The Ramsey Show - App - Special Guest Lewis Howes on Being Successful in Life (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 12, 2019

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Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions Broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America. Thank you for being here. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is going to be William in Qatar. Hi, William. How are you? I'm doing great, Dave. I'm so happy to be talking to you, man. How are you? I'm doing great, Gaze. I'm so happy to be talking to you, man. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. Are you serving in the military there or something else? I am a contractor. Me and my wonderful wife have been over here for four years, and I'm going home in two days. And I've been doing your plans since 2007. We've been gazelle and tents for all that time,

and we are now millionaires, and we just bought a Dave house, all cash, and I want to ask you if I can buy a Dave car, a brand-new, luxury, expensive car, and I want to know if you will approve. Way to go. So you've been making bank as a contractor overseas. You're finishing up the tour.

You're coming home. Wrote a check and bought a house for cash. Right? That's correct. What's the house worth? After we renovated it, it's probably my wife, she's a real estate agent. She thinks it's worth $250. I think that's generous. I think it's like $230,000.

Gotcha. And is your net worth over a million dollars? Yes, it is. Okay. And what kind of a car are you talking about buying? It's the new 2019 Acura RDX. Nice car. And my uncle works for Honda, and he's letting me use his discount.

But it still comes out to $55,000. And what's your household income? I just got a job in Tampa making $95,000. And our other car is a 2009 Nissan Altima, which I will be driving. Obviously, the wife will be driving the Acura. And your wife makes money as a real estate agent. So what's your household income projected? We're going to be moving to a new area.

We were up in Pensacola. We're moving down to Tampa. She's got to start all over. So I can only really count my income. Gotcha. How long has she been selling real estate? She's got to start all over, so I can only really count my income. Gotcha. How long has she been selling real estate? She was doing it for four years, but when I got the opportunity. What was her best year before she moved away?

I think $40,000. Okay. All right. Well, she'll probably make that much or more pretty quickly, because once you know how to do the business, you just got to develop the contacts. It'll take a little while to get the pipeline going. So it's pretty safe to say you guys are going to make in excess of $100,000 to $150,000, somewhere in there in the coming year or two.

I mean, I'm just trying to project out here. And your net worth total is how much? We got the house. I have about 450. We have about 450 in retirement. And it's all raw. So taxes have been paid. And then we have about 430 in cash just sitting there waiting for what we're going to do with it when we get home.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Well, way to go, man. How old are you two? I'm 46. She's 48. You've done a great job. Congratulations.

Yes, I would buy the car. All right. Okay. She's going to be happy to hear that. Yeah. Well, let me tell you, number one, you're paying cash. Number two, you're buying a new car, which only happens after you have a million-dollar net worth.

And number three, the total of your vehicles is less than half your annual income. Okay? Yes. And that tells me that the ratios in your life are not being ruled by a car. And so, way to go, man. You've done great. Congratulations, sir sir an everyday millionaire i love it victoria is with us in kansas hi victoria how are you good how are you better

than i deserve what's up hi um i have a question about medical bills and hsa's. So I have about $4,600 in medical bills and I'm single so you can put in, I'm putting in about $5,500 this year because I over judged what I should be putting in my HSA. I can pay that quicker without taking it from through my, if I don go through the hsa if i just take it out of my bank account but i i have a hard time justifying that because the hsa money is taken out of my check pre-tax and when i spend it to pay for those medical expenses it's still not taxed there's zero tax on it there's zero tax on it and so for what And so what's your household income? I make $60,000, and my boyfriend makes $92,000. Well, your boyfriend is not your household. I'm talking about your taxes on you because you can't file taxes with your shack up.

That doesn't work. They don't let you do that. $61,000 would be mine. Okay. So anyway, so it's you. You're probably 20%, and so every $1,000 that you run through the HSA of medical bills saves you $200. And this is $5,000, so this is a $1,000 savings if you use HSA money to pay this $4,600. Yes, I would use HSA money to pay this 4600 bucks yes i would use hsa money to pay the 4600 bucks absolutely run it through the hsa saves you a thousand bucks of course you do that

no no reason to give the government taxes that we don't have to give them thanks for the call open phones at triple 888-825-5225. Dara is with us in West Palm Beach, Florida. Hi, Dara. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you today? Better than I deserve.

