The Ramsey Show - App - Step One: Commit to NO MORE DEBT (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 11, 2019

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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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Sarah is with us in Philadelphia. Hi, Sarah.

How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Hi. Well, basically, I just needed help because I have a variable income. And my fiancé and I just read your book, The Total Money Makeover,

and we're building our budget on every dollar. And we're just trying to figure out, I'm a massage therapist, trying to figure out how to budget with not knowing what my income is going to look like from one week to the next. Right. Well, in every dollar, what you're going to do is you're going to put in your best guess and then adjust and then adjust weekly. Okay.

Because with every dollar, you're constantly interacting with it anyway because you're posting your spending and you're posting against budget and that kind of thing. So that's one aspect of it. The other aspect of it is if you go in the back of the total money makeover book there's a series of budget forms okay one of the forms is the irregular income planning form okay and what it teaches you to do is to take the portion of your income that's unpredictable and spend it on things you couldn't get to in the regular budget okay most important most important yeah most important to least important okay if you ever

do a to-do list on your saturday to-dos you go well the first thing i have to do i have to get this done that's number one so the most important thing that you didn't get to in your regular budget is number one. The next most important, if you make a little more money, is number two. The next most important, if you make a little more money, is number three. And so on. And so, you know, you just make a list there of a prioritized spending plan that attaches to the top of or the bottom of your budget where when you have more money than you originally budgeted as income it now is already spent down that prioritized list okay yeah that helps a little that definitely helps i it's just um really anxious to get

started and i have that like initial gazelle focus i'm like super pumped and really excited to you know to get going and i just wish that i had a little bit more security well that's what what'll happen is as you lay out your budget what it ends up becoming is that becomes a goal and then it causes you to scratch and claw and actually do more and more work. And so you're going to pick up more work and more gigs, and you're going to be thinking on your feet about how I can increase the size of my massage therapy business, and you're going to see those kinds of things happen because now you are focused on it. And as you said, you're game on, kiddo. You're after it.

It's gazelle. Get it. You got this.ris is with us in sacramento hi chris how are you hey david i'm doing great thanks for taking my call sure what's up hey so i have a question so i've been going through i just finished fpu um and i've been getting into baby steps since january so far i've paid off 21 000 in debt wow 41 000 to go good i'm a single dad. I have a four-year-old son.

And so one of the things that you teach in your program is life insurance, the importance of it. So I applied for life insurance. I was declined from a company flat out. So I called Zander and worked with their agents, and I just got an answer from underwriting. And basically, my salary is about $135 a year. And so, you know, I applied for a $1.5 million term policy at 20 years, and the premium came back over $400 a month, which was pretty eye-opening for me. Okay, so what's your health problem?

So I take medicine for anxiety. I take medicine for thyroid. I'm also a former alcoholic. I've been sober for over six years. So they look at that with obviously some risk, I guess. Yep. So, you know, that is what it is. You know, I don't have any control over that.

Yeah, you're right. That's all in the past, and none of this is something you can do today about it. The good news is as the anxiety wanes and hopefully someday you're weaned off the medicine and the further you get from your last drink, the price is going to get better. And so would I buy full coverage like you're suggesting in this situation? No, I would not. I wouldn't pay $4,800 a year for a million and a half. How old are you? 36.

Yeah, okay. And you're otherwise healthy? I'm otherwise healthy. I mean, I can, you know, and I was wondering, do I cut the term down to, or the amount down to maybe just a million? I mean, at what point? I probably cut it in half. After I pay my expenses every month, I have $677 a month.

What's your household? You said your income is $135, right? Correct. Yeah, I'd probably cut that in half. I wouldn't spend, I mean, a couple hundred bucks. That's a lot on term insurance. It is a lot of money. And, you know, and then what I would plan to do is revisit it ever so often.

And talk to, go ahead and call Xander back and have a conversation with him and say, okay, coach me through this. So I'm going to start working with my therapist. And over time, no one wants to be on anxiety medicine their whole life. So over time, I'm going to figure that part out. And, you know, what number of years has to lapse before I'm going to be insurable at a better rate? Because you're getting, they're rating the crud out of this, man. I asked them about that. They said basically the alcoholism piece is the big increase in the premium, and it's not so much the anxiety medicine because I've been stable on it long term. Oh, okay.

