The Ramsey Show - App - The Data Doesn’t Lie: Teachers CAN Become Millionaires! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

Debt, Relationships, Home Buying, Investing, Savings 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

Welcome to the Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality and career coach extraordinaire, is my co-host today. As we talk about your life, your money, your career, and how it all works together. We're answering your questions at 888-825-5225.

So Ken, this is an interesting and distressing part of our world today. We did at Ramsey a couple of years ago the largest, by far, airtight research, the largest study of millionaires in North America, in the United States of America, ever done. All the details. Where do they come from? What do they think about? Did they inherit their money? What are their careers?

What's their marital status? What's their race, creed, color, whatever? Everything we could figure out and trying to find and trying to figure out, okay, what does it take to become a millionaire in america today a millionaire is a million dollar net worth for those of you who don't know it's not a billionaire a billion is a thousand a million it's a lot more if you have three thousand dollars you're closer to being a millionaire than a millionaire is to being a billionaire. That's an example.

So it's not private jets and seven cars, okay? That's not a millionaire. A million-dollar net worth is not that much, but it is more than most people have. There's about 17 million millionaires in America, and that's what you own minus what you owe equals your net worth. Your assets minus your liabilities is your net worth. So if you have no debt and you have a million dollars in your 401k, you're a millionaire. Okay, that's simple. That kind of a thing. All right, so we post on Instagram yesterday, and this is what is societally distressing? That from this study, not a feeling that we have, we didn't ask your broke brother-in-law his opinion.

We asked real millionaires, 10 freaking thousand of them, who they are, where they come from. And one of the many conclusions we drew from this was the top ten career fields that we found according to frequency within the study. So what career field did we find most often, second most often, and so on? The most often we found was engineer. The second was an accountant or cpa the third was teacher the fourth was management the fifth was attorney so not even making the top five as medical doctor by the way there were six number six but they were not even in the top five we post that on there and instagram and facebook

proves once again that humanity is full of morons i mean if you read comments after articles or comments after posts like this you understand why some species eat their young people are dumber than a rock out there oh yeah a lot of mouth some of you listening are dumber than a rock out there oh yeah a lot of mouth some of you listening are dumber than a rock yeah i mean i never heard this is ridiculous so here's the thing okay we've done detailed scientific research that proves that the sun is hot and we post it yeah on instagram the sun is hot some of you morons will disagree with that yeah just because you think you have a right to and you

should really stop before you post something because it makes you look stupid okay was that unclear well i felt like i felt like you could have had a little bit more enthusiasm for what you were saying i felt like i felt like it lost a little fervor no i think you're absolutely right this is data and you know it's funny it's like, they want to argue like we're duping people. Like, well, we're just saying this to be cute. Yeah, right, Dave Ramsey. Teachers aren't really making that kind of money. Not where I live.

I'm a teacher. Teachers can't be millionaires. No way teachers can be millionaires. No teachers should be on there. Where are the nurses? Where are the nurses? Well, you nurses get your butt in gear, and I guess you'll make the dadgum list. Oh, my gosh.

Well, what they're missing, what these brilliant mouth breathers have forgotten in this post, is that it has nothing to do with the salary. It has everything to do with the way they live. Now, engineers certainly can make way more money than a teacher, but it is they have lived on less than they make. They have saved. They have invested. They've walked a clear path.

The baby steps, they're baby steps millionaires. And that's what they're missing here. They think, oh,'ve walked a clear path. The baby steps. They're baby steps millionaires. And that's what they're missing here. They think, oh, I know what a teacher salary is. You guys are just making this stuff up. As if you're into clicking. Let me tell you what all five of us do share in common. All five professions are systems people. That's right.

