The Ramsey Show - App - Three Money Skills Your Kids Need (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 17, 2018

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is donned, 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. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Aaron is with us in San Antonio, Texas. Hi, Aaron.

How are you? I'm doing okay. How about yourself, sir? Better than I deserve. What's up? There we go. Well, so I have this question for you. Unbeknownst to me, I was audited by the IRS in 2013 and 2014 for those tax years.

I found out about it in 2018. Quite a shock, as you can imagine. I'm confused. Wait a minute. They audited you and you didn't know it yes sir absolutely yeah they and i know that everybody says oh well i didn't get the notices but you know i i bought a house in 2015 um and every every piece of mail that i got from the irs was always hey you know you haven't paid your taxes yet uh you're filing late you always

file late uh so i paid the approximate taxes. It's always a check of about $1,000 or so. And then I'd go ahead and file my taxes before the deadline in October. I'd stroke a check and then I'd do the exact same thing the next year. So I got a letter in the mail that I thought was a scam at first because there was a lot of that going around that I owed approximately $86,000 in taxes and that there was a tax lien on my home that I worked very hard for and I of course called and thought

it was a joke. Of course the insurer said it wasn't a joke. I still haven't got it wrapped around how exactly I can get every quote unquote good piece of mail from the IRS, but never the ones that tell me that I've been audited. So instead of, you know, trying to worry about the problem or trying to work out the solution,

I don't know why I wasn't notified. But that's the fact that it is, and I just need to try to find a way to get around this. And I'm looking at a big number. Well, the number is based on them doing an audit with incomplete information because they certainly didn't audit you physically. They just went through whatever paperwork they had on you and changed the numbers around. And so you need tax representation, $86,000. Yeah, you need a pro in your corner, and you need somebody that knows how to sit down and talk their lingo

and just go to DaveRamsey.com and click on ELP for endorsed local provider for taxes. Get in touch with a tax preparer in your area there that we ask them if they do audit work and if they can help you with this $86,000 problem. My suspicion is you don't know anywhere near $86,000 because. My suspicion is you don't owe anywhere near $86,000 because the audit was done without full information. Had you been able to give input on the audit, you would have been able to help them correct some of the bad assumptions they were making.

Dad, you're the world's worst tax preparer, and you actually do owe this. I'm fired by account, yes, sir. And you actually do owe this. So, yeah, you need to get someone in your corner that knows how to work this stuff. And then the second thing, Aaron, is this is your wake-up call. Because in listening to you, let me tell you loud and clear what I'm hearing. You are disorganized. You do not take care of business well.

And it is time you start start that's what got you screwed that's what got this cost you don't systematically intentionally pay your taxes late and succeed you need to systematically and intentionally pay every dime that you owe not a penny more on time slightly early very carefully prepared and the reason they audited you is you're so freaking erratic in your behaviors. You sent flares across the IRS's desk saying, please audit me. I'm asking for it. Because you're disorganized, you're late, and you're out of control. You've got to solve that.

That is part of what happened here. You've got to own that part of it and fix that but it sounds like you also got screwed so let's get in there and get it all fixed get you a tax preparer in your corner that knows what they're doing that handles audits and they can walk through having this read you're going to go back to those years and redo them read and to pull all the paperwork out you're going to prove what you really made what you didn't make and you're going to go back through and have a full-blown. It's going to be expensive. It's probably going to cost you $10,000.

But it will probably save you a bunch of that $86,000. Most of it is my guess. Shauna is in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Shauna. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? So my question is, I am due to have a baby in a couple weeks. Congratulations. Thank you. My partner and I have not gotten married yet. He wants to get married. I've been resistant because I have a Native American subsidy through Health Place Marketplace, which I'll lose once we get married. So I've been kind of postponing that. But my question is, I sold a house in Colorado, so I have a big chunk of money just sitting in my savings account, about $100,000. And I'm wondering, what should I do with that? I was going to help pay some money down on, I guess it's his house because we're not married yet, but try to get that down.