It's not even anxiety. How long did they say that needed to be? You need to be sober. the anxiety medicine because I've been stable on it long term. Oh, okay. It's not even an anxiety. How long did they say that needed to be? You need to be sober. Five years is actually their cutoff for sobriety, so I meet that. So the question is, you know, like anything with insurance, the earlier you get it, the less likely are you to have health problems. I'm kind of inclined to get insurance now. I'm just wondering.

I would not buy a million and a half in this case. What about a million? I would spend about half that. I'd take it down to about $750 or so or wherever that lands. That's a lot of money to take care of two kids. It's not as much as we'd like, but it's a lot more than most people. And then I'm just going to constantly revisit this. Because the insurance business, they're writing things today

that 10 years ago they didn't even think they would ever write. You know, it used to be if you ever had the word cancer next to your name ever, just forget it. And now a lot of cancer survivors have been cancer-free for X number of months or years, can get insurance, and then later on can get reasonable rates on insurance. As an example, diabetes, you could just not get it at all. You could forget it. And they're starting to write it in some ways. And so the same thing is going to happen with the categories that you're falling in.

And so what I'm saying is is our plan is not a lifetime plan it's a three-year plan and i'm going to revisit this equation again with them i'm going to come back and say okay it's been three years you know once i've been clean 10 years instead of five years is there somebody writing that now that a different thing it's been sober 10 years and uh and by the, now I'm off the anxiety medicine too. So we're down to just the thyroid thing, you know. And so just keep working on your health, number one. But number two, the insurance business is getting more and more and more sophisticated

on what they will write. And I think that's going to continue as well. So, hey, thanks for the call. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees, and if you're thinking our low cost means less coverage, think again.

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Darren is on Twitter. What's the best time of the month to set up a house payment? Is there a better time than another for most people? Well, assuming you have the option, most mortgages don't give you the option. But if you have an option, I would not set it on the 1st. I would set it for about the 10th. That way, when you get paid on the 1st, you can pay it on the 10th easily. So if your payment is due on the 1st but late on the 15th,

meaning your late charge kicks in on the 15th, technically on your mortgage, you're late on the 2nd. And it can ding up your credit depending on how that mortgage company chooses to report it and so you want your mortgage payment to be there early and so if people have a house payment on the first i always recommend they set it in the second half of the month before's budget meaning it let's say you got paid on the firstst and the 15th. I would pay my house payment on the 15th check so that the house payment is there well before the 1st every time.

And, you know, get yourself a little bit ahead of the game on all your bills, whether they're utilities or whatever else. Now, I've got all my utilities set up on auto-draft, so they're all paid exactly on time. Whenever they want them, they draft the checking account. I do not mind people having electronic access to my checking account where it is a friendly endeavor, meaning it's something like a mortgage. I mean, well, a mortgage company will be okay if you had a mortgage. I don't. But something like a utility company, a mutual fund, insurance. I've got a lot of those things that come out of my checking account,

and I do give them electronic access to my checking account, but never give a debt collector electronic access to your checking account. That's a little bit different. That's an interesting question, though. Most people, if you have a traditional mortgage, it's the first, and so you've got to set it up out of the second half of your month budget. Bill is with us in Chicago. Hey, Bill, how are you?

Hey, Dave, how are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a question regarding my dad. He is a teacher at the Chicago Public Schools. And then the advisor at the Chicago Public Schools told him that the best option he has for life insurance is indexed universal life insurance. So he went with it, and he's now paying $24,000 a year. Oh, my Lord.

Horrible. And I'm trying to figure out if he's being ripped off. Yes, he's being ripped off. Yeah, he's got a horrible product. Oh, my Lord. Yeah, that's not an advisor that works for the state. That's an insurance agent that has the account of selling teachers insurance. Okay.

Yeah, the reason I was asking is because he's on an insulin pump, so he can't get, like, a term life insurance whatsoever. If you can get regular, if you can get an IUL, you can get term. Okay. That's get term. Okay. That's just wrong. Okay. Now, I mean, diabetes makes life insurance very difficult. So I don't know why they're issuing an IUL through the school if they wouldn't issue a term through the school or issue a term straight up.

So I don't know how you got the insurance. Life insurance is a different equation here. But he's paying a lot for this, and it is a crummy product. It's basically an investment inside of an insurance policy that has a horrible rate of return and a lot of fees, the highest fees on the planet. So, no, he doesn't have an advisor. He's got an insurance salesman. Stephanie is with us in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Hi, Stephanie. How are you? Hey, I'm doing pretty good. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I was calling because I am a beginner with the Dave Ramsey SPU. I just received all my information yesterday to get set up online.

