The Ramsey Show - App - The Plan Works No Matter What Your Income Is! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 22, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. It's all about you. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. As we reveal to you this mysterious thing called common sense. It's what we're here for. It's so rare that having common sense today is like having a superpower.

So we're glad you're with us. We want to increase your superpowers today. 888-825-5225. James is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, James. How are you? I'm doing good, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

I'm just trying to connect with you, and I'm curious what you would say about our situation. I've heard you talk about it a lot, but I wanted to know if it would make sense to sell my house to pay off the rest of my debt, which is all student loans. Whoa. How much is your student loan debt? My wife and I combined amongst the three degrees is $91,000. Okay. And with three degrees, I hope you have a really nice income. What's your household income?

Right now, unfortunately, it's combined at $50,000. About two years ago, I left my $100,000 job to start my own business. So I know it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but at the time it was more of a passion thing and kind of just feeling at my limit. And my business is doing great. It is debt-free and growing, but the income there, I don't know exactly when I can say I'm going to substantially start taking home enough to put into this $91,000 the way I would need to to have it done in somewhere under three years. Uh-huh. Do you like your home?

We do. We like it, but our plan is to sell it, and right now I... Your plan is to sell it. Your plan is to sell it. And right now I... Your plan is to sell it. Your plan is to sell it. Why? To upgrade more to, like, our, you know, what would be more a little bit sizable for a family. I mean, we would be willing to live in this house if that's what it meant. Living here is pretty expensive.

I mean, it's hard to find any houses under $400,000 or $500,000 for my house. Right now I owe $304,000 on it. And so the hard part is that our mortgage and everything is well over the 25%, being that I left the career that I had initially when buying it. Does your wife work outside the home? Yes, she works, and she's our staple. So she works full-time at the company. Where does she work? Oh, she works full-time at the company and she works for you pretty much she's the one

who makes me be able to grow my business and then a side note i do um part of leaving was to take an opportunity to train competitively i don't know if you ever heard about the crossfit games but um it's a limited thing in life i i'm getting to that point at 29 years old i only have a few years left to try to enjoy this part and see if I can make it. And so that's part of like our situation, which is why we want to attack the debt. And I do regret not taking care of it when I had the income, because I've learned how much flexibility can buy you opportunity. And I didn't take care of the debt the way we should have. Wow.

And selling your house, you have $90,000 in equity. Yeah. Okay, so in order to grow your business and be a CrossFit champion, you're going to be a renter. Yeah. Is that what we're saying? Is that the conclusion? Yeah, and it's one of those things where it's either now or never i mean i can't do this the business i could put on hold but training and and being competitive i think you put enough income on hold for a while buddy

um i mean you you got a family to take care of here and you got ninety thousand dollars worth of crappy decisions you made before today so um we don't need to be taking on any more hobbies. And another extra, my mother-in-law is gifting us with $35,000 next month, and that we're just asking to go right into my wife's portal and pay all her student loans off. So that would take the $91,000 in the end of 50 55 um and i'm curious to see if we should try to fight through that and keep the house and that's kind of been our my yeah i think yeah i think you fight through it and keep the house and let's do what it takes to grow your business and you've got to um um you know balance your physical fitness hobby with the needs of your family.

And, you know, what's primary? If you had to list things down, what's the most important thing? What's the second most important thing? What's the third most important thing in your life down the list? CrossFit should not be the top. I agree. It should be your wife um you know your walk with god uh those kinds of things should be at the top um taking care of your family uh should be at the top and i'm not saying you shouldn't do the crossfit thing um i mean i got friends that do you know iron man and um and, um, and I've trained for

half marathons and full marathons. I know the time that that takes, and that's a lot less than what you're committing, uh, cause you're very serious at your level. Um, so, you know, you've just got to work this through and, and, and think it out. Um, you know, at, you know, when you're 40 years old, when you're 50 years old, what are you going to be glad you did? And what are you going to be glad you didn't do? But it sounds to me like with that gift coming, that's a nice piece of information late in the conversation,

