The Ramsey Show - App - They Paid Off $777,000 in 29 Months! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 10, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Well, our very, very busy live event season has begun. We, the Ramsey personalities, all six of us, well, at least four of us, two of us are having babies. So Rachel and Christy won't be going anywhere. But the rest of us, the guys are getting ready to go to work. And we're shaming them.

Yes, we are. Oh, not really. We're happy for them. But anyway, we're all getting ready to go to work. We've got a lot of stuff going on. I was in Kansas City last weekend speaking at Westside Church for a huge launch, a citywide launch of Financial Peace University. It was a lot of fun.

This coming weekend I'll be in Austin, Texas, and looking forward to speaking there again at one of our local churches that just does a great job. My friend Pastor Champion is going to have us down there. We'll be there Saturday night and all day Sunday speaking as well, and back home Sunday afternoon. However, our live events direct to the public, not through a church or whatever, will be starting this coming Thursday. Actually, the first one is at the same church I'm going to be in. So Austin, Texas, this coming Thursday is Chris Hogan and Anthony O'Neill with one of our Financial Peace live events. And then Hill Country Church is where I'll be speaking on Saturday and Sunday in their regular services.

Church, of course, is free. We'd love to have you come out and join us there. But the September 12th event is basically sold out. I think there's like six tickets left. I looked at the report a while ago for this coming Thursday, our first event of the fall season, the Financial Peace Live event with Anthony and Chris Hogan. They will then be October 2nd in Tacoma, Washington. There's about 100 tickets left to that.

And looking forward to that, Anthony O'Neill and Chris Hogan again. The Financial Peace Live is our pep rally. We walk through the baby steps. We laugh together. We cry together. This is where you bring someone that doesn't know about this stuff, that thinks you're crazy for doing this stuff. Your husband, your wife, your grown kids, your grown parents, your friend at work who thinks you're a nut and all this stuff. So financial peace where we run through all the stuff in one setting.

If you're already in the middle of doing it all, just come anyway. It's like a pep rally. You're going to be jacked up, jazzed up, laugh, cry, be ready to do your Rocky move and go, Adrian, and bust through the debt, right? That's the whole thing. It's pump-up time. And it's information as well. So always information, always inspiration. Tacoma, Washington, October 2nd.

Phoenix, Arizona is October 10th. Anthony O'Neill, Chris Hogan there. That event, I think it only has about 100 tickets left. There's about 300 tickets left for the event I will be doing with Chris Hogan in November in Charleston, South Carolina. And we are also streaming that event. For those of you that want to not go to Charleston and still see that event from the comfort of your home, we'd love to have you do that. Looking forward to doing a Financial Peace Accelerated event down in Orlando, September the 28th. It is completely sold out.

That is no room at all. Dave Ramsey, Chris Hogan, Anthony O'Neill doing that one together. Our SMART conference in Sacramento, which is, you know, Ken Coleman, Chris Hogan, Dave Ramsey, Anthony O'Neill, Dr. Meg Meeker, Les Parrott, John O'Leary, George Camel, of course, and Patsy Claremont, we announced yesterday, will be speaking with us as well. Going to be a great event there in Sacramento. 7,000 tickets already sold. I think the venue holds about 8,000, so there's a few thousand left on that.

That's not until November the 16th. That's a quick rundown of some of the things going on this fall. Christy Wright will return after having her baby shortly, just temporarily, to do the Business Boutique Conference in Nashville, October the 24th through the 26th, and it is almost sold out. So, a lot of stuff happening this fall. I'm going to be all over the place. Anthony and Chris and I are going to be all over the place.

Again, the ladies are, Ken Coleman's going to be all over the place speaking as well. Christy and Rachel primarily off for maternity leave. Christy's babies do any second, and Rachel's in early October. So I don't know why those two time this stuff together. There must be something going on back there in that personalities room or something, some discussion about kids. I don't know. But anyway, it just so happened.