Good. So I'm in the process of taking all of my debt and, you know, putting it together to see where I should start, you know, smallest to largest, of course. And I actually looked at my civil judgments that I have against me for, like, and I have a variety of past medical bills that date back all the way to 2001. And I actually had somebody tell me that debt that old, like they can't still come after me for that debt. And I was just calling to see, I'm pretty sure I know what you're going to say. If it's on the same track as me, you know, it's a debt that I owe. But I was calling to see if that is true. Well, some states have a statute of limitations on old bad debt.

Okay. And if they have not done some things like sue you and get a judgment and keep the judgment updated and some things like that, then their ability to collect an old debt that's just sitting there in collections does, I say it goes away, but legally they'd have trouble suing you in some states. There is a statute of limitations on those. And so that part might be true. What is true, and so there's three or four lenses to look at this through.

There's theory, which that's the theory lens. Theoretically, they couldn't collect it, and you don't owe it anymore under the law, so theoretically it's gone. But that's just theory. In the real world, you're going to get a call about two months before you get ready to buy a house, and they're going to jack you around and mess up something about the time you get ready to buy a house and they're going to jack you around and mess up something about the time you get ready to buy the house and this is going to come back to haunt you uh that's the practical that's the practical lens to look at it through the um the

moral lens to look at it through is yeah i owe the money i need to pay my bill um if i can if there's any way you can pay your bill you pay your bill bill, right? And so there's two or three, you know, the spiritual lens is the same one. I need to repay when I can if there's any way I can. So I tend to tell you to go clean it up. It's not anything I'm panicked about. And so what I would tell you to do is do two different debt snowballs, okay? Let's do a debt snowball with the debts that you have that are active today do you have debts like a car payment or somebody you're paying payments to today that you're

current with and active with um yes i have of course student loans um which i call the beast because that's the biggest one and then i have credit card debt, which I'm currently paying off. And then recent medical bills, of course. Recent. Okay. And then you've got how much old debt that is in judgment or that's just been sitting out there forever that you're not paying on? I would say it ranges anywhere between $6,000 to $8,000 maybe. Somewhere in there.

Okay. All right. So here's what I would do. I would clear up all of your current debt first. Okay. Those dogs are asleep. Let sleeping dogs lie for right now. Okay.

On that old stuff. And so let's list our current debts, smallest to largest. Clear those up. Because every time you clear up one of those, it frees up more money. Clearing up an old one that you're not paying on doesn't free up any money in your budget. You see what I'm doing? Okay. So once we clean up and you don't have any payments but a house payment,

now you've got some wiggle room. You've got some stuff you can be doing now. And then we make a list of those old ones, smallest to largest, what we think they are. You contact them, and you may find an old one that was $250 from 2001. They may be trying to collect $5,000 in late fees, collections fees, interest. They may have gone crazy, okay? And then you just have to begin to negotiate with them and go uh no i'm not smoking dope over here i just called you to pay

you there's a difference okay and so what i'm going to do is i'm going to offer you the original amount of 250 as a settlement in full get that in writing do not give them electronic access your checking account you can go back and settle those for the original amount easily and maybe less. Now, I wouldn't put a lot of effort on the ones that are under $1,000, but if out of that $8,000 worth or $6,000 worth, if you've got a $4,000 one laying there, yeah, I'm going to put a little effort in trying to settle that one for around $1,000. It's a really old debt. Any money they get right now is what's known as a gift

because they're gonna have trouble collecting it because of the statute of limitations you can actually bring that up and just go you can't collect this i'm just trying to settle it to get you out of my life and because it's the right thing to do and you can just begin to talk that through with them but first thing you do is clear up the old ones, the new ones, the current ones, and then that gives you the room to attack the old ones. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Mark and Cassandra are with us in Albany, New York. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, good afternoon, sir. How are you doing? Better than I deserve.

I see on my screen you're debt-free. Way to go. Thank you. How much do you pay off? So about $36,000 in about 12 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? $86,000 to about $95,000. Cool.

What do you all do for a living? So I'm a United States Marine, and my wife is a stay-at-home mom slash she's been picking up some side jobs here to help out. Very cool. Thank you for your service. And what was this $36,000 in debt? So this particular portion of our debt was $5,000 in my wife's student loans that was left over. We paid off our phones, which were about $1,000, and then a $25,000 minivan that we couldn't live without.

