The Ramsey Show - App - You're Never Too Old or Too Young to Be Smart! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 24, 2020

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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. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is going to be Darren in New Mexico.

Hi, Darren. How are you? I'm good. Thanks, Dave, for taking my call. Sure. Somebody asked me a question that I didn't really know how to answer. I invest in my 401k through work and 401k, you know, mutual funds have a lot of companies in them. And the question was, how do I justify investing in that if I don't really know that maybe some of the companies are involved in things that I don't support, like gambling or abortion or things that are immoral.

Okay. Well, it's kind of like saying, see, when you buy a mutual fund and the mutual fund buys a share of stock in XYZ company that is engaged in something you don't agree with, okay, when they buy that share of stock, they don't buy it from that company. They buy it from another investor that is selling it so that company is in no way profiting from you investing in that mutual fund that company's not getting any of your money you understand you're not supporting you're not supporting it's like saying i bought a used chevrolet i won't buy used chevrolet from you

because i'm mad at chevrolet like that damages chevrolet from you because I'm mad at Chevrolet. Like that damages Chevrolet in some way. It doesn't even come up. Now, buying a new one from them would be understandable if you were mad at Chevrolet. You wouldn't do that, right? But me not buying a used one from you is not buying a share of stock on Home Depot from you because I'm mad at Home Depot. That doesn't affect Home Depot.

They don't care. They're not getting the money in the transaction at all. Now, there is a question, if you want to get that technical about it, there is a question then of are you profiting from some of the things that that company is doing that they make a profit on that you're not proud of. Yes, you would be. Now, that part would be accurate. Now, there's two ways that I've addressed that in my own life.

One is you can choose to buy mutual funds that are called clean funds where they go through and they either are picking companies that match a politically correct narrative, like, for instance, that they don't buy a company that in some way messes up the environment in their view or something like that. Or there are clean funds that are on the religious lines of more of the things you were mentioning, like abortion or pornography or alcohol or tobacco or whatever. The best-known one of those is a fund that has done pretty well, that does not buy companies that invest in, quote, sin, unquote. It's called the Timothy Fund out of Atlanta. And the Timothy Fund has done a good job with it it and they've actually gotten good rates of return a lot of the uh politically correct

funds have not done very well i don't know of one of those that's actually gotten good rates of return okay now that's one thing that's one thing you can do now the second way you can do is number one you understand the first thing i was talking about is buying a used Chevrolet doesn't affect Chevrolet. It affects the guy you're not buying it from. So you're not really profiting them, but you could be profiting from that. However, if you're going to start doing that in your life, if you're going to get that nitsy in your life, that the $100 that you put in your 401K, out of that 22 cents ends up that you make some money off of the sale of a tobacco product somewhere down in there,

then you pretty well need to stop shopping at your local grocery store because they got Playboy and wine in there. You pretty well need to shut down your banking arrangement because most of them support the United Way, which is a big supporter of Planned Parenthood. And so you pretty well can't do business with your bank because they're using some of those profits to do that. You really can't walk around out here in society without coming in contact with the society as part of the problem.

And it's not so. I think God will judge, in my opinion, the intent of our heart, and I'm not going to directly invest in something that I'm trying to make money off of someone being harmed. I will never do that. But I'm also not going to get down into the legalism of every little tiny thing, trying to figure out how I can just live in a cocoon somewhere spiritually. And I'm just fine. I'm not worried about it.

But if you're worried about it, you can go the route of like the Timothy plan if you want to do that. But you really need to stop shopping at your local grocery store, and you need to quit banking, and you need to quit buying gas, and you need to quit, I mean, just name it. Because everywhere you deal with, you're dealing with somebody that's interacting with one of those things, and you supporting them or giving them profit in order to buy more cigarettes to sell them to somebody

or cans of Skoll to sell them to somebody or whatever it is you're upset about, right? And so, you know, you've just got to – that's – again, I'm not going to invest directly in one of those businesses. I'm not going to profit directly from one of those businesses, but the minutia that I make with 200 stocks in my mutual fund, if five of them have a percentage of their product line that I'm not proud of and that I wouldn't personally believe in, I can't comb enough tangles out of my hair to get there. So I just move on, and that's how I look at it. But it's a really good discussion the whole concept is called values based investing and you can read about it there's some people that uh do have some software out or i think it's still out where they

put a red yellow green on a fund and say this fund is largely full of sin stocks it's a red okay or it's not hardly got any in it but it's got a little in it it's a green it's kind of in the middle it's yellow you know they'll rate them for you and that kind of stuff so to the extent you're concerned about it you can spend more energy time money on that and it's it's worth reading about it's a valid concern i'm not blowing it off but that's how i've you asked me how i've walked through it and that's how i've thing that's how I've, you asked me how I've walked through it, and that's how I've, that's how I've walked through it. That's the process. Oh, we have a great blog post about it.

