The Ramsey Show - App - Your Health Is More Important Than Your Debt (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 28, 2020

Budgeting, Relationships, Debt Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. My name is Anthony O'Neill. Co-hosting today with me is the one and only Dr. John Deloney, the future YouTube star of America this guy will be launching his brand new talk show the John Deloney show right here in the beautiful

beautiful United States of America and I'm encouraging everyone right now that if you are in need of wise counsel around mental health relationships marriage stuff kids stuff all the stuffs all this stuff all the stuff they can give you a call that's right and you will help

them out that's right they can email me at ask john at ramsey solutions.com leave your number tell me what's going on in your life kelly daniel will reach out and we will have you on the show you can also call and leave a message at 844-693-3291 i'm looking forward to it how i know you've already recorded a couple of shows uh james and kelly are your producers and associate producers and really helping you out so you have some vets um how do you feel man that you are about to enter into this space and um everyone talks about dr phil but i just think dr phil has nothing on dr john he's got a thing or two he's got a couple of jets on me it's cool man a couple of jets and he got oprah but you got dave so we good i got dave i do and i love oprah i love oprah but i'm

just saying but you got dave so it's good man i'm a private guy and i'm a quiet guy i play loud on on the radio here but i'm i'm an introvert man i'm usually pretty quiet kind of a nerd and so this is stretching me and putting me in some uncomfortable positions but man the the shows that we've recorded so far are fun they are um serious and heavy they're everything in between we We've got marriage challenges. We've got parenting challenges, mental health issues. We've got it all. And people are sending in some extraordinary things.

They're being vulnerable. They're being open. And it's just showing me, man, people are hurting. They don't know what to do next. They're confused and lost. And there's just so much misinformation and nonsense out there. Anthony, you know this. And so we're just cutting through it

having a good time together and i'm excited to get this show out into the world yeah man you know one of the things i love about you and myself we're not scared to talk about pretty much anything right you know um sometimes our team has to tell us hey we're not going to talk about that yeah i've had that conversation this week hey deloney this is in the science room so stop talking yeah you're making everybody a little bit weird right now so yeah so i mean i i'm excited to see you win not just to see you win but to see you help millions of people i appreciate that so i'm praying for thanks for your support you've been a great teacher and mentor so far as i'm trying to figure out what in the world i'm doing here let's do it man hey again if you have a question for dr john go ahead and email him at ask john at ramsey solutions.com or leave him a voicemail at 844-693-3291 i would definitely

encourage you to follow him on social media at john deloney on all the social media platforms instagram youtube facebook and dr d is just like myself you guys he will answer pretty much the majority of the Instagram comments. He reads them all like me. I'm not reading my Instagram comments right now because, well, anyways, we'll talk about that later. But he will love to have a conversation with you, and I will love for you to give him a call because he'll give you some wise, wise counsel. But you know what? You're helping millions.

I'm helping millions. Let's help one more right now. Let's go out to Salt Lake City, Utah and have a conversation here with Alina. Alina, good afternoon. How can Dr. D and I help? Hi. Yeah, I have a question in regards to investing for my children's future. I really want to make the right choice because my children are really young. Sorry, I'm super nervous. Yeah, take your time. Take your time. My children are really young, and so they have the potential to grow lots of money. We have a little bit saved for them right now, but it's just sitting in a savings account,

and I'd like it to grow. My husband and I have talked a lot about a 529, but we're not convinced that our children will attend college. I have a higher education degree. My husband is working on a higher education degree, but it's been an extremely strenuous road for him, and we would like if our children choose not to do classical university-based education. We'd like to have that freedom to support them in what that decision may be. I also am a planner, and so I know that

there's a risk that with my children being so young, a lot can happen in the next 16 to 20 years. They might have an accident. They might not be here. Something could happen to where they aren't able to attend higher education or whatever that may be. And so I don't want to invest in a 529, something happen, and then me regret making that choice when I could have put it somewhere else and have it be more accessible to them. Yeah.