What's up? So my husband and I are at a very interesting, God's word, to a very interesting transitional place in our life, in every single area of our life right now, for the most part. We just sold our house prayerfully with not even 100% where we're going. We did make a profit on it. We also are at a very interesting point with my husband, the pilot. He has his job, and then I've been blessed with a wedding and event business that has been amazing. And the business is continuing to grow.

So we originally started this journey of praying about whether or not to sell our house based on the thought of taking the business to the next level for a future for our family and having a home on land, but then also having the business there too and also growing it to a venue. So that way we have a place to run the business. How much have you made in the wedding business in a year, the most you ever made in a year? Just profit, no inventory or anything. This would be our third official year, and we're just $4,000 this year in the profit. $4,000? Yeah.

Okay. You don't invest in event space when you've made only $4,000. You rent event space for $4,000. Now, if you want to buy a house with a piece of ground, and later on when you're making $50,000 in weddings and then use some of that money to build an event space on a piece of ground later, that'd be fine. But no, I would not invest in event space when you've only made $4,000. Thanks for the call. With more frequency than you know, I get calls and emails from people dealing with the recent loss of a spouse or a parent. You can hear the struggle and the heartache that they've been experiencing. And at a time they should be grieving, what breaks my heart the most is the strain and tension that they're going through because of money, especially when it's a situation

that could have been avoided. If you have a family, it is your responsibility to have term life insurance. It's one of the things you do to say, I love you. And yes, this is an ad for Zander Insurance. But since this is one of the most effective ways I say I love you. And yes, this is an ad for Zander Insurance. But since this is one of the most effective ways I have to get my point across, so be it. For over 20 years, I've been telling you about the importance of term life insurance and protecting your family. Listen, you need to check out Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. I can't say it enough. Protect your family.

It's what you're supposed to do. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. greatness is in the house baby yes sir One of the hottest podcasts out there. Lewis Howes, a friend from over in Los Angeles, stopping by here in Nashville. Going to be in the neighborhood. And we said, dude, would you please come on the air? Chris Hogan's been on his show, been on his podcast. This guy is a New York Times bestselling author. The podcast is The School of greatness provides a framework for achieving real sustainable repeatable success welcome brother thank you sir appreciate to have you man you are killing it proud of you i'm having fun man i'm trying to follow in your footsteps you're not following my foot this is hot man i

mean you've had shapiro on and gary v and r-Face Hollis. Yeah, she was just here. Mike Hyatt. You'll let anybody on this thing. Mike and I have been friends for 30 years. These are all my buddies. Donald Miller, Bob Goff, The Minimalists. These are all guys I know. So we run in the same circle. Exactly, yeah.

Very well done. Excited to meet you. You too. Appreciate it. Congratulations. And the new book out by the same name, The School of Greatness, A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy.

So you had Hogan on back in January. I did. The voice. The voice. Was he any good, though? He was pretty good, actually. I really didn't know much about him, and your team was like, we really want to have him on, so we had him on, and he blew me away.

He had some amazing wisdom, and I think he just had simple practical stuff that we can all apply in our life which i really liked yeah yeah you gotta have stuff i gotta put the cookies on the shelf where i can reach them exactly you know and he's really good at that he really is and the voice delivery just makes it all amazing america's trusted boys that's good stuff so i read that you were broke with student loans living off credit credit cards, on the sister's couch, all this stuff. How do you make a shift out of basically homeless, right? I mean, for a year and a half, almost two years, I was on my sister's couch. I used to play arena football, actually just south of here in Huntsville, Alabama.

Yeah, I remember. The Tennessee Valley Vipers, for anyone here in this area. Yeah. And I got injured. I broke my wrist and had to have a surgery, and I was in a cast for six months. I was in student loans. I was living off about three credit cards, which was a big no-no for you, I understand. Wasn't a big no-no for you, apparently.