Yeah, right. So anyway, we're just going to have to plow through, get this done. We're looking forward to it. But you won't see them at Smart Conference this year, as an example. And you won't see them doing live events like the Financial Peace live events. So Anthony, Hogan, me, we got it, baby. We got this. All right, starting off this hour is going to be Logan in Arizona Arizona or Arkansas, rather. I'm sorry. Hey, Logan, how

are you? Good, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I've got a question for you. So as of last week, me and my wife are officially debt-free. Yay! Yeah, it's great. It's been great. We're finishing up school. We're going to be able to finish up

next year with no debt or student loans or anything like that. But we know that before too long, we'll want to be purchasing a house because we've been renting. We've been married for a year and a couple months, we've been renting. But it's kind of also hard for us to wrap our mind around getting a mortgage because we don't want to rent, we know, for four or five more years to save up to buy a house. I wanted to see your advice on saving to get a house. We know you recommend, you 20%, and I think that's something we can do, but it's hard for us to wrap our mind around going back into debt for a mortgage. It is hard, yeah, and I don't borrow money, so I couldn't do that.

I would have to wait and save up and pay cash for it because it's the only way I do things. It is the only thing that I tell you on this show to do that I don't do or that I don't yell at you for doing uh for me not doing so everything else i'm 100 consistent on uh this is one time something i'm okay with i'm not gonna be mad at you for doing but i just absolutely don't borrow money so you're okay i mean if you buy a house with 20 down 15 you're fixed and you have a plan you're in your 20s you have a plan to pay it off in five years. That would make you a rock star. Yes, sir.

And if you can save up the money in five years, you can pay it off in five years. Right. Well, that makes sense, too. Yeah, we're 21 and 23, so we're excited about what we're going to be able to do. Yeah, so by the time you're 28 your house is paid off dude that sounds pretty cool when you put it that way yeah so that that that makes it not i mean you're not signing up for a 30-year mortgage with a plan to sign up for another 30-year mortgage with a plan to sign up for another 30-year mortgage and be 80 years old still have a 30-year mortgage that's not your

plan you're not going to be normal you've already determined at an early age you're going to be weird proud of you man keep it up keep it. Love hearing these young people do this stuff. Nicole is in Nevada. Hey, Nicole, how are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

So I have a 19-year-old son who decided a year ago college wasn't for him, so he got into commercial HVAC work, and I'm struggling to teach him how to create a budget. Okay. The easiest budget to create is called a zero-based budget. And the mistake that people make with budgeting, number one, is they're unrealistic. They put down, I'm going to eat on $5 a month. No, you're not.

Okay? That's just stupid. So you need to put enough money in the food category so you don't bust your budget 30 seconds after you start doing your budget. So number one, be realistic. Number two, do a zero-based budget. And that's where you put your income for this particular month. Every month is unique.

Every month is different. Some things are the same, but some things are different. Every dollar at the top of the page that you're going to earn and then spend it all on paper before the month begins. Give every dollar an assignment. And that's where we got the name EveryDollar for the world's best budgeting app that 7 million people use for free now. Go to EveryDollar.com, download it for his phone.

He can make his budget in 10 minutes. Over the years, I've seen so many families suffer by not having life insurance. It's not that they didn't care. It's just that they didn't know, so they did nothing. That's a huge mistake. Listen, husbands and wives, moms and dads, think about it. If you died, how would your family pay the bills, the mortgage, food, and plan for a better future? This is what life insurance is all about, and term life is the only way to go.

It's not expensive, and it's not complicated. Stop wasting money on cash value plans. You need 10 to 12 times your income in protection and I recommend 15 or 20 year level plans. I also only recommend Zander Insurance and I have for over 20 years. These are the only people I personally use and they only offer the plans i recommend call them at 800-356-4282 or get instant quotes online at zander.com trust me these simple steps will let your family know how much you care Miguel is with us in Indiana. Hi, Miguel. How are you? Hi, Miguel. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a question. My wife and I just got married about two weeks ago, Good, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a question. My wife and I just got married about two weeks ago. Congratulations! Thank you. How old are you? 22.

Wow, fun. How'd you find me? You know, I was just been online on YouTube trying to get our finances together. We're just trying to turn our life around. We're trying to get out of debt here as soon as we can. Good for you. How much money do you make? What's your household income? Together, we make about $180,000.

And you're how old? 22. I love you guys. What do you do for a living? I work at an orthopedic company. Mm-hmm. And, yeah, I'm a machinist there, so I make, you know, we make pretty good money. Yeah, I think.