Here's the thing. And let me ask you this question because I can tell you to put this money into a Roth IRA and it'll grow, right? But then you miss out on some of the benefits that comes with a 529 if they go to a college. So my advice to you is I'm going to say do Baby Steps 5, which is going ahead and put that into a 529. So that way it can grow a little bit more. And if they go off to college, it best benefit you. Now, it doesn't go towards just a traditional four year university. You can pretty much use that for about any type of credited college experience. And you can use that for any children. It sounds like. Will you and your husband be telling them they do not need to go to college? Or do you just want to have the opportunity to

where if your kids say, hey, mom, dad, I don't want to go to college. I want to just go straight into the workforce and you want to be able to cut them a check. Is that what I'm hearing? Or you're saying, I don't know what's going to happen, and I'm just trying to be a perfectionist and just plan for whatever happens? Probably the latter. We definitely encourage our children to go to college. My husband works kind of a dangerous job, and I have an autoimmune disease. So the face of our own mortality is very present in my life. And so, um, I don't want them to have, I don't want them to feel like they have to go to college

and I don't necessarily plan to write them a check if, um, but we do want to support them in their endeavors. If they want to go to a training school or if they decide they don't want to go to college and they want to start a family, we'd like to help them in that avenue of maybe purchasing a home or paying off their debts if they get themselves in a little bit of trouble. Yeah. What I'm hearing from you, Elena, is that you're really trying to figure their every single move. And I think right now what you have to do is do the best parts you can do. Just go ahead and open up a 529 and invest into that. Okay.

Because you're saying that you're going to encourage them to go to school. I believe education is important. I believe everyone should get some form of education, whether that's a traditional four-year school, going to a community college, going to a trade school, going into the military and going off to college. I believe education is very important so for me i'm going to recommend that you go ahead and open up a 529 and you encourage your kids to get some form of education and that 529 will help them all right so that's what i recommend and that's for a recommend for all y'all out there in america don't plan every single move for the kid you can't it's their life but do your part by helping them out a little bit by

giving them wise counsel and have a little bit of money you can give them this is today's show folks i love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today i'm talking about grip six belts i don't know about you but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right, and they're uncomfortable. Grip6 belts are unique. Owner BJ designed a truly modern, minimalist belt made of high-quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable. I personally own these belts in different styles.

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Melinda, good afternoon. How can Dr. D and I help? Yes, sir. I have a question. I had, before COVID, I had a large credit card debt, about $11,000, that I was planning on, I know it's a no-no, getting money out of my mutual funds, that sort of thing, to pay for it and get it all done and over with and be gone.

And then the stock market went to the bottom of the bucket, so I waited and I hadn't been making payments. So they have sold the debt to a credit company, and now that the market's come up, I've got the money out, I'm ready to send them a check, but my question is I got a thing from the company that bought the debt and said they would settle for like $6,000 instead of $11,000. Now, should I pay off the $11,000 to them or take them up on what they have in writing,

a letter saying they would take the $6,000? So here's the thing. Since you've already taken the money out, I mean, I'm not too happy that you took the money out of your future. I know. I haven't used a credit card in over two years. And it was just like, I've done everything I can do. I can't get ahead, so I'm going to do this, get over with,

and never get myself in that situation again. And I love the fact that you're with it. And Melinda, I love the fact that you're aggressive and you're like, yo, I don't want this. I don't want this over my life. And so let's,

let's help you out where you are now. But genuinely, we're not going to tell you to cash out your 401k to pay debt. But since you have, yes, I will. You have two options. You can pay the full balance if you want to pay the full balance.

But you can also settle it since it's already in the collections agency. Most collection agency has purchased the credit card debt already and they purchased it actually for like 10 cents on the dollar. It's very, very cheap. And so six thousand dollars is a starting number. You can actually negotiate that a little bit lower. And I'm saying that because my first job was a collector. And so we will go sometimes as low as 30 cents, 40 cents on the dollar. One of the tricks is if you call them today or called, yeah, I will actually call them today. It's the end of the month. They're trying to close out their books for the month.

You may even get them to go down to 40 cents on the dollar because they're trying to get uh that money there but you you have to answer the question you can pay the full balance if you just want to be you know uh if it's a moral thing for yourself and you just want to pay back 100 percent um or if you're okay with it just go ahead and settle it out for as cheap as possible i did settlements i'm just gonna be real with you i didn't i i called the company and i said hey how what's the best thing we can settle this for i'll let them give me the number i told settlements. I'm just going to be real with you. I didn't, I called the company and I said, Hey, how, how, what's the best thing we can settle this for? I'll let them give me the number. I told him this is the best thing I can do. When I was paying off my collection items, I'm in several of them. I actually settled it for like 35 cents on the dollar. So today is the last weekday of the month. Um, you have a Monday to 31st. You can wait to,

