The Ramsey Show - App - Using Life Insurance Pay-Outs to Invest in Mutual Funds (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 12, 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It is a free call. Some say the advice is worth what you pay for it. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. We're going to start off with Boise, Idaho this hour. Merle is with us. Hey, Merle, what's up? Well, thank you, Dave, for taking my call. Sure. I'm not going to ask how you're doing because you're going to tell me better than you deserve. Things are correct.

My wife and I are in our mid-70s. We're living comfortably on our retirement income. But I'm going to take your advice and cash in a life insurance policy, which should give me about $250,000 cash. I don't know what to do with it. What do you advise? Okay. Do you have any debt, a home or anything?

I have a little bit on a mortgage yet, but I'm working on it. I'll get that paid down in, there's about $16,000 left on it, that's it. Oh, just a tiny bit. Okay. All right. And I assume you have an emergency fund and another nest egg as well. Yes. Okay. All right. And I assume you have an emergency fund and another nest egg as well. Yes. Okay.

All right. How much is in your other nest egg? About $75,000. Okay. So that now gives you a $325,000 nest egg to operate from in addition to your Social Security income, correct? And other retirement income, yes. Oh, you have some pension income as well? Yes.

Okay, great, great. Well, there's really three things to do with money. You can give it, you can spend it, and you can invest it. Okay? I would, if possible, like to invest it, preserve it, and if possible, you know, get dividend income or some income on to give to charity, which we do give to charity. And I would just like to increase my charitable giving with it. That's what I'd really like to do. Okay.

Cool. Cool. Well, there's several things you can do with it. What I personally would do where I'm 70 and in that situation is I would buy what's called low. I would either buy some rental property that I paid cash for. If you don't want to fool with that and or some portion of it, I would buy what's called low turnover mutual funds. Now, a mutual fund that has a low turnover does not have taxes on the income that it produces unless and until you cash it out.

Okay. And when you do cash it out, if it's been in there at least a year, the portion only that you cash out is taxed not at ordinary income rates, but at capital gains rate, which would be 15% tax. So it would be a lower tax, typically, on how much pension income you have and what tax bracket you're in. But if you're above a 15% tax bracket, it's a tax-advantaged way to take some money out and pay very little tax on it after the money's sat there for a year. Now, what low turnover means is the mutual fund does not sell the stocks inside the mutual fund very often.

So a low turnover ratio would be 5% ratio or less, meaning 5% of the stocks are sold in a year or less. So what happens is this. It's just like buying a rental property or buying a single stock. As that increases in value, let's say you bought a share of I'll just make it up, Home Depot. I don't even know what it sells for. Let's say you bought that for $100 and it went up in value to $175. Well, you don't pay any taxes on that $75 increase until you sell the share of stock.

And then you have a gain right right and so by them not selling the stock inside the mutual fund very often all of the growth is deferred like with that single stock would be right until you sell it and take it out and when you do sell and take it out if you've left it alone at least a year, then it would grow at a capital gains rate. And so you can set the thing up to pay only the dividends. You can set it up to pay out whatever growth there is in a year back out to you. Do you have mutual funds you would recommend? That's what I'm struggling with.

Yeah, you can get low turnover mutual funds in a lot of flavors. The easiest way to do that is an S&P 500 fund, an index fund, which has low turnover automatically because of the design of it. So that's one place I do some investing of this type when I'm looking for above and beyond my retirement, above and beyond being debt-free. I do low turnover because I like the low taxation on it, number one. And number two, I like the no taxation on it until I take it out. And so that's very cool. But the S&P 500 index is one place I do that.

The other thing I do is I get in touch with my ELP or my, I'm sorry, my SmartVestor Pro in your area. I use the one in my area and it's somebody in the mutual fund business, an advisor that can sit down and find some low turnover mutual funds for you. And that's one thing you can do. The last thing you can do outside of that, and it's not what I would do, but it's not bad. can do outside of that and it's not what i would do but it's not bad it's just not my style is a variable annuity which is mutual funds inside of an annuity and it has some uh guarantees on it

but some extra fees the guarantees of a minimum amount of return the guarantee of principal if you leave it alone so long or you die and the you name a beneficiary on it like you do life insurance so it passes outside of probate so this money could pass directly to someone else outside of probate uh in the event of both you and your wife passing and so it's a nice little vehicle because it's got a few guarantees with it but it does have higher fees and it has less flexibility and so um those are two things I don't care for. And when you take the money out of it, it comes out at ordinary income, not at capital gains rate.