You know. Yeah, a couple hundred grand when you're 22 is called pretty good money in any book. I'm just saying. And what does she do? She works in the same company I work. We both work in an orthopedic company. That's how you found each other. Okay, I got it. Cool.

So how much debt have you got? So we got about $200,000 worth of debt. And my question for you is, um, um, 100 and 130 is on our home. And then the rest is on vehicles. We got a truck and a car and, um, well, actually we have three vehicles. Why? Um, yeah, I mean, yeah, you know, I'm not, not now that we're trying, I mean, I'm not now. We're trying to get financially. No, why do you have three vehicles? There's two of you.

Oh, just one's a beater. I mean, part of getting out of debt is we're going to sell one of our vehicles. Okay. So my question for you is, you know, she has thyroid issues and my question is, should I be tackling the debt head on or should I put enough money in our savings account that I can prepare for, you know, some sort of emergency? I don't know whether I should be tackling, because right now I'm putting everything, you know, Do you have health insurance? We do have health insurance.

Does it cover her thyroid issues? It does. I mean, it covers it. Except for the deductibles and the co-pays, right? Yeah, I mean, we do have that. You're okay. You make $180,000 a year. If something pops up with a thyroid issue and you've got to hit a deductible

and you've got to hit a copay, you can just temporarily stop your get-out-of-debt plan. You make enough money to cash flow and pay whatever the health insurance won't pay. Okay. And so you think that – and, you know, we also plan on having a family. So do you think I should be putting everything towards a debt or do you think I should save any money at all whatsoever? You should put $1,000 in an account. That is baby step one.

You should not save or invest another dime anywhere until you're clear of your non-mortgage debt, $70,000 worth. You should do that. You should do that. Nothing in a 401K, nothing in nothing, until you clean up this stupid mess you made. The great news is you have a huge shovel. The bad news is you dug yourself a pretty good-sized hole. Yeah.

So let's get out of the mess. Let's get out. No debt but your house. That is step two. That's only $70,000. You're talking about selling one of the cars, so it's even less than that. And you're going to be debt-free, not counting your house, in less than a year, making $180,000, paying $70,000. That would make you living on $110,000.

Call me a whambulance. You can do that in one year. Yeah, yeah, you're right, Dave. Okay, so now that's done. That's done. Now we build our emergency fund of three to six months of expenses on top of that $1,000 account, a fully funded rainy day fund. Is that just for the mortgage?

Not. Just bear with me. Bear with me. Baby step three is build your emergency fund. When you have that done, now listen to me. You're debt-free, except your house. You've got $20,000, twenty thirty thousand dollars laying there to never be touched unless there's an emergency then you start your investing because now you've laid the

foundation and it's time to build the house now we start putting 15 of our income into retirement and then above that you start putting money in kids college but you don't have any kids yet and no you don't need to save for kids you don't have. And no, you don't need to worry about that until you're actually pregnant. We'll discuss that when that happens. Then we're going to move on and knock this house out. The great news is three years from today, you should be fully funding your 401ks. You should be 100% debt-free house and everything.

With the numbers you gave me, that's very doable. And all you've got to do is focus and concentrate. And I'll teach you how to do it. It's called Financial Peace University. I'm going to give you the one-year membership to it, and you're going to be able to sign up, go through the nine-week class, and you're going to stay in there. It's got every dollar plus, the connectivity to your bank, everything is in there.

The whole thing works together. And I'm going to give it there. It's got every dollar plus, the connectivity to your bank. Everything is in there. The whole thing works together. And I'm going to give it to you as your wedding gift. So you hold on. And I wish somebody had taught me this stuff when I was 22. I wish I'd made $180,000 when I was 22. There you go. So way to go, man. Way to go.

