The Ramsey Show - App - You Won't Get Hurt on a Roller Coaster Unless You Jump Out (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 26, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in. We'll talk about your life, your money. It is a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. John is with us in D.C. starting off this hour. Hey, John, how are you? Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My wife and I just reached baby stepss 4, 5, and 6,

and we were curious, since we have a little bit of a higher income, if there would be anything wrong with going ahead and front-loading the kids' 529 plans for college before we start throwing X on the house, just to be able to check the college box. Nothing wrong with that at all. Okay. You're just going to load it up and calculate a series of lump sums, like a couple of $10,000 contributions into a 529 and be done with it and move on. And

that's your plan? Yes. Yeah, I'd definitely do that. What's your higher income? What's your household income? $300,000 gross. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're in great shape. What do you guys do for a living? We're both IT sysadmins. Wonderful. Wow, very cool. Great careers. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, so you're in great shape.

You're buzzing along. Certainly finished Baby Step 3. We're going to be putting 15% of our income into your retirement, which is Baby Step 4. And then, yeah, I'm going to chunk money into 529s. Make sure that you're meeting with a SmartVestor Pro and that the 529s are where you control the mutual funds. They don't automatically move around or not pre-selected. It's not an autopilot plan of some kind. You're selecting the mutual funds and put them in the same type of mutual funds we're always talking about.

But it's exactly what I did when I hit your stage years ago. I just went ahead and back calculated. I'm going to need this much money for college. And if I put I need Y for college. And if I put X in now at Z growth rate, I will be where I need to be when they get there. And so I lump summed it rather than monthly payment. And so I could get it over with because I'm with you. I'm more of a rip the bandaid off guy and be done with with it and then let's then let's just move on and pound on

the house and be done with it so very cool good job man sue is in california hi sue how are you hi thank you dave thanks for taking my call sure um here's my question. It's about a trust. And I just want to know if I'm kind of out of line asking, um, something to be modified. Um, my husband, um, has a trust set up for me for when he passes. And, um, just to give you a little background, he has a network of $6 million and I have about a half a million and he has a trust set up to have provided for me an income of $80,000 a year. And when I pass, then all monies go back to the trust and are processed to a donation that he has set up.

I've asked if he could gift me, I don't know the right words for it, but 10% of his net worth at the time of passing. So I would have funds to buy a larger home if I needed it. Currently the home that we have I would get, but it's about 900 square feet. It's a three-bedroom, one-bath. It's a small cottage-like home. How long have you been married? We've been married 20 years. And he was married before?

I was married once before. He was never married. Okay. No, you're not out of line. As a matter of fact, I would go further than you're going. I've got to tell you, if I suggested toaron ramsey that i was going to control her life from the grave that would not go over well yeah i'd have a mad hillbilly woman on my hands she would say i got a different idea for you bubba you know it's about how it sounded our house uh this is very controlling

and so it's as if he wants his little money that he's got his little six million dollars to uh go where he wants it to go even from the grave and he doesn't trust his wife of 20 years his primary job is to not to dance on the money. It's to take care of his wife. And you're like a full-grown woman. You should be able to make decisions and stuff. Yes, and I've tried four times to bring this conversation up, and we talk at length about it. It's not a quick conversation,

but it's something he just is very strong and adamant about. Yeah, he's very controlling. Yeah. Yeah, he likes to get his way a lot. I know this guy because I'm him. I'm pretty much the same guy, except I've just learned it relationally what he's proposing here is a bad play, because it makes you feel demeaned. It's as if you're a child.

Absolutely. It's as if you're a child or an adult with special needs or something. It's just, that's how it sounds on the outside looking in. So I completely say I'm throwing a flag. He's out of bounds. You ask me and you're going to get my opinion. I'm an expert on my opinion. So I may just be causing another fight here.

But I think if you guys can't get through this, you probably ought to bring in an outside counselor like a marriage counselor to explain to him how demeaning and controlling this is. Okay. Listen, do you think, let me stop you, do you think I'm wrong? Sure. No. And I called to find out if I was wrong, and I'm agreeing with you. I don't think it's unreasonable to have asked for 10%. And you're saying it should probably be more than 10%. It's our stuff. You share a bed. You share a meal. You share travel. You share a life. You share tragedy.