And then our plan was to refinance next year after we get married. Would you send me $50,000 of that money? No. Why not? I'm not married to you, and you're giving money away to men that you're not married to. Well, it's, I mean, we see it as our house. I think you're sweet. Send me some money.

And he actually, we both owned houses in Colorado, which we both sold. Yeah, I'm trying to point out to you how stupid an idea it is to pay down somebody else's house. Well, so don't do that until it's our house. Right. Is what you're saying. Yeah, you have no ownership position. You might as well go knock on the next door neighbor's door and give them 50 grand. It's the same thing from a legal position.

You understand? Okay. Yes. I mean, like your friend lets you spend the night in their spare bedroom one night, so you put $50,000 down on their mortgage. It's kind of the same thing. Could he put me on the deed? Yeah, he could, but now you've got a general partnership,

which is dangerous as crud. There's no way to undo this mess. Listen, you need to decide. You need to paint or get off the ladder, okay? Are we going to be married, or are we going to just walk around acting like we're married? If you're going to walk around acting like you're married, keep your stuff completely separate. Because then you just have a roommate.

If you're going to be married, then combine everything. But don't combine stuff when you're not married. It leaves you so vulnerable. And it really is going to leave you looking foolish if this thing unravels on you. So I'm an old-fashioned guy. I'd say get married. And there's all kinds of data, by the way, aside from my Christian faith. But there's all kinds of socioeconomic data that says that people who are married succeed much more than those who are shacking up.

They live longer. They prosper more. They have higher incomes. They're healthier. I mean, it's bizarre what the actual data points come out to be. And it's kind of lost on this. You know, some folk who think they've got, you know, got this all figured out. But it turns out God had a real plan, and he cares about you.

And it involves marriage. So you do what you want to do, honey. I mean, if you were my daughter, that's exactly what I would tell you, though. And I'm always going to tell you the truth, not because I'm trying to get entertainment value out of you, because I care about you. I want you to win. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Okay, things are getting pretty weird out there. I thought the Equifax breach was bad enough.

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and they take over all the work if you become a victim. I use it for my family and my entire team. Call 800-356-4282 or visit Zander.com. That's Zander.com. Phoenix, Arizona is calling. Damian and Ronda are with us. Hi, guys. How are you? We're good.

How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congrats. How are you? We're good. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congrats. How much have you paid off? We paid off $64,112 in 14 months. Love it. And your range of income during that time? We started at $130,000, and we're about at $164,000 right now. Nice income. What do you guys do for a living? I am a correctional officer for the state of California. I'm a commercial truck driver. Okay.

For the state of California, you live in Phoenix? I do. It's a little crazy. I work for the state of California. I've been there for almost 19 years, and we decided to move. It's a two-hour commute, but I stay there when I work, and I'm there for three days, and I'm home for four days. Oh, okay. A little crazy, but...

Just trying to get to the 20-year mark or something, or what? Pretty much exactly. Yeah, okay. All right, cool. Well, cool. What kind of debt was this $64,000? About $2,700 was the rest of my car. $7,000 was three credit cards we had, and $54,000 was Damien's student loan.

Sally Mae kicked the old woman out. Sally Mae had to go. She's gone. Give her eviction notice. Put her on the street. What's your degree in, Damien? Business. All right.

Very good. Cool. So how long you two been married? It would be 11 years in November. So what happened 14 months ago? Well, approximately 16 months ago, my husband was driving. He was at work, and he's been listening to your radio station. And I was almost ready to finish paying off my car,

and I wanted to lease another one, or lease one, because, you know, I wanted a nice car. So Damien's telling me about this guy named Dave Ramsey, and I listen to him. I'm like, yeah, okay, whatever. Finally, you were on. He said, hey, turn on 92.3. Dave's on. I listened, and pretty much I was hooked after that.

We sat down. We went over a budget, had some arguments over budget, over money, but we got it together. What was the biggest budget fight you had? At the time, we had two different bank accounts, and I just wanted everything to be in one bank account, and we fought over that a little bit, but then we got it together, and that was pretty much it. I handled everything financially, and I set up the EveryDollar, which is amazing, and it was game on after that, Dave, I'm telling you.