I'm proud of you guys. All right, Chris is with us in Missouri. Hey, Chris, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. I am sick and tired. Good. My wife and I are all in on this. We have had our sick and tired moment this summer on a quick little getaway out of town,

realized we didn't have the cash flow or the credit available to put gas in the car on the way back and formula we had that sucks we had to get a little creative we made it work got home and that was it yeah i'm done with this yeah i'm with you so how much you guys make um that's the embarrassing part we do have a take home of 150 a year yeah that's right uh yep i fully admit it now we have a couple cars um car situation isn't as as dire as it could be um we do have a total debt of a hundred thousand that is consumer debt not including the home uh fourteen thousands credit four thousands medical sixty thousand of student loans and then the other 20 ish is in our two cars okay you're okay yeah so you're what are

you 33 i am i wish i'm 40 my wife is going to be 39 in a little while here that's about right yeah it takes about that long to get this far into stupid yeah that's right that's right well we started we started early we got a head start on stupid okay you're doing good man you're great you're gonna turn it around now. You're going to turn it around. We are. We're on step two. I just had a quick question for you that I really cannot get an answer on. It's a little muddy. My wife is a Christian school administrator, so she actually gets the housing allowance from the IRS. She's able to do that. We've been told by other retirees to keep a mortgage going in perpetuity so that you can keep using your housing allowance and the tax write-off in retirement.

That's stupid. The housing write-off is not 100. The write-off is 100%. The tax credit is not 100%. Okay? We work with pastors that have the exact same thing all the time. They're allowed to do a housing allowance, and you can write off 100% of it. But the bottom line is it's double what the regular consumer gets on their house, basically,

but it's still not 100%. It's still only 50%. You're still giving away 50 cents on the dollar to the mortgage company. Right. After you get the actual tax savings versus your mortgage. You follow me? Yep. The actual dollars you do not pay in taxes, not the tax deduction.

The tax deduction is not a tax credit. That reduces your income that's taxable is all. Okay? And so you still have money out of pocket. You did not reduce your taxes by the amount you sent to the mortgage company. And so it does not make sense to keep a mortgage just because you have a tax credit. Oh, by the way, you can still take your housing allowance with the IRS even if you don't have a mortgage. You just have to use the HUD guideline on what average rents are for a home like yours in the area.

And there's a process a good tax preparer can walk you through to do that. You do not have to have a mortgage to take your housing allowance as a pastor or Christian school administrator where you're getting a housing allowance. So you need to get some better tax advice than from the idiots that are your friends telling you to do this. so you need to get some better tax advice than from the idiots that are your friends telling you to do this um everybody's got a tax opinion and 99 of them are wrong so check that out dude you're right on track doesn't matter you're not up to the point of paying off the mortgage right now anyway you got a bunch of work to do before we talk about it this is the dave ramsey show we really value your input it helps us to know what's

important to you so we can deliver relevant content to help you crush your money goals we just launched a brand new survey, and we'd love your feedback. It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the survey at DaveRamsey.com the now world famous debt-free screen stage. Welcome, guys. How are you? Great. Doing good, Dave. Good to see you. It's an honor to have you guys. And where do y'all live? Salt Lake City, Utah. Okay, very cool. Good, good, good, good. Well, welcome to Nashville.

And how much debt have you guys paid off? Are you ready? It's a doozy. $777,000. Yay! And how long did this take? 29 months. Uh-oh, this is a story. And your range of income during that time? $650,000 to about $3.25 million. Well, there's that. What is it you guys do for a living? I'm a director at a software company.

Uh-huh. And I own a food ingredients trading company. And both are doing well. Excellent. Well done, you guys. Wonderful income. So what kind of debt was this $700,000? Well, the smallest one was a gift that Michael got me, some scooters.

Very romantic. $6,000. Yeah. We had $21,000 remaining student loans, $50,000 on a car, and then we get into the house stuff. We had a $200,000 renovation loan and our mortgage of $500,000. So you paid off everything. Everything. Did it all.

House and everything. I'm looking at weird people. Yes, we are. I love it. Way to go. Thank you. So how long have you guys been making this kind of money? We've done pretty well, I would say, well, I don't know, eight, nine years.

That's a while. Yeah. Way too long to have been this far in debt. Yeah. I think, you know, we know that we make a lot, and I think, you know, there was a part of us with having any debt at all, it was a little bit ridiculous. Yeah, amen. And, you know, if anything ever happened, it would be harder to replace those incomes, part of us with having any debt at all. It was a little bit ridiculous. Yeah, amen.

And, you know, if anything ever happened, it would be harder to replace those incomes. And so we just wanted the security. And we sort of got started on this a few years ago. She started us on this path. What book was that? I read The Millionaire Next Door, and there was a line in it that said, high earner, low wealth.

