The Ramsey Show - App - The Powerful 90 Day Journey to Contentment (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 27, 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Well, the Twitter and Instagram and Facebook world is alive and buzzing with a couple of stories. Just dying for Dave Ramsey to say something about, so I will. First is, Apple comes out with a credit card this week. And everybody's freaking out.

Don't freak out. I don't hate Apple. I have an Apple iPhone. It's my personal phone. I have one of the iPads and my personal computer is a Dell. But, you know, I mean, Apple makes some really good products. And Apple Pay wasn't making them as much money as they needed. And they're only the wealthiest company in the whole freaking world.

They needed some more, and so they come out with a credit card, and there's nothing pregnant about the credit card. It's a credit card, and it doesn't have a few fees, but it's got a 13% to 24% interest rate. It's a credit card, stupid. It's no different. It's just Apple has a credit card now. But they have more money than Egypt.

They're bigger than most banks. So why can't they have a credit card? Does that mean you need to use it? Well, Lord, no. We can use some of their other fine products, but why would you fall for that crap? You're going to go in debt at 24% because Tim Cook told you to?

Only if you're stupid. I mean, but they do have tremendous, they have such good products. They have tremendous brand loyalty, and they'll be able to extend that and get people into debt now on a credit card. And it'll work great for them. They'll make a ton of money off of you. So, I mean, I'm not mad about it i'd be like saying i mean i don't know whoever a bank has a credit card that makes a bazillion dollars on you

i mean they still cut it up this is titanium so it'll take a pair of like um uh cutting shears or something you won't be able to do it with simple scissors. You put it in your shredder, it'll probably blow your shredder up. But, you know, so, yeah. I mean, if you're just such an Apple geek, you're just geeked out and you really want to give them some more money, well, they're going to give you an opportunity here, and that's all it is. The other thing that's gone crazy on the Internet isbc posted a budget of this couple making a half million dollars a year that couldn't seem to make it they were an average couple which shows how in

touch cnbc is but uh and everybody's wanting me to trash these people i don't trash but you know dave ramsey gets a hold of this he'll rip them and i'm like i'm not i don't listen i don't answer questions that aren't asked if those people call me and ask me well yeah i could tell them how to live on half a million dollars i think you could too and that's been the funny part of reading the posts all over the place the twitter post the facebook post another thing is that you folks can look at that budget and go well that's absurd i mean you you can help them balance their budget. I mean, because none of you are in Congress, so you know how to balance a budget.

You know how to live on less than you make. You look at it and you go, yeah, I think they could sell this, and I think they could cut that, and, you know, I think the same thing, but I'm not going to rip those poor people to shreds. They're getting destroyed in social media, though. They're getting lit up, man. I mean, it's crazy crazy so you go viral for all the wrong reasons you know so so no i'm not gonna i'm not gonna pile on that either um i mean

i would never tell you use a credit card and apple's not special it's just a stupid credit card and i don't i don't answer questions that aren't asked. And so I don't jump into media phrase and tell people who didn't ask me how to live. Now, if you call and ask me, then I'm supposed to answer the question. That's the relationship I have with you. And I will tell you what's smart, what's stupid and how you can win and what you can do and that kind of stuff. So I don't do that. One of the things I tell you to do is never buy a stupid timeshare right because they're stupid 93 of the people who buy a timeshare wish they didn't have one

they feel ripped off it's an absolutely horrible horrible horrible product and it's always sold in some pressure cooker situation where you went you thought you were going to get a free room and the free room you got was locked in with a salesman in a free room until you bought something that was your free room and so you end up with a timeshare fourteen thousand dollars finance that you never go and then the fees go up every year so we've been helping you get out of those so i don't know if you know the story on florida or not i'm a big fan of florida I like Florida. There's a lot of cool things about Florida. But sometimes Florida does some stupid butt stuff. And they're getting ready to do one right now.

So the story on Florida, you ever heard the story, I got some swampland to sell you in Florida? You ever heard that saying? I can sell you some swampland. If you believe that, I can sell you some swampland in Florida. It means you're a sucker. A sucker's born every minute you know that's saying it's the same thing and the reason was there was a bunch of land scams

in florida back in the day in the 40s and 50s where people would go down there kind of like an olden day timeshare except it wasn't a timeshare it was just a land scam and they would sell you two acres of land that was swamp as you know sight unseen i bought florida property and you didn't know what you're doing and you got scammed it was a real thing people got sold swamp land in florida and florida became kind of known for ripping people off as a state in the name of having a vacation spot and of, of course, they cleaned the act up, and the real estate laws got into place, and they started requiring people to not commit fraud and all this kind of stuff. And so, you know, Swampland in Florida, I'll sell you some.