you can do it today or call them first thing Monday. And I promise you they'll go below the $6,000. But either or is fine with you. But if you settle it out, I want you to put is this your only debt right here, Melinda? Yes, sir. Okay. This will be taking care of everything. I'll be debt free house and everything. So let's just settle in this one. I love it. So let's say you put that that five thousand dollars towards his credit card right um what how much cash will you have left out of what i took out out of everything you have right now your savings oh yeah everything well um i have about probably eight thousand maybe in savings total okay but part of that's to pay house taxes on it okay but as far as like it's just technical savings account 2500 and then i have some house repairs that i really need to i

have to do it's not a it's not a redecorating it's have to do but i could use the other money that i got out of there and apply it towards the house without taking out a home loan to get things fixed yeah we're not taking any more home loans because I, I know we need to get your future back. Well, what's your investment? The minimum that I could do the home loan, the home repairs with the different.

Okay. Well, what do you have invested right now? What's your investment portfolio looking like? Do you have a Roth IRA for one K anything else? Uh, that's for your future. Uh,

it's all with, um, uh, investment company and it's mixed in stocks and um money markets and that sort of thing okay all different levels and basically what they says the different categories yeah yeah so it's almost right at just a little bit under half a million there we go there we go okay sounds All right. We're in a good place there. Do not touch that, Melinda. And go ahead and just give them a call, Melinda. And I'm telling you right now, an American, listen, you know, if you are just like Melinda, if you're in this situation, I was that guy. That was a very first job I had out of high school, which was a bill collector job. And I remember calling people and we on the screen,

we would see what we purchased is that, and the lowest we could go will be 30% with the supervisor's permission, but I could go as low as 40%. What a lot of people don't know the person that's on the phone that's collecting this debt, they're getting a commission of what they collect of the gap or the gaps, not, not at the gap of just anything. So if you collect $6,000, you get a portion of that they collect of the gap of the gaps not not of the gap of just anything the

total okay so if you collect six thousand dollars you get a portion of that six thousand dollars and so um what i'm telling everyone if you're going to settle you know don't don't jump on the first offer if you're going to settle negotiate spend some time and the best time to negotiate is always just like when you're purchasing a car, it's always going to be the last three business days of the month because that collector is trying to pay off. Not trying to pay off, but they're trying to close out the books. So let me ask you this. Is she out of – she can't call the credit card company back and get this thing out of collections, huh? Now she's holding a check for $10,000.

She couldn't call that credit card company and say, hey, I want to settle this up. I got behind, and I want to make it right. At the end of the day, they've already sold it, right? It's gone. Well, it all depends. It depends. Her credit is shot. Well, so not everyone sells it.

A lot of them do. But then you have some companies, for an example, let's say like a utility company. Let's say like a TV company. They don't sell the debt sometimes because not, not times that it's in a person's going to come back to them. So they just hire a company to collect a mercenary. Yeah. Just to collect on it. Now credit card companies sell their credit card debt to collection agencies,

majority of them. And so you, you can negotiate. But again, I know people who had a moral thing and they said, Hey, I'm they said, hey, I'm going to pay all of it back. Right. Then I know several people, you know, like myself, you know, when I was young, I called the company and said, hey, I'm going to do right by you. How do you want to resolve this matter? And they said, well, we'll do this. But I have this much cash right now. Will that work?

Yes, that'll work, Mr. O'Neill. Send me a subtle and full letter and I'll put the money order in the mail. And the key thing is you do not give them a debit card over the phone. You do not give them your checking account over the phone. You have them send you a letter in writing that this right here, if I send you a certified money order, that you will get this updated on my credit reports and we're done. We're squared up. But just do not give them payment information over the phone because you have some people that will accidentally type in two dates and get confused from there. So I just wouldn't do that.

I really, really, really wouldn't do that. Dr. D, I have a question for you from Morgan. She says, what's the best approach to budgeting when you both, me and my husband, have dealt with financial abuse in past relationships. That's a great question. So I would, number one, if you're both dealing with financial abuse, number one, I'd probably bring somebody else in to help with that conversation. That means if you've got abuse, that usually means you've got some sort of trauma there. So you might want to sit down with a counselor. You might want to sit down with an FPU leader at your church to help you begin to have conversations about money.

Recognize on the front end, things are going to be tense. There are going to be default settings that you have. So he may ask you, hey, did you spend anything on a credit card? And you're going to feel your heart rate instantly go up. Remember, he's not attacking you and vice versa. She may say, hey, did you really need some more shoes? I thought in our budget we had this. And you're going to think, she needs to get out of my business.

