The Ramsey Show - App - Student Loans Suck! A Special Theme Hour for the Borrowed Future Documentary Launch (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 14, 2021

Student Loan Theme Hour As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  • Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME • Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 • Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Thank you very much. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where dad is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. And the paid-off student loan has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, host of The Fine Print, a new podcast out on Ramsey Networks, is my co-host for this very special theme hour on the Ramsey Show.

As we celebrate the launch of the new documentary, Borrowed Future, we're going to talk student loans this hour. If you want to talk about student loans, you've got a question about student loans, you have a success story about student loans, you think they're awesome, you think they're the most horrible thing on the planet, you have an opinion about anything you want to talk about as long as that's that subject. You call 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Borrowed Future is out of the gate. It is launched, George, and it's already moving the needle.

And it's climbing the charts. And for good reason. I've already seen the feedback. One woman said she's watched it twice already before 9 a.m. That's impressive. She was so fired up about this. She's telling everyone about it, her daughter, all of her friends. It's one of those that you can't help, but you have to tell everyone.

You need to go watch this today. If you don't know what Borrowed Future is, it's our new documentary. It launches today on Apple TV, on Google Play, and on Amazon Prime. And you can also watch it at BorrowedFuture.com. And if you're a teacher, it's all standard documentary. It's, what, $4.99 to rent it, whatever, $8.99 to buy it, or whatever the normal thing is on that stuff. And just like anything else, you look to see a first-class documentary on something.

This is all about the student loan world, how student loans are basically killing the American dream. It's called Borrowed Future. Be sure you tune into it again. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Apple TV. It's number two in the documentary already today of all documentaries on Apple. Yeah. So it's moving. You guys are watching it like crazy.

You're sharing it. If you're a teacher and you want to show this to your students, it's free. Go to BorrowedFuture.com. I'm going to tell you that about 100 times this hour. But it's time to talk about these student loans and how out of control they are. George, did you have a student loan? Yeah. I had $36,000.

I think the average at the time. So I was very average. Hmm. How long did it take you to pay it off? 18 months once I got on this plane. Once you got serious about it, you knocked it out fast. I didn't realize you could get rid of them. I just thought it's something you just keep as a pet until your adult life and maybe take it to the grave if you have to.

Yeah. I had $3,200. Wow. Way back there. It was 1982, right? And I had way more than that on my Amoco card, my gas credit card. Because in those days, if you went out in the country, you could buy a couch on your gas credit card. I mean, it was crazy stuff.

But, yeah, it was a different world. And certainly tuition was different, but so was the cost of living. Gasoline was under a dollar, a know, a gallon and that kind of thing. So that's how long ago that 1982 was for you people. But student loans have continued to grow to where it has become and just a weight on people to where they can't breathe. It's just so normal. I mean, most people you meet, that's the one thing you're going to have in common is, oh, you've got a student loan too. Great. How much is yours? And then you laugh about it because you can't fathom. But you can't cry about it, but only so much. Exactly. When you

can't cry, you laugh. And so this is a huge issue. And as we explored this two years ago, while we were doing the Borrowed Future podcast. Which you hosted. Which I hosted. The documentary team was just getting started on this. So this was was two years ago and watching that team develop the story and iterate and iterate to tell the right story has been absolutely incredible well we're storytellers here and i gotta tell you when you're telling a story there's a process to telling a story uh if you're going to do it properly there's a villain there's a hero there's a guide and there's a story arc and there's a villain, there's a hero, there's a guide, and there's a story arc. And there's a process you build to pull someone through a story. And we had a serious problem with this documentary.

There were too many villains. There were villains everywhere. You don't know who to point the finger at. Is it Sally Mae? Is it the guidance counselors? Is it the parents? Is it the student loan companies? Do you blame the person who signed up for the loan person who signed up there's kind of hard to blame them

although they did sign up for it but they're in just such a pitiful horrible situation and you want to cry with them rather than beat them up yeah yeah we're not mad at you if you took out the student i mean i'm not mad at it you know i am mad at the banks i think they're out of control um you know there's only been two or three times in my career 30 years here on the air that elizabeth warren and i have agreed on something and uh because i'm a capitalist pig and she's a socialist um and uh she's a very bright lady and i've actually had her on the air here back in the day we were fighting a bankruptcy bill that the republicans put through uh at the behest of the bankers,