If you believe that, I'll sell you some Swampland in Florida. I got some Swampland in Florida I'll sell you. Became a saying because it actually happened. And Florida had a bad reputation as a place to get scammed well one of the top timeshare locations in america of course is florida so it's one of the top places you can get scammed and instead of fixing that some idiot has been bought out by the timeshare industry down there and has now put a bill bill 435 on the floor so listen to me florida let your state legislatures know that you don't want to be known for scam artists they put a bill on the floor they're just trying to get it to the floor, to ban timeshare exit teams from coming in.

They're like, our timeshare exit team. To ban people from coming in and helping people get out of being ripped off on a timeshare. Instead of regulating the rip-off timeshare industry, they're trying to regulate the people who are getting people out of timeshares and keep them from operating there. Now, Florida, you gotta have more sense than that. It makes you look scummy. I mean, you're going back to the swampland days here.

You gotta do better. So if you folk who live in Florida, let your state legislature know that you don't really want to be known for scamming people and protecting the people that are scamming people. For God's sakes, that's like passing legislation, you know, government subsidizing payday lenders or something. What kind of morons? I mean, that's the dumbest thing.

The bill's 435 if you want to tell them what you think of it. I just told you what I think of it. I think whoever put that bill on the floor is bought and owned by the timeshare ripoff people. Yeah, that's unbelievable. Unconscionable. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. One Dental is a company I've been telling my listeners about because I know these guys will save you money at the dentist. One Dental is a dental savings program that allows you to go to one of over 158,000 dental practice locations nationwide

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That's OneDental.com. joining me this segment number one best-selling author twice over rachel cruz is with us ramsey personality and i hold in my hand oh this is actually one of them. It's the real thing. It's actually here. No prototype. Not a mock-up. Not a prototype. Nope. I'm actually holding in my hand the... Contentment Journal.

Contentment Journal. Yes. Now, this is such a millennial thing or such a... I just don't... I mean, the chances of... Hey, you can struggle with discontentment at any age. Yes, you can. Yes, you can.

But journaling about it, you might not do at any age. So tell me how we're going to journal about contentment. Talk about this. Okay. Because you're a big journaler. I do. I do love to journal. And so that's one of the...

It's born out of your love for this. Okay, I love journaling. I'm sorry. Who journaled like 25 years ago about having a financial class and you like prophetically wrote out what financial i didn't have a a model to help me okay that's what i don't i didn't have a journal well i still write stuff okay so you love you you all. So there's something to be said. There is something powerful when you just free flow your thoughts and you write because things subconsciously come out.

You have things down and you have marked a significant point in time of that day of what you're feeling, what you're thinking, what's going on, what's in your mind. And so you get to come back days, weeks, months, years, and see the progress that you've made personally, spiritually, where you're at, where life used to be. So I love the power of writing down things. We did find we're cleaning out stuff to get rid of the other building. And I haven't even shown you this,

but I did find typed out stuff that I had done, actual things I was doing 30 years ago. Oh, wow. And it was hole-punched because it was in a three-hole punch thing. Were you doing real estate at that time? I was just starting some of this stuff. Yeah. And some real estate, too.

And it was really interesting. Isn't it crazy? You go back and look. Yes. It seemed like fresh. It seemed like it was right now. Interesting. It didn't seem like it was 30 years old.

I love it. So that's what you get if you journal something like this contentment journal. Yes. Interesting. I feel like I'm 30 years old. So that's what you get if you journal something like this contentment journal. Yes, that's just the power of journaling in general. So I can defend us millennials or smart people who write things down. Yeah, okay. So the subject of contentment, though, is one that is really, it can be very hard to grasp. But something that you say to someone and they're like, oh, yes, it's a very agreeable subject, right? Like we all know we should be content.

But when it comes to your money, people that are content, they win with money faster. They are able to save money. They're able to sacrifice their lifestyle and get out of debt. There's just something to be said about living in a state of contentment that gives you power. It really does over your money and I think over other things. And you just live a more joyous life when you are at peace with where you are. So contentment is something that a lot of people struggle with, but yet we all strive for.