So it's a little bit of a disadvantage to that, but a lot of people do that. And that's the only time I would do that is in your position where you're 100% debt-free, you've maxed out all retirement, and you're looking for those guarantees because they give you some comfort and you're willing to pay for those because you're going to pay extra. So you can look at that, low turnover mutual fund or variable annuities, and just click on SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com, and it'll drop down. You put in your zip code, your name, and it'll drop down a list of the SmartVestor pros in your area,

which are not people that work for me, but they are people that I recommend that are in the mutual fund investing business. And they'll sit down with you, teach you about that. You can learn about it. You can look at different funds and help you make a selection and weed through that, you know, because there's 8,000 funds out there. And these guys that bathe in this stuff every day, all day, can cut through the clutter and give you four or five and teach you about it, and you can pick out of those four or five. That's what I do.

I know a lot about mutual funds, but I don't deal with them every single day, all day long. It's not my area of expertise to be day in and day out, keeping up with the nuances of every stinking thing moving out there. And these guys in the business, it is what they do. That's why I use them. And so if I use them, then, you know, I'm comfortable sending you to one of them. That's simple. So, hey, man, good question. It's an honor to talk to you.

Thank you. Very well done, Merle. Good stuff. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. For years, I refused to endorse any company that claimed to get people out of timeshares. I told my listeners it's a horrible product and that, unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of options. Then a few years ago, I sat down with Brandon Reed, the owner of Timeshare Exit Team.

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They have exited thousands from their timeshare burden this year alone. Yes, you will write them a check, but they stand behind their guarantee. They will get you out or they'll give you a full refund. Call 844-999-EXIT online at timeshareexitteam.com. Thank you for joining us, America. David is in Seattle. Hi, David. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you.

It's good to be here. Good. How can I help? Yes, we are wondering, we're trying to save for kids' college, pay off the mortgage, and also we want to do a large remodel on our home, and we're just trying to figure out how to prioritize that the best. Which one is the most important? That's what we're having the debate on, and so it's like we want to, you know,

we have a good target for our kids' college. What's wrong with the house? It's a little bit small. Small. And a little bit old. It was built in the 70s. It's about 1,600 square feet, and we have five kids. And when are they going to college?

The oldest is nine, so we have about nine years. And you said you've got college savings underway? Yes, we do. All right. And so how you've got college savings underway? Yes, we do. All right. And so how far off are you? Are you off track? We have about 6% of the way there. Okay.

We're having it all done for all the kids. All right. So if you keep on doing what you're doing, by the time they get there, will you have enough money? I'm sorry? Yes. Yes, we will have enough money. All right.

So if you just keep doing what you're doing. Okay. So why is that in question then? You've already got that underway, unless you're going to stop doing that to do one of the other things. And that's really the question. We could pull back on the kids' college so that we could save up for the remodel. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. And what's your household income? About $130,000. Mm-hmm. Okay. And how much is the remodel? Have you priced it? We haven't priced it yet, though.

The online, you know, rough estimate calculator is about $150,000. What's the house worth? The house is worth about $500,000. Okay. What do the houses in the neighborhood sell for? One of our neighbors just sold for $1.2 million. The other was about $700,000, $800,000. So you're in the bottom of the market there.

Yeah. So you won't overbuild by remodeling. That's good. Okay. Hmm. All right. Wow. Well, you know, it's a hard question.

I would like for you to be able to remodel this house too with what you're describing it is a smaller property with a lot of human beings living in it you've got the ability to put some money in it and not lose the money by going on up um so it would be that we do one of two things either we cut some other things out another in order to fund the remodel something that we've not talked about um or uh if we stop doing the kids for a little while until we have the remodel money, then when we start doing the kids, we're behind. And we've got to do something to catch up at that point. What are we going to do to catch up at that point?