A huge no-no for me. And I got to the point where it was just my sister said after a year and a half, she said, okay, you either need to start paying rent, so you got to get a job, or you got to move out. Good. Good for her. And she finally gave me the push that I needed because she was allowing me to live there, kind of rent-free, living off of her, eating her scraps of food, and just kind of feeling bad for me. And when she finally said, now's the time for you to go,

I didn't have really the financial support from my parents. I didn't have that stuff. So now this gave me the desire to go create something for myself. And early on, I said, I need to find mentors in life, some coaches who can help me learn how to make money. Because at the time, I lived this lifestyle playing football that I didn't want to go work at a job when I had a taste of this lifestyle. Working for myself, playing in front of 10,000 people every week, doing something that I really enjoyed. So I felt like I needed to go figure out if I could go do this on my own.

Let me ask you something. Because I've known a lot of world-class athletes, and you were world-class in college. I mean, you set all kinds of records and all this stuff. Then you go into arena ball, and then in – well, not in one play, because you played the rest of the season with a broken wrist. But then in one surgery at the end of the season, that dream hit the wall. No pun intended.

Yeah. It did hit the wall. And I've known a lot of guys that went through that, and they didn't bounce back. So was the two years, I mean, were you like a little depressed? I was very depressed. It wasn't a little. It was my whole identity and dream was wrapped around that's what i was thinking there was no backup plan there was no oh let me

save my money because i just figured i was going to keep making more eventually so your sister grabs you up by the nap of the neck and kicks you in the butt and says you can't live on my couch it's i don't like you that much and you gotta get out i love you enough to make you go be who you're supposed to be it was powerful and i think we all need someone like that in our lives when we're kind of struggling to push us forward and to kind of give us that nudge. But you're coachable. And so she coached you that minute. I was very coachable. That was the thing.

I think you've got to be coachable in order to take the wisdom and take the advice and take the lesson and move forward. And I wasn't coachable for about a year and a half because I was wallowing in my depression. It was my identity and I can't do this anymore. Exactly. My whole identity is wrapped up in this. My dreams are shattered with my wrist, yeah. Exactly. But I think I've always had a desire

to make something of my life. Like since I was a kid, I always had this dream to be something greater. And I think this was the call to move forward in that moment to, okay, now's the time to figure it out. So how old are you now? the time to figure it out. So how old are you now?

I'll be 36 this Saturday. Okay, cool. Cool. All right. So you're basically saying we're going to achieve real, sustainable, repeatable success. The school of greatness, you know, you and I share that belief that there are principles that people follow who become successful. What are a couple of those things that you show folks in The School of Greatness in the book? And one of the reasons I really started down this journey is as I was leaving my sister's couch trying to figure out – actually, I started to go on apply for certain jobs, and I didn't know how to apply for a job. I wasn't really taught that in school.

And I remember thinking to myself, school didn't really teach me that much about being successful in life. It didn't teach me how to live a life of legacy, a life of meaning, a life of purpose. It taught me other practical things that could help me with my career. But I was like, well, I'm not really sure what I'm going to want with that. And I remember saying to myself, I really wish they taught me how to handle my emotions when I fail. I really wish they could teach me how to figure out a new identity when I lost my identity, how to manage my money because they didn't teach me that in school, how to have a thriving relationship with an intimate partner or how to manage a breakup.

These things I never learned. And so my emotional mind, right, would consume me in these moments of breakdown in my life. And I started to find the mentors and coaches. I started listening to people like yourself who could educate me on money, who could teach me how to get out of debt. I started asking people about health because I gained a lot of weight. And I said, okay, how do I get my health back in check? I started asking spiritual mentors about how to find my mission and purpose. And I said, I want to create something that I wish they would have taught me in school.

