The Ramsey Show - App - We Feel Like We're Wasting Money by Renting (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 11, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Debt-Free Degree,

is my co-host today on the air. We're talking to you about your life and about your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Sean is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hey, Sean, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Anthony. Hey, what's up, man?

Not much. I'm just wondering, so I'm on baby step four, I guess. And the only reason I say I guess is because I've completed steps one, two, and three. Okay. But I just don't know like how interested i am actually saving for retirement because i don't know if i could ever like envision myself actually retiring i'm so confused right now um how old are you right now sean i'm 25 how old will you be next year? 26 in February. Okay.

So do you see where I'm going here? Yeah. So you're saying you're getting older. Yeah. And I get you. I know that. Yeah. And I get you.

Let me – I probably started that off wrong and I got Dave started. I'm sorry. No, you're fine. I like it. Why? And I get it. Bring out the sass early. 25 years old.

Are you not motivated to start thinking about your future? Hey, let's try this. What if we change the word from retirement to rich? I like that word. I mean, I really like the sound of that too it's the same thing dude yeah i understand that but i just really enjoy working me too i don't i plan to work until i die a matter of fact i'm going to stay around here and just spread hate and dissension in this building oh no you're not but i certainly hope so for the old and old and dementia crept in

and i'll just not be making sense on the air, and James will have to be hitting the dump button. Nah, we'll fix that. But, hey, get the net! And this is what I'm thinking. At that point, say I were to go out of my mind, like dementia can physically not work anymore. Couldn't I just have money in the bank to be able to take care of that yeah the problem is the bank pays crap yes like two percent no and i so let's

pretend let's pretend that you retire you reach an old age whatever you want to call old at 25 years old i'm 60 so old now is a lot older than it used to be so but if let's just pretend you reach old age and you either have a million dollars or you don't right one life is better than the other one yeah then you make choices about whether you want to work or not work. Dude, I haven't had to work in years. I've had financial peace a long time. Yeah.

I work when I want to work. I love what you're doing. Yeah. And so you do the same thing, man, build you up some wealth. And so I think what you're confusing is that you think you have to sit on a dock and fish at 55 years old and maybe catch a fish and just get a sunburn, and you call that retirement. Retirement to us means you've got a huge pile of money, and you can spend the next 30 years giving it away

and never have given it all away because the pile was so huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think he says, you know, Sean, I really want you to think about your future. You're thinking about 55. What if you could retire at 45? What if you could be like Dave and myself? Because, you know, I'm in financial peace. I don't work.

I actually enjoy doing what I do with Dave and our team here. This is not a nine to five, like I got to get up and have to go do this. This is I love helping people. What if that could be you at 35, at 45? But you have to start practicing these principles now yeah okay and and listen the a million dollars in your mutual funds at retirement is not a lot but it gives you a lot more choices than not having any money at retirement and depending on the government for social insecurity yes and so you do not want the mantra of your life to go i'm going to work

all my life and hope the government which is well known for its ability to handle money, will take care of me. That's not a good plan. So, yeah, the point is not retirement. The point is build wealth. Yeah, that's it. That's the point. So just change your vernacular on it. Change your verbiage on it.

Yes. And maybe that'll change the way you're looking at it. Now, how do we build wealth? The most efficient way to build wealth is in tax-free growth, which happens to be in this thing called a retirement plan, a Roth. But that's the most efficient way to build wealth. Keep the government's freaking hands off your money. Absolutely.

And that, you know, or I paid for real estate, which then it grows without any taxes on the growth until you sell it. Capital gains growth is not taxable. It's realized but not recognized under tax law. And so you can do stuff like that. But become wealthy so that you can not only live your best life, not only be outrageously generous to others, but someday you might have a family and you actually want to change your family tree. The Bible says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.

Now that's what we're talking about, Dave. i'm getting legacy legacy that's that's that's this is not retirement this is a money it's wealth yeah yeah and so it happens to be that the most the first steps to becoming wealthy and the most tax efficient investments are those inside of retirement plans but if we just take the word retirement off of and call, this is the best way to get rich. Yeah. Yeah. Then it changes your mindset. Maybe. And, and Dave, you know, I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to say right there with you, cause you've taught me so much from joining your team and really just learning from you, watching what you do for your family. Here's another reason why I'm always recommending

to millennials to think about rich, think about wealth towards retirement, not just towards retirement, because what can you leave down to your children's children? Steve Harvey was on the show with Oprah Winfrey a while back, and he was telling a story of how his great great grandmother was passing away. And she asked Steve, she said, Steve, do you know your great grandfather's name he said no she said do you know why and he said no she said because he didn't leave you anything and that shook me when I was watching her up and I said I don't want to die and my children's children don't even know my name yeah I mean the Vanderbilts know Cornelius. You know, I mean, really, let's be real. I got a picture of the of the Commodore over the over the mantle, baby.