And that's when you've got to remember, hey, that's the past abuse talk. And that's the parts of your brain that are trying to protect you, man. And then here's the thing. You've got to do this together. You've got to do it together. You have to practice doing this together. You've got to be graceful with one another. You have to say, I'm sorry.

You've got to say, I blew it. You've got to say, I blew it. You've got to say, I know I only had $50 in my blow money, but I saw something I needed to get on Amazon, and I spent $200, and I'm sorry, and I'm going to eat it the next couple of months to catch up. And everybody's got to be graceful. Healing from abuse usually takes somebody else to walk alongside you. Healing from abuse takes time, and it takes a lot of grace. A lot of grace, man.

I love it. You've got to have a conversation. But it starts man. I love it. Got to have a conversation. But it starts with a conversation. Yep. Got to have a conversation. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Let's be honest, America. We've gone through some tough times recently recently and many of you are hurting right now you might be jobless you might be broke you might be struggling to put food on your table

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my financial life. And this was the thing that really helped me start seeing things differently when it comes to my money as far as being a good steward of it. I honestly thought I'd give God the 10% and the other 90% is mine.

And I was giving God his 10% and I was still losing all my, all the 90%. You know why? Cause it's not mine. I'm still a manager of the other 90%. It's still his. And, and,

and Ramsey plus taught me that in order to get more, I have to be a good manager of the few that I have now. And when I really started understanding that principle, that these clothes that I have on the car that I have now. And when I really started understanding that principle, that these clothes that I have on the car that I'm driving, uh, the house that I have, everything that I have is not mine. It's his. And he's just called me to be a good manager of it. That's when I started really understanding how to be a good steward and how to be, uh, wise with my, with my money. And and man i'm telling you right now ramsey plus will bless you it would just impact not just you but i really want you to think about

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Let's keep the conversation going on. Let's go out to Salt Lake City, Utah, and have a conversation here with Scott. Scott, good afternoon. How can Dr. D and I help? Hey, good afternoon. Hey, good afternoon. How can we help? Hey, thanks for taking my call.

Yeah. So let's see. I recently started Baby Step 2. I think I have around $34,000 in debt that I'm working on paying off. And I'm trying to brainstorm some ways to lower my expenses. And I've been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and I take an expensive medication for that. I take a medication called the Tudor, and it costs around $3,000 for a three-month supply of that.

Luckily, I have health insurance, so I only have to pay usually around my out-of-pocket maximum is $3,000 a year, so that's as much as I have to pay on it. But my idea is that maybe I can talk with my doctor about getting me on a cheaper medication, and that way I could use that money to pay off more debt throughout the year. I just wanted to see your guys' advice on that. I'm going to let John talk into this a little bit. One of my concerns, here you say cheaper medicine. I like affordable medicine.

I don't like the term cheaper medicine because I want to make sure that you're getting the correct medicine that you need so that you can be healthy. So I don't want you to sacrifice for a cheaper medicine so you can pay off debt, but then you're not fine health. So right now your health is more important than your debt. Now, I would definitely have a conversation with your doctor and say, hey, doc, is there any other medicine that I can get that is on? It's going to give me everything that I need, but it could be a little bit more affordable for me. And if doc says yes, then you go down that route. If he says no, there is another medicine, it's cheaper, but I don't know about it. No, I want you to stick with that. And then let's figure out how do we work around that situation. But hear me on this, Scott,

do not sacrifice your health to pay debt. We're all about debt, but first and foremost, we're about your health. Yeah, and here's what I'll piggyback on that, Scott. A lot of doctors prescribe what's in front of them. They hear from drug reps. They hear from pharmacy reps, and they are told information. They are seeing so many patients. They're so busy. There's so much charting going on, so much insurance back in the back room

that they will trust pharmacy reps. Here's the newest drug. Here's the efficacy stuff that the drug company sponsored these studies, and this is what you should be taking. And so I always advise people, I do this in my own life. The same way Dave Ramsey tells folks, when you sit down with a financial advisor, there's two kinds, one trying to sell you something and get your money and get you out the door. And the other who has the heart of a teacher. And so the doctors that I see personally, the counselors I've met with personally,

counselors and psychologists, I want to know why I'm taking what I'm taking. I want to know why we're walking through what we're walking through. And so like Anthony said, walking in and saying, hey, Latuda is really expensive. And I don't know, I don't know anything about this drug, by the way, Scott, this is expensive. Give me something cheaper. Instead of framing the conversation that way, I would ask, hey, this is a really expensive medication. Like Anthony said, it may be the best. But I want you to tell me what this medication is going to do for me, my bipolar disorder, my relationships. And I want to know the other behavioral things, the other relational things, the other things I can be doing outside of medication to be supporting a holistic, healthy life. And if he says, oh man, I didn't realize that it was that expensive or I didn't realize your insurance didn't cover that.

