The Ramsey Show - App - You Can't Wander Out of Debt! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Christy Wright. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today, number one best-selling author, and author of the brand-new book that is on presale right now.

We launch it in early September, but you can get a copy now. Take back your time. The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance. Actually, I should say you can buy a copy now. We'll ship it to you in September when the actual pub date is. But why would you do that? Why would you buy a $20 book a month early or, I don't know, three weeks early? Because we're going to give you $100 plus worth of extra goodies for buying it.

The e-book, the audio book, a ticket to a live stream, all kinds of good stuff. So check it all out at RamseySolutions.com. Sammy is with us. Sammy's in Fort Worth, Texas. Hi, Sammy. How are you? I'm fine, thank you, and I appreciate you taking my call. Sure.

What's up? Well, I am a recent widow. My husband passed away in March. I'm 71. We own our own home. I have $36,000 in debt. I have $30,000 in the bank. And I am debating about whether to pay part of my debt off or hang on to the $30,000 because it gives me so much of a security to know it's there. I can make the payments that I have, and I am paying additional to get things paid off,

but I just am wanting to make sure I'm making the proper decisions. It makes me nervous to think about not having that money there if I needed it. Yeah. I'm sorry. You've been through a hard time. How long were you guys married? 53 years. My goodness.

The last six months he's spent in a memory care of course a lot of our money went to that sure sure so we had it i'm thankful we had it to do it yeah but this is what's left of your nest egg yes sir you don't have any money we did you don't have any money other than what you told me no uh he didn't have life insurance he spent a lot of time in the military and had a really nice life insurance knowing they kept saying you can roll this over when you retire but when he retired it was so expensive we couldn't afford it they didn't tell us that part yeah yeah so what is your income based on social security and what else i get his social security i get money from his va and i get a little bit from his retirement at the end at the beginning of next year my income will go from 3400 a month to 38 and then

the following year it should go to $4,000, providing our government is still able to pay it. And I do have a small part-time job, but it's not a high-paying job. I'm using that money to go ahead and pay off on my other stuff. I've only got two other bills, and I'm trying to get those cut off. Well, number one, I don't think you need to worry about getting the money from the government. It will come. One of the least politically palatable things,

one of the things that will piss people off the most is not taking care of widows of veterans. Okay, so that would be like a good way to never get elected again, you know? So you're not going to have that problem. That money's going to come. So basically we've got $3,500 to $4,000 a month to live on, and that's your game plan for retirement. And what is the $36,000 in debt on? I have a car that we bought a couple of years before he passed away. We would have had our other one paid off but he was having trouble

getting in and out of our pickup and I was expecting to have him for a much longer time and we bought a van that we could fix a ramp and put a wheelchair in with the understanding that we thought he would be here for a long time. And then that didn't happen. And I'm a little bit emotionally attached to it, but that doesn't mean I couldn't sell it. What do you owe on the van? What do you owe on the van? I owe $29,000. Is it wheelchair equipped now or it was just you wanted to do that?

No, it's not. It's not. We just were looking forward to that possibility. Do you have another vehicle in the driveway? No. That's your only vehicle? That's the only one. And I do have to drive four and a half hours to see a son and another son in New York who's in the military.

So I need a good vehicle. You can rent a car to do that. Oh, okay. and another son in New York who's in the military. So I need a good vehicle. I don't have to have... You can rent a car to do that. Oh, okay. Can you rent cars today? Yeah, well, they're hard. It can be done, though. That's what I've heard.

But you don't need to keep a $29,000 car for two trips a year when your income is only $36,000, $35,000. So this car's got to go, hon. Okay. I know you're emotionally got to go, hon. Okay. I know you're emotionally attached to it, but it's killing you. Yeah. If you didn't have the weight of that, your picture changes pretty dramatically. Would you agree?