You know, and when I look at you, your your grandchildren's children will know your name. And I went to start up a ruckus. You did. And I helped you build it. Well, we helped you build it. And so we are, you know, that's for me, that's why. You know, I want my grandchildren. And I wrote a vow to my kids. I said, hey. The idea is not wealth for wealth's sake. There you go. Money just to pile it up.

That's mental illness. There you go, Dave. Okay. But money is only good for a couple things. Yes, sir. Give it. Yes, sir. Enjoy it. Yes, sir. Give it. Yes, sir. Enjoy it.

Yes, sir. And have long-term, eternal impact, including the changing of your family tree. There you go. And so when you can take some money and reach over and change the destiny of somebody's life, change the direction, the trajectory of someone's life, and they might actually be kin to you. Yes, sir. Like your great-grandbabies.

Yes, sir. Then money has had a value at that point. There you go. But just piling it up to say I'm rich, nobody, I mean, that's shallow. Yeah. Nobody gives a crap what car you drive. That's true. Shallow.

Shallow. If a girl wants to date you for what car you drive, don't let her go. Come on now, be impactful for your future, not impressive. All right. This is the Daveave ramsey show over the years i've seen so many families suffer by not having life insurance it's not that they didn't care it's just that they didn't know so they did nothing that That's a huge mistake. Listen, husbands and wives, moms and dads, think about it.

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Hey, open phones at 888-825-5225. I never do that. That's funny. All mics are hot, fool. All right. Jump in. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Anthony O'Neill is the Ramsey personality co-host for today, hanging out with me, learning how not to do radio.

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shelf it really is redefining anxiety yeah this guy which he's helped us do that because we're working with him good point dave real poor will is with us will's in denver hey well welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave hi anthony how's tennessee i'm actually headed to nashville tomorrow it's amazing yeah come on brother we'd love to have you i'm looking forward to Nashville tomorrow. It's amazing. Yeah. Come on, brother. We'd love to have you. I'm looking forward to it. I want to try one of those cookies. I've been hearing about them for years. So I just moved to Denver, and I'm working on Baby Step 3B as best I can.

My current plan is to pause my retirement and save all my extra money in, like, an S&P 500 index fund for about five years. But pausing my retirement for that long scares me a little. Should it? Yes. Yes. Absolutely. We usually say about three. Yeah.

Five feels long. How old are you? I'm 31. Okay. That's not the end of the world. Yeah. But I just don't, the thing is we just don't want you to not save money for retirement for an extended period of time.

So how much are you trying to save? I mean, kind of with five years, I was going to try to see if I could manage to pull off $100,000. That would be difficult, but I'm putting all my bonuses, $500 a month. I got a relocation package recently. I put half of it in there. But I do have it in the S&P thinking it'd be a five-year plan, but now you're telling me three. Now I'm wondering if an index fund is a great move. You're probably okay. Yeah. How much do you make a year, Will?

65. Okay. How much of a house are you trying to buy eventually? With Denver, I mean, by the time three years is up, they could all be a million plus, but I'm thinking to maybe pull off between like 250 and three, just start with a condo or something. Yeah. Okay. That's good. Yeah.

Well, you probably don't need 100 down to do 300K. No. So you may want to shorten the term just a little bit and or lower the down payment. Yeah. It might mean both. But five years is max. Yeah. I might mean both. But five years is max. Yeah. I mean, I really, we usually say three.

Yeah. And, you know, if you've got some time and you want to go that route, I don't have any problem with it. If you're doing five years and you ended up with 100% down because of something happened, oh, you know what we're not calculating here? We're not calculating the fact your income is going to go up during that time. Yeah. So you're being generous for five years, Dave.

Hopefully, yeah. I'm saying three. No more than three, man. Yeah, that's generally where we are. You know what I would do is I would do it for three years and then give yourself permission to change the plan. Yes. You don't have to keep doing that just because you started that way.