There's four other generic options. We can try these other things. That's going to be a great route for you to take. And then at the end of the day, here's the deal, man. Don't be ashamed about taking medication, especially if you are diagnosed with bipolar and the diagnosis is legitimate and it's good, man, medication can make a magical transformation with someone with bipolar disorder. One of the biggest challenges you're going to have is folks with bipolar get well, they feel good, and then they quit taking their meds. And so work closely, closely with your doctor on this. And if you end up having to budget $3,000 a year year budget $3,000 a year. What do you make a year

right now Scott real quick? Let's see with overtime I get around $100,000 a year. So $3,000 is not an issue at all and honestly if the medicine is working I'm not even really having that conversation with my doctor

I mean making six figures $3,000 is it $3,000. Is it $3,000 every three months? Every three months, yeah. So it's expensive. Yeah. That's a really expensive medicine. Yeah, but you only pay that once a year because his max is $3,000.

Yeah. So definitely, man, your option. Ask the question. But with your situation right now, I'm not really worried about it, man. I'm sticking with that medicine because you sound healthy. Sound like a sharp young man. Stick to your budget. You will be successful. This will be this is the Dave Ramsey show. Today's scripture of the day is Philippians 4, 12-13. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Earl Nightingale says, never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplishment. Accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. Anthony, that reminds me, we had some friends in West Texas and they were talking and they were 35 and they always wanted to go to med school. And one of them said, if I go to med school now, I'm going to be 42 by the time I get

out. And the response was, you're going to be 42 anyway. You can be 42 as a doctor and you're going to be 42 as doing whatever it is you're doing. But you're going to turn 42 anyway. Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. I love that, Earl.

Way to go, man. I love that. I love that. Let's keep this conversation going. Let's go out to Houston, Texas. Houston, Texas, and have a conversation with Michael. Michael, good afternoon. How can Dr. D and I help?

Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. Hey, thanks, Michael. Michael, good afternoon. How can Dr. Danai help? Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. Hey, thanks, Michael. Hey, before we get started, I have a really quick, important question. As a former Houston native, are we still rooting for the Astros or what, man? Can we still root for them or do we just have to take a year off? Definitely? Oh, no. Yeah, I mean, it's Houston, so I've had to deal with the Texans up and downs, and so you've got to roll with the punches. All right, all right. Thank you, man.

What's your question? What's your question? I just graduated college in May, and I'm living at home. And I haven't lined up a job yet, but with my major in this area, I could see myself making upwards of $60,000 or $70,000. I have $80,000 or so in student loan debt, and I was wondering once I do land that job, should I wait to move out and use all that time and all that income with no overhead to just attack that student loan debt?

Or should I move out? And I know Dave always presses the issue of the growth as a man and everything whenever you take on your own expenses and get your own place and everything. So I was wondering if I should just use that time with no overhead and just go directly at that student loan debt or go ahead and move out and kind of work that into my budget whenever I am on my own. How's your time with your family right now? Oh, it's good. I'm not at all anxious to move out or anything, and I'm perfectly fine staying at home

if that's the smart financial decision for me right now. And so really it could go either way. When you start making $60,000 or $70,000, those feelings will change. I'm not somebody who thinks you should just go run and move out just because you got a job. If you're in a good situation, I also know that it can, and injure relationships when there's not a period at the end of the sentence. And so I usually recommend folks will, once you land this job, that you would sit down with your, with your folks and say, here is my plan. It's going to be three months. It's going to be six months. It's going to be one year. Let's try it for this

many months. Let's put a, I want to pay rent. I want to give you a hundred bucks. I'm gonna give you 200 bucks. They may not take it. I've heard of folks taking rent from their kid. And then when they move out, they hand them a check of that money back. But you paying in something, put some skin in the game that at least lights some sort of a small fire underneath you to get out. And two, your parents don't feel like this thing is forever. And suddenly they got a grown man making good money, just using their house as a hotel room. Right. And so you're thinking about relationships and you're thinking about the financial impact on this too. How old are you, Michael? I'm 23. What's your vision for life, man? Um, well, I, I want to, in the future, part of my plan is to have property, maybe some land, and definitely a family in the future. And so I just want to get myself secure and get this $80,000 out of the way that's just kind of weighing on me before I can move on to any of those future dreams.