They all work systems. Yep. Teachers work a teaching plan. They have a lesson plan. They work a system. And if somebody gives them a lesson plan, they don't go make up their own. Yep. They follow the lesson plan. They have a lesson plan. They work a system. If somebody gives them a lesson plan, they don't go make up their own. They follow the lesson plan. And engineers,

they don't make up their own thing. The bridge would fall. That's correct. They have to follow the system. They have to follow the processes. Attorneys have to follow a process called the law. You know, you don't get to make it up. You have to actually adhere to a process. All of these people adhere to processes for a living

and they take that same part of their personality and they apply it to their money and voila they become a millionaire so what is the data on teacher income well right now the median income in the united states is sixty thousand dollars so now before some of you folks start firing shots at me on that i said median you know what a median is anybody? If you had been in a good teacher's class, you would have known. It's your law of averages. You just run your averages. No, average is different than median. Yeah, I know, but I'm just saying if you look at across the board

of what the median salary is for a teacher at 60. Now, that means in some districts in the United States, like for instance, I got a friend who's teaching high school in New York, upstate New York. He's making over six figures. So, this is across the board. You look at the median, and now we go, okay, this is what we're looking at in the United States. But again, it is about how they live on less than they make.

It's not. This study wasn't pointing to how much they make. It was how much they keep. And by the way, there is one other correlation between all of these millionaires. They love their work. Yeah. High correlation. Let's not forgetaires. They love their work. Yeah. High correlation. Let's not forget that.

There's an 80 percentile range. 80 percentile. They love their work. So let me help you with this. If you invest from age 30 to age 65 in a decent growth stock mutual fund, 15% of $60,000, you'll have $4.8 million. Yeah, there it is. Now, you can also fire off a bunch of comments about that. But that was math.

You don't really get to negotiate with math. Yeah. That's how math works. It just is or it isn't. That's right. You don't get to make up your own version. Yeah, that's not an opinion. And so if you only are one-fifth as good as we teach.

Right. I mean, $5 million. $4.8 million. Right. Okay? You would still have $1 teach. Right. I mean, 5 million bucks. 4.8 million. Right. Okay? You would still have 1 million dollars. Right.

From age 30 to age 65. Sheesh! But Dave, that's all too clear cut and simple for the keyboard warriors. There's got to be more complexity.

They've got to tear it apart. It's got to be a game. And that's unfortunate. That's the sad part. The sad part is that we have a portion of our culture now who, rather than fix their life and address the person in the mirror's deficits, instead wants a narrative that declares them a victim. There it is.

That can't possibly be true, Dave, because if that's true, I could do it. If your study was accurate, what do you know about my study? If your mouth was shut, you wouldn't be making noise. Oh, my God. But, Dave, they're mouth breathers, so the mouth can't be shut. Seriously, people, you really should abstain from the comments section, reading them or commenting on them. Oh, my gosh.

This is The Ramsey Show. of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries. Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my co-host today. This is the Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You know, I've got to circle back one more time.

I just can't let that lay. There's a reason that you and I both get so visibly frustrated with people that have a victim narrative and insist on spreading their victim narrative. We know from having worked with thousands and even millions of people that most anyone that follows a proven process can go get a great job, can get out of debt and build wealth, can have a good marriage. We know that people that choose to control their behavior in spite of the negative influences from the outside, in spite of bad things having happened to them, and we all have challenges, but in spite of the challenges, we know that people can create for themselves,

carve out for themselves a good life if they bother. When someone posts a negative narrative that says, oh, teachers can't do it, then someone believes that, or you're in an echo chamber with a bunch of people that says teachers can't do it, then, God help us, teachers believe they can't do it. And we know that that's not true, and you've then limited someone's belief and someone's future, and you've brought harm to them. And we love people, and we love people so much we want them to win, and anything that keeps them from winning including you debbie downers out there

you're going to be at the tip of our sharp tongue yeah yeah i agree with that and let me just say this as much as we we'll take shots at people that that are constantly negative and cynical i i do even you could do it if you quit doing that i feel sadness over that because because you've bought in some form or fashion a false narrative you have had some bad stuff happen to you maybe somebody did something maybe you made a mistake and you did something dumb that doesn't disqualify you from being a victor i've never read a biography in my life and i've read a lot of them uh where the the story the person in the story that we're reading about always did everything right, had no hardship, had no self-inflicted wounds, had no disadvantages.

