The Ramsey Show - App - The Correlation Between COVID and Debt (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 1, 2021

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Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Dave and the team are out spending time with their families for New Year's, but we'll be back soon to help you take control of your life and your money in 2021. In the meantime, we've put together some of the best clips from the show for you to enjoy. This is the best of The Dave Ramsey Show. 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'm Dave Ramsey, your host, my co-host on the show today, Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality.

We're here to answer your questions about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Freddie's in Maryland. Hey, Freddie, what's up? Good afternoon, gentlemen. Hey, how can we help? So I'm getting ready to retire from the military in two years. I have $164,500 in debt.

$137,500 is in my rental property. And then the other $27,000 is between my car, credit cards, and student loans. I have roughly $4,700 in a savings account, and then I got $12,400 in my thrift savings plan in the military. We just recently, me and my wife just recently found you guys a podcast, like last Friday, we listened to your book. Wow. And we're trying to figure out how to attack step two. The thing that we're scared about is taking that money out

of the thrift savings plan because i believe there's like 20 in taxes associated with that we don't tell you to do that okay so i would leave that there okay yes sir so you got 4,700 and you've you're you're brand new at this whole ramsey stuff. Cool. Thank you for calling. I appreciate you calling. So have you already learned what Baby Step 1 is? Yes, sir. What is it? It's save $1,000 in the bank. Okay.

And you got $4,700. Yes, sir. So what that means in our plan is you're going to be on a written budget. The two of you are going to hold hands and work together. We're going to plow our way through the debt as fast as we possibly can, all of your debt except real estate debt. And we're going to use anything that's not – we're going to stop adding to the thrift savings temporarily,

and we're going to knock this debt in the nose. You're going to hit it as hard as you can hit it, okay? And that means $3,700 comes out of that account and goes on your smallest debts. You're going to list your debts smallest to largest. Now, what is your smallest debt? My smallest debt is a credit card for $450. Perfect. We're going to pay that off and cut it up.

Plastic surgery. You'll be on a budget and be using debit cards out of your checking account from this point forward, okay? Yes, sir. Now, then what's your next smallest debt? My next smallest debt is another credit card for $2,700. Gone.

That's $3,100 of $3,700. So that leaves me $600. What's the next smallest debt? It's like another one that's 20, another credit card that's $2,755. Okay. It's now $2,155, $2,150, and that's going to be the first thing that just starts getting hammered. Every dollar you can squeeze out of your budget of your life is going to go on that thing.

And no life. Yes, sir. No life. Beans and rice. Rice and beans. Now, you've been listening long enough. You've heard a lot of that before, right? Yes, sir.

Okay. So this is cool. What did you do in the military, man? I'm an infantryman. Okay. So you've done hard things. Lots of them. Yes, sir.

You can follow a plan and do hard things for other people. Now it's time to do hard things for you and your wife. Yeah, it was just... My wife wanted me to... We're trying to find FPU around us. Literally, we found you guys on Friday. I listened to your book on Saturday. And then on Monday, I was

ready to sell the truck and the doll. That a baby! Hey, man, you don't mess with an entryman with a goal dude right with a target so what are you gonna do when you get out um i haven't decided yet but uh right now i'm working in the field with the um the future weapon systems that come in so i'd like to more work into like a an advise advisory role yeah yeah some contractor stuff cool so what um because those weapons are extremely cool um sidebar but uh so what is your household income today today it is 78 good and how much debt do you have that's not the rental house total?

Total 27. Okay. 27.5. Okay. And we just got rid of 3,500 of that, 3,700 of that. Yes, sir. In our little scenario that we just did, okay? And so you got like 20,000 bucks to go on 78.

So that's probably six months to a year, somewhere in there. You guys are going to be done with your debt except the rental property. You may want to sell the rental property and keep the truck. That's what we were thinking, because right now I owe $37,500 on the house. It's worth, last time I checked, it's worth $205,000. $137,000. $137,500. $137,000.

Sorry about that. Yes. Okay. $137,000. I thought I didn't hear you right earlier. Okay. So $137,000. So you got some equity in that, and that would give you a head start towards your transition out of the military in 18 months, right?