And so that became the process. But first I had to be coachable. And as an athlete, that's what I was able to do, luckily. Yeah, you've got that. Your brain is trained that way from youth as a world-class athlete is what it comes down to. Lewis Howes is our guest this segment. Drop him by from L.A. His huge podcast, and you really need to check it out. Millions and millions and millions of downloads since 2013. It's called The School of Greatness.

His New York Times bestselling book is called The School of Greatness. His New York Times bestselling book is called The School of Greatness. If you want to go to school on being great, this is what you plug into. And you can pick up the book, of course, anywhere great books are sold. But check this podcast out. He is on fire right now. I mean, he's Forbes, Men's Health, Today Show, New York Times. All the media outlets are picking up on Lewis. This is a really hot property writer sitting next to me.

He's getting things done, man, moving things around. So out of all your accomplishments, what are you proud of right now? I'm proud that I've found peace in my heart. I think my personal accomplishment, because I think I was always living to prove people wrong my entire life. I wanted to show people who made fun of me when I was younger that I was better than them or that I could do what they said I couldn't do. I wanted to make something of myself to prove others wrong, and that left me living with a lot of anger and resentment. And when I learned to do things to lift others up, and what you talk about in your steps is to be of service and give back. That's when I found the most peace and fulfillment. And so I'm proud of that internally,

but also our whole mission is around impact and giving back. Everything we do is to serve others. We built schools for kids for the last seven years. Every year, we build almost 40 schools around the world. And for me, it's giving people without the opportunity to go to school, education is powerful. I had the education, even though it wasn't what I wanted, the type of education.

A lot of people don't even have that opportunity. So for me, it's to give back to kids that don't even have that. That's fun. I understand. A lot of fun. Lewis Howes. I'm grateful to be here. L-E-W-I-S Howes, H-O-W-E-S dot com.

Lewis Howes dot com. The School of Greatness. Look up the podcast. You don't want to miss it. He's got everybody that's anybody on there. And someday I'll get on there. Yes, sir. So the book is called The School of Greatness.

The podcast is called The School of Greatness. Do not miss this guy. You will be an instant fan like we are around here. Thanks for dropping by, sir. Appreciate it, sir. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. The last thing I want you to feel is buyer's remorse, especially when you offered thousands more on a new home to win a bidding war. If I've taught you anything, it's that blindly throwing money at a problem is a stupid plan

and something you'll regret for years. The key to avoiding this rookie mistake is to call Churchill Mortgage and get certified. This easy program puts you miles ahead of your competition because you are pre-underwritten. Your interest rate is secured, and yes, you can close within 14 days. Don't fall into the trap of offering more money just to compensate for a poor plan. Call Churchill Mortgage today and get certified. Call 888-LOAN-200 or visit churchillmortgage.com. This is a paid advertisement.

NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Victor is in Colorado Springs. Hey, Victor, how are you? Hi, Dave.

Thanks for taking my call. It's my birthday. Happy birthday. Pretty awesome. Thank you. Thank you. I just have a quick question. I've been listening to your podcast the last few weeks while I've been working out.

Pretty exciting stuff. But we're kind of in a different space than most 24 and 25-year-olds. So my wife recently got, or I guess about a year ago, got diagnosed with kind of a rare blood disease that kind of knocked her out of work. She's on short-term disability right now, getting about 70% of her income, and she can't really do that job anymore. So she's getting ready to quit. She found another job that may be a little easier, but the thing is we're not really sure kind of where her health will be at in the future because it's kind of so rare. We're in a clinical trial. That should help, but, you know, the unknown is just kind of unknown.

What do you make? Right now I make about $68,000 a year. What does 24 months add to this equation? Two years from now, do you think you guys will have a better handle on what's going to happen with her? Yeah, I think we will. It'll depend on how she reacts, like this medicine that she's getting ready to try. And the thing about that is we tried to get her medicine covered under insurance, but since it's not for this thing she has, it's an off-label use, and so that's kind of...