So I absolutely agree with you. We get fired up on this because we're in the business of hope. We're in the business of giving people hope that they can be who they're supposed to be. They can do what they want to do. And, yeah, it really makes me angry when people just go, nah, that's all a pipe dream. And, yeah yeah it irritates us and we live in a world today where people really are influenced shockingly by a comment in a comment section by the negative yeah and yeah that's why it fires us up the negative the

negative good grief here's my deal if you really believe that then why do you feel like you got to share that with everybody else i mean you you have the right to believe and say, and I will always fight for liberty, to say and be negative and eeyore. If that's what you want to be, great. But don't bring it around the rest of us. Yeah, old country saying, if you ain't got something nice to say, why don't you say nothing at all? I mean, life is too short to be.

A pastor friend of mine used to say, if it's not helpful, hopeful, or promotes healing, you don't need to say it. That's good. Yeah, if it's not helpful, hopeful, or promotes healing, you don't need to say it. That's good. Yeah. If it's not helpful, hopeful, or promotes healing, you don't need to say it. Yeah. And I could take that advice occasionally, too. I just called a whole bunch of people stupid.

But I think that might have been healing, though. I think it was. It was a little therapeutic for both of us. Yeah, me and you were healed by it. Yeah. Yeah, but I will say this. I think it's fair to say that someone is stupid or unintelligent when they argue data. Yeah.

But, by the way, those are the same people that go, science over here, but we're going to argue something we don't like. You've heard this before. Until you don't like it, yeah. That's right. We hear what we want to hear. We see what we want to see. It's echo chamber city, man. It's just people.

Man, oh, man, oh, man. Ryan is with us in Fresno. Hi, Ryan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, how's it going? Good, man. What's up? All right.

So, question for you. Yeah. I made a non-gave decision about four years ago, and I need your help getting out of it. Okay. That's an interesting way of saying it, non-Dave, meaning it was a bad decision. It was a bad decision. Well, thanks for the compliment, but how can I help? Tell me what happened.

Yeah, so my wife and I went in on a property with her sister and her husband. And it's 20 acres. It has a primary house, and it had a mobile home on it. So my wife and I, we took the primary house, and they took the mobile home. It was all agreed upon, everything good. We decided to split the ownership 50-50. You split 50-50, but they get the trailer? That was what we agreed on.

You're a good negotiator. Yeah, so I pay a little bit more for homeowners insurance just because we are in the primary house um we have to have two separate homeowners insurance just i don't know that's how they worked it out anyways uh my brother-in-law they either want us to all sell this place together or they want me to buy him out. And we can't come to an agreement on how we want to do that. Basically, our relationship is showered. And so we're kind of at a standstill of how we can go about it. That's sad. Yeah.

I don't know how much help I can be with the relationship part. I have a couple of thoughts on structure, if you want those. You went into it 50-50, so why don't you just have the property appraised and pay him 50%? Hello? Let's say appraised. Yeah, can you hear me? Yeah.

Can you hear me? Oh, yes. Okay. Why don't you have it appraised? You put in 50 each, put in 50%, right? Uh-huh. And he got the short end of the stick and lived in the trailer all right and now he wants to buy out why can't you pay him 50 of the value what's wrong with that well the the value is somewhere around 400 000 yeah and uh so that would mean

so how does that mean i'm paying him $200,000? He owns 50% of it. He bought 50% of it. You bought 50% of it. We don't own the home outright, though. We're still paying on a mortgage. Okay. Together?

Yeah. Okay. Then it's $400,000 minus the mortgages divided by two. Okay. So you're saying the total 20 acres and the house and the trailer are worth $400,000. Is that what you're telling me? Yes. Okay. And how much is the mortgage?

We owe about $320,000 on it. Okay. You're going to have to get that refinanced to get his name off of it for him to be free. But you've only got $80,000 worth of equity. You need to write him a check for $40,000. Not really. I'll come to that in a minute. But your half, you buy out his half.