And when I heard that, I just kind of got chills. Yeah, it was us. Yeah. And it was, you know, if you like this book, you'll love the Total Money Makeover. And so that's how we got hooked up with your organization. Okay. Very cool. Very cool.

Well, congratulations. Thank you. So you are no longer a high income earner, no wealth. You're no longer in the category. That's right. Now you're a high-income earner with wealth. We're working on it, yeah. What's the house worth?

About $950,000. Excellent, excellent. And how much in your nest eggs, your 401Ks and so forth? We're hoping that we would have hit our net worth of $3 million before we came in here, but I think we'll hit it next month. Yeah, well, close enough. Yeah. Close enough.

Well, way to go, you guys. Thank you. So how old are you two? I'm too close to 40 to talk about on air. Okay. I'm 38. Okay, all right. But you have scooters.

Yeah. So there you go. We're still young. I like it. All right. So $3 million now and not a debt in the world with a household income of three-quarters of a million. Man, you are on fire.

The stuff you're going to be able to do for yourself and for others the wealth you're going to be able to continue to build because you're not that old and you're making bank because you just got intentional huh yeah now did you inherit any money or did you start from nothing uh we didn't inherit anything um we did do one um we sold a piece of land that brought in $125,000. So that kind of helped jumpstart. But not only are you debt-free house and everything, but you're also everyday millionaires because you started with nothing, basically. And now you make serious money and you have a serious net worth already by age 40. So, wow. Very fun.

I love it. That is excellent. Very, very cool. Congratulations. So, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I would say it's being intentional with what you're doing. You're not going to stumble into it. It's not going to happen by accident.

And you're not going to out-earn your stupidity. Nope. Because y'all tried that. Yeah. You'll keep acquiring new things. We just got nicer nicer there's always another scooter yeah it's always something bigger and better and i borrowed money for a scooter this is great as a gift uh-huh oh no it's so romantic the debt is so that was an anniversary gift actually yeah what really helped me along is um i don't think he appreciated how amazing my amortization chart was that I had.

But most of our time was spent on house stuff. And so, you know, we didn't have to beat gazelle intents necessarily. But, you know, every little thing that we might think of doing when we would go to put it in the amortization chart, and I would see it add a month or two to the mortgage payment, I thought, well, it's not worth that. We're not going to do that. You know, but Ural's case is way different than typical, obviously. But the thing that's interesting about yours is it just shows what you said just a second ago, Michael.

You said the power of intentionality just to say, okay, we're just, you know, we're spinning everything like we're in Congress or something. We got nothing to show for this. And then all of a sudden we go, wait a minute. All we've got to do is pay attention. All we've got to do is bother. And then boom! 29 months later, you're debt free. And paid off

three quarters of a million dollars. I mean, it's just that. But, you know, and so yeah, it would have been a bloody shame for you guys to get 20 years from now and have made all this money and have nothing. And still be in debt. We sometimes talk about, boy, we wish we'd stumbled on you 10 years ago. bloody shame for you guys to get 20 years from now and have made all this money and have nothing. Yeah.

And still be in debt. We sometimes talk about, boy, we wish we'd stumbled on you 10 years ago. Yeah. So where could we be today? Yeah. Well, you've got plenty of time, though. I know. I know. You're fine.

It's all perfect. So very, very proud of you. So did you tell people about this? Did you have any cheerleaders? Well, yeah. I mean, we had some people, I think, that thought we were, they found us curious. Yeah. I think at best.

And then. Well, who makes the kind of money y'all make, though? I mean, you're curious anyway. You know, and we do have some friends that make, you know, a good living as well. And we noticed kind of in our social circle, there's a little bit of, I don't know, like an ethos that being, that becoming wealthy or, becoming wealthy or whatever you need to do is mysterious. Or complicated. Complicated, yeah. If it's not complicated and mysterious, it can't be right.

Right. You need to do a double backflip family limited partnership. Right. Or you have the ins that other people don't have. So I think a lot of people maybe found us a little, I think they thought we were unsophisticated. Yeah, you are. You're primitive. Primitively rich. More than...

Touchdown, baby! That's what I am. I am a redneck multimillionaire, baby. That's it. I love it. You're standing in a $70 million building I paid cash for. Shut up. I love my primitive. You guys are awesome.