Yeah. Yes, and I can make it on what I have. I'm just not making a lot of headway. But here's the thing. You don't have much wiggle room, hon. And the other thing, Sammy, that savings that you have that gives you that peace of mind, you'll be able to keep some of that

if you get rid of this car. If you don't get rid of the car, then that savings is going to have to go to your debt. So look at this, not at what you're giving up, but what you're getting to keep. You're getting to keep

a lot of your savings because you're going to change your plan with your vehicle. Are you a member of a good church? Yes. Okay. Get some of the guys in the church to help you find a really quality five thousand seven thousand dollar car pay cash for it okay pay cash for it and get rid of the van okay i do my van is worth more than i own it at least. Or at least it was a month ago. Good. Okay.

And, yeah, and you knew this deep down in your heart. It just required me to be the mean guy and say it out loud, right? Yeah, I was just having a hard time with it. I understand, darling. Of course you are. Of course you are. You just lost your husband. Of course you are. And I hope you don't think I'm heartless.

I'm actually trying to help you. No, I understand. Okay. This is still really new, too, Sammy. I mean, we're talking I'm heartless. I'm actually trying to help you. Well, I understand. Okay. This is still really new too, Sammy. I mean, we're talking a few months ago. Yeah, it's been harder. I mean, I knew it was coming. It's just been harder than I thought it would be because I've been expecting it.

Well, I mean, what's that 53 years worth of getting used to somebody? I mean, my gosh. It's hard. Yeah. I tell you, it is hard and it doesn't and it gets it's gotten harder recently than it i don't know how to explain that but you kind of had to take care of business for a little while once you kind of got all the business taken care of now you now you can kind of relax oh wait a minute there's the grief. The reality sets in, yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry, kiddo.

And bless his heart, because of the disease he had and the medications he was on, we had a pretty good income, but he didn't understand saving. Part of his deal was it caused him to go spend money, although he didn't get us in debt in a point that we couldn't handle it.

It was just that it was difficult. Yeah. Tell you what we're going to do. I want you to go through Financial Peace University. That'll put some community in your life, some people around you. We're going to walk you through a detailed class on exactly how to handle money. I think you're pretty sharp. I think you can probably pull it off by yourself, but I want to make sure we're there with you

and walking with you while you go through this time okay so you hang on laura's gonna pick up and we'll get you signed up for financial peace is our gift gift to you we're gonna take care of widows always here and you call me back anytime you need help honey you're gonna make it this is the Ramsey Show. I saw some recent financial statistics and there was some pretty troubling news. When families were asked how long it would be before they faced financial hardship. If a spouse died, nearly one-third said they'd be in trouble immediately. Another 44% said they'd be financially drained within six months. People, it does not have to be this way. Term life insurance plans are just plain cheap,

and companies have made it even easier by not requiring exams in many cases. There really is no excuse to leave your family in this situation by not having life insurance. This is why I talk about Zander Insurance every day. They're committed to protecting families with the only products that I recommend, and their team keeps the entire process simple and affordable. Go to Zander.com for quick online pricing or call 800-356-4282 this has to be a priority if your family is in this situation you need to get this done Well, I know it snuck up on you, but it's August.

Matter of fact, it's the middle of August. And we've noticed that once everyone gets done with the distractions of summer, the kids are back in school, things kind of kick into high gear. You got some goals you want to reach. You notice that Christmas is in December this year. And I got to get ready for it and fall is the second new year in a sense to help you get back on track we're running great and new deals every week at ramsey solutions.com starting at only ten dollars and today only our team is marking down the number one bundle, the starter special, to only $39.99. That's the lowest we've ever done on the starter special.

If you're brand new, it's a good place to get in. It's 76% off. You get all the books, tools, and a new money assessment to help you get back on track. Check it all out at RamseySolutions.com. We've also got Ken Coleman's book there, From Paycheck to Purpose, on presale. We've got Christy Wright's new book on presale, Take Back Your Time, The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance.