Yes, sir. Yeah. So, if not this fall, then probably spring I'm putting that property on the market. Okay. And that's going to help you guys make the transition if you change cities, if you do whatever. And the next property you buy will be one you live in after the military. Yeah. Okay.

And you're doing great, man. Absolutely. Listen, here's what I want to do. I want to say thank you for your service, and what we're going to do is we're going to put you guys into Ramsey Plus, which includes Financial Peace University for a year. I'm going to pay for it. Thank you very much, sir.

I appreciate that. Thank you. You're the kind of guy I come down here and do this show for. That's exactly right. You hold on, and Kelly will pick up, and we'll get you signed up for that. It includes the EveryDollarSync, where you sync up with your bank. It includes the Baby Steps app tracker. It includes all the classes, including Financial Peace University. We're going to pay for all of it.

Just to say salute, baby. We appreciate you. It's awesome. One of these days, I'm going to get this thing to where I can just give it to the military. Wouldn't that be cool? That'd be awesome. That would be cool. Yeah.

I'm working on that behind the scenes. I ain't got it all figured out yet. That would be cool. That would be a fun thing to do. And to find somebody who's thinking, 18 months from now, my life's going to be different. I'm going to reverse engineer this and start right now. But, I mean, I don't know what bigger compliment a teacher can have than go, I read all your stuff this weekend, and I'm already doing it.

Yeah. I mean, that's like, yeah, I'll help you. That's exactly right. Yes, I'll help you. I don't have to talk you into doing crap. I heard about you on Friday. I read your book on Saturday. We sold the truck and the dog on Sunday.

That's right. I was like, good God. I love this guy. My wife duct taped her hands to the front door so she could stay. No, that's awesome, man. Good for both of you. You know, but here's the thing when what he did learn in the infantry and you brought this up because there's a behavior

pattern there that matters and um anyone that's been through any kind of training of any type like this where you have to break your own self down in order to submit to a plan that works. And that word submit is very difficult for humans. And, you know, if I hire a trainer, a personal trainer, and he comes to my house in our little gym and shows me how to do stuff and I don't do what he says, I've wasted my money. And his time. And I have not submitted myself to his knowledge his training

his process and if i'm not willing to do that then i'm this is just like it's another it's an expensive form of denial that's exactly that's exactly right and it's just like you know so but when you submit yourself to something that's what but he learned that you know you learn how to take orders you learn how to to get a goal and go get it. Get it. Go get it. Just get it. That's what you do. And that's a big deal, man.

He's going to have this house sold in 30 days. He's going to be debt free. It's a big deal. What a stud. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. If current times have shown us anything, it's that the least expected events can and will happen, and we have to deal with it. That's why everyone who has a family counting on them needs term life insurance. For over 20 years, the only company I've recommended is Zander Insurance.

Not only because they search all of the top term life plans to find you the best rates, We'll be right back. or the internet. They also have plans with super competitive rates that don't require an exam, allowing you to skip a step and get the coverage you need faster. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Great rates and a simple process mean there's no excuse to not get this done, people. you're listening to the best of the dave ramsey show we'll be back soon with more live content ken coleman ramsey personality number one best-selling author and host of the ken coleman show on radio xm and a well-listened to well-traveled podcast is with me as my co-host today here on the air. So, Ken, according to this article at Yahoo Finance, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic had led to paydowns of household debt in the second quarter of 2020, leading to the first quarter-over-quarter decline since 2014. The New York Fed's Consumer Credit Panel, which uses national data from Equifax,

shows that total household debt fell by $34 billion to $14.27 trillion as of June 30th. The most notable decline in consumer debt came from credit card spending, where balances fell $76 billion in the second quarter, the steepest decline in the history of the New York Fed's data. Auto and student loan balances were roughly flat. The data shows signs of caution over consumer spending. Well, no kidding. Mortgage balances, however, continued to rise and added $63 billion.

So basically, we got student loans flat. We got, and to the extent that this particular region of the Fed is indicative of everything else, we don't know about that for sure, but it makes sense. It makes sense. So credit card debt's down. Student loan debt's flat. Mortgages are up because people are buying houses still. And auto loans are basically flat.

