The Ramsey Show - App - You Need to Set Goals in These 7 Areas (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

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it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Happy New Year! We're so glad you're with us. Thanks for hanging out. Well, today's the day almost everyone is back at work, and most of the kids are back in school. The new year has officially started, the traffic is back up, and we start our rhythm with our new goals, and our new mindset, and our new resolutions, and our new fresh, clean, clear year in front of us.

So what are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with this year? People who win, win intentionally. Winning is not an accidental thing. They never interview someone at the end of the Super Bowl and say, how did you win? He says, I don't know, I just got off the bus and it just happened. No, it's an intentional act.

As a matter of fact, it's a whole series of intentional acts that get you to be world-class in your category. You're world-class in your career, you're world-class in your career. You're world-class in your marriage. You're world-class in your parenting. You're a world-class mom. It's an intentional act. It doesn't just accidentally happen.

People choose to put things into their life, behaviors, habits, and they choose to change to get better. And by the way, if you've not chosen to get better, you have by default chosen to get worse because nothing stays the same. You're either growing or you're dying, baby. And every relationship you're in is either growing or it's dying. Everything you're doing is either growing or dying. It's either getting better or it's getting worse. And a lot of it has to do with your choice. Do I have big dreams? Good. What are you going to do about them? I like having big

dreams, but if you stop there, you're what's known as a dreamer, which is not someone most of us want dating our daughter. You don't want to just be a dreamer. You want to be a doer. It starts with a dream, but a dream with work clothes on is called a goal. It's not a resolution that's gone by Valentine's Day. You can't find any room in the gym this week, but by Valentine's Day, every machine will be open, no problem. Just wait a few weeks. It'll drop off a cliff, and you'll have all your machines back if you keep going.

Goals that work must be specific. They must be measurable. They must have a time limit. I want to lose some weight this year. It's measurable, but not specific and doesn't have a time limit. I want to lose 30 pounds in 90 days. Now we have the beginnings of a goal. It's specific. It's measurable and has a time limit. It has to be your goal. My wife wants me to lose 30 pounds. You're not going to do it. Not going to do it at all. My mom always wanted me to be a dentist. I don't want to be your patient.

I don't want to be hanging out with people living other people's goals through their body. No, live your goals. What is it you own? What is it that juices your brain up and makes you go, I got to go do that. I can't not do it. I know this is double negative, but I don't care. It's my show. I can't not do it. You can't keep me from doing it I have to do it and lastly goals should be in writing now some of

you have heard me talk about this over the last couple of weeks but some of you are just rejoining the show because you've been on vacation and so I want to make sure you have clearly written specific measurable goals with a time limit i want to get out of debt when give it a time limit specific how much debt are you going to pay off in this calendar year when are you going to complete your debt snowball when are you going to be a millionaire when are you going to be a 10 millionaire a deca millionaire when are you going to double your income millionaire a deca millionaire when are you going to double your income what have you got to do to do that when are you going to lose that weight when are you going to increase the quality of that relationship when are you going to increase your spiritual walk

increase your connectivity to god when are you going to get rid of that temper what are you going to do rid of that temper? What are you going to do? What's your deal this year? Now, there's seven areas that Zig Ziglar and many others used to say. They called it the wheel of life that you need to set goals in all these different areas. You need goals in these seven areas. Write them down unless you're driving, in which case you can just turn the podcast on later and listen back. There's seven areas you need goals in. You need financial goals, and of course we're going to talk about those on the Dave Ramsey

show. You need intellectual goals. How long has it been since you've read a book? The average millionaire reads a non-fiction book a month and can't tell you who got thrown off the island. Very few millionaires know anything about the Kardashians. They didn't even know there were any. But they've read a book pick up a book and read what are you doing with your intellectual goals are you taking a class

this year if you're not getting smarter in a culture and in business where the speed of change is blinding if you're not getting smarter every day, by definition you're getting dumber. Because you're getting left behind. Left behind. And then you can blame it on the systemic problems caused by the Republicans if you want. But you got left behind because you didn't read a book. Read a book.

Matter of fact, read a nonfiction book a month. How many books are you going to read this year? Family goals. What are your nurturing goals for your family? What are your time spent goals? What are the letters you're going to write to family members this year? Spiritual goals. You're going to read through the Bible this year?

You're going to start attending church? You're going to start walking with God? Maybe you need to reset some of that. Physical goals. Almost every one of us have some physical goals. Mine involves many fewer chocolate chip cookies. Many fewer. And boy, do I need to get off the chocolate chip cookies.