So if we stop the kids' college now, that, of course, means that we won't have the growth and the 529s that we've been sponsoring to them, which means that we just have to put extra towards it. But, of course, at the same time – You'd have to play catch-up. I mean, it's going to cost you $150,000 if you stop putting $150,000 in. It's going to cost you more than that because you're missing the growth, too. So, you know i you you got to have a plan for covering it if you know otherwise the the point of the whole thing is just to do

what you're doing and that's have thought through it meaning that if i if i'm you can't just stop the remodel and go okay we're going to do that and then we're not going to think about how we're going to do the kids we'll deal with that later no no no no let's think through how we're not going to think about how we're going to do the kids. We'll deal with that later. No, no, no, no, no. Let's think through how we're going to do it. And what have we got to do to be able to catch up on the kids' college fund? Because we will be behind if we do stop doing it to do the remodel. I personally would put off the remodel until I figured out a way to fund it. And I'd just leave the kids' thing alone. It's underway.

Or if you want to dial it back a little bit, thinking, hey, we'll cash flow, we'll catch up when we get there, a little bit. But just stopping it for two years and creating this gaping hole in your kids' college plan in order to have new carpet just sounds, I don't know, just sounds wrong to me. I think we're investing in the wrong things. I mean, the current standard of living is improved versus the future of your kids. So, no, I'll sacrifice that if I have to choose, but you just decide what your priorities are, which one's which. Maybe you just say, hey, the kids are going to work when they're in school, and we're not not going to pay for all their college but they're going to have an extra bedroom while they live at home and you just decide that but the point being decide how you're going to cover it before you start don't just go whoa we're going to do this and then wonder what happened to you when you get

hit by a truck later with one of these other issues that you ignored. So have a plan for all the different issues if you change the priorities around. That's the only thing you've got to do. So thanks for the call. Louis is with us in San Antonio. Hi, Louis. How are you? Good. How are you doing, Dave?

Better than I deserve. What's up? I had a question. My wife and I are talking about if one of us were to pass away. We have an insurance policy where it's $500,000 for each of us. And we're just wondering, well, the question for you would be what would we do with that if, let's say, I passed away. Does she invest it or does she just put in the bank and live off of it? How does she?

You put in the bank and live off of it, you're going to burn through it. So you would either invest it or invest what's left after you paid off the debts if you've got debts. But you invest it and then try to live off of the income. Let's say you invested it just for round numbers sake and just pretend that you got 10% on $500,000. Then you'd have $50,000 a year coming in without touching the $500,000, right? Yeah. And where would she invest it?

I recommend good mutual funds. That's what I do. Okay. And that's what I've told Sharon if something happens to me, put this in mutual funds and good growth stock mutual funds where it'll create a good, strong income for you off of that money without having to touch the goose. You just only cash the golden eggs. You don't cash. You don't kill the goose.

Right. And the goose is the principle that you put in there and you live off of whatever income it creates. OK. that you put in there and you live off of whatever income it creates. Okay. That's why we say 10 to 12 times your income on you and 10 to 12 times her income on her. Okay. Well, she's a stay-at-home mom, but I just went ahead and just matched mine. Yeah, that's fine.

So I did the $500,000. Yeah, because if something happened to her, you'd have to hire Mary Poppins, right? Yeah. No, I would definitely stay because if something happened to her, you'd have to hire Mary Poppins, right? Yeah. No, I would definitely stay home if she were to pass away, and then I would do the same thing. I would invest it and live off of it. What about as far as, like, the kids? I have four kids, and then going to college,

if one of us were to pass away and we're living off of $50,000 a year. Is that enough to save for college? Okay. If it's not, then you don't have enough insurance. What is your income? About $45,000 a year take-home. Yeah, you're in pretty good shape then. And so, you know, but yeah, if you can save for college on your $45,000 take-home,

then you can save for college on $50,000 income off of $500 invested. So if you can't save for college now, then you've got another issue. But, you know, college is not magically done. And, again, if you want to buy more insurance just to take care of that, you can buy more insurance and take care of that. It's not any harder than that. The good news is it's not very expensive.