You could go three and go, okay, I'm buying. Or three and you look at it and you go, I've made a lot more money. If I go one more year, I'll stretch it to four. I can get there. But I don't want this to drag out, and you look up, and it's been 10 years. That wouldn't be the way I would change the plan. Good question. Good question.

Matthew's with us. Matthew is in New York City. Hi, Matthew. How are you? Hey, how we doing? Great, man. How can we help? So I'm curious as to your opinion.

I'm considering moving out of my mother's apartment where I live with her and my sister. I'm only 20 years old. Is this a good move or is this not a good move? Are you doing anything? What are you doing with your life right now? Are you in school? Are you working? What are you doing?

So currently I do school probably in class about 15, 20 hours and studying another 10. And then I work full time in their restaurant about 45 hours a week. What do you make? Yeah. I am currently making, I'd say, net income about $52,000 a year. Net income, $52,000 a year working how many hours? About 45 to 50. And going to school 15. Oh, okay. a year. Net income, $52,000 a year working how many hours? About $45,000 to $50,000.

And going to school, $15,000. Correct. How much longer do you have in school? Only two years left. Are you cash-flowing this school right now, or are you taking out student loans? So, the first two

years that I'm doing that community college, my parents saved up money to pay for it. The following two years that i'm doing that community college my parents saved up money to pay for these following two years i'm taking on myself but the loan is coming from the family member and i have to pay them off let's say every three months no interest and everything is lenient payments what what school are you going to your second year how much is going to cost you a semester let me ask that question because i'm not a huge fan of borrowing money from family yeah no hoping hoping to try to go to rutgers or cane university one of the state colleges in jersey average cost between the three probably 11 000 to 13 000 not living on campus yeah so dave may think differently but i'm going to say if you're making $50,000,

I'm going to stay home and cash flow the next two years and not borrow money, not accept money from the family member. So here's the thing. What is the goal? Okay. In my mind, if I'm in your shoes, but you need to ask yourself, what is the goal? If my mind is not how you have not got any time to party. Right.

You work all the time and go to school all the time. Yeah. And so being at your mama's house is not a problem for you. Right. In that regard. So what is the goal? The goal is to complete the education with no debt. Come on.

If I'm in your shoes. That's the goal. The independence. You're 20 years old, what do you gain? Because every dollar you spend to move out takes you away from your goal. Come on. Right?

Yep. And so what are you gaining for that move? That's what you've got to ask yourself. And so if you can do both i'm okay with it there's nothing evil about moving out and getting on your own but let's say you move out and you spend two thousand dollars a month yeah to live outside and that ends up that you take twenty four thousand dollars out in loans from the relative yes then basically you borrowed money to live out of your mama's house that's it Don't tell me you borrowed it for school. No. You borrowed it for lifestyle and to get out from under mama's thumb.

And so, you know, that's the effect of what's going on. So if you could accomplish all of these things and move out, fine. No problem. No problem. But I don't think you can financially. I don't think the math is going to work. Because you live in one of the most expensive places in the world to live. And so when you move out, you're going to have an expensive place to live.

And it's going to be a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little apartment. He's living in a tiny apartment with a roommate. A teeny tiny apartment. Yeah. So that's why I'm saying I would say go ahead and stay at home. Be very strategic, though, while you're at home. Make sure you don't borrow nothing from a family member. Or anybody else.

Yeah. Graduate 100% debt-free. And all the extra money, now start saving that so that way you are prepared to move out when you graduate with a savings account because you will need that in New York. So here's what I'm thinking. The reason that most of us don't hit our goal is not that we didn't know what the goal was. It's that we develop a competing goal. There you go. And the two goals compete with each other, and you end up hitting neither one of them.

Right. Okay? Right. I have a goal to eat this box of donuts. Right. But I also have a goal to lose weight. These are competing goals. Right.

You can't do that. All right. but also have a goal to lose weight. These are competing goals. You can't do that. So in your case, what I would say is it's a lesser goal to move out than it is to graduate debt-free. So if you put enough money in the bank to graduate debt-free and move out, then move out, but until then I wouldn't. I like it, Dave. We agree on this one. Yes.

It's good that we agree. It's a brain trust. Yes. This is The Dave Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Calling from Suffolk, Virginia, on Veterans Day. Cody and Kalen are with us to do a debt-free scream. Congratulations, guys. Hi, thank you.

Well done. What's up, man? So you guys serve, or one of you serves? Who's in the military? Yes, I am. I'm in the military. I'm in the Navy. Okay, cool.