We were fired up. It was like a game to us. Very cool. That's fun. Good for you. Yeah. What do you. Yeah. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Just working together, a budget, communication.

That will be my thing, communication. And just working together and being attentional with your money the big thing being attentional with your money knowing where your money goes yeah that's a big deal yeah

wow thank you so much for your ministry thank you for everything you do the people in the front the people in the back you guys are amazing and I went to a conference

out here and it changed my life so i just want to thank you for everything that you do and helping people like us to get out of debt so thank you dave ramsey i appreciate it i'm proud of you you're a hero you guys did great we just showed you how you're the one bothered to go do it not everybody does that not everybody follows you so you guys now you changed your whole life have you you ever been debt-free in your entire marriage? No. No.

No. She talked me into getting my first credit card years ago. Thanks. We've been pretty good. Yeah. Well, thank goodness that great radio station. Phoenix Radio Station is one of the top stations in our whole network. They do a great job.

Yeah, they're wonderful. Very cool. Congratulations cool congratulations you guys we're proud of you how's it feel to not have any payments but a house payment it's awesome it's a relief it's a it's a big stress reliever i'll tell you that for sure well i'll tell you what we're going to give you a copy of chris hogan's retire inspired book and that's the next chapter in your story to not only be debt free but now to also become millionaires and outrageously generous along the way that's the whole process this is just one chapter here we go it's game on still doing it still going damien and ronda in Aranda in Phoenix, Arizona, $64,000 paid off in 14 months, making $130,000 to $164,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

To God be the glory. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! There it is. I love it. Game on, baby. Game on. Oh, man.

Thank you. Congratulations, you guys. Very proud of you. Melissa's in Sacramento. Hi, Melissa. How are you? Hey, Daveave thanks so much for taking my call sure what's up i'm a single full-time working mom uh just completed fpu this past march eyeball deep in baby step two um got great support i've got a dear friend who's a fantastic accountability partner my son is uh even went to some of the FPU classes with me. So I've got great support 95% of the time there. Dave, I'm there. I'm intentional.

I'm on it. I'm gazelle. But then there's that 5%, man, where I start playing the I deserve, oh, poor me. It's all on me, and I should go buy a new jacket. And I'm just wondering if you have any tips, any strategies, when my mind's in that place that I can just bring it back to where it needs to be. much debt you got uh i started out with um 18 000 and i'm down to a little over 10 way to go way to go and how much what's your what's your what's your income sorry what's your income 50 50 000 a year okay, I can think of three things that come to mind. The first one is, welcome to the human race. Sometimes we all feel that way. You know?

Yeah. I teach this stuff every day, and I get the I deserve it sometimes. We all have that feeling, especially in a whole culture full of entitled snowflakes, right? I mean, they're all around us, right? They feel like they were born on third base and feel like they hit a triple. We feel like we deserve something we don't deserve. That's just part of being who we are in America right now. So that just makes you normal.

That doesn't mean it causes you to win and doesn't mean you don't need to fight back against it because that isn't how you paid off half of your debt almost. Yeah. It was by being intense. It wasn't by being entitled. Right. So you intellectually know that. But first, I just want to say that's just kind of normal.

Anybody that stays 100 percent gazelle intense all the time, 24-7 is on drugs. I mean, you know, you got every body has some kind of let down sometime, you know, regardless of how strong you are, how much energy you have, or whatever else. So, second thing, though, is I'd put a big thermometer on your refrigerator because you need to remind yourself how far you've come, and you don't want to have to go back. I don't. And going back is buying a jacket you can't afford. It causes that thermometer to go the wrong direction, right? I mean, if you've got that thermometer and you walk through the kitchen, it's like 8,000 out of 18 is gone every day when you open up the refrigerator door.