Here's what I would recommend. I would recommend you don't do the baby steps okay temporarily you are in the middle of a hurricane yes and in the middle of a hurricane you don't try to do anything except survive the hurricane sure and so all you do right now is you work your budget the two of you, and the first thing we want to do is see how high we can pile cash. Right. And right now we have about $14,000 in savings. I want you to have $114,000. Okay.

We have $70,000 in investments. I don't know if that counts. Stop investing. Don't invest. Okay. Do not invest. Do not work the baby steps. Do not do anything except pile up cash until you get the other side of this.

Right. And I guess my question is, you know, I mean, we don't know if this is going to stop in a year or two years. You're going to have it quantified, and in two years you're going to know what the prognosis is. You're either going to have a lifetime of X, Y, or Z. You're going to know what it is. We don't know what it is today. We don't know what the prognosis is. You're either going to have a lifetime of X, Y, or Z. You're going to know what it is. We don't know what it is today. We don't know what the trials are. But you're going to know, okay, this thing's ongoing.

We're going to have to write these kinds of checks, and it becomes part of our budget because it's chronic. Or we're working towards a cure that is right in front of us, and we've got three more months of treatments to get there, or whatever it is. I don't know. But two years from now, you're going to know a whole lot more than you know now. You're only going to be 26 years old. Right.

You've got plenty of time, and we're just going to take care of her. That's all we're going to do. Yeah, and our insurance is good. I mean, you know, we have a a four thousand dollars a year max on her so why do i have the feeling you didn't hear me i did okay just pile up cash just pile up cash until until you get this stabilized and you know what you're dealing with there's still too many unknowns right now to work a plan you see what i'm saying right and i just want you to take care of her man you got plenty of time you're going to be able to invest you're going

to be able to do your emergency fund we're going to let's pretend that two years from now you had a hundred thousand dollars in your account and that's all you had done that's the only thing you had done and then we've got this stabilized then you take that hundred thousand dollars and you work the baby steps whatever debt you you got, you pay it off. Whatever's left over after that, we do baby step three and finish an emergency fund, a properly done one, not an overdone one, three to six months. Six months. Because we've got this quantified. It's now part of the budget.

It's part of the rhythm of our life. Then we start baby step four and 15% of our income. Or then we buy a house. But you don't need to buy a house right now. You don't need to invest right now. We already we already have a mortgage we've already got a house okay yeah just pay your payments and pile up cash yep so just pay the minimum don't pay anything extra on anything exactly let it flow and don't worry about interest rates none of that just cash cash is king it's going to grease the emotional wheels of your life,

which will give you guys peace as you struggle through this medical thing. And when you completely focus on it and you don't do anything else and you don't have to worry about anything because we've got a big pile of cash, it just makes it easier to fight through something like you guys are facing. Then when you get the other side of it, maybe it's not two years, maybe a year from now you've got a solid diagnosis, you know exactly where you're going, then kick your baby steps in and, you know, again, be debt free other than the house, baby step two, baby step three, fund your emergency fund with this pile of cash.

You're really not going to lose any ground and you're going to gain a lot of peace from this focus. And so I just really wouldn't start the baby steps until you get this stabilized. Crystal is with us in Flint, Michigan. Hi, Crystal. How are you? I'm well, David. Thank you. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, my husband and I, we've been married for about 20 years, but we were separated for several years. I stayed together with him, but we had separate maintenance and everything. And just we have decided we are going to reconcile. However, back into the marriage, he brings a tremendous IRS debt that I was not totally aware of. How much?

It's about $30,000. And what's your income and his income? Well, I've been a student for five years. I graduate next month. Okay, good. His income, which he brings into the relationship, is about $5,400 a month. And what will you be making? Well, I'm doing my internship right now.

After my internship, I'm hoping to start out at about $30,000. Okay, and he's making about $70,000. So you're going to have a $100,000 income, and you have a $30,000 IRS debt. That's doable. You can pay it off. Well, here's a question I have. I have saved up about $40,000. Oh, good. So one of my, this is really an answer to prayer that I am able to speak with you today. I don't know if, I'm afraid somehow that if we combine our our um bank accounts again that

they're going to take that money okay that's no you're going to use the money to pay it off or you're not going to combine your bank accounts okay so i should use all of that saving. I'm 60 years old, so I've been saving for a long time. Okay, how long have you how long were you separated? We were separated well, at least five years.

