The Ramsey Show - App - They Pay Off $315,000 of Debt! (Hour 1)
Episode Date: April 14, 2021Debt, Retirement, Education Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: h...ttps://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's The 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.
Anthony O'Neill, number one best-selling author and Ramsey personality, is my co-host today
as we answer your questions about your life and your money.
This is a show about you, and it turns out you people are pretty entertaining.
The phone number is 888-825-5225.
That's 888-825-5225.
Dustin is in Dunkirk, Maryland.
Hi, Dustin. Welcome to theirk, Maryland. Hi, Dustin.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hey, Dave. How are you, Anthony?
How are you guys?
Better than we deserve, sir.
How can we help?
Hey, I'm a person who's letter.
So if my words are mumbled, just let me push through.
I currently owe $20,000 on my last loan, and I'll be debt-free.
CarMax today offered me $26,000.
I love my truck, but I want to be debt-free more.
My parents and my friends are like, keep the truck, don't worry about the debt,
but I wanted to call you guys and get your opinion.
Wow. How old are you?
37, sir.
What's your household income?
$117,000.
Okay.
And your only debt is $20,000 on this truck?
Yes, sir.
And you love the truck?
Yes, but I want to be debt-free.
Oh, I want you to be debt-free.
So I disagree with your family or whoever it is that says, don't worry the debt anthony we worry about the debt absolutely i i do worry about the
debt but you got a great income and you love this truck why don't you reach over and knock it out in
the next few months yeah absolutely because here's my fear you'll sell the truck go buy you a car for
six thousand dollars and you won't be happy and i think and you'll buy another truck in two years
exactly you know so if you have the money twenty,000 with 117K grosses means you're bringing in about $85,000 as a single person.
Right.
You can have this thing paid off.
Yeah, minimum every two weeks.
But I guess my thing is right now I'm home in Maryland, so that's why I get Dunkirk, but I live in New York.
Okay, but how fast can you pay it off?
Yeah.
Because of my line of work, I cannot get a side job.
You don't need a side job.
I can pay it off by the end of the year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I was thinking.
I mean, 10 months.
Yeah.
That's $2,000 a month.
You ought to be able to do that.
You probably will actually do it a little bit faster because you hate debt. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That's $2,000 a month. You ought to be able to do that. You probably will actually do it a little bit faster because you hate debt.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, you'll probably go on beans and rice a little deeper.
It sounds like you're single.
Yes.
Okay.
Which means you don't have to talk to anybody into this.
No.
You just go on beans and rice.
You can just say, I now have no life until the truck is paid.
Because I love this truck enough, I'm going to give up lifestyle for eight to ten months to be able to keep it and knock it out.
And next time we get ready to do something like this, we'll just save up and pay for it because you're committed to no debt, right?
Yeah.
Yes, sir.
So you're saying keep it.
I would keep it since you like it.
Yes.
I drove my Raptor this morning.
I like it enough to give up ten months of lifestyle to get to keep it.
And lifestyle, Dustin, I'm going to challenge Dave on $2,000.
I'm going to stretch it to $3,000 a month.
Because I think that here as a single person,
the only expensive thing you should have is your rent.
And so everything else, bro, you're eating at home.
You're not going out on a date.
Yeah.
Anthony, I'm cash flowing college.
Oh.
That's 1840 every two months, but I get reimbursed through my agency.
I retract that then.
Sorry, dude.
There's an added piece of mathematics.
Okay, I'm with you.
So, hey, man, I'm proud of you.
You're doing good stuff.
If you want to sell your truck, you can.
But I think within 24 months, you'll be back into a truck very similar to that that you pay cash for.
And I wouldn't go through all that gyration to end up in the same place three years from now.
Yeah, I agree.
And so far, I've paid all 60 grand since October 2019. And I just started back my TSP because it's been almost two years.
You started back my TSP because it's been almost two years. You started back your TSP?
Yes, sir, because it's been almost two years, and you said if you can't pay your debt off within two years, start it back up.