Our auto debt is flat. So what it amounts to is that people weren't going to restaurants, and they weren't traveling, and they weren't using their credit cards. And they paid them down because they were scared. That's right. Some good news, though, in June we saw consumer spending rise by 5.6%. So that speaks to some confidence. And the delinquency rates on mortgages ticked down as well. And that's in the freaking New York region.

That's right. So this is a great article to share because you hear all the doom and gloom. And if you're watching news or you're reading news, a lot of clickbait out there, a lot of stories designed to get your head to turn. These are real economic numbers. And that would at least suggest that better days are ahead. You and I have believed that. All the Ramsey personalities, we've said that. Our message of hope, we're saying that.

This is a storm. Storms pass. There's some good news here, and there's hope that some people are saying, you know what, never again. And that's what we're seeing, and I'm encouraged. I think as time moves on, we're going to see business owners start to help beat the drum a little bit to say, you know what, if we're going to survive, if we're going to thrive, we're going to have to figure out how to work, and people want to work. And so I'm still in a place of optimism, even though the news isn't always positive. I'm optimistic. Yeah.

I think one of the things that's negative, not out of this article, but overall, is the same place in your brain, the same chemical reaction in your brain that causes someone to become addictive to pornography causes them to become addicted to fear and some of these news channels have basically been putting out fear porn for about four months now and they've gotten record ratings off of it it's working for them and uh they find a news story occasionally to move on from it but they go right back to fear porn because it's working for them and some of you have watched the news so much that you've become addicted to fear

and you spend your whole life just trembling uh and you what happens when you do that is you lose your critical thinking skills so you you no longer have the ability to look at mask data or social distancing data or death rates with a clear mind. You know, you no longer can look at the inconsistencies in the testing processes with a clear mind and come to a reasonable common sense conclusion. Instead, your octaves go up because your throat is tight and you screech at someone in the grocery store because you're addicted to fear. You've gotten hooked on fear porn. And so no one can reason with you because you've lost your freaking mind.

Yeah. Those people are seeing a threat everywhere. They're seeing a threat everywhere. You know, it's interesting you talk about the part of the brain. You can look this up, Google lizard brain, and that's become kind of the common man description of that part of our brain, but it really does protect us. The brain is designed to protect us, and it's called fight or flight. And so what Dave's's talking about folks is

is absolutely backed up from neuroscience that when we get so focused on fear we have our brain will put us into one or two places and we get to choose most people dave as you're saying are choosing flight i'm afraid i'm gonna contract everything in my life i'm not gonna go anywhere i'm not gonna do anything i'm gonna freak out and i'm gonna get in my life. I'm not going to go anywhere. I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to freak out, and I'm going to get in this bunker mentality. And I'm going to be mad at anybody who doesn't do what I do. That's the issue. Or what if we choose the fight mechanism and say, you know what?

Look, this is out of our control. A lot of this is out of our control. But what can I control? Well, I can control what I focus on. I can find good stories that aren't just kumbaya cotton candy. I'm talking some of the data we've given you here. The jobs numbers, new job numbers came out today. Less job unemployment than they predicted.

I look at that and I go, that's optimistic. You know, we've got to... Not exactly a checkmark. It's not. It didn't just bounce back. It didn't bounce back. And the reason it didn't was we've continued with some of the draconian policies. That's right.

But we also got small businessmen and women that are fighting to save their business, fighting to save your job. We've got entrepreneurs that are fighting to come up with new business models and new consumer products that are coming out of these times the point is we've got to choose to say i'm not going to let this circumstance a pandemic and everybody else's reaction to it color my perspective and thus my actions i think it's well said we've got to be careful what we consume yeah fear porn if you consume fear all the time that's all you see is an attack around every corner yeah and you you become subject to it you're now absolutely and you can see people's eyes oh yeah they're skulking around you know oh where's the boogeyman all the time as opposed to going look this is a tough time america's been through tough times before other countries been through tough times and what have we seen the human spirit if it decides to fight

and to and to say all right we're going to overcome this and adapt, then good things can happen. And I am very optimistic. I just trust business people, man. If we can just get the government out of business, I feel real good about you, the people. I do. Well, because, you know, this idea that somehow business people are out to harm their employees is absolutely asinine. It's garbage. That's asinine. Yeah. garbage. That's asinine.