that I'm probably going to try to continue to grow your business. And it may be that you need to run your business without your wife, and she needs to go into the marketplace and make some money rather than working for you for free. You're both working for – you didn't just reduce one income. You reduced two incomes by opening this business. So, you know, that might be a way we can get your household income up is she goes and gets a job, and you run the business without her. And because you've got enough degrees floating around there for sure. So, yeah, I'm going to try to get my income up, keep the house,

and then use the house later on as the way we move up to a better house that you want to do later on after you get some of these other goals behind you. Hey, thanks for the call. Melinda is with us in Syracuse, New York. Hi, Melinda. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Me and my husband have been in a lot of tension this summer, and we've been able to knock out 20,000 this summer, just for the two months. And we're getting to the point where, after this month, we'll be done with step two, and then I'll be moving to step three. And I don't know, when I get past step three, I don't know how to prepare for my have a little Down syndrome baby. And I don't know if I do a 529.

I know I will for my older son, but then for my baby, I don't know how to prepare for him. Probably not. Probably not going to spend time in higher education. And the way you prepare for him is you look at how high-functioning he is, and you'll know that as he gets older, and you'll see some of the things that are going on. But, you know, in other words, if he's high-functioning,

obviously at some point as an adult he can have, you know, he can be on his own. If he's not functioning at a high level, then you're probably caring for this child the rest of his life or your life, right? Right. I think so. He's only not even two. Yeah, so we don't know yet. But I'm saying right now what I would do is just let's get you out of debt. Let's build wealth. The way we take care of this baby is we get you in place but no we would not do a 529 uh for a baby with um with those particular challenges

hey god bless you it's it's a wonderful blessing actually this is these are the happiest people on the planet you're going to have a great time this is the dave ramsey show Dave Ramsey Show. This is big news, guys. You need to stop and listen. The Fed decided not to raise interest rates. That means you've got a small window of time before rates rise again. Here's the deal. Most people are paying too much interest on their largest expense, their home. So you're freaking crazy if you don't take 10 minutes to call Churchill Mortgage right

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Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Ben, what's up? How you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Good. All right. I have a question on collections debts. I have about $16,000 there with uh 13 different creditors do i leave those

continually way off for another year or two while i continue to work through baby step two any of them bothering you uh they call me all the time but i always tell them listen i don't have money for you there's nothing i can do as soon as i get some i'll call you and and get you paid but and you're not you're not uh you're not paying on any of them no no i only pay on my current debts what's it from all credit cards how old are they how long since they've been paid on just about a year okay any of them over five thousand no okay so you said 13 or 15 or 13 equals $15,000. Is that what you told me? 13 different cards and they roughly are about $16,000 with the last known dollar amount that

I have on all the paperwork I have in my files. How much other debt do you have that's active? With my student loans, cars, it's just at 50. And what's your household income? 80. So how quick are we going to pay 50? Right now, the way my budget runs, I have $1,260 left over every month. That was going to be my other question I just thought of. The only ways I can get some more money is if I cancel cell phones, cancel cables, and things of that nature, and cancel contracts. Is that something I should do or shouldn't do in order to get that extra money? What kind of contract? Granted, I'll have to pay, like Dish Network has.

I'm in a two-year contract, so if I cancel i'll have to pay uh x amount of dollars per month left of the contract cell phones they're not under contract but the way the phones are today because you know here's the thing here's the thing um yeah you're just you're just starting this process all right um but if you make 80 if you make 80 you need to find a way to pay at least 25 a year and be done with the active debt in two years. Okay. Most people do more than that. No, $2,500 a year is a lot more than you're talking about.

$2,500 a year is not $1,200 a month. It's $2,000 a month. At the start it is, yeah. It's $2,000 a month. Yeah, I can pull another $800 after the first maybe six months of getting some other debts paid off and some things will disappear from the minimum payments, like my furniture. That's like $200, but there's only about four months left on it.

