The Ramsey Show - App - Tim Tebow Joins Dave in Studio (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 28, 2018

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. The phone number here, 888-825-5225. Well, you guys know I'm from the South, and what you may not know is there's a rule if you're from the South. You cannot merely enjoy football.

College football is a religion where I grew up. And sometimes it's a religion that will break your heart and make you cry, like right now as a long-s and make you cry, like right now, as a long-suffering University of Tennessee graduate right now. But around here, we take our football pretty seriously. Some of you people out there in the other parts of the country don't understand that, and we'll let you join America later. But this is how it works around here.

It's been a tough past 10 years for you as a UT fan. It has been a tough past 10 years for you as a UT fan. It has been. So it's an honor to have in the studio Heisman Trophy winner, two-time national championship, first-round draft pick in the NFL, the one and only Tim Tebow. Thanks for dropping by, brother. My pleasure. It's such an honor to be here and great meeting you and just appreciate what you do.

Well, we're honored to have you, sir. New book out. Number one, he is a New York Times bestselling author. The new book is called This Is the Day. Reclaim your dream. Ignite your passion. Live your purpose. Sounds like a plan.

Sounds like a plan. So when I see that as a fellow believer, I always think of that phrase that we always in church, this is the day that the Lord has made. I rejoice in me glad in that. And there really is a piece of this book, and there were several motivations. That was one of them, about truly understanding how to rejoice in every day and pursue your life and pursue what you love with purpose, with passion, with meaning. And I was inspired by several things.

And one of it was I was just around so many people growing up, and even in professional sports, football and baseball that were one dayers. You know, one day I'm going to do this. One day I'm going to do that. One day I'm going to start a diet. One day I'm going to go on a mission trip. One day I'm going to get right with the Lord. One day I'm going to tell my parents I love them.

One day I'm going to do all these things. One day I'm going to get debt free. And it was all of these little things. And I was like, you know what? I just don't want to live like that. I don't want to be a one dayer where every time my alarm goes off, I'm disappointed because I got to start my day. No, I want to love every day. I want to pursue the things that I'm passionate about, pursue the things that have meaning, pursue purpose in my life. And then, you know, probably the last thing

that really inspired me for this is my dad got Parkinson's and, you know, he's my biggest hero and my biggest role model and always has and he lived this message out for me every day about truly having a life of purpose passion and meaning and i got to see him you know for my dad it wasn't about what he told me it was about what he'd lived in front of me every day of my life and still does to this day he just got back from another trip to the philippines with parkinson's and had it for several years and you know sometimes struggling to walk but he'll still stand up there and preach and and share share with people. And, you know, that's such an inspiration to me. And I just want to encourage that message to,

you know, the rest of the world that there is a plan for you. There is a purpose for you while you're here and go out and don't let anybody tell you different because the rest of the world is going to try to define you, but they don't get that right. Only God does. Yeah. Amen. Very good. Chris Hogan, one of our Ramsey personalities says personalities, says someday is not a day on the calendar. Yeah. There's no someday. Some day. Some.

I can't say it like he does. Someday. Someday. Or like some some day or like February or whatever. Yeah. All that kind of thing. So reclaim your dream is a good phrase because most people already knew what it was. They just said it on the shelf, didn't they?

They sure did. And a lot of times we listen to other voices. We listen to the negativity. We listen to fear. We listen to doubt. And all of those things stop us from truly pursuing what our dream is and what our purpose is. And we stop because we say, oh, shoot.

Well, what if I fail? What if I don't make it? What if I fall short? And what if I'm embarrassed? And because we say those what ifs to ourselves, we stop. And we truly don't pursue it. We go a little bit. We're mediocre.

We try a little bit, but not enough where we're embarrassed. Who said falling short? When did falling, when did messing up, when did not reaching it, when did that ever become a falling when did messing up when did not reaching it when did that ever become a bad thing because guess what we get to get back up and try it again and try it again and try it again but the greatest regret we're going to have is to look back and say why didn't i try not oh man you realize how many times i tried for that no we get to look back and say if we truly give everything we have we get to look at back with so little regret because we said you know what i gave everything I had.

Left it all on the field. Left it all on the field. Seth Godin, my friend, says that too many times we say, if I try this, it might not work. If I try this, of course it might not work. If I throw this pass, it might be an interception. But, I mean, you don't get to be. If I don't throw, I'll never throw a touchdown. Ever.