It's a reminder of that. And then you mark down some more, and you mark down some more as you go. Sharon and I needed to be reminded how far we had come. That kept our hope meter up. And then the next thing is to have accountability, which you have. And, I mean, the 12-steppers do that. If somebody's a drunk and they've been dry for two months, they think about having a drink. What do they do?

They call their sponsor, and their sponsor chews them out. No, you don't be a drunk. You're not going in that bar. And they talk them off the ledge. You need people in your corner that love you like that. And then lastly, put yourself a big picture of your why somewhere. Why is it you're changing your life? What's your why? What's your reason for doing this? Remember that, and then it makes it worth it. We need to talk about something you've been hiding. It's your smile.

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Smile Love's proven streamlined method is the most affordable option for straightening your teeth. We're talking about saving you thousands. Order today at smilelove.com and use the promo code Dave to receive $100 off. SmileLove.com. Promo code Dave. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Jason and Brittany are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Hi, Dave. Hey, Dave.

We're better than we deserve. I love it. Welcome. Where do you guys live? Phoenix, Arizona. Oh, fun. How much debt have you guys paid off? We paid off $95,315 in 15 months.

Way to go. That's two Phoenix debt-free screams in a row. The last one by phone, you guys in person. That's right. Very cool. What's your range of income? Base was about $120,000. With all said and done, we had about $165,000 for the year.

Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm a paramedic supervisor. And I work in corporate wellness. Good. Good for you guys. Great. So what kind of debt was the $95,000?

What do you people buy? It'd be easier to tell you what the debt didn't include. We had some cars in there, had a motorcycle, some student loans for her graduate school. Credit cards. Credit cards, just consumer. Random stuff through the years. You were normal. We were normal. We had a couple years worth of medical expenses.

She was diagnosed with cancer throughout the process of our journey. How are you doing? I'm great now. I'm done with treatment, done with surgery. I'm all in the clear. Hey, praise God. That's awesome. Yep.

So we had several thousand of medical expenses with that and just general consumer being normal in this. Yeah. Wow. Man. Yeah, you just kind of bought stuff and bought stuff. And then 15 months ago, something happened. What happened?

Well, we'd heard about you through some friends, some friends that I work with. Hi, Mike and Chrissy. Thanks for introducing us to Dave. I was at the bookstore and just looking for a book to buy and came across the Total Money Makeover and brought it home and read it and just kind of liked what I read and got her to read it. Yeah, I told him if he read it and liked it and didn't get bored with it, then I would read it. And so we were locked in at that point. It's probably the first book that I'd read in well over 15 years.

And you read it fast. I read it fast. It latched me in, and I really enjoyed it, and we've been listening to you ever since. We went to the Smart Conference out in Phoenix last year, so that kind of kept us motivated because that was a couple months into the process for us. Yeah, it helps to go to the pep rally. Oh, it was very much a pep rally. So motivating.

It does. That's cool. And the Smart Conference is a pep rally on steroids because it's all day long. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Way to go, you guys. So the book and the Smart Conference, and here you are, huh?

Pretty much, yeah. Wow. So what's the secret? What do you tell people when you, how'd you do that? You pay off $95,000 in 15 months. What do you do to get out of that? Well, so for us, we had to do a budget. We never really budgeted our money, and we were just careless with it.

So once we figured out what we were spending money on, it was really disgusting in some areas. Yeah, it was. Like, how could we spend so much money on groceries for the two of us? So we got into the budget and just realized how much money we had left over and what we could do with it and how quickly we could pay the debt off. Very good. Yeah. There's that moment where you go, where's this all going? Are we this bad?

Yeah, we had that moment. Yeah. You do feel like you got a raise and like we got to be more responsible. Yeah. And there's that. That's cool. What else? What else got you out of debt? Just communicating and being on the same page and having the goals of wanting to not be forced to work until we're 70 years old.

And once we got ourselves in that mindset and realized where our money was going, it was pretty easy to get gazelle intense and just pay it off. How long ago were you cancer free? Recently. I finished chemo just this last fall, finished radiation in January. So you've been doing this while you were getting out of debt. Yeah, during all of it. And I had my last surgery in May. Oh, my gosh.

