The Ramsey Show - App - The Economy Is a Hot Mess but YOU Control YOU (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 23, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze discuss: The perfect storm in our economy (and what you can do about it), Taking vacations during the Baby Steps, Paying for medical school, Renting vs. buying a house. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiX

Live Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author on the New York Times and many other lists, is my co-host today. Also, my daughter is. We answer your questions about your relationships, your work, your money. Man, it's all right there, isn't it? Put those three together, we about got it.

So, hey, you jump in. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Before we jump into your calls, though, one of our good friends is on the phone, and we are honored to have him back. He's a regular on the show, Pastor Max Licato, America's pastor. How are you, Max? I'm great, Dave. It's always a treat to hear your voice, and thanks for giving me a few minutes today.

Absolutely. Rachel and I are honored to talk to you always. Good to talk to you. Hi, Rachel. How are you great as right before you got on i said max lucado is one of my favorite people in the entire world so it's good to be talking to you you have to love max it's federal law okay so um new book from max lucado which is not a shock he pretty much writes books like he breathes so often. And so this is a fabulous 316, the numbers of hope. Over one million copies sold. Wow.

John 316, you know, it is. It's the most famous verse in the Bible. And if anybody knows anything about the Bible, they know that verse. If they don't know anything about the Bible, I would take them to that verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. You probably, both of y'all probably have some memories around that verse, don't you? Oh, always.

It's the first verse I memorized. Was it really? Yep, John 3, 16. Okay, there you go. From Sunday school back in the early 90s. Yeah, yeah. Football end zone is what comes to mind for me, but yeah. Isn't that the truth?

No, that's true. The guy's held the sign up in every game since Adam and Eve. Yeah. You know, it surfaces for a reason, you know. It's kind of like a table of contents to the Christian hope. You know, every word matters, and, you know, God loved, world, gave, one and only Son. You just go right down through the verse, and every word, you know, it deserves a book by itself, at least a chapter. And that was my desire in this book, is to take that scripture word by word and dedicate a chapter to each of those words, because it is so full of hope in a time in which the world is in such need of hope.

It is, and I of hope. It is. And I feel like too, Max. I mean, I'm sure every generation feels this way, but it's like our culture and our world, it feels more and more anti-God almost, the pushback against just religion in general and then even Christianity. So it's interesting because it says, so God so loved the world, right? And so tell me your thoughts on what you know, what you believe because of studying Scripture, you know, his perspective on our world, like God loves a world that doesn't love him is

what it feels like. Yeah, yeah. Well, you're spot on, Rachel. There's something going on these days. Depression is on the rise. Divorce filings are up 34% year to year. Listen to this. Calls to mental health hotlines have increased 891%. And the suicide rate is the highest it's been any time since World War II. Now, I know we want to chalk that up to COVID. We want to chalk that up to three years of pandemic, pandemonium,

and there's a lot of truth in that. But I think there's a deeper reason. I think that people simply don't know why we are on this earth, and they don't know where we're going. We've got a lot of know-how and very little know-why, and nothing tells us the why of life more than John 3.16. It tells us that God loves us, that he gave his greatest gift for us, that he's done everything necessary to bring us into that dream, that existence we all dream of, the eternal life. But the Scripture is also honest, and that is he's not going to save anybody who doesn't want to be saved.

Some people will perish. The other people will have eternal life. Now, I believe that when a person understands where they're going in the next life, that empowers life in this life. But if you don't know where you're going in the next life, well, odds are you'll become one of those statistics, those sad statistics of anxiety and depression. And so this is a really important message for this day and age. Secularism has taken its toll on society,

and we've felt the body blow of several decades now of being told that there is no God. If there is a God, he doesn't care. That's a bunch of hogwash, but it's taken its toll on people. And so I'm just praying that the Lord will stir a revival in the hearts through using good people like you guys and maybe this book or something to light a fire in which people turn their hearts back to him. Well, when it's this dark, a little bit of light shines pretty bright. No doubt.