Ever. Yeah. If you don't, you know, as Jordan said, I missed 100% of the shots I never took. That's exactly right. And so, yeah, you got to lay it out there. You got to go for it. You got to do there. So what made you decide to do this particular book? This is your third or fourth? This is my third trade book. Yes. And I had some different books off of it, but every one was because there was something on my heart that I wanted to share. And this was really on my heart. I was playing minor league baseball, and we were in another small town, and it was early in the morning.

I went to the gym trying to get a workout, and I couldn't do it. People were bothering me nonstop, so I was kind of frustrated. Honestly, I was in a bad mood. And I left, and I went with one of my teammates one of my coaches we walked next door to a public's and went inside the public's and i was in the back and i saw a boy with his he has special needs with his mom and and i have a heart for people with special needs i thought maybe i'll walk by him and maybe he'll he'll recognize me or you know something and i could take a picture with him or encourage him and no idea and walk right by him

so i was like all right so we went to the back i grabbed a protein shake grabbed a couple snacks and i get go to to check out and they were they walked right in front of me so i'm standing behind them and and then a lot of the public people recognizes they come up taking pictures and so finally i finished with them i stand in line and the mom turns around. She says, what's your name? I said, my name's Tim. She said, wait a second. What's your last name? I said, it's Tebow. My name's Tim Tebow.

Instantly, when I said that, she started bawling, and tears come down, rolling down the side of her face. I'm thinking, kind of what hit home right there? She grabs her son, and she turns him around. He has severe special needs. And she's bawling and she says, hey, this is the guy that puts on the proms for you. The proms that you went to when you went down a red carpet and you got all dressed up and you were crowned the king. So she had no idea who I was from baseball, from football, nothing. She knew me because I loved her son enough to throw a prom for them.

And so instantly when she said that to him, his face lit up, and he gave me a big hug. And so then I start crying, and we're all crying right there. And I walked out of that Publix, or I walked in with such a bad attitude and frustrated, irritated, and I walked out thinking, man, at any time, at any moment, you never know how God's working for something special. And this is the day if we really open our eyes that, and I got in an Uber driving back

to our hotel room. And that's when I came up with the title for this is, this is the day because every day can have meaning. Even if I didn't realize it, even if I didn't have a good attitude, even if I wasn't approaching it, we still serve such a big God that every day can have purpose, passion, and meaning in your day. And that's one of the stories that really inspired me to get after this book. You got time to hang for another segment?

Of course. The Tim Tebow is with us. First round NFL draft pick. Heisman Trophy winner. A list of accolades that go on, including producing of primes. Good stuff. The book is This Is The Day. Reclaim your dream.

Ignite your passion. Live your purpose. Check it out. It's going to be another bestseller. This Is The Day. Ramsey shout. Did you know, statistically, when it comes to life insurance and protecting your family, that women are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than men? This doesn't make any sense.

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This is something every family has to deal with. That's zander.com or 800-356-4282. Join me this half hour, Tim Tebow, two-time national champion, first-round NFL draft pick, Heisman Trophy winner, now playing for the farm team for the Mets on his way to the bigs, heading that way. Today, he is a best-selling author again. This is the Day is what the book is called.

Reclaim your dream, Ignite your passion. Live your purpose. So part of the Ramsey brand, because when I've been on radio for almost 30 years now, part of the Ramsey brand has become my faith because I talk about it all the time. And it's woven in me. We teach biblical financial principles. And so it's woven into that. And yet we're mainstream. I mean, we're also in the quote

christian world so to speak but uh we're mainstream and we're on everything and everywhere and consequently i catch uh truckloads of garbage and um and i've watched you with your faith even since you were just a college kid and you're what 30 30 31 31 okay so you're my So you're my kid's age. My kids. And I've watched you take this bold stand and very open stand about your faith, never back down from it. And man, you have caught some crap for that. You have caught some amazing stuff. Talk about that journey a little bit. Well, you know, it was never to take a stand.

It was to be who I am and to try to be who God wanted me to be. You know, as people would look and they would say, oh, you took a knee and you were praying on the sidelines. And they're like, I didn't start that when I was in Denver when people knew it as T-bowling. I started that when I was a sophomore in high school. And I did it every single game in high school, in college, and in pros. It wasn't something I started when the cameras turned on. It started before anyone ever knew who I was. And you just try to be who God wanted you to be in the midst of those situations.