Y'all pray for me. I love chocolate chip cookies. And my body shows it. It's bad. You know what makes you look thinner than wearing black? Being thinner. There you go. I'll help you with that.

Career goals. I hate my job. How long are you going to stay there? When are you going to start listening to Ken Coleman and learn how to do a proper resume, how how to do a proper interview how to get in proximity with the proximity principle number one best-selling book and get the job that you love why do you why would you work somewhere for 30 freaking years with the people you hate i like what i do but the people are toxic, then get out of there. You know, what is this? Punishment? Doesn't have to be toil.

You could have to make less money. Why? Why do you always have to make less money to live your dreams? Who started that rumor? Usually living your dreams involves making more money. Find a different way to do it. What are your career goals? What are your social goals?

My wife used to tell my kids all these cliches growing up old-fashioned cliches you you want to have friends you need to be a friend i mean how long has it been since you invited someone over for dinner how long has it been since you actually had dinner at your house there's an idea saves a lot of money by the way versus eating out every night i mean you have social goals you have any friends maybe you need more friends i mean you go There's an idea. Saves a lot of money, by the way, versus eating out every night. You have social goals? You have any friends? Maybe you need more friends.

Maybe you need to go deeper with some friends you've got. You need to set goals in those seven areas, and they need to be specific, measurable, have a time limit in writing, and they need to be your goals. Now get your year started, baby. Game on. Game on. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm going to go on a little rant here for a minute. I took a call from a father who wanted to know how to plan for the care of his special needs daughter after he dies. Why is it that parents of special needs children are so deliberate in their planning

while other parents have a tendency to be sloppy? Do the needs of your family matter less if something happens to you? Oh, I'm sorry, did I just guilt trip you into getting some term life insurance? Well, then good. Your family needs you to step up. Having the right amount of term life insurance is a matter of personal responsibility. If you want to use the new year as a reason for doing the right thing, then do it. Term life insurance is something every family needs, which is why I talk about it every day.

It's not complicated, it's not expensive, and you need to do this now. Zander Insurance is the only place I recommend. Visit Zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282. Please learn from other people's mistakes and get this taken care of. That's 800-356-4282 or Zander.com. Brandon is with us in Georgia. Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, all that stuff. I'm still saying Merry Christmas. I love Christmas. I'm stuck on it.

Brandon, how are you? I'm good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a quick question. My wife and I are on baby step two, and we actually have a business opportunity. She's a dentist, and they want her to partner in the office,

and we're unsure on how we should approach it. So we have about $200,000 left on her student loans, and we paid off about $200,000, which is the good part, once we got on your plan. So they're offering her to buy in for $200,000, which is the good part once we got on your plan. So they're offering her to buy in for $100,000, and that will increase our income about $70,000 per year. And we don't know if we should wait to pay off the student loans or go ahead and buy in since it'll actually increase our income. Do you have $100,000 to buy in? No. So what we're going to do is we can save it in about eight to nine months to buy in. That's how long it'll probably take us to get to $100,000.

And then we would basically go right back to paying off our student loans. Okay. I would do that. Okay. I mean, you're going to take eight to nine months off and increase your income $70,000. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, I'll do that. I have another question. So what are your thoughts if she doesn't plan to stay there long-term, past five years? Do you think that's a good idea still? Well, it depends on what the exit strategy is in the in the partnership agreement what happens when she leaves with her partnership shares so she has to stay a minimum of three years and then i think she can sell back so that part we will have to work out through the contract but she would have to stay a minimum of three years is she not going to stay three years

yes that's the plan for her to stay three years so i say she will stay okay yeah if you're not if you're not going to stay three years it starts to be a concern if you're going to stay three years and they're going to buy you back out and you can negotiate reasonable terms on that and she stays five or six or seven in the meantime you make seven thousand dollars a year times five is an extra three seventy thousand is an extra three hundred fifty thousand dollars income right right if the income doesn't even go up and it probably will go up true yeah i'm doing this deal as long as the contract terms are reasonable and properly negotiated particularly the exit parts of the contract so i would do this deal for sure. Hey, thanks for the call. Dental practices, medical practices, and lawyers are the three types of partnerships that are structured unusually. Medical practices, lawyers, dental practice, type of medical practice.

They're structured unusually where they regularly come and go or bought in and out. And those types of partnerships generally do survive. The practice survives and it has an addition, subtraction of partners as it goes along. It's a normal part of that business rhythm. It's the only partnership that I don't tell people to avoid. Other small business partnerships, I find almost none of them last 10 years. And when they end, they generally end poorly because there's something negative happens that brings an end to it. And it's like a divorce then. It's generally not pretty.