What do you do in the Navy? I'm an aviation electrician. Awesome. How long have you served? I've been in for 14 years. Wow. Thank you. Thank you for your service.

We're doing all Veterans and Active Duty debt-free screams today on the air to say thank you to all of you folks. We appreciate all of you. So how much debt have you paid off, Cody and Kaylin? We paid off $33,900. And how long did this take? Eight months. Wow, you knocked it. And your range of income during that eight months?

We were on a salary of $75,000. Okay, so it just locked in. That was it. Okay, cool. what kind of debt was the 34 000 we had two vehicles uh credit card and uh store credit for some smartphones so you guys are kind of normal oh man pretty much. How long y'all been married? 12 years. Wow. What happened eight months ago that lit your own fire? Because you guys went crazy.

So I'm a photographer by trade, but I set it aside to homeschool seven years ago. I was serving my church as a photographer, and I wanted to get a better camera. And so I started side hustling to get a new camera and get it up to date so I can better serve it, serve my team. And it took six months and I saved up what I needed. And afterwards I looked at Cody and I was like, all right, what's our next goal? Like, what can I save for now? And he said, I want a garage. And I was like, well, my side hustle is not going to fund that. But if we pay off the cars, that might fund it. And so then we kind of remembered Dave Ramsey from, you know, many years ago,

the foundations were there from when we were newlyweds and it just kind of put us back on track, and yeah, we just went straight to it. Wow. Okay, so when you were newlyweds, you went through Financial Peace, or you just had heard the name Ramsey? So when we were newlyweds, my Aunt Jan and Uncle John did our first budget with us, and they gave us Total Money Makeover, and they gave us the old CDs to Financial Peace Military. Okay, good. Very good. So we kind of did like a self-led.

So you drug them back out. Yeah. Well, I just started listening to the podcast, and then I would every time. Here in Hampton Roads, there's a lot of commuting. And so every time I was in the car, I would just listen to it. And yeah, it got us got us motivated. You hear the debt free screams. I would like goosebumps every time.

Some of them I would cry like I can't wait to do one. My kids would say the same thing. I love it. How many kids have you got? What ages? We've got three kids, two boys and a girl. How old are they? The oldest boy is 10 years, the second boy is 7, and the girl is 3 years old.

Okay, nice. So you look in those faces, that also gives you some motivation, right? Yes, of course. So now let me ask this, Kaitlin and Cody, what was the hardest thing during this journey paying off $33,900 within eight months? What was the thing that you all had to really get over together as a couple? So one of our biggest struggles was we had, we were paying off debt, but we still had

a credit card and it was a 0%. And in our head, we were like, oh, it's 0%. But we didn't realize how much of a ball and chain that was around our legs. Like we only shopped at that one store because we had a credit card there. And it was like you don't realize how like tied down you are to it. And so when we created the thinking fund for it, and it's our home improvement fund, so I won't say the store, but we stopped using that credit card to create a thinking fund specifically for home improvement,

and now we're free to shop wherever we want. We're not tied down to that store. Turns out Lowe's has deals and so does Home Depot. Exactly. And sometimes they're alternating. Yeah, absolutely. Exactly. And sometimes they're alternating. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So it is amazing how not only do they make a killing on those store cards,

but how they also create a brand loyalty with them. Because, you know, I would never think of going to Lowe's. I have my Home Depot card. I mean, it's just ridiculous how our brains work. We've all done that same thing. Sears started it. Sears did, Dave. A million years ago.

And look where they ended up. BK Bankrupt. Okay, so there you go. They even started Discover Card. They did? They did and sold it when they went bankrupt. So there you go. The first time they went bankrupt.

So anyway, I love these stories. But anyway, way to go guys you broke free yes so uh what was your who were your biggest cheerleaders our kids yeah wow so they've been practicing their debt-free scream they have because i hear them in the background they're ready to go they're pumped oh my three-year-old oh my gosh i i'm gonna take a video of her debt-free scream just by herself because it's amazing yeah post it post it on youtube with us okay okay i will that'd be cool i love it yeah so that's candy right that's candy yeah i love it yeah that's fun all right guys we're

proud of you again thanks for serving we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires that's the next chapter in your story. $34,000 paid off in eight months, making $75,000. Cody, Kaylin, Carter, Chris, and Candy from Virginia. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt free! Way to go, kids. Two, one, we're dead. Three.