No, two to three years.
Two to three years.
If you're going to do this, I'd stop the TSP for eight more months. But, I mean, you're fine.
You're going to be all right.
Because here's the thing about you.
You've got two or three things that are going on.
One is you're teachable.
Two is you've decided to not borrow any money anymore.
And three is you're being very intentional and thoughtful about every move with money.
Yes.
You're not wandering around.
There's not a bunch of chaos in your life. You're not making up as you go you're not being impulsive you're being very intentional
intentionality i mean when we do stupid stuff all of us is when we're just not paying attention yes
absolutely but when you are saying i have a goal and is this congruent with my goal
no then i'm not doing it when you have that boundary in your life that's not aligned to your goal and not aligned to where I want to be when I grow up, so to speak, then that gives you the ability
to go kill it. Yeah, and absolutely, Dave. And here's the thing I want people to hear. Dave and
I are not saying, yes, we like car payments. What we're saying is there's two things. One,
it's less than 50% of his income and he can pay it off within the next two years. And so because
of those two things there, it's like, okay, you can keep it if you want to but if he wanted to sell it he could but he likes the car and he'll
be right back there in two years yeah it's not it's not going to be a uh if this was going to
be a seven-year thing or something and this knocked off half of it yeah i would do it but
it's you've got everything done and i would i would temporarily stop your tsp again i'd tighten
that budget as tight as you can do it and that eight to ten month mark by the end of the year, that's where I would be with this.
So well done, sir.
Yeah.
Very well done.
Hey, let's talk about it, though.
He's cash flowing college.
That's neat.
I mean, I was like, okay.
Don't drop by that.
Yeah, let's not miss that one, America.
He's not making any excuses.
He is being intentional.
He doesn't rack up any more debt.
He's ready to get out of debt.
I love that, man.
Keep that going.
You know, there's something to that.
I mean, it sounds kind of mean, and I guess it is, but the amount of whining that people are making excuses yes and blaming some
other outside force for their inability to get up off their assumptions and go do something correct
is astronomical it's unprecedented the level of whining are there real barriers you betcha
absolutely you betcha yes yeah and uh you, are there real things that are out there?
Yeah.
Are they keeping you from winning?
Not nearly as much as your belief that you can't win.
No.
You know what, Dave?
I say this.
The greatest enemy to our success is our excuse.
Yeah.
That's it.
It's not the government.
It's not the things out there.
Are there real issues out there that could prevent some moving forward
absolutely but the greatest enemy to anthony o'neill succeeding is myself and my excuses
yeah because i take one little possible excuse and i i give it the weight of a thousand pounds
and it was a two pound weight right right okay so shut up yeah you know i mean that's what i have to tell my little drama queen self you know shut up stop your freaking whining roll up your sleeves get up like
he's doing yeah leave the cave kill something and drag it home absolutely you know this is up to you
your destiny is more in your control than it is in control of the Democrats or the Republicans or whatever thing you want to watch on the stupid news.
Turn off the news, shut up, and go make you a life.
I mean, that is really the formula.
And that's what this guy's doing, and that's how I know he's going to win.
We call it intentionality, but that's what it is.
He's just not going to accept anything except winning.
This is The Ramsey Show.
Our famous $10 sale is back.
This time last year, a lot of folks got behind with their money.
But this spring, there's hope.
Our famous $10 sale can help you get control of your money
and feel good about your future.
Save big on over 40 best-selling books and budgeting tools
that will help you stay in control of your money.
Save up to 60% on our proven life-changing books
such as The Total Money Makeover and Everyday Millionaires.
These books will help you make a plan today to hit your money goals faster.
So shop our $10 sale at our online store at RamseySolutions.com.
That's not all.
We've got a gift for you, too.
You can enter to win our Ramsey Cash Giveaway.
We're giving away $500 cash every week and a grand prize of $5,000 cash.
Enter daily for extra chances to win.
