The Ramsey Show - App - What If You Had No Payments? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 9, 2019

Home Buying, Retirement, Debt   Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE   Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

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. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Anna is with us to start off this hour in Fargo, North Dakota. Hi, Anna. How are you?

Hi, Dave. It's an honor to be speaking with you. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so here's my situation. My husband and I have a three-month-old baby boy, and he works full-time in the guards, part-time, and as a farmer, full-time, and he gets paid a salary of $2,000 after taxes. to our home without having a 10% or 20% down payment for our home. And his father had to lend us $6,000 for the payment on our house. So that's our only debt. And as I mentioned, I'm not working. And so I'm in college.

I'm a junior right now. And FAFSA is paying all my stuff. Now, my question is, how do I get him on board to selling our house since my, so, like, our mortgage is $730 every month without an escrow on the homeowner's insurance or the taxes. And he's not on board with it, but I don't think we're ready to get into another house, and we are trying to sell this one to get more financially secure. You are or you aren't trying to sell it? We are trying to sell it, yes. It's on the market. It has a sign on the yard.

Not yet, but we've had realtors coming in, and we are planning to put it on the market within the next month. Because you don't think you can afford it right i mean he makes a year i got you told me what he makes you told me what he makes but you're going to graduate from college in one year yeah yep and i sell stuff on the side you're going to graduate from college in one year what's your degree going to be in my degree is going to be in social working are you going to get a job yes then i'll be getting a job okay and then the house will be easily affordable so all you have to make it is for one year okay right now we're on baby step two i know you told

me that you have six thousand dollars owed to his parents and you're on baby step two and you're starving to death because he doesn't make any money, but you have a very low house payment. He makes $2,000 a month, plus he's in the guard, plus you sell stuff on the side. I got it. But you can hang on for one year. And then when you get a job, this house is very affordable, isn't it? Yeah, once I get a job, definitely.

Is there another reason to sell the house other than you don't think you can afford it? Yeah, once they get a job, definitely. Is there another reason to sell the house other than you don't think you can afford it? The street that we live in is full of traffic, and I don't know if that will be an inconvenience when our little boy gets older and won't be able to run around and play. And how old is your little boy? He's three months.

Okay. and how old is your little boy he's three months okay all right i think i would uh take extra jobs side jobs him and you and i would make it through this year and stay in that house for now i don't think you put it on the market i'm on his side and then by the way when you get extra money over and above then you can can start paying his parents back. His parents probably aren't going to get much money this year because this year you're just trying to make it. You're just trying to make ends meet and get through and finish it up. But that's what I would do. I would stay there for now.

Thank you for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Speaking of selling a home, if you're trying to decide whether to continue rent or if it's time to buy, well, if you're out of debt and you have your emergency fund in here for down payment, it is time to buy. Those in Gen Z that are now entering the renter's market will spend, on average, $226,000 before buying a home. Median rent right now is $1,710 a month. That's a lot. Baby boomers and millennials don't have it much better.

Low inventory is also creating higher rents. It is a great time to buy. It's not a great time to buy if you're still broke. And you don't use this as an excuse to do that. If you're thinking of selling a home in this this as an excuse to do that if you're thinking of selling a home in this hot market you need to get a good realtor in either case when this market is as wacky as it is right now you need a good real estate agent that knows their stuff in your corner that's what our real estate elps are and just remember that when you're making a decision

like she is trying to sell decide whether to keep the house, whether to sell, whether to move right now, whether it's time, you know, and what's the proper amount, a 15-year fixed rate where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay and all that. Just click ELP for real estate. If you're thinking about selling, you'll get more for your house. Yeah, you can get offers right now. A monkey can sell a house right now.

With somebody knowing what they're doing, you'll get a lot more for the house when they know how to handle this hot market. A real pro. Click ELP for Endorsed Local Provider for Real Estate at DaveRamsey.com. You can find some help there. Dylan's with us in Greensboro, North Carolina. Hi, Dylan. How are you?