So I thought, well, I could pair this idea of journaling that I love and the subject that can be so hard to grasp in one sitting that you almost have to have this daily practice of it to walk you through a 90 day guided plan on finding contentment. And the interesting thing is when we did the book together, Smart Money, Smart Kids, I think that's when we started talking about gratitude. That's where it came out of, I guess. Teaching kids gratitude. And we had some long, really good discussions with you and I,

with the content team, with the research team, on this whole idea of what the scriptural view of contentment is with gratitude and how do you teach a kid that. That's kind of what woke you up on this. And it turned into the next book for you really and love your life yeah i mean we live in a comparison world and so taking that contentment and so backtracking you're exactly right this all kind of came out of smart money smart kids this kind of formula we kind of made up but yet we saw biblically it's very in line and you know it makes sense to start with

gratitude so the first 30 days of the journal, we start in gratitude. Because when your heart is filled with gratitude, there is no room for discontentment when you are so grateful for everything in your life. And so within gratitude, we break down everything from your relationships, your career, your goals, your time. I mean, all these areas of your life focus on gratitude for the first 30 days. And then the second 30 days, we move into humility. And that's the next point.

And C.S. Lewis's quote on humility is one that I've just like springboard off of where he says that humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less. So it's not humiliation. You're not putting yourself down. That's not what humility is. I'm just a worm. Right, right.

You know, or someone's like, you did a great job. You're like, no, no, it was terrible. I'm like, no, that's not humility. Humility is saying, oh, yeah, well, thanks, but I want to know about you. It's that the world doesn't revolve around me and you focus on other people. So we spend 30 days there. And then that leads you to the last 30 days of grasping contentment. And what I love about contentment is that contentment is not apathy.

It's not laziness. It's not complacency. You can still be striving for goals and still be working for your future self, right? Out there working for a better marriage, working to be a better parent, working to be better in your career, but still be content in the moment. And so focusing on that.

You're not defined by the goal, but you're driven to the goal. Yes, that's good. Yes, absolutely. I'd like to have that car, but if I don't get it. My identity is not shattered by it. My identity is not in the car. That's right.

Or the house or the trip or the purse or whatever the thing is. Because it's materialistic is the opposite of, you know, but sometimes people think contentment means you have to be lazy. Or that you're just satisfied with where you are and you're just going to stay here. Yeah. And you're just, yeah. Yeah.

So you can still be striving for goals, to your point. And you should be, yeah. Yep. So yeah, so that's it. So it's a 90-day, again, a 90-day guided journal. Is it page by page? Page by page, yes. And it's by days, so we don't do specific dates.

So you can write in your own date. You start it whenever you want. That's right. And it goes through, there's 90 of them. Don't do specific dates. So you can write in your own date. Start it whenever you want. That's right. But I'm going to be going through it probably more via Instagram and maybe some Twitter in there. But I love Instagram. So I'll do quick stories. We'll go through it together and starting in May or end of April, end of April.

That's it. Sorry. So it comes out April 2nd. So it's in preorder right now. The Contentment Journal. You can get that at RachelCruz.com and it'll be shipped to out April 2nd. So it's in pre-order right now, the Contentment Journal. You can get that at rachelcruz.com. And it'll be shipped to you April 2nd. And, yeah, we'll be going through it together, which will be fun.

So they'll let you hold it for a few weeks, and then you guys, you'll start guiding. If anybody wants to follow you, and that doesn't cost anything. It's free. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to go through it. Yeah. It's going to be a free thing.

It'll be a fun kind of community thing. Follow Rachel Cruz on Instagram to do that, right? Yeah. That's right. That's right. So, yeah, I'm really excited about it. And you laugh at me because I say it all the time and the people watching YouTube can see it. But it's really pretty.

Like the design and everything. The designers did a great job. I mean, I'm so. They did do a great job. I mean, oh, my goodness. I mean, we worked on this and it just, it really is. It's really. Well, we were in a meeting the other day discussing it, and she's like, it's so pretty.

And I thought, you know, I've done several books, and I never one time in a meeting went, it's such a pretty book. I've never said that. But that's a Rachel thing. I know. It has gold foil on the front. It says the Contendment Journal. I don't know. It's really fun.

