The Ramsey Show - App - The Word "No" Can Set You Free (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

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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 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. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. And I'm getting upstaged here just a little bit. I'm picking up my copy of this month, November, December, Success Magazine. Here's a five-page spread on Mr. A.O., Mr. Anthony O'Neill.

Wow, man. I'm in awe, Dave. You're in Success Magazine is what you are. That's what you are.ill. Wow, man. I'm in awe, Dave. You're in Success Magazine is what you are. That's what you are. I'm grateful, man. That's pretty cool. Man, I'm literally, when I first got it, a tear came out my eye. I remember 10 years ago just reading this magazine, seeing you in it,

and seeing other well-known people in it. And today, I'm grateful to be in it myself. I don't think they ever gave me five pages. Oh, Dave. They probably gave you the cover, Dave. And then a little paragraph. And then they learned that that face on the cover don't sell nothing. But this face right here, this face will sell stuff.

This is a good-looking face. Oh, man, I have to agree with you on that one. It just says humility. That's what it says. Hey, man. man oh i'm proud of you man this is absolutely incredible our publicity team working with the fine folks at success all joking aside it's a great article yeah uh you guys pick up this month's success magazine and uh you get to read um making some money are from broke to blessed yeah and i

definitely got to say dave we we have our team here is amazing. You know, my publicist is Heidi, and she worked very close with them just to make sure that they stayed true to my words. And they did exactly that. So I definitely want to thank our team, Heidi and Success Magazine for just the love and helping me share not just my message, but our mission to help people. Yeah, because sometimes you do an interview and then you read the article and you go, what room were you in? Right. That was not what we taught.

I mean, they just make up crap, you know, but they actually stayed right with it and did a great job. And yeah, very, very cool. So congratulations. Thank you, Dave. Very, very proud of you. Good stuff. Success Magazine, Anthony O'Neill.

So you guys have the chance to talk to him today. Look at that. Doesn't cost you a dadgum thing open phones at 888-825-5225 the advice may be worth what you pay for it eric's in san antonio hey eric your question for uh mr success magazine and me all right thank you david anthony thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate it. Sure. What's up? I'm 38 years old and I'm married with no kids. We are on baby step six, but the catch is while we currently rent and we've actually been renting for, for about seven years now in the San Antonio area. And the reason why is because the only thought was being here for a short period of time because it's relocating from my job.

But it turns out everyone's remote now. I made a series of steps, a series of moves that have been pretty lucrative. And I think we're probably going to be sticking around here for the next five or ten years. So we've actually been looking for a home. Good. And we're in an option period right now. I actually put a cash offer on our home. And we're both very, very nervous about this.

We've never been homeowners before. And I wanted to kind of get your opinion. I'm just kind of wondering how much of our total net worth should lie in the home's value. We do have enough cash to actually buy a house outright. That's impressive impressive i don't know we're not uh we're real nervous about renting or buying how much uh how much are you how much you're spending 350 000 i love it way to go stud i love it i love it how much do you make a year eric uh together we make three hundred and,000 a year. Yeah. Yeah.

Buy the house. I know you all are laughing about it. Buy the house. And we're not laughing at you, Eric. No, we're just laughing. No, I understand. Listen, you make $350,000, you have $350,000, you're going to spend $350,000 on a house that's going to go up in value

and pay cash and have no mortgage. There is nothing here in this equation to even be remotely nervous about. What is the worst-case scenario? Yeah. Let's just pretend. You forget to put fire insurance on it, and it burns down. Okay? And so you lose $350,000.

This is your worst-case scenario. Yeah. And that would, like, put you in the stupid column because you didn't put fire insurance on it, right? So, but you're going to do that. But, I mean, what can go wrong with this plan? It's just the idea of paying out-of-pocket for maintenance, and it's all new.

That's all. Okay, so how much is your rent? $1,400 a month. Okay, so there's $15,000, $18,000 a year for maintenance. Yep. Because you don't have that payment anymore. Right, right. But then, I mean, it's just, I only know from what friends and family have told us about homeownership.