I'm wonderful, Dave. How are you? Better than i deserve what's up um to kind of go along with what you were just saying about housing um well i'll start by saying that my dad has done everything for me um i currently live in his house with my family of four he just moved in with his new wife at her house. He was paying bills and mortgage and everything for me until he lost his job in 2016. I took on everything at once,

and basically with the $40,000 I made per year at that time, I paid some of the stuff and charged the rest to credit. So the other day, well, my plan this whole time was to pay off the house the rest of the way fix it up and then either rent it out or you know let my dad sell it at a later point i mean it's your dad's day i had a night i'm sorry it's your dad's house right so why are you fixing up his house? Well, I was thinking at first, you know, that it might be a place that I'd be fine with living. And, you know, now that he's married and living with his new wife, he doesn't, I guess, need the house for anything. So he wants to sell the house and he wants you to move. No.

I'm trying to change things up to help my position and his position. So what I was thinking was that if we sold the house for what it's worth now, I could use some of the money from that to pay off. It's not your house. How do you get the money when you sell his house? Hello? Yeah, I'm still here. That's why I started with, he's done everything he can for me,

and he's trying to help me get out of credit debt that I'm in now. He's going to give you his house. Well, not all of it. I'm not asking for any of it. Good. I think you need to move out and rent and get on a budget and take enough jobs to pay for your family. And let your dad do what he wants to do with his house. This is a pretty dysfunctional, codependent relationship.

You're a grown man with a family and your daddy's still taking care of you. Dude, it's time to get your game up. That's what it sounds like to me. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. 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 Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs.

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Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Thanks for joining us, America. Craig is in Fort Worth, Texas. Hey, Craig, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, how's it going? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, my question is, I have a house that's currently paid off. It's tenant-occupied. I'm sorry, it's not paid off. It's got about $69,000 left on the note, tenant-occupied.

It's got some positive cash flow, a couple hundred dollars a month. I currently live in a small apartment, and I'm looking to buy another house, but I also have about $90,000 of just liquid cash. And so the issue I run into is if I'm trying to buy something that's centrally located in a hot area, they want you to have a lot more cash that you're putting down. Otherwise, they won't take your offer seriously. And so my question is, is it always best to just go ahead and pay down the first house, or is it better to pursue this other alternative?

Well, let's start with the overarching principle that the data tells us the shortest way to building wealth is not leveraged real estate. It is being debt-free. Okay. That's our overarching principle. Now, if we start with that, what steps would we take in your situation to get us there? And then you've kind of got to look at it a different way. So the house that has $70,000 owed on it, what is it worth?

What's it worth? It's worth about $215,000, $220,000. Great. So you've got some great equity there, and you're in an apartment. So how did you end up not living in the house and living in an apartment? It goes back several years. It's a three-bed, two-bath kind of cookie-cutter neighborhood. It's a fine house built in 2005.

Have you ever lived in it? Yeah, I lived in it for five years. Okay. I had a girlfriend for a while. I had a dog, but, you know, all that moved away, so I didn't need that big of a house anymore. Okay, so you just kept it, it rented and became a landlord by default. It wasn't your initial plan.

Okay. Yeah, and it's worked out well so far. Yeah, that sounds like it. You made some money on it. So then the question is, what gets you where you want to be in three years, five years, something like that? How old are you? I'm 35. Okay, so when you're 38 or you're 40

where do we want to be well we want both these paid for that's where i want to be yeah i want my home so the house you're talking about buying the next one are you going to live in it yeah that'll be occupied by myself and my girlfriend new girlfriend. Yeah, it's about two and a half years. Okay, well, newer than, not the original girlfriend from the original house, okay. Right. Don't buy houses for girlfriends. Let's start with that, okay. But anyway, the, okay, so what's your income?

Right now it's about $60,000. Okay, all right. So the way I answer questions is what would I do if I woke up in your shoes knowing what I know after having done this all these years, and having done a lot of stupid stuff, by the way, learned some stuff the hard way. I would do something that you probably aren't going to do, but what I would do is I would sell the rental house, and I would put my $90,000 with it, and I would pay cash for the home that aren't going to do but what i would do is i would sell the rental house and i would put my ninety thousand dollars with it and i would pay cash for the home that i'm going to move into and then i would take the fact that i don't have a house payment anymore and i would pile up cash as fast as i can and i would buy rentals as i got enough money piled up

in cash to do that i actually know i would do that because that's what I did. And today I own in excess of $100 million worth of real estate paid for. But I started it exactly that way. That's how I started it. And so, you know, the first, we got our house paid off, and then we saved up. I throw money in mutual funds. And then once it got built up to a certain level, I'd buy me a little rental. And then I'd buy another little rental. And then, you know, I'd get a book deal and get a royalty check, and I'd buy another little rental, you know, that kind of stuff.