The total, including the payments that you're paying, has to be over $2,000 a month. It sounds like it might be, okay? Okay. But you've got to be at that level or higher. And so, yeah, crunch your budget on down. Look at what you can cancel reasonably. Yes, to answer your first question, I want to run two debt snowballs. I want to run an active debt snowball, and once that's done,

then we'll run a debt snowball on the inactive. Now, let's pretend you've knocked out the $50,000, and we're 18 months, two years from today. Then you're going to start working these bad debts that are in collections. And what you're going to do is list those smallest to largest. You're going to call the smallest one and find out what they then say it is. You've got a current balance on it. Let's say the current balance on it, I'll just make up a is a thousand dollars okay on your smallest one and you call them up and they say it's three

thousand four hundred dollars because of collections fees well that and they may because they try to pull all kinds of crap okay you don't use the three thousand four hundred as your starting point you use the one thousand as your starting point and you try to settle the debt at or below what the current balance is today when you get there. Of course. Okay? And you need to get that in writing from them before you give them money, each one, and do it as a lump sum.

Don't put them on payments, anybody. And you do not let them have electronic access to your checking account. It's okay to have electronic access to your checking account, stuff like your electric bill or something, but these are adversaries. These are the enemy, and they will clean your butt out. Oh, yeah. I've heard you say it many times. I will never let them do that.

So run two debt snowballs, an active one, and let's get that one jacked up a little more than you got it jacked up right now, and get out in 18 to 24 months, and then we'll run the inactive one and settle it for $15,000 or less as you go through. In writing, and no electronic

access to your checking account. Terry's in Dallas, Texas. Hey, Terry, how are you? I am truly blessed to be upright and taking nourishment how are you that's just the same sir what's up in your world i am 49 my wife is 41 we've got a 14 year old who'll be going to college in four years we've got 122 000 in her 529 plan um the 529 plan is handled by Fidelity. And my question is, because you always advocate

not investing in mutual funds if you have less than a five-year window, should we be moving her 529 into just basically cash? No. No, I would leave it. I would leave it. I would keep it in mutual funds

all the way through. Oh, all right. it. I would leave it. I would keep it in mutual funds all the way through. Oh, all right. So not even when she starts college. Leave it in there. Because right now, I've got 9.33 in the first six months of this year. Yeah. You want all that you can get, man. You need all the help you can get.

Yeah, because rule of 72 would essentially add 50% to that over the next four years. Exactly. And then just continue to leave it in there, you're saying, through the college years, and then cash flow any more if we need to. Yeah. I'm just saying what I'm talking about when somebody's starting fresh and they got zero and they're saving up for a car or something like that or saving up for the down payment on their house, that's different than taking your investments all the way into retirement

or your investments all the way into college. And I'm taking them all the way into college. And then the last part of the equation is, 14 years old, I've had three go through college now, so I'm a little ahead of you on this game. 14 years old is a good time to start talking about you are going to a college that fits within this amount. You're not going to a college that fits within this amount. You're not going to. You don't get to go just wherever you want to go.

You're going to go to a college that fits within this amount, or you do not get this amount. And we've kind of started that because her cousin did the let's go look at college. I think this one is pretty. And we've already said we're not doing a pretty college thing yeah well i mean i just looked up my old college university of tennessee which i love dearly i'm an alum i support them it's thirteen thousand six dollars a year for in-state

thirty five thousand dollars if you come across the state line it is not worth three x to come across the state line. It is not worth 3X to come across the state line. If you live in Georgia, go to Georgia. It's a great school. It ain't three times greater than Georgia. Stay in Georgia. I mean, that's just dumb. And so this is the kind of stuff people do.

I want to go over there because they have pretty trees in the yard or something. And it's just like this is how they make their decisions. And so you just have to start now and go, you know, I know some of our friends have kids, and some of our friends are stupid. I know we have some relatives that have kids, and some of our relatives are stupid. We're not stupid. You have 122 plus whatever it grows to, and that is where you're going to school.