It does cost money, and it is a pain in the butt to keep them maintained. It's part of the dirty little secret of homeownership. It does cost money and it does, it is a pain in the butt to keep them maintained. It's part of the thing. It's part of the dirty little secret of homeownership. Yes. But you make $350,000 a year. You don't have any payments. I think you can pull it off. Yeah. And here's a good thing too. You know, like Dave said, I mean, I'm a homeowner, young guy like yourself, just purchased my home and, uh, your second one, my second one. Yeah, actually my second one. Um, and here's, here's what I recommend. You're going to build it. You're going to get that first year. Be very strict with that first year warranty

with your builder. Make sure they do. Are you building or are you paying cash for an existing? Paying cash for an existing. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, and everyone's telling me to make sure I get a home warranty. No, I wouldn't. Is it a brand new build or

is it already used? It's already used. I don't buy extended warranties. You just self-insure. Get a good home inspection and make sure that your mechanicals are up to date and operating and that you're not got something that's on its last leg, like a heating and air system that's eight grand or something. But other than that, dude, just you self-insure through that stuff.

You don't buy insurance on extended warranties on houses. No, man, you've done so good yes this is not time to be nervous it's time to celebrate yeah yeah i appreciate that you did everything right yeah impressive very is that helpful yes it is thanks a lot i appreciate that yeah you're doing great i mean if you told me you're buying a million dollar house and you know you're paying cash oh by the way i'll go back and ask you a question what percentage of your net worth i would look at two things i would look at net worth and i would look at your income uh if you're paying cash for it it could be whatever percentage you want it to be typically what we find eric is the more wealthy people become the smaller percentage

their home is of their net worth. I will tell you that in our study of millionaires, that the typical millionaire would have about a million and a half net worth, as an example, and they'd have like 500K in the house and about a million in their 401K. We saw that with Hogan's study a bunch, right? But if you get to somebody that's got 40 million, you don't usually see one-third of their net worth tied up in a house. It starts to scale down.

Yes. You know, they might have a $5 million house or a $4 million house. So it might be 10% rather than 30% of your net worth. So the higher your net worth, the smaller percentage normally is in your home. Right. If it's not, it says that that home is probably a little too important to you for maybe the wrong reasons right now i've got a big nice house but it is a very small percentage of my net worth yes this is not a small house but it is a small percentage

but if i had that house and it was a large, because it's kind of a statement house. Yes. It's like too big. It is. And so, but if I had that house and it was like 90% of my net worth, that says Dave's more worried about what other people think. Yeah. That's what that would say. Yes.

So that's kind of, you look at it that way. You're in a great shape here, dude. You're in great shape. Woo. So proud of you. This is the Daveave ramsey show folks i love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today i'm talking about grip six belts i don't know about you but I'm not a fan of traditional belts.

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Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. I'm Dave Ramsey. The phone number is 888-825-5225. David is in Sacramento. Hi, David. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, Anthony.

How are you guys doing? Doing well. Thanks for asking. How can we help? Hi. So I'm on baby step two. I have $2,000 in credit card debt, $2,500 in medical bills. I just had a second baby, so that's where that's from.

I have exactly that amount in the market in various stocks. I was wondering, should I just sell that now, be totally debt-free today? You know, my income is about $120 a year, so I make good money. I could pay off these debts relatively fast, but would you recommend that I just sell either with it today or, you know, let the money grow longer while it's there? Now, would you say these are single stocks? Yeah, just, you know, Tesla and a couple other companies. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to sell those and go ahead and get out of them and pay off your debt.

Immediately. Yeah, okay. ASAP. Okay. Here's the reasoning behind that then is that all the data that we have from 30 years of doing this says the shortest path to you becoming wealthy is not playing single stocks while you have money in debt. It is to become debt-free, manage your budget, use the fact that you don't have any payments anymore as you get on into baby step four to make more conservative investments than you've made

in good growth stock mutual funds in your retirement and begin to grow that. Maybe step five is do the same thing with those mutual funds for your kid's college instead of playing the market. Okay. Out of all the millionaires that we study, virtually, I mean, I would say it was less than 5% of them made their money playing single stocks. 95% of them did not use your methodology. Yeah, it's not something I thought I'd be rich off of, but I was more curious what your recommendation was. I mean, if you keep it so low in the future that the amount of money is it's a hobby and then you lose it all, that's fine.

