The Ramsey Show - App - There Are Reasons to NOT Be in Freakout Mode (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 30, 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 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. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It is a free call anywhere in North America. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Joining me this hour, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author. And, of course, we're in the middle of doing everything we can to give you guys some realistic looks on how to walk through this weird time we find ourselves in We'll be right back. This idea, I'm amazed at all the stuff, and I guess because I'm kind of in the business world,

I'm seeing things that maybe if you're not in business leadership, you might not be seeing. For instance, I saw one of the state chamber of commerce's on a call, a conference call to all the manufacturers. This one happened to be in our state of Tennessee, And a buddy of mine was sitting in on a conference call and emailed me this morning and said the guy conducting the call said, asked all the manufacturers that were on the line, what are you doing to help right now? And after 15 minutes, they had to shut it down. Every single one of them was piping up and saying,

we've reset and retooled to produce this or to change this. We're helping with masks. We're helping with distribution. We're helping with ventilators. And of course, President Trump has announced that General Motors is helping with the ventilators and other people are doing the same kinds of things. And Ken Coleman was saying the other night one of the vacuum companies makes vacuums, has retooled their factory. Yeah. And they're using their technology and their research and development team's brain power to just literally create a ventilator and then start producing them. And I saw a thing where they're now able to reuse the masks that someone has come up with a method of cleaning them, disinfecting them. Disinfecting them. How do you say that?

That's it. You got it. The whole thing is that all the brainpower around distribution and manufacturing and business in this country behind the scenes is aimed at solving the problems and the symptoms associated with the coronavirus attack. It's pretty inspiring. Yeah, it is amazing. I mean, the unity that has happened, even just like what you're saying in the business sector, it's encouraging. I'm like, wow, the fact that you have these talented, smart people all banding together for one common good, it's refreshing to see and it's nice. And I think that when you put all that wisdom together, things hopefully are going to be solved and they're going to be able to help

make a dent into all this craziness going on. Yeah. Yeah. And so this, I always recoil when I hear people say, oh, well, business is just greedy. They're just in it for the money. Actually, a lot of these people are doing these things at a loss, but they're not working anyway right now. So they might as well put their factory or their brain power or their whatever team to bear on this. And, I mean, the country that has, in less than 100 years, completely revolutionized the way mankind lives with our inventions and our distribution of those inventions and the marketing of those inventions, everything from computers to cell

phones to whatever you want to list out there, medical devices. The medical device field is a bizarre field. The things that they can implant in human beings now that we don't even think about. We just take it for granted. The huge leaps and bounds of inventions that happen in all these areas, all of that brain power that has created this entire shift in standard of living on the whole planet is aimed at one thing right now. I would not want to be on the other side of all those people chasing me if I was a coronavirus. You're going down.

Yes. You are going down. And the same thing with the medical. Every doctor and every researcher that has ever studied vaccines or ever studied cures um is working on one thing in the planet right now every the entire planet the smartest most diligent most knowledgeable most experienced people in the entire world are working on a vaccine right now. I mean, I don't know that that's ever occurred. At one time, I mean, what would happen if everybody stopped and worked on cancer?

What would happen if everybody stopped and worked on heart disease? At one time for a concentrated period of time i mean the the the power of momentum of in the knowledge base of that is astronomical yeah and it gives me great hope yeah oh absolutely for the situation and i mean i've i've thought about this even in the past couple weeks of like man if you if you know we're doing all of this because there's a crisis obviously and we're it's all hands on deck but what if we shifted our efforts after this is all gone and you take the same type of people brain power everything and you go solve problems i'm like man it'd be crazy to like you know you could put all that power and all that energy to world hunger or like you know what i mean like like put

in whatever social justice thing and just the fact that man we really can do a lot and i think we were so polarized as a nation and even probably the world but specifically i feel like in america um up until the this whole thing and this thing has kind of united us on not even just the business side but the research side i mean everything we just explained so the good news is it's there and it'll solve the problem the bad news is it won't last We know that from 9-1-1. We had the same type of thing at 9-1-1 when America was attacked by cowards flying airplanes into buildings. The entire place, there were no Democrats, there were no Republicans. Yes, there were, but they were unified about one thing, keeping this nation intact and stopping the attacks and going to the source of the attacks and ending them.

And they did it. We did it during that period of time. Was it perfect? No, but it was, I mean, it was a lot of chaos, but, man, people were on it. And I remember the story of Ronald Reagan when he was on an assassination attempt, a guy shot him with a.22, and it was lodged in his chest near his lung. And just before he went under anesthesia, the doctor walked in, and he asked the doctor, he said, are you a Democrat or a Republican?