So we always say the only ship won't sail is a partnership when it comes to business. And so two old boys sitting around over a beer decide to open up a heating and air business just because they like each other is a bad idea. In other words, even if they do think it through, and most people don't think it through, and have full-on partnership documentation and agreements, which you definitely need. Hey, thanks for the call. Open phone is at 888-825-5225. Phillip is in D.C. Hey,ilip welcome to the dave ramsey show

hi dave thanks so much for taking my call it's really an honor sure how can i help so basically two years ago my mom convinced me to loan her half of all my savings so seven thousand dollars and spend it on bitcoin now two years, we haven't made any money on that investment. I'm sorry, did you give it to her to invest in Bitcoin, or we decided we were going to invest it in Bitcoin? Well, I loaned it to her to invest. And so she took the risk, and she borrowed the money from her son to take the risk. Okay.

Yeah. So now I'm in college, and she borrowed the money from her son to take the risk. Okay. Yeah. So now I'm in college and I need the money for tuition. And so I want her to give the money back to me. And she's now refusing. And she's saying Bitcoin's going to make us into millionaires in the long term. And it would be a totally foolish thing. And she's basically just stamping down and saying she's not going to give me back the money because Bitcoin's going to turn us into millionaires.

And I pretty much, this money is pretty important for me just so I can get through college debt-free. And, I mean, do you think that she's right in keeping the money in Bitcoin, do you think? I'm 20. I'm a sophomore. No, she's wrong, and she's wrong, and she's wrong, and she's wrong. Number one, you don't borrow money from your, what, at the time, 17- or 18-year-old son. If you're that big a loser, you don't need to be investing. Number two, when you do borrow money from your own child, and they ask to pay it back because they're in college, you give them the money back.

You don't be a loser. Number three, you pick the worst possible thing to invest in, you're going to lose your butt. You're not going to be a millionaire in Bitcoin. You're going to be $7,000 poorer. So mom's wrong like three times. Three strikes, you're out. Tell her you want your money back and you want it back now

this is wrong what kind of person borrows money from their kid to to be in a shady investment i mean do you understand what i'm saying i'm not sure i'm sorry i'm calling your mother names i'm sorry but um It's okay. But, I mean, I'm just mad for you. You're 20 years old. You should be living your life. You shouldn't be worrying about these kinds of things. You should be working about your studies and finishing your degree.

You shouldn't have to be worried about your own mother having taken money to go off on some lark. Because, no, I mean, Bitcoin someday may turn into something. Today, you would have a better chance of becoming a millionaire at the roulette table in Vegas. Do you have any suggestions for other things to invest in? No. You know what I would invest in? I would invest in Philip finishing his degree. I think you're a better investment than anything else I know of out there.

I invest in real estate and mutual funds, but I think you're a better investment because I think your degree, if you're studying something reasonable and it's marketable, what are you studying? So I'm doing economics and a minor in computer science. Ta-da. These are very marketable, usable skills in the marketplace, particularly in Washington, D.C. So, yeah, you're going to do fine with that. In other words, the amount of money you're going to make as a result of finishing this degree is a lot more than you would make

on an investment. Do you see what I'm saying? You're a good investment. Yeah. And this is the best way to spend money on you when you're 20 and you're studying something like this that's good in school and you pay cash for it and you stay out of debt and you do all those wonderful things i don't know how to be um how to suggest since your mother's being belligerent that you just say mom you know i talked to a financial coach and he completely disagrees and i know you and i don't agree with about this but it is my money and i'm trying to finish school and i really need you to cash that out and give me my money back today well i don't think you're right i don't care if you think i'm right but i mean she her belligerence on this and her desperation to become a millionaire with a seven

thousand dollar investment i mean come on really this is a bit unrealistic yeah it is a bit on yeah that's a good that's a nice way of saying it. Yeah. So as you complete your field of study in economics, you'll see the flaws in the Bitcoin thing. Bitcoin is, it has a lot of wonderful attributes to it, and someday it may become a stabilized currency. But today, currency is based 100% on one thing, trust. I have a bunch of military coins that guys that have served in the military and gals that have served in the military, when they shake your hand,

they give you a coin. It's a sign of honor, and I love those. I've got hundreds of them in my office. And right beside them I have a dollar bill or an $18 bill or whatever it is with a picture of Saddam Hussein on it. You know what that dollar bill is worth? Zero. Because Saddam Hussein is dead. And he's not a dead president. It's a dead country that went away and had to be completely reformed. There's no trust in that currency. So I can't trade that for anything. But you take a green piece of paper with a dead

president on it from the United States, I can trade that for stuff. Why? Because of trust. Bitcoin doesn't have that trust yet. Because all it's got right now is a get-rich-quick smell all over it. And people are avoiding it that are smart. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I love talking about companies that know how to do business right.