and it was a bad bill, and it's a bad law, and it's still in place. Modification is the bankruptcy law, and she and I were on the same side of that. Ted Kennedy, the three of us, were fighting against that, and we all lost, of course. But she's come out today, and, of course, if you haven't heard, Navient, six million student loan borrowers are far better off after yet another major company announced it will shut down its services, Elizabeth Warren said. Like Elizabeth Warren caused Navient to shut down. Come on, Elizabeth, you didn't cause this. But yeah, no one is crying a tear that Navient is gone. Navient, one of the largest student loan companies, unveiled plans to end its federal loan services.

The student loan industry on Tuesday received yet another major shakeup when Navient became the third company to announce its plans to end its federal student loan program amid regulatory crackdowns this year. Senator Elizabeth Warren had one message for the company, good riddance. I would agree with you, Senator Warren. Navient has spent decades misleading, cheating, and abusing student borrowers. The federal student loan program will be far better off without them. The federal student loan program would be far better off if it didn't exist, Senator Warren. It has not been a blessing to anyone except people like Navient and people like you who used it to get votes.

Navient, which collects the federal student loan debt of $6 million, said in a press release that it's working with the education department to approve the transition of those borrowers to another loan company called Maximus. That's a villainous name. That's comforting. Maximus what? Interest? Maximus interest. That's scary.. That's a comforting. Maximus what? Interest? Maximus interest. That's scary.

Maximus screw job. So you just get traded to the next one. You can't make this up. They're going to call it Maximus? Oh, boy. This is fabulous. This is what's wild. Richard Cordray, head of the Federal Student Aid Office, he said earlier this month,

student loan companies are choosing to shut down rather than face more accountability. So that's what's going on here. Because they've been screwing people. They go, hey, this ship is sinking. Let's get out of here. Well, we done got caught with our hand in the cookie jar. We got all the cookies out of this we're going to get. We're gone, baby.

We're going to get out of here before we end up the subject of a federal investigation and get more than shut down. Yeah. That's what's going on here. They're not doing anyone favors but themselves here. Yeah. And I got to tell you, the Democrats and the Republicans did put pressure on Navient for its misbehavior.

And thank you. I will go along with you, Senator Warren. Good riddance to Navient. Ciao, baby. Student loans. We're bringing people from across the aisle, Dave. Bring on Maximus. Bring on Maximus.

Maximus Interestus. Maximus. That's an Avengers villain. Maximus Penalties. That is an Avengers villain. Maximus Penalties. Oh, I can't believe it. Hey, it's Christi Wright.

Do you ever feel lost? Maybe a little alone? We have all had that feeling. And I'll tell you what has helped me in these moments is listening to worship music. That's why I'm so excited to tell you that we are partnering with the number one daily worship app called Glorify. This helps remind us that God is with us. And the best thing is Glorify is free to download. Just search for Glorify in your app store, or you can get 50% off their full library when you use the code RamSEY by October 31st. It's a student loan theme hour. We're talking student loans in honor of today's premier launch of the new documentary, Borrowed Future. You can view it anywhere you view great documentaries

like Google Play, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and at BorrowedFuture.com. Stockton is with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hey, Stockton, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Good afternoon. I graduated graduate school a year ago with $200,000 student debt at 7%. My question is, the recommendation is to get out of debt except for a home. The home debt is okay.

What if my student loans is as much as a home would cost? Is the recommendation to still pay off the student loans renting during that time? And if so, that'll be 10 plus years. Wait a minute. What's your graduate degree in? I'm a chiropractor. Okay. And so what are you going to be making? I just started a job here in Phoenix, $85,000 a year.

Okay, and so you plan to pay $15,000 a year on the student loans? Yes. Well, that sucks. Yeah. That's pretty lame. You ought to pay a lot more than $15,000 if you're making $80,000, and you should be making more than $80,000 as your chiropractic career grows. Would you agree with me?