And he said, Mr. President, today we're all Republicans. So, I mean, you know, that's what happens when there's a crisis. It doesn't matter, in other words. I'm going to make sure you're okay. And, you know, the power of the greatest business minds producing the items and the solutions, logistical solutions in America right now, and the power of the greatest medical minds worldwide working on this, just give me great hope. I mean, even in our little place here,

we're nothing like all that, but we pivoted everything we're doing. We put DaveRamsey.com slash hope up, and you can go to that page, and lots of stuff there free, including the 14-day free trial to Financial Peace University, our little part. We can do when you're trapped at home. You can go through FPU. We'll talk about all that a little bit when we come back from the break. But there's a lot of reason to not be in freak-out mode right now. This is The Dave 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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slash hope that there's all kinds of things there to help you during these times and included in that we did the um rachel and uh ken coleman and i did the message of hope last thursday night um before i go back today ramsey.com slash hope it's important to note that all of our ramsey personalities, all six of the other ones other than me, are doing their own message of hope one a day for the coming week or so. And your message of hope goes out tonight. Yes, that's right. We're launching it tonight. And yeah, we're going to be just talking about really what to do with your money right now is kind of the focus of this message and giving people instruction and hopefully some hope in all of it, especially kind of going off of what we did last Thursday night. But I feel like that message of hope can be on repeat, and it's not enough, even that. Yeah, we do it every day right now, and it's not enough. So every one of our guys, Dr. John Deloney, our newest Ramsey personality, Dr. D.,

Chris Hogan, Christy Wright, Ken Coleman, Anthony O'Neill, I'm leaving people out there, and are all doing, and they'll all be posted on all of our social media and all of our YouTube channels. And so, for instance, Rachel's event tonight will be posted on my YouTube channel, for those of you that subscribe to my channel. Or if you subscribe to Chris Hogan's YouTube channel, you'll find it there. Certainly it'll be on Rachel's. Right.

And then Christy's will be on Rachel's and so on. So you'll be able to find each one of these. We want to give you a steady diet of not Pollyanna, not it's all going to be okay just because it's going to be okay just because it's going to be okay, but it is going to be okay. And here's some things that are going on. Why? Here's how to deal with some of the today things, the tomorrow things. Here's how to deal with some of the emotions. And, you know, we're going to walk you through part of those things. It's what we do at Ramsey. It's about transformational living based on common sense, God's and grandma's ways of doing things in

every different area of our lives. Right. And we were just talking last segment about how many even just businesses are now shifting to help with ventilators and masks. And I feel like at Ramsey, we put our heads together and we're now just like producing as much content around hope and your money and your emotions and your career and your job. I mean, everything that we touch on as friends and personalities. So it's a fun series, the fact that it's going to be a full week starting tonight all the way to next Monday night. So there will be messages every evening about this from each of our personalities.

Yeah, it's very cool. And it started last Thursday, of course. And millions of people have now viewed the one we did last Thursday. Thank you for that. We appreciate that very much. And that's still available. All of this is free, by the way. It doesn't cost you a thing.

So go to DaveRamsey.com. Now, we just put up, I told you, we continually check there because new things are going up. So today we put up a new thing. Now, we have a product called Smart Dollar where companies bring in our curriculum for the employees as an HR benefit. And so it teaches you the same stuff, budgeting, getting out of debt, how to handle money, answering your questions, all those kinds of things. And Smart Dollar team got together and said, okay, what if a company has had to lay people off? Well, they need this curriculum. So if you are a company that's out there and you've had to lay people off,

the people that you have laid off, we will give it to them free if you, the company, contact us. And so they can go through the curriculum completely free. And that's at DaveRamsey.com slash hope. Click on the smart dollar piece there, and I'll see if I can pull it up and look at the actual website so I can get this right. But it says give your team real hope.

Help your furloughed team members, or if you've laid off, contact your former employer about getting free access to our proven financial wellness solution smart dollar. Learn more. It's completely free for you to help employees that you've laid off, or if you've been laid off, get your old employer to get in touch with us and get you on the list and get them on the list, and then all the people they furloughed are laid off.

Foundations in personal finance, high school curriculum, the kids are home. And it's normally $119.99. It's $19.99. Almost nothing to take your high school kids through the class. Connect with a Ramsey Preferred Coach. Doesn't cost anything to connect with them and get a free 15-minute call. Get some of your nerves calmed down. The Proximity Principal Audiobook by Ken Coleman.