And certainly this book is one of those lights, and you're one of these lights. Max Licato, Pastor Max Licakedo our guest this segment uh the new book is 316 the numbers of hope over 1 million copies sold so the book didn't just go on sale max correct correct yes sir it actually released in 2007 dave oh um you know, back in the, I guess, pre Noah days, it seems so long ago. But, you know, every so often the publisher will say, hey, you know, this we got to re-release this. We're going to relaunch it. So so we've done two or three things. I wrote some more chapters to go in this new revised version. We have created an online Bible study, free online Bible study at maxlocato.com. People can sign up today. They don't have to buy the book. They can study this verse with,

we've got a goal of 316,000 people going through 316. And also this is the first full-length audio book I've ever recorded. Really? And so, yeah, I've just-length audio book I've ever recorded. And so, yeah, I've just never done it. I've always had voice issues, so I bailed out. Oh, my gosh. But I thought, I'm going to record this one myself. So we did a few extra things to relaunch it. 316, The Numbers of Hope, on sale where any good book is sold. And I certainly have my copy to go in my Max Licato library now,

which I think is pretty close to complete. I've been collecting them from you for a long time. We've been friends a long time. It's a great honor. It is a great honor. It was a great honor for me. I remember the first time I went, I get to have lunch with Max Licato. Oh, my gosh.

145 million products in print, translated in 45 languages. So if someone is considered an expert in something, I think Max Licato is considered an expert on loving Jesus. Let me just tell you, that means he's sold over 100 million books. That's a lot. And there's very few authors even do a tenth of that. The authors that are famous don't do a tenth of that. So, Max, thank you, brother. Appreciate having you. Yes, sir. Pastor Max Licato, San Antonio, Texas. The book is 316, The Numbers of

Hope. And don't you know, we all need hope right now more than ever. This is The Ramsey Show. it continues to amaze me how identity thieves keep finding ways to use our own identities against us not only do they commit crimes related to financial fraud, medical ID theft, and insurance benefit fraud, but now we have to deal with home title fraud. Thieves are using your own personal info to take ownership of your home so they can take out loans, and you end up with a pile of debt and foreclosure notices. Over 4,000 data breaches happened in 2018, exposing 3.6 billion records.

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at ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. I was flying home where where was i oh we were on a trip to last week it was last week on a southwest flight and i didn't check in that's a that's a rookie mistake when you travel didn't check in so i got the c boarding group so which means you get the middle seat like you know so once and i had to split up on the way here home so i'll sit in the middle talking this guy next to me and you know he asked him so what do you do and sometimes i'm like in the mood to chat sometimes i'm not i had a great book and i was

like i'm gonna read my book so i just said i'm in finance so i just made it broad he's like cool cool uh which means don't talk to me well i was like yeah i don't know it sounds boring and maybe there won't be a follow-up question anyways but he started i don't know. It sounds boring and maybe there won't be a follow-up question. Anyways, when he started, I don't know, we talked about something and I mentioned personal finance that, oh, cool, cool. He said, well, my wife and I, we finally got out of credit card debt two years ago. We're debt free, paid off our house. We just did it. I was like, well, good for you.

Made you do that. Because of course I kind of perked up. And he said, well, we did that Ramsey class two years ago, financial peace, and we went through it and we just did it. And I was like, that's amazing. I said, congratulations. I know that takes a lot of hard work.

All in code. You never told him. You never told him. No. Because I wanted to read my book. But I congratulated him. You snob. But all that to say, all that to say, no, not a snob.