Yeah. They can't do that on purpose. We spend so much money acquiring team members. Right. The amount of money I spend recruiting and getting people here and then turn around and kill them? Right. That's asinine.

Well, you've said a hundred times, you can't get to the vision that we have for Ramsey Solutions as it continues to evolve and grow without people. Yeah. So we turned off our hiring for 60 days because we were conserving cash to make sure we were going to turn the corner and survive we've uh you know we've stabilized our revenues now we've pivoted and pivoted until i'm sick of the word and um and so we're back in full hire mode now and uh we'll hire 200 people by the end of the year probably uh and and so you know can you i was talking with a guy last night in business and can you imagine being in the plexiglass business right now? Oh, my goodness.

They can't hire enough people. They can't keep it. It's like everywhere. Everybody's got a piece of glass up somewhere. And, you know, every cash register suddenly has this. It is absolutely, I mean, it'd be like being in the mask production business. How about all those toilet paper executives right now? And the paper towel people,

they are living good right now after all the collective freak out in America three months ago. You couldn't find toilet paper if you tried. You couldn't find it. The great toilet paper shortage of the spring of 2020.

Well, I mean, it's crazy. I mean, there's opportunity everywhere. Gosh, we just have to infect people. I know you're going to get on that word, but I chose it on purpose. We've got to infect people. Fear is more contagious than this virus. But we have got to infect people with some optimism and say, you know what? This virus is highly contagious, by the way.

Oh, I know. But the fear is more. Fear is way more. And by the way, I'm going to say this. The fear and the fallout of this virus and the draconian leadership measures will have harmed more people than the actual virus when this is all said and done. Always. Definitely. By a long shot. All kinds of data already showing that.

All kinds of data already showing that. The good news is they didn't run up their debt credit cards. That's the data. That's good. We still got work to do, though. Yeah. There's still $76 billion in just credit cards. Me and you, we're going to be okay.

Me and Jenny Craig got a lot of work to do. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be back soon with more live content dr john deloney ramsey personality my co-host today here on the air matt and samantha are with us in Albuquerque, New Mexico for a debt-free scream. What's up, guys? Hey, Dave. Good to be here. How are you? How much you paid off? We're great. So we paid off about $100,000 in 14 months, making between $70,000 and $165,000. Love it. What do you guys do for a living? I'm an engineer. I'm an attorney. So who got the job because you went from 70 to 165?

One of you was unemployed. So, yeah, it started, we kind of started right when Sam graduated from law school, and so she wasn't working at the time, and then she got a job shortly after she graduated. So a lawyer and a what? What did you say you did? I'm an engineer. Oh, my gosh. Two professional studs.

Way to go, you guys. Thank you. So $100,000, I'm guessing there might be a little bit of student loan debt in that. It was all of my debts. I dragged us down. Oh. And now you're lifting us out. Now you're lifting us out, lawyer.

Well done. Yeah, we actually started our journey right around the time Sam graduated. And I don't know if you could see the picture of her on graduation day. I graduated from graduate school. So she was seven months pregnant in that picture. And then two months later, about the time when she was due, she had to take her bar exam. And so she actually gave birth to our first child the exact same week as her two-day, you know, her biggest exam of her life, basically. No way.

Wow. No pressure, Sam. No pressure. Wow. So you passed the bar, and then you have a baby the next week. Yeah. No, no, no. I gave birth, and then I went and passed the bar.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. That's worse. What a no, no. I gave birth, and then I went and passed the bar. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. That's worse. What a stud. Wow. Amazing. Which law school did you go to? The University of New Mexico.

There you go. Good for you. Look at that little baby. How cute. So a little boy or a little girl? Both girls. Well, our first daughter was a girl, and then we had a second daughter along the way as well. Okay.

Beautiful. Oh, there they are. Another picture. I'm looking at the pictures on YouTube. They're popping up. Beautiful. Great. Wow. Yeah, she's cute. Well done, Matt. You did alright for yourself. I sure did. I lucked out. So how long have you guys been married? So we've been married about three years and we got married in school with basically just internships and um you know kind of just trusted god and went from there and you know things started to work out once we really committed to the process and the right plan that we know that you've been teaching so yeah thank you for all

your help along the way yeah well very cool we're honored to be part of a power couple like you two man you're incredible way Way to go, hero. So 14 months ago was when Sam, is that when you passed the bar and had the baby? So I've been practicing for a year and a half. I had an interruption because I actually was in a car accident, a pretty major car accident, that left me out of work with a brain injury. Oh, my gosh. And we actually didn't think that I'd ever be able to work again. Like, we were still in debt.