It's an expensive, high-quality piece, and $19 is a deal. Yeah, $19. I mean, our cost of goods sold in that. It costs a lot more to produce that than does a regular book. Yes, totally, yep. It's four-color, it's high-quality paper, everything. It's something you'll keep on your bookshelf for the rest of your life. Yep, absolutely.

Like, I keep a blank journal that I write notes in. Like, when we had a devotional speaker this morning, Stephen Mansfield spoke, and so I wrote notes every time, and I do that in church, too, for the pastor. Yep. And I've got two different ones, one for church, one for had a devotional speaker this morning steven mansfield spoke and so i wrote notes every time and i do that in church too for the pastor yep and and i've got two different ones one for church one for here on devotional and so when i when a speaker is i just and and so i've got those back all the speakers here for years yes the notes and those are treasures to have that stuff around it is it's powerful i talk about a little bit in the beginning of this but uh even the first time i met Winston in college, like I have it written down in my journal after I met him because I thought he was so good looking and he was great, but we didn't date till like a year and a half later. But like all of those

significant times in my life that you don't think maybe aren't significant in the moment, but you're just right. It's just about your life. And for me, I know looking back and again, the power of having your written word down is just like man you see god's faithfulness you see doors that he opened doors that he closed i always laugh and say reverend garth brooks thank god for unanswered prayers is true but you can really see your growth in the 90 days from starting it so it's it's gratitude for 30 days humility for 30 days and contentment for 30 days. It leads into each other.

So the Rachel Cruz Contentment Journal, it is not dated. You will date it. There are 90 individual days that you will do an entry, 30 in on each of those subjects. You're going to guide people through it starting on Instagram. Towards the end of the month, it actually launches or it actually ships in just about a week. Yeah, April 2nd. Yeah, about a week. So you can preorder it right now.

It's 1999, rachelcruz.com. Of course, you can also get it at davramsey.com. And you can get Rachel's Smart Conference Talk, 7 Money Habits for Living the Life You Want, free if pre-order between now and april the 2nd so make sure you do that marriage and money with rachel and les parrot is coming up april 1st in kansas city if you still want tickets thanks for stopping by congrats on a new journal yeah thanks for having me Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs?

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Christian healthcare ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. They did it! And they're here! Johnny and Angie are here to do their debt-free scream. Hey guys, welcome. Hey Dave. What's up? Good to have y'all. Where do you guys live?

Simpsonville, South Carolina. Which is near... Greenville. Greenville. Okay, that one I know. Good. Welcome! Welcome!

All the way to Nashville to do a debt-free scream. That's right. Angie's sporting the Live Like No One Else t-shirt. That's right. You go. I love it. That's awesome. How much have you guys paid off?

$77,000. Very good. And how long did this take? Three years. Okay. And your range of income during that time? Starting at $79,000 a year. Single income ending with $139,000 a year.

Double income. Two incomes. Ah, cool. What do you guys do for a living? I'm an engineer in the automotive industry. Okay. And I'm a second grade teacher. I just went back to work this past school year in August. Oh, cool. So Greenville BMW? Yes, sir. Okay, cool. Great. I know there's a great plant over there. I toured it one time a long time ago. Very neat. Well, BMW? Yes, sir. Okay, cool. Great. I know there's a great plant over there. I toured it one time a long time ago. Very neat. Well, good to have you guys. Welcome. $77,000.

That sounds like a lot, doesn't it? When you say it that way, doesn't it? Yeah. What kind of debt was this? It was school loans, a car loan, some credit cards, and some medical bills. bills okay so we got an engineer and a teacher and you had all the normal debt you guys were just kind of normal yeah how old are you 36 and i'm 33 okay so you were 30 and 33 when you started this three years ago how long have you been married about 12 years okay so then nine years into marriage, something lit the fuse on this issue.

Yeah. What happened? Yeah. Look, you were talking about earlier on the show about the timeshares. Yeah. It's funny because we were at a timeshare. We didn't buy into the timeshare, but we got a good deal to have them pitch to us. Okay.

And that's when we had our sick and tired moment. Yeah. It was at Christmmas time about three years ago we thought that we needed a vacation we had four small kids i was a stay-at-home mom and he worked so hard but we really wanted vacation but we really couldn't afford one so i saw a deal pop up and we got like you know a few nights in a condo and it seemed like too good of a deal to pass up. So we went on this vacation and it was on a credit card because we like really couldn't afford it. And it ended up being a timeshare sales pitch. And it was one day of our vacation was spent in that timeshare sales pitch.