No purchase necessary.
Must be 18 or older to win.
To enter our giveaway, go to Ramsey stressful 12 months around the world.
Now, we've all gained a new appreciation for lots of different professions and enhanced appreciation.
One of them is teachers.
Yes, sir.
And our team is celebrating them with all the hard work and dedication that they give out every day with our teacher appreciation giveaway sponsored by Mint Mobile, the affordable
premium wireless provider.
Now, don't miss out on a chance to win some awesome cash prizes, you teachers.
Like $5,000 cash will be given to one teacher.
There is no purchase necessary, of course.
And if you're a teacher, go to ramseysolutions.com slash teacher and enter today.
If you're not a teacher, let someone that you know that is a teacher benefit from the chance to register for that.
So how many teachers can you count over the years, Anthony, that changed the trajectory of your life?
I can count about five or six in K through 12.
Yeah.
And I can remember distinctly some of them that mailed it in.
Yeah.
But some of them that were complete life changers.
Ray Clendening was the one that really changed my life tremendously.
Then I can count about maybe three or four of them that really played a huge role.
But Miss Clint Denning, Dave, she literally just sat me down. She said, if you don't change your
life, I'm going to have to expel you. And I said, I'm going to change. And she literally
walked through that whole process with me. What were you doing?
Just I was a knucklehead kid. I just always talked back to teachers.
You had a mouth. Yes, sir. Which is very good. It pays me a lotucklehead kid. I just always talked back to teachers. You had a mouth.
Yes, sir.
Which is very good.
It pays me a lot of money today.
It turned out that your greatest weakness is your greatest strength.
Exactly.
But thanks to her, she harnessed that thoroughbred and learned to run in the lane.
Absolutely, Dave.
She was the one who introduced me to the NFL, the National Forensics League, which was debating.
She was like, since you love to argue to argue she said go be a debater yeah do it do it actually in a
in a productive way instead of just interrupting my dadgum class exactly i wonder how many of our
ramsey personalities were the kid that interrupted the class because i definitely was that i got in
trouble for talking oh more than i did not doing homework more than i did
anything else man listen talking up and speaking up and running my mouth and always having an
opinion even when it was something stupid always cracking a joke yes trying to get the whole class
to shut down laughing yes i mean i got into more i hadn't even thought about that dave i and looking
at you i can completely believe you did all day All day, all day long. I'm like, well, that makes no sense.
She was like, wait, excuse me?
And I'm like, I'm sorry.
What do you got, Tourette's? Right.
I mean, and it worked, Dave, because, you know, in debating, you're supposed to cut the other person off when you're arguing their stance.
It was just, and I fell in love with it.
And she literally taught me how to use my gift in the right way.
I wonder how many of our Ramsey personalities did forensics.
I've never asked.
I actually did speaking.
I did the speaking stuff up through about freshman year.
By the time I got up in high school, I was too cool for it.
But in junior high, man, I was way into it.
I loved it in high school.
Wow, that's so interesting.
I bet King Coleman did that. Oh, I'm sure in high school. Wow, that's so interesting. I bet King Coleman did that.
Oh, I'm sure he did it.
Yeah, that would just be no way.
Christy Wright probably did it, too, because she loves to argue.
And John Deloney got in trouble for talking.
We do know this for sure.
We don't even have to ask.
All the personalities.
There's no question.
This is funny.
I can't wait.
Yeah.
So teachers change your life.
We've established that.
And we have a high school and junior high school, middle school curriculum called Foundations in Personal Finance that has been taught in 48% of the high schools in America.
We've had millions and millions of students go through it over the years.
And we have wonderful teachers, of course, that teach that curriculum. So as we're honoring teachers this month, we're actually pulling up some of those teachers that are life changers on the line.
And Chris Rusher is one such teacher in Williamstown, West Virginia at Williamstown High School.
Hey, Chris, how are you?
Hey, Dave, Anthony, how are you guys?
Great, man.