You share money. Yes. You're not his roommate. This is old school right here. I mean, I'm a dinosaur, but that's how I see it. And I'm not trying to cause trouble with y'all but i really think that i do want to solidify that you're not crazy and he is controlling he doesn't mean to be he thinks he's being caring all of us that are control people i'm a control person we all think

we're caring when we're doing it but then you have to stop and go no that's really not caring that's just you being a butt. And that's happened to me. So I can read his mail a little bit because I got that same DNA. I'm the guy that tells people what to do and they freaking do it. You know, I mean, that's me. So I understand. I'm not picking on him too bad, but I am calling him out as a brother of, you know, I'm in the fraternity of control freaks.

Me and him are in the same frat. So I can call him out as a frat brother and go, dude, you up here so that's how that that's the spirit i'm coming at this with but i'm also wanting to inject a little encouragement into you so that you go ahead and push this a little bit because i think it's fair for you to push this more than a little bit just just my thoughts thanks for the call justin's in Virginia. Hi, Justin. How are you? I'm doing great, Dave. How are you?

I'm stupid. I do a talk radio show, and I'm supposed to know there's a commercial, and I didn't. So I'm going to put you back on hold, and I'll come right back to you, brother. Sorry about that. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Business leaders, if you're not using LinkedIn Jobs, you are missing out. Our Ramsey Solutions Company page on LinkedIn has over 100,000 followers. That's over 100,000 potential like-minded people our team communicates our current openings to. We also post on LinkedIn

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Terms and conditions apply. Thank you for joining us. Now it's Justin's turn in Virginia. Hi, Justin. How are you? I'm doing great, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help?

Yes. So my wife and I, we started Financial Peace about two months ago. Currently in Baby Step 2, already paid down $13,000 in debt. Way to go. And now we're on track to be debt-free in about 20 months. Good. So my question for you is this. I'm a worship pastor at a church, and after speaking to our CPA, he was educating us on how I can go exempt into paying Social Security. Exactly.

I haven't heard you talk about this, but one, I was curious if that's something you would recommend me do, and if yes, could I take that money, put it towards our debt snowball, and then eventually roll that into like a Roth IRA. Yes. Now, let's walk through some specifics, okay? Okay. Number one, the exemption when you're a pastor on Social Security is only your pastoral income.

If you have a side hustle, you're still paying social. Okay. Okay, so it's only what the church pays you. That's the only thing that gets exempt. Now, once you do that, and let say that that uh over the course of your life is most of or all of your income so on that basis you would have no social security right okay now mathematically mathematically were you to actually invest the money that you put into Social Security and you were to lose 1% per year, you would still have more money than the government's going to give you. Right.

That's how bad it sucks. Yep. Okay? And that's what I would say. I know the rate of return for Social Security. Yeah, it's a negative 1 to a negative 2% rate of return. Right. And so, but if you're not going to have Social Security, we have to think about what it does,

and you have to make sure you do what it does with that money and other money. So first thing is you're going to get a supplement to retirement, which is what Social Security is. It's not a replacement for retirement. It's a supplement. So you's not a replacement for retirement. It's a supplement. So you have to be investing for retirement. So it's like, raise your right hand, say, I promise to invest for retirement because I'm not going to have any if I don't. And you do that, right?

Then the second thing is, if you become disabled, permanently disabled, you would receive SSI if you were in Social Security. You're not in it. You won't get that. And your kids won't get anything if you become disabled or die and so those are the two those are the three things you need life insurance to make sure your family's okay you need long-term disability insurance and you need a retirement plan guess what you need all of those anyway right everyone does social security is not good enough for any of those things right so right but you cannot ignore those three areas and get caught in a lurch if you're gonna that would be irresponsible right okay and so what we're

doing is we're giving up a socialized, bad math, horrible program. In return, we have more of our own money to keep, but we have to take care of ourselves. Right. That's the onus of the thing, which is retirement, disability, and life insurance for your family. Those are the three things you've got to always, no matter what, no exceptions, have those three things in place, always, no matter what, no exceptions. The last piece of the equation is the only way that you can opt out under the IRS code is you have to, as a pastor,

conscientiously object on a religious basis to the Social Security system. And that's a matter of conscience. Now, if I were a pastor, the Bible that I read says we're supposed to be good stewards, good managers of God's money. Giving it to Social Security is under no definition being a good steward. So I can opt out on religious regions of good conscience were i in your shoes but you need to ask yourself that question do you agree with that and if you do then you in good conscience can become a conscientious objector