That's why we recommend Zander Insurance and have for, goodness, coming up on 20 years now. And, you know, go to zanderinsurance.com, folks. I mean, you put your stuff in there in about like 13 seconds. It gives you how cheap term insurance is, 15-year, 20-year level term insurance. You need about 10 to 12 times your income on you. You take that and invest it if something happens, and it replaces the income that you would have created while you were living,

and that's what we're doing. So that works. And, again, you people out there in your 20s and 30s and 40s, it doesn't cost anything. It's ridiculously inexpensive. And so, you know, Lewis, in your case, if you feel like your 500 is coming up short, pick up a couple hundred more. It doesn't cost that much. It really doesn't cost that much.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major healthcare costs. Christian Healthcare Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry, a Better Business Bureau-accredited organization CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially

and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. In Orlando, Florida, John and Ruby are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? We're good. How are you? Welcome, welcome. I see on my screen you're debt free. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A long journey, but well worth it. Cool. How much have you guys paid off? Fifty two thousand one hundred

dollars in four years. But two years of the four years, we weren't aggressive and were breaking out of the slump of bankruptcy. And then the final two years of it, we got serious and just cranked down on all the debt. And we're out. We're free. I love it. And how much was your range of income during that four years? We started off at around $30,000. We're self-employed.

And by the end of it, we were making $120,000 for us. And, I mean, just to describe what it is to be debt-free, I can't even really begin. Wow. What do you guys do for a living? I am a landscape contractor in Central Florida. We build people's dreams. So they dream it it and we build it very cool good for you guys excellent thank you and so you said you came out of a bankruptcy what

were you in a chapter 13 bankruptcy no i did a chapter seven um the the year that i declared bankruptcy i had seen an attorney um about four months earlier, and it was the first time ever I was late on any of my bills. And I never forgot the feeling what it was to not be able to come up with my bills. At the same time, I was having employee problems, and I was losing contracts. And I lost over a million dollars of contracts within a couple of months. And that really just sank the whole ship of credit. So when we realized what God was doing is really when we were able to go ahead and accept how he was going to begin to rebuild us, but without the system that we believed

would have been all right. Yeah. What kind of debt was the $52,000? A lot of it was stupid because from the bankruptcy, instead of turning the truck in that I just got in a couple months earlier, kept the truck, student loans and it was um some debt that i had i had with family so okay so you went through bankruptcy and kept a bunch of the debt and obviously family and student loans survives bankruptcy anyway sure family doesn't technically but morally most people do turn around and pay that.

And then you reinstated the truck and the bankruptcy, so that kept the whole thing. So you come out of bankruptcy with $52,000 in debt. And then it took you two years to get serious. Tell me about that part of it. I had felt when I went through this bankruptcy that I'd failed my part in providing for my family. And what I hadn't realized was God had answered a prayer that I had a couple years earlier, which was for him to teach me financial responsibility. And as I realized that I was hitting this wall of bankruptcy, I remember one night being angry. I'm like, God, why would you allow me to fail?

And I remember God saying to me that I asked for it. Like, I didn't ask to fail. No, he says, you asked for financial responsibility. And that was the moment that I accepted what God was doing with us and really realized that he was giving me financial responsibility because to him, if I had no credit, then I was going to use what was at my means. Yeah, and that was two years ago. That was four years ago.

Oh, okay. But you said two of the four years you were on it and two of them you weren't, right? Yeah, so the two years after bankruptcy, we were just in the slump of like you know how did we end up here you know what could we do different how can we make sure that we're never back there again because um opening up our lives to the court was just just tremendous i mean i've never been through an experience like that and i hope to have to never go through one again like that. But what I tell anybody listening is that if you're facing bankruptcy, it's okay. debt-free, learn to live free, and learn to really understand what the Bible tells us about being slaves. Yeah, cool.

And just really grasp that. And then when you have your moment of change, man, never look back and never think about being in that situation again. Is Ruby on with us? She is. Ruby, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you all have done this? What is the key for getting out of debt?

Well, first of all, I just want to say thank you for this opportunity to share this story. Yeah, that was very hard because at the same time I was pregnant with my third baby. And emotionally, that was very, very hard. But now we're free, and that's amazing. So we're very happy. Well, congratulations, you two. We're very, very proud of you.

We're going to send you a copy of Chris Hogan's book, Retire Inspired, which is the next chapter in your all story for you to become millionaires and outrageously generous as you go along. So get with John and everybody there. Let's count it down. $52,000 paid off in four years, making $30,000 to $120,000. John and Ruby in Orlando, Florida. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

One, two, one, we're debt-free! I love it. Well done, you guys. Very, very well done. That's how it's done, folks. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Greg is in Kansas City. Hi, Greg.