If you're looking for a job, normally $19.99. $1.99. The Audiobook for the Total Money Makeover, normally $24.99. $1.99. The audio book for the Total Money Makeover. Normally $24.99. $1.99. And on and on. 14-day trial to Financial Peace University. Free.

A pack of 24 Total Money Makeover books for you to give away. The cheapest we've ever sold them. $8 a piece for a pack of 24. You will not beat that. The WillPrep checklist. them eight dollars a piece for a pack of 24 you will not beat that the will prep checklist to get some of you at home resetting your whole uh your whole estate plan not because you're afraid you're going to die but because you got time on your hands and you can go through the whole checklist on your will preparation download the checklist free all kinds of stuff here free or virtually

free um that's us retooling our factory. We're a hope factory here. And that sounds cheesy, but go with it. Just go with it. And, you know, DaveRamsey.com slash hope. But really getting this message into the hands of as many Americans as possible during this time, that's our goal. I mean, like, how can we get this message out, whether it's through podcasts, through a book, through a curriculum, which I can't believe the homeschool. It's 20 bucks.

It's unbelievable. I can't believe Financial Peace University, first time in 30 years. Yeah, for free. 14-day trial for free. So do it. All of you people out there that have been coordinators, tell everybody you know right now. And by the way, if you want to be a coordinator on our virtual classes, we've got a page set up for that today. I think it went up this morning, if I heard right. Did I hear that right in the meeting? Yeah, I think so. It went

up this morning. We were in a leadership meeting. Rachel and I were all morning. And so the virtual class finder and to become a virtual class coordinator right now, because can you imagine how many tens of thousands of people have already signed up for this free 14-day trial since Wednesday when we launched it last. So, you know, you're at home. Take your kids through this stuff. You go through this. Go through your will.

You've been laid off. Get your employer to pay for it for you. And your former employer, I mean, we'll give it to them. It's free. We're not going to charge them or you for the smart dollar. All of that. It's, you know, there's tons and tons of stuff. You've got time on your hands.

Use it for doing something other than watching Tiger King I am floored that you've watched that show that needs to be a whole segment it won't be that's almost as bad as me watching The Bachelor right Tiger King is way worse than The Bachelor are you kidding me

I don't know it's rough Bachelor are pretty people at least way worse than The Bachelor. Are you kidding me? I don't know. It's rough. It's, man. Bachelor are pretty people, at least. And somewhat more sane. That is the wildest bunch of human beings. It is the craziest show I've ever seen.

Bottom line is, all of us could be accused, myself included, apparently, of having wasted our life away on random Netflix stuff during this shutdown. So put your brain to better use than that. Well, you've always joked that the average millionaire, you know, they read one book a month, they don't watch reality TV,

and they don't know who got kicked off the island. So there's got to be some joke that as a millionaire that you know the tiger and the king. I don't know. There's got to be like a theme. The average millionaire doesn't know there's a king of the tigers. Yeah, we'll come up with it. We'll have to work that through for sure. What a bizarre stuff.

There are human beings on this planet. So, hey, guys, check DaveRamsey.com slash HopeEveryDay. That's a list of just what we put up in less than a week. All of that has gone up in about six days. And we added the smart dollar benefit if you've been laid off this morning. It came on about ten minutes before it came on the air. And so we're doing stuff. We're pivoting around here.

We're trying to be, you know, entrepreneurs all through this country. You small business people, you're really good at solving problems. And some of you have got some serious butt problems right now. And we're really good at solving problems here. And so we've been seriously going, how can we serve our folks out there and even make a whole bunch of folks into our folks that weren't our folks before? I suspect as long as the place stays open, that we'll come out on having made that investment into you. All of these things will not be at this price forever. They have none of them ever been at this price before.

Free is not something we completely do. We have to pay 1,000 families here, their payroll. We can't give away our stuff continually and stay open. I know some of you think I have a money printer in the basement here, but I don't. But anyway, we can do these things, and we can do them for now. So take advantage of them while the getting's good, as they say. DaveRamsey.com slash hope. Rachel Cruz and I will be back with the recent loss of a spouse or a parent.

You can hear the struggle and the heartache that they've been experiencing. And at a time they should be grieving, what breaks my heart the most is the strain and tension that they're going through because of money, especially when it's a situation that could have been avoided. If you have a family, it is your responsibility to have term life insurance. It's one of the things you do to say, I love you. And yes, this is an ad for Zander Insurance. But since this is one of the most effective ways I have to get my point across, so be it. For over 20 years, I've been telling you about the importance of term life insurance and

protecting your family. Listen, you need to check out Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. I can't say it enough. Protect your family. It's what you're supposed to do go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282 Brittany is on the line in Tennessee with a debt-free scream. Hey, Brittany, how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on the show.