to the system and not play on your pastoral income only and i definitely would but mathematically it's smart spiritually it's correct biblically it's correct people disagree with me on that so i always just want to be real clear on you decide uh you know based on those parameters that critical thinking set okay right thank you so much amen thanks for the call appreciate you serving god open phones at 888-825-5225. Catherine's in Florida. Hi, Catherine. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm great.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Oh, thank you for taking my call. I am a huge fan, and I've followed your principles for a long time. But I have a close friend whose husband was recently incarcerated, and she is finding herself, she's upside down on three vehicles. She was not involved a lot in the, you know, the paying,

paying the payments and getting, you know, all of the, the, the monthly stuff done. Her husband did all of that. And she's down, obviously now down to one income and i i'm trying to get her on a budget and um she's got some tax refund money coming so i'm going to have her put a thousand dollars in an emergency fund get her started with that um and then we're going to work work the baby steps sell two cars like okay so two of the cars aren't running um one of them is a is a um antique truck it doesn't run um she she has another um vehicle it does not run and then she has the one that she's actually driving now and the total of all the balances on the loans around forty four thousand dollars what about the two that aren't balances on the loans is around $44,000. What about the two that aren't running?

What are the loans on those? The two that aren't running, the total is one is $13,000 and one is around $8,000. Okay. All right. What is wrong with the cars? Do you have any idea? The one, the newer vehicle, it needs a new transmission, and then the other one, I think it has something to do inside the engine.

It's a bad piston or something like that. All right. So you're going to end up selling the antique truck as is, not running. You may take some of the tax refund money and fix the other car because it's going to bring a whole lot more if it's fixed, right? Right. Correct. Okay. Now, are you a member of a whole lot more if it's fixed, right? Right. Correct. Okay. Now, are you a member of a good church?

Yes, sir. We are. Good. Okay. Holler at the pastor and tell him what you're trying to walk through and see if you can get some of the guys to come around her in that church and help her get these cars moved. Because if some guy walks up to that antique truck and realizes it's worth 40 grand and he sees her standing there, he might steal it from her.

But if there's a guy standing beside her, it'll give her some protection. I know that's sexist, but welcome to the world. I understand that. Okay. Yes, sir. I didn't say I was going to do it. I said other people would do it. So I want some brothers standing beside her, okay?

Okay. And that'll keep some people honest here. And then let's get the transmission fixed as cheaply as possible, get that car sold, get that antique car out of there, get that car sold. What's he in jail for? Making some bad decisions. Well, that's always the case. Right, right.

We don't know the outcome. Nobody's in jail for making good decisions. That is very true. That is very true. We don't know the outcome of how long or any of that yet. This happened very recently. Okay, so he's the trial awaiting. He's sitting there without bail.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right. What does she make? She brings home $1,100 every two weeks. How long do you think he's going to get, if you were going to guess? Best case scenario, I would probably say, I don't know, a couple years, two to five years maybe. So this is a long play.

Okay, this is a long play for her. So she's going to start amputating stuff out of her life quick to be able to get on balance and be able to get this thing where the budget is lining up under $1,100 again. Yes, sir. And she's looking for parking. Yes, she is. And I recently had her stop her 401k.

That should give her another couple hundred dollars in her paycheck coming home. Good. Have you got her in Financial Peace University yet? I have not. Okay, she is now. She's going as my guest. All right, I'm going to pay for it. You hold on.

Madison's going to pick up. We want her to go through the class, learn how to handle money. You walk with her. You get your pastor and some of these guys beside her, and you all walk her through this. This is her valley. This is hell she's going through, and it ain't her fault. So you guys walk with her and love her well. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

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Hey, guys. How are you? We're so good, Dave. This is surreal. Welcome. Welcome. Good to have you. Where do you guys live?

We live in Salt Lake City, Utah. Oh, fun. So thanks for coming all the way to Nashville to do your debt-free scream. How much did you pay off? $183,000, Dave, in 36 months. But we also cash flowed a piano, a new baby, and a minivan. Wow. There you go.

And not necessarily in that order. It was that order. It was that order. A piano, a new baby, followed by a minivan. Now, the minivan following the baby makes sense. I don't know about the piano. But all right. So your range of income during that three years?