How are you? I'm great, Dave. Thanks for letting me on. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, kind of like the previous couple, me and my wife uh we just paid off our debt um we just have our mortgage left to pay good just kind of looking at getting some advice on investments

um just trying to figure out how to get to that next step okay well obviously you are debt-free other than your home that's what we call baby step two uh baby step three after that the next thing you should do is make sure you have a fully funded emergency fund, Grandma's Rainy Day Fund, which is three to six months of expenses. And once you've got that done, then we take you to baby step four, which is putting 15% of your income into investments in retirement. 15% into retirement. Above that, we do baby step five, which is kids' college investing, again, in mutual funds.

And above that, then any extra we can get our hands on, we throw at the house. And the average family is paying off their home in about seven years doing all of that. Now, so that means that next thing up for you guys, once you've got that emergency fund in place, is to really make sure that we're getting that 15% going into retirement. Do you have a 401k available to you at work? Yes, I do. Okay.

Do they have good options in it? I don't really know so much about the options. I know that my job matches, and I have them matching about 5% right now. That's good news. Okay. Yeah, and so I'm kind of just kind of a newbie in this. I didn't really grow up with, like, any kind of help in regards to investment. So we have about $52,000 in savings.

And then we also have a life insurance policy that I unfortunately had to get from my mother when she passed away. But we have kind of a big lump sum that we're kind of looking at trying to kind of push into something. Do you have children? No, we're actually expecting. So we will have one in October. Well, I would be putting 15% of your income away for retirement. I would be putting something aside and get something going for the kids' college. And above that, my lump sums are going to go to pay off the house as quick as possible.

And so that life insurance money and the other money that we're talking about, I'm not investing it. I'm throwing it at your mortgage. I want to get your mortgage paid off as fast as possible. When you get that mortgage paid off, you're in a position to really build serious wealth. But if you need to beef up above your 401k in the match and you need to learn more about investing, click on Smart Investor at DaveRamsey.com, and that'll hook you up with the people we recommend for mutual funds. Folks, the real estate market is on fire all over the country.

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You get the best deal that way. Heidi's in Idaho. My husband doesn't think we need a $1,000 emergency fund. He thinks that money should go towards paying down our debt. And if we have an emergency fund, then we can put it on the credit card. He ultimately thinks it's the same thing. Therefore, he is indifferent. Yet, we've had this conversation multiple times. I desperately want to be on the same page.

Otherwise, I know we will never be debt-free. How can I get through to him? Well, I'm not sure you can because he's stupid i mean really you're sitting there broke and telling me what your financial plan is and arguing with mine i mean that's dumb man that's like a 500 pound man arguing with a personal trainer about diet. I don't like your plan. Well, I don't give a crap.

That's just dumb. Seriously. I mean, I've done this kind of dumb stuff. I've argued with people when I didn't know what I was talking about because arguing is like a sport in our family. But that's just dumb. And honestly, it's kind of a Dr. Phil moment. You've got to look at this old boy and go, hey, your plan genius got us here.

So I don't think we're going to use your plan. How's that working for you? That's your Dr. Phil moment. Well, it's not working. You don't even have $1,000, and you're arguing about how to handle money so listen there's no shame in being broke i've been there but being prideful and acting like you're a dead gum money expert when you're broke is kind of ridiculous so how do you get through to him i'm not sure a board i don't know but i i mean i i've lost my patience with some of this stuff seriously so i don't know how you get through to him honey i think you just need

to tell him look we've been trying your way for years we've been trying my way for years none of it worked let's try something else i mean here's the thing let's do it for 90 days let's do exactly what the total money makeover book says don't argue with it don't try to have a freaking theory of your own submit yourself to a plan try something for 90 days if you get out of debt and you have a thousand dollars in the bank and you don't like it you can spend the thousand and get right back in,000 in the bank and you don't like it, you can spend the $1,000 and get right back in debt. I could be wrong, right? You could get right back in.

It is that simple, you guys. If I hire a personal trainer and I won't do what he says, I'm stupid. You know? I mean, why am I going to pay this guy to sit here and tell me what my nutrition needs are? He's in better shape than I'm in what my exercise regime should be and then argue with him like my theory is better. Well, you sure that applies to me? You sure I can't? Maybe I can take in more calories than I burn.

I'm sure I'll lose weight that way. You sure I'm not the one exception to freaking physics on the planet? I mean, really? Why do we as humans do this? I do it too, but I mean, it's just dumb. When I do it, it's just dumb. When you do it, it's just stupid and dumb. I mean, really, it's just dumb.