You couldn't get out of it. It was horrible. I didn't know how I'd react to that emotionally. It was a hard sell, man. And we had all of our kids with us, and it just really ruined that vacation for us. And that night, I also ended up getting a text message saying that we had maxed out our credit card. Uh-oh. You were really on the last dime here.

I mean, you wanted to go bad. It was bad. It was bad. And it just hit us like a ton of bricks that, wow, how did we get to this point? And that was our sick and tired moment. And we had all of our kids with us. And, you know, what we wanted for our kids was a relaxing vacation and quality time together. And it was just ruined by the fact that we were so out of control with our finances.

So what happened when you got home? Well, I had to talk to him. See, I was always in control of the budget. He went to work and made the money, and I was a stay-at-home mom, and I took care of the budgeting. And really, I just didn't know what I was doing. And I was doing it all on my own, and I stayed up that night at the timeshare condo, writing out our debts, and that when we got home from that vacation, I had to sit him down and tell him the trouble that we were in,

and I was completely honest and open, and I said, we need help. I need you to help me, and we gotta do something, because debt is our problem. So what'd you all do? I was the typical passive husband. Okay.

I had no clue. I was pretty shocked. And then once we had our meeting and just started talking about it, I actually called my parents, and they're here today. Yeah. Oh, cool. So they are Financial Peace University coordinators at their church. Oh, so they said, we know what to do.

Yeah, and we knew you were, all we knew about you at that point were that you were somebody who knew how to pay off debt, and we knew you were all we knew about you at that point were that you were somebody who knew how to pay off debt and we needed to pay off debt and so he called his parents and they bought us the um home study kit right away we took all nine of your courses in nine days like we were binge watching no more netflix binge watching you so and and so it was game on i mean it was like you you get you reached a point sick and tired of being sick and tired both of you said i'm not gonna be passive i'm gonna be involved and i'm not gonna try to handle this by myself it's not

working i gotta get some outside help and game on game on wow oh yeah it was intense we did in three years on mostly one income yeah and then you added your income just recently yeah just this past i got my first paycheck in september Oh, okay. Wow. Yeah. So 99% of this was done, you know, with, with, uh, just Johnny's income. Okay. Yeah. And I focused really hard. Um, you know, my role at home, I, you know, you, you talked before, um, it sounds kind of old school, but you talked about being a home economist. I took that so seriously and I did everything that I could while I was at home taking care of my babies. I took that so seriously and I did everything that I could while I was at home taking care of my babies. I made, I did everything I could to cut our expenses

because we couldn't raise our income right away. We could cut expenses. And so I cut the grocery bill. I cut, you know, I did all, all the things that I could do, finding clothes on bargains and just any way that I could to cut our expenses. So now that you're through, you guys have been getting after it. I mean, you've been doing it hard. How does it feel? It feels good. It's great.

Yeah. Yeah. There's so much freedom. We're crushing Baby Step 3, too. Yeah. Yeah. You're in a completely different place. The two of you communicating, aren't you?

Oh, yeah. It's brought us so much closer together. Oh, definitely. Yeah. You're in a completely different place. Just the two of you communicating, aren't you? Oh, yeah. It's brought us so much closer together. I mean, yeah. Being able, you know, going through FPU together and then having the accountability like I needed that so desperately to have him be my accountability partner. And then just having it's just brought us so much closer together in our marriage and i think it's it's it's we would have never had conversations with our kids that we have now if it hadn't have been for us getting on board and and really hyper focusing on this and now our kids they've been a part of the whole journey and that's what changing your family tree is about you know yep and that's a

big deal first let's just get away from the desperation. Then it becomes more noble. And you say, we're changing this whole thing all the way down the line. About a year into it, I realized, whoa, not only can we do this, but this is going to be huge. And there was no turning back at that point. Now that you look back, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You've been very successful. The key? The first three months are the worst. It gets better after that.

Yeah, being able to kind of get through the shock of, like for us, it was really about cutting expenses. So it was like, oh, we're going to have to sacrifice a ton. And when you're at the beginning of a journey, and you do the math, and you're like, oh, I'm going to have to live this way for however many years. We thought we would have to do it for about four and a half years.