And I think you've got to understand, when you try to stand for something that has meaning and purpose behind it, there are going to be people that are going to tear you down. And one of my favorite quotes, I'll mess it up, but it's by Winston Churchill, and it says, if you have enemies, good. It means you stood for something at least once in your life. And, you know, a lot of times we're afraid to stand for things because we're going to have opposition.

Opposition's not the worst thing. It means that we're standing for something that has meaning and true purpose. And so it's knowing that there will be opposition, but in the midst of it, am I doing what's right? Am I doing what God wants me to do? And am I trying to affect as many people as possible in a good way? Because ultimately, it comes down to very few things. It's come down to loving God and loving people. And I try to do the best I can at that. Well, you've done a great job. Your your brand what we see from the outside looking and you and i met today personally for the first time but what we've seen from the outside what looking in um as a fellow believer walking in some of the same social media garbage um that that that we get at thrown at us but um you've done a good job with you. Thank you. You've held it steady, and you've not been unkind in your responses and so forth that I've ever seen anyway.

So great job with that. Well, thank you. This is the day. Reclaim your dream. Ignite your passion. Live your purpose. Living your purpose. One of our Ramsey personalities, Ken Coleman, talks about all the time, finding your purpose,

finding what your passion is and weaving that into what you're doing. Talk about living your purpose because it's more than just your day-to-day activities, isn't it? Absolutely. You know, it's funny. I have a lot of young people that will come up to me a lot and they'll say, hey, how do I know what I'm supposed to do? How do I know my calling or my purpose or what am I supposed to do? And I'll say, first of all, I have no idea. But secondly, have your eyes ever been open to a need or a problem or someone that was hurting? Have you ever seen it? And they're always going to be like, yes, of course. And I'll say, well, what is,

when have your eyes been open or you've seen a problem where you've really, on your heart, you've said, man, I want to go, I want to help that. And they'll say an example or something. And I'll say, well, maybe if your eyes have been opened to something and you see it, maybe that's something you're supposed to do. For me, it was when I was 15 years old. I was on a mission trip in the Philippines. And I met a boy in a very remote jungle with his feet on backwards. And the whole village looked at

him as cursed. His name is Sherwin and they looked at him as cursed and the more you touched him, the more chance you had of being cursed. And I fell in love with this boy and I knew leaving that village and that mountaintop that what I want to do for the rest of my life more so than baseball, more so than football, more so than writing, more so than anything else that I want to do is I want to fight for people that can't fight for themselves. Because that day my eyes were open to someone that was hurting and I knew that I could fight for him and that I could love him, I could care about him. And right now for kids that have what Sherwin has, we have a hospital in the Philippines where we pick them all up for free and we take them and they get operated.

And not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. Because my eyes were opened 16 years ago to that young boy with his feet on backwards. And to the kids that are less fortunate, don't give a chance. You and me, we know what it's like to be cheered for, to be clapped for, to be celebrated. But a lot of them don't. So you know what? We have what we call a night to shine, which is a worldwide prom for people with special needs. And this year we're going to have 654 of them in 22 countries on one night with over 200,000 volunteers.

And you know why we do that is because every single one of them deserve to walk down a red carpet and be cheered and be crowned the king or the queen of the prom and be loved. And we do that because we get to tell them this is how the God of the universe universe sees you every single day that's how much you matter that's your worth that's what you represent to the god of this universe he loves you that much and and that's why the biggest party in your town and that night is for you so so i get kind of fired up about it sometimes that's good that's good it's amazing that's a great program love it. And special needs kids that can't think of anything better that you want to rally around and welcome down a red carpet and give that. Speaking of getting fired up, when someone sees their passion like that, it seems like you've got a natural spark that ignites yours.

I mean, I've seen it two or three times already. It's just like when it goes right the fuse lit right is that something you've practiced or is that something someone can install i mean because sometimes i've i see people it's like trying to what trying to light wet wood i mean it's like come on dude you know like i want it more for them than they want it for themselves i see what they can do and they don't believe it anymore. You want someone to care. That lack of hope. Yes. The hope is somewhere around the igniting the passion.