Why is that complicated? I just, I don't want to go into even more debt. I'm just, I think I'm having trouble figuring out how to, I'm paying him $40,000 and then accruing the remaining balance of the mortgage. Yeah, but you also own the property. 100%. Okay. Okay. Instead of owning a $200,000 property, now you own a $400,000 property. That's good. Okay.

And so can you handle the mortgage by yourself? I think that might be the problem. Yes, I can. What's your household income? Last year I brought in about $72,000. Okay. You can't afford this. This payment by yourself, can you?

That's your household income? You and your wife? Yeah, my wife's a stay-at-home. Okay. We run a small family ranch where we live. Yeah. I'm sorry, sir. I don't think you can afford a $400,000 mortgage or a $300,000 mortgage, $350,000 mortgage on a $72,000 income.

I don't think that's going to work well for you. Your payment when you take this out on a 15-year fix should be no more than a fourth of your income. I think you guys are selling this property. That's what I think. And you and your wife are going to live somewhere else, and your brother-in-law is going to live somewhere else. That's a sad deal, though.

It's heartbreaking. all right ken i want to revisit the last caller because i had a thought all right the break um a solution okay so let's revisit he and uh his wife's sister and his brother-in-law the four of them bought a property together, 20 acres. They live in Fresno, California, and it has a trailer on it and a home on it. They moved into the home. The brother-in-law moved into the trailer. Something's gone sour, and the brother-in-law wants out. He wants out of the deal.

They both put in 50%. The property's currently valued at $400,000, and they owe $320,000. Those were the facts going into the break, okay? He makes $75,000 a year. He can't afford the payment on the whole thing if he buys his brother-in-law out. It was my point going into the break. So it sounds like they're going to be forced to sell out of the whole thing. I did have another way because he also said I think he's ranching on that property. So I was not only getting rid of his house, I was getting rid of his job.

His sole income, yeah. Everything. I mean, his whole life's upside down. So I hated to just throw him under the bus, had him to a commercial break. So here is a thought for Ryan. You can subdivide 20 acres and take the 10 that you want to keep and the 10 that the brother-in-law keeps. The brother-in-law sells his 10 acres, and the trailer is on that.

He takes that money, pays half of the mortgage off because he's liable for half of the mortgage. The mortgage is 320, so that puts it at $180,000. Did I do that right? No. No. $320,000 and a half is not $180,000. It's $160,000.

Thank you. I'm the money guy. Keep this in mind. I was a little nervous heading into that, to be honest with you. I did some quick math myself. I was like, before I questioned Dave on that one, I thought Dave had to take my shoes off under the desk and use my toes. Okay, so $160,000.

Yeah. So brother-in-law pays off $160,000. Right. Whatever's left from the sale of the 10 acres after he pays off $160,000, he puts in his pocket and walks away. I like that. He's just been bought out. Yeah. Now, then Ryan has to go get a new mortgage for $160,000, only owns 10 acres, has no money out of pocket, and he can put that on a 15-year and survive making $75,000. That's right.

But you're not going to have 20 acres, Ryan. You're going to have 10 acres. Right. subdivide it 10 acres each brother-in-law sells his takes the money proceeds from the sale pays off half of the mortgage simultaneously ryan's going to have to get a new mortgage at the same closing table for 160 000 to give clear title to the new buyer on the 10 acres yeah the buyer on the 10 acres and the brother is going to get whatever, if he sells that for 400 grand. Yeah. Whatever the brother-in-law can sell his 10 acres for, he gets that money.

Yeah. Minus 160. He has to pay off his half of the mortgage. And then Ryan can keep his property, but he's only going to keep the 10 acres, which is all he ever had to start with. Right. Because it was a partnership on 20 acres. Yeah. to start with because it was a partnership on 20 acres. So now if Ryan needs 20 acres to run his ranch, I don't think he can afford to do it. That's the only asterisk there on that one, yeah.