Okay. Did you sell the minivan you can't live without, or did you pay it off? No, sir, no, sir. So basically our story is kind of an interesting one. We took FPU, what, a couple years ago, about four years ago, and we tried to cherry-pick your plan, and it worked a little bit, but, you know, obviously, as you tell us in SPU, that you really can't cherry-pick the plan.

So about a year ago, we were just looking down, and we're like, why are we not making any movement? We're not making forward progress. And we bought the minivan because we wanted to become foster parents. So we became foster parents because it was on our heart. And then the minivan was so we could have more kids in the back of the car. And then we realized we were just going back in debt. So that's when we got so intense and we decided we're just going to plow through this thing

and we paid the thing off as quickly as we possibly could. Okay, so you just rolled up your sleeves, did the budget, and submitted yourself to the plan. Yes, sir. Went crazy. In fact, when we did FPU the first time, we only went to part of the classes. I had just had our first son, so I think that we used the plan as much as we attended the class, if that makes sense. Yeah, which was not much. Right.

Okay. Yeah. So now you've gone, did you go back through the class? We did. We're actually coordinating one. We're on our eighth week coordinating our first class. Oh, very cool. Thank you for doing that.

Absolutely. Well done. Well, that'll. Thank you for doing that. Absolutely. Well done. Well, that'll also make you do it. When you're actually teaching it, you can't be a hypocrite, right? Exactly. Yes, sir. Yeah, you've got to be all in. And now you've got a story to tell the class that you did it, man.

Way to go, you guys. I'm very proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, you kind of got on the wagon, kind of fell off, and then got completely on. Yes, sir. And we're never going back. No.

Cool. So tell people, what's the secret to getting out of debt? You paid off $36,000 in 12 months, making $86,000. So, you know, my number one is committing to no more debt. Because we started our marriage with $80,000. We paid most of that off and then went back for a second helping. So you never get out of debt if you won't promise to never go back into debt yeah that's a big that's a big one that's a

good good observation the second step for me was um i felt like i was floundering the water because i hadn't properly explained to my wife the importance to it and it's the second she got 100 on board with the same page as I was on. We just lost you. You're going to have to talk directly into your phone. Oh, yes, sir. Sorry. Okay.

Can you hear me? Yes, sir. That's better. All right. So getting on the same page. When we were pedaling at different speeds or swimming in different directions, it just wasn't working. When we got on the same page, we said we're going to go out all on this plan.

We went into light speed. So that's number two. And then number three and number four for me are having a budget that's zero-based balance and then sticking to that budget. Okay. Cassandra, what do you think? Well, you know, I agree with him. I think, number one, having that big why, why are we doing it? When I realized actually through your podcast, listening to them with him, at first not really loving it, then eventually really loving it, I found the value of getting out of debt, that we could actually have money to give to people when we wanted to give it instead of paying everyone our money.

So that was huge for me. When that clicked, that moment, it was a moment. It was like, oh, I get it. And then, you know, the budget, of course, we use every dollar app. I use it every day. It's just that interaction, daily interaction. It's working on it. Rather than just putting it off, next month I'll think about money, it's every day I'm doing it.

And the last thing for me is contentment. That has been quite a lesson through this journey. And the scripture that you quote a lot in the FPU class, Proverbs, I think it's 1312, about hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when desire comes, that's just been really helpful for me in learning contentment and putting something off, knowing that there's something better to come. Where did the burden for foster kids come from? Well, my husband long ago.

Yes, sir. I think that it comes from just our generation is called the fatherless generation, and if there's anything that I can do to reach out to children that need a father, need a home, need a safe place to be. And living in the city of Albany for the past three years where the Marine Corps has had a station, there is such a need, and we just saw it. And, you know, one day we were on a family walk, and we looked to our left, and there was a kid's center two blocks from our house, and we were like, we've got to do something. So that's when we you

know despite the the 80 90 hour work weeks that i worked through we were just like hey you know what let's do this and and really it was i told callie the beginning of our marriage but i this is all my heart but because of my job and because of what i do the burden of it physically is going to fall on you so you tell me when you're ready. And the second she was ready, we just went all in. Wow. Yeah. And again, God leading us at the same time. And being in a financial position with no debt now puts you in a position to have choices

about serving in that way. Yes, sir. We just want to give all our money away. We want to become millionaires and then just give it away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're doing great. I'm so proud of y to become millionaires and then just give it away. Yeah. Yeah. You're doing great.

I'm so proud of y'all. Do you have people cheering you on? Yeah. So both of our families are extremely proud of us. Some of them are probably listening right now. We've had a little bit of the mixture like, hey, you're crazy, but at the same time, pretty much everyone is extremely proud of us. Grudging respect, if nothing else. I love it.