It's not a snob. No. I was flying under the radar. I was flying under the radar. But we sat there and talked about how exciting it was for him. And I was excited for him. So we talked about it. Yeah. to say no that's not it's not no i was flying under the radar that's fine but i congrats but we sat there and talked about how exciting it was for him and i was excited for him so i you know we talked about yeah but all that to say fpu there it is if he had any idea he was sitting next to rachel cruz he would have gone bananas i don't know but but anyways in the curriculum

like as part of the fpu lessons aren't you i am in it yeah i'm in it but rachel traveling maybe look a little different than video with makeup you don't do hair and makeup you don't have a hair and makeup lady when you travel yeah no my glam squad decided not to come james they didn't come this trip but i'll have to say the fpu it's a thing i mean it really does it i mean it has helped obviously millions of people but it it is. It's the thing, you guys. If you feel like you're kind of like, oh, back and forth about stuff, just do it. It's nine weeks. That's what he said.

Just do it. Yes. I know. So anyways. That's good. That's a good story. That's fun. I like that.

Under the radar you are, huh? All right. Flew right under. Incognito Rachel. He probably thought if it was Rachel Cruz, surely she'd at least have an A group on Southwest. Here I am. Southwest version of First Quiet. Rookie mistake.

All I have to do is wear a hat, and I'm invisible, so it's okay. Makeup's not my issue. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings you get free samples free shipping and with the new promos they run every month you'll save even more use the promo code ramsey to get the best deal so today's question comes from trevor in idaho i'm looking for advice on transitioning between baby steps two and three we will be debt free soon after a 27-month journey.

My wife wants to celebrate with a vacation. I get that. That would cost around $2,500. However, I want to continue ASAP on our emergency fund. Should I get on board with delaying the emergency fund for a small vacation? Great question, Trevor. So, you know, the rule of thumb is between baby steps one and three

you're all in because if you go on vacation and you only have a thousand dollars in your emergency fund and something happens you're kind of screwed so the idea i mean maybe you just do the emergency fund up to two months you know three months three months yeah three to six months of expenses yeah here's the thing vacation here's the thing man you you are yelling you're yelling into the universe please kick my butt when you do this when you go on a vacation and you don't have an emergency fund you're asking for something to break you're inviting trouble into your home and it's just the way it works i mean the funniest thing is when you get an emergency fund you you virtually quit having emergencies it's the weirdest thing it's like it's murphy repellent and so you don't want to

do this man i mean your transmission is going to go out if you do this it's not you don't want to do it it's not worth it so it's not yeah you know i'm i get it i whine too i want to do that and we all whine you know we all have a whiner inside of us and your wife is just whining a little bit and i don't blame her i understand i yeah she all been busting it for 27 months so now you're gonna have to bust it for 32 months and then you're gonna go on vacation that's what i would do i wouldn't go i i would be scared 30 years of doing this i can just tell you it's a weird statistical thing i have observed that you are asking for it and maybe and i always think too trevor what are the things that you guys can do to to alleviate some of the like oh he's just been busted. So maybe it's like, hey, once you have you've paid off debts, maybe it's like once you hit that one month emergency into the into the three months, like go on a go on like two

great date nights, like kind of scratch the itch without having to just do a vacation. You know, if you want to spend $300 on a dinner, I'd do that. Right. Maybe, maybe I really wouldn't do that. But but, you know, I do do that before I'd go on vacation. Yes. If you've got to do something to blow all the pressure off, if you've got to satisfy the whiner inside of you, and, again, I'm admitting I have one, too, okay?

So it's not me yelling at you. But if you've kind of got to go, okay, all right, we're going to do a little dinner here, and then we're going to be back game on, and then we're never going to have to be this way again. Right, right. The beautiful thing about finishing baby step three is you should never have to deal with it again unless you have a major emergency and have to recoup your emergency fund. But by the time that actually happens, you're going to have money.