All right. Should I also be doing an UTMA? No. If you got some more money and you want to pass some to her, that money becomes hers at 21 regardless of what she wants to use it for. And so depending on how level-headed this kid is and how you're training her, if you want to start setting her up for stuff after college, you can. But with 122 plus what you can put in there between now and the next four years

and what that will grow to in the next four years, you're in good shape. You've done a great job, Terry. Well done. Well done. I mean, who saves $122,000 for the kids' college? I know Terry in Dallas does. That's who. Well done, Dad.

It's a great gift. Not many people get that. Lots of people have lots of other problems because they didn't have that. So well done. But with the power of that size of that account comes the power to help with college selection. Comes the power to require behavior while you're in school. Comes the power to, these are all the powers I exerted over mine. You're a control freak.

Yep. My money. I love my kids. I'm not going to do anything for them that's not good for them. My money. Do what I say. That's how that works. You're going to behave.

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That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. John and Ashley are in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave, thanks for having us. Absolutely. Where do you guys live? We live in Louis lobby of Ramsey Solutions. Hey, guys. How are you? Hey, Dave. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. Where do you guys live?

We live in Louisville, Kentucky. Wonderful. And all the way down here to do your debt-free screen. Yes, sir. Fine. How much have you paid off? We have paid $167,000. All right.

How long did this take? About five and a half years. Okay, cool. And your range of income during that time? So it started off at about 80, and then through a variety of income sources, ended at about 160. Whoa, doubled it. Very cool. What do you guys do for a living? So my husband's a physical therapist, and I stay at home with our kids.

And since becoming debt-free, I've started a family travel blog, too. Oh, very good. Good for you guys. Fun. So $167,000. Oh, very good. Good for you guys. Fun. So, $167,000. That's a lot. What all did that include? That'd be our house. You paid off your house? Yes, sir. I'm looking at weird people. You know what they say about normal. That's right. Normal sucks, and you're not it. Way to go, guys. You're young to have a paid-for household. How old are you guys? I'm 31, and my 30-year-old wife looks like she's 25.

Ha, ha, ha, ha. It's because she's got no debt. That's what it is. That's right. Great, man. How fun. Five and a half years. So you start this whole thing in your early 20s.

Yes, sir. Like 24, 23 years old. You say, we're going to pay off our house what's the house worth uh it's probably worth about 275 uh that'd be a guess but i know that it's paid for yeah it's okay to guess there you go wow and so you had no debt at that point except the house and you decided to go ahead we're going to pay off this house early what inspired you to do that at such a young age so we actually part of our senior required curriculum for our school was your course and thought that was such a great way to have such a good foundation so we got married at 19 and 20 and so senior in high school yes you took you took

the foundations course yes sir oh my gosh Oh, my gosh. Our curriculum. Okay. So although we were young and married, we probably didn't make the best choices. I don't also think we made any horrible choices. And so that started us off on a good foundation. And then when we got married, we kind of just looked at the marriages around us. And it seemed like finances were either abundantly blessing marriages or just absolutely destroying them.

And we felt like, you know what, if we can just do one thing really well, this is a good place to start. Yeah, that's good. That's a good way of looking at it. The money thing is such a big thing. Let's get that right and then we'll work on other stuff. Yeah, good. Very good.

Fun. So you lean into the mortgage and you pay off $167,000 in five and a half years. So that's like $30,000 a year. Yeah, we did some things along the way on the front end. We had to buy a couple cars, paid for, finished our basement. So we did like $111,000 in the last two years. Oh, wow. Yeah, so really got it to the point where it's just time to knock it out all the way.

So you looked up a couple years ago, could really see the light at the end of the tunnel. There's not a train. Let's knock this out. That's right. Sprint to the finish. Good, guys. How's it feel? You're three years old.

