The Ramsey Show - App - You Can Shovel Your Way Out of Any Financial Mess! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the 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. Christina Ellis, Ramsey personality, newest Ramsey personality, is joining me for a segment here. We want to make sure you guys all get to know her, and you'll be hearing a lot more from her in the coming weeks and coming years, and we look forward to that. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So Christina has quite a storied background before she joined our team.

She had a best-selling book called Confessions of a Scholarship Winner and how-to books and how to graduate debt-free. She started a website called college ninja.com that we are melding into the Ramsey stuff as well and she is a college ninja without a doubt. She secured over five hundred thousand000 in scholarships, went to Vanderbilt and got her degree and got a master's degree as well, and all of it's supported by scholarships. So she's walking living proof that you can go to school debt-free and that it's possible, right? Yes, absolutely. Yes, if you are willing to fight for it and put together a strategy, there is no reason that you need debt for college. You can do it.

So lest someone think that this is a privileged situation that sets you up for this, none of these scholarships were athletic. None of them were academic. Your dad passed away of cancer when you were seven. And so you're being raised by a single mom and she sat down with you and had a conversation. Yes. The first day of my freshman year of high school, my mom sat me down. She said, Christina, I love you and I believe in you, but there's just no way that I can

support you financially once you graduate from high school. So you got to figure out your own way to pay for college. And at first I was shocked. I thought, why are you telling me this? I am a freshman in high school. What can I do about it? But at the same time, I knew that she was just trying to help and cast a vision for me. Yeah.

And she's your mom. I love your mom. I mean, she's just old school. She's Venezuelan. Is that what it was? Yes. Yeah. She's from Venezuela.

Came here, married an American and your dad and he passed away. And so she's like scratching and clawing, immigrant mentality, get her done, baby, you know, kind of woman. This woman's a force of nature. She's anything but a victim and wasn't going to allow you to be. Oh, yeah, she's such a fighter. And the thing is that she immigrated from Venezuela in her 20s. She actually got a scholarship to come here to the United States. And she grew up in a pretty rough background kind of the slums of Venezuela so she in her

perspective was like I got you this far so now what are you gonna do like here's the baton you better run hard and fast to get to the next level yeah you already got a whole bunch more than I got so no whining and here's what we're gonna do but she didn't just dump it on you as a ninth grader and leave you penniless or hopeless. She actually was your cheerleader and really gave you a system. She was an incredible cheerleader. And I actually love that she told me in ninth grade, I think that all parents need to have those conversations as early as possible, because she let me know the reality of what I was going to face. And she gave me time to come up with a strategy. You know, I read every book, every resource. I interviewed alumni from my high school to figure out, you

know, what does it take to win scholarships, and how can I stand out in the process? You know, she encouraged me to put together a plan and strategy, and then I implemented it all throughout high school. I just continually did that. What did you do? I got involved in extracurricular activities. I worked on building up my grades. I took the right classes. I took up leadership roles. I volunteered. You know, I wasn't a star athlete.

I didn't have perfect grades. So I had to figure out, you know, how can I stand out in the process? And something that I did is I volunteered a ton. I did over 1,000 hours of community service when I was in high school. And I continued to create opportunities and just look for ways that were unique to stand out. Also doing things that I love. I encourage people, you know, when you're trying to get involved in high school and stand out in the process, don't just do things because they stand out in the scholarship application process. Do things that you love. When you're doing things that you love, you're going to want to pour into them and then naturally stand out.

And then you filled out scholarship applications and essays like daily. Yes. My mom and I kind of lived in the library. And that's another cool thing about my mom is like she didn't just tell me what to do. You know, she would sit with me at night and we would talk about applications. We would do the research together on the computer. And we would just she would be my cheerleader when I was applying. You know, I would get bored sometimes and be like, oh, do I have to do these applications? Come on. And she would, you know, help me take a break and be like, you know, let's go grab some coffee. Let's just like make this a fun process

and let's do this. You know, she helped me stay pumped up. Yeah. And so how many scholarships do you think you applied for? I applied for around 50 scholarships, which actually now that I do this for a living and I talk to people about scholarships, I encourage people to apply for a lot more. You know, I was very fortunate that I won some very big scholarships, but I love to see students applying for 100 or 200 scholarships because the more you put yourself out there, the greater chance you have of winning. Yeah, and 100 at $250 gets a lot of money. Yes, it adds up. It adds up incredibly fast. Yeah, and you can go through school debt free. Now, we've got the book here, Debt-Free Degree, by Anthony O'Neill that we teach people how to go to school debt-free. College choice is a big part of it, but if you get $500,000 worth,

you don't even have to worry about college choice, right? Yeah, I was very fortunate. I was able to go to Vanderbilt University for my undergrad and Belmont for grad school, completely debt-free, and they're not cheap schools. Both of are expensive yes both of them are really expensive yeah so but if you if you don't get five hundred thousand dollars worth you have to you need to choose a school that is within the budget of the money you can get your hands on whether it's scholarship money or working or wherever you're going to get the money you choose a school that's within that budget and that is the number one thing that drives people into college debt yes i always want people to explore

their options. That's the thing is that there are so many choices out there. I feel like a lot of students get stuck on this idea of a specific school that costs $50,000 or $70,000. And you don't have to go that direction. There are so many different options for a debt-free degree. You know, there are tons of free community colleges nowadays. There are a lot of employers that are offering incredible tuition benefits. A lot of employers are now offering free college if you work for them. Plus, you can still earn money while you're employed. So it's really cool to see all of these options growing and expanding. The first time I ever saw that, UPS was doing it in Louisville in their home office. And you could load trucks and they pay for you to go to school at the University of Louisville.

And, you know, that was an incredible benefit. Now a ton of people are doing that. With the current upside-down world we've got on labor and labor shortage, and it's $15 an hour to work at Target, and they'll pay for your college. And so, you know, probably 10 or 15 other major employers are offering that benefit. And so if you want to go to school debt-free, you need to be willing to work. You need to be willing to set aside time and apply for scholarships. You need to be very careful about your college choice.

Oh, and did I mention you need to work? Yes. And that's what's so cool is that you can literally work and make an income while getting a free degree. So it's like you avoid student loans completely and you're making money, which it's like that's kind of the best of both worlds. You can follow Christina at IamChristinaEllis on Twitter and on Instagram. You'll learn more about scholarships and more about Ramsey Money Principles. And as she has joined the money section of the Ramsey Personality Team, and certainly with a specialization in this, but you'll hear her talking about all the other things

as she joins this show in the coming weeks and months and joins our lineup and our events and things. You'll see her everywhere. Welcome to the team, Christina. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. It's going to be a great ride. This lady's a smart lady.

She's way smarter than me. You put her and John Deloney in the same room, my IQ goes up just walking in there. So there you go. This is The Ramsey Show. It continues to amaze me how identity thieves keep finding ways to use our own identities against us. Not only do they commit crimes related to financial fraud, medical ID theft, and insurance benefit fraud, but now we have to deal with home title fraud. Thieves are using your own personal info to take ownership of your home so they can take out loans,

and you end up with a pile of debt and foreclosure notices. Over 4,000 data breaches happened in 2018, exposing 3.6 billion records. So thieves have plenty of identities to use, and there's a one in five chance it will be yours. That's why Zander Insurance is the only program I use and recommend. Their plan covers all types of identity theft, and it takes over all the work if you become a victim. Visit Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, joins me this hour. Open phones at 888-825-5225. He's my co-host. He's also the host of the Dr. John Deloney podcast,

one of our fastest-growing ramsey networks right now uh everyone tuned in and listening about relationships this is the show where we talk about relationships we talk about your work we talk about your money we talk about you and if you want to get in the phone number again 888-825-5225 true or false it's possible for you to become a millionaire what if i told you the answer is it's possible and it's up to you research shows you don't need a six-figure income you don't need an inheritance and you don't need to win the lottery to become a millionaire people just like you research says real not opinions, reach millionaire status simply by following our baby steps.

We call them Baby Steps Millionaires. Baby Steps Millionaires book that came out last week, number one bestseller, shows you exactly how to do that. And with our best year ever bundle, you get a copy of the brand new Baby Steps Millionaires book, and you also get signed up for Financial Peace University and the premium version of every dollar in Ramsey Plus. When you use these tools and you follow these simple steps, you will build wealth, you will build your bank account, you will eventually become a millionaire. The typical person is 12 to 17 years. So learn about the best year ever bundle by visiting RamseySolutions.com slash best. That's RamseySolutions.com slash best. Our phone number here to talk is 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings with free samples, free shipping, and new promos all the time. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Hannah in Illinois. She says, I've always struggled with emotional spinning to fill a void in my life in stressful situations.

My husband and I started dating. He was debt-free, which prompted me to want to get out of debt. I was able to pay off four grand before we got married. And then my husband paid off the rest of my $5,000 debt. We were debt free for 10 months until the pandemic hit and the stress spiraled into spending on my credit cards. I thought I would be able to pay them off, but I kept spending and the shame of the debt overwhelmed me. So I kept it a secret. My husband was angry when he finally had a discussion about my debt, and I closed my accounts. How do I handle the shame of past mistakes and avoid emotional spending?

I want to do better in our finances and work together, but my husband doesn't believe I am willing to change. Man, Dave, there's a lot here. First, I don't know that her husband's uh angry about the spending as much as the dishonesty and the deceit and the as we call it around here financial infidelity here i'm sure he was upset about the spinning but more of the violation of trust um so the way i've heard guilt and shame framed is guilt is when you say i've done something that violates my moral boundaries shame is when you say i am like not i cheated i should feel guilty about cheating on a test i'm a cheater i carry

that shame around with me and so when anyone says how do i get rid of my shame i think you pull your i say i'm going to pull myself away from these set of behaviors and i'm going to say i'm going to stop doing these things your husband uh doesn't believe you're willing to change because i don't see here that i'm that you're willing to change i see i hear dave in this language this over and over um i'm just out of control with this thing it controls me and the thing i can do about it and i don't have a choice in this it owns me i stone cold disagree with that yeah if you label yourself which is shaming you're right if you i am i'm an emotional spender then you're no longer uh uh held accountable for the fact that you're just not being an adult that's right like i'm six two i have to bend over to get into a four foot

you know fence let's say like that's a that's a fact i'm six foot two she is not an emotional spender six foot two right she has labeled herself an emotional spender and that's how she has chosen to cope with things in the past well and it lets you off the hook for for the pain of the responsibility to change that's right if you label yourself well i've got this disease i've got a problem and i've got this disease and so i'm stuck can't help it i'm just the way i am so hannah you know what you do you get rid of all of your cards you get rid of all of your internet access i mean how far do you want to go to keep your marriage how far do you want to go to stop this kind of behavior do you want to get to the spend some time with a counselor and get

to the root of what why you feel the need to do mean, you could go to the ends of the earth to fix some of this behavior. You do some emotional spending and you've had some immaturity and some weakness that has led you to that. You are not defined as an emotional spender. And that's what you've got to change. The way you just said that is so empowering. I don't know how the culture got sideways in this. Because we want to be victims instead of victors. Do you realize do you realize

how like what you just said is so much more empowering than oh honey you've you've got an emotional spending problem disorder it's not even a disorder but yeah well that's what she wants to say versus you made some bad choices i struggled with emotional spending to fill an emotional void yeah yeah well i mean i'll struggle with chocolate chip cookies to fill an emotional void too, but I'm not one. Yeah. My tendency is to, I have the same one. My tendency is to emotionally eat. So I've got to set up. You're not a gummy bear.

Oh, God almighty. I can get after some gummy candy. But so here's the thing. I have to set up a lot of boundaries in my life. Ask people, I ask people in this building to hold me accountable to that. Well, here's the thing. When you go through something like that, that not a fact, instead it's a perception, then what you have to do is you have to change your mindset about it. And so I think there's a whole lot of hope for her.

And what her husband is afraid of, and it's coming out as anger, is that she's going to stay in this hole because she believes she is this hole. And she hasn't gotten to the root of yeah i lied to my husband yeah yeah well and and on top of that um you know i just straight up as an adult who legally can do stupid things did some stupid things right call it out yeah just say i did that when i went bankrupt you know i went bankrupt because i borrowed too stinking much money you know and because i was an idiot i got a phd in dumb and i signed up for a bunch of short-term notes the stupid bankers took my head off well i put my head on the block that's how they took it off you don't stick your head on

the block you don't get it taken off so um american express calls my house now it's a wrong number i mean we don't deal with these people anymore because i'm not going to ever be back so you have to have a moment in time where you say, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Never again. Right. Never again. That is not who I am. I don't act this way. And you start, and it's not some kind of false new age affirmation or something, but you never again label yourself as an emotional spender.

You label yourself as someone who used to spend emotionally. I've done that a couple times in my past. I don't do that anymore. James Clear would say, label it the opposite. I'm somebody who's a steward of my finances, and I'm going to live that. I'm really good with money now, and I'm really good at staying out of debt and building wealth.

So what are the practices I'm going to put in my life? And I'm a guy that went bankrupt. That's right. Dave, there are times when I will not go into a gas station, because you know what's in gas stations? Gummy bears. Oh, my gosh. Gummy candies. If'm haven't slept if i'm tired if i'm in a bad mood i won't go in because i know that when i go in there you can't go in a bar if you're drunk that's right

that's right go sit down at the bar where everybody else is ordering a double if you're drunk and go well you know i used to drink a lot but now i'm put myself in a situation here where i'm gonna drink again don't put yourself you can't do that if you've got a history of that and you've got a history of this. And I had a history of misbehavior with money. And it was somewhat greed-driven, somewhat emotional maturity-driven, somewhat identity-driven. There's a lot of things that drove it, but all of those things are things I chose. And I can just decide to un-choose them. Right.

And we had a good call the other day, you and I did, about a lady said, how do I break my poverty mentality? And it's the same thing, only I think we're probably a little bit more sympathetic for that than I am with this one. Yeah, because she grew up with a model. Yeah, she grew up with a thing, and she never seen anything else. And she hasn't labeled herself with that. She said, how do i not be that that's right yeah and that's a much better question than than uh you know how do i work how do i do better in our finances uh you don't you decide you're better yeah and then you work

on your finances with your husband and you may need to for a period of time uh you need to get all the credit cards and chop them up and you may need to have a real clear weekly discussion with your husband about where all the money in the house is. Carry cash with you. So that he rebuilds trust over time because you lied to him. That's right. And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, everybody makes mistakes like you made, Hannah.

We're not shaming you for doing that. But for God's sakes, don't label yourself. I'm trying to unshame you. I'm trying to give you your power. I'll tell you another one I get all the time is, I'm not good with math sakes, don't label yourself. I'm trying to unshame you. I'm trying to give you your power. I'll tell you, another one I get all the time is, I'm not good with math. Yeah.

So I can't do money. Right. Well, by God, people can do all kinds of 6th grade math. And 6th grade math's what it takes to be good with money. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. On the stage, the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Evan joins us.

Hi, Evan. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. Where do you live? Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All right. Cool.

And how much debt have you paid off, sir? $168,000. Whoa! How long did that take? 21 months. Oh, this is rocking. And your range of your income during that time? From $65,000 to $292,000.

Now, this is bizarre. Okay. So what in the world do you do for a living and what happened to this income so i am a executive recruiter for a large third-party recruiting firm and you've had a good year had a good year man had a pretty good year holy crap yeah yeah the great resignation has worked in your favor a little bit yeah so i think wow the uh the shift actually happened a little bit before that so i was working in midland where i believe john knows a little too well in the oil field yeah and so i switched into the recruitment and 2020 was weird for recruiting to say the least

and then in 21 it got a lot better all of a sudden yeah yeah pretty much out of nowhere so you went from the oil field some of the hardest work on the planet to being a recruiter and you go from 65 000 to 300 000 yep dad come dude yeah mic drop and it's an air conditioning touchdown dance i like it i work from a home office not in the middle of a frac site oh wow that's awesome life is this is amazing so why the change why the change well money well you can make money in the oil field yeah yeah you can make 300 on the oil field 300 but depends you can go right yeah so i actually have an engineering background and the work i was doing

was not engineering driven at all okay and so the shift came both to get from midland back to pittsburgh and then also because you don't have to be in the middle of a heavy industrial setting with your fingers on the line yeah literally yeah it's hard work too yeah and on top of that i mean physical labor and uh not that recruiting from your home office isn't hard work but the difference between getting a callus on your dialing finger but um so uh 168 000 what kind of debt so it was a bulk student loans there was a nice car in there there is a little bit of credit card debt and then the kgb oh we got behind with the irs how much did you owe the irs it wound up being like 2800 and so this was dumb college kid i

worked a similar oil and gas thing between semesters. 1099. Did not know that I was 1099. Found out three and a half years after the fact in the middle of going through this. And so that was a Murphy's Law situation. And did you buy your fancy car when you got in the field too? I bought my fancy car about six months before I left. Yep. Few groups of people overspend on cars like roughnecks yeah no it's uh it's lived

the stereotype for sure what did you buy toyota forerunner okay all right what did y'all want it uh it was like 31 ish okay that's not too bad i was expecting 50 okay that's what they are brand new yeah and so the uh but the student loans were over $100 and something. Yeah. It was like, so the pre, the day of-ish year I had before that 21-month period, student loans were like $170 or $180. In that 21-month timeline, it was actually only about $115 of it. Okay. All right. Wow. And boom, knocked it out.

Man, so what happened? You get to Pittsburgh. You obviously start making great money. You got a great shovel to get out of this big hole you're in and a whole paradigm shift how'd you get connected with us how'd you start this whole process yeah so a buddy of mine from college uh he was telling me about the podcast and stuff like that him and his wife had done like 60 or 70 grand in less than a year and he i was hoping i was gonna be able to find the conversation for the pictures. And the quote that I would give from him, he was like, there's this guy in Tennessee, he's a redneck money guru.

I like you. Yeah, I do too. Accurate description. A little bit on the nose, but go ahead. Yeah, and he goes, you should check out this podcast because you've been talking about the student loans forever and ever and I know you've been hitting them hard and this might help really light an extra fire and you know the the money didn't come immediately with the recruiting

you know it took about 12 or 13 months of that 21 to really build up to consistent commission checks and stuff like that that help pay for all of it but his intro to the podcast it was three hours a day every day listening to the podcast constantly yeah wow i need to change my moniker to redneck millionaire i think that's i don't like the guru thing so just redneck millionaire and that's better than dave ramsey himself which people always call me my you would have sold a lot i'm now called i'm now called himself if it was if it was a redneck millionaire. As if I would be someone else. How hard was it to, towards the back end, you're getting commission checks that are legit, right? How hard is it to take a $25,000 commission check and not go buy something nice, but to just dump it off your student loans?

So that's the discipline thing. The adults devise a plan and follow it kids do what feels good so look at some of that that's like some redneck wisdom right there man sayings from a redneck man i'm gonna write a little write a little book i love it this is good i like it good man i'm proud of you appreciate it way to go who's your biggest cheerleader uh good group of my fiancee amber sitting to it. Way to go. Who's your biggest cheerleader? Good group. My fiance, Amber, sitting to the side. Way to go, Amber.

And then what we have self-proclaimed to be the big shovel gang is my buddy, Eric, and a couple other friends of ours who are- I like this gang. Yeah. These are some guys making some coin and being smart with it. Yeah. Big podcast advocates. Oh, well, we're honored, man.

That's very cool. Shout out to the big shovel gang, then. Yep. I like it. Young guys making bank and're honored, man. That's very cool. Shout out to the big shovel gang there. Yep. I like it. Young guys making bank and doing smart stuff. Not being idiots with it. There you go, man. That's good.

That's good. Hey, that's how you change this country. Do I pay my student loans off, or do I buy a bunch of Bitcoin and gold? Well done, man. No Bitcoin. Absolutely no Bitcoin. Well, it would be worth half. Well, that 25 would be worth 10, so yeah.

There you go. All right. Well, man, this is incredible. Well done. What do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? Just stick into the plan. Follow it. It works.

The 80% behavior is absolutely the case because what John was saying, you wake up at the end of the month and you've got a $30,000 commission check in your bank account. How do you not go and want to buy a car? But then you've got $80,000 left on your student your student loans feels a little bit better to get rid of that hey you pointed out something i don't want to i don't want to fly by it you've got a group of guys that are walking through this with you how important is community and accountability in doing any hard thing in life yeah that's absolutely huge so being able to bounce an idea off of them this is what i'm thinking about, what do you guys think?

And then they yell at you, stay on the plan. Yeah, exactly. Of all the things you learned, obviously you're going to keep on the money journey. You're going to be a baby step millionaire. You're going to be one tomorrow afternoon, right, by the way you're earning money and taking care of it. But don't forget the importance of having other men in your life

that can speak into it, that you'll listen to, and you'll submit yourself to, and vice versa. That man good for you that's a very it's it's vital the people that i know that are successful you become who you hang around with so he's hanging around with the big shovel the big shovel i just love the name and it wasn't just the debt too i mean i cash flowed uh the wedding that we're having in april i wait there was something else in there cash flow this the trip that we took to nashville um we're you know we were able to get 15 down on a house and got lucky with the market not being too crazy and before we know it we'll pay off so is your fiance is amber debt free she's close okay so when you get married you'll knock it out

yeah so we're gonna knock that out in probably six months. Good. We'll know in April. Yeah, pretty much in April. Between now and then. Yeah, yeah. Very good. Very good, man. You guys are rocking this. Way to go, brother. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Yes, yes, yes. So proud of you, man. Well done. Thank you. Well done. You're a hero. And you're going places, man. This guy's smart as a whip.

Love it. All right. Very, very good stuff all right got a copy of uh baby steps millionaires for you as john said you'll be one in 20 minutes so we need to make sure you have the manual that's the next chapter in your story on how to do this and uh you're you're a rock star young man i'm honored to meet you and uh man i need to do something with the big shovel gang there's gonna be something how many of them are there uh including myself four oh okay good we're sending baby steps millionaire books to all of them with you that sounds good yeah we'll

sign them all for all of them yeah we got to do something that's just a good great idea and a great see i'm i'm more interested in the the redneck millionaire t-shirt that i'm gonna have printed up i need credit on the licensing for both of those yeah well you said redneck guru and i ain't going with that so you don don't get no licensing. I'm going with mine. But this is fun. I love it. I love it. I love it.

All right. Count it down. $168,000 paid off in 21 months, making $65,000 to $292,000. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free. Yeah. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop!

Yeah, baby! Way to go, brother. I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it! This is The Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Jack's in San Francisco. Hey, Jack, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Good morning, Mr. Ramsey.

How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. How can we help? I want to know how do I use cash distribution from a mutual fund, $133,000. Okay. What do you need to do with it? What do you want to do with it? Well, let me give you a little bit of my background. My net worth is about $10 million, and I have no debt. Everything is paid for, and mostly my investments are in real estate.

Good for you. Amazing job. Now, did you start with nothing and become a 10 millionaire? Most likely, mostly. I become a $10 million millionaire in 10 years. I'm at the retirement age of 72, and I'm rejoining. I'm getting my first year RMD this year. That's why I was sure the $133,000 from mutual funds, which I put in $6,000 before 30 years ago, and I didn't touch it. I got $133,000. And because of the tax situation of the R&D, I withdrew that from the mutual fund last year. Right. You're required to. It's required, minimum distributions, at $72,500. This year, I have to do the required...

So, I mean, if you have $10 million and you're completely debt-free, and you have $33,000 in your hand, and what do I do with it? The answer is anything you want. You're a genius. It's $133,000. Okay, but it still doesn't matter. If you burn it in the middle of your front yard, your life doesn't change. Well, I have a few options I want to go buy you to see if it's a good investment or not. Okay.

Number one, I can buy a tax-free bond or a mutual fund. What else? What's number two? The other alternative is to buy a long-term care. You don't need long-term care. You have $10 million. I don't need long-term care? Yeah, you have $10 million.

You can afford long-term care. Yeah. You know, it seems like it only cost me $6,000. I know, but it only costs $50,000 a year, and the average person uses it for two and a half years. That's $200,000, $300,000 max out of your pocket out of $10 million. It's 3% of your net worth. You can self-insure through this.

Don't give an insurance company money. Self-insure through it. Besides that, a guy like you is probably going to hire somebody for in-home care anyway, private care. You're probably not going into a nursing home. Yeah, well, this long-term care pays in-home care, too. Yeah, that's fine. If you want to buy it, you can buy it.

No, I would not buy it. No, I would not buy a muni bond. What's your other choice? Those are the two choices I'm thinking of. I thought you had three. I'm not going to splurge it. I'm not splurging it. Okay.

I'm driving a $2,000 car, and I'd be happy with that. I'm not even buying a car. I want you to buy a car. Your car sucks. You have $10 million. You need to go buy a car. Your car sucks. You have $10 million. You need to go buy a car with this money. You don't have to spend $100,000 on the car, but you ought to not be driving a $2,000 car when you have $10 million.

You need to have something more reliable, a little bit more enjoyable to get in, and it starts every time and all that kind of crap. Nothing wrong with a $2,000 car when you're broke and you're trying to get out of debt, but you, sir, have lived like no one else, and now you're able to live and give like no one else. The second thing I would tell you to do is I would be generous with some of the money. Give some way. That's right. I want you to find someone or somewhere that you can put $10,000 or $30,000 that you give it away to be a blessing to someone.

And I want you to enjoy the smiles on their face and the change in your heart rate when you do that. Because it affects your body, to quote John Deloney, when you do things that are stressful and when you do things that are good. It changes the chemistry of who you are. And so I want you to give some, and I want you to enjoy some. And then with whatever's left, you ought to invest it. If you want to put it in a muni bond, you can. But dude, you didn't make any of this money doing investments like muni bonds you made all this money with mutual funds and real estate

and so i would dance with the girl that brought me on the investments uh if you want to buy another piece of real estate fine if you want to uh you know use some mutual funds i'd do that but i i personally wouldn't put anything in a muni bond the returns suck they're tax free but they suck and uh i just wouldn't do it. I'm 61. I'm right behind you a few years. I don't have any muni bonds. I don't own a single bond, nor am I planning to in my life.

So, Dave, what's the moment when, or maybe there never is, you've earned your money. You've done well, and you're in your 60s now. Let's say you hit the magic. Is there a number when you stop putting money into your investments and you just start enjoying it and giving it away? Or will that always be part of the rhythm? Because now we're talking great grandkids. Right. You want to keep the rhythm.

Now, you can change your percentages. Sure. But you always ought to. Every check I get, I put it on one of three. I put some of the check on all three things. Some on investing, some on generosity, and some on enjoyment. Now, the amount that I put on enjoyment these days is percentage-wise very small, but the checks are big.

And the life is already good before I got that check. Right. So I don't need a lot of to have a unbelievably luxurious life right you know i mean not not mtv music video life but i mean i've got a great life with a small percentage but i always want to make sure i stop and go i'm going to enjoy the moment yep just made some money that's right and the second thing is we're always going to increase our giving we're always going to increase our giving. We're always going to increase our investments. But these days, the larger percentage goes to generosity.

But I still do some to investing. It's systematically still growing. I don't need more. Even the kids and grandkids don't need more. But the more investments you have, the more they throw off and the more generous you can be. There you go. So it's the goose that lays the generous eggs. There you go.

After a while. I mean, you're creating a family foundation yeah creating a family of that has a net worth that is continually generous over time not just yourself and that's not just you know buying somebody's gas at the gas station which is always fun too of course that's where it starts but yeah you need, you need to always be doing all three, and that's with your 4-year-old and with your 84-year-old. There you go. Spencer is in Orange County. Spencer, how are you? Hey, Dave, how are you doing? I'm doing good.

Great. How can we help? So I am a young father. Well, I'm not necessarily young. I'm 34 years old, and I've got one boy who's two and another one on the way. Yay, good for you. Yeah, thanks, guys. And I've got to get out of California.

I can't stand it here. So my wife, we just paid off our student loan. And we want to move back to Utah with family. The housing market in Utah is terrifying, but my whole life I've always just taken it one step at a time, and we're out of debt. We have no debt. We just paid off student loans,

so now we've got about $60,000 saved for a down payment on a home. You do not own a home in Orange County. We do not own a home in Orange County. So you're moving and you're buying a house. Yeah, that's the plan. That's what we want to do. Okay. I guess my, is that like, I've never been great with money, but we do have money saved up.

That's fine. If you're 100% debt free, I think you're great with money. Well, okay. So don't say that ever again. Yeah, you're in rare air, brother. And then the other thing, you have an emergency fund in addition to the $60,000, or is the $60,000 all you got? Yeah.

No, $60,000 for the house payment alone, and then $30,000 for about just other things. So we have about $30,000 in emergency funds. Good. We haven't divided it perfectly. What trimester is your wife in? Sorry, say that again? What trimester is your wife in? Wait. You said she's pregnant. did not yeah yeah oh it's a trimester sorry she's in the second trimester she's 21 weeks along okay you don't move until the baby comes

yeah we're gonna have the baby first and we're planning on moving early 2023 that's husband advice um it's just but i guess i want to have some fun move a pregnant lady that's fun now early 2023. That's husband advice. One guy not to see. Want to have some fun? Move a pregnant lady. That's fun. Yeah. I just don't know what to do next.

I mean, we want to buy a house. Have the baby and go to Utah and buy a house. You can do it. Is it as simple as that? It is as simple as that. You got it, man. If you move to Utah and rent for a year, your life will still be great. Yeah, and then buy a house during that year sometime once you get to know the area a little bit. And you get a little bit through some of the craziness of a newborn.

I'm assuming you've got a job lined up over there, Spencer. But as long as you've got income lined up, load up the truck and head to Beverly. It's the opposite, actually, now. We're not going to Beverly anymore, but there you go. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes.

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