55, what are you doing at 55? At 55, probably, I mean, I see myself with a pretty sizable family, financially independent, a solid, my house paid off, a solid retirement to where if something like this COVID thing were to happen, and I've known way too many people that have been with the same company now for 27 years. And whenever this economic downturn hit, they were disbanded by their companies. And I don't want to be in the position in the future to where that would

affect my retirement or my lifestyle or anything. So just to where I can be in control of my own destiny at that point in time. Cool. You need a deeper vision. What I want to see from you, Michael, is start your plan at the house. Finish the plan on your own. So I want you to, tonight, when you hang up the phone, I want you to get away.

Cut off your phone. Cut off social media. Maybe even leave your parents' house. Maybe drive around to a park. And I want you to sit down and really think of your vision for your life. Where are you in the next five years? Where are you in the next 10 years? Then come back home and tell your mom and dad, Hey, here's my plan. Here's where I'm going. I want to start the plan here. I'm going to go ahead and start the plan,

work the plan with your wisdom, with your guidance, with your support. The reason why Dave says he really encourages people to move out, which I agree with him, is because especially for a man, there is just some sense of you growing up and maturing out on your own experience, things out on your own. So I'm not saying I want you to go out today, tomorrow, next month. But within the next six months to a year you should already have your plan working your plan move out don't go into nothing expensive okay get into something like a nice small 600 square foot apartment low rent there in texas to be in between 800 to a thousand dollars and now this way you're working your plan and you're taking care of yourself Because it sounds like you want to be a family man Well how can you be a family man If you can't take care of yourself

Okay so start the plan at home Then transition out on your own Finish the plan Right there by yourself You know and And I get it That was me My dad when I came back home after

he and i fell out after some sleeping in my car and sleeping at fran's house my dad gave me six months he was like hey you got three to six months to get out of my house okay um and they took rent from me and rent wasn't a hundred dollars you were generous i'm just letting you know he was charging me five hundred dollars a month but he said you got three to six months so i got i got two jobs because man i got to pay off this debt because i couldn't get an apartment with all this debt and the whole time he's he's holding me accountable he's checking my budget i'm giving him the five hundred dollars on top of that he's making sure that i'm saving some money then when i move out to get my own apartment my dad gives me back the money money. So he did that too, huh? So not only did I

have my dad's money, but I also had the money that was in my savings account. Good for him. Because I knew I was moving out. I was saving to move out to buy furniture. And what your dad gave you was a time limit. He pressed you to start learning some hard decisions

right now. You will pay rent. You will save money. And I'm going to hold you accountable. If you're going to live in my house, you're going to follow the rules I'm going to put before you, right? And it was the best thing for me, man. That's right. Because I had a lot of friends that stayed home until they were 28, 32 years old. I even had one of my friends who

actually now, I won't say he or she, but this particular friend of mine is 35 years old and still living at home. not paying rent, not doing anything. And I'm fearful because when this individual gets married, I don't know how this individual will be because they've never experienced life on their own. They never had to pay electricity bill. They don't know what it feels like to have to pay actual bills. And so that's concerning for me.

And so I recommend every young person after college, nothing wrong with going home, get on a plan, start a plan there, then transition out on your own. So that way you can experience life. You can make some mistakes. You can fail a little bit.

And here's the thing. When you get out on your own, still go back and ask your mom and dad and otherwise people for counsel, for wisdom. Like, Hey, am I doing this right? Right.

Am I making the right decision here? Even now at 36 years old, I run things by Dave. I run things by my parents. I run things by my mentors. At 36, I'm a grown man. Why? Because Dave has experienced all this stuff before. You know, so, whew, man, this was a good day.

Michael, you're 23 years old. Man, you've got the whole world ahead of you. Get that debt paid get that debt paid off get that job and get out of here dr d thanks so much man i'm excited about your future thanks brother next monday is a big day for you thank you i want to thank our producer james child and our associate producer and phone screener kelly daniel america do not forget that the caliber of our financial future will be determined by the decisions we make today this is the number one show in the world the dave ramsey show get it. The caliber of our financial future will be determined by the decisions we make today. This is the number one show in the world, The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. On your smart speaker,

you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill. From there, you can listen to all our shows, ask Dave money questions like, how do I invest my money? Or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at DaveRamsey.com slash smart speaker.