And I was not living off my royalties. So as your income goes up and you don't have any payments, you can do that. But that's going to be, that's going to feel like a huge step back to you, because you haven't been thinking that way but maybe 10 or 15 seconds now. So, you know. I never considered that at all yeah that's what i mean and so it's something to think about that that's one way you could do it the other thing i would do is just what you said throw the 90 down at the house and and then let's turn and your first goal is get your home paid off and your second goal is pay off your rental before you do any other real estate deals those two have

to be cleared well now that would be that so if i I had $90,000, I mean, it's only $69,000 left on the note, so I could pay off the first house. You could do that now if you want, but that's going to put less down on your main home, and then you're going to pay down on it as aggressively as you can, and at least you have the rental paid for. You could do it that way, too. That'd be okay. You might end up with PMI, though, which I don't really want to do. I want you to put down 20% on the other one. So let's work a little math on that and see how that works out.

Because if you put down 20%, you can avoid the private mortgage insurance. It's about $75 a month per $100,000 borrowed. I mean, it's the equivalent of almost a full interest rate point. So penalty if you don't put that down. So something to think about there. But, you know, you could do it either way. The way I'm describing is a little more radical. But truthfully, it'll get you further along in five years, ten years than doing it the other way.

But either way is not going to be in the under the heading of you're stupid or something like that. It's just, you know, how conservative can you be? How quickly can we get completely clear of debt so we've got complete control of our income? Crystal's with us in Louisville, Kentucky. Hi, Crystal. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you, Dave?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Hi, I'm 40. I'm single, no kids, no debt. I would love if you have time to ask you if I'm 40. I'm single, no kids, no debt. I would love if you have time to ask you if I'm being unreasonable about my living situation. But my main question is how much should I save on top of my state-funded pension? How much is your state-funded pension? Do you put any money in that or it's mandatory withdrawal out of your check?

I think it's, I'm pretty sure it's mandatory. I have my stub in front of me, and I see that I pay $189 a month to the pension, and then, of course, it shows me what the state. Do you know what percentage of your income that you pay in? I think that, I don't know what question it is. I make $45,000. I'm sorry? I make $45,000 a year.

And how often do you get paid? I get paid twice a month. Twice a month, okay. And that was $198 coming out each month. Okay, well that would be $4,536. It sounds like you're putting in 10%. Okay. Well, that will be $4,536. It sounds like you're putting in 10%. Okay. My question was, I also put into a 401k and a Roth and a 457. Good.

Right this second, because I'm in a situation I am with no debt or anything, no house payment right this second. Currently, I have $619 a month going to all those things, including the pension. And I'm thinking about all this because I'm trying to build a house. Okay, if you're going to buy a home and you're going to save towards a home, you need to be back down to 15% of your income going into retirement. Okay. And you're putting more than that in, it sounds like. 20% counting the pension. I didn't know if I should include that pension amount.

Well, yeah, you don't have control over it, so maybe you would discount it some, but you're putting in 20% of your income towards retirement, and can you save for the house in addition to that? I have $14,000 saved. I know. Can you save for the house in addition to that? Oh, I'd have to ponder that. Okay.

I'd have to ponder that, really. Because you're basically, I assume you have an emergency fund, right? I have the $1,000, and I just sold my house, and so I had that $14,000 that I mentioned. Okay. We need to set the $14 the 14 000 aside not as a house fund but as an emergency fund and you need to have a down payment in addition to your emergency fund in addition to being debt free when you repurchase and i ask you if i'm being unreasonable about how i want to live uh the how i'm trying to build i wanted to build small and i just want to live. I'm trying to build. I wanted to build small.

I've been on some mission trips, and it just really inspired me to just want to give more than I take. And it's just been a hard process to decide what to build. My family just thinks I need to build bigger and something that's good for resale value. Well, you need to build something that's reasonable for resale that other people might want someday. Otherwise, the money you're spending is only for occupancy,

and you lose out on the investment part of homeownership, which is a great part of you building a good solid base, a sustainable base so that you can give more. And so if you'll get yourself out of that and own reasonable things that are going up in value, you put yourself in a position to be even more generous, which is what you're trying to do. It's a great art. Hey, thanks for the call. We'll be right back. Justin and Megan are with us in Charleston, West Virginia.

Hi, Justin and Megan. How are you? Hey, Dave. Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congrats.