Absolutely. We're so excited for you, Brittany. That's so fun. How much debt have you paid off? I've paid off $23,000. Amazing. How long did it take you? 14 months.

14 months. Making what kind of money during that time? $55,000. Amazing. Amazing. Very cool. What do you do for a living? I'm a registered nurse.

Oh. How's it going out there? Definitely a weird time. Right now, a lot of hospitals, I'm in the Johnson City area, and a lot of hospitals up here are actually seeing less patients than normal. It's kind of a calm before the storm, I feel like, because people are more afraid to go to the ER right now and trying not to build the ER up, which is great. Do you work ER?

I do not, but it directly affects the amount of patients that we have on the medical floors. Yeah, that makes sense. So stuff that they would have normally come to the ER for, they're just not coming? It appears that way. Also, with a lot of surgeries and stuff, people are canceling all of that. Oh, yeah, surgeries. Yeah, that makes sense. Oh, wow.

Brittany, we're getting all your doctor questions in before your time i'm just curious i mean hey we have an actual human being here not not someone that's a talking head on a show somewhere and i just want to talk yes so what kind of debt was your 23 000 uh it was all student loans all right so what started this journey 14 months ago? Tell us about your journey. So about four months before I started paying all my loans off, I graduated. And so I was waiting to take my licensure exam. And I was a nervous wreck because I realized that I have $23,000 worth of debt and am currently working as a nursing assistant and not making enough money to pay it off.

So I was nervous about the exam, just hoping and praying that I passed so I would get the job that I had lined up pending getting my license. Which doubled your income, I bet. Over doubled, actually. wind up pending my life getting my license which doubled your income i bet um over doubled actually um so um and was ready getting ready to move to johnson city i'm from a different part of tennessee and just trying to save money for the move and i realized that um I didn't want to live with that debt hanging over my head. And so I started looking back. I actually was homeschooled, and my parents did financial peace as part of our schooling with us before the homeschool curriculum came out. So you're a financial peace baby.

Right. So mom and dad, they did it right before we graduated high school. They were more focused on trying to help us what little they could with college. They didn't have anything saved up. And so they were doing kind of Dave-ish. And so I was kind of doing Dave-ish as well through college, did try to decrease the amount of debt that I was accruing, but didn't try to go through college debt-free. Where did you go to school? I realized East Tennessee State University. Oh, yeah, just down the road from you there. Good. Right.

Okay. So when I realized that I had this, when I got that weight on my shoulders when I graduated school and actually had to start paying, I just kind of started listening to your podcast again and refreshing my memory on the baby steps. And as soon as I got my first paycheck as a nurse, four months later, I put that toward my emergency fund and got started. That's amazing. So Brittany, what was the hardest part of all of this? Because you're young, you've graduated college,

you're making your first income, so you're in that season of life. So what was the hardest part? The hardest part for me, I actually feel like, was not being able to buy a new car. Oh, sure. I really wanted to upgrade in cars, not necessarily a brand new one, but I have the car still that I've had since I was 16 and it's got a lot of miles on it. And as a nurse,

I would like to have something all wheel drive. And, uh, several people have asked, why haven't you upgraded in cars? And I've just, that's the area that I've been most weird in, I suppose. And so I feel like that's been one of the most difficult things for me. Now you'll be able to do that easily, right? Right. I'm saving up for a car right now. What are you going to buy? Probably a RAV4.

Ah, okay. Nice car. Very good. Hey, very proud of you. I bet your mom and dad are proud of you. I bet they were cheering you on, weren't they? They absolutely were. And the interesting thing was they saw that their 22-year-old daughter was actually doing this, and they actually got serious about it after that. Ah, no longer Ramsey-ish. That's right. So they will be paying, they will be debt-free in a couple months. Oh, that's awesome.

I love it. You pulled them in. Way to go, Brittany. Very cool. We're very, very proud of you. You're a hero, kiddo. Well done, well done, well done. How's it feel?

Awesome. Especially with everything going on right now, it's just nice to not have, just to have one less thing to worry about. Amen. Absolutely. One less thing. That's a good thing. Well, Brandi, thanks for all your work as a nurse.