78% of the day traders lose money. Yes. Okay. So just keep that. I mean, it's like I don't gamble because I lose money and I work too hard for it, so it bothers me. It's not like a moral thing. For me, it's like I've got to I don't gamble because I lose money and I and I work too hard for it. So it bothers me. It's not like a moral thing for me. It's a practical thing. So I don't get a thrill out of losing money at the blackjack table. It doesn't it doesn't make me happy. But I've got a good friend who makes several million dollars a year and he'll go lose

a thousand dollars as his form of entertainment. I that doesn't compute in my brain, but you could kind of put it in that category if you want to play single stocks. Yeah. And here's the thing too, David. Now, once you pay off all your debt today, I mean, once you sell your stocks and you pay it off and make it $120,000 a year, you'll be able to get to your three months, three to six months within the next four or five months.

Yeah. And you'll be right back to investing. Yeah. So definitely make sure you check out our SmartVestor Pro. So that way you can get back to it. But I'm proud of you, man. Yeah, and get back to mutual funds for you and your kids. Yes.

See, if you're debt-free and you have an emergency fund with a second baby, that's just so much more important. Yes. Than having this little bit of money laying there in the market, messing around with single stocks. It's just so much more important. Yeah. You would never borrow money to go do that, especially in your family situation. So that, that's, that's why we're giving you this advice. That's the why behind the answer. Emmett's with us in Columbus, Ohio. Hi Emmett, how are you? Doing very well. How are you guys today? Better than we deserve, man. What's up?

Well, great. Hey, I'm just, I've got a little over $100K in a 529 plan for my daughter. Wow. She just started her senior year. So I have this all in growth funds within that 529. So I guess my question is, should I start to tear that back a little bit and get a little bit more conservative since, I guess, next September or so, we might expect her using this money. Yeah. Well, it's all in how you feel about what the market is going to do in the next five years. You've got one year before she starts school and four more years, right?

So you have a portion of this that's going to be left alone for five years. You have a portion that's going to be left alone for four years, a portion that's going to be left alone unless she burns through it before her senior year, right? Right, right. Where is she thinking about going to school? Probably in-state. She's looking at Ohio State right now. Yeah.

That's probably one of the top choices. Good, okay. And right there in Columbus. Yes. So you can do this for $100,000. Yeah. It's very doable. Very. But you are going to need do this for a hundred grand. Yeah. It's very doable.

Very. Um, but you are going to, you know, you are going to need that, some of that money in the fifth year. Uh, so I don't care if you leave it in some growth, you've just got to be willing to say it might go up. It might go down during that time. Um, there's nothing that says, I mean, if you're scared, you can just pull it all, set it in a money market. It's not going to make a dime between now and the next five years. Right. Right. And if you want to say, I'm going to move half of it there, you know, you could do that. And that augments some of your risk.

So, you know, you never know what the stock market is going to do. But generally speaking, most years it makes some money. Yeah. Yeah. And here's the thing, too, Emmett. What I would do is before you made that decision, either way, you can't go wrong. Like Dave said, sit down and just do the research. See exactly how much money will you need over the next five years. And then from there, then you can make your decision. Lay out your project budget. Yeah. The project is school. Yeah. And let's out a budget. We've got five years to do it. On $100,000, you might make $10,000 between now and next September. Then you might make $10,000 the next year.

That's the kind of money we're talking about. You make nothing or you make $10,000. It's not the end of the world either way. It's probably not going to get her through school. It's not going to keep her from going to school. It's more about your emotions and how you feel about it. The chances of the $100,000 becoming worth $ becoming worth 50 during the five years is almost zero statistically, historically. Is it possible? Yes.

But we're saying the American economy is worth half of what it is today, five years from today. It's possible, but it's historically very unlikely. And so I'm not worried about that. That kind of move, and you're not going to make $50,000 on it either. Right. So that kind of move in the money is just, you know, but if it goes down $10,000, you're going to be, you know, chewing your fingernails off.