You've heard of Grip6 belts, right? Well, if you haven't, it's the only belt you can get online with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. I'm talking weightless, and the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable. I personally own a number of these belts, and they're so comfortable you forget you're wearing it. Plus, these guys have a great story. BJ Minson started Grip6 on Kickstarter from his garage in 2014 and now sells hundreds of thousands of these american-made belts to customers all over the world as a mechanical engineer and a minimalist bj took his dislike for heavy bulky leather belts that never fit right and created the perfect belt a high quality minimalist belt that gives the

strength and support of a belt without even knowing you're wearing one. I'm really proud of these guys. Check out this month's special offers for my listeners at Grip6.com. Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jessica is in Ohio. Hi, Jessica. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Thank you. I'm calling because I am in the middle of a divorce, and I have a toddler and a six-month-old. And right before this happened, we had just got out of Baby Step 2. So I've been in the middle of Baby Step 3, but also I've been trying to cash flow, lawyer bills, and I know that there are court cost fees coming eventually, and I don't really know where I am.

Baby, I'm sorry. And with little babies, how long have you all been married? Almost 10 years. Wow. What happened? A lot. Okay. A lot.

This was very unexpected. Okay. What a mess. Very, very unexpected. What a mess. Okay. So were you working outside the home already? Yes.

Yes. I have a career myself. Great. Okay. So what do you make? About 000 okay so you're not on a baby step you're in the middle of a hurricane and what you do is just push pause on all this stuff and you pile cash as high as you can possibly pile it to cover all of these expenses and problems that the storm is bringing. When the storm passes, then we will rebuild and start fresh and push play on your baby steps again.

But for today, food, shelter, lights and water, clothing for you and your babies. And keep the lawyer bills moving and the court costs moving and be done with it. So are there assets? Is there a home that's going to be sold or does he have a big 401k or anything like that? Our 401ks are fairly equal, so that'll be negligible if there is any division. I am to take the house, and I'm able to carry that on my own, but I have to buy him out of his portion as well. So that's another $12,000 that'll be coming once this much is figured out.

Okay. And so there's only just a little bit of equity in the house. Yeah, only about $22,000, I think they determined. So why are you keeping it? Because it's our home. No, it's not. It's a reasonable size for me and my girls. It's manageable for...

How much is your house payment? Including insurance, $750 a month. What's your take-home pay? I just started this division, so I just know my gross. Okay, what's your gross? $55,000. $55 55 000 a year okay yeah so your take-home pay is probably gonna be about 4 000 a little less a month yeah 750 is manageable that's good is there any other and you said you finished baby step two so there's no other debts

no okay no my student loans are gone i own. Okay. And you'll get child support from him? Yeah, I'm getting about half of what it's supposed to be right now. So right now I get about $500, but I haven't received any for the second child yet. Okay. Sounds like your lawyer needs to step on this. Even in the interim, if you're paying a lawyer's just going to be tight for a little while um and you've got to give yourself a little bit of financial margin just to grieve this whole process and go through you know denial anger all the different stages of grief and the thing that you've already been experiencing of course a 10-year marriage coming to an abrupt end. And we know it's fairly abrupt because you have a little baby. Yes, very abrupt.

So, I mean, there's emotions that go with this that are very, very real. They're human being stuff. And so I just want to give you room to do all that. And the big thing is don't use all of this, the babies, or your pain as an excuse to go into debt again. So don't make a mess. But if you don't make any progress, I would call that a successful transition for you. Okay.

Like no progress at all for a little while. You know, get all the lawyer bills paid, court costs or whatever, clean break, we're done, all the checks are written, then we can push play again, build up your emergency fund, and move on with the next chapter in your life, right? Okay. The sad thing you've already discovered, and you've discovered it because the way you explain things to me, is what a divorce recovery specialist, a friend of mine, always says, that a divorce turns a marriage into a business transaction. And so I know you've discovered that because you've already looked through the equity.