Yeah. The hope is definitely to make more eventually as I grow in the company and whatnot. What did you make the year before you graduated? What was your income? $50,000. Associates in chiropractic can be taken advantage of, and I was last year, so I didn't make very good money last year. Yeah, okay. So what if you lived on $35,000 and put the rest of it towards the student loan debt? Yeah, that was one of the reasons why we postponed getting a home

is to hopefully throw more money at the student loans. The only issue is to live in a rental home where my wife and our kids feel comfortable walking the street. Our rental is $1,600 a month, and that doesn't include the administration fees, the HOA fees, and other fees associated with the renting. So that's something that I struggle with is being able to throw all my money at student loans, yet my rental, I feel like, is taking more money than it should. I'll tell you, as a homeowner, it's very expensive. And I'm not talking about the mortgage payment versus the rent payment. I'm talking about homeownership in general.

So if you can't afford to rent, you definitely can't afford to be a homeowner. And so what I want you to do is focus on these student loans first. I want you to buy a house. I want you to have that American dream. But as we talk about in the documentary, student loans are killing that dream because you've got this bear of a payment in your life. And you've got a great income. It's going to continue to go up. And like Dave's saying, this thing's gone three to four years from now.

Stockton, here's the thing. You have two choices. You can go the way that your emotions are taking you, where you're justifying this and you're figuring out a way that it takes forever. And so you go ahead and buy a house. And now you've got a house payment and you've got the cost of homeownership that George is talking about, and your career will move along, and it will take you 10 years to get out of debt or more if you go that route. Or you can do the thing that we have taught, and many, many chiropractors have done what I teach. And they roll up their sleeves, and they say, not today. I'm going to engage in a different treatment program

for the patient i'm going to roll up my sleeves we're going to do nothing around this house we're not going to do anything except get out of debt we're going to clean up this mess so that as my career grows i get to actually keep the freaking money instead of sending it all to sally may navient or maximus so uh this is gonna be too much fun i look forward to the next decade of this well and so uh yeah the uh uh yeah you but right now the the state of mind you're in you're gonna be in debt a long time because you bought the lie that you're stuck and you bought the lie that you might as well just keep this like it's a freaking backache, or you can do the, I just told a chiropractor, like a backache.

I just heard that. I just said that. That's perfect. I did that on purpose. That was a metaphor that he would understand. And so, yeah, I hope. So you're going to either engage in the extreme measures to get the extreme results, or you're going to be normal and i sound like you

talking to one of your patients with the treatment program you put in so you got to decide physician heal thyself sierra is with us sierra is in whoa what did i do there she's in uh did i did i i got you didn't i got it i managed to pull it off in san antonio hey sierra how are you i'm good how are you good now to backstory for our listeners you were here just the other day with your parents who did their debt-free scream they were amazing you were amazing and we called you back because of while they're doing their debt-free screaming talking about getting out of debt they said and oh by way, our daughter who was going into college while we're getting out of debt managed to go and get her degree debt-free.

And you're an impressive young lady. I remember meeting you the other day. Thanks for coming on with us. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. It was a lot of fun being able to watch my parents tell their story, and then now I get the chance to tell mine, so I'm super excited. Cool. So your degree is in what?

I got a degree in marketing. From where? Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, back from JAX. There you go. And you did this 100% debt-free. How weird are you? How did you do that? Yeah, so it really all started with a plan that my dad and I put together my senior year of high school. It was getting down to the wire.

I pretty much had my own plan actually figured out. I thought I did at the time. I had the school I wanted to go to. I had the acceptance letter. I had, you know, room and board figured out. I just didn school I wanted to go to. I had the acceptance letter. I had, you know, room and board figured out. I just didn't have the money to pay for it. So that was the biggest thing that I had to figure out. And so, you know, my parents sat me down and they were like, look, you know, we want you to go to school. We're just not going to go into debt in order for you to do that. And so I kind of had to just come into terms with the fact

that I wasn't going to have that first year college experience that I was looking forward to, but there was a bigger picture at hand. And so my dad and I devised a plan and we basically figured out how much it was going to take or how much I would have to save to go to the university of my choice, which was SFA, for the last two years, so four semesters. We got that number, and then we figured out how much I needed to be saving monthly in order to reach that goal at the end of my first two years at my community college. And so while I went to community college for the first two years, I worked, I would say, at least 40 hours a week, every week, and I was saving pretty much my entire check. What were you doing? What kind of work?