And you're going to have to find a way to subdivide this. But in most counties in the United States of America, you can subdivide 20 down into 10. Very few places keep you from doing that. And sell it off. And then the brother-in-law got what he got, and that's his half. You don't have to argue about what it's worth. Let the market tell him what it's worth. But he has to bring 160 out for his half of the mortgage.

All right, now we got there. I feel better about that solution. Jonathan is with us in Fort Worth, Texas, if I pick up the right phone line anyway. There he is. Jonathan's in Fort Worth. Hey, Jonathan, how are you? Hey, Dave, I'm doing great. Thanks for taking my call today.

Sure. What's up? So the question I have, my wife and I, we've been Dave Ramsey for a year and a half and debt-free for a year. A little background story, we're retired military and retired in Texas. But through that process, we had a house in another state, kept it as a rental for about the past 10 years. And now we finally got it on the market and we're going to close on it next month. So the question is the gross amount that we earn from the sale of the house, do we pay that on our mortgage here in Texas? We also have about $120,000 in a traditional IRA,

or do we pay to roll that to a Roth and then use the remaining balance to pay off our Texas mortgage? Wow. Well, nothing in the list is dumb. Both things could be under the heading of smart. According to what we teach on the baby steps, I would pay down the house in Texas because I don't convert to a Roth until baby step seven.

I don't want to create taxes until I get my house paid off. And so what's the balance on your home in Texas? So the balance is at 480K. We're on a 2.25% APR. And we're on a, for the simple math, it's a 30-year mortgage. It was cheaper at a 30-year, but we're paying it off at a 15-year rate plus a little extra. So I think we're about on pace to do a... But the balance is how much again?

$480,000. And how much are you getting from the property that you're selling? We're expecting the growth about $200,000. Oh, excellent. Okay. Yeah, I would throw it at the house. Okay. Here's the deal.

I don't want to create taxes and give the government the tax money while I've still got house debt because effectively you would have been borrowing on your home to pay the Roth IRA taxation. You follow me? Okay. That's why I did that. In other words, if you've got, you know, let's just pretend that you owe $200,000 on your house, $280,000 on your house, okay? And you have the opportunity to convert to your Roth IRA, but it's going to create $200,000 worth of taxes. Are you going to go borrow $200,000 more on your house in order to convert to a Roth?

No. If you use this money to convert to a Roth, it is exactly the same thing in a balance sheet scenario where you lay it out on the balance sheet. You create the same thing, you just did it in reverse. And that's how I decided not to do that. That was the critical thinking path I use to say I wouldn't borrow on my house to pay taxes on converting a traditional to a Roth, and I won't pay taxes converting a traditional to a Roth in lieu of paying down my house. It's the same thing, but backwards. That's all. That makes sense. I was following, but the speed and the pace by which you do it, I have to really catch up.

I really do. You know, 35 years of doing this is pretty good, folks. It's pretty good stuff. Well, it not it's not rocket but it's just i have to i have to think about how the stuff is going where and if i once i get that then i remember why i have the baby steps that's because what it amounts to is a lot of times what we're doing you and me is your your clear path your steps of of your you know your your steps of the clear path to doing things you love, right? There's a reason that they're there. Right.

And when something comes up and you go, I don't know, is this an exception? And you go, no, because here's the way I did that. And you walk it through. Here's the logic for it. Oh, sure. Yeah, it makes total sense. And if you do that, then you can understand, oh, well, that's why the baby steps still work after all these years. Yep.

That's why your clear path to doing work you love will still work 20 years from now. One of the things, when you walk through that, what it does is, by using that methodology and the way you kind of logically work through that, it also takes out the emotion, which I think is so important, you know, because our emotions get in the way so many times. It just could be a little emotion. I mean, it doesn't have to be some big fretful, fearful thing. It could be, I've got a little bit of doubt. Is this the right thing? I'm a little bit nervous about this.

You know, there's a cornucopia of emotions that can get us into a place where we go, and it's like, well, no, let's walk through this from a process standpoint. That's the power of process and um so much of what we are trying to influence you guys to do is a is a proven yes process and his question is really really good oh yeah because it's a high level question very absolutely and and uh it's also really good because neither answer is in the stupid column that's's right. It's not like he's got some bad options. Do I lease a car or do I finance a car? Yeah.