Way to go, kids. You stole the show, man. You hear the kids louder than you hear the parents. You know, and what's weird is when you're 10 years old, you'll tell your grandkids about when your family tree changed. We called in this radio show. Yep. They used to have these things called radio shows back then. Used to.

And there was this guy on the radio who was crazy. Yeah. And my mom listened to him all the time on this old thing they used to call podcasts. And she decided we were going to get out of debt. And that's why, honey, that we don't have any money problems a generation later. That's the sound of a family tree being changed right there. You heard it. Oh, man.

I love it. I love it, too. I mean, the money, the math change is important. Yes. But when the kids get it like that and the kids have been practicing, it's drilled into, you can't get away from it. No. I mean, they get married, they're 22 years old, and their new spouse wants to go out and get a credit card and go into debt. They're going to go, no! Nope.

Nope. Because their brains are changed. Yeah. It's reset. I love it. Boom. These debt-free screams are not just about money, Dave. They're about life change.

It's about freedom. Yes, sir. You can hear it. That's why everybody cries and gets goosebumps when you hear them. You know what freedom sounds like. Yeah. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Even if you mismeasure, you make the wrong color, they'll remake your window blinds for free. Always use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Elise in California. I have about five student loans totaling $226,000 during the pandemic, and while the interest rate is at 0%, I have managed to pay off one of the loans. Unfortunately, I owe taxes for 2019 to both the federal and the state totaling about $5,000. I have been making monthly payments to both of $200 each and an extra monthly payment of $400 to my student loans. Should I hold off on the student loans to knock out my taxes? I'm knocking out my

taxes because I don't want to get any issues with them down the road and then immediately getting back onto my student loan payments. Absolutely. That's exactly the right answer. Absolutely. And you do not want the KGB, I mean the IRS in your life. You do not want them there. Yeah, you don't. And they have unbelievable penalties, unbelievable interest, unbelievable power to screw up your life. Yes. You want them out of your life as soon as possible. Yeah. Yeah.

And other thing is, why are you $5,000 short on your 2019s? Have you gone back and changed your withholding so that you're not short on 2020? Yes, sir. Because 2020 is over. You may have another 5K waiting on you right around the corner if you hadn't gone and fixed that dadgum withholding because you're under short on 2020. Yes, sir. As 2020's over, you may have another 5K waiting on you right around the corner if you hadn't gone and fixed that dadgum withholding, because you're under withholding, apparently. Yep.

Unless something else happened. That's the only explanation for that mathematically. Yeah. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. our scripture of the day john 15 13 greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends abraham lincoln said honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves as best he can the same cause. Happy Veterans Day to all of you listening today live that I have served or are serving. We appreciate you.

We salute you at Ramsey. We think you are the best we appreciate you. We salute you at Ramsey. We think you are the best of the best. Yeah. And we really, really appreciate you. If you are a business owner out there and you want to grow your business, you need to start with the man in the mirror. I figured out years ago I'm the biggest problem around here.

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Wow. So hurry and get yours for Summit. And all you do is text the word Summit to 44222. That's 44222. Arlington, Virginia is calling. Margarita is on the line. Hey, Margarita, how are you? Hi, David and Anthony. How are you guys doing? Oh, well, great. How can we help? So I'm pretty new to your whole program, but I have a question about student loans and property. So a little background. My husband and I, we've been married for about a year.

We're both 23. He works at a consulting firm. And we both make about $130,000 after taxes. We have about $80,000 in student loans. And our rent is about $2,000 a month. As you know, Arlington is pretty expensive. But we really want to buy a house. So I guess my question is, should we go about buying a house first and looking in different areas or should we tackle those student loans now? You're 80K in a hole right now. So

we're focusing on the student loans and I'm doing a math right now. So you have $80,000 in student loans. Is that your only debt? Yes. Okay, cool. So you have $80,000 in student loans. Is that your only debt? Yeah. Okay, cool. So you make $130,000 net. You're spending about, how much are you spending on rent right now? $2,000.

$2,000, right. So you're spending $24,000 a year on rent, another $10,000 in expenses. So doing a math, you can honestly have this paid off within about 18 months if you really aggressively go at it and so now that's not bad now you're in your 20s how long have you been married and this December is going to be our one year anniversary okay yeah yeah and so that's the

route I'm going and I want to say this as a young person I didn't purchase my first house until I was what, maybe 32, Dave, 32. And I had the capabilities, financial capabilities to do it at about 28. But I said I wanted to do it right. And when I walked into my house, it was in a peaceful way. And I was not wasting any money in my 20s renting because I wasn't ready to purchase a home. Margarita, when I first got married, the first property that we rented, which is where you're living right now, we rented way too expensive. Arlington is expensive, but you rented too expensive a place for an newlywed couple. Okay.