We got out of debt in three years. But, you know, trying to just go through the hard part, it does get easier. Communication is something that I think is the key to getting out of debt. And then all the day to day discipline, because like if you're focused on, oh, my gosh, I have three years stuck in this journey. But, you know, it's really just you being disciplined day in and day out that time is going to pass anyway you might as well make it count yeah yeah that's true but there there is a shock to your system that first three months

because you're changing everything yeah i mean you've been doing it nine years the other way and now you just like all of a sudden he's in your business. You're talking about this stuff. You weren't used to that. And you're having to, everything is accountable. And every dollar is screaming because you're pinching it. And you're selling stuff.

And you're not doing a whole bunch of stuff you used to do that was fun. I mean, there's a shock to the system. That's a good insight. Yeah.

Well, and then we also really had to find out what was important to each other. That was another way that we got close is like, you know to find out what was important to each other that was another way that we got close is like you know finding out what he wanted to spend money on versus what i wanted to spend money on what we really valued and that was part of the shock in the first three months cool and you brought the kiddos with you to do the scream what are their names and ages we have um our oldest is jade and she's 11 our next next is Cole, and he is 10. And then we have Ivy, who is 6.

And we have River, who is 4. Love it. Very cool. And I'm guessing since your parents were here, they were some of your biggest cheerleaders. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're so grateful for them. Love it.

Johnny and Angie, Jade, Cole, Ivy, and River, $77,000 paid off in three years, making $79,000 until just recently, now up to $139,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo! Woo-hoo! Love it!

Way to go, you guys. Very, very well done. Proud of you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America. Lauren is in Orlando. Hi, Lauren. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Oh, my gosh.

Hi, Dave. I am so excited to talk to you. Thank you so much for taking my call today. Sure. What's up? Well, first, I just want to say thank you for coming to work every day because the podcast really makes such a difference going through Baby Step 2. So thank you.

Very cool. To my question, we are starting on Baby Step 4, 5, and 6 next month. But specifically to Step 4, I know that your lesson says first we match our 401K, then Roth IRA, back to the 401K. But we're in a bracket where we would have to do a backdoor Roth, and both of our 401k options offer a Roth. So should we just max out the Roth 401k instead of doing the backdoor Roth? Yes. We're kind of confused.

Yeah, that's fine. As long as the options that you have for investing in your 401k are reasonably strong. Okay. I guess that was my other question. Would I need a SmartVestor Pro at this point? Because I'm not familiar with picking options. My company just has preset options. No, I wouldn't do preset anything.

That's putting something on autopilot for people who refuse to learn about this stuff, and that's not you if you're going to build wealth. So you can get a SmartVestor Pro. They obviously work with investments that you make with them. They don't have a service where they just advise you on investments you make elsewhere. But one of them would probably just help you as a favor to help you pick some of your 401K, knowing that you might do some investing with them later, that kind of thing. They probably would do that. But they don't get paid that way obviously so um but it's

okay to ask and if they say no it's it's reasonable to say no or yes on their part but basically what you're looking at is you want to pick the four types of mutual funds that we talk about growth growth and income aggressive growth and international And you want them to have good long-term track records, track records five years or longer. And I love a 10-year-old or older fund or a 20- or a 30-year-old fund. It's great. I mean, you can look at and see what it's done in comparison to the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is the index that is

the average of the stock market. What the S&P does is the stock market. If you can beat the market by getting a fund that outperforms the S&P, that's what you want to do. The only difference really between the two are just the

options you get between the Roth IRA and the 401K? Exactly. Okay. And, you know, obviously one is administered through your company, and then one you're administering on your own with an advisor like a SmartVestor Pro. But in the open market, to select for your IRA, there's about 8,000 mutual funds to choose from. So you definitely could choose the four types that beat the S&P.

Okay? And inside your 401k, there's usually 10 or 12 options. And oftentimes there's good options inside your 401k, but it's just a limited option. And if your 401k administrator or your HR team or whoever put that in place was lazy and they didn't look real carefully at your actual mutual fund options, then you might not have good ones. Then you'd want to think about that. It might be worth it to do the back door.

But I definitely would do it up through the match and do it as a Roth either way, unless they're just horrid options. And most of them aren't horrible, but some of them are just better than others. You know, for instance, we put together the options for our 401k here at the company so they're the about the same mutual funds i would buy in the open market and so it's real easy here but it's just how good a selection do you have and that's all you're wanting to learn about jason's with us in lexington kentucky hi jason welcome to the dave ramsey show hey thank you very much for taking my call.