How do you ignite passion? That's a really, really good question, and it's really hard. There's so many times, the guys in sports, I'm like, you're so good, just try. If you try, you're going to be unbelievable. It can be sometimes very hard for people. One thing my dad sat me down when I was eight years old, and me and my two brothers, and he had just gotten back from a mission trip where he'd been gone all summer. And he sat us down and he looked at us and he said, boys, I just want you

to know how much I love you. And I want to give you an edge, to give you an advantage. And he said, he had a movie and he, right before he had on the movie he said if you love whatever you do like the man in this movie if you have passion like the man in this movie and if you're willing to sacrifice like the man in this movie you will be different you will be contagious and people will want to be around you and he sat down and he hit play on the movie braveheart and it is my favorite movie um and i've seen it a hundred times but you know my dad was right if you really love what you're doing and sometimes you don't always feel like loving it but the greatest form of love is a choice it's not a feeling it's a choice and and god's the example for that and his agape form of

love is the best definition in my opinion it's to choose the best interest of another person and act on their behalf love is a choice and then And then it's, okay, I find something I love and I make that choice. Now I'm going to choose to be passionate every day. Some days you don't want to wake up and say, you know what? I need to go help as many people as possible, but it's also a choice to be fired up. I can choose to do the things to get me fired up and ready to go for the day. And then if I do those two things, I'll be willing to sacrifice for it. It's an intentional act. It's an absolute intentional act.

And you know the phrase, fake it till you make it? No. You've never heard that before? I do know the phrase. It's not faking it, though. It's doing it. It's doing it. I mean, it's doing it.

And you know what? Sometimes you don't always feel like it, but you do it anyways. And it creates that extra spark in you. Well, it's part of the overall goal. I mean, you can walk through muck to your knees if you look past it. Yes. You know, it's like I'm sitting here in this chair for three hours a day, 15 hours a week for almost 30 years, and some days I didn't want to be here.

Some days I've just kind of got the flu or something else, but people on the other end of the microphone don't care. Yes. That's not why they're here. They're here for what we can bring them. Well, you can bring them in your purpose and how you can help them and how you can change their lives. Tim Tebow has been our guest. The book is a new bestseller.

Be checking it out. This is the day. And you can tell by listening to him you need to read the book. Reclaim your dream. Ignite your passion. Live your purpose. Get them, baby. Get them.

Tim, thank you for coming by, brother. Thank you so much. So much fun. I appreciate you. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees.

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Welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live? We live in Sherman, Texasxas sherman texas welcome to nashville and all the way here to do your debt-free scream yes sir well congratulations how much have you guys paid off we paid off 77 000 in 34 months all right good for you and uh what kind of range of income were you doing at that time? We were about 65, and then we're coming up on 100 at the end of this year. Good for you. What do you guys do for a living?

I'm a firefighter paramedic in Plano, Texas. Fun. And I'm currently a stay-at-home wife. Love it. Good for you. Fun stuff. What kind of debt was the $77,000? It was a little bit of everything.

We got really lucky. We didn't have any credit card debt. It was student loans, of everything. We got really lucky. We didn't have any credit card debt. It was student loans, both of our cars, quite a bit of medical bills on my part. But we were able to knock that out. And as well as the $77,000, we cash flowed $13,000 for our wedding during that time. Oh, got married in the middle of that. We did.

There wasn't an option to stop paying off debt while we saved up for the wedding. It was, we didn't even have any discussion. It was, we're going to keep paying on debt. We're going to save it

for the wedding. And then when we were done, we got to hit it real hard and pay the rest off. Love it. So how long have you been married? Two and a half years.

All right. So of the almost three years, two and a half of it. So you started six months before the wedding. Yes. Boom, get married and game on.

Yeah. Well, when he proposed, it was, hey, we need to do this. Let's take FPU. Yeah. Let's get married. Let's take FPU. Yes, sir. You're a real romantic, dude.

Yeah, I know. I actually said that when I was still on my knee. I was like, hey, by the way. Yeah, here's a copy of FPU. You were going to get out of debt. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So who had the most debt, you or her?

Probably me. Yeah. With the car and student loans. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So who had the most debt, you or her? Probably me. Yeah. With student loans. With the car and student loans, yeah. Okay. I had some, but it was paid off before we even met, actually. Right. So, Colby, what got you so fired up about this that it's part of your whole story now?