And we've got a $500 cash giveaway every week this month with a grand prize of $3,000 cash at the end of August. Of course, no purchase necessary. Of course, you must be 18 or older to win. Check it all out at RamseySolutions.com, or you can text CASH to 33-789. Text CASH to 33-789. Mark's in Atlanta. Hi, Mark. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. How are you? Great, man. What's up? I'm 57, and I feel like I'm very close to being able to retire. And I've got all the kids. There's college and all the other stuff.

House is paid off, all those good things. The thing that I'm interested in between now and the time I'm 65 is health insurance. And I've looked at, I've got COBRA I can take for 18 months if I leave. And then I've looked at the sharing programs like Amedishare. But I was wanting to see if there was anything y'all knew of that I've missed that may be a good answer. Well, it depends on the type of coverage and what coverage you're wanting those are the two things i would have looked at too and also i would just look at uh an independent insurance uh agent and let them shop and see what kind of health insurance they could get for you

blue cross blue shield or or who else is out there writing in georgia that's uh doing a good job just as an individual policy they're not uh i mean if you take a high deductible HSA, they're usually not outlandish. Right. Have you saved some money? I mean, you're retiring awfully young, so I'm guessing you built some nest egg. Yes, sir. Yeah, we have.

My wife and I have been pretty diligent about it. What's your nest egg right at two um two what million two million way to go well thank you very much we've been blessed you're a hero man you start from nothing uh pretty much you inherit this money no sir so you're an everyday millionaire. You did it yourself. Way to go, dude. Excellent job.

Well, I think you're going to be fine. It's just a frustration. You got the money to buy it. You got the money to buy the health insurance, and you just got to shop around. And between the sharing programs, you can look at those. You can look at your COBRA. You probably can beat COBRA in the open market, on how unreasonable your your coverage is from your old company right yeah i think if you just go to dave ram or go to ramsey solutions and click on the

health insurance elps uh the ramsey trusted elps get an independent insurance agent that'll shop the different companies and find you best the best options out there and put them in front of you but But I think a high deductible, I mean, you could afford a ridiculous deductible, but that's only necessary if you got a deal for it. But, I mean, if you pick up a $5,000 or even a $7,000 HSA deductible, that's no big problem at all. Okay. You can handle those problems. It's the $150, 000 bypass that you don't want to insure your self-insure through right that's right amen so amen yeah that's the thing

hey thank you man congratulations i'm proud of you yeah well done health insurance is scary and when you get 65 medicare will make you wish you'd earned enough money to not have to depend on the government it's so freaking confusing and it is an absolute nightmare and the coverage is oh my gosh it's a problem so this whole health insurance issue is a discussion all the time michael is with us in Lincoln, Nebraska. Hey, Michael, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Hey, so we put an offering on a house,

and it was contingent upon us getting the financing, and we were, I don't know, I guess we thought that our house would sell in like 24 hours and we thought we were going to get, you know, at least asking price or that would maybe even escalate. And then several weeks later, um, we're getting ready to get to the closing date here. And we haven't even had one offer on our house. I mean, we've had several price reductions. We just can't quite figure out what's going on. We put some money down as an earnest deposit. And I guess we're

just completely lost on what do we do from here because they're recommending a bridge loan and I really don't want to do a bridge loan. And they're telling us, yeah, you know, you're going to get approved. And it's like, well, I don't necessarily want to be approved because it's going to be way more than what we were expecting to pay. So I guess we're just kind of looking for some advice on where we go from here. We wish we would have sold the house before. I know I've listened to your shows, and that's what you would have recommended. I didn't even hear that piece of the advice. So anyway, we're just kind of wondering what we do from here and how you would how you would process this situation have you talked to your agent about why it's not

selling i know you said you've done some price reductions but i mean has they shot you straight of what they think it is you know for like the first two weeks um we didn't really get a lot of feedback uh we're hearing maybe it's the neighborhood. I mean, it's not the nicest part. Um, we know we haven't really gotten like tremendous feedback with the neighborhood is really pretty much the only thing we've heard or it's been people who are just kind of coming in and kicking tires, not serious about looking, you know, first time home buyers. I mean, we've had a decent amount of traffic. We've had several home showings. A couple of them were bust, but really, we've just heard maybe the neighborhood. We've looked

at the comp several times. We think it's priced accordingly, and we've had a 7% reduction. And even after all the reductions, we're still not getting any feedback. Is it ugly? I mean, let's have a moment like we're trying to shoot you straight here michael like what like is it right i mean no i don't think everyone who's looked at it and that's i've tried to get tons of third-party advice like i'm just i'm asking people like please just like shoot me straight i agree with you i'm like you know like we we repaint we repainted inside we live there we repainted the outside. I mean. What's it on the market for?