I'm very blessed to talk to you. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? I am in quite the predicament. My father passed away two years ago, and I actually took over his construction company and became partners with my mother. And in that, she lent me some money out of his life insurance to buy a rental property.

And because I was going to, you know, I couldn't buy a house. He had to be self-employed for two years, and I was to pay off her Jeep. And I'm almost at the tail end of that. I've almost paid that off. And me and my fiance, I'm coming up on the point where I've been two years self-employed, and we are looking at the option to buy a house, and I've been talking to realtors and bankers, and just kind of need to know where to go from here. You know, like I said, about to get married, and need to know where to go.

In terms of where to go, do you buy a house? What are you asking? Yes, sir. To buy a house, to rent, or, you know. Okay. When are you getting married? October. Okay.

I would not buy a house with someone I'm not married to, ever. Okay. And so it would be after October, based on that. And the second thing is, how old are you? I'm 26. Okay. on that and the second thing is it doesn't how old are you i'm 26 okay i i generally recommend young couples getting married wait a year after marriage before you buy in that first year of marriage you're going to learn stuff about each other that you don't know yet and i always just laugh and say it takes about a year of being married to know how close to your mother-in-law

to buy and in this case for her that might be very true because your mother-in-law to buy. And in this case, for her, that might be very true because your mother is all up in your world right now. You are correct. You are correct. And she actually doesn't work with the business. She's back to work full-time now, so it's just me. I'm not saying it's unhealthy. I'm just saying that your new wife might need a little distance from your mom physically

and the purchase of your home a year after being married would tell you all that. Because right now, everybody's just saying what they're supposed to say. Oh, we all love each other. I know we love each other, but I don't want to live that close to you, okay? So, you know, you just take your time. Take your time. I would rent, and I certainly wouldn't buy under no circumstances before you're married uh together that's a disaster and i probably would wait a year i'd probably wait a year and uh so if you're getting married in october you know it might be

uh two years from today before you would buy in the spring following the one year you know it'd be 18 months if you did that it's okay you got plenty of time i'm not suggesting not to buy a home but the fact that you do not own a home is not holding you back financially uh you know on the short term and on the long term buying the wrong home in the wrong situation could be a major mistake when you make a mistake with a house it's never a little mistake it's always a big one you make a mistake with a house, it's never a little mistake. It's always a big one. You make a mistake with a car, that's a medium mistake.

You make a mistake on where you go out to eat, you can live through it, right? But people make mistakes on houses, that sets you back, and they do it all in the name of, ooh, I've got house fever. Everybody's got to buy a house, got to buy a house, got to buy a house. And that'll get you in trouble. Derek is in New York. Hi, Derek. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Dave, I just wanted to get your opinion on whether or not you think we should get umbrella insurance and or professional liability insurance. What's your household income? Like $270,000 between my wife and I. Yes, you should get an umbrella policy.

What's your net worth? Right now, probably between 401Ks, probably about $750,000 between the both of us. Yeah, you probably need a million-dollar umbrella policy. I don't know about New York. It's got some weird insurance prices, but everywhere else it'd be about 250 bucks a year for a million dollar extra liability attached to the top of your car and your homeowners what industry are you in what's your career we're both in law enforcement okay that's why i was wondering whether or not yes i would buy i would buy professional liability insurance okay you're in a um sadly you are in an industry today that you're set up.

You know, you're going to, everybody's going to, not everybody, not me, because I'm on your team, but too many people in our culture immediately assume you were the bad guy. You know what I'm saying? Gotcha. And so I think personal liability insurance and that is, how expensive is it? So I looked it up. The umbrella policy would be around, we don't have a home yet, so it would be around $200 for the year. And then the professional liability, our job would pay half. So for the both of us, it'd be probably about $500 a year. I'd do both, definitely.

Okay. Definitely do both. Thank you very much, Dave. I appreciate it. If you're in an industry that's you know, everybody's um well, there's too many metaphors that are wrong, I'm not going to say, but you know, if you just, yes, I would have professional liability if I were in law enforcement today. And know that there's a bunch of us that support you, sir.

Thank you. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey show in the books. Thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniels, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.