Well done, you guys. Well done. Very proud of us. Grudging respect, if nothing else. I love it. Well done, you guys. Well done. Very proud of you. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you. That's the next chapter in your story, as you said, to be millionaires and give like crazy in the process. You're already doing that. You're giving your lives away in so many ways, serving your country, serving those kids. And you've put yourself in a position financially to do that.

I'm very proud of you. You're a sharp couple, very sharp. Mark and Cassandra, Albany, New York, $36,000 paid off in 12 months. That includes the minivan, the second helping. $86,000 to $95,000 income. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

Yeah! We got some kiddos joining in. That's what it's about right there. Man, what a great story. What a great story. You see, if you live like no one else, you know what you get to do? Later, you get to live and give like no one else. That's what you get to do.

You get to live and give like no one else. I mean, they're giving in so many ways. You know, people say, well, I don't have that. You know, when you're broke, it's hard to think about anything but yourself. It's very hard to because you've got to eat. You've got to keep the lights on and the heat going, right? You've got to not be homeless and pay the mortgage or the rent. It's hard.

Being broke is hard. But you can make choices to not be there anymore. Live like no one else. Live like no one else. Work like no one else. Give like no one else. Drive cars that no one else would drive. Do things that no one else would do. So that later, you can live and give and drive cars and do things like no one else has ever done.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Minneapolis is calling. Kyle is with us. Hey, Kyle, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help?

Great. So I'm 33 years old, and I just started watching your, actually your YouTube videos a couple of days ago, and I'm just loving your content here. So I plan on wanting to basically pay off my entire mortgage by the time I'm 40, seven years ago. And I'm wondering if I should A, refinance to a 15-year loan and then just pay it off for the next eight years, or just leave it as is on the 30-year because I was a first-time homebuyer. Just wondering what your thoughts are. Well, the only reason you would refinance is not to go from a 30 to a 15 to an 8 to a 7.

The only reason you would refinance is if you can save on interest rates substantially. Because you can take a 30-year mortgage, if you figure out what a 10-year mortgage would be on that same balance and pay that extra, you'll pay a 30 off in 10 or a 15. So what is your current interest rate on your mortgage? I'm at 4.5. It's not going to be worth it for you to refinance in today's market. You might save a half a point.

You might save three-quarters of a point. But, you know, it's not going to save you enough to fool with it. I would just calculate out what it takes for that mortgage to be paid off by the time you're 40 and say that's how much extra I need to pay above my, you know, compare that to your regular payment, and the difference is the extra. Okay. So I owe $117,000 on it, and I am a saver, so I still have, I got about $40,000 in savings, $20,000 in stocks, and, you know,

$73,000 in a 401K, $18,000 in a Roth IRA, and like $25 like 25 in a tax-sheltered annuity. So should I put any of that money down right away just to maybe even help with that? Anything that is non-retirement that will not be penalized, which would be the 20k in stock and some of your 40k, that's your total picture. You need an emergency fund out of that 40k,000 of three to six months of expenses. But what is your income? I make $100,000.

Okay. So if we said three to six months of expenses would be, say, $20,000, we could take $20,000 of the $40,000 and we could take the $20,000 in stock. That would be $40,000 towards your $115,000. That would get you down to just $65,000 owed. I think everything else was in retirement, if I heard you right. That's correct. Or it was a penalty involved because it was an annuity.

Yep. And then I would limit my saving, my investing, because you're doing a really good job there, but I would limit it to 15% of your income while you go ahead and knock that $65,000 out. And I'm assuming you have no other debt right uh i do have a seven thousand dollars in debt but that's at zero interest and i'll have that paid off in the next two or three months okay i would just go ahead and pay that off now okay and then let's whatever you were going to put towards that use that to put towards the

mortgage extra later so use the seven thousand you would put put towards that, use that to put towards the mortgage extra later. So use the $7,000 you would put towards that out of your income to pay down the house faster. So really we're talking about putting around $40,000 in, give or take, $35,000 or so towards your mortgage at this point and be 100% debt-free as soon as possible. Interest rate's irrelevant in terms of consumer debt. The reason it's irrelevant is it makes you look stupid if you have 18% interest on your credit card, but really when you're paying it off very, very fast mathematically, it's

not costing you much on the interest. What's costing you is the cash flow and the risk and this idea that you're burdened down with stuff. So, I mean, if you could borrow a million dollars of 0%, you wouldn't do it, not if you're smart anyway. James is with us in Boise, Idaho. Hi, James. How are you? Good. Thanks for taking my call,

and thanks for always sharing your knowledge with the rest of us. Thank you. How can I help? I had a quick question. I'm new to this money-saving lifestyle. I started in late. I had a great question. I'm new to this money saving lifestyle kind of starting late. I'm 26 years

old so I'm trying to get my girlfriend on board with me to go through the process of saving for

our future. We're planning on being together for long term you know and just I'm fully into it.