It was $130,000 to about $203,000. Wow. What do you guys do for a living? I do marketing strategy for a Fortune 500 technology company. And I'm a full-time mom and a piano teacher. I love it. Dust the piano. All right.

Source of income. I like it. That's fun. Good for you guys. How long have you been married? Oh, gosh. We just hit nine years. Okay. So after six years of marriage, something happened. What lit you on fire? So I went to grad school. I got my MBA. And so that was the 36 month mark ago. And when that happened, student loans came out of deferment and that first payment hit and we kind of went, oh crap. But we actually heard of you several years before that through Brittany's parents. Yeah. So in 2011, right after we first got married, we actually took FPU and we got it as a Christmas present from my parents. And at first we just thought it was the lamest gift ever.

But we all went with our siblings into the class and we got really pumped up and fired up and we just had no idea how bad we were doing it with finances. That was three years ago? No, this was 2011. Nine years ago. Yes, 2011. So why did it 36 months ago?

Why did it take six years to get started? Well, we had a strong start initially. It is ago. Yes, 2011. So why did it 36 months ago? Why did it take six years to get started? Well, we had a strong start initially. It is a lame gift, apparently, yeah. No, we went at it pretty hard initially. I sold my car, bought a clunker. We actually named it Fifty Shades of Gray because that's what the paint job looked like. And anyway, so we just kind of started strong but fell off the wagon and then when I went to business school and came out of that with 183,000 in debt it was just kind of that big moment where

we felt that weight on our shoulders and so okay so you were debt-free when you went into MBA and they paid 183,000 for an MBA no not we weren't not quite debt-free no we still had her undergrad loans and a little bit of car loan so we we started off strong and paid off a couple of cards and then we fizzled out but coming out of school it was like okay game on we got to do this now fully committed 100 this time around okay and you laid into it so what is the secret to getting out of debt that you did this time that you didn't do last time? I think we just always thought we knew it all. And so this time we really just relied on God this time around, which I don't think we did as much before.

We kind of let him in the details a little bit and we prayed and we, we paid our tithing really diligently. So doing that really helped us sacrifice and it made sacrifices a lot easier. And so I think the key is trusting in God and sacrificing. And one of those sacrifices actually was definitely orchestrated by God. So when I graduated business school, we were in California

and the plan was to go there and settle down there. That was kind of the dream. But once I was applying for jobs and interviewing, I interviewed probably a dozen jobs. But I got one offer. And that one offer, even though the company was headquartered in California, they wanted me in their office in Utah. And so we went back to where we were from, which was never the plan. We wanted to get out and kind of have an adventure for a little while. But Utah, it's a much more affordable place to live and raise a family.

And so it was just very obvious that God was in those details. That we were kind of meant to do that. And so we took the opportunity. We seized the moment. And we just went after it. And so definitely the faith in God was first and foremost. And other sacrifices we made is that we lived in his parents' basement. And I always swore that I would never do that.

But we're so grateful for that. And then we were able to move closer to his office to totally take out his commute and the need for a car. And so we are a one-car family for three years. And with kids, it was kind of crazy because it snows all the time in Utah. Yeah. So we'd have to load them all up in the car, but it was always just that quote of

live like no one else now, so later you can live like no one else. We just really embraced that be weird mantra. That was probably the weirdest thing we did. Everyone would always tell us that you need two cars, but we actually managed pretty well for three years with just one car. Wow.

It's amazing what you can do when you think you have to. Yeah. Exactly. But now you make $203 you can do when you think you have to. Yeah. Exactly. So, I mean, but now you make $203,000 and you don't have any payments. Yeah, you know. It's kind of a weird feeling, isn't it? It's super weird. And the funny thing is that literally two days after we paid off the student loans,

the engine in my car died. Of course. And so, you know, instead of going out and buying a new car we actually used our emergency fund to replace the engine and instead i went out and i i got a new bike because i i was commuting on my bike during those three years if the weather permitted and i still commute on my bike even though we're debt free uh and so you know just the the amazing thing about being a one-car family for that long it just totally shifted our perspective about what was important and what our priorities were and i think this time around it it was like, hey, this is a test.

Are you really going to stay debt-free this time? And we decided that, you know, yes, we were. And that was a priority for us this time around. Yeah. Very cool. I bet you got a nice bike. It's pretty nice. It's not too bad.