Yeah. You got a nice place. Yeah. $2,000. I mean, you really do. And so if I were you, I would move down in property so that I'm paying less for my patients and I would be debt free in 18 to 24 months living on a beans and rice rice and beans budget where your broke friends are making fun of you because if you try to keep

up with the joneses in dc you're going to be broke your whole life true because the joneses in dc are DC are nuts. Yeah. I mean, they're nuts. It's a whole, I mean, it's LA. LA and DC, the biggest put-on-the-dog world there is. That's true. And so you just got to say, we are 23 years old. We're going to take two years and get out of debt and build an emergency fund, and we're going to live in a less than ideal uh place for less than two thousand dollars and we're going to pile up a big pile of cash and then when we buy a house at 26 we're going to put down a huge down payment and we're going to be in a whole different place

than those yolo friends of ours who are making fun of us yeah because you know yolo is the new way of saying thank god it's friday oh god it's monday right spend everything we make have no money you make good money you're in an expensive area but this is very very doable it is very unwise to buy a home where you have to buy an extra bedroom for sally may it's a really good idea to give her her eviction notice while you're still a renter you're debt free you have an emergency fund you move in with a good strong down payment and then you can quote anthony when i walked into the house there was a sense of peace sense of peace but if you move into a house with an 80 000 student loan and you're 24 years old, and you've been married

a year, year and a half at that point, two years, and you're broke, but you make $130,000 a year. What are you, freaking Congress? Yeah. You spend everything you make just to look like you're not broke. Yeah. And I'll tell you what'll happen. Sally Mae will move into a bedroom, and three weeks later, the heat and air will go out on this new place and you'll find out the

difference between renting and owning then is you get to do the repairs you know what dave i get a lot of pushback uh from people who say you know what i'm wasting money by renting and i'm wasting money by paying off my student loans wasting money by paying off student loans yes because they're like well hey elizabeth Elizabeth Warren's going to pay them? It goes back to the government. Like, why pay them if they're going to be forgiven? And if they're not required to be paid right now, why pay them? Because they're not going to be forgiven, and you're going to be saddled with them the

rest of your life, and they're the major impediment between you and building wealth. There you go, Dave. That's the bottom line. I didn't tee you up for that. The problem with believing a fantasy is it'll screw up your finances. Yes, sir. And when you believe D.C. is going to solve your problem. You have a huge problem.

If you believe politicians of either party are going to solve your problem, then you have just condemned yourself to a life of mediocrity. Right. Because I've been sitting around waiting for people to send me money out of D.C. for 60 years. I still hadn't got any. Me neither. All I've ever seen is waiting for people to send me money out of D.C. for 60 years. I still hadn't got any. Me neither. All I've ever seen is they take money. They don't give money. They're a tick on my butt.

They're a parasite. So, unbelievable. Then on the flip side, Dave, a lot of people think, especially I'm seeing this younger generation wanting to jump into purchasing a home, but they're not in a position and ready to purchase a home. So sometimes- The home becomes a curse instead of a blessing. There you go, Dave. I was just about to say that.

I stole it. I stole your line. Goodness graces, Dave. I was just about to say that. Your dream becomes a nightmare. Here's the thing. My generation, I mean, we've been married 38 years, was the first generation, maybe my parents a little bit of that generation,

was the first generation to buy a home within five years of marriage. Wow. Up until about 1960, newlyweds did not consider buying a home, and no one in the culture told them it was wise to buy a home they all said you just got married doofus shut up and save money wow wow it's gonna you know it was it was normally you were 30 years old and you'd been married five or ten years before you could put together enough cash to buy a home but But enter FHA loans with 3% down. Yes.

Enter VA loans with 0% down. Yep. And enter this idea that home ownership is always grand, and it's not. Sometimes it's 50 grand. It sure is. And it'll break your butt when you buy a house and you're broke. It's a problem. That's it, Dave.

Anthony, good show. Hey, thank you, Dave, for having me on. James Childs, producer. Great job, Kelly. Daniel, associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,

and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace. Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top four most popular podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from the Ramsey Show, one of the top four most popular podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from the Ramsey Network, subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.