Let's just lay two big challenges on top of each other. Twelve of the 15 months were her going through cancer, so about three months into it. And it was just motivating because we didn't want to have piles and piles of medical debt just sitting there. We knew that now for years ahead of me, I'm going to meet my out-of-pocket max all the time, so we're prepared for it now. I mean, you're fighting cancer. I mean, during that 12, 14 months, how many times did you just want to go, let's just wait on this.

I'm going to just work on the cancer thing. I mean, it would have been real easy to claim victim status and go i got cancer i'm not screwing with this yeah that's true but um i don't know it didn't occur to you not really i'm a fighter i just wanted to push through it was kind of a nice distraction to read the books oh that's at home not really feeling that great yeah that's fair and say i got a i got a different kind of goal while i, I'm, you know, I'm letting my body fight this. And so I'm going to fight the money piece. That makes sense. Okay.

I'll go with that. Because, I mean, I'm such a wuss, a hangnail. I'll be in intensive care whining, you know. So I can't imagine fighting through chemo and fighting through getting out of debt. You guys are heroes, man. Thank you. You're a warrior, girl. I'll tell you, that's amazing.

Very, very cool. So now you're cancer girl. I'll tell you, that's amazing. Very, very cool. So, now you're cancer-free and debt-free. That's right. This is like a double. This is a double dip. Yeah. This is pretty cool. How old are you?

I'm 31. I'm 30. Wow. What kind of cancer? Breast cancer. Okay. Wow. Yeah.

Wow. Touchdown. Well done. Well done. Good job, you guys. Thanks. So, how's it feel now? It feels awesome. Yeah, it's amazing. It's a Good job, you guys. Thanks. So how's it feel now? It feels awesome.

Yeah, it's amazing. It's a weight lifted off our shoulders. We don't have to worry about checking our balances every month when it comes time to pay bills. And it's one less thing to worry about. And it's really an awesome feeling. Yeah. And in the beginning, it seemed so overwhelming to pay off that much money. And I thought, gosh, we're never going to get to Dave Ramsey's studio and do our debt-free scream.

It's going to be 2023 by the time that happens. We figured you'd be retired before. I'm not going to retire, so it's okay. I'm going to keep going. It helped a lot throughout it. We sold so much stuff the dogs thought they were next. We actually sold our house and moved and sold a motorcycle and sold a car. What did the motorcycle sell for?

I think it was for like $3,500. That actually went towards finishing our Baby Step 3. Oh. So that didn't actually go to the debt, but it did help seal up Baby Step 3 for us. How much did the car sell for? $4,000. It was a Corvette. An old one.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. An old one in not very good shape for four grand. It ran. It ran. It was decent shape, but it was one of those things I've heard you talk a lot about people trying to sell the

cars, and it's just not moving at the price you got listed, so you've got to change the price to adjust what people are looking for. That's why I'm going to try that. I learned that from you. I could have gotten more if I waited out, but your teachings, I was like, eh, I need to just get rid of it.

I don't really want to sell it, but I need to act like I really want to sell it. Pretty much, yeah. I hear you. Good for you guys. Oh, and we led our first FPU class this year as well. Oh, wow. That was great.

Thank you. Thank you for coordinating a class. Very fun. Good job. Well, we're proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you. Well a class. Very fun. Good job. Well, we're proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you. Well done, you two.

Impressive couple. Very impressive. Appreciate it. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired, and that is the next chapter in your story to be millionaires. Can't wait. And outrageously generous as you go along. Yep, plan on it.

Well done. Good stuff. Jason and Brittany, Phoenix, Arizona. $95,000 paid off. Cancer free. 15 months making $120,000 to $165,000. Count it down. Let's hear

a debt free scream. 3, 2, 1. We're debt free! Yeah! Yeah! Woo! Oh, my gosh. Please don't call me up after that one, whining about how hard it is. She beats cancer and debt while you're whining.