It was on the market for $225,000 initially. And now it's on the market for what? $209,500. Okay. All right. And the other house you paid what for? What did you pay for it? We offered $475,000.

And it's not contingent upon the sale of your home? No. So you have given someone your word to buy that house? Yeah. So you'll be closing on that house because you gave your word? Right. That's the only thing that I was kind of thinking was it is contingent upon financing, but you're right. If your financing doesn't go through, then if they turn you down for the loan, do the fact. How much do you owe on your current home?

Ninety-four. Okay. So the bridge loan would be for your equity, that that's what they're discussing then? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do you have any money for the down payment if you don't sell your house or take out a bridge loan? Um, our emergency fund. Yeah.

Then you can close on the deals legally, so that's probably what you're going to end up doing. Okay, ask your real estate agent. I think you may need a new real estate agent. Get with our endorsed local providers and ask them what the average days on the market is and what the average price range is. I got a feeling it's a $195 sale price. I think you're priced high. When you think a 7% price reduction is a big price reduction, It's not a big price reduction.

I think you're about to sell this house cheap because you did a deal for me. That's what it sounds like to me. This is The Ramsey Personality, number one bestselling author and author of the new book on presale, Take Back Your Time, The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jay and LaToya are on the line in Fort Worth, Texas. Says on my screen, you guys are debt free congratulations thank you thank you way to go guys how much have you paid off we paid off 194

thousand dollars in about four years all right good job that's amazing what's your range of income during that time when we started we were about were about at $120,000, and when we ended, we were above $450,000. What? Good. What in the world happened? What do you guys do? We're going to need an explanation there. Go on.

All right. I'm an IT engineer working in cloud. I'm an accountant, and I have my own firm. Okay. So both of your careers just exploded yeah absolutely i mean both of you are making a couple of hundred man that's pretty incredible yes wow um we we hustled and bustled and did everything that we could to you know get our income up and um it worked you just got to stay on it and keep grinding well you picked two good career fields and you believed you went got educated you went and did it man i'm so proud of y'all yes thank you thank you so much what kind of debt was 194 000

oh it was everything we had uh student loans credit cards hospital, car loans, probably owed the stray cat and dog too. I love it. How long y'all been married? 17 years. We just celebrated in June. Wow. Okay. Very cool.

So what happened four years ago after 13 years of marriage? Something like, uh-oh, got to change. Yeah, well, we discovered you a long time ago and we weren't gazelle intense as you say we were just playing around fiddling around still getting in and out of debt and credit cards and then once we start making you know uh the income we were at 120 and i was thinking we make way too much money to have uh this debt just lying around like a pet so let's just get rid of it. We got intent and I just couldn't stand another payment of anything. I was just like sick of it.

I see a bill in the mail. I hated going to the mailbox. I was like, well, I don't want to take this trip in hot Texas weather to the mailbox to get a bill and owe somebody. I was sick of it. Yeah. Sick and tired of being sick and tired. You had to get mad to do something about it. No one, no one does anything about it when they're just okay with it. You had to get mad to do something about it. No one does anything about it when they're just okay with it. You had to get mad about it. Yeah, you got to be upset. Yeah, that's definitely true. So, Latoya, Jay got sick of walking in the mailbox.