My parents did FPU when I was maybe a freshman in high school and middle school. Oh, you're a financial peace baby. I am. So I saw a little bit of that growing up and just I don't like paying a whole bunch of my income towards interest going to nothing. Oh, you're just naturally tight. Okay. Yeah.

100% yes. I love it. Good for you. That was big. And during our whole relationship, I just noticed there was, we handled money differently. And so knowing that money fights and problems is the number one cause of divorce, I was like, that's something that we can take care of. And that's something that we should start from the beginning. So you went through the Financial Peace University class? Yeah, that was our premarital.

That has premarital counseling on that. Yes, sir. Good for you. Good for you. So now that you've done it, you're debt-free. It was one of the first things you did in your marriage. Yes. Pay off $77,000 worth of debt.

That's so impressive. Thank you. So proud of y'all. Well done. Now that you've done it, tell people what the key to getting out of debt is. I would say not giving up. I'm 26 and he's 28. And so for the past couple of years, paying off debt was more, a lot of people our age think it's just this trudge

of we can't ever see our friends and we have to give up literally everything. And in some aspects, that's true. You have to sacrifice. But if you want a good reward in the end, then of course, you're going to have to sacrifice. There's no winning without paying a price. Absolutely. So we, we knew that going in, it was difficult, especially since he's a social butterfly and I'm not, um, his friends would text him asking to go out for a party or a birthday party or this or that. And we had to say no a lot. Um, so that was, that was a really good eye opener that, you know, it's a short term, we can do this. 34 months. We did it. And now, I mean, we just got back a month ago from Mexico. We spent a week there. Boom.

Paid for it. No problem. It was our first vacation. Look at you. We got to do really fun stuff. And we're not even 30. So it's don't give up. And I know it's hard, especially when you're young and you want to do all fun stuff that all your friends are doing.

But you had a greater purpose. I mean, it's live like no one else. so later you can live and give like no one else. That puts you in a position to do that. For the nerds out there, I was, like you said, I'm naturally tight budgeted. If it were up to me, we wouldn't have bought anything that wasn't a necessity during that whole time. And if I were to do that, she would hate the plan and wouldn't want to do it, and we wouldn't be where we are now. Give and take.

Yeah. There's a lot. Sacrifice. You know, I would say, okay, yeah, we need socks. Let's. Yeah. I can add some. He's not joking.

We need these socks. And so we would put more money in certain categories because she said, hey, we need this stuff. And by me doing that and agreeing with it, it allowed her to enjoy this plan. Well, what's interesting is as a brand-new married couple, you've now combined your value systems. Yes. Instead of having two separate lives, which a lot of people do most of their lives. Instead, now you are what the preacher says, and now you are one. Right.

Because you work through the give and take. And now you've got, okay, I get that, I get that. And there's this respect for each other's position, but also we both respect the goal. And we went for the goal. Yes, learning communication was huge, too. Because, I mean, of course, everybody has their little nitpicky fights in marriage. What was your biggest budget fight during the 34 months? I wouldn't say it was a fight, but a big disagreement or something that took a while.

When we had paid off almost everything, we had her car left. And I had a nice F-150 truck. It was my first love. I had that a month before we met. But I was looking at, you know, cars that she could drive if we were to sell hers because we were upside down. And I had a brand new car as well. Yeah. And so looking at that, I was asking her to sell it.

She's like, no, I don't want to sell that car. That's, you know, we get in a worse car and car repairs and all this other stuff will happen. I thought, well, how can I ask her to sell this car that she loves? And I'm driving an F-150 that I love. And so I was like, okay. So I sold that and I bought a 2000 Ranger. I actually named it Ramsey. The no-loan Ranger. actually named it uh ramsey the no he gets named after me that's awesome the no lone ranger yeah so um we got that and um then she was like okay if you're gonna do that i'll sell mine and so we

oh we we bought two cars uh with with that sale my truck and then we're able that's when your friends thought you'd lost your mind yeah yes. Yes. Because he had this really awesome truck and came in with this something that looked like my grandpa would be driving. Yeah. And so it was really hard because I thought my thinking, I think a lot of people too going through the plan is you have a really nice car. Why would you sell it? You can keep it.

You can put miles on it. You can, you know, it's good value. It'll hold its value. It'll resell good, all that stuff. But that's not what it's about. I bought a five-year-old car. I have a 2013 Nissan that had 50,000 miles on it. And it's amazing.