So just shut up, okay? Wow. Oh, man. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. 100% satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they'll remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos, you save even more. Always use the promo code Ramsey.

It's magic. Yeah. Today's question comes from John in Idaho. I recently flipped my first house and made $142,000 profit. Whoa! I lived in the house for five years, so I won't be charged capital gains. Well, there's always that. Not exactly flipping

a house, but I would like to be able to access the funds to purchase another home six months to a year from now. Or can I safely park my profit and maximize any interest? Well, you can't do both. You've got to decide which one you want to do. Do you want to maximize your rate of return, or do you want to safely park it?

I personally would recommend you safely park it and don't make any interest. That's called a money market account, and you're going to make 1%. If you want to put some of it into a mutual fund, you can. You might make a few thousand dollars, but you might lose a few thousand dollars. If you want to take that chance, then you can park some of it in a mutual fund. But that short a term, I personally would tell you to go with a money market account. This is not the time to maximize. This is the time to protect. Personal opinion, but you ask me. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. So you want to know why you need to get your financial act together? Is it so you can buy some cool stuff?

Well, sure, if you want to. But stuff won't make you happy. I've never seen a rider truck following a hearse. That's not your legacy. You put yourself in a position to change your family tree. You put yourself in a position to help others in a way that you never dreamed you would or could. You put yourself in a position to be generous. So I walk out of the commercial break and I got to meet Reagan.

Now, that was probably the greatest privilege of my day today. Reagan is 11 days old. She was just born. And she was with her new mom and dad who just stopped by after they finalized the adoption she just got to meet her new mom and dad a couple days ago

and they come by the Dave Ramsey show who goes to a radio show after they just adopt a baby? That's just one of the greatest honors of my day. Because they wanted to stop by and say they were able to do that because they had the money. Touchdown. Touchdown. You just won the Super Bowl. You get to give a little girl a home,

because you were grown-ups, and you had your act together. Touchdown. Touchdown! Doesn't get any better, y'all. What's your big thing? That's a big thing right there. Now, Reagan's not a very big thing.

She's 11 days old. She wasn't much bigger than a good-sized loaf of bread. Tiny little girl. Wow. What's your thing? See, if you want to do something that is noble, if you want to do something that is of scale, you want to do something big,

then it's first going to require that you address the person in your mirror and grow up and start handling your money so that you have some. And then you can do stuff like that. Or maybe you can pay for someone else to do something like that. You see, I'm old. I'm 58. The chances of me adopting a child are zero. Absolutely zero. I'm not even sure I want a dog.

I love grandbabies because they have this feature to them that you send them home when you're through with them. Adopted babies don't have that feature, and I won't be adopting a child. But wow, what a place to be in financially that you could cause someone else to be able to do that now i didn't pay for that adoption that's not what i'm saying i didn't do that they paid for the adoption but they were able to because of financial peace university because they learned how to handle money and because they chose to be grown-ups adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good.

Great honor of my day to get to meet Reagan. Elizabeth is with us in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Elizabeth. How are you? I'm fantastic, Dave. Thank you for speaking to me. Sure. What's up?

I have kind of a two-part question i have a kid that is old enough now that he's making a little bit of money during the summer and i was wondering firstly what should we teach him um as far as uh what percentage of it he should save versus giving and spending and secondly what can I do to help him invest what he has saved, even though it's not that much? How old is he? He's eight. Oh, cool. And how much is he making?

Probably about $500 a summer. Great. What's he doing? Well, we have a farm. He works a little bit around the farm, and he does some stuff for the neighbors as well. I like this kid. He's going to be somebody.

Yeah, he is. Here's the thing. The amount of money that we're fooling with is small enough that if we completely screw it up, financially it doesn't matter. So the money is not what's important. It's the lesson that's learned that's important there are three things that everyone if you're going to be successful financially needs to learn to do you need to learn to work because that's where money comes from well your son's already got

that figured out and that's the beauty of growing up on a farm you learn hard work not just work but hard work you know eight years old this kid can work more than some of the 50-year-old snowflakes that are out there complaining about not having a job. I mean, it's unbelievable, you know. This kid can work. So he's already got that one. And then his mom's going to teach him the other three, which is perfect, and that's give, save, and spend.