Okay. Both in the stupid column, right? So, you know, do I get a MasterCard or a Visa credit card? Both in the stupid column. Discover or American Distress? Yeah. Yes. No.

Both in the stupid column. Whole Life or Universal? Both in the stupid column. Payday Lender or Timeshare? Both in the stupid column. You know, I mean, both of his were in the smart column. Payday lender or timeshare, both in the stupid column. You know, I mean, both of his were in the smart column. That's right. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my co-host today.

If you've been stressed out about your retirement savings because of everything going on in the world, should you really be concerned or are you just in freak out mode? You know, sometimes we get a little drama queen inside of us, right? Me as well. And that's why you need somebody in your corner to help you with this stuff. You need someone to walk with you when you're freaking out, to teach you, to talk with you, talk you off the ledge and go, don't jump off a roller coaster in the middle of the ride. That's what you need to be reminded of when it comes to investments. What we recommend is a SmartVestor Pro.

They're investing professionals that we've carefully vetted. SmartVestor Pros have the heart of a teacher and they agree with us on what we teach. Text INVEST to 33789 and you can find a list of the SmartVestor Pros in your area. One of them will sit down with you, help you with a retirement plan, help you with an IRA rollover, a 401k rollover, help you get your kid's college set up. And then when the market goes crazy, you can even talk to them about it, and they'll tell you what's really going on.

Text INVEST to 33-789. Steven is in Phoenix. Hi, Steven. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up?

So I've made it to becoming debt-free except for my mortgage in Arizona, but we're thinking about moving to Florida, and I want to know if I should for my mortgage in Arizona, but we're thinking about moving to Florida, and I want to know if I should sell my house in Arizona and pay off one cash in Florida. If you're moving to Florida, yes. Okay. What's the sole purpose of that question? Are you moving to Florida just for cheaper housing, or are you moving for purpose, for professional, for family? What's going on? So I run a crypto mining business out of my house here, but I'm in an HOA, and we're looking for states that are, I guess, more leaning towards the red side, more freedom-oriented.

But I just have to convince my wife to sell our house here because we currently have a mortgage to just pay for one cash outright in Florida without an HOA so I can grow the business as well. Have you done your homework on a specific spot in Florida that you've got in mind here, or is this all theoretical? No, so I've done research. I'm looking north of Orlando, kind of near the land area, for about around an acre or so is what we're looking for to set up like a mining shed. It's just kind of convincing my wife to get on board with the whole idea

because it's kind of like a big, it feels like a big risk. Why is it a big risk? It's just a big change, I think think and she's just worried about it um maybe the mining business not working out in the future because it flows with the market so it's not always profitable right but that's true in arizona and in Florida. Yeah, exactly. So having no mortgage in Florida while you're in an unbelievably high-risk business would be less stressful than having a mortgage in Arizona while you're in an unbelievably high-risk business. How old are you? 29.

I think your wife's telling you she doesn't like what you do for a living for risk-wise. I think that's what's happening. I could be wrong. Could be some family involved, you know, doesn't want to leave family. I mean, this is a marriage issue here. Let's just have some communication and sit down and get on the same page. Are we together? The problem is you're trying to reduce your entire life, which is your relationships, your church, where you shop for groceries, how close you are to relatives, all of that down to a decision on whether you have a shed or a mortgage. And it's not that simple.

There's more variables involved. And even one of the variables is that you're in an unbelievably high-risk business, and your wife is, I think she may be saying that to you. Maybe she doesn't even know she's saying that to you, but that's scaring her. Because, you know, but it's not as simple as housing's cheaper north of Orlando an hour than it is in Phoenix, which it is. But there's parts of Orlando that are not cheaper than Phoenix. So, you know, if you go north of Phoenix, well, not north of Phoenix, but if you go outside of Phoenix an hour, probably not north towards Sedona,

but if you go a different direction, you might find land that's very, very cheap there, too, without an HOA. And if you sold your house in Phoenix proper, like if you're sitting in Scottsdale, which is a very expensive market, you could move out of there and probably pay cash for something an hour outside of Phoenix. So I don't care where you live. Yeah, and I just want to point out that what it feels like, Dave, is that, okay, this is really risky.