You don't even have a payment. Feels pretty good. You know, life at Baby Step 6 was pretty good. I mean, we had some good things. It took some fun trips, all that stuff. But life at Baby Step 7 is pretty awesome. Yeah mean, we had some good things. We took some fun trips, all that stuff. But life at Baby Step 7 is pretty awesome. Yeah. You're going to be so rich, and you're going to be so generous.

You've completely changed your life and your family tree. That was the point. So proud of you. So did you have cheerleaders? We did. I think one of the things that we looked at was this was something we were really doing for us. So between the two of us, that was really what we tried to make sure this was building our relationship with each other. One of the things that we did find that was kind of funny, it seemed like for a lot

of people, our specific income is the only income this plan would work for. So we found a lot of people that made more than us and didn't need this plan or made less that didn't think would work for them. So it was kind of humorous for us along the way just to kind of see because we just worked the plan and went along and did it. Wow. Yeah, your specific income because everybody else is, yeah, that works for you. But people like me. Yeah, yeah. So you have people saying you're crazy.

Maybe not crazy, but maybe close. Yeah. Maybe good for you, but not for us. Yeah, that thing, yeah, which is pretty much saying you're crazy. So who was your best and biggest cheerleader, other than each other? I mean, all our family has been super, super supportive and cheering us on the whole way. So we haven't had anyone that has, you know, just acted like we were insane. That's good. Very cool. And along the way, you know, just acted like we were insane. That's good.

Very cool. And along the way, you had some kiddos. Yes, sir. And what ages and names? Brandon is six and Abigail is four. Okay. And we're headed down to Disney World after this. Oh, yeah.

Well, we've got to stop by and see Dave, but Mickey is the thing, man. That's right. That's right. Bring it, Mickey. Happiest place on That's right. Bring it, Mickey. Happiest place on earth or whatever they call it. Yeah, very fun. Happiest place on earth is called your street address. Yes, sir.

That's right. That's right. That's adult Disneyland right there, man. Well done, you guys. So well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Well, we hear people talk about it all the time. Talk about your why.

And I think that's the answer that we would land with. And so one of the things that I look at from watching Simon Sinek's video from the beginning is you've got to define that why until it's so tangible and so clear and so specific that it gives you goosebumps. And if you're so inspired by that, the mechanics of doing a budget and the what, the outcomes of the baby steps along the way, it's just, you're going to do it because it's just that you're so inspired by what you're doing. Probably when I was probably 14 years old, I was listening to the radio and this guy was kind of screaming and ranting a little bit. And he said something that stuck with me a little bit. And here's what you said, that opportunity is missed by most people because it's dressed in

overalls and it looks like work. And so when you're inspired to do something like that, the extra work is a blessing and the opportunity to do that just becomes something that it's not necessarily easy, but it makes it so clear and so worth it when you know exactly why you're doing it. And so for us, our why in a very practical way is we want to honor the Lord with our finances. We want to improve our marriage. We know that it will improve our marriage. We know that it will improve our legacy that we leave for our children. We want to give crazy generously, and we want to have a lot of fun traveling. So for us, that gets us excited.

Yeah, and you're going to get to do every bit of that and more. Well done, you guys. I'm very proud of you. That's so neat. 14 years old, he's listening to the radio. You take the class as a high school senior our high school curriculum which those of you out there that don't know we've got a high school

curriculum called Foundations and Personal Finances now in about 53% of the high schools in America are now teaching it. Thank goodness. So we're getting there. Wow you guys are the fruit of that. Our Ed Solutions team will be so thrilled to hear this particular debt-free scream. It's very, very cool.

Good stuff. Good stuff. Well done, you guys. Very well done. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. And that's the next chapter, to be millionaires and outrageously generous, which is your plan, obviously. Well done. John, Ashley, Brandon, Abigail from Louisville on the way to Disney stopped by to do a debt-free scream.

$167,000 paid off five and a half years, making $80,000 to $160,000. That's their house and everything at 31 years old. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right, you guys ready? All right. Three, two, one. We're dead free!