So you're going to be all right. But this is like forever and ever, I'm in, we are done. Don't go back in debt. Don't ever be without an emergency fund. It everything it gives you the bandwidth and everything so i get it but i think if we can just talk about this out loud as a couple and go yeah we're both tired and we're both whiny we both want to do it but really we're this is time to put your big girl pants on big boy pants on and suck it up buttercup you know i mean finish it up well and there's the still the momentum right so once you're debt free what was what was going out to payments like just

keeping that momentum of all that cash just piling into that emergency phone but it's hard baby step three i talked to a lot of people and it's the hardest it's one of the hardest it's so boring well it's yes it's just boring paying off debt there's some excitement it's like gotcha you're dead right you know but the others just like get a little money get a little more money it's just kind of boring it's totally it's hard and it's it's anticlimactic after doing your debt free scream you know yeah and yeah it's just i get it but dude it's grown-up work it's just adult stuff we have to do it and yeah baby steps one through three until you have that done you got to be game on. Rachel's right. But yeah, we're trying to say we understand, but that doesn't mean I would do it.

Understanding, feeling the pain with you doesn't mean I would, you know. Put yourself in a bad position. Put yourself, make yourself vulnerable like that. Because you're just asking for your stupid tire to blow out. And then the second tire to blow out. You know, I mean, you got one spare, but then the second tire to blow out you know i mean you got one spare but then the other one and now you're on the side of the road and and now vacation looks like a dadgum movie scene or something it's a country song you know it's awful and that's what

ends up happening so it's just interesting to me that when i was broke i mean stone cold broke no money which is kind of where you are right now you're debt free but you're broke is is when everything bad happens but as soon as you start not being broke it's like the bad stuff goes next door to the other neighbor I mean it's like not all of it but a bunch of it does so it just turns a crisis into an inconvenience that's what you always say about the emergency fund which is true when you have the money it just kind of becomes like a like an eye roll versus it takes out your whole world. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. As we answer your questions about your life, your money, your relationships, your work, Susan's with us in Columbia, South Carolina. Hi, Susan. How are you?

Hey, I'm fine, Dave. Thank you. I have a question. My husband is 54. I am 52. We have a 20-year-old son who is a junior in college who is getting ready to apply to medical school. And my question is, should we pay for medical school for him? That presupposes that you can. Yes.

So how much money do you have? We have three and a half million in retirement. We make about 200,000 a year and then we have about another 300,000 kind of cash more liquid type sort of money. Okay you've done extremely well congratulations you're very impressive. Thank you. What do y'all do for a living? We've worked hard at it. Yeah we're both engineers my husband is works full-time and I work part-time. I kind of stopped to stay home with my son when he was little and I worked enough to kind of stay current. Number one category of employment of people who become millionaires, engineers. And we don't make a lot either.

That's kind of amazing. Yeah, you do. You make a quarter million dollars a year. Well, yeah. That's a lot. That's a lot. You didn't make, you don't know together, and you both worked hard for it, but that's a lot of money. Yeah.

I mean, you're not making $2 million a year, but you're doing really good. I'm proud of you. Very cool. Is he your only son, Susan? Your only kid? He is. Only child? He is.

Okay. So tell me your thought process. Why are you asking this question? Well, you know, I think that kids should take some ownership in their college and especially beyond, you know, the basic four years. Has he so far? He has. I mean, he got scholarship. He works.

I mean, we have pretty much paid, but he definitely contributes and, and takes care of himself. Basically we have paid tuition and room and board. Um, and he got scholarship and it's in state. So it's really not been, you know, it's been fine. Um, but my thought had always been that beyond that, you know, that would be on him. But I, um, I really, the thought of him coming out of school with, you know, quarter of a million dollars in debt is not what I really want for him. And obviously he can't afford it. You know, he, he, he works, he's saved up money, but you know, he's got 15,000 in the bank. He doesn't, he doesn't have enough to pay for medical school. So I, um, you know, it's kind $15,000 in the bank. He doesn't have enough to pay for medical school.