Oh, I worked at a local grocery store. And you were how old? I was 17 at the time. So 17, 18 years old, you're in community college for the first two years, and you're working and saving to do the last two years at your dream school. Correct. Wow. Right.

And you did that? Is that what happened? Yes, I did. I was making about, I want to say maybe $13 an hour, and I was able to actually finish a community college a little bit early. I finished in three semesters instead of four. So because of the high school credits that I took, i mean the college credits that i took in high school um i was able to finish oh so you did like some ap classes that got college credit correct they were like dual credit

which sped up how fast you got through and was made you did not take those classes so it saved your money correct ding ding ding ding ding ding wow. So that helped me out a lot. I was able to finish an entire semester early at community college. So that last semester I just worked. I mean, I was working every day, every night. I actually ended up taking on a second job because the one job that I had, I wasn't going to reach my goal in time. When did you graduate? I graduated, I graduated high school school 2016 finished community college in 2018 and then graduated um from sfa this past may 2020 you got the new marketing job not yet currently i work at ernst and young one of the uh big four accounting firms as a financial analyst right now, but without the burden. What do you make?

I make about $47,000. I love you. You're amazing. Incredible. Incredible. Okay, key point. Made a plan. My dad was a parent.

My dad did two things. He took debt off the table. Not an option. My dad helped me plan. You picked up on it, George. Yeah. She made a table. Not an option. My dad helped me plan. You picked up on it, George. Yeah. She made a plan. They did math.

Rachel Cruz says we don't have a student loan crisis. We have a parenting crisis. I believe that 100%. Moms and dads are letting their 18-year-olds run off into a ditch and watching them do it. Instead of grabbing you and going, no, debt, plan, no debt, plan, work. Sounds like dad stuff. Sounds like mom stuff. is the ramsey show so It's a student loan theme hour here on The Ramsey Show.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. George Camel, if you want to talk about student loans, this is your place. George Camel Ramsey Personality is my co-host. He is the current host. He was the original host of the borrowed future podcast which actually gave us the uh inspiration and the idea to turn it all into a documentary and george did a great job with that millions and millions of you have listened to borrowed future podcast uh i think it was 10 12 episodes yeah it was eight and now nine we released a bonus one today oh bonus episode of the podcast today yeah updating everyone to go with the launch

on the documentary and of course he's also the host of the new Ramsey Network's production called The Fine Print. And you can listen to him there all the time. All right, I want to go back to Sierra's story for a minute. She's incredible. Young lady comes in and says, I'm going to go to college, and I have no idea how I'm going to pay for it. And there's no way I have the money, as if the money's going to just rain from heaven. Which is, you were interviewing some high school students recently, and you started asking them, and it freaked them all out.

Basic questions. What it was going to cost. What do they want to do? What was it going to cost? How are they going to pay for it? And you would have thought it was an interrogation room. And I went, oh, my gosh. Their parents have never talked to them about this stuff.

Well, their parents have never thought about it either. They probably are paying all their own students. What are you studying that matters and that you can get a job because you paid money to get a degree? Not I got a degree in left-handed puppetry and then I'm shocked that I'm serving coffee. Come on. Moms and dads, you got better sense than this but sierra's dad said no you're going to study marketing consequently she's got a job straight out of college making almost 50 grand and that young woman there she'll be making double that in just a handful of years

i promise you uh she's a incredible and then the second thing Dad did was he said, no, we're not going to borrow money, which means that we need a plan. We need a plan. So how are we going to do this? Well, she worked her tail end off. Oh, by the way, working while you're in college is not child abuse. Call the Wambulance. You don't get to participate in the beer pong tournament.