Yes. Thank you. Wow. How much have you paid off? We paid off just over $22,000 in just about a year. Way to go. And your range of income during that time? We were right about $110,000 at the time.

Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm an accountant for a small regional bank here in West Virginia. And I do public relations for the largest water utility in West Virginia, and I also own a small business with my twin sister called Rock Paper Sisters. Oh, very cool. Good for you guys. And what kind of debt was the $22,000? The majority of it was a student loan and also our car payment. Ah, very cool. Good for you guys. So how old are you? I am 32.

I'm 34. And how long have you been married? We just celebrated our 10th anniversary. So after 10 years or 9 years, something happened 12 months ago. What happened? Well, we actually, a Financial Peace University class was offered through our church, and at the time we were in another small group and we weren't able to take the class. But we had several friends who were taking the class and they were talking about this Dave Ramsey and, you know, all the great things that they were doing. And we were like, you know,

we really need to look into this. And so the next time the class was offered, we jumped on it. And when I say we jumped on it, we got very gazelle intense about it. I'm one of those that I just jump in head first. And so I'm listening to your podcast every day. I've read every single one of the books. And we just we really got after it. So that's, that's really what sparked us was Financial Peace University and just, you know, following the steps. Wow, very cool. Very cool. So what was the thing when you got into the class that made you go? Were you just already on fire, or did you say, wow, this kind of makes sense, I can do it? I mean, tell me how the transition worked in your brain.

Because for nine years you've been doing it one way, and suddenly you make a sharp turn. Right. So why the suddenly? It had a lot to do with the fact that, you know, I'm an accountant, and so a lot of this stuff sort of made sense, and I could make spreadsheets and hundreds of spreadsheets and show them to Megan. And it didn't really do a whole lot of good if she wasn't really interested in the spreadsheets.

So it was like when we took the class, we took the class sort of the long-term goals and that sort of thing really spoke to Megan. And she's not kidding when she said she got a little obsessed with all things Dave Ramsey. And so that really sort of pushed us in the right direction. Gotcha. Okay. So you were showing her how, but the class gave her a why. It's exactly right.

Exactly right. We had several spreadsheets of budgets, and here's our spending, and here's all this. But, I mean, I could stick a spreadsheet in front of her, it just it really wasn't doing it yeah you gotta have a reason you gotta have a reason to do all that yeah and when we when we started to to use your tools especially every dollar i mean like justin said we you know monthly we were talking about our our budget and we he was making spreadsheets and it was just like oh okay that's great and then but it wasn't until you know we both had the app on our phone. It was so easy.

We're both looking at our budget. Now we're having our monthly budget meeting, but we're also in real time every day kind of looking at our budget together. And it became almost sort of fun. We're watching our budget. We're watching our debt just kind of trickle down. And so it was really an easy process to get into. Yeah, cool, very cool.

So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I think the key to getting out of debt is, first and foremost, to budget. I mean, that was our biggest hurdle to get over was sitting down together, doing our budget, sticking with the budget. And also, it requires gazelle intensity. It does require sticking to it, making your plan, and following that plan. And so I think that that's absolutely the key. It's, number one, making your budget, and, number two, sticking with your plan.

Cool. And, Justin, that's what you've been trying to do anyway, right? Right, exactly. But to be honest, when we did financial peace, the long-term goals really spoke to both of us. The thought of being able to pay for our son's college and the idea of paying off our house early, those things are really exciting when you look at it, and it's easier to make those short-term changes that become habits in your life, and they kind of flow over to your long-term goals.

Well done, you guys. Do you have people cheering you on or saying you were crazy? Everyone was so supportive. I mean, we had a ton of people around us that were super supportive and motivating. I mean, paying off debt does not come without sacrifice, and so we did a lot of things in the last year that, you know, some people would probably find a little bit crazy. You know, we didn't take a vacation. Oh, my gosh. We skipped a trip to Napa with our friends who were celebrating their 40th birthday.

You know, all these things we kind of said, no, you know, we've got a plan. We've got a plan. We've got a plan. But still, everyone was very motivating, very supportive. And so we're finding now that with our intensity, we're now motivating others. And so we've actually recently been asked by our pastor to lead a Financial Peace University class again at our church. And so we're excited to be doing that in the fall. So we're really, we're proud of ourselves, really, that we're able to, you know to kind of motivate others as we're going through this process. Well, there's no question.