What did you say? For me, it was, you know, me being a number cruncher, I just got tired of seeing negatives. I mean, that's valid. That's valid. I'm like, we need to get in the black no more parentheses i like it that's good the numbers don't lie that's a good motto right there no more walks to the mailbox no more parentheses i'm done with this oh man this is great you guys

are fun this is cool okay so you you knew about our stuff but then you kind of had this uh discussed well up and you said we're sick and tired and then what did you do from there um from there the first thing i did was we said we're not getting any more car loans we're not signing up for any more credit cards and we just made a list from smallest to biggest and we just started knocking things out every month we would just pay something i would take any gig that i could get in it i would get um any side job that i could and we just just kept paying and kept paying and kept paying and eventually we're like we're all done yeah wow okay and so you uh you just plugged back into us how?

Just the podcast or the radio station or what? No, I was always an avid listener, listened almost every day, if not every other day, and I kept hearing other people over the years, I'm debt-free, I'm debt-free. I was like, one day that's going to be me. But I wasn't mad enough until we got mad, and then we made it happen. Yeah, that's cool well congratulations who were who uh was your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you our kids our girls because they they know you they're like we want to be on the dead free screen too all right

i'm glad they're here that's good very good well That proves that you changed your whole family tree with this. Yes, that was definitely the goal. We wanted to change the family tree for sure when it came to finances. It would be a real dead gum shame to me making $450,000 a year and be broke. Yeah. It would be a mess. I'm so glad you guys got control of this. So very well done.

All right, so if somebody's listening, what do you tell them the key to getting out of debt is? The number one key is to get organized, take control of your money, and put a name on every single dollar where it's going. Know where your money is going. Don't just think it's going to happen. You have to get a purpose about your money and just be intentional about it yeah it's good that budget telling it where to go instead of wondering where

it went it makes all the difference absolutely proud of you guys you're heroes well done thank you so much very well done we've got a copy of the legacy journey for you that's definitely the next chapter in your story you've changed your your life. You've changed your family tree. I mean, I bet if you look back down your family tree, it's nobody making $450 and nobody debt-free, right? Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Not that I can think of. Well, that would be true in most of our family trees, my son.

I'm just saying. Wow. That's very impressive. Very impressive, you guys. Very well done. We've also got a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give away and help somebody get started. Maybe they can get a clue and get the inspiration off of you guys because you're inspiring for sure. Absolute rock stars.

Well done. Well done. Jay and LaToya, Fort Worth, Texas, $194,000 paid off in four years making 120 to 450 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one america's next generation of millionaires right there that is so cool baby steps millionaires you know i love that they said he was talking about how they had listened for years and they were just kind of playing around and i just thought man how often we hear people there's a moment where they decide to get serious get gazelle intense and do something different and

that's what leads to the debt-free scream we We've never had a single person that I know of call in and say, yeah, I was just playing around, and then one day I was debt-free. No, that doesn't happen. When you're just playing around, when you're just listening, when you're just being passive,

when you're doing the same things, you're going to get the same results. It takes you doing something different. Something different, getting serious for a short period of time, that's what leads to the change, that's what leads to the outcome, That's what leads to the outcome. That's what leads to the debt-free scream.

I just love how he acknowledged that. There was a shift. He'd been listening. He was just playing around. When that shift happened, that's when he got the results he wanted. It's very true. And the weird thing is it doesn't have to be a crisis. No, no, no, no.

It doesn't have to be an external force. I lost my job, and that woke me up. Or I went through a divorce, and that woke me up. It might, but it might not. external force. I lost my job, and that woke me up. Or I went through a divorce, and that woke me up. It might, but it might not. Or I was in a car wreck, and that woke me up. Well, you know, in his case, I just woke up. He just wanted to not walk in the mailbox anymore. I make too much money to be broke.

I suddenly became disgusted. There was a suddenly moment there. But you're exactly right. You can wander into debt, but you cannot wander out. No one gets out without intentional movement. It's just it has to be a series of intentional acts. And here's the thing. The people that you're listening to, those of you listening to this show,

and there's tens of millions of you that you're listening to that are successful with this, they don't have to make $450,000 a year. That's highly unusual. I mean, almost all of them increase their income because they increase their workload for a short period of time because what they've discovered is that um you do not get out of debt doing the same crap you've been doing if you keep doing the same thing over and over again expect a different result that's the definition of insanity you get out of debt by chopping your lifestyle.