You'll survive. Wah. You're there to get a degree, to gather knowledge. This is what you're paying for, not how much alcohol you can consume. And whether the football team is good or not will not affect your future career. They don't ask about that when you do the job interview? Who knew? Who knew? You know, yeah it's conversation piece oh you went to so-and-so and they suck at football

that's the only thing that comes up and then it moved right along right oh my god you know and so the the uh student experience that we're paying 150 grand for somebody shoot me and get it this over with really instead we're going to end up with maximus dead is us that's the new lender if you didn't know dead is us now i just renamed them i just renamed the whole thing i'm gonna have so much fun with this it's just you're right it sounds like a villain from a saturday morning cartoon maximus dead of that that is us yeah i love it it's frightening so parents moms and dads you can stop this watch borrowed future scare you straight scare your kids straight and it'll also make you vote your congressman out of office because they're idiots they keep the student loan thing in place and then they go around we

need to forgive student loans well student loans are so evil elizabeth warren that we need to forgive them she tweeted that today by the way if we need to forgive them. She tweeted that today, by the way. If we need to forgive the student loans, Elizabeth Warren, why aren't you passing legislation to stop making them? Ooh, that would be intellectually dishonest. Oh, wait a minute, you're a politician. Oh, wait a minute, you're a Democrat. Oh, my God. Seriously.

Are you riled up? I'm riled up. We did it. I have for 30 years worked with people whose lives have been screwed up by this and it doesn't affect me at all yeah i don't have student loans like i said 3200 500 years ago when the dinosaurs roamed the earth nobody cares about my student loan debt but i tell you what talking these people their lives unbelievable carol is with us carol is in phil. Carol, your student loan question or comment? Hi, thank you for having me. I just had a comment about student loans and my backstory.

I am 46 years old and I still have $101,000 left in student loans. I was double dumb and went back to college twice and took out loans twice. I just didn't know any better before, you know, following Dave Ramsey and personalities. Yeah. I still have to rent an apartment. I only have $1,000 in my emergency fund. I've never really fully been able to invest. I always thought investing was, you know, for the rich people. And it's just from my background. Neither of my parents went to college. They had

no idea what, you know, they could never teach me. What were your degrees in? Well, the first degree was in history, which if you don't go to grad school and you don't want to be a teacher, is basically like left-handed puppetry when you graduate. And then I worked in an office in my 20s, and then in my 30s I decided to go back. I always wanted to be an architect, so I got an architecture degree. That's better. But I went to a private school. Yes, yes, I'm doing financially well. How much do you make now?

I am making $80,000 right now. That's good. Okay. So now we're going to claw our way out of this. Okay. Good. Exactly. Exactly.

Exactly. So, but I just would tell anybody, don't take out student loans at all. It's not a good ROI. You know, Sally Mae is not in my spare bedroom. I'm living in her basement, it feels like, right now. She owns the house. I'm just a tenant. Yes.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think people are so, they want to get done in four years and they want to start their life. And, you know, at 17 and 18, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Most people don't know what they want to do at that age. I think it's better to take your time, work, you know, build your savings to be able to go. It's okay to go to school part-time. You don't need to go to the party school. You don't need to live away from home. It's just, you really have to think about it. I wish they would have taught it in high school. So, yeah, it's tough.

It's not easy. Carol, I'm proud of you for facing the monster. I think you're going to win. I think you've turned the corner. I will win. My goal is to get it all paid off before I'm 50 because I do not want student loans in my 50s. There you go. That's a good goal, and you're going to get there.

I mean, it's four years. You're going to make it. You're going to do it. That's $25,000 a you're going to get there. I mean, it's four years. You're going to make it. You're going to do it. That's $25,000 a year making $80,000. You can do that. And I got faith in you. And thank you for telling your story, though, because it is a wake-up call. And, again, we go back to studying something that's applicable.

She went and got an architecture degree. Now, that actually works. Hello. And studying at a school. See, here's the thing, okay? I'm not mad at you if you want to go to a famous school and pay a lot of money. I mean, $70,000, $80,000 a year, okay? Vanderbilt, right here in Nashville, $70,000 a year tuition, okay?

University of Tennessee, in-state tuition state school twelve thousand dollars so is vander are we saying vanderbilt is seven times your income is going to be seven times as much if you go to vanderbilt as if you go ut well i know this is not a fact because i went to university of tennessee and people that weren't went to vanderbilt work for me so i know the 7x thing doesn't work and oh well i make connections with what? Other broke people? Who are you connecting with? Other people who didn't have the ability to look for a value? Now, again, I'm not.

I've got relatives that graduated from Vanderbilt. They're very smart, and Vanderbilt is academically superior. It's not 7X superior. No. Not even close. Not even close. And if you go $300,000 in debt to go there, it's an indication you're not superior. Yeah.