Good for you guys. Very, very cool. So who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you? I feel like our parents were really, well, obviously they're the ones that got us FPU. And they moved you into the basement. There you go. So her parents got us FPU. My parents let us live in the basement for a few months before we got here.

It's a pretty good tag team on the in-laws on each side. I also had a brother that introduced my parents to FPU, and he had paid off his house in full. Yeah, like he needs to be on the in-laws on each side. I also had a brother that introduced my parents to FPU and he had paid off his house full. Yeah, like he needs to be on the show. And his wife. And they did the envelope system and they introduced us. So they were huge cheerleaders. Yeah.

And then also just other friends. Good. Very, very cool. We're proud of you guys. Way to go. Thanks so much, Dave. Well done. How's it feel?

Like a weight is just off our shoulders, like a physical weight. It's amazing. Yeah, you know, when we arrived at your studio, the GPS told us, you have arrived. That's how it feels. Sometimes I put that on just to hear that. Good for you guys. Good for you guys.

And you brought who with you? We brought our seven-week-old, Bradley. So we have three kids at home, and he's our fourth. All right. Hey, Bradley. Wow. We're probably going to scare him to death when I cover his little ears. He's sleeping right now.

He's probably heard enough yelling at home. He's probably okay. Yeah, he's not his only child. He gets those ideas. Way to go, you guys. He's beautiful. Congratulations, you guys. He's beautiful. Congratulations, you guys. Very fun.

J.J. and Brittany, $183,000 paid off in 36 months. Quite a saga, making $130,000 up to $200,000. And Bradley's in the picture, too. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Love it!

That is how it's done. So you hear all the news reports of this generation that is stuck, this generation that is useless, this generation that is overwhelmed by society's injustices in the form of student loan debt. And yet, there stands J.J. and Brittany. And in three years, they paid off $183,000. They're not useless.

They're not victims. They are high achievers. They are the people that are going to make this country great and continue to keep it great. Do not worry, America, about this next generation. There are more JJs and Britneys out there than there are deadbeats that are in the news. There's a whole bunch of them. I see them on that stage every week.

I see them everywhere I go. A whole bunch of them work on our team. Don't tell me this millennial generation are useless I know differently oh some of them are but some of my generation was useless and some of your generation was useless

some of my generation is still high this is the Dave Ramsey Show. Delmer is with us in Iowa. Hi, Delmer. How are you? Good afternoon. I'm just fine. Good.

How can I help? I just recently am retired, and my wife will be retired in the next few months. And we've been working your program for about 10 or 12 years now. Cool. And we were wondering what to do concerning our emergency fund. We've been maintaining that at about six months. And I was wondering, is that what we should keep on doing, or can we reduce that?

What's your thinking? Six months of your expenses, right? Correct. And that amounts to how much money? About $20,000. Okay. And what's the rest of your expenses right correct and that amounts to how much money about 20 000 okay and what's the rest of your nest egg uh we have about a little over 750 okay in mutual funds 401ks that kind of stuff or what correct yes okay all right. Okay. All right. Plus our home. Okay. And your home paid for?

Yes. Great. Way to go. Well done. So if you were to reduce the emergency fund, which you don't have to do, but if you wanted to, you could. But if you were to reduce it to three months and have $10,000 in there, and something were to happen that you needed $30,000, well, you can get it. You've got $750,000.

Right. And so, you know, it's just a matter of how much liquid cash gives you a comfort level. I wouldn't have any more than the $20,000 that you've got, but I don't see a huge need. It's not like we're sweating it. That extra $10,000, let's say we reduced it from $20,000 to $10,000, that extra $10,000 invested is not really going to change your life. No. So either way, it's not a deal-breaking decision of any kind.

I would also ask you what your wife thinks. If she wants to leave it there, I'd leave it there just because it makes her feel good. If she wants to invest it and you want to invest it that's okay it's a portion of it and bring it down a little bit that's okay there's nothing wrong with that um i because we've been broke sharon and i our emergency fund has an emergency fund because sharon says i can't even get close to the real one so um you know it's it's just like, but that's just, you know, we have scars. And that's what that amounts to. And we just admit that.