We still had a mountain of debt, and it looked like we were just going to be paying it off for nothing. And fortunately, I was able to find the right doctor to treat me, and I was able to finally, after several months of being unemployed, find another job. And then from there, we were able to get back into the plan. But what's even more crazy about this story is that, like, the same week that I got into the car accident was a couple days before.

We paid off the $37,000 of debt that we had. We had money saved, and we just decided to finally commit to your plan and just do it full force. So we paid $ saved, and we just decided to finally commit to your plan and just do it full force. So we paid $37,000 off, and then a couple days later, car accident, and we only had $1,000 in our emergency fund. Oh, wow. And then you pulled that around. And we still pulled it off.

It was amazing. It was a huge leap of faith, but it was a really good exercise in trusting in God. Amen. Amen. Well, yeah, because it doesn't matter whether you have ten thousand or a thousand uh at the end of the day he has more exactly well to any law firm in the 505 who needs somebody that can study for the bar and grow a human and then then uh give birth to the human and pass the bar, have a TBI, and then shake it off and go back.

Anyone who wants a rock star lawyer, I know somebody. You can give us a call. We'll put you in connection with Samantha. You're a litigator. I don't think they want to take you on in court. Yeah, you are never going to see the inside of a courtroom, Samantha. They're going to settle every time. Wow.

Your reputation. So what's the key to getting out of debt in 14 months what do you tell people when they hear this story and hear you guys did this um i would say that pretty much the biggest thing is you really have to have a mindset shift about how you think about money and how you think about your career and life um you know, when I think, you know, early on, we had this idea that money is a tool to be used for good. And it's not just something that we buy what we want with it. It's, it's really something that it is important, and it's worth focusing on. And it's worth setting goals with. So you can, you know, live and give generously, and really make

an impact on the world around you. And throughout our 14-month journey, we never stopped giving either. And I think that was one of the things that kept us going is we felt like, you know, the more money we make, the more money we can give to causes that we really care about. And so that was, you know, really fulfilling along the way. And now that we're out of debt, we know that we can do that even more so and have an even greater impact. Amen. Yeah, you're in a position for outrageous generosity now.

Very well done. So how did you guys get connected to us? I found you on YouTube, actually. And then I kind of thought you were some, you know, unheard of kind of radio show. And then I told my dad about you guys. And he was like, oh, yeah, I've got a bunch of his books. And here's the CD. And so then we just started going full force into it you thought you thought you discovered us

time that we were doing this we were watching these youtube videos and watching other people do their deathly screams and that kept us so motivated because we were like one day we will be them and here we are and now you are yeah I'm so proud of you guys. Very, very well done. You are so positioned to be world changers, not only for those two little girls, but for everybody around you. You have lived like no one else, and now you can live and give like no one else. Very proud of you guys. Well done, heroes. Thank you.

Got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. Without a doubt, that is your destiny, and you'll be in a position to manage that for the good of the kingdom, brother. Well done. Very well done. All right, Matt and Samantha, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 100,000 paid off. Quite a journey. They did it in 14 months, making $70,000 up to $165,000.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Okay, ready? Three, 6, 5. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Okay, ready? 3, 2, 1. We're debt-free! Yeah! And that is how it's done, ladies and gentlemen. Wow.

