If you want to do the individual, it's okay. But you've got all the match you can get, right? Correct, yes. Yeah, and I'll tell you

what I did with our Ramsey 401k is we've got a Roth option here. And so for many years, I just used the Roth 401k and did my 15% there and didn't contribute to a Roth IRA. So unless you're maxing it out, the income goes up to where you would move to maybe a backdoor Roth IRA or something like that, you could stick to the Roth 401ks if they've got good options. Yeah. As long as you've got good mutual funds in there, you're fine. Okay. Sounds good. So then would you recommend what the amount that I'm putting into the IRA actually go into my 401k because i have a bigger bucket of savings there doesn't matter where the doesn't matter the size of the bucket

all that matters is the quality of the investments is your ira or roth it is yes okay no i'd leave it alone it's fine as long as you got good mutual funds the size of the bucket doesn't change it as long as it's the total all that you're getting you're making money on every dollar regardless of where the dollar is laying now if one mutual fund is losing five percent one's gaining 15 that's a different thing right yeah but in terms of the buckets if you got ten thousand dollars in one in your roth and you got 150 000 in your 401k you have 160 $150,000 in your 401k, you have $160,000 working for you. It doesn't matter which pile it's in. Okay.

All right. That makes sense. That doesn't change the math at all. So good question. Good question. Hey, here's what's cool, Jill. You're going to be rich. You know why you're going to be rich?

Because you're paying attention. Asking these kinds of questions. Number one correlating factor between people who have money they pay attention and they invest consistently all the time that's simple they're asking questions like she's asking broke people don't ask questions like you'll ask and you know unless they're trying to not be broke anymore you know but i mean they don't but people that do that this intentional I actually am going to spend some time learning about a Roth IRA, putting money in a Roth IRA instead of re-watching Tiger King. And these are the people that end up, I mean, does anybody really re-watch Tiger King?

But it could happen. It's plausible. It could happen. I mean, that's so old now, it's not even a joke anymore. People don't even remember it, Dave. People have been born since then. We've tried to block out everything from the Fauci COVID era. Oh, that's true.

It's all a little blurry. Yeah, it's a little Fauci'd up. So open phones at 888-825-5225. Matthew is with us in Phoenix. Hey, Matthew, how are you? Hey, George. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. I

really appreciate it. Sure. How can we help? Yeah. So I completed baby step two about a few months ago, which feels great, especially doing it for three years of just work, work, work, sleep, sleep, eat, and work more. Now I'm trying to stay motivated and just wondering if you guys have any tips to keep motivated, to keep going through, get that baby step three done. How much longer do you got? What's your number now and what are you aiming at? I'm at about $3,000 saved now and my goal is around $14,000. How long is it going to take you? My goal is probably by December, January at the latest of next year.

Sounds good. Of next year. Are you saying like a year and a half? No, no. You're saying six months from now you're going to be done? Yeah. Okay. That's more reasonable.

Good, good. Okay. And how long have you been working on this so far um i started um with the whole program or just on baby step three okay um but i mean how long did it take you to get out of that um it took me about a little over three years and four months. Ah, okay. All right. So you're tired. I get it.

I'm going to catch it on. Okay. Um, did you sense something when you got the debt paid off? Like, did you have a celebration moment when that, when you cleared the baby step two? Uh, yeah, I went and went to Taco bell and ordered off the dollar menu whoa you go big go big so you didn't even like eat like real food or anything oh my gosh no no why i mean did not that you're being silly and i am too but seriously the question i'm asking is when i got out of debt i could feel it physically in my chest.

It was gone. There was like a used to be a 300-pound guy standing on my chest, and he was gone. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I felt like I lost about 20 pounds just from my shoulders. Exactly, exactly. And that's all joking aside. So what I want to tell you is that when you finish baby step three, you've got the foundation laid. You have an emergency fund and you have no payments but a house payment.

You're going to feel that in a way you have even more so than just when you clear baby step two. Because like Dr. John Deloney talks about, our bodies store the stress of being broke. Being broke is having a bunch of debt and no money. And when you don't have any debt and you have some money, called your emergency fund baby step three, you're going to look at that and go, I have $15,000 and I don't have any payments. There is no wolf at my door.

I can breathe. It's worth it. You can make it six more months to get to that feeling. Aim at that feeling. That's worth it. You can make it six more months to get to that feeling. Aim at that feeling. That's where you're going. It's going to be like going up in the mountains and breathing cool air. Like if quiet feels good in your lungs, you know what I'm saying? It's freedom.

You know what I'm talking about? Yes, I do. Yeah, breathe that. Breathe that. That's coming in just by December. How old are you? I am 36. You have done such a good job, and you're almost free. Matthew, I remember this feeling that you had. I got out of my $40,000

in consumer debt, and I went, woo! It was so exciting. It's like whack-a-mole getting rid of those debts, and the debt snowballed, and then you get to baby step three, and it's a little discouraging. There's no immediate reward. It feels like the hardest step. You're in the middle of the marathon. Saving is boring. You're tired of working the three jobs. And when you're paying off debt, you're making progress back to zero. We're climbing out of the hole, out of a negative net worth, getting to solid ground. But when I reframed my brain and went, oh my gosh, I'm now building for the future instead of paying for the past. That was a game changer for me emotionally to go, oh my gosh, I've never had a positive net worth in my life. I'm changing my family tree. Generational curses are being broken. And that

really lit a new fire under me for a new adventure. And so I think that's part of what you need to do with your situation. Yeah, there's kind of three things that happen that cause a tremendous release that you physically, it's a physiological shift. One is, first and foremost, you get control. Get on a budget and you're not bouncing checks. I remember sitting at my desk in my 20s and I had missed a check. I didn't write it down. And so I'm realizing I've got checks outstanding and there's not money in the account.

That pit in your stomach, my stomach tightening up, sweat in the palm of my hands across the top of your lip, across the top of your eyes, your adrenaline glands start to release, and you're just like, that's just terror. That fear comes over you. I remember that sense, and I remember thinking, never again. Never again. Never again.

Never again. So I'm going to be in control. I'm going to be on a budget. I'm going to be in a detailed plan. I'm going to be executing with great, great diligence. Number two, I'm going to get out of debt. I'm not going to owe a soul. You don't have any payments, and you have a plan.

Oh, my gosh. And then add to that, you've got $15,20,000 sitting there for only for emergencies. It's not for a bass boat. It's only for emergencies. Those three things will cause your physical symptoms of anxiety to go down. Dr. John Deloney can tell you more about that, but that's exactly the truth. You'll get where you can breathe again. Your whole, you know, it's a whole different world. And you're not going from terror to terror to terror to terror.

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