If it is, go ahead and move it to money market. Yep. But if you're going to go, eh, went down a little, probably go up a little, whatever, which is me because I've been doing it a long time. So I'm fine with a little bit of ride. I don't want to lose 50%. No. So I'm fine with a little bit of ride. I don't want to lose 50%. No. But I'm fine with a little bit of ride on it.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Anthony, our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds for free. Free samples, free shipping. New promos all the time. Use the promo code Ramsey. Today's question comes from Heath in Kentucky.

He visits DaveRamsey.com to ask, My wife and I are currently attending university and have no debt between the two of us. We have worked hard and have saved up around $45,000 in our bank account. We do not own a home and are currently renting a cheap apartment on campus. My question revolves around my future intent to go to law school, which will presumably be very expensive. Should we continue to save all of our money now and leave it in high yielded savings account anticipating this large future expense of law school or should we begin investing 15 of our income now into our retirement dave on this one i'm going to say if you know for sure you are going to law school i'm saving up for

law school i'd rather you have zero debt than to invest into your future and then you get back into debt so prepare for your future with zero debt Go into law school as soon as you pay cash for law school. Then, yes, invest 15 percent. Start baby step number four. Completely agree. The best investment mathematically that Heath can make is not a mutual fund. It's Heath. Yes. In law school. So the amount of money you will make extra versus what you spend, if you go to a reasonably priced law school, now you can go crazy land if you want to, but if you go to a reasonably priced law school, the amount of money you spend on that versus your increase in income will be much greater than you would make as a rate of return on a mutual fund. You, and that's true of

almost any reasonable career field you're studying, undergrad or grad. And so, you know, you go get a decent degree. It's not left-handed puppetry. It's not some nuanced thing that nobody hires anybody for. But you go get a degree in something that has an actual use in the marketplace, and you study hard and you do that as quickly as possible. The increase in your income over your lifetime due to that money invested in education will be greater than a mutual fund could pay you. Absolutely.

And, Dave, I'm glad you said reasonable. That's one of the things I wrote about in my book, Debt-Free Degree, that the greatest decision when it comes to school is your school choice, and your school choice needs to be an affordable, reasonable, and one you can graduate from debt-free. There you go. That's everything. Because, you know, it's so dumb to me that educationfree. There you go. That's everything. It's so dumb to me that education is the one thing we don't think about.

We don't. You would think you would think about education. It's like we're dumb about education. It's kind of crazy. It's just been whatever. It'll all work out. No, it won't. This is the Daveave ramsey show in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage, Ian and Kayla are with us.

Hey, guys, how are you? Good, thanks. Hi, Dave. Welcome. Where do you guys live? Youngstown, Ohio. It's a bit of a trip to Nashville. Worth it.

Well, good to have you. Well, worth it to have you. We're honored to have you. How much debt did you pay off? $90,400. All right. And how long did this take? 19 months. Very good. What was your range

of income during that 19 months? About $110,000 to $130,000. Okay, cool. So what did you sell? Nothing. Our wedding decorations. Oh, yeah. I mean, how did you even do that on that i mean you have been on beans and rice for real i mean like nothing where did y'all live i mean go ahead in our house we stayed home we were homebodies for two years before covid so so covid was we're walking the park yeah already doing that we're free now you people are griping about it this is great for us yeah oh my gosh i mean 19 months 90 grand and so annualized that's 180 you didn't hardly make that much during that time nope we spent did you have money in savings when you started that you threw at it we did oh okay how much i was a saver i think about five grand my dad was the banker so he said you know gotta save gotta save and then he's the spender

so then we got married and then and of course this is the way it is yeah okay so tell us the story how did this all happen 19 months ago well parents yeah it was a financial peace was a wedding gift his parents were Financial Peace babies. Ah. So they said, hey, you want to take this class with this crazy guy just to learn how to manage money as a couple? And we said... Yeah.

Why not? Wow. Why not? So what kind of debt was the $90,000? It was mostly student loans, car payment, but that was pretty much it. What kind of car was it? Honda CRV. Okay.

Okay. You paid it off or you sold it? Paid it off. Oh, okay. Wow. Y'all were really getting it. The numbers are amazing. Well done.

Very, very well done. So you took the financial peace class, and what was the main thing that you, I mean, so you kind of just wandered in. It sounded like, yeah, we'll try it, and then all of a sudden you get sucked into the vortex, right? Kind of, yeah. Because, I mean, you didn't go in there with like this, ah, rocky thing going, but by the time you did this, these numbers represent real intensity. So tell me what happened.