And now you guys make $100,000 a year. You're at home and you don't have any payments. You can save up and buy whatever you want to drive, right? Yep. That's right. So right now, a big reason of why we wanted to do all of this was obviously for stronger marriage. Him being in the fire service is already a big stinker, if you will, in marriage and all of that that could go wrong. So we wanted to make sure that that was strong and stable.

But also just to do my, I have four siblings. So with my family, it was, you know, my parents worked really hard. But sometimes, you know, they could have made more, that kind of thing. So for us, it was not having to worry about that at all. Yeah. One less thing to worry about. Right. And also saving up.

So we, a lot of people talk about saving or waiting until they're done with all the steps to have a kid if they don't have any yet. And some people do when they're going through. It's up to you. That's between you and God. But for us, with what we have experienced and with family members and friends, we wanted to make sure we were in a good position for when we did decide to have a kid that it wasn't, oh, crap, we have to start saving now.

It was just pure joy of getting to save. And we actually are 15 weeks pregnant now. It was just pure joy of getting to save. We actually are 15 weeks pregnant now. Yeah! Awesome! So we, as soon as we were done paying off the debt, we wanted to go ahead and get into this next part of our lives.

Wow, the big announcement. Look at you! That's so great! I'm so proud for y'all. Now she can stay at home and we won't have to worry about how much it costs. Count it down. Let's hear great. I'm so proud for y'all. Now she can stay at home and we won't have to worry about how much it costs. Count it down. Let's hear your debt-free scream. Ready? Yep. Three, two, one. We're debt

free! Woo! Yeah, baby! That's how it's done right there. I love it, you guys. I love it, I love it, I love it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Rachel's with us in Orange County. Hey, Rachel, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi there, how are you doing?

Better than I deserve. How are you? Just the same. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure, what's up? I have a question about school. It's kind of changing my family tree a little bit by being the first one to want to go to college. Good for you. So I've been in the extended community college program for about five years now. Wow. Finally decided that I wanted to be a veterinarian. So I've been saving money pretty diligently, saying no to a lot of things that people my age, I'm 24, a lot of people are doing other things, you know.

But I'm just trying to save and working in Orange County and stuff. And I honestly, I need some guidance about what to do because I have some pretty big goals and not that much money saved up. I don't have any debt right now. I'm, you know, in between baby plans and I just, I just need to have some guidance here as I'm applying for universities right now. So.

Okay. All right. And what is it you need guidance on exactly? So I, I don't, you know, I want to save money while doing it, and then work at the same time. I could do full-time, but only probably for a year with the money that I have saved right now. And should I be saving for retirement at the same time? It's just there's a lot going on.

Okay, no, you should not be saving for retirement. As far as your money goes, I would exclusively focus on your goal. Because a better investment than retirement is Rachel. If Rachel gets her DVM, she is going to make a lot more money. Okay. If you apply yourself and, you know, you do a good job with your practice and so forth and building your veterinarian practice. I know several vets that make ridiculously good money.

It's wonderful. It's a wonderful field to be in financially, and so you're heading the right way. That's what I would do is completely focus on you. The second thing is, with very rare exceptions, where you go to school doesn't matter. Okay. Do you have an animal that you've ever taken to a veterinarian? I do.

I've actually been working as a technician for seven years. Okay. But, I mean, have you ever had anybody walk into the veterinarian clinic and leave because they didn't like the school the vet went to no that's absurd isn't it yeah i don't even know where my vet went to school actually i do because he went to our school to my school because we talk football but other than that i wouldn't have known where he went to school because i don't go in and interview the vet and say oh no you went to that veterinarian school i'm not taking my dog over there that just doesn't happen and so if you pay twice as much

at school a as school b to make the exact same money that's dumb you follow me okay yes so um on that note then should i be because i need to get, I guess a bachelor's, I need to take upper division courses probably another year before I apply for vet school. Right. So considering out-of-state and in-state tuition, should I be looking? In-state only. Okay, okay. Because there's no value to being out-of-state.

It doesn't add value to the proposition. It doesn't add value to you being a vet. it's just as across the state line is all yeah yeah you want to go as cheap as you can go and still get in vet school you want to go to the cheapest vet school you can go to and still learn how to help animals right okay yes yeah because that's where you're going to get the most a you're trying to work your way through, which is brilliant on your part. Now, what I want you to do, too, is I want you to go back in those vets you've teched for. Have you teched for more than one veterinarian? Yes, there's been three.