So, you know, it's kind of the whole, it's his education. If he were to go to med school and you were to pay for it, what would you want him to do so that you felt like that that was a wise decision and you hadn't, the reason you're doing this is you don't want to make it too the reason you did the statement earlier i suppose is you didn't want to make it too easy on him you want him to have some backbone you want him to have some structure to his character right yes and so what would he have to do what would he have to do in your mind for it to be okay for you to pay for med school and you still were comfortable because all i hear so far is a stellar young man he is he is i mean i um he would have to graduate i guess and you

know and not misbehave yes yes and most people don't work when they're in med school, but would you want him to work? I really wouldn't necessarily. He's worked since he was 15 during the summer. He didn't work during the school year up until this year. He just got a job at school on his own. So I kind of think school is priority, except for when you're not in school. So I don't necessarily, I just didn't know. You're hardworking people and you don't want to raise a kid that's not. Yeah, it's a big gift.

It's a big, you know, not a gift. It's a big gift. It's a big, it would be a sacrifice. Two lenses, Susan, I would say for you guys. Because the conversation, this is even happening because you guys can pay for it. You can pay cash. You're not going into debt for it. So, you know, with money, we always say that money makes you more of what you are. So in a sense, if you put a magnifying glass on him and his character and his heart and who he is, and that this is kind of a reflection, this is going to expand him, right? Because that's a very generous gift that you're

giving him. What's going to be expanded? Who is he? And he sounds like he's an amazing kid, right? He's a junior in college who's awesome. So that's what's magnified. And when parents are like, I don't want to spoil my kids. And spoil means go bad, right? If you had spoiled food, it smells, it's gross. But I don't feel like that this is what's going to cause his character, right? So I think parents hesitate to give their child a gift thinking that it's going to ruin who they are but their character has been

built up to this point and if you don't believe like this isn't going to ruin him and his work ethic and who he is it's a it's a blessing to be able to do that in my opinion awesome i mean i want to but i just didn't want to do you don't want to enable anything yeah well i mean when when rachel and her brother and sister went to school uh we paid for their they're both all four graduated from undergrad we paid for all of it and um the rule was was that we knew the person going in to that already had a work ethic we knew the person going into that already was going to live on a budget because they've been doing it when they were at home and they're going to do it there.

It's part of the deal. And, you know, we're people of faith, so you're going to be walking with God. You're not going to be down there playing beer pong all weekend and laying in a ditch drunk somewhere. You know, you're not going to stay on the payroll if you do that. I mean, these are the discussions we had and um so you know and so what we ended up with was we had great young adults who performed fabulously all three of them but none of us are smart enough to go to medical school well but that's okay that's not the point the point is is that we paid for it and it didn't ruin them because they were already built and they you that. They finished all the way through, and now they're out of school,

obviously, all three of them, and they're all married now, and their lives have continued successfully. And so it's not the actual paying for school that ruins someone. It's having not built character into them and not requiring boundaries on the gift. And so my gift to him, if I were involved in this discussion as parents, would be this is a gift, but it's not an unconditional gift. It's contingent upon you continuing to be the stellar young man that you are and that

you're not only going to go to class, you're going to do the work to get out of this. We're going to be involved in the picking of which med school because we're not going to go to the super expensive one because nobody asked where your doctor went to school and so we're gonna you know we're gonna pay reasonable prices uh and you're gonna be we're gonna be involved in all that still since it's our money not be controlling but we have a say in it and you you know the the the faucet gets cut off if you're going to misbehave it's not no matter what you do or how badly you behave, we have to give you money because we don't. And so if you keep doing exactly what you've been doing, we are going to be honored to support you through med school. That would be how it would sound like coming from our house.

And that's how it sounded like when you all went off to school. Yeah, absolutely. Does that help, Susan? Yes, it helps so much. It really does. I love that money makes you more of who you are. I mean, I wrote it down. It resonates.

And, I mean, he wants to go in-state because he knows in-state tuition, there's the same thing for medical school as there is for, you know, other school. In-state tuition is almost half for medical school. So he is looking out for that as well. That's awesome. I like this kid. He's a great kid. This is great.

You did good, Mom. You did great. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you all for your wise words. I really appreciate it. Well, thank you.