What happened in the class? It was mainly just keeping track of where we were spending money. I mean, I honestly, before the first class, I couldn't tell of where we were spending money. I mean, honestly, before the first class, I couldn't tell you where any of it went. It was really eye-opening when I put it all down on paper. Felt like you got a raise. Yeah. Like, where's all this going?

Kind of a moment. Okay, cool. So when people hear that you paid off $90,000, that's a lot of debt, and they say, how'd you do that? What do you tell them? Mostly meal planning and just not going out to eat at lunch. Just learning how to cook. Yeah, pack your lunch.

I was the weirdo. Everyone would invite me to lunch, and I said, no, I'm just going to stay here, eat my peanut butter jelly, and go on with my day. $90,000 later, here we stand. 19 months. I mean, looking at these numbers, too, I'm curious to answer this question. What was the hardest thing during those 19 months? Saying no to people. Like, hey, do you want to go out to eat?

Can't. Can't afford it. Do you want to go on a road trip with your girls? No. do but no i can't afford it wow i like that word can't afford it yeah because your your vision was bigger and so wow okay all right people saying no to people but not even just people saying no to yourself too. Cause you said you wanted to do it basically. Yeah. Wow. And it's live like no one else. Yeah.

So that later you can live and give like no one else. Very cool. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? I guess the parents, cause they got you involved. Parents, parents are the biggest friends, but everyone else,

they thought we were crazy. Yeah. I mean, you were, you were crazy, crazy like a Fox. Yeah. You're ready to go here. This is pretty incredible.

I know. So how's it feel now that you did it? Feels really good, actually. Unbelievable. Was it worth it? Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, you went 19 months with no freaking life.

We went on like three mini vacations this year, so it made up for it. As soon as you got it knocked out, boom, here we go. We cash flowed each one, of course. Where'd you go? The Finger Lakes. Okay. Vermont. And then this we're considering a little getaway. I would call Nashville a vacation. Very cool. Good for you guys. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop.

Excellent job. Did y'all watch Netflix during these 19 months? A lot of that. A lot of that. I. A lot of that. I was about to say. We hosted a board game night at our house with our friends instead of going out. So we have a ton of board games in our house. We'd always say, come over to our house. It's free.

Yeah. So what's the next big goal now? I mean, we're working on paying off the house and investing. All right. You guys just make it sound so easy. You just do this, and then you do that, and that's it. That's all you do. Just got to set your mind to it.

Yeah, but your numbers are more intense than your attitude. Absolutely. He's a good chef. I'm saying, wow. I'm so proud of y'all. Well done, rock stars. Thank you. You're heroes, man.

This is amazing. Very well done. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, because that is the next chapter in your story. That's where you're headed, and you'll be able to do whatever you want to do. That's the plan, and give whatever you want to give, and be who you want to be. Well done. So very proud of you.

All right, Ian and Kayla, Youngstown, Ohio, 90,400 paid off in 19 months, making 110 to 130. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah!

Man. You know, I'm always continually amazed that different people approach this with a different attitude. Absolutely, Dave. Like me, I'm more like a fighter. Yeah. Like I would get angry at this and attack it with like a level of anger. Yeah. They were just like, we're just going to do this. Two years.

You can do it. You can do it. I don't know why anybody couldn't do yeah two years you can do it you can do it i don't know why anybody couldn't do it because you can just do it and but i mean it's but and yet they were but the numbers again say that they were very very sacrificial in their living in order to accomplish this as fast i mean dave yeah they had to be living off of maybe fifteen thousand dollars for the year i mean because after taxes and stuff like i, I mean, they put in some hard work. Yeah. They put in some hard work. There's a lot going on there.

A lot going on. So, but I guess my point is, it's like, sometimes the way you, sometimes I add drama. Oh, yeah. To something, and they extracted it. They did. They just made it, okay they that okay we can do this yeah it's like well you can do it instead of me like going you know you gotta you know and you don't have to add drama you can just do it well you didn't have to add drama i had to add well i

did add yes i know there's plenty of drama added for me. I went bankrupt. But I'm saying that in terms of attacking behavior change. They just, like what you say, they just said change. They just snapped and said, hey, we're going to do it. Somebody just decided I'm going to quit smoking. Yeah. Yeah. And others sit around and whine and carry on. This is my nicotine.