You hire a coach to teach you how to play a certain sport and say, you know, your swing is off. Change this. Your step is off. Change this. You know, you're stutter stepping in the pocket. Take three solid steps, land flat on your feet, cock your arm and throw. I mean, you know, do what the coach says. There's a reason you brought him in.

Submit yourself to the plan. You know, you see these basketball coaches. I don't know anything about basketball. I was listening to a guy talking this morning about how he had a coach in college that completely changed the mechanics of his shot, his basketball shot. And when he changed the mechanics, his accuracy went way up his release was quicker he was releasing at the top rather than the bottom of the arc everything about his shot was different and it changed though it changed it made him a pro versus a college player because he submitted

himself to someone who knew something more than he knew and that I said, this stuff is that simple, you guys. It really is. So I don't know how you get through to him. I don't know. But, you know, maybe you just, how's it working for you? Your plan, you know, genius. You've been doing it this way for 10 years. Look at where you are.

We are broken in credit card debt using your best plan. So maybe your best thinking isn't going to get us there. Maybe we need some new thinking. Maybe we need to borrow someone else's brain for a while that's what happens when you bring in a coach in anything in your life whether it's a personal trainer an athletic endeavor you know i learned to barefoot water ski when i was 16 years old stepping off a ski back in the day that's the way we used to learn to ski, learn to barefoot, get up on a slalom and step off. From 16 to 48, I barefoot skied exactly the same way.

I never changed a thing. I never got any better. I actually got worse because I got older and more out of shape, right? I wasn't 16 anymore, you know. We hired a guy to come to our lake house for the summer and train us, the number one barefoot water skiing guy in the world at that time, Keith St. Orange. And Keith spent a week with my son, my son-in-law, me, a buddy of mine, another guy, and basically beat the snot out of us for a week.

And every time we would do one little tiny thing wrong, he would make sure we fell so we remembered the lesson. And he was not brutal. He was very kind. He was an excellent teacher. But, you know, now, you know, we people in our family, one foot backward. I'm a backward barefooter. I get up, you know, I don't get up on a ski anymore. I get up the proper ways.

You know, I mean, in one week, I changed a lifetime of that sport. Why? Because I submitted myself to somebody who knew something I didn't know. And I didn't go, you know, I don't know if I agree with your particular theory on this. He's the best in the world. He won. He left my house that year, went to Taiwan and won the World Games. OK, he's the best in the world. I'm not going to argue with this guy about how to barefoot water ski.

I mean, that would have been just stupid. Now, I felt like arguing with him a time or two because, mean we ate tylenol sandwich for lunch every day we were getting the crap beat out of us it hurt but we were learning my learning curve during that one week went through the roof and consequently i'll probably be able to barefoot, you know, well up into my 70s or 80s because of the technique, because I learned how to properly do certain things, position, body, muscle memory, the process you use in a physical activity. And it's not any different when you're dealing with something, a mental activity like handling money or nutrition or your marriage it's a habit is formed but i mean if you've been married three times don't tell me you don't need pre-marriage counseling because you got this figured out you ain't got it figured out you have not got it figured out you know that you need to meet meet with a pro you need a counselor a coach in your area so you need different muscle memory a different process that you need to meet with a pro. You need a counselor, a coach in your area.

So you need different muscle memory, a different process that you plug into. That simple stuff. It's that easy, you guys. It is. So, I mean, this idea that you're going to argue with a proven plan is not a reflection on the plan. It's a reflection on you. You're the problem. Submit yourself to a plan it's a reflection on you you're the problem submit yourself to a plan try try something new for 90 days see what it does cut up all get your credit cards out right now every one of them not

even that one you hide in the back get them all out right now Cut them all up. Close all your credit card accounts. Pay them all off. Get a debit card. You can do all of that in the next hour. Do something radical and different so that you get something that's radical and different. You're not going to get anything radical and different doing the same old crap over and over and discussing theory.

Submit yourself to a plan. Try something new. Something radically new. And you'll get radically different results. This is not rocket science, people. But it is about pride. The negative kind of pride. It's in your way.

It's in my way. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Blake, Chief Production Officer for the show. And here's a little tip for 2018. Go download our revamped Dave Ramsey Show app from the App Store. We're always listening to your feedback and adding new features to make it even better. Check it out. Did you know, statistically, when it comes to life insurance and protecting your family,

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