Thank you for what you do, brother. So tell us about your school and about teaching personal finance in foundations in personal finance.
I'd be glad to.
We're in the best school system in West Virginia in Wood County Schools,
and we have the best school in Wood County Schools.
And one of the mainstays of our curriculum here in business
education, which is career and technical education based, is doing foundations and personal finance.
I've been associated with it for the last six years, and it is phenomenal. It changes people's
lives just like y'all were just talking about. And it's critical. It's critical that we get
young people engaged in things that are actually
going to matter in their lives. We need to get them at this age started on the right path so
that they can take control of their financial futures, they can invest, they can build wealth
and give, they can be ready for the future so that they can go make an impact. It's just a
critical thing. And fortunately here at Williamstown High School, we're able to do this curriculum
and my students, I'll put them up against anybody.
That's cool. So is this a, this sounded like you may have a group of kids that are preparing
for VoTech as well.
Well, you can. CTE is Career Tech Education and there's a whole world of it. You'd have, you know,
construction, agriculture, auto mechanics, nursing. You can have all of those things combined,
and you can do the business curriculum in a tech center, which we have here, which is phenomenal
as well. And then at the high school, where you have a lot of kids that don't go to vo-tech,
and so we have a whole business program, and one of the principal foundations is personal finance.
Wow.
We want kids in there in ninth or tenth grade.
So in either case, whether they're heading to a four-year school or heading into a Vo-Tech,
they're getting the personal finance foundation laid under them, which is just amazing, very cool.
So, Chris, let me ask you this question.
What is one thing that you're seeing that's resonating well with your students while you're teaching
this curriculum? Well, I know we got to be brief on the program, but the resonating factor,
the number one thing is the reality of the condition of life and society hits them
really hard when they start looking at personal finance. One of the keys that we do is we don't sugarcoat things.
We don't give them the mamby-pamby, jack-wagon excuse train.
We tell them, look, in real life, you've got to perform.
And if you don't perform, it's you on the line.
You are your own business.
And I have four rules in my class.
One is to make an impact.
And if they're going to make an impact in their family, communities, churches, schools,
in the society in general, you've got to be solid financially to do that.
You might want to donate $20 million to your favorite charity, but you can't if you're not making a profit.
And if you're not managing the money.
We also talk about deadlines, and we talk about expectations in the workplace.
Here's the reality, guys, and you guys know this, but the reality is this.
Unless you want to achieve the greatness of living in your folks' basement
for the rest of your life, you've got to do something amazing,
and you've got to take life and take charge of it. And if you start at the
high school age, the biggest impact is this. They don't need to make the financial mistakes that I
made until I got smart in my 30s. And still, I started listening to, you know, Dave Ramsey
till we made a difference in our lives. I'll just throw in real quick my wife and i just paid cash for our
new home this summer yeah hey i want this guy teaching my grandkids i'm just saying
no jack wagon excuses i love it
well here's the thing you guys you're gonna look you're gonna work for a company one day look one
in 2016 1.8 million degrees were conferred at the college level.
Of that, almost 400,000 were business degrees. The next closest was all medical fields combined
at 118,000 across the U.S. So you're going to work for a business. You better know what you're
doing with your money. You need business education, and the foundation is personal finance and using financial literacy.
And look, I'll tell you what, kids in the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade, they can learn financial literacy and be more versed and more conversant than many, many adults that I know.
Yeah, than most of their parents, for sure.
Well, when they've got a teacher like you and a curriculum like ours,
we can tag team and cause that to happen.
Chris, we're proud of you.
Chris Rusher at, man, at Williamstown, West Virginia.
Williamstown High School, absolutely incredible
in teaching our high school curriculum for years.
What a great teacher.
Man, having a guy like that in front of the classroom, that's stud leg right there.
Very fun.
Teacher Appreciation Month here at Ramsey.
Check it out, RamseyS, on the debt-free stage, David and Becky are with us.
Hey, guys, how are you?
Hi.