How can you possibly have an excuse after listening to a story like that? If you are sitting in your car or you're mowing your lawn and you have your headphones in and you've been thinking about this for a minute but i don't know i don't have my stuff together or she's never going to get on board yeah they grew a child had a traumatic brain injury passed the bar and never gave up they never gave up so you threw those initials out like it's a thing like tbi is a thing a traumatic brain injury that's what you call it that's right okay sorry about that no it's okay yeah you just survived the tbi and i went what traumatic brain injury yeah so it's a yeah i get it i mean i get what it means i just didn't i

didn't know it was like a set initial that you'd know to go with that. Okay, so now I'll just learn something. I just – I hope that those type of messages resonate through people's hearts and minds and souls when they're just wondering, could we do this? The answer is yes. I don't care what your situation is. You're going to have hiccups. You're going to have speed bumps. You're going to have barriers as you

go through your debt-free journey as you go through your wealth building journey as you go through your life you're going to have them so don't be shocked don't be shocked don't pretend they're not going to happen they're 100 chance they don't go oh well that means i'm not i'm not on track no that means you are on track it's exactly you just got to climb over the fence you got to go past the speed bump you got to go past the speed bump. You got to bust through the barrier. It may be big. It may be little.

But they're going to be there. And that's what your community's for. Don't be shocked. Don't be shocked. You're going to be there. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. you're listening to the best of the dave ramsey show we'll be back soon with more live content chris hogan ramsey personality is my co-host today here on the dave ramsey show

shane is in chicago hi Shane. Welcome to the show. Hey, thank you very much. Sure. What's up? So as I grew up younger, I never wanted to spend any money. I'm 27 years old right now. And that's for some reason that was just ingrained in my brain. If I didn't have the money, I couldn't spend it. So, like I said, I'm 27. I have $23,000 in IRA, $35,000 in a 401k, $15,000 in another

managed fund, and $103,000 just in the bank. Cool. So, I just rent. No kids not married and i'm wondering if i can buy a 35 000 uh honda and i've been researching for the past about two years because i'm um i'm kind of researching is... Researching is one month. Two years is lusting. Yeah.

Well, I can't spend the money, you know? I got to do all my research. How much do you make a year? $100. Okay. All right. Chris? You got $103,000 in the bank.

Makes $100 a year. And you make $100 a year, Shane. You can go get this car. Okay. What's standing in the way? I'm just not I just don't want to let go of the money.

So you're talking about a used one or a new one? It's a new one, but it's I don't know if you're familiar, it's a Type R. So they hold their value pretty well no they don't like you nothing holds its value with wheels and motors they all go down in value they all go down i mean 10 years from now 10 years from now it's a cute little old car um yeah yeah so uh uh you i mean it's it's a rare car it's a hard car to find i bet used or new for that matter um i i really would buy a one-year-old one unless you're a millionaire okay yeah i would buy one yeah i could buy one used too for sure yeah if you could buy one with 10 or 12 000 miles on it some guy bought it and then his wife said he can't have it anymore or something

and so he puts it up for adoption uh like a puppy yeah the last thing i want to say is I won with 10,000 or 12,000 miles on it. Some guy bought it, and then his wife said he can't have it anymore or something. And so he puts it up for adoption like a puppy. Yeah, the last thing I want to say is, yeah, I don't want to be, because I've set myself so up to save so much, I don't want to be 50 years old and look back and be like, you know what? I should have just had a little bit of fun and bought that car. So that's what I don't want to regret. You're very wise.

We teach people to teach their children and themselves to always, and Chris and I have met with athletes making $10, $20 million a year, and we tell them the same thing. There's three things you can do with money, and you should always do these three things. You should spend it and enjoy it, in other words. You should be outrageously generous, and you should save and invest in it. And we try to get folks to do that, and sometimes we meet people who all they know how to do is spend it.

Sometimes we meet people who all they know how to do is give it away. And sometimes we meet people who all they know how to do is save it, like you. And it's good to learn the other two skills, the generosity skill and the – because it makes your life well-rounded. And a good – let me tell you how to do this with wisdom. And, Chris, what we do is we teach – you can talk about this. We talk about the ratios when we're dealing with these athletes. That's right. And so looking at this, what I would tell you is – and the ratios, the pie graph approach, Dave's right.

The give, the save, the spend are absolutely imperative. And you've got to give yourself – I can hear the locked up in your voice about the thought of, Ratios, the pie graph approach. Dave's right. The give, the save, the spend are absolutely imperative. And you've got to give yourself. I can hear the locked up in your voice about the thought of spending some money. And you've got to give yourself permission to be able to enjoy it. So it'll give you the joy of being able to give it as well. And so right now you've got your fist just so tight. I want you to breathe.