You've already looked at the differences in the 401ks are negligible. You've already done the math on the balance sheet of the household breaking up, you know, the partnership ending. It's a transaction at this point, which is very sad, but it is reduced to that in the legal system. So, yeah. I'm trying to think where you're going to get the $12,000. How long are you going to have to get that together? Well, this has been going on now for about a year um it kind of depends on there's a lot of loose ends regarding

um the children that have been prolonging the entire process yeah so this has become way more drawn out and expensive i'll give you i'll give you a negotiating possibility and the fact that he has not paid child support in full for a year during the separation is abominable. And I think he trades that for his equity. I would love that. Yeah. I think your attorney needs to have the appropriate backbone to cause that to happen. See, I'm just an old guy.

When you get in a fight you try to win right yeah i'm acting like you're my daughter and i'm trying to kill him right now yeah so that's i'm trying to you know but i mean he can do that he can give up the house and due to the fact he's not paid adequate child support for 12 months. That's a very reasonable negotiating point. Otherwise, I'm going back after that money because he's, you know, the longer he drags this out, the longer he does not have to pay proper child support because you're taking a weak position on that. So that's, again, we're just doing a business transaction.

It's just a math thing now. And we just don't let him get away with spit, two babies involved that we're fighting for. It's not a matter of retribution or hitting back or something like that. It's a matter of taking care of your children. Hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us.

Blinds.com gives us our question of the day. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the promo code Ramsey, you get the best possible deal. Maria's in Indiana. My husband and I are on baby step 3B. We're saving for a house. We're out of debt and have our emergency fund. We have a 20-year level term insurance through Zander.

I recently received a promotion with an approximate raise of $10,000. Should I update my policy to reflect my new income? If not, how often over the 20 years should this be evaluated and updated? Please let me know. I think you're probably okay. I would update it every three or four years and just say, the question you ask yourself is, as you get out of debt further and as you build more wealth and as the kids get older, how much less life insurance do you need? As your income has gone up, it's not necessarily always going to be 10 to 12 times your income.

That's where we're starting with. But I think you're probably okay right now. Ask yourself, would your husband be okay left with the kids based on your current life insurance? If that's the process, you're good. This is the Dave in South Carolina. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Shelley. How can I help? Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up?

Recently, my grandmother has left me two CDs of an inheritance. The total is $500,000. Wow. Yes. The CDs are currently up for withdrawal. I have never had a 401k, a 403b, any type of Roth IRA or anything. With CD rates being as low as they are,

like hovering around 1%, 1.5, what would be the next best step for this money? Would it be to go ahead and start investing since I don't have any financial debt or would it be starting a 401k? You can only do a 401k on payroll withholding. So only if your job offers it, you could do Roth IRAs, but you are limited to $6,000 a year if you're married, $12,000 a year. And that's not going to get us there on $500,000. Okay. So what I would do, you don't even have a home mortgage? No, sir. No home mortgage. Do you own a home? She deeded me her house. Oh, wow. wow okay and you plan to live in it

yeah she said she's still alive she still she currently lives with me oh my goodness okay all right so you're gonna live in her house for a while then okay all right well um here's the thing rule number one about investing is do not invest money in things you do not understand. Okay. Uh, rule number two is start understanding more, start growing in your knowledge. And I'm going to help you with that. Okay. Um, and then rule number three is when you're investing with someone or taking someone's advice, since you have to understand it before you can do it, that means you cannot do what they say unless you understand it, which means they have to have the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman. Have you ever sat down with somebody, whether it's financial or otherwise, could be on a car lot, and felt like they were really trying to help you or you sat down with someone else and you felt like you need to take a shower afterwards? I did. I've actually met with a couple of financial advisors

who were wanting to sell me, you know, annuities or different types of products, you know, and I have read a little bit. And once I started discussing front-loading fees and back-end fees, especially with the annuities, they lock you in for 10 years, the extreme rates to get out. You've already smelled it out. Look at you. You're doing great. You're doing great. You're learning.

See, that's all stuff you didn't even know about six months ago. Absolutely. This is totally a life changer, a game changer. I'm so ecstatic just about the knowledge that I've been able to get just from reading. And so that's why I've left the money in the bank. It's okay. So short term, it's okay to leave it there. Exactly, yes.