And we're okay with some of our cash just not making us any money. It just gives us some peace. And that's really, the emergency fund's not really there to make money. It's there to give you peace. That's what it's for. Hey, that's a good question. But I think you're going to be okay. I mean, you've done a wonderful job congratulations well done very well done gary is in indiana hi gary welcome to the day ramsey

show hey dave thanks for taking the call sure what's up hey i have a question uh regarding um a potential job okay you're gonna speak directly into your phone. I'm having trouble hearing you. All right, I'm speaking directly. Can you hear me? That's better. Thank you. Okay. I have a question about a potential job opportunity. I was approached by a, well, first off, I'm a tradesman.

I'm an electrician, and I was approached by a general contractor about doing a very different type of whole work within the construction industry. And I'm just hoping for a little bit of insight, maybe, into it. Long term, I think I would like to open up my own business. I have my own shop. And so I wonder if this could be a good opportunity to help develop some of the skills that I don't have. I currently am just a tradesman. I don't know any of the business end, the dollar amounts. When people ask me, hey, how much would it take to do something, I have zero input. So you've done no estimating on the jobs in terms of pricing the jobs or looking at the cost of the jobs or the profit on the jobs?

No, no. And that might be a follow-up question of trying to maybe develop some of that skill set of what resources to go to on the business side of a business. What I'm looking at in the potential short term, as it sits currently i oftentimes am having to travel uh i do mostly commercial electrical work and i have to travel sometimes uh 45 minutes each way the job site and then um oftentimes because we're a successful company truthfully i end up having to work uh overtime a fair bit because we have lots of work coming in. And so some of the time to try to develop my own small business on the side is a little bit difficult just from a time perspective. So what do you make a year right now?

I make about $65,000. What would you make in this new gig where he's offering you to run part of the business with him and start to learn business? I would be making $60,000 with a $5,000 sign-on bonus. Okay, so it doesn't cost you less. Sounds like you'd probably be working less, for one thing. Number two, you'd be picking up some skills. What's the downside of taking it? It's not.

It's a very niche, like a specific thing within construction. It's actually something called building information modeling. I would be writing a desk and leading meetings. It wouldn't, I don't think, put me in direct proximity to learning the estimating or the job costs. Well, why don't you look for a job that does that that pays 60? Okay. That's an idea. This doesn't sound like it steps you into where you want to go. Sounds like it's a sidebar.

Yeah, and the only reason I had contemplated it was because it will be more right about 40 hours a week. Well, that is an advantage, yeah. I would, you know, the ideal job for you would be something that's 40 hours a week, and you learn the inner workings of the business in addition to using your hands. Right. And, yeah, if you learn how to estimate jobs and learn how to lead people and even learn a little bit about the marketing from behind the scenes and that kind of a thing, that starts to set you up. And I would refer you to our Entrez leadership team.

We work with small businesses all the time teaching them these things, but we don't teach job costing. Monterey leadership team, we work with small businesses all the time teaching them these things. But we don't teach job costing. That's something that's unique to each trade, and you would need to learn that hands-on, usually, from someone in that area. It's an accounting function. You could take an accounting class at a local community college and learn job costing, probably, especially if you found one that was specializing in trades and that kind of thing. But, you know, the best way to learn that stuff is to get on with somebody that's actually doing that and put you in charge of that job.

And so you're supering a job, and you're part of supering the jobs, estimating it and budgeting it, running the expenses, and you're responsible for the profit to come in. You know, income minus expenses equals profit and that kind of stuff. That would be a very good exercise for you. So very good question. Thank you for joining us. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com,

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It's magic. Try it. Ramsey. Julia's in Indiana. I'm 21 years old. I have a part-time job. Go to college. Debt runs in my family.

No, debt is not a family trait. Debt is a series of stupid decisions. Stupid decisions run in your family no debt is not a family trade debt is a series of stupid decisions stupid decisions run in your family yeah they run in most families by the way as in everyone has some kind of debt my debt is really small only because i keep fighting with it my debt's one thousand dollars and i'm afraid to become like the rest of my family they're stuck in debt. Good. Any advice on how I can help myself and help my family at the same time? You're 21 years old. Your full-time job is work on you. You ain't got to fix your mom and daddy right now. That's their job.

You can come back to them later. But right now, let's just keep you going. You're doing a really good job. You've identified that debt has not blessed your family and that you don't want to be a part of that scheme. You're going to change your family tree, kiddo. Very well thought out. You don't

have any debt much and you're not going to get any more. I like you. But you take care of you. That's going to be a full time job. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.