Good, how are you?
Good.
It's real easy to read your shirts.
We're debt-free.
I love it.
Congratulations.
I like the theme shirts.
Very good.
How much have you paid off?
We've paid off about $315,196.
Wow.
That's crazy.
How long did this take?
It took about 53 months.
53 months.
And your range of income during that time?
We're kind of weird.
We went down.
We went from $136,000 to about $105,000.
Cool.
What do you all do for a living?
I'm retired.
She's a housewife.
And I'm working part-time right now.
Okay. All right. Nice retirement income.
Not bad.
Very cool.
So I'm guessing with all these numbers that you paid off your house.
Yes.
Yes, we did.
Look at that weird people.
Wow.
Going into retirement with a paid-for house in Spokane, Washington.
What's the house worth?
It keeps going up fast.
It's worth seven, did you say last time?
It's worth about seven or so.
And we actually live in Athol.
Idaho.
Idaho.
Okay, just over the line.
Just over the line.
All right, very cool.
Now, that's beautiful.
Wonderful!
So tell us your story.
What happened 53 months ago that put you on this journey?
Well, a lot of it has to do with our daughter.
She was in the hospital.
We were living in L.A. at the time, or Orange County in California.
And she was just not doing well.
She was in life support.
Yeah.
So before that happened, we were looking to get out
of california and move so we found idaho and we had a house that we bought out there and at that
time she wasn't in the hospital now she was after we bought the house and well actually she went
from the hospital bed um he picked her up to the to idaho we just she went from the hospital bed. He picked her up to Idaho.
We just drove her from the hospital because they kept her there for a few months.
Wow.
How old?
She was about 24.
Wow.
What happened to her?
She had issues with drugs.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
Wow.
Is she okay now?
Oh, yeah.
Doing way better now.
Yeah.
Oh, praise God.
That's awesome.
What a great story then.
So this crisis made you stop and look at your money?
Is that what you're saying?
Well, we were on our way.
Look at where you live and everything, right?
Yes, we were on our way.
It's weird because we were on our way for our anniversary to go celebrate our anniversary.
He goes, oh, let's go to Canada, get a hotel, you know, go eat out there for dinner.
And I'm like, okay.
And then we went to the mailbox first.
We stopped there, and then we looked at another medical bill.
We're like, we can't go.
I told him, we can't.
He goes, well, let's just go drive out there for lunch.
I said, okay.
So we drove out there, and it was well worth it
because I ended up seeing one of my starry-hilder, this one YouTube lady.
We're watching a YouTube lady that kind of got us out to Idaho.
And by chance, we stopped at a Safeway to use the restroom.
And her and her husband were there.
Wow.
Yeah.
So she got her picture taken with her.
Yeah, and I'm like, whoa, I think God worked it out that I got to see her.
Yeah.
Yeah, even though I was feeling like, oh, my gosh, you know, we were so much in
debt, huh?
So what happened after that, though, is I started my new job, and we went down to Boise,
and on the trip there is when we heard your radio station, and we were just so in debt.
We had all the debt you can imagine.
We had two TSP loans.
We had all the debt you can imagine. We had two TSP loans. We had car payments.
We were driving in a nice Lexus that she loved with the seat warmers.
Insurance payments. We had all kinds of stuff, just all the stupid stuff. And halfway through,
we're driving around the Snake River and just listening, and we hear you do the rant, you know, you can do this, you can get out of this.
You know, we're like, yeah, yeah, we should get out of here.
We've got to get out of where we are.
We are sick and tired of this.
So we bought beans and rice when we first got there
and started eating beans and rice since then, right?
Yep, yep.
And we stopped at a thrift store and bought like a 10-year-old copy of your Total Money
Makeover.
There you go.
A good worn one.
A good worn one.
Experienced book.
We started highlighting it, and it was game on at that point.
So good.
Now, so I have a question.
Throughout this journey, what was the hardest thing you all had to endure?
Eating beans and rice every day.