Good Lord. Okay, are you having someone, a marriage counselor or pastors guide you guys in this reconciliation process? No, unfortunately not. No, you need to. Because you don't need to combine your finances and your lives again until trust. Whatever happened that the trust was broken at this level,

it's going to take some time. I mean, it broke to the point that you were apart for five years. That's an eternity. And so that trust has to be rebuilt as a part of the reconciliation program. And it's not blind trust. The trust is rebuilt based on actions. So whatever he did or you did that caused you all to not want to be together, that has to be undone slowly, gradually, and become trustworthy, worthy of trust. He has to be.

You have to be. Before you combine your finances. But once that is established, then you combine your finances, you write a check and pay off the IRS debt. But I wouldn't do that blindly. If you're not sure you can trust him, he's not sure he can trust you, then the reconciliation is not complete. So you guys need a professional marriage counselor and pastor to guide you guys through these steps to make sure that you're knitting this together and neither one of you are being conned.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day proverbs 3 5 trust in the lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding. Maureen O'Hara said, Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to. Valerie is with us in Nashville. Hi, Valerie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, thank you for having me. Sure, what's up? So me and my husband are on baby step number two and we're on the knocking out debt part. So, so far our debt is our house, student loans, and a truck payment.

We're trying to decide should we start smaller and sell the truck and work off the debt or sell the house. Do you like your house? Yes. Do you like your truck? My husband likes his truck. Okay, and how much do you owe on the truck 18 000 and how much do you owe on the uh what'd you say you had a student loan also student loans are 30 000 30 so 48 000 get you out of debt there. And how much do you owe on your home? $215,000. And what's it worth?

Based off how the Zillow gives you an estimate, $270,000. Okay. All right. And what's your household income? $70,000. Okay. And what's your other car worth? He works at Nissan, and we lease my car my car through them oh you got the employee benefit yes yeah that's a deal that's a good deal okay okay that's not a regular lease okay um right

no it's not yeah they give you a bargain like unbelievable okay it's twice twice in three hours i've had nissan's thing come up that's's interesting. But anyway, okay, so you got a fixed cost for a couple hundred bucks on that, right? I'm sorry, what did you say? The Nissan employee benefit costs you what out of pocket? Oh, it's like $200. That's what I thought, $200. Okay, and so $18,000 on his truck. He works at Nissan, and you drive that car?

Yes. Okay, I'm with you. We have one kid and one kid on the way, so I have an SUV. Okay. So we're just trying to free up some money for that. I'm sorry, wait a minute. The SUV is the Nissan? Yes. Okay, all right, good.

Okay, that's not a problem. We're going to leave it alone. So, no, you don't sell your house if you like it. You're just starting this process. And the rule of thumb that I use that just is mathematical wisdom is all it is, okay? It's not something I necessarily made up. Well, I did make it up. But, I mean, it's not, not you know it's just you should not cars

go down in value so you should not own vehicles that equal more than half your annual income you don't so you're in good shape there okay okay and can you be debt free in two years if you keep the car with a car payment in this case case a truck, with a truck payment. So you have $48,000. You make $70,000. You'd need to pay off $20,000 for a year to be debt-free in two years. That's $2,000 a month making $70,000. That can be done. It's going to be very tight, beans and rice, rice and beans.

It's going to be a really difficult two years. And then you'd be 100% debt-free other than your home. How much do you suggest for a grocery budget? You've got to adjust that out, but you're probably with babies and so forth and formula and diapers built into that, you're probably in the 700-plus range a month. I don't know. I mean, you can do that with trial and error at your house. It depends on what you do.

But you guys don't need to be eating out. You don't need to be going on vacation. You are living on beans and rice, rice and beans, scorched earth, no life for two years while we get out of debt. Okay. And if you want to do that, then you can keep this truck. I mean, that's the goal. We just wanted to be smart about it. We wanted to get serious about our money.