Now, if you could make on a good mutual fund 10%, that'd be $50,000 a year, otherwise you make $5,000 a year at 1%. Right. We don't want to miss out on $50,000 a year. If that is a good investment that you understand and can get comfortable with, you wouldn't want to miss out on $50,000 a year for the next 10 years because that's another half a million dollars. Mm-hmm, yes. So that's the power of knowledge on this. So what I would tell you to do is leave it in the bank

for now. I think you've already smelled out one rat, which by the way, the annuity sales give the person four times the commission than if they had just sold you a mutual fund. Yes. Okay. Yeah. so there's your motivation. So you've learned something about those particular folks. I'm going to send you to the people we recommend. I'm not in the business, but the way we vet who we recommend is, one of the things is they have to have the heart of a teacher. Okay.

And so if you don't have that experience, get up and walk out. I'm fine. But you should have that experience, and you walk out i'm fine but you should have that experience and you'll know they've got the heart of a teacher if you don't feel slimed and you don't feel like you're someone that's being poked and prodded at and pushed and treated like you don't know what you're doing and all that kind of stuff just trust me you know you don't have that kind of attitude the teacher says here's how all this, and whenever you're ready to do it, I'll be here to help you. That's what a teacher says.

Correct. Okay. And how can I help you grow more and learn more? Because you do want to grow. This is a responsibility, and you've taken that responsibility serious, and I commend you for that. You've done a really, really good job coming out of the gate here. You really have. You know, it was very overwhelming at first.

Again, it is a life changer financially to get up every day and not have the financial responsibilities or worries. It takes 100% off my plate. But I didn't want to be reckless or careless with it. You don't have to look at your grandma later and say, I lost all your money. You don't want to have that talk to her. That's right. And so I felt like it's such a blessing.

And so I've tried every day to at least learn a little bit about it and sit down and meet with folks and read to educate myself as well just to, you know, to make the best future for my family. Okay. Well, when you can explain what a mutual fund is to someone that doesn't know, then you're ready to invest in mutual funds. And that's what I would do with it if I woke up in your shoes. But I know a lot about it, and I'm very comfortable with that. Okay? The other possibility, if you have a hankering at all for owning real estate,

you could actually buy a rental property and pay cash for it. That's a possible investment, but you'd have to be willing to put up with the hassle that's associated with that. And you'd want to think through that and learn a little bit about real estate as well. Same kind of a thing. So click smartvestor at DaveRamsey.com. It'll drop down a list of the smartvestor pros in your area. There's 1,200 of them nationally.

And you can pick from the ones in your area which ones you'd like to meet with. You can meet with all of them and interview them if you want. But I'd interview at least more than one, at least by phone, and just get a sense of who you're going to be most comfortable with. And the way I judge it like this, the SmartVestor Pro in my area is a personal friend of mine, and I am just really okay with if I die, Sharon's going to pick up the phone and call Jeff, and Jeff is going to walk her through it and take care of her. And when we meet with Jeff, he goes over everything where Sharon understands it, not just Mr. Radio Guy.

Right? Okay. And so he's that guy, and he's got that spirit, and that's what you want. In other words, this guy or gal should not only be able to meet with you, when you get kind of up to speed you might even want to sit down with grandma if grandma wants to talk about it and talk to her talk it through with her and show her how it all works that's okay there's nothing nothing you know nothing's on fire here there's no rush right i don't want you to wake up five years from now having done nothing but you're not on that trajectory i mean you're not on that trajectory.

I mean, you're going to do something that you get comfortable with. I would not do annuities. I think you've made the right decision. I think there's too many fees involved, too many restrictions involved, especially at your young age. I simply would pick a good mutual fund. So the way I do my investing, Shelley, I pick four types of mutual funds, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international, and I spread evenly across those four. And that's how my personal 401K, my personal mutual fund portfolio looks.

And I've got millions of dollars in mutual funds that I've done over the years. I'm an old guy, so I've been doing this a long time. But that's what I do. But that doesn't mean you need to do it just because Dave Ramsey said. You follow me? You're doing it because you doesn't mean you need to do it just because Dave Ramsey said. You follow me? You're doing it because you understand it, you get comfortable with it, you learn about it. Sit down with one of the Smart Investor pros and see if you can find a teacher in your area that you like what they're teaching.

Then you will choose to buy as opposed to having been sold. About 85% of the folks out there, about 85% of the people in the financial world are salespeople. Only about 15% are teachers. And that's true if you're dealing with mortgage people. That's true if you're dealing with real estate agents, insurance people, investing people. You're always, especially investing people,

you're always looking for someone that has the heart of a teacher and that is not just chomping at the bit and dying to get your freaking money because that pays their life bill. Just take your time, learn from them. And if you don't have that spirit in the room, get out of that room. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry.

We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.