Well, the hardest thing to endure was saying no, learning how to say no.
To our kids.
To our kids, to things that we were just used to doing.
And we just, you know, we were not no people. We kind of enabled our kids in a lot of ways, and we learned not to do that anymore.
We were just kind of growing.
He helped us grow through this.
And, of course, Jesus Christ as well.
And so that would be the hardest part, just learning to say no and just praying hard
and just budgeting.
The budget was wonderful.
Every dollar was just awesome.
And our grocery bill
was how much? $700?
And it went down to...
$700 for two people.
No, for kids too.
We had three.
That's good. $300 just beans and rice and $700 for two people. No, for kids, too. We had three. Five total.
Yeah.
That's good.
$300 just beans and rice and whatever I could get with that.
And everybody survived.
Yeah.
And now you're going into retirement without a house payment or anything.
Amen.
How's that feel?
Feels wonderful.
Yeah.
I'm so proud of you guys.
Yeah.
I mean, you really embraced the whole idea and said, I'm going to live like no one else
so that later I can live and give like no one else, which is, of course, the byline on your shirt, right?
Amen.
Yeah.
Oh, and another thing that was really hard is he did sell my Lexus, and we only had one car so we could live like no one else.
Ouch.
So now what are you going to do now that the house is paid for?
Get a new car.
And pay cash for it. Yeah, he wants a truck and you pay cash for it and I'll eventually get a car.
Yeah, I was thinking you owe her a Lexus. I do. I'm thinking this is coming back up if you don't
handle it, brother. I'm just warning you here, okay? There's a process here. There's an ebb and
flow in this. Way to go, you guys.
Awesome.
Well done.
Who are your biggest cheerleaders?
Well, I guess I think our pastor and his wife because he did let us lead the class.
Oh, so you've led Financial Peace?
Twice.
Oh, well, thank you.
Yes.
That keeps you on track, too, doesn't it?
It does.
To be, you know, when you're coordinating, it's hard to not do the stuff.
That's right.
Yeah, with our first class, we were kind of doing our thing, too.
That was going on.
Paying off debt.
That was going on in the house.
We were force feeding.
And then we got that done.
And our second one, we were debt-free already.
So it was nice.
Yeah.
That's sweet.
Yeah.
Well done, you guys.
Well, we've got a copy of Rachel Cruz's latest New York Times bestseller for you.
Know yourself, know your money.
You've done so well.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
How fun.
Look at you, man.
It's amazing.
So proud of you.
Good stuff.
All right, David and Becky from Spokane, Washington.
$315,000 paid off in 53 months.
House and everything.
We're looking at weird people. $136,000 to $105,000 income off in 53 months. House and everything. We're looking at weird people.
$136,000 to $105,000 income.
Count it down.
Let's hear a debt-free scream.
Three, two, one.
We're debt-free!
Yeah!
This is how it's done.
You know, it is so interesting that sometimes families have a family crisis, like their daughter's illness, and it sets them back, destroys them.
Yeah.
And other times they use it as a reason to go, wait a minute, this is our wake-up call.
Yeah.
We have to change.
Yeah.
And it's the same exact situation.
It's more how you respond to the situation.
And that tells you where you're going to end up five years after it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I love that.
Hearing their story, they used something that was painful and actually turned it into something
that was the fire behind them to changing their life.
And not just their life, but their future children's and great-grandchildren's lives as well yeah and that i think for me that's that's so exciting just to
hear that because some people would use that as an excuse dave yeah yeah i said no we can't do it
we need to focus on that and it was like hey we're going to focus on this and change now this is the
no excuses theme hour yes sir i like it well Well done. Good stuff. Good stuff. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Anthony O'Neill Ramsey personality is my co-host today.
He is the host of The Table on YouTube.
And as a podcast, you need to check it out both ways.
Lots of fun and very profitable discussions happen around that table.
Be sure and check it out, The Table, as a podcast or YouTube.
Subscribe, and you'll be glad you did.