I know everyone in the health care industry right now, you know, it's a strain and a drain. And if I know you may not be directly affected by it right this second, like you're saying, but we appreciate all that you do. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book we'll send you, Everyday Millionaires. We want that to be the next chapter in your story. You keep at it, and that's where you'll be before you know it. You picked a wonderful career.

Not only is it fulfilling, but you're going to be paid well and always have access to jobs as long as I can remember. We've had a shortage of nurses. And so there's always hours you can pick up when you want to hit a goal. There's always things you can do. You've really, really set yourself up well. Very, very well done. Brittany from Johnson City, $23,000 paid off in 14 months, making $55,000.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream! 3, 2, 1. I'm debt-free! Ha ha ha! Ah! That is how it's done, ladies and gentlemen.

Oh, man. I do like the part of her story where she's a financial peace baby, but her parents are Ramsey-ish. But then she kind of comes out and shines and shows them up. Yeah. I like that part. Brings them back on board.

I know. Because I feel like people, they can with the plan if they've been doing it. I mean, if she went through FPU and she was in high school, then that had to have been a decade, you know, maybe less than a decade ago. But people that are on it for so long, some of them just kind of, it's like a little bit of apathy kind of sinks in. And then when your own daughter goes and blazes the trail and does it, it kind of sparks you back up. And I love that. Yeah. And, you know, we're never going to be in the business of saying, I told you so about having an emergency fund or being debt free, but we do want you to dream.

If you're in this situation right now with all the craziness that's out there and you have $20,000 in the bank for an emergency fund and you have no debt except your home, which means you're past baby step three, you're in a completely different headspace than someone who has $20,000 to $50,000 in debt and no money in the bank. It's, I mean, you know, money's not everything. We know that.

But it's not what money is. It's what it gives you. And what I'm describing there is someone who has margin in their life psychologically, emotionally, mathematically, spiritually. You can actually help someone else instead of having your eyes on yourself and being freaked out because you're in a position that you have zero debt. It's a different place. Oh, absolutely.

Chris Hogan always says it, but it's true. Debt is a thief. It steals not just your income, but your peace of mind. And it is so true. Needs to be a new goal for some of you listening for the first time today maybe and we'll help you that's what we do if you've done something stupid in the past it just makes you human we all have done that we're going to help you from here so that the next time there's a bump in the road you'll be ready this is is the Dave line in Florida. Hi, Becky.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How can Rachel and me help? Okay, the future is kind of scary to me because I didn't take your course until a couple years ago, and then I didn't really apply it. My husband and I are both retired, and so we don't have a lot in savings, and we're both on Social Security, which is not much. And the future is just scary to me.

But I was wondering if now is a good time. We only had this one shot to put $14,000 in a Roth IRA because of our age, and my husband retired last June. So we had this one shot to put 14 000 in a rough ira we don't have that much in savings but everything's paid for it's just i know how fast money is going to go because we don't make that much in social security because he was self-employed. So he had an earned income last year? Yes, until June. Okay.

Then you can, before your tax filing date this year, you can do the Roth for 14. You're correct about that. How much money do you have in savings? We have $100,000 in the bank and $8,000 in savings. Okay. And no money saved for retirement whatsoever? No. No pension?

We do get a small pension. Okay. Between the pension and the two Social Security checks, can you live on that every month? It's going to be really tight. Okay. You're going to have to because the $100,000 is not going to last 10 minutes otherwise. I know. So you've got to adjust your outgo or your income, one of the two.

So do you have car payments? No, everything the house is paid for, there's no payments, no charge cards. When I do charge something, I pay it off at the end of the month. Well, you need to get a debit card, and you and your husband need to get on a budget that you agree to where you are maintaining your life without touching that $100. Because even if you burn through it at $1,000 a month, it's going to go away in 100 months, which is an eye-blink.

Yeah. Yeah, it is. So I don't. That's what's scaring me. So how healthy are you two? What age are you? I'm 66 and my husband's 70. How's your health?

My health is good. How about his? I have Sjogren's, which is an autoimmune disease, and he has heart issues. What could you all do to earn some money once the crisis is over i don't want you out there running around with those things going on right now but once this is behind us what could you do to create some income um well he could he could probably drive a couple of days a week. He did own a dump truck. So he could drive for somebody a couple of days a week. He could drive every day a week if he had to to eat.

He could, but he's tired and he's 70, so he's just. Okay. Well, I mean, you guys have got to take care of yourselves. I don't want you to do something. It might be that you find out a business idea that you could start that doesn't make you tired, that you could make more money. I don't care what it is, but you've got an income issue and you cannot tear into the savings.