Now I'm trying to figure out a way to get her on the same page so that we're not clashed. Okay. Well, the first thing you do is you don't use my name so much it becomes a cuss word. Okay. The second thing is don't talk about what we're going to do with money. Talk about why we're going to do it.

And it's like so when you say we're going to do it and it's like so okay um when you say we're going to be together long term i'm assuming you're talking about getting married yes sir okay and so you can talk about say you know let's say someday honey that we were getting married and we would want to like be wealthy so that we could travel and be generous and retire with dignity, we would have to get control of this money because the only way people end up with money is on purpose. They never accidentally get rich. No one looks up starting from nothing and says, I have $5 million and no one looks up and goes, how'd that happen?

You know, that never happens. It's like always very intentional, very methodical, and, you know, we're going to be on purpose, just like you are with your marriage. You know, nobody accidentally has a good marriage. You actually have to focus on learning about marriage and learning about, you know, letting the other person win and not being selfish and caring about their feelings. And, you know, it's called a relationship. And so it's an intentional act, though.

It is not a natural human act. You have to stop and go, this is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm going to raise kids. You have to enter discomfort and pay a price with any area of your life you're going to win with. And so don't talk about we need to not go out to eat we need to clip coupons uh we need to sell your car don't talk about that stuff talk about where we want to go and then start asking questions what do you think we need to do in order to get there dream with her chris hogan in his book retire inspired and when he's speaking always says to dream in hd high definition dreams very detailed

very clear dreams when you lay out your exact dream i talked to a lady this weekend it's pretty amazing she said i want to go to venice italy i want to stay in this hotel in ven, Italy for four days, and then I want to take a yacht, and I want to go to the Greek island of Santorini, and I want to spend a week there. I mean, she had it detailed out. She knew exactly where she was going to go, where she was going to stay, how she was going to be transported. And so you can run a budget out on that in a heartbeat once you have your, you know, instead of like, oh, someday I'd kind of like to go maybe sort of towards Europe.

You know? That's different, right? So you get a very detailed, high-definition dream that the two of you both buy into and agree to. Then you can pay a price to win. Then she'll pay that price with you, and you start talking about marriage and that kind of stuff. Now, don't combine your money with somebody you're not married to. Just because you're shacking up, don't combine your money. That'll get you in all kinds of messes. It's a bad idea.

Don't do that at all. You know, people ask me sometimes, it's an interesting discussion, this high-definition dreaming. Thinking about your future very, very, very clearly. It's kind of a nerdy exercise if you think about it, but then it's really not. It's kind of a nerdy exercise if you think about it, but then it's really not. It's kind of a dreamer exercise. You know, Sharon and I, when we first started this company, our kids were little, and people say, how did you work the hours that you worked to start and then grow that company? And you were gone all the time, and how did you do that? And your children survived, and your marriage survived, and all that. It's because we weren't looking at the moment. We were looking past the moment. We were living like no one else so that later we could live and give like no one else.

So, like, if I was going out on a book tour and I was going to be gone for six weeks, which is like forever for somebody like me. I can't stand being gone that long. But for six weeks and Sharon's left there with three little kids, which is like torture. How does she get through that and not be bitter at me at the company? How do I get through that and not get so homesick I can't breathe? Because we're living like no one else so that later we can live like no one else. And we told the kids, hey, this book is paying us some good money,

so we're going to go do this. And when I get home, about six weeks later, after I get home, we're going to Disney World. So, you know, you paint a high-definition picture out there in the future that allows you to walk through the crap you have to walk through to win. And that's true in anybody's life, you know. People go to the Y and work out because it's fun, but there's just a few of them. Most people that go work out, they work out because they're going to go through that pain to get the result.

You've got to go through the pain to get the result. That's what it comes down to. But you've got to have the result clearly defined in your mind, and the more clearly defined it is, the more you're able to walk through the garbage that's necessary to win. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year.

To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration, subscribe today. the Dave Ramsey Show, one of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration, subscribe today.