If you're talking to me, you're going to be able to do it without any trouble at all. People are going to be fired up just hanging out with you all. Way to go. I'm proud of you. I'm very proud of you. Very well done. Thank you so much. And obviously your pastor is.

That's good stuff. He's looking at you going, this couple's on fire, man. So good stuff. Very, very cool. Well, thank you guys so much. Congratulations. We're very proud for you we got a copy of chris hogan's retire inspired book for you that is the next chapter in your life you're going to become millionaires now and outrageously generous as you go along giving and giving back in lots of ways as you go and you're going to have the money

to do it and i mean you're young you make 100. You make $100,000. You've got no debt. How does it feel? It feels awesome. It's amazing. It really is amazing. Well done. All right, Justin, Megan, Charleston, West Virginia, $22,000 paid off in 12 months after 10 years of marriage,

$110,000 a year income. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! I love it! I love it. I love it.

I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Wow. You know, listening to them, it reminded me that you can get through anything if you have a reason. You have to be able to see light at the end of the tunnel. That's not an oncoming train.

You've got to be able to see the other side. And if you can see the other side, you can walk across the hot coals. If you can see the other side, you can walk through poop to your knees. If you can see the other side, you can get there. But seeing the other side, you know there but seeing the other side you know how you see the other side you got to get some height you got it you can't be down in the poop you got to get your head up over it so you can look out past it and when and what that is is the nobility of your thoughts let me tell you what i mean when all you're thinking about is, well, I wish I could just go to the grocery store.

I just want to be able to pay the light bill. You're down in the poop. But when you elevate your thoughts to a different level of nobility and you say, I want to send my kid to college. I want to retire with dignity. I want to be a millionaire so I can be outrageously generous. I want to be able to travel and do anything I want to retire with dignity. I want to be a millionaire so I can be outrageously generous. I want to be able to travel and do anything I want to do. When you start looking out into the future, you do that by getting a different height to your thoughts, and then you can look past the stuff. If you can look past the junk, you can walk through the junk.

Just talking to a friend of mine that had a very painful surgery, and he's like me, he's pretty much a sissy. Any kind of pain is a bad idea, you know, and he was whining and carrying on, and the doctor told him, look, you're going to have 16 days of hell. It's going to be bad. On the 17th, 18th, and 19thth day you're going to start feeling relief and progressively from then on you got to hold your breath for 16 days but after that it's going to be okay it's going to start getting progressively better the pain's going to drop and he said sure enough

i made it to the 15th day but all i was doing was looking past it so that I could walk through it. You see the difference? That's why you have to know why you're doing something, not just how you're doing something, because it gives you the ability to get height above it to look past it. You've got to have your why. Why are you doing this? This is the Dave Ramsey Show. MZShop. Thanks for joining us. What if you didn't have any payments?

What if there was no MasterCard? You hadn't discovered bondage or American distress. You weren't caught in a car fleece. You gave Sally Mae her eviction notice and kicked the old woman out into the street. Think about your budget right now. Think about your income. What if you had no car payment, no credit card payments, no student loan payment, no medical bills outstanding?

What if you had no debt? What if you had no debt? What if you had no mortgage payment? All you had to buy was lights, water, and food. Some insurance. And you could do some investing. How much would you give if you weren't broke? If you weren't working for everybody else, if you weren't working for Lexus Motor Credit, Toyota Motor Credit, Chrysler Motor Credit, Ford Motor Credit, how many motor credits do I have to give you before you get this? If you weren't working for Countrywide,

if you weren't working for Visa and MasterCard and, God help you, Bank of America, if you weren't working for Sally Mae, what if you worked for you? What if you had no payments would you work at the job you work at if you didn't have to to pay payments would you take a different job would you tell them to take that job and yeah you would wouldn't you next time the boss comes in being a jerk you could just start walking out where are you going i don't have any payments you see proverbs 22 7 in the bible says the borrower is slave to the lender now dave ramsey you're one of those crazy christian people aren't you yep

unabashedly so darling but it's not really crazy. It's just kind of common sense. The borrower is slave to the lender. You tell me, are you a slave or not? Slaves don't have choices. Other people tell them what to do. Their life is owned by someone else. I owe, I owe, so off to work I go, says the bumper sticker. Ha ha, not funny. Spend your whole life giving money to people who have 50-story buildings in the skyline. Guess who paid for those? You. The borrower is slave to the lender. Have you ever thought that it might not be possible to be generous when you're a slave? When someone else controls you, how hard is it to be generous? What if you had no payments?