And, of course, number one bestselling author of the book, Debt-Free Degree.
Barbara is with us in Newark, Delaware.
Hi, Barbara.
Welcome to The Ramsey Show.
Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.
Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up?
Well, I retire in May after
21 years of nursing. Wow.
And I wanted to
know whether I should be
paying off my house with some of my
401 or whether I should
keep paying it monthly.
So when, how old are you? I know you like to pay monthly. So how old are you?
I know you like paid off houses.
How old are you?
I'm 66 and a half.
Say again?
66.
66.
And how much is in your 401k?
I have two.
We switched.
So I have $292 in one of them and $698 in in the other wow look at you a millionaire nurse
i'm terrible spending so i'm new to you terrible but good at working i'm uh well i'm proud of you
this is pretty incredible way to go how much of this you obviously didn't inherit your 401k money
did you have big inheritance money
that made you a millionaire nothing no you just worked just hard work 21 years of nursing yeah
that's impressive barbara started late after my children went to school yeah wow and yeah at 46
years old you go do this right now you Now you're 66, 25 years old.
So don't tell me it's too late.
My gosh, look at Barbara.
And so what's it take to pay off your house?
$179.
I'll do it tomorrow.
I'll do it tomorrow.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Now just take the $292 and just what about the taxes that are involved?
You'll have to set some taxes out.
There'll be a full tax rate on that.
And so get in touch with your tax
professional. Yeah, get in touch with your tax
professional so you know how much to pull out,
because you need to pull out enough to cover the taxes
as well. Okay. Good news is
the taxes won't be due until
this time next year.
Right. Okay.
Because you're doing it in this calendar year.
And so when you file the taxes is when you'll have this tax bill due on this.
But you don't want it to surprise you or sneak up on you or anything.
And so do you have any other monies other than these 401ks?
No.
Those are my two big savings.
I have $6,000 in my savings account.
And when I cash out everything here in May,
I'll have about $18,000 put into
emergency funds. Good, good.
Okay. Well done, kiddo.
So what's your house worth?
Oh, thanks.
Well, it's about $280 to
$300 in this market. Okay.
Good for you.
So I'm talking to a lady that's worth $1.2 million
with a paid-for house,
and her house represents about a third of her net worth.
You know what you are?
You fit the exact template of what we found when we studied millionaires,
and we studied 10,000 of them for the Everyday Millionaires Project,
and you're just exactly in there.
I mean, you're incredible.
I'm so proud of you. Well done. Thanks, Dave. Thank you're incredible. I'm so proud of you.
Well done.
Thank you, Dave.
Thank you.
It's an honor to speak to you.
Dad, this is really the theme hour of No Excuses.
My single mom started at around 45, 46 years old.
We don't know what happened up to that point.
Right.
But at that point, you start with zero.
Yep.
And you have a million dollars in your 401ks.
Wow. And an almost paid for $300,000 house where we reach over and pay it off.
And net worth does not change, by the way, when you do that because you're reducing the debt by the exact same amount you reduce the savings,
and so our net worth remains the same.
And she's got plenty of money left to live on and not a payment in the freaking world,
and she's a millionaire nurse at 66 years old
please america remember you can do this oh my gosh i don't know i mean i've got a spoon feed
some of you unbelievable what's it take to make some of you believe that'll do it man that's
incredible wow absolutely incredible hey kelly
keep up with her absolutely i want to i want to talk to her later oh yeah that's good man that's
amazing absolutely that's just because my gosh i mean wow because here's the thing when you're 45
yeah and i don't let's call it a divorce i don't know what happened maybe her husband passed away
right right but but But something happened.
Yes.
You're by yourself.
Yep.
And you got no money.
Yep.
And you got kids.
What are you going to do?
Yeah.
Well, you know, women can't get ahead.
Well, you know, single moms, they don't have a chance.
And then you can believe that. You know, single moms, they don't have a chance.
And then you can believe that.