You get out of debt faster by completely eliminating your life. Beans and rice, rice and beans, scorched earth. You don't need to see the inside of a dadgum restaurant unless you're working there. And you don't need to talk to me about a vacation. You're freaking broke. You say all the time it's 20% head knowledge, 80% behavior. If you're just listening to this show and you've been listening to it for a decade and you're not getting different results, you've got to change your behavior.

You can't just listen to it. You have to do it. It's not automatic. You have to force, you have to impose your will on this situation. And the deeper you, the more wired up and fired up you are, the deeper you will sacrifice and the faster you get out. Stop your dadgum whining. This is

The Ramsey Show. ricky wright ramsey personality is my co-host today author of the new book take back your time the guilt-free guide to life balance it will come out in three weeks on September the 14th. On September the 16th, pre-order ends, by the way, on September 13th. So you only have three weeks to get the bargain. The bargain is buy the book for $20, and it includes $100 worth of add-ons that are there. All kinds of good stuff with it. And on September 16th, she and I will be doing a Take Back Your Time Guilt-Free live event, a live stream. With your pass, you get $60 worth of free bonus items,

which includes a copy of the book. Or you can join us in Nashville for the actual event and a special book signing. Or you can join us via live stream, however you want to do it. Get your pass at ramsysolutions.com slash time, or you can buy the book there and get all kinds of goodies with it. And so there are lots of different ways to get at this subject and get your balanced life moving, and Christy can give you the instructions to do that.

And come in Nashville. We're going to do a book signing. It's going to be fun. Fun fact, September 16th, when we're doing this live event, Dave, I don't even know if you know this, but that is Mary Grace's second birthday. So it is just real life, life balance, people. We are managing all the things together, and we're going to talk about real life. We have a lot of things going on, and we're going to talk about how to manage that and

keep it all going so so how you can do a live event on your daughter's birthday on a book on life balance hey this is i can't wait to hear this this is real life i can't wait to hear your explanation real life and if you come in nashville i'm going to sign your book so that'll be fun that'll so if you're nashville or driving distance come come hang out with me and dave it'll be fun be So if you're in Nashville or driving distance, come hang out with me and Dave. That'll be fun. It'll be fun to be here in person if you're around. So you're pretty sure Mary Grace is not going to need counseling as a result of this? Oh, no. She may make an appearance.

She may make an appearance. Oh, I can imagine this happening. Too much cuteness in the building is the problem there. Too many. Yeah. All right. Rebecca is with us in Atlanta. Hi, Rebecca.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave and Christy. It's an honor to speak to you both. Thank is with us in Atlanta. Hi, Rebecca. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave and Christy. It's an honor to speak to you both. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's going on? Well, I first have to tell you, we do, Dave Ramsey, so much in this house that my eight-year-old son got a splinter pulled out this past weekend, and he yelled, I'm splinter free.

Oh, my gosh. That's awesome. That is so cool. Our whole family had a good laugh so my question is kind of similar it's kind of similar i mean there's a little pain involved in the extraction but when it's out it feels better yeah yeah yes very true. We are on the last debt snowball. It's our vehicle, and we have gotten a payoff letter for it. And my question is, my company awarded me 300 shares of an equity award in stock. And when we found you and got that gazelle intensity going, we said, okay, we've learned that it's time to let this go and cash it in. And I guess my more concentrated question is, when do we sell that? Because we've been watching the stock prices and the loan on the vehicle is about a little over $29,000. If we let the stock price go up to about $310,000, it covers the whole shebang. If we sell it today,

we come out of pocket about $6,500 to pay off this car. Well, here's the principle, and the principle is that I don't buy stock, and the increase in value of the stock gets you out of debt. I've never told somebody to go buy stock, and as the stock goes up, it'll get you out of debt. You didn't do that, but it ends up putting you in exactly the same place. So if I woke up in your shoes, I would sell it today. Okay. Because there is no guarantee it's going up.