Your lack of judgment is unbelievable. And so I'm picking on Vanderbilt, but they're just an example of one of the famous schools. They're the Southern Ivy League, if you want to call it. Well, there's a lot of pride. My mom and dad went there, and so I've got to go there. It's hard to get into. It's very prestigious. And the football team, well, maybe not theirs.

Not theirs. But a lot of times you make these decisions based on where mom and dad went, what the experience is going to be like, what the football team is like. Not can we afford it. And is this going to get me the degree that I can get the job in the field that I'm passionate about? We're not thinking that way. We took a call here on the air just a few months ago. A young lady in South Carolina was talking about going to Oxford, to Mississippiissippi and i said why are you going to mississippi instead of south carolina

it's fourteen thousand dollars a year more because of out-of-state tuition her reason the town is pretty i'm gonna lose my mind where are your parents? This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7. 7. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Martin Luther King said, No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance

and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. George Campbell is my co-host today. This is a student loan hour as we celebrate the premier launch today of our first documentary. It's called Borrowed Future. How student loans are killing the American dream. You can watch it on Apple TV, rent it for $4.99, Google Play, Amazon Prime, or BorrowedFuture.com, or you can buy it and download it like you would a great documentary of other kinds. So be sure and check that out. Darnell is with us in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Hey, Darnell. What's up? Hey, Dave. I'm well. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Yeah, so I was calling because I just finished watching the Ball Future documentary,

and it's gotten me thinking about my student loans and my repayment plan, especially considering that I'm going to be graduating soon and I'll have to start paying them. So, so far, my student loans have been kind of in the background, one, because, you know, I have four years to work on paying them, or to consider how I would pay them. But I also went back to school right after. So they've really been in the background for a while. But after watching the documentary,

it's kind of gotten me thinking of what the best repayment plan is. How much student loan debt do you have? Right now, I have $38 have 38 000 and i'm gonna have to accept another 5 000 to finish off okay so you have 45 000 give or take by the time all the smoke clears and your degree is going to be in what um this will be my master's of business administration good good okay when will you graduate uh may of 22 okay all right and so well between now and then what i'd prefer you do is work your tail end off and let's see if we cannot take out any more loans why don't you see if you can cash flow the rest of it that's the first thing let's stop doing harm and then from there george when

he gets out and gets the job yeah as soon as you get a job uh that money is not going to go to you it's going to go to lenders and you're going to work your tail off, probably get a second job, and get rid of this debt. It's $43,000. If you've got an MBA and you're making $50,000, $60,000, you can get rid of this debt in two years or less. Yeah, exactly. So it's possible. You don't have to be average.

Beans and rice, rice and beans, dude. You don't come out and buy a new car. You don't come out and buy a house. You don't come out and spend a bunch of money. You don't come out and act like your top dog you're not your bottom dog you got 45 grand in student loan debt you got to clean up and that's so that's mission one the quicker you knock that out the quicker you get on with the rest of your life and you get to benefit from this education the longer you keep this around it's more going to be like trying to swim with concrete concrete shoes on

don't do it we just took that call from the 46-year-old still paying on her loans. I don't want that to be you, Darnell. I want you to have your entire adult life student loan free. Good observation. Nadia is with us in Houston, Texas. Hi, Nadia. Hi, it's Nadia. Nadia. I messed it up. I'm sorry. Okay, Nadia.

My bad. I remember seeing you the other day on my daughter's show, Rachel Cruz, and you were impressive, and I told them to reach out and see if you would come on. seeing you the other day on my daughter's show rachel cruz and you were impressive and i told them to reach out and see if you would come on thank you for doing that thank you for having me now you went through school debt free tell us your story right quick absolutely i actually got my start in community college through dual credit courses when i was in high school i started at at 12, graduated with my associates when I finished high school at 16, and then went to my four-year university,

finished off my four-year degree in another two years, and graduated debt-free at 18. With a degree in what? Political science. Okay, what are you doing? Right now, I'm actually saving up money so I can cash flow for grad school and in hopes to become either a social worker or a child advocacy lawyer. Okay. I like B. Because I think you're incredible. I watched your presence and your poise on the air with Rachel.