You can be debt-free inside of two years, and your truck is less than half your annual income, so you meet the guidelines to keep it, and he likes the truck. He'd like to keep the truck. That's how you do it, okay? But if you're going to drag butt along and stay in debt for years because you're half butt doing this stuff, then you need to sell the truck.

Okay. But if you'll get after it, if I were in your shoes, I'd keep the truck and give up no life for two years. We're just going to play with babies every night. That's what we do. We work extra. We pay debt. We sell everything in sight. We don't go out to eat.

We don't go on vacations. And we pay off the truck and the student loan, and we're debt-free in two years. $2,000 a month for two years gets you there. You can do this. Ryan is in Boston, Massachusetts. Hey, Ryan, how are you? I'm great, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

I appreciate it. Sure. What's up? Well, first of all, thanks for all your ministry and for helping with all of the communication. My wife and I have been through FPU. It's been a huge help in our communication about money and everything like that. So thank you very much. Sure.

We're debt-free, and we're looking to buy a house. And as you know, the Boston house market is really tight, and inventory is really slim. And so I'm trying to figure out the best way to talk to her about this because I would like to do it according to your plan, which is a 15-year fixed mortgage. And she is pushing more back on trying to do a 30-year mortgage and have wiggle room in our monthly payment. And I just want to know how you would talk to her about it in a kind and loving way, which is like, not Dave says we should do it like this, but more kind of, you know.

Well, you know, I think you guys need to decide on what your long-term goal is. Okay. If your long-term goal is the quality of life and lifestyle of having a bigger, nicer house, then you would not follow our steps, and you do not go by Financial Peace University. But if your long-term goal is wealth building you would never take out a 30-year mortgage under any circumstances gotcha i mean so what's our long-term goal is our long-term goal to be wealthy and live like no one else so later we can live like no one else i mean 15 year doesn't regulate you to a

shanty right right no that's true that's true yeah so it's just a matter of are we willing to buy a home that is within our means because here's the data from the everyday millionaire study okay the average millionaire pays off their home in 10.2 years not 30.2 and taking out a 30-year mortgage and promising it you're going to pay early, the FDIC says 97% of the people that do that don't do it. Yeah. It's a 97% failure rate on promising I'm going to pay off a 30 early. Okay.

You're kidding yourself, in other words. So if you want to stay in debt for 30 years and having your home paid off and building wealth is not a priority, take out a 30-year mortgage. If you want to build wealth and follow the guidelines, the principles that the millionaires did in the largest study of millionaires ever done, then you would have a situation where you take out a 15-year mortgage with the goal of paying off the home in 10.2, because that's the typical path a millionaire takes. Okay. Let me send you a copy of Chris's Everyday Millionaire book, and you can kind of use that to talk through and go, okay, this is some stuff, you know, we went through financial peace, and what we need to do is agree on our goals.

Because really what we're saying is, the pushback here from her is that she has a different goal. Her goal is a nice house. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But you have a different goal than her. And so we need to align our goals, darling,

and it hasn't got anything to do with having flunked Financial Peace University, although possibly she did. Kidding. Don't tell her I said that. But, I mean, really, we showed you very clearly how much it costs you to take out a 30-year and that there's a 97% failure rate, according to the Federal Reserve. They track it.

No one pays off homes early. The only way to pay them off early is sell them or lose them or take out a 15-year. The people who take out 15 years do pay them off early, but the systematic repayment of a 30 like a 15, oh, but I've got wiggle room if there's a problem later, is a massive rationalization. Just does not occur.

So let's at least call it what it is. We want a nicer house. We're not going to follow this plan. We're going to be on a 30-year mortgage because we want to do that. You're grownups. You're allowed to do that. I'm not going to be mad at you. But if your goal is wealth building, then that's not going to take you to your goal.

So that's your question. Hey, that puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you. Before you know it, in the meantime, remember there is ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show.

Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.