You're doing well for yourself. Put a percentage of your income on giving, a percentage on investing, and a percentage on spending. It doesn't matter if it's 2%. Make yourself do something in all categories, okay? Yeah, okay. And then that'll keep you from having that 55-year-old-I-never-lived-my-life regret, right? Yeah, Yeah. I'm ready to finally enjoy some of my money versus all the hard work and budgeting I've been doing. So I think I'm ready. What's a one-year-old version of that car cost?

A new one right now is $35,000. The new one's $35,000. What's a one-year-old one cost? Yeah, they're on the market for $32,000 to $35,000. Okay. All right. All right. So they're not taking a big hit the first year then.

Okay, cool. How many years they been making that car? They started in 2017. Okay. So I've been looking at us 2017. But again, they're around $32,000. Yeah. So I can't find anything else than that. They got great lines. I again, they're around $32,000. Yeah. So I can't find anything else than that.

They got great lines. I mean, they're just beautiful cars. Yeah, hunt that 2017 down, Shane, and get it. Well, or the 18 or the 19. Either one. But yeah, I wouldn't buy brand new. We don't recommend that until you're a millionaire. But you're in a position to spend that kind of money on a car because it's less than half your annual income.

You can pay cash. And I don't think there's any fear that you're somehow going to go down a rabbit hole of spending. So just learn to enjoy part of it. Two more months before you'll do that. Ben is in Phoenix. Hey, Ben, how are you? Hi, Dave. Great to talk to you.

Big fan. Thanks for all you do. Thank you. My question is more about a work-related question and professionalism, I guess. I've been in my current position for four years now, and for the past six months, I've been told that there's a raise and a promotion potentially coming, and it hasn't happened yet. And now I'm looking for other positions. I just have kind of found that I might be interested in moving to a new company, and I just want to know if it's ethical to accept a raise and then a month later leave for another job.

Okay. Just to get your thoughts on that. Ben, I'm curious. Is it the fact that you started looking for the other position, was it your frustration and irritation that you hadn't received the raise or promotion yet? To an extent, yes. Okay. Yeah, that's probably the bigger part of it.

Yeah. And so you are, on a scale of one to ten, ten being out the door and 1 being you're stuck for life. Where are you with this current company? Probably about a 6 or 7. Okay. All right. So if the raise was big enough and you thought you could trust the people's integrity next time they told you they were going to do something, you would stay? Yes.

Okay. Because it sounds like the integrity of them not following through has bit you a little bit. Am I missing something? No, no, that's probably pretty accurate. I don't like being led to believe something. Nobody does. I do feel really valued there in that they, you know, value my work,

but I want to make sure compensation is keeping up with that, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the way we tell people to act on business ethics when we're teaching, Chris and I both teach entree leadership to business owners, small business owners in particular, is when it comes to the employer or the employee, a good way to handle business ethics is simply treat other people like you'd want to be treated.

Take your shoes off, put their moccasins on, walk a mile in their moccasins. Now, if you ran that business and you had a guy named Ben working there, and, you know, what would you want Ben to do? How would you want Ben to act? And that will tell you what to do. And at the same time, Ben ben for you to put on their shoes and walk in what they've

been doing and what's been going on in the world and in the economy and try to get a feel for that and identify and from them as well yeah because you know you got to ask yourself and i don't know i'm not suggesting that you're right or wrong one way or the other. And I'm not shaming you into staying there at all or leaving prematurely or anything like that. But, you know, if someone said, we're going to give you a raise in six months, and a normal course of business, six months have gone by, and they just didn't keep their word and they led you along, that's one thing. But during the last six months we had this little pandemic issue that kind of threw a wrench in a few things um and so i might cut some

people some slack maybe if they're do it maybe there's other things going on and this is a short radio call it's your whole life you gotta decide if you got a bunch of indications of lack of integrity around the place then you're probably out of there that's right that's a different one but at the same time go have a conversation and see what's going on. Let's be adults here and not run off pouting, you know? Yeah. I didn't think he's pouting. No, I don't think he is.

But I think if you were going to ever give somebody some grace, an employer or an employee, it would be during this COVID time. I would completely agree, Dave. There's a little pandemic. Puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register.

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