This is so fun. I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you. One of the funny things is, I'll admit, I have a BMW. And so we would drive around town and we would listen to your show on the podcast. And your intro, every single time, say that the paid off mortgage is taking the place of the BMW, we kind of slink down a little bit. Rachel has a BMW.

It's okay. And you have $3 million. You can have a BMW. It's okay. We didn't have it when we got it. I love it. Very cool, you guys. Very well done.

Very well done. Yeah, the secret sometimes is just bothering to notice and being intentional. And in your case, it turned everything around very, very quickly. But it's a great story. Thank you for sharing it. Thank you. Very, very well done. Well, we're going to give you a copy of the book, Everyday Millionaires,

which will tell you actually that the ethos that some of your friends are telling you is false. Because the vast majority of millionaires, we've done the largest study of millionaires ever done, do things fairly primitively. They're just kind of common sense people like you are and like I am. And that's how they got there. And that's how they remain there. It's the people trying to act like they're something they're not and try to be sophisticated or try to be something. They're the ones that don't end up keeping their wealth around. It ends up leaving them.

So proud of you guys. Well, thank you. Very, very well done. Michael and Emily, Salt lake city utah killing it baby 777 000 paid off in 29 months making 650 to 750 now three million dollar net worth in zero debt count it Three, two, one. We're debt free! Ha, ha, ha, ha! Woo! Man, don't you want to be them when you grow up? Yes, you do. Ha, ha, ha, ha!

I love it. Absolutely incredible. And no, they didn't steal any money from anyone. And no, they're not evil people. They're just regular people that worked really, really hard and became very, very good at their chosen career field and made a lot of money doing it. And so don't you dare be jealous or envious. Instead, you just look at them and say, aren't you proud for them? Yes, you should be.

I am. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Our question of the day is from Blinds.com. You can find out why they are the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. Free samples, free shipping, and with new promos every month, you save even more. Always use the promo code Ramsey.

Yeah, the free samples are neat. I got like six different samples. I was looking at putting some blinds up on one of my back porches to get the afternoon sun off and ordered them from these guys. Boom, went right in it's just it's they're just an incredible company an incredible service check them out blinds.com sean's in colorado my wife and i paid off our mortgage we've been maxing retirement accounts for years diligently saving in our kids 520 fines We're everyday millionaires at 41 and 38. Way to go. Not sure where to go from here in Baby Step 7. We're enjoying but are not sure how else to invest for the future.

Well, Sean, the rule of thumb is this. It's almost like we were talking about with that last couple. They said somehow among some newly wealthy people, there's an ethos, this idea in the air that somehow building wealth must be complicated. You must have some, the secrets of the rich. Well, let me tell you what the secrets of the rich are. They're not a secret. They do what you've been doing.

They invest in things they understand. If you don't understand it, don't put money in it. Don't put money in something because it sounds cool, and some goob that you think is cool is telling you to do it or has done it himself. This is how people lose their money with Bernie Madoff. They got recommended by a friend to get in something cool. There was an inside deal that no one knew about. It was a secret.

It was sophisticated, and everybody doesn't know about it, and this is how the rich do it. It's all behind the curtain. It's just not i was with a guy the other day who is worth about 200 million dollars and you know what he's invested his money in farm land he's a rancher it's what he knows i said you don't have any money mutual funds nope don't like that stuff don't understand it not putting money in it well that's not sophisticated dave said a guy who has a tenth of the net worth or a fourth net worth or one one jillionth the net worth that that guy has. He's got $200 million. What you have is an opinion.

Put money in stuff you understand and you're comfortable with. If that's all you ever do, you're going to be fine as far as the investing side. I have three investments. That's all I have. And I'm fairly knowledgeable about the investment world. I have three. My business, paid for real estate with no mortgages, and mutual funds. I don't play single stocks.

I don't screw around with gold. I don't mess with Bitcoin. And I don't need your stock tip from your broke golfing buddy with an opinion. You know, you missed out on getting in on this deal, Ramsey. Didn't miss a thing. I'll set my net worth down beside yours while you mouth off. Didn't miss a thing. You didn't either.