It's making my wife nervous, but I can buy some more time to keep going with this risky business if I remove my mortgage and I just need a little more time. And I feel like there's something there. That's right. There you go. And I would also point out that the governor of Arizona is a very, very strong liberty champion. So Arizona is not – the politics in Arizona and Florida – It's not a blue state.

No, no. They're not different. So I just want to point that out. I'm trying to take away the excuses. Yeah. Josh is in Nashville. Hey, Josh, welcome to the Ramsey different. So I just want to point that out. I'm trying to take away the excuses. Yeah. Josh is in Nashville. Hey, Josh, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Sure.

Hey, Dave, thanks for having me on. Sure. What's up? Hello? Hello, what's up? Hey. Hey, I was calling to ask a quick question about some student loan guidance. I'm a physician assistant.

I just got married about a year ago. I've been working for a year. Congrats. Yeah, thank you. Me and my wife, we have a lot of money in our checking account because we don't spend anything. We don't have a car payment. We're renting a townhouse and we just don't know what to do as far as paying off loans versus starting to invest and kind of where to even start. Phenomenal. Cool. How much is in your checking account? We have about $40,000 in checking and then $4,000 or $5,000 in kind of a little emergency

separate account. Okay. And it's just in there kind of doing nothing. And your wife is what? She's a speech language pathologist. She works part-time from home right now because of COVID. Two phenomenal careers with high income potential. What's your household income?

Right now it varies. I work in the emergency room, so hours kind of swing. But generally it will be from $140 to $160 yearly. Yeah, I think both of you get kicking in. You probably break a $200 pretty quick between the two of you. Very good. Yeah. Very good.

Okay. Well, what we know and what data tells us in 30 years of doing this is that the quickest play between where you are now and wealth is first to alleviate debt because it's the biggest blocker for you on wealth building. And it adds risk to your life. And so we're going to attack the student loans with a vengeance, if I'm in your shoes, and to the point that your friends think you've lost your mind, okay? And we're going to get on a tight beans and rice, rice and beans budget. We're going to take all the OT we can get, and we're going to drop 39 of the 40 on this student loan today,

and we're going to put a typewritten budget together and begin to attack the rest of this. You will be blown away that you're going to be debt-free in under two years, maybe as quick as a year. Oh, wow. But you're going to have no life during that time. You understand that? Yeah. You don't? Yeah, yeah. And we just, you know, we... You don't have a life anyway.

You don't spend money. Yeah, we take cheap vacations and kind of, you know, make or die things. Yeah. But what if you did nothing except pay on debt for one year and you made $160,000? Oh, by the way, you said you had $150,000 just put 30 or 40 on it, so you got 110 now. I mean, how quick can you pay off 110 if you didn't do anything else? You might do it in a year. Yeah, we could probably get rid of it real fast.

Yeah. And see, then you got the whole rest of your life to become wealthy without that stinking Sally Mae in your spare bedroom. Yeah. That's what we teach, too. What do you think about you know because the more we talk about it the more we think of oh we don't have any investments you'll get your investments you're going to be making two hundred and something thousand dollars a year and no debt you'll be able to invest like a maniac all right well you know i told my wife i'd call and ask but i think

everything you're saying she said you would say. Oh, I think she set you up. Yeah. Hang on. I'm going to give you a gift. I want the two of you to go through Ramsey Plus, our financial peace university, and I'm going to give you Ramsey Plus membership for a year because you guys have got real potential if you'll follow what we're teaching. I'm going to give it to you free.

It won't cost you a thing. I just expect you to watch the dadgum videos and go do what we teach. I want you to win, dude. Hold on. It's our late wedding gift to you. Kelly will pick up. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.