You know, and they carry on all this stuff, right? Yeah. And others just go, I'm done. One of the things that she said, Dave, that resonated with me so much was like, I had to tell my friends no and myself no. And, you know, that was one of my biggest struggle back then when I got myself into debt is because I wanted to impress my friends so they could like me. And I really hope that America heard her say that, like that like hey we made a change we said we're gonna get out of debt and i had to tell my friends and had to also tell myself no for two years yeah that's hard yeah and but even her attitude was like but it was easy let me tell you that little bitty word

will set you free it will that's that is a powerful word and i've learned to say no without saying no to my friends yeah Yeah. Well, you know, Rabbi Lappin's got a great one. He goes, you know, I would if I could, but I can't because of da-da-da-da-da. Yes. And that's a great, that's a good phrase. Like, if somebody wants me to come speak, you know, I would if I could, but I can't because

I've got, like, this radio show stuff and I can't leave and I'm done. And they go, okay. Yeah. Instead of me just going, no. But it's still no. No sets you free. Yes seldom sets you free. Yes. I've learned that a no today is a yes tomorrow.

Could be. Yes. Could be. Yes. No for now. Exactly. No for now. Yep.

No for now is good. Yes, sir. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Wow. 2020, the year of the dumpster fire. The whole freaking year was a dumpster fire. It has taught us this about investing. If nothing else else you cannot invest alone you need someone in your life who knows the market better than you helps you make

smart decisions and calm your butt down i like do-it-yourselfers on some things but i quit pulling my own teeth years ago i don't even work on my own cars anymore because when i open the hood i can't tell what's under there anymore. I used to work on my cars. But you know what you do? You break stuff. You make rookie mistakes. You lose money. And you get on Reddit, and you got some goob on there who has an opinion, which is the entire thing about Reddit.

He knows nothing about nothing, and then you go and invest your dadgum money based on this. That's dumber than a rock. Nope. You don't want any of this. You don't want to lose money. You don't want to break stuff. You don't want the unnecessary stress. Stop winging it.

Get a real pro in your corner, knows what they're doing, that will teach you, and then you are comfortable because you know that you know what you're supposed to do. 2020 should be your never again year. Never again let your retirement be at the mercy of a global crisis. Never again let your retirement be at the mercy of your emotional whims because you'll destroy your investing when you do that. Text the word INVEST to 33789. INVEST to 33789 invest to 33789 and we'll hook you up with smart investor pro to help you

get a solid real world investing plan that you decide what to do because you know what's going on barbara's in springfield missouri hey barbara your question for anthony o'neill and me hello thank you for taking my call sure i'm 61 years old and I'm thinking about retiring and I'm trying to figure out if I have enough money. I'm kind of scared. I told my boss this would be my last year of driving. So I'm debt free. I've been debt free since probably 2009. Great. And I have plenty of money in the bank, but you don't know how long you're going to live. So my question is, I have an opportunity to buy like five years of employment

from where I work now. I'm a school bus driver. And that would increase my monthly benefit from $248 a month to $428 a month, but it'll take 10 years to recover that. Yeah, that is not a good rate of return. And so you're better off to invest the money. How much money do you have in the bank, you said? I have $624,000.

Okay, good. That's a lot better than $248 a month, huh? Absolutely. Yes. Okay, and how is that $624,000 invested? Okay, I've got thrift savings plan i've got savings bonds state farm life state farm mutual funds and state farm cds 36 000 of that is in two separate regular savings accounts okay all right very good well here's the great news you got 624 000 yeah that the great news. You got $624,000. Yeah. That's great news.

I don't know how to go about how do you know. You don't know how long you're going to live. It's helpful to do the calculation if you know how long you're going to live, but most of us don't have that part of the calculation. I don't want to go to my grave with all that money. What would I do? I mean, you and I are the same age. I'm 60, okay? What would I do if I woke up in your shoes and suddenly knew what I know, okay?