We're honored to talk to you. And see, that's the thing. That's an everyday millionaire. That's a baby steps millionaire, someone who – sit they're engineers they use systems and processes they're fit in their 50s they got three million dollars it gives them options to do something like this and then you can have those kinds of discussions yeah it's awesome it's the result of it right all the hard work and all the even our trevor from blinds.com and a few segments ago like my emergency you know it's like if you just stick to the plan you do it over a long period of time.

You get to do whatever you want. You get to send your kid to medical school and pay for it. I mean, that's pretty awesome. One of the things I put in this last book, Baby Steps Millionaires, was a chapter on if I become a millionaire, does it ruin my kids? And, you know, we address that in Smart Money, Smart Kids as well. And the answer is no, it doesn't ruin your kids. You already ruined your kids before you got money, or you already didn't ruin your kids before you got money.

That's the deal. It had nothing to do with the money. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Eric is in Bloomington, Indiana. Hey, Eric, how are you? I'm doing quite well. I'm doing better than I deserve.

I don't know. I understand. How can we help? Well, we took an offer on our house that we chose not to pass up. And we'll be closing end of May and should be walking away from the closing table with about $370,000. Fun. Which is, yeah. and we're committed to staying here in Bloomington until my youngest graduates high school, which should be May of 23,

and so for another year. And we're debating whether to buy or to rent, and if rent, what to do with the cash. The way I answer questions on this show is if uh where are you moving after you leave oh um well when we sell the house now we're going to stay here no i know but i mean when you leave town where what town are you going to um we're going to move closer to our family, which might put us in Oklahoma. Okay. Okay, cool.

All right. The way I answer questions, what I was getting ready to say on the show, and the way Rachel does, is what would we do if we woke up in your shoes and were in this situation? I would rent. Okay. Because buying might mess up your goal of leaving. Right.

Let's just pretend that interest rates went up, which there seems to be some pressure that direction, and that the housing market not only slowed down, it came to a screeching freaking halt about the time your daughter graduates. Now, if you are renting, you can take your $ your 375 000 in a down market like that and make a really great buy in oklahoma if you own you got to sell a house in a screwed up market and i'm not suggesting that the housing market is going to swing that far in 12 months i doubt it will in 12 months uh it's only done that once in history and that that was in 2008, that it swung that far in 12 months.

But I do think that this white-hot market that you just took advantage of is going to be unrealistic to continue indefinitely. And so the supply-demand curve is what's causing it, and it's going to catch up. I mean, the building supplies are going to catch up. And then the prices are going to stabilize, the market's going to catch up i mean the building supplies are going to catch up so um and then the prices are going to stabilize the market's going to calm down and it's going to be less of a seller's market i and i think it's going to be more that direction than it is now 12 months from today but you could probably sell the house but i just don't want you to get stuck with one your goal is to leave right right so i would rent i would rent market i'd rent i'd park the money in a money market and it's not you're not going to make anything but you're not going to lose anything

okay it's just sitting there it's just a parking place for your money it's a parking lot storage you've been for your money you know until next year and then you're going to go buy a house with it and take your time and you might actually end up renting for six months in oklahoma until you find the right deal so you don't get pressured into buying something stupid on the move right right okay the trick in this kind of a market is to sell high and buy low not sell high and buy high right that's you know all right and that requires some you know some patience and setting yourself up to not get caught in in in a crossfire on something okay so a little bit of a turn here but i think it's in the same vein i just feel like i don't know maybe it's the news i watch and what i'm

reading online all of it but everything from interest rates housing markets inflation like i just like there's so much heightened almost anxiety just around money and the uncertainty and even like russia and ukraine like the whole thing right like people are like nervous about that and that inflation is going to skyrocket if russian like there's just a lot of um anxiety i feel like there's a lot of negative news about the economy and about the state of affairs when it comes to finance yeah and and so yeah there should be so how do you like what's your should be some anxiety around that because you see inflation continuing to rise and like all that like well i don't i don't see inflation continuing to rise like it has been because this is a different kind of inflation than the