Don't try to get, this is not time to get cool. Cool didn't get you here. Cool won't take you there. And, you know, don't try to follow these cool goobs around because I got to tell you, man, this crap, I see these things. Come to the seminar and learn how to do a, you know, a limited family partnership with a double back flip trust. And, you know, I just made that up. But it's crap like that. And people get all tangled up in stuff,

and they lose their butts. Don't do it. Don't do it. So it's real simple, Sean. Invest in things you understand. It's okay to use the KISS principle. I do. I use the keep it simple, stupid principle.

I keep mine very simple, very clean, and if I don't have the money, I can't keep it simple, stupid principle. I keep mine very simple, very clean. And if I don't have the money, I can't buy it. Wow, it's insightful. It's primitive. How do you get by on that with hundreds of millions of dollars of net worth? That's how I struggle through. So seriously, just be calm. Now, when you do get to baby step seven, what you do want to make sure you're doing continuously and systematically is you want to be keeping your spiritual life in balance. Because baby step seven is where wealth can take over your spiritual life, and you can put an idol in your life, and you can start worshiping dollars instead of God.

And that's a dumb idea. It's a good way to lose your money because God will take it. Because he loves you so much, he doesn't want you worshipping the wrong stuff. So how do you do that? You keep a good balance between three things when you're in baby step seven. You're always investing. You're always being outrageously generous. And I mean outrageously generous. And I mean outrageously generous.

You're in baby step seven. You need to be giving more money away than you used to make in a year. Outrageous generosity. And you need to be enjoying some of the money. Time to take mama on a cruise, tightwad. Time to buy a decent car. you've driven like no one else now it's time to drive like no one else i drove crap cars one one the predominant color on it was bondo and now you know what i drive any freaking thing i want that's what i drive now and if some of you don't liberals

don't like that well toughies i'm gonna do it anyway i'm a capitalist pig and i'm proud of it so that's how this works guys and i give more in a month than i used to make in two years but that's none of your business the only reason i tell you that is it's a model for you to say outrageous generosity our ramsey family foundation is outrageously generous it's so generous it has a full-time person running it named denise whittemore my daughter it takes a full-time person to keep up with the generosity think about it it. That's where you can get to, people. That's where I want you to get to. You can live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else.

And then when you go buy a car, it's a small percentage of your world. These people call me up and their car is 60% of their take-home pay and 100% of their net worth. You are never going to get rich doing that. Your car needs to be a small percentage of your net worth and a small percentage of your take-home pay last couple making 750 000 they can afford to drive very very expensive cars and lose the value on them and still get ahead financially but if you make 75 000 year, you can't drive that same car and be anything but broke. She can afford a BMW. Anything in the entire BMW line making that kind of money.

Brand new, write a check for it. And it won't break that family because they make really good money and they got a $3 million net worth. But if you're sitting there with two nickels to rub together, don't you go down there and fleece a stupid Beamer. That's dumber than a rock. You're acting like something you're not. So you just work your way through this process. Always be giving, always be enjoying a percentage of your money, and always be investing a percentage of your money.

And what I tell folks to do once you get to this point is allocate percentages, like I just said. Basically, I'm an evangelical Christian, and I get taxed at 40%, and then I give 10%. So that's 50%. I give 10% just for my local church. That's my tithe. Okay, so I've only got 50 cents on every dollar after those two things to work with. Out of that 50 cents, then, I allocate a small percentage to consumption and enjoyment, and then the rest of it to two big chunks, one to investing and one percentage.

And I'm not going to give you my percentage just because they don't matter. You make up your own, okay? But you take out that 50% that's left over. You put some little percentage. It doesn't take much because you make good money. You got good money to enjoy. Go on a nice cruise. Go on that bucket list trip you've always wanted to do.

Buy that car you've always wanted to buy. Pay off your mama's house. I don't know what it is you want to do. Then you take the generosity piece as a big chunk and the investing piece as a big chunk. We cover all of this in the Christian book that I did called The Legacy Journey. It's the only book I've done that was aimed exclusively at the Christian market. But it's the only way I know how to discuss wealth and it not become toxic is through the lens of my faith. So pick up The Legacy Journey or take the class if you're a member of Financial Peace membership.

The class is included in there. You take The Legacy Journey and see every bit of this stuff I'm talking about. And you don't need a double backflip family limited partnership. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to the Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com.