And the principle is get out of debt as fast as possible, regardless of what the variables at play are. Yeah. So I don't buy stock and wait on it to go up to get you out of debt. That's not a method that we use. But speak to the principle here, not just the idea of stock. But, Dave, I would love for you to talk a little bit about the idea of waiting for some potential change that would then would able me to get out of debt like sometimes we'll get this call of well i don't want to pay off my student loans because the government might bail me out and the principle that's at play there is the the problem the thought process the the idea behind

that of waiting for someone else that may or may not help me and putting your eggs in that basket. And how dangerous that is. It's almost putting what psychologists call the locus of control outside of yourself. You're saying, I'm waiting on something else to fix this where it is my job. Now, she's not really trying to avoid. No, no, no, but it made me think of that. It is that kind of locus of control question, though, of there's something that happens rebecca and all

the rest of us too uh you know there's something that happens inside of us um so powerful when we decide deep down deep down in the old gut that i'm the problem i I'm the solution, I'm going to take action, I'm going to fix this, I'm in control of my destiny. None of us are naive enough to think we're 100% in control of our destiny. But when you say the only way this gets fixed is if I freaking fix it, this being my life, the only way my life gets fixed is for me to take the bull by the proverbial horns and just go we are going to do this i'm going to impose my will just sheer action

a whole series of actions and not all of them necessarily have to make perfect mathematical sense. The value of taking action supersedes the value of the math game. Yes, and I think that's it. I think that's the thing that so many people miss because whether it's a scenario like this one or a scenario like that, I'm not going to pay off my student loans because of X, Y, Z, what it does is it gives us some kind of shallow justification for

not doing anything right now well i gotta wait because this this might happen i gotta wait and what's interesting is then the underlying effect is we feel like victims well i mean the stock hasn't gone up or well the government hasn't bailed me out no no we're telling you regardless of what anyone else is doing you're going to control what you can control and you're going to get out of debt as fast as you can become a force of nature and knock a bunch of crap down and if you go out there and just become a whirling derby you become a tasmanian devil and you're just like you know and you know and you know you don't have time and you don't even stop to think about something like she's talking about.

And again, Rebecca is asking a valid question. Totally. Not a shallow question. It's a valid question. But the problem is the math of what we just told her to do doesn't work. Yes. Assuming that stock goes up and bails her out, she didn't have to do it. She might have waited six weeks and the whole thing would have taken care of itself.

And yet we're telling her take $6,000. But we don't know what $6,000 is going to happen with a single stock in a company. It is not predictable. There's these things out there called pandemics and crap. You cannot predict what's going to happen. And so what you can predict is what you can do. And when you start just throwing stuff and trashing and just just tearing up just causing a holy ruckus in your life stuff starts getting out of your way yeah because it's stuff i mean

things get scared they're like that one's coming through yes i ain't getting in the way and it's like you create this movement in the spirit you create this movement in your life that that that supersedes mathematics. Yeah. It's just momentum is what it is. Where the freedom that you're going to experience and the control that you're going to maintain is worth more to you than this potential gain of $6,000 in this scenario or whatever it is in some other scenario. It's the freedom and the control that you have control over your destiny. You have control over your outcome, the time in which you become debt free and so on that has a value to it that often we dismiss in the name of waiting for the mathematics but but that's why i think it's so important to explain this because if you're going

to tell someone to do something that that someone's going to you know someone's going to be tweeting you right now well the math if you do that listen if you do the math we wouldn't be getting ourself in this situation to begin with so my math i think i think explanation is needed and for people to get the why behind the principle of you taking control right now today we don't love rudy or rocky because they had oh because they had it all figured out and their technique was perfect we love them because their heart was so big, and they busted up into impossible odds with a sheer force of nature and took it down. And that's why we all stand up and cheer at those movies. And that's what I'm asking you to become is that person.

It changes everything. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry.

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