That's what it is right there. Oh, my gosh. You look at that little four-year-old girl and you think, her daddy, when he was 14, heard somebody say, go to work, me me ranting about work and that little girl right there because her daddy decided her mommy decided to be grown-ups and not blame everybody else not be a victim of everything that's going on instead be a victor they They're not only in control,

they're destined for financial greatness. $167,000 paid off. Their home is worth $275,000. They make, on his income alone, $160,000 a year. Are you hearing this? You see what has happened. And this is they get married straight out of high school. So you can do this. You can

do this. Only question is when you're going to start. Ready? Oh, it's your turn right now. You ready? Set. Go. I'm out. The The The The

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The The The The The The The Chris is with us in New York. Hi, Chris. How are you? Hey, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Well, back in May, me and my wife, we started your program. However, December of last year, we wound up getting a leased car. Now, since starting your program in May... I'm confused. How do you start my program and then get a leased car? No, no. Back in December of last year, we got the car, and then we started your program in May. Oh, May of this year.

Oh, okay. I understand. Okay. All right. So you have a lease that's in the deal. You've got to get paid off, okay? Right. So, well, here's the thing.

Since we started your program, we've paid off $75,000 worth of student loan debt, and that's basically all the debt that we have with the exception now of just this car lease. My question is, can I move on to baby step three while still having the lease and cash flow it the rest until the end of the lease so right now my household income is 170 at the end of the three-year term the car will cost 15 000 if i are you going to keep the car yes we've decided that we want to keep the car? Yes. We've decided that we want to keep the car. Well, just find out what the payoff balance on it is today and pay it off. Okay. So then just save up for the payoff balance. It's your car debt right now.

A car lease is just a financing program. That's all it is. It's just another way to have payments. And they have an early payoff called the early buyout amount. How much is left on the lease? How much time is left? Two years. Just slightly over two years.

You would save the equivalent of two years' worth of interest. They don't technically call it interest in a lease because they're not technically loaning you money. In a lease, it's called cost of capital. But you're going to pay less, probably about 10% less, if you pay it off early. You're going to get about the equivalent of 10% interest rate. So usually 10% to 14% is what these things cap out at. And so just call and get the early buyout and put that in your debt snowball and pay that off before you move on to baby step three. It's a debt on your car.

Okay. Fair enough. Easy enough? Yeah. Yep. I wanted to start saving, but if I've got to do it, I've got to get this out of the way. You're almost there. You're there.

You've got it, man. You're doing good. Thanks. John's with us in San Antonio. Hey, John, how are you? Hi. Thanks for taking my call, Dave. Sure.

I've got a question you probably have answered before. I want to give you a few numbers. I've got about $1.4 million in savings. $200,000 of that is in a 401k plan. About half of it was still remaining with the company. And about half of the other $1.2 is in 401k. And the whole $1.2 is with an investment firm. So I've got about $100,000 in debt on a house, a car, and a garage that I built.

And I'm just wondering, I'm about 60 years old. My life is two years younger than me. I'm kind of looking at retirement, and what could I expect? And I've talked to my investment guy. He's saying I should work until 64, 65. And health care costs are kind of one of the fear factors that's built into that, right? If I were to retire earlier, then I could get Medicare or Medicaid. Regardless of your health care issue, what do you need to live on a year income-wise if you quit working?

So monthly, our fixed expenses are about $10,000. Now they go to about $7,000 in three years when I pay off the house, car, and garage. Okay. So about $100,000 does all that? How much does it take to pay off all that? $100,000. Okay. You have $100,000?

I would just pay that off today, regardless of what I quit. I'm sorry. Yeah, I would be debt-free by the end of the day. Okay? I'd write a check and be out of debt. I'm not going to sit there and borrow money to keep it in my 401K, which is effectively what you're doing. Even if you want to just save more later, that's fine. I don't care.