So my point is, how he saves is really unimportant except for the lessons he learns by saving. How he gives, how much he gives, is really unimportant except for the lessons he learns by giving and how he spends. You follow the track here, okay? Because if he screws the whole thing up, it's 500 bucks. I mean, it's not going to change his life. If he invested in the world's best investment and puts 100% of it in there,

it's not going to turn into a lot of money. Oh, it would, you know, 100 years from now. But, I mean, it's just that's not the point of this. The point of this is we're going to teach this kid how to be a saver. We're going to teach this kid how to be a giver. And we're going to teach this kid how to be a wise spender because this kid already knows how to work. Yes.

And if you teach him those three skills, if you help him build those muscles, and you can come up with the percentages. And here's an idea. Why don't you let him what we call set his own poison in management or in leadership. We call it management by objectives. Set his own goals. What percentage do you think you ought to save? What percentage do you think you ought to give?

And what percentage do you think you ought to spend? Because you have to do all three. I want you to do some saving, I want you to do some giving, and I want you to enjoy by spending, enjoy some of the money you earned. And so just lay out a little budget and go, okay, out of every $10 you get, we're going to put 10% into the giving, if you want to. If you tithe, if you're Christians like we are, we always put 10% in giving. That's at least what you're going to do, right? And we're going to put 30% in spending or 50% in spending or whatever.

I don't care. Let him set the percentages. And then I would just start with a simple savings account. I wouldn't worry about going to investing yet. If a little bit later on you want to get a little fancier and start him into a mutual fund the reason for the mutual fund is not to invest it wisely the reason for the mutual fund is to teach him how mutual fund works because it's not going to turn into any money because it's not any money right and so but if you can get him going

like our kids they didn't actually have a mutual fund that they put money in. They always saved towards their car because we made them buy half their car. We matched them. We had 401 days for the car. We did matching. And so our kids did not personally, their earned income that they earned did not go into a mutual fund. But I was investing in mutual funds for their college. And so there would be a mutual fund

come in the mailbox, a statement that says Daniel Ramsey on it. I get it out. Daniel, sit over here. Look at this. And he's eight years old, and I'm going, okay, here's the number of shares you have, and here's what each share is worth, the share price. Now tell me what that total account is worth.

You multiply the number of shares times the share. You're eight years old, you know that. You know more about a mutual fund statement now than most 40-year-olds. And he knew that at eight years old. It really wasn't rocket science. It's sixth-grade math, or fourth-grade math, you know. But just showing him to not be intimidated by investing. And so it was more the example that mattered.

And then he got to where, hey, Dad, I haven't seen my college fund in a while. Let me see how much is in there. And kind of gave him some confidence. Plus it brainwashed him that he was going to college, right? So, you know, that kind of stuff. So that's the kind of thing you're looking for is that sense of investment, that sense of giving, and that sense of enjoyment that's more important than the actual function of what he's doing. Because you've got a little stud on your hands here. This little guy, he's going places.

Hey, we've got a wonderful product to help teens learn how to start and run their own business, and he's already doing it, but I'm going to help him. It's called the Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox. And I know he's not technically a teen, but I'm going to send you one anyway. The Small Business Guide for Teens. the Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox. And I know he's not technically a teen, but I'm going to send you one anyway. The Small Business Guide for Teens. Anthony O'Neill, our youth Ramsey personality, is the one who put this together with our team. It's a whole box of teaching aids to help your teen get started and run a business. I'm going to send you one of these.

And your youngster is going to really love this stuff because this guy is a little stud, man. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly Daniel, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that in 2017, Dave Ramsey Show listeners paid off $50 million of debt? That's pretty impressive, And it could be you this year. Keep listening for more inspiration.