jimmy carter era yeah um the 70s and the early 80s and but even if russia anything with like i don't know any other global i don't think that's going to change our lives you know 20 years from today yeah but um be shocked if it does but the uh but all the uncertainty that's in the air and the pressures on the market are all it's kind of a perfect storm there's a whole bunch of bad stuff happening right at this moment um and it's all kind of camouflaged or covered over by the fact that people are making more money yes because there's this shoot up in incomes and and there's a shoot up in personal debt credit card debt's the highest credit card debt on uh since like 2007 this year in 2021 it's out of control spending people are spending their brains out out there

and so what these kinds of economic indicators end up doing is we end up having some kind of problem with their overall the economy that does affect your life unless you're the third pig and so the way you handle the anxiety of the negative news about that, you know, not taking any of it to the extreme where you think, oh, the world's coming to an end, because it's not, not on any of these issues. But you do know, okay, I'm concerned. I'm not freaked out. I'm concerned.

Well, concern's good, because that makes you get ready for the storm. I'm afraid there's a storm coming. I don't really think I'm going to hit with a tornado, but I'm going to prepare and act like, you know, we're going to act like, you know, that we're going to have some good sense. We're not going to stand out in the yard and look for it. Right. And so the third pig means that's the third pig in the three little pigs that built a brick house. And that means you get out of debt.

You have an emergency fund. You have a budget. You start to build some wealth. And when you don't have any debt, you have a pile of money and bad things happen in the economy. It doesn't affect you yep nearly as bad as if you have no money and you're deeply in debt it destabilizes everything so i i never want to call have fear be the motivator i want hope to be the motivator but if you are feeling anxious and a lot of people are about some of the economic indicators let that be your

motivation to get your crap together oh my gosh yep this is your call hello you know i mean that's really what it is yeah well and giving and that gives people a sense that you can control what you can control right like what's going on in your house those are variables you can control yes it's focusing on that and all this other stuff that you just can't you can't if you think the republicans are going to save your life you're wrong and if you think the democrats are going to save your life you're really wrong i mean it's just not going to happen you know i've been doing this i'm old and i've never gotten anything out of washington except trouble yeah you know i mean it's just trouble they don't bring anything good to me so and that's not just being anti-government or something it's

just it's called personal responsibility i'm an adult and i'm responsible for my future joe biden thank god is not responsible for my future or a republican president thank god is not responsible for my future if i thought either one of them were in charge of my future i would just be going i would really have anxiety then but thank god i know they're not so i can control the controllables in my life i can keep my job i can use that money to build my 401k i can get out of debt have the emergency funds stay out of debt i do not have to participate in panic purchases oh god it's going up i gotta buy six of them oh geez man come on just extra cases of water just in case y2k some of y'all are still

sitting on that eight gallons of peanut butter from y2k and some of you don't even know what that is because you weren't born yet oh my gosh but anyway not in the booth the people in the booth all do know but hey you got to be 22 years old or older or you don't know what you were not born that's weird that's weird that's weird yeah i'm usually feel young i'm like the youthful one here on this show well everything's a matter of comparison all these terms i'm usually like i'm the one that's kind of out but i actually now feel old yeah but y2k is how old were you in 2000 in 2000 i was 12 yeah okay when the world almost came to an end and y'all had a new year's

eve party that year we had a great one we served water what no everybody was stockpiling water because you weren't gonna be able to get water and you didn't drink bourbon back the grid was gonna be a the grid was gonna be off the line we're gonna lose everything we're you know all your bank accounts are gonna be frozen yeah you did probably hold your breath for a little bit when it was like, three, two, one. What's going to happen? And then all the lights stayed on and we went right on our way.

22 years later. Cheers. This is the Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit RamseySolutions.com slash debt-free scream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescream.