The Ramsey Show - App - You Can't Fix Something by Denying It! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 25, 2019

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Music Music 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 a paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting us off, this hour is Joe in New York.

Hey, Joe, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve, man. How can I help? So I have a question, Dave. So me and my wife bought a business a few years ago around 280,000. We bought it for, and we're ready to get out four years later and we're going to sell it for around 600,000 or 580. God. Yeah. So, um, our question is, um, we have around $60,000 in debt

and we wanted to know, would it be wise for us to invest that full almost $300,000 into mutual funds with a certain bank or should we just pay off debt first well definitely pay off the debt first you said you got $60,000 in debt yes around $60,000 okay do you owe anything on your mortgage uh well we're renting right now we don don't have a house. Okay. All right. Are you planning on buying a home? We were planning on buying a home, but when we spoke to someone who, a friend of ours who found out about our situation, they said that it would be wise for us to invest the money

and pay off the debt with whatever we get in return from the mutual funds. Yeah, well, that person's stupid. Hmm. we get in return from the mutual funds. Yeah, well, that person's stupid. They explained to us that we would get around like 20% of whatever we invested. 20%? Yeah, they recommended Charles Schwab, and they told us to invest with them. They have really good returns on their funds. Yeah, so this guy doesn't know what he's doing, whoever he is, okay? Stock market has averaged 11.8% since it began, which is half of 20%. And Schwab's got no corner on the market.

They're not going to get 20% any more than anybody else is. So you invest in good mutual funds, you can expect 10% to 12% if you do a really, really good job of picking the funds over a long period of time. But you're not going to expect 20%. That's asinine. Okay? There's no doubt of the back that up whatsoever. So whoever this guy is, you need to stay away from his financial advice.

And I would sit down not with Schwab but with a good investment broker that actually builds a relationship with you over a long period of time. Click smartvestor at DaveRamsey.com. I'm not in the business. I don't care what you do. But these are the people we recommend. It's the type of people I personally do business with if you're going to do investing. So I'd write a check and be debt-free.

I would raise my right hand and promise to never borrow again. Otherwise, this won't work. And then I would think about buying a house for cash with this remaining money sounds like you're gonna have four or five hundred thousand dollars after you pay off the debt you're getting five something out of the business and so um you may have some debt there that you're not mentioning to clean up i don't know but um i'm gonna start talking about paying cash for a house and no i'm not borrowing on my house to invest with Charles Schwab. See, that's just butt dumb right there.

Unbelievable. All right, Jessica is with us in Michigan. Hi, Jessica, how are you? I'm great. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so don't yell at me, but I'm wondering if it's ever okay to focus on paying off our mortgage

ahead of a wonderful federal loan, student loan. No, because denial is a river in Egypt. I know. He's got 72 months in on the 10-year public service loan forgiveness. You apparently have not been doing any reading about that, have you? I try not to. I'm trying to be dumb about it. Yeah, that's working for other people, too.

Yeah, 32,000 people have applied for it. Ninety-four have been granted. Now, it's relatively new, though, right? It's just now reaching the peak of the 10-year? Yeah, it's just now reaching the 10-year. And 32,000 of the people who have reached the 10-year who had your plan, 93 of them got it. It's the greatest American scam in history,

and everybody's standing around watching it happen. Yeah. Yeah, it's the greatest american scam in history and everybody's standing around watching it happen yeah yeah it's unbelievable so how much is your student loan debt that you think you're finally going to wander out of if you don't pay it it's my husband's and it's 38 000 oh my lord what do y'all make uh roughly 64 a year okay and what how much have you paid off so far it is in an income-based no no no no your total debt that didn't you tell me you've been paying off debts yes yes we how much have you paid off in debts um including credit cards probably about 40 000 kind of like the amount of your student loans. So how long did it take you to do that? We actually were blessed with a $23,000 inheritance, so that took a really good sizable chunk off of it. Okay, with that, how long did it take?

With that, we've been really hard at it for a year. A year. So in one year, you paid off $20,000 and you got $23,000 to go with it, right? Yes. And so could you average $20,000 and you got $23,000 to go with it, right? Yes. And so could you average $20,000 a year? That'd be two years. You'd be done with a student loan. This is true, yes. Get it.

But the house is only $64,000 and it's a terrible, terrible mortgage. It's a terrible, terrible what? Mortgage. Mortgage. Like it's FHA, it's got PMI, it's terrible. What do you owe on the house? I mean, what is the house worth? I'm sorry. The house is worth about 70, and we owe about 64. Yeah, okay. No, I pay off the student loan in two years. And then if you want to keep at it, you pay off your house in three years. So five years from now, both of them are gone.

True. 20 a year divided into the numbers you gave me. Did I do something wrong? No, no. That sounds about right. Cool. Get after it, kiddo. Get after it.

You cannot fix this by avoiding it. Being in denial isn't going to work. You've got to go in attack mode. It feels like it's huge. The other $40,000 that you paid off felt like it was huge. And as soon as you started it, God sent you a $23,000 bonus check from an inheritance. And you already were knocking on it, knocking on it, knocking on it, knocking on it. You've proven to yourself and to me you can reduce debt at the rate of $20,000 a year.

That means $38,000 student loan is gone in two years, and a $64,000 mortgage is gone in three more. Ta-da! And you're not that old. Well done. Call me back, and we'll do a debt-free scream together. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Haley is on Facebook.

Dave, we're on Baby Step 1. Got our $1,000. Our student loan payments equal approximately $500 a month. Should we lower those monthly payments to pay more towards our smallest debt or keep them the same and just pay the smaller debts slower? Keep them the same. Pay the smaller debts slower. It really won't matter which of the two you do mathematically. You will be debt-free at exactly the same moment either way

because you're paying X number of dollars divided into Y number of debt dollars. And it's going to work out either way, whether you split it up or whether it gets paired around or what. But I would just keep going what you're going because you don't want to run backwards on these stupid student loans. It becomes emotionally distressing. 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,

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That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. fee is with us in texas hi fee how are you good how are you sir better than i deserve what's up hey i had a question so i'm currently a fourth year in dental school. And I've also just been accepted to an MBA program. And that will be starting in January and the deposits coming up. And I just wanted to ask you whether or not I should go ahead and continue and start with the MBA now and pay the tuition, or I also have the opportunity to delay it one year and start it later.

Okay. You're going to be a dentist. Yes, sir. Then you need an MBA for what? So I'm planning on going to a different route other than just clinical dentistry. Okay. What are you doing? You're using your DDS in what way?

That will be along with my dental expertise. So dentistry and MBA, I'm planning on going into like the corporate consulting or academia. Academia. Okay. Okay. So you would teach in the dental school? Yes. Part-time. That is one of the goals. Okay. I hesitate to ask because I talked to too many DDSs that have $450,000 in debt. How much is your dental school debt? So mine's pretty – about half of that.

I'm at $183,000 is what I'd expect to come up with. Okay. So I don't know the career track that you're talking about going on, get the knowledge I get from practicing in the management, and then I'd eventually go into consulting and back into academia. So I don't expect to go into the position right away, maybe about five years, within five years. But, yeah, my question is whether or not that should start now or just go ahead and do that. I don't think I'm going to be able to speak into this because I think you've already made up your mind, but I don't think you need an MBA at this stage.

I wouldn't get an MBA for five years because I don't know if you're going to end up doing any of this. And only when you do it will the MBA come into play, and there's a lot of MBA programs that you can do once you've cleared this student loan debt, and then you pay cash for your MBA after you've proven that you're actually going to need it with the track, if you stay on this exact track. No, I would not go further in debt to get an MBA at this stage of the game. Okay. All right.

Not sure you're going to do that, but you asked, so I'll tell you. Hey, thanks for the call. Kevin is with us in Indiana. Hi, Kevin. How are you? Hey, Dave. Doing well. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm almost done with Baby Step 3. I'll be done about mid-December. Been looking at starting up my 401K again, and my company matches 6%, and I also put 2% in no matter what I do. So I'll do the 6% into that, but there's an option to do it before tax or after tax. And my boss is saying do it before tax, and my dad's saying do it after tax

and I figured I'd settle the debate and ask Uncle Dave. Is the after tax a Roth? So I asked HR and they don't think that it's a Roth. Okay, there's before tax 401ks, there's after tax 401ks, and there's Roth 401ks. Okay. I would do, but a Roth is after-tax. Okay?

Okay. So if you can do a Roth, I would do it after-tax because it grows tax-free. But an after-tax 401k that is simply growing then tax-deferred is butt stupid. No, we wouldn't do that mathematically that's backwards because you're going to pay the taxes anyway when you take the money out and so why pay the taxes on the money you're putting in no you're going to pay it twice no you're not going to pay no you're not going to pay taxes on the money you uh put in when you take it out but the all the growth will be taxed so why not just hide the whole thing from taxes so here's the rule of thumb okay i wouldn't do an after tax

401k that is not a roth ever okay okay because there's no place that you can do that that you couldn't have already done something else that is better so the best thing you can do is go six percent in your case up to the match beyond that do roth now if you're 401k if your 401k is not roth then stop at six percent and go do an individual roth at nine percent i'm sorry or nine percent to get me up to the 15%. Well, if you can get up to there with $6,000, can you? Yes. Okay. All right.

Yeah, I would take my 6% match first. Match is better than Roth. Roth is better than regular. And after-tax doesn't play in at all. Except that a Roth is a type of after-tax, technically speaking, but we usually don't talk about it in those terms, although that is how it's calculated. So, yeah, Roth grows tax-free. The bulk of what will be in your account is

growth. And so all of that growth being tax-free is a big, hairy deal mathematically. So, like, if you've got a million dollars in your account and it's all Roth, none of it's taxable. You probably only put in about $60,000 or $80,000 to get a million in there over time. Around 93% of it, if you've got a million dollars in there, would be growth. So $930,000 sitting there tax-free or taxable, one of the two. However, the one thing that beats that is if somebody doubles your money before you start,

and that's what the match is. They doubled your money before you start. Well, you can pay taxes out of that and still come out ahead of a tax-free Roth. So match beats roth beats traditional and never do a traditional after tax there's no reason to it serves no purpose you would have already maxed out doing something else first so hey thanks for the call open phones at 888-825-5225. Interesting question. Good call. You know, when you're investing, it can get complicated.

Like what we're talking about there, it starts to feel like someone's speaking in another language. Well, just put it in a mutual fund. Well, what's a mutual fund? How do they work? How do you pick one? What's the deal with a mutual? Everybody, well, just pick me a mutual fund. Well, you don't do that.

You need to know about it. You're putting all your life savings in there. Don't put money in something you don't understand. And so the millionaires that we interviewed, 10,000 millionaires, 70 plus percent of them used an investment professional not to make their decisions for them, but to teach them. So you sit down with your investment professional and you learn. You know, anytime I'm doing something that's out of my league, I gather all the information. I learn, I learn, I learn, I learn, I learn. We're building a building next door to the one that i'm sitting in right now it breaks ground monday and uh i got the opportunity to learn

about foundational structure and about four different ways to do it in a meeting the other day and it ranged from $80,000 expense to a $880,000 expense and so I really wanted to learn about why I would do any of those in there there's like four options of ways we can go at this and why in the world would I spend why would I not go with the cheaper one we don't want the building to fall down but why would I not go with the cheaper one I gotta learn I gotta learn so you need to get people in your corner that have the heart of a teacher I go with the cheaper one. We don't want the building to fall down, but why would I not go with the cheaper one? I got to learn. I got to learn. So you need to get people in your corner that have the heart of a teacher and teach you in the process. And don't be afraid to ask questions.

It's your freaking money. So sit down with a SmartVestor Pro. They care about your finances. They have the heart of a teacher. And you will leave their offices having understood and you're ready to invest. Go to DaveRamsey.com slash SmartVestor, drops down a list of SmartVestor pros in your area, and you select. This is the Dave Ramsey Solutions on the Dead Free Stage, Christopher and Daniela are with us.

Hi, guys. How are you? Good. How are you? I guess it's Danella. Daniella. are with us. Hi, guys. How are you? Good. How are you? I guess it's Danella. Daniela. Daniela. Okay, good. I'll make sure I get that right.

Where are you guys from? Durham, North Carolina. Wonderful. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you. And you're here to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? $165,768.

Awesome. How long did this take? About four and a half years. Good for you guys. And your range of income during that time? Was $38,000 to $128,000. Wow. What do you guys do for a living?

I work in law enforcement. And I do courses online. Okay. Very cool. Good for you guys. What kind of debt was this? $166,000? We had some loans from family members and our house. Oh, you paid off your house?

Yeah. We did. I'm looking at weird people. Wow. How old are you two? I'm 29. And I just turned 31. And you have a paid for house?

Yes. That is so strange. I love it. I love it. Way to go. What's this house worth? $ wow good for you how fun what do you guys do for a living now you're law enforcement and you're doing online oh yeah wow yeah so how long have you been married for six years six years yes okay and so shortly after

marriage you decide you're going to get really serious about knocking this out, house and everything. Tell me the story. What happened? So he knew about you through his parents, but I didn't want to do anything about it. And he gave me as a present Financial Peace University. He knew that I like presents, but I didn't like that one very much. So we went, and I started getting on board with it and then I got more...

She became more intense than I was. Oh, okay. Yes. Got out of control then, huh? Yes. We did a cash flow around $15,000 too. So from all my immigration things, I'm from Chile. Okay.

So when we got married, we started right away saving for all our immigration paperwork and everything. Right, right. Some trips to go and visit my family down there. Yeah. So it was a lot of money that we needed to cash flow. Very cool. So how did you all meet? We met in Chile.

Moved down there to do some missionary work in a church there okay and we met and then how fun that's very cool good good good good good all right and so house and everything now how normal is it in chile to have a paid for house oh it's not normal at all not normal when i started telling my parents about you he they thought that you were a cult leader or something and they didn't want me to follow yourself and everything I love it, that's so fun

the culture is very different when talking about money and more the Christian culture like you don't talk about money at all so it was a big change for me coming here and he telling me all the stuff and showing me your book and spanish and everything and but it was a a big learning experience for me sure it's very cool very cool well it's unusual here too and i get accused of being in a cult here too there you go uh the only the only way we know i'm not a cult is I regularly tell people to leave.

Cult figures don't do that. This is fun, you guys. Everybody at my work, they make fun because I have a flip phone. I wanted to show it to you. But now you've got a paid-for house, so now you can upgrade. You can get one of those three-eyed monsters, the new iPhone with three eyes. Makes me feel like I'm looking at a monster every time I see one of them uh all right way to go you guys you realize how set up you are at 30 years old with everything paid for yes god has been good with us very good god has been very good to you and you're going to be in a position to be outrageously generous the rest of your life

yes and build incredible wealth at the same time. I mean, it's going to be amazing. So other than the cult comments, who are the biggest cheerleaders? I would say my parents. When I was in high school, they got on board with your program. All the snack food disappeared in the house. It was very traumatic. So I grew up hearing them talk about you and everything. So they've been cheerleaders for us through this whole process.

And then we've just surrounded ourselves by people who have been encouragers to us the whole time. Yeah, and my family got on board after a few years. Well, after they see the results. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Sure, yeah. We didn't ask you to drink any Kool-Aid and you paid off your house. So life's good. Yeah. That's pretty incredible. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Sure. Yeah. We didn't ask you to drink any Kool-Aid, and you paid off your house. So life's good.

That's pretty incredible. Wow. Very cool, you guys. Very cool. So when people ask, how do people 30 years old have a paid for $200,000 house, making $38,000 to $128,000 through that period of time, what do you tell them the secret to getting out of debt is? You've got to work together and have the same goals. When we first got married, I wanted to start working, again, in a restaurant as a second job, and she was totally against that.

She would complain every time, why are you doing this? But then once we had the same goals and were working together, it turned out, it transformed from, hey, don't pick up up that other job stay at home in the evenings to yes take that job take that extra job I was working evening six nights a week and and she was encouraging me to do it so it was a huge difference that we were working together now she ended up babysitting at that point too and picking up extra jobs herself so it was a um complete day and night difference and i always we always talk about like keep we're christians so we tied so we give our 10 percent and keep giving because god is the one to take care of everything amen amen it's been a very

um we could see God's hands in absolutely everything we're able to do. Absolutely. I mean, I don't even know how we got it paid off so fast.

In about two and a half years, we tackled the house in that short period of time when she started working and, you know, we would just always be praying that we could get this done quickly

because it was really hard. Yeah. And jobs would open up right in between two other jobs I was already working, and I would take that and just be out all day, come home at midnight and get up early the next morning and just do it again. So it was a lot of hard work, but God helped us through it. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

Totally. How does it feel to not have a payment in the world? It's so weird. It's a good feeling. world? It's so weird. It is good, though. Well done. Very proud of you guys. What a great story.

You guys are fun. Very, very well done. Very well done. Very encouraging. I get to meet some of the world's best millennials on this stage right here. Everybody talks bad about millennials, and I've got to tell you, i think the millennial generation may be the best generation we've seen uh because i get to meet the ones that are winning yeah you got a group of whiners in there too but you guys are people like you guys are give us give old guys like me uh encouragement that we're gonna be okay this this country's gonna be okay you guys are all right well done thank you got a

copy of chris hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. That's on the list of things to do now. That's your next chapter in this story. We slow down on the work a little bit and get back to enjoying this money and the giving a little bit. Also, but stay on track and keep winning. Without a house payment, you should be millionaires very, very quickly. Very well done. All right, it's Christopher and Daniela from Raleigh, North Carolina.

$166,000 paid off in four and a half years. House and everything at 30 years old, baby. Making 38 to 128. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt free yeah baby oh that's how it's done

that's how it's done you know I probably need to just load about five of the YouTubes of these debt free screams of people just like them in that same age group. And every time one of the little whiners from that generation trolls me on Twitter, I'm just going to send them about five of these and just keep letting them know. You don't have to be a victim until you decide.

You can just decide to be a victim or you can decide to be a victor. Which are you going to be? And you guys decided. Very proud proud of you that's so great that is just so great do you understand at 30 years old if you take a house payment invest it that alone is going to be 10 to 15 million that alone by the time you get to retirement they're probably going to be worth 40 or 50 million dollars when they get to retirement if they stay on track. It's just unbelievable, man. The math when you do it that early is mind-blowing.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Our Scripture of the Day, Hebrews 13.7. Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Ben Roethlisberger says, Leadership is something you earn, something you're chosen for. You can't come in yelling, I'm your leader. If it happens, it's because the other guys respect you well that's true i remember peyton manning told me a story he got the quarterback

got hurt on university of tennessee peyton was either a freshman or a sophomore put him in first time at the university of tennessee first time he'd ever gone into the huddle in a real game and um he decided he's going to swagger into the huddle and act like he was a leader. And he started trying to, like, pump the guys up in the huddle. And one of the linemen looked at him and said, Shut the blank up, freshman. Just call the play. Yeah, leadership is earned.

You've got to run the play, baby. You've got to run the play. you gotta run the play oh that's fun all right elsie is with us or at least rather i'm sorry at least it is in oklahoma hi elise how are you good how are you sir better than i deserve what's up okay so i have four kids and uh my mother-in-law called and told us that she has four small savings accounts that she would like to add our kids' names to. And I was like, well, maybe we should think about investing it into some kind of education savings account. And so I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Well, is she giving you that option with her money? She's open to it.

She just kind of wanted to do some research to kind of figure out what that would look like. How much is in the savings accounts? I think roughly she wants to put about $500 each kid. Okay. I probably would just leave it in savings for right now. There are a few mutual funds that will open an account for $500. Most of them are at least $1,000. A lot of them are $2,500 or $5,000.

So it's a very limited number that you can put $500 in. And so I would just continue to build that account, and let's just exercise, let the family build the savings muscle, you, the kids, grandma, and add to this. And if it gets up there and it's $2,000 or $3,000 one of these days and you look up, you may want to move it at that point into a 529 in some good mutual funds. But right now I wouldn't fool with that. Megan is with us in North Carolina.

Hi, Megan, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so I just started listening to you about... Wait a minute, wait a minute. You just broke up.

Speak directly into your phone, please. Let's try again. Okay. I just started listening to you about three weeks ago and learned about your program. Okay. And I'm working on getting it all started. I'm a student right now non-traditional went back to school quit my job to go a completely different path and right now

we've got 50,000 in school debt and I'm still not even done with my program and we've got about 30 and other debt so I'm just I feel like now I can breathe knowing with your plan there's a way to go but what i'm struggling with is well um other than trying to get my husband as excited as i am about doing this is just trying to figure out how to go about we've got the thousand dollars in savings for baby step one good for emergencies but i feel like i need more in savings to cover things that i know we're going to come up throughout the year. So I'm struggling with that step. If we know they're going to come up, or are we worried?

For instance, I would say pay cash for college from this point forward rather than reduce debt. I would rather you not go further into debt while you're paying off debt with the left hand, right? You're going further into debt with the right hand. Let's just first thing is do no more harm. Got it. And let's cash flow from this point forward. If above that you find some money, then we might start reducing debt. As far as the amount in savings, what are you talking about that's coming up through the year?

Paying tuition or something like that or what well that and then just dealing with like car maintenance you know your inspections um any kind of household repairs we've had two things break on us this past year so that's kind of stuck in my head um what what bro we also have our stove and our refrigerator broke. Okay. All right. And what does your husband make? Well, okay, that's the perfect timing of God. The God is just so good.

He was without a job for three months. He just started working this month again, and he's actually making well over what he used to make. So this is all a blessing, and I don't want to get used to that extra money. What does your husband make? He makes 87 is the total pay. Wonderful. Yes. Okay, so here's the thing.

If we have something that is a known category, car repairs are a known category. That's a budget item. In your budget, when you lay out, get every dollar and get the EveryDollar app, and you and your husband sit down and look over the budget together, start building it on that app on your laptop or on your phone, it's free to use. You go to EveryDollar and download the app. And as you lay out the budget, the two of you,

you're going to allocate money for car repairs because cars break okay so we're going to have a set amount and we just got to calculate what we think we want to set aside monthly for car repairs um you know inspections a hundred percent of the time are coming right and so we got to allocate money for that to get ready for that. I checked this year, Christmas is in December. Yep. So we've got to allocate money to that. Okay? So all of these things are predictable events.

It's not wringing my hands and worrying that it might happen. It's going to happen. Now, you may or may not have a major appliance failure this year. That's an unusual year you had last year. But car repairs, car inspections, and Christmas are predictable. Right. So we put those into the budget. And if you ran into a major appliance failure, well, that month you could just shift your budget around.

Your husband's making enough where you all can pick up a stove. Right. Right. So I wouldn't worry about home repairs being in the, as a major item, unless you've just got some kind of funky thing going on with this house, but you just had a weird year last year. It's unusual to have two appliances go out in one year. So,

um, but the other stuff is predictable and they're just budget items. And, you know, you're budgeting $150 a month for cars, car repairs. You're putting it in an envelope. It says car repairs on it in cash. You don't touch it if you don't have a car repair, but it could go along three months.

You'd have $450 in there, and then you have a $400 car repair because things are going to happen to cars. It's about the only thing you can count on is they're going to break. And, of course, the newer they are, the nicer they are. The less they break, but they cost more. So you're going to pay for it one way or the other as far as that stuff goes. So you're getting there. You're starting this process. You're dipping your toe in the water.

Go ahead and wade on in. Keep wading in and turn around and grab his hand and let him wade in with you. And let's get this laid out. The more you lay it out and the more you take power over it, the better it's all going to perform. And the whole thing about money is you're either going to make it behave or it's going to affect your behavior. Nate is with us in Florida.

Hi, Nate. How are you dave i am proud not satisfied and i am psyched to be talking to you how are you better than i deserve what's up awesome so i have loosely looked at the baby steps and uh this past month i have i have fully committed to them or at least in my head i thought i have where where I have saved the starter emergency fund. I've paid off about $40,000 in debt of the $80,000 that I've had. And the last step that I have is stopping my 401k match. I have not done that yet because in my mind, the match is so good that I can't logically move to that point.

Are you married? I am. You know how you got married? Let me tell you. You completely focused on her. That is true. If you want to get out of debt, you completely focus on getting out of debt. And that behavior shift beats the math logic on a temporary basis because you're going to be out of debt in 18 to 24 months and the amount of money you lose

on that match ain't spit brother but you focusing what you focus on is what you win what you focus on if you're going to run a half marathon marathon you, you've got to focus on it. If you're going to get out of debt, you've got to focus on it. If you're going to get married, you've got to focus on her. That's how it works. And so try and do three things at once. It just doesn't work well. Complete laser focus. That puts us hour in the books.

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. Hey, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the show. You know you can listen or watch anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone. Catch the full show or watch the highlights and check out Dave's upcoming guests. Head to the App Store and download it today.