Yeah, I want you to go back and talk to all of them and ask them who they know that can pay for your school. Because I've got to tell you, the the drug business you've been around the business right the drugs the drugs that it's like human drugs i mean the it's hugely profitable the drug companies that sell drugs to veterinarians big time right yeah oh yeah big time business i bet you a few of those might have scholarships. Okay, I'll look into that. Thank you. Yeah, I bet you that, you know, you look for industry-specific things. Who are the suppliers of the equipment, you know, that you use,

the surgical equipment or whatever that you use, all that kind of stuff. And you just, you know, you keep working all those kinds of angles and look for scholarships. And even if there was a company that hires veterinarians and they would pay for your scholarship, if you worked for them for a couple of years after you got out before you went out on your own, you promised to work for them, kind of an indentured servant program. You know what I'm saying? That kind of a thing.

So kind of start searching around and poking around on that. that but um sometimes what happens in families where you're the first one to get an education is they are in awe of education it's like this mythical thing up in the clouds you know what i'm saying it's mystical and and so they're willing to pay too much i find people in your situation pay too much for their education more often than people who, you know, like me, you know, my kids going to school. I have a college degree. I'm out here working with a college degree. So when my kids get ready to go to school, I know exactly what I'm willing to pay, which is, you know, the minimum to get the degree. It changes the whole deal.

And so that's what you aim at. And that's the way I would look at it. Hey, you're a rock star, kiddo. I think you're going to do great. And if we can help you, you let us know, okay? Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. You jump in.

We'll talk about your life and your money. Joanna is with us in Sacramento, California. Hi, Joanna. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Perfect. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? I just need some advice. So my main question is, should I stop my 401k contribution and my student loan payments for a year, about a year and a half, to focus on my credit cards.

That's what we teach. Right. We teach you to do that. Do you know why I teach you to do that? To be debt-free. Well, yeah. Yeah, but, I mean, you could be debt-free the other way, hypothetically, right? Mm-hmm.

It would just take longer because you'd be putting money into your 401k that you could have been putting on the debt, right? Right. So I'm 34, and I've been working for six years, and I only saved to my investment, the 401k, about $30,000. That's because you got debt. So my concern is with stopping the contribution is that I'm not saving for retirement. For a whole year. Right.

And in six years, you've not made any progress because you're not putting enough into 401ks. Why are you not putting enough into 401ks? Because I got debt payments. Right. So when you get rid of the debt payments, you can get your 401k contributions way up and you'll be a millionaire right so my company contributes also so definitely didn't want to miss out on like the percentage you're only going to miss

out on it for one year right so one whole year okay so i have So I'm actually moving just so I can put more, because I have $30,000 credit card debt. Have you cut up the credit cards? And there's nine of them. Have you cut up the credit cards yet? Sorry? Have you cut up the credit cards? Nope. Okay.

Do you have them near you? No, not actually. Oh, okay. I want you to cut them up by the time before you go to bed tonight. You have to cut them up, okay? Okay. You're not going to get out of debt if you keep them around. Right.

You have to decide, are we going to do this? Burn the boats. We're staying. Mm-hmm. Staying. We're staying. We're not going anywhere. We're going to get out of debt. That. We're staying. Staying. We're staying. We're not going anywhere. We're going to get out of debt.

That would be really hard. Yeah. Stop all your... Listen, here's what happens. The things you concentrate on, the things you focus on are the things you win at. And when you focus... If you're willing to move to get out of debt, then be willing to cut up the credit cards to get out of debt and be willing to temporarily stop your 401k to get out of debt.

Why? Because when you're out of debt, be willing to temporarily stop your 401k to get out of debt. Why? Because when you're out of debt, you have control of your largest wealth building tool, which is your income. You'll get out of debt faster and you'll have a higher probability of getting out of debt when you just come completely. It's like, I don't care what anybody thinks. I don't care. I'm not doing anything else.

This is all I'm doing. I'm getting out of complete laser focus. Light dispersed merely lights a room. Light that's focused is called a laser, and it will cut metal or do surgery. Be the laser. Completely focused. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey guys, this is James Childs,

producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.