If you're not going to tear into the savings because you've solved your income issue, meaning you're going to make more and or budget to live on what you have coming in, then, yes, I would do the Roth. If you're going to burn through the budget, it's not going to serve any purpose because you're going to burn through it too. Ah, so don't do the $14,000 in the Roth. Unless you're going to get your budget balanced. If you can learn to live on the Social Security and the pension plus whatever you can earn, I think you might be able to.

You don't have a single debt in the world. Then I would go ahead and do the Roth. Yeah, and I would say too, Becky, that it's, you guys, it sounds like you haven't done a budget. You said like, yeah, it's going to be really, really tight if you just live on the pension and what you're getting from Social Security. But maybe you guys do the budget and you realize, oh, wow, we can cut kind of here and there and live on this and maybe you just work the budget and you realize, oh, wow, we can cut kind of here and there and live on this. And maybe you just work one day a week and it doesn't have to be a ton to bring in something.

Well, it could be something more creative than just driving. For sure. That makes more money. For sure. That's the other thing. It doesn't have to be strenuous to make money necessarily. So lots of people find really interesting things to do at 65 and 70 years old that make more than they used to make yeah being a dump truck driver you know that kind of thing so i would be thinking

about that now again i don't want you guys out there running around right now you're definitely medically what they're describing is at higher risk and i don't i wouldn't want you to do that today but um but as soon as this clears and you're safe, I would think about that. And I would do the Roth because you've got to balance this budget. You don't have a choice. You've got to balance it because you're going to burn through it if you don't learn to live on a plan you and your husband agreeing to every month that is within your income.

Very few people have enough savings to not do that. If you had $2 million, you might make it, but you're not going to make it with $90,000. So, hey, thank you for the call. David is next. David's in Rhode Island. Hi, David. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Dave and Rachel, what is going on? How are you guys? We're great, brother. How can we help? Oh, my God. I can't believe it. I just found out about you guys literally a week ago on Facebook and have been nonstop listening

to you. I've been doing everything wrong, apparently. And with the accountant's advice. I own two businesses, very successful companies, thank God. And I'm a full-time police officer. Based off of this coronavirus that's going on, my income has dropped significantly from my companies from a salary standpoint. Based off of ensuring that my employees get paid versus myself getting paid. Um, the, the thing that I'm struggling with right now is, uh, I, I own

several properties, uh, including, uh, our residents that my wife and I live in so focused on paying off our home residence when we first bought it, doubling our mortgage payments every single month, and it was my highest loan. And from everything that I've listened to with you guys, I don't in a way really have so much personal debt. It's all either investment properties or business debt. Yeah, well, let me ask you this. I don't think you're wrong. I think you've done the right thing, if I gather where you are.

If you have zero debt other than rentals and your home, is that what you're telling me? No, no. Oh, God, no. I wish. I wish. Oh, I thought you said you had no personal debt. Your rentals and your home. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

The only debt that I have personally is my home. Everything else is investment and business debt. Okay. What kind of business debt do you have? So on, like, equipment, it's roughly about $90,000. And then as far as real estate debt goes, yeah, real estate is different. Okay. All real estate goes in what we call baby step six. Now your business debt you personally signed for. So I'd put all that in baby step two. So I'd clear all of your debt except real estate debt first. Then I would clear your home. Okay. Now here's why. Here's why.

Think about where we are right now in this mess. If you didn't have the $90,000 equipment loan but you only had real estate loans, you'd be better off, right? 100%. And then if your house, next step is if your house was paid for right now and no equipment debt and all you had was rental debt, you'd be a whole lot better off, right? 100%. Because if you're going to lose something you don't lose your home right if you toss the bank the keys on one of those rentals your life doesn't change much but you got a paid for home sitting there but you don't want to toss them the keys on your home and so now can i ask you another question in regards to that so based off of your snowball effect, right, I've been advised from my accountant,

so out of those equipment loans, three of them are 0%. But in your snowball effect, it's go with the lowest amount and then move it in. And I wanted to do that two years ago. I was talked out of doing that. Your accountant isn't paying your bills right now. 100%. You are, and you're the guy that wants to get rid of them so yeah i would clear the 91st on this that snowball in baby step two and then i would work on your

house and then your other see how this works how much peace you you can kind of feel it yes when i walk through this yep absolutely when we have had that question for 30 years what up how first the rental or my home always your home because if things go bad but who would have thought they would ever be sitting where we're sitting there There you go. Puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. 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.