You can sit in the corner, suck your thumb, and hope that the government will take care of you at retirement.
Or you can go be a studette.
Yes.
Wow, what a studette.
That's just amazing.
66 years old, 21 years later, she's a millionaire as a nurse.
She's not a lawyer.
She didn't play in the NBA. And she doesn't have a rock band yep she just did the practical things that we teach get out of debt invest and live
below your means because our house is not even that expensive dave like you could tell she
literally did our stuff when she learned about it, and it works.
Bottom line.
Yeah.
Bottom line.
And now.
I got people listening to me right now that are broke living in a million-two house.
Right?
Yeah.
And driving two freaking cars in the driveway that are 50,000 apiece, and you fleeced them,
and then you're scratching your head and crying because America ain't getting any opportunity.
No, you're just stupid.
Yeah.
That's the only problem.
It ain't got anything to do with that opportunity.
It's got to do with stupid. That's it, Dave. You're just walking around wearing stupid the only problem ain't gonna do with that opportunity it's got to
do with stupid you're just walking around wearing stupid around your neck every day and then
wondering why you're broke no excuses you know this is cray cray man i love that woman she's so
inspiring because she represents the fact that you if you're listening to me right now you can do
this yeah now dave now since she's at a retirement age, she has a million dollars.
Let's say, well, she has about $800,000 cash liquid in her 401k.
Does she pull from her 401k or does she just live off the interest?
Oh, definitely living off the interest.
Yeah.
I mean, but what's the ballpark of interest, you think?
Well, I mean, if she's got $800,000 and it made 10%, that'd be 80 grand, right?
That's a beautiful.
Which is probably more than she was making.
Exactly.
I was about to say, with no bills, 80 grand a year, that's a beautiful salary for someone in 66.
Living in a $300,000 house, 66 years old.
Shut up.
Wow.
This just drives, I mean, this jams me up right here.
Wow.
I'm telling you guys, I pain yeah from having done stupid things i have been in a pile
of stupid myself that i made for myself so i know exactly what it looks like i know exactly how it
feels but what i will not accept from any of you is that you can't do it so So good. Henry Ford said, if you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.
Yep.
And is it hard?
Well, of course it's hard.
Yeah.
If it wasn't hard, every little duper would do it.
Every little wuss would do it.
No, you got to be a stud.
You got to be a studette to do it, right?
Got to.
But, Dave, listen, buddy.
It's hard.
And I want it to be hard because later on it's got to but they listen by it i want it's hard and i want it to be hard because
later on it's going to be easier so now her retirement is easier because she was willing
to work and work like no one else if it's easy up front it's going to be hard in the ending
exactly hard up front you are going to pay a price which end do you want to pay it on there you go
dave and how big a price you want to pay by the way if you pay the price up front it's a smaller price absolutely here's the idea you retire at 65 you live 25
years on social insecurity 11 to 1300 a month eating alpo or you can freaking do this stuff
one of the two which price do you want to pay? I don't know. You mean not going on vacation?
You don't want me?
Dave Ramsey doesn't want me to have any fun.
Oh, shut up.
I want you to have the biggest fun ever.
Yes.
And you can have the biggest fun ever when you have some money and you're not broke and whiny.
Let's go, Dave.
Oh, my gosh.
This is awesome.
What a neat lady.
She fired me up. Can you tell? Yes. Oh, my gosh. This is awesome. What a neat lady.
She fired me up.
Can you tell?
Yes.
I think the whole hour fired us up.
Shoo!
That teacher, man.
Yes.
He jacked it up, too.
Pay cash for a home.
No excuses.
A teacher.
Pay cash for a home.
Yeah.
Love this.
Good hour.
Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality.
James Childs is the producer.
Kelly Daniel is our associate producer and phone screener.
I'm Dave Ramsey.
I cause trouble.
Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show.
This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry.
We list everything you've heard about during
this episode in the podcast show notes section
or head to theramseyshow.com.
Thanks for listening.