Could you build wealth? The average car payment in America is $504 right now over 84 months. If you invest $504 in a decent growth stock mutual fund that has the rates of returns that my personal mutual funds have had in my personal 401k for the past 40 years, if you were to do that from age 30 to age 70, you'd have about $5.6 million in your Roth IRA, just the car payment. That's what your car payment's costing you. $5.6 million.

Hope you like the car. And they go down in value, like a rock. That's where Chevy gets that, like a rock. What would it be like to have no payments? Would you work where you work if you didn't have to make money to pay other people that you owe? The number of people who change careers or change jobs once they're free and make the most money they've ever made in their lives

because they're able to change jobs and make the most money they've ever made in their lives because they're able to change jobs and make the most money they've ever made in their lives after they get out of debt. It's almost a common occurrence among the debt-free screamers that while they're getting out of debt or post-debt freedom, they make different career choices because they no longer feel trapped. You know why you feel trapped when you got a bunch of payments? Because you're trapped. That's why you feel trapped. You know why you feel trapped when you got a bunch of payments? Because you're trapped. That's why you feel trapped. The borrower is slave to the lender. The only difference was,

this was voluntary slavery. You signed up for it. I signed up for it. We were told that this is how you live. The little man can't get ahead it takes money to make money you're never going to have anything nice so you might as well have some decent payments get low payments because you that's the only way a little man like people on in our neighborhood people like us people of our ethnic background the only way we get ahead is payments. Ever heard those sayings? Heard them my whole life.

I've heard them from every ethnic background, by the way. I've heard them from Hispanics. I've heard them from African Americans. I've heard them from hillbillies and heard them from Cajuns. Rednecks. Yankees, Dutchmen. I've heard it from every German background, although most Germans are pretty conservative financially. I've even heard it from Canadians. Go figure.

You're not different. Stupid knows no bounds. Stupid will show up in any race, in any region, and it'll settle in and make itself normal. The borrower is slave to the lender. How fast would that turn into a million in a calculator as an investment instead of a payment, how fast would that turn into a million dollars? I'll help you with that.

Eight years. Eight years. After you pay off your house, that one account will approximate a million dollars with average house payment in America today. This is ridiculous, people. Everybody else is getting rich, and you're helping them. You're working and working and working and working and working like a rat in a wheel, and you put yourself in the wheel.

I did too. I've done so many stupid things with money, I can't even count them. I have a Ph.D. in D.U.M.B. What qualifies you to do this show, Dave? What degrees do you have? I've got something, honey, that you don't have. It's called experience. Been there, done that, got all the T-shirts.

I got every Boy Scout badge of stupidity that there is. I know exactly what stupid looks like. I've done it up close and personal and called it smart. You ever done stupid and called it smart? But when stupid gets stress tested, it gets exposed to stupid, doesn't it? I mean, when the tide goes out, you can tell who's skinny dipping, can't you? Your great little plan to invest in real estate worked real good until 2008, didn't it, stupid? Your great little plan to do XYZ worked until it didn't work, didn't it stupid?

Your great little plan to go $250,000 in debt to get a degree in left-handed puppetry worked until it didn't work, didn't it stupid? Hey, we've all done stupid, darling. The borrower is slave to the lender, voluntarily signing up to give our lives away. Well, this show is about breaking free. This show is about no more chains. This show is about you taking back control of your destiny. This show is about believing and showing you exactly how, step by step, process by process,

you can get your most powerful wealth building tool back. It's called your income. And if you don't go get it back, it's going to be your fault because I'm going to show you how. If you don't go get your income back, it's going to be your fault because I'm going to inspire you and show you other people that did it. If you don't go get control of your life again by getting out of debt and using your income to build wealth, it's your fault starting today.

I don't know how long you've been listening to this show, but it's time to listen to what is being said on this show. You spent too much of your life giving it away to other people. It's time. Aren't you sick and tired of being sick and tired? It's time to do something about it. I've had it. When you say that, that's when you change. The borrower is slave to the lender. How much would you give if you weren't in debt? How much could you invest if you weren't in debt? How fast would you build wealth

if you weren't in debt? This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey guys, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Ramsey's death-reams and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.