I would sit down with a smart investor pro like I was just talking about and begin to learn. So your job is not to become a financial genius. Your job is to understand the basics of investing. Okay? Okay. And good mutual funds. You said you had some state farm mutual funds. They may or may not be performing well.

I don't know anything about them off the top of my head. But your job is to say, I've got this 624. How can I best position it with some help and some people guiding and teaching me, but them not doing it for you, no one's making your decision for you, you're the one with the money, right? Yes. And so you sit down. The reason we endorse these SmartVestor Pros is they have the heart of a teacher.

Based on what you told me, I think you'll end up probably moving over time most of your investments. Because I think most of them can do better than they're doing now. Okay. And let's just pretend that you made, let's just round numbers, 10% on your money. That'd be $60,000 a year, right? Yes. $5,000 a year, right? Yes. $5,000 a month. And I bet you could make it on that.

Oh, easy. And so if you made half that, or maybe you made that and you let some of it stay in there and grow and you didn't take it all out, and you say, I'm going to live on $3,000 a month and everything above that that it makes, I'm going to let it grow okay okay as long as you're not hitting the actual goose that's laying the eggs it lasts forever yeah mathematically meaning if you don't get into the 624 if you only take off what it creates and live on that,

it'll create something every stinking year, right? I understand. Yeah, so you're going to be fine. You've done very, very well. Yeah. Okay. What's your home worth? My home?

Mm-hmm. Well, I have a 160-acre farm, and I wouldn't take less than $400,000 for it. And so you're what we call a millionaire bus driver. How did you do that? Well, I had a real good job for a few years, and I've always, my parents taught me this when I was young, not to overspend. And no matter what kind of money I made, i always lived as if i were on minimum wage and i am i have to admit though um two hundred thousand of this is life insurance from my late

husband and my mother gave me seventy thousand before she passed away so not all this is nine per se but 27 27 of your-dollar net worth came from someone else, and the rest of it you did. Yeah. I'm so proud of you. Very, very well done. Well, thank you. So here's the thing.

My husband and I did. Yeah. Here's what I would do. State Farm might be okay for car insurance. They're not great for investments. Okay. But you can decide that on your own, not because I said it. Right.

And what you do is you sit down and learn about some mutual funds. My personal mutual funds and what we recommend, Anthony, four types, right? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Growth. Oh. Growth and income. It was an underhand pitch.

You were supposed to hit it, but I'll take it for you. Growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international growth. Oh, yeah. And if you spread it across those four and you buy mutual funds that have long track records, 10 years or more, then you can say, okay, over the last 30 years, had I been invested in these, I would have made X. And as long as I live on something less than X, the goose will continue to lay the eggs. Does that make sense?

It does. And I think you can do that. What do you live on now? About $1,200 a month. Okay. So if we gave you a raise of 100% and your $624 was still growing, that would be a pretty nice situation for retirement. It would be very nice.

Not counting the fact you'd get 248 on top of that. Right. Yeah, don't buy the retirement. Sit down with somebody and let's get your money invested well. You have done so well, Barbara, so well. I'm a millionaire bus driver. Millionaire bus driver, Dave. Sorry about that.

I was waving at the kids leaving. I get to tell you you're distracted with the audience. But the, you know, what's the point? I told my boss this year, I don't think I'm going to drive anymore. Right. Right. I'm a millionaire. Self-made at that.

27% other than that is good. But now, Dave, let me ask you this question. I'm learning a. Self-made at that. 27% other than that is good. But now, Dave, let me ask you this question. I'm learning a thing from you. Having someone of that age in your age bracket saying they're coming close to retirement. Careful, careful. I mean, I'm not calling you old. Careful. I'm calling you a young man.

People like you. But, Dave, would you recommend her sell the house if she could get $400,000 for it? No. Okay. Why wouldn't you not recommend that? Number one, she said she absolutely loves the place. Yes. 168 acres?

Yeah, that's a lot. That's sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Unless it's given her problems in some way financially or physically or whatever. Okay. There may come a point she doesn't want to maintain it. Right.

But right now, sounds like a nice place to me. Yeah. Yeah. Have a cup of coffee on that back porch, baby. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes.

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