And you currently are 20 years old? No, sir, I'm 18. 18 years old. I'm sorry. Yes. And you attributed this, if I recall, to your mom and dad being immigrants. Absolutely. The drive my parents placed in me was, you are going to college, you're going to do it,

and we're going to make it happen, but you need to do your part and apply to scholarships whenever you can. Yeah, well well you got your undergrad at 18 that's that's i think that's doing your part so your mom and dad immigrated from where jamaica from jamaica and they said we're coming to america we're going to change our family tree so by god you're doing this yes absolutely and one thing i appreciate is they would never helicopter parents because I know so many people, their parents are just on them so much they don't have any room to grow. My parents are always like, you know what you need to do.

Make sure you handle your business, and then we don't need to be overrearing. They treated you like an adult. Absolutely. I was 12 in a community college. I was taking classes with adults so 12 years old yes sir so you're are you uh have you been tested for intelligence are you like a savant or something i haven't i did skip two grades kindergarten and first grade so i went from preschool to second that was the last time i took an educational test like that i can't skip lunch

and she's just skipping grades over here you are very impressive you're incredible well i think i think you've got i think you've got a high level of intelligence but i think you've got a higher level of uh drive and and that comes from a higher power yes absolutely yeah no question no question god being involved in your all's lives and uh if you guys want to hear more of uhia, did I say it right that time? You sure did. Nadia's story, you can see her on Rachel Cruz's show on YouTube, which comes up pretty regularly.

That's where I picked it up, and I was just thumbing through Rachel's show, and I went, whoa, look at this young lady. She's amazing. So your thing was you worked your tail off you went to community college you got school credit for classes you were taking you rolled that up so you didn't have to take as many classes and you do the whole thing in four years uh now did you get all scholarships or were you working to pay for it uh i actually got my first job when i was already a junior at howard university and i used that to pay off some of my books and things,

and just additional expenses due to the pandemic. But I didn't get a full ride from Howard. A lot of it was external scholarships. Like I mentioned on the show, I'm not the product of, like, these big $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 scholarships. I'm the product of $50 scholarships and $100 and $200, because a lot of people snub their nose at those. But I was the product of $50 scholarships and $100 and $200, because a lot of people snub their nose at those. But I was the person like, if there's any scholarship y'all want to give me,

I will apply, take my chances, and keep collecting the winnings. So out of the total, how many dollars in scholarships did you collect, do you think? I don't know the exact amount, but I know with the other schools that i didn't choose to attend in total the last time i checked it was over two million dollars offered when you considered like the tuition and full rides from other schools i was offered yeah but the actual when you add up all those fifty dollar ones and all that and actual cash dollars that went towards your school well you think it's ten thousand or fifty thousand it's probably closer to fifty thousand than ten yeah and how many different scholarships do you think you

had you said you had a lot of little ones well over 50 i'd say yeah so they averaged under a thousand dollars a piece yeah is the point yeah that's what i'm not about that's what i was twenty thousand dollar scholarships and full rides you gotta apply for the little ones it adds up guys this can be done you just have to pay attention and when you don't pay attention to any area of your life including your education your kids education including your wealth including your debt you wake up and you're normal and your life sucks and these people that have won at this were not zombies they did not sleepwalk they paid attention their dads. They paid attention.

Their dads and moms paid attention. So this is what Borrowed Future is about. It's trying to get America to pay attention to an epic failure called the student loan program. It is a failure. It needs to stop. Yeah. You've got to make a decision. Once you watch this documentary, you have to decide if you're going to be a part of this system any longer, if you're going to let your kids be a part of that system and your friends be a part of that

system. So every living, breathing person needs to watch this documentary. The stories are inspiring. There's some heartbreaking stuff. There's some amazing experts featured on there. And it's 90 minutes, and it is a world-class feature film documentary. I'm so proud of this team and what impact this is going to have. Yeah, me too. Borrowed Future. Again, you can watch it at Google Play, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV, as well as BorrowedFuture.com. If you are a teacher, show it to your class for free. And so far today, we've had several hundred teachers already sign up for that, which gives me hope. You can do that.

We're going to stir up a ruckus, boys and girls. Check it out. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.