But to pay off the debt today, I'd be debt-free. Now, we're debt-free, so $7,000, which is $84,000 a year. Can you make $84,000 on a million, two million, four? You should be able to. That's less than 8%. Right. I'm making a percent a month now. That's why I'm keeping the debt.

I'm making more in investments. Yeah, but I'm not a percent a month now. That's why I'm keeping the debt. I'm making more in investments. Yeah, but I'm not going to play that game. If you were going to play that game, you'd go borrow $2 million on your house and say, oh, I'm making the spread. You're not going to do that. You're nickel and diamond. You're not making any money on that. It's $100,000 out of a million and a half dollar net worth.

You know, you've got more than a million and a half net worth because you got the house. You probably have a $2 million net worth. If you can live on $60,000, $80,000 a year, which it sounds like you can, and the point is I want you to keep your hands off the principal.

So whatever the assets that you have invested create an income, you have to live on that or less. And so I just say if you take $1.4 million, put it in mutual funds, and if it makes 10%, that's $140,000 a year. If it makes 8%, it's less than that. If it makes 6%, it's less than that. But somewhere down in there is $80,000, right? Yeah.

Which is $7,000 a month. Right. So, yeah, I think you can do it. It's just a matter of what you want to do. Now, here's the other thing. Do you like what you're doing? Yeah, I do. I really love my job.

I make a lot of money. What do you make? What do you make? I'm going on a hike every day and riding my motorcycle, too. Yeah. So, I mean, you don't have a – it's not like you – I hate my job. I want to go fishing here. Yeah.

So, you are financially independent, but that doesn't necessarily equal quit work. Like, here's an example, okay? I'm worth tens of millions, okay millions okay so i haven't had to work for years but i work every day just about it's just because i want to i just thoroughly enjoy what i'm doing and i can't imagine playing that much golf or fishing that much it just doesn't run it's not the way my brain works i enjoy the engaging with people. I enjoy growing things and the challenge in the business. You and I are about the same age, and so if I'm you, I'm going to keep working just because of that stuff,

not because of the money. So one of the things that has kind of confused me is the investment guy said, to outlive my money at the current rate, I need to work until about 64. Well, he's running a different calculation than you and I are running that. He's being more conservative. But if your mutual funds are averaging 10%, that's $140,000 a year. You're not touching any principal pulling $140,000 if that's the average, right? Well, not counting medical health care.

I mean, if you've got to live on everything, you've got to pay everything on $140,000. Can you do that? Or on $100,000 or $80,000 or whatever it is. You can. You can. You can cover medical and have a really nice life on $100,000 a year. So you're financially independent because you could set this up and never touch the principal and live a very good life off of just what the mutual funds create.

Do you understand that? I mean, you see that, right? Yeah, yeah, of course. So what he's doing is he went to training somewhere, and they said, oh, no, you need to calculate this at 6%. And I'm like, well, you can calculate it at 6%. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just more conservative. I'm just saying, what does the mutual fund really make, and am I willing to live on that or less where i never touch the goose all i do is crack and scramble

the eggs that's all i want to do i'm going to leave the goose alone that's the principle and now i'm not suggesting you max that out but i think you're going to work anyway because i think you're making a lot of money and you like what you're doing and you have a good life so i'd probably go ahead and work but i would not be working because my financial advisor told me i had to work with a two million dollar net worth i would be debt free though by the end of the day amen thanks for the call appreciate you joining us open phones at 888-825-5225 well david's just irresponsible that's one of those things i disagree with day rems answer i'm gonna put out a blog where i get clickbait oh well that's okay you just go ahead and do whatever you want to do, people.

It doesn't matter to me. But here's the thing. I own a mutual fund that for 84 years has averaged 12.7%. My personal portfolio for the last 30 years has averaged just under 12%, the whole group of mutual funds so if it's averaged 12 and all i pull off is 10 is my nest egg not growing by two hello why is this hard people why is that hard this is is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show.

Once again, you made the Dave Ramsey Show one of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year. I'm Dave Rambly.