Okay, good. That's good news. Yeah, what James says. So check that out. All right, open phones at 888-825-5225. I kind of went through that stage, too. I mean, when I first got, when I met God as an adult, so when I first met God as an adult, there's no Pharisee quite like a young Pharisee,

right? And so I was like into every little jot and tittle, every little thing had to be perfect and clean. And I wasn't going to intersect with anything anywhere with anybody, but I pretty well figured out that, you know, I just, I'm walking in a lot of liberty and a lot of grace, and I want to hang out with people that don't necessarily know God, and I don't usually find them in those perfectly clean places. And by the way, those perfectly clean places generally aren't perfectly clean when you get in there. So just, you know, just an old guy talking, not a theologian. So you figure it out. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Okay, I need you to listen to this. When you're on Wi-Fi anywhere in public or at home, you're at risk of hackers easily seeing every site you visit and search that you're doing

online. It doesn't matter if you're on your cell or laptop. Public Wi-Fi is a hacker's paradise. They can see you visiting websites, streaming, downloading, or uploading photos, uploading files, and more. I'm not telling you this to scare you. I don't operate in fear, but I want you to be aware and take action. You need to download an app called CyberGhost VPN on any device you access the internet with. CyberGhost VPN helps you keep your connection on your own Wi-Fi and any public Wi-Fi secure and private. Over 34 million people worldwide have downloaded CyberGhost VPN. Download it now. Just search CyberGhost on iTunes or Google Play or go to CyberGhost.com. Wes is with us in Colorado. Hey, Wes, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Thanks for having me, Dave. I appreciate it. Sure. What's up? So I got a question around Baby Step 6. My wife and I are needing some guidance. Right now, I'm about to get a yearly bonus that usually comes out every March, and we're trying to figure out what to do with it. We've been aggressively paying on our mortgage, and we had it tuned in when we thought we were

going to be able to pay it off within the next couple of years. But we're also struggling because I'm kind of a super nerd, and I've been trying to put every penny we have towards our mortgage. And so we wanted to finish our basement. And this bonus that we're going to be getting in March would be about $5,000 shy of what we think it would cost us to do the full project the way that we want to do it. And we've gone through a few iterations of what we think you would say, but I wanted to call in and see what your thoughts are on this. What's your household income? With bonuses, somewhere right around $200,000.

Okay. What's the project in the basement cost? I'm anticipating somewhere around $20,000. And what do you owe on your house? $177,000. Okay. And how old are you all? I'm 35. My wife's 33. Okay. And how old are you all? I'm 35.

My wife's 33. Okay. All right. So the question is, if we put the $20,000 towards the basement project, it slows down the debt reduction of the $170,000 mortgage by $20,000, right? Right. But you make $200,000. Yeah.

So what's your plan if you put the 20k in the basement how quick can you pay off 170 making 200 without starving your freaking family to death you're not getting gazelle intensity you're in baby steps four five six slow down calm down a little bit but without starving your family to death how quick are you going to pay off 170 making 200 i think if we if we lived modestly um and not not too super gazelle intense probably three to four years maybe four four yeah four and this doesn't move the needle but six months right so the discussion is a six-month discussion. We're four years with a basement, finished or not finished. Right? Right.

It's not a lifetime decision is my point. You extend your time by six months if you do this. I'm fixing the basement. Okay. Because you're getting out of this house in a very reasonable period of time. You make a lot of money. You're going to have a paid-for house, a very nice paid-for house, I might add, by the time you're 40 years old, and you're going to be making $200,000, $250,000 by then.

And the two of you are on the same page. You're discussing your goals, you're making decisions together, you're doing things on purpose, you're not spending like you're in Congress, you're going to be very wealthy. Well, that's the hope. Yeah, I mean, you're doing everything right. You're doing everything right. Okay?

So I don't think that the basement sets things off. Now, if you change the numbers and you told me you had the $200,000 in the bank to pay off the house and you're trying to decide whether to add a $200,000 addition to your house or pay it off, oh, I would tell you to stop your whining and get it paid off, right? Because it would be right there in front of you. But this is a small delay in a really good plan that you can continue on with so if i were in your shoes i'd fix the basement i'd put the bonus towards the basement and finish it up and um but you can do either one it's not there's not a wrong answer here but you were just asking for my opinion which i'm an

expert at open phones at 888-825-5225. Ashley's in Maryland. Hi, Ashley. How are you? I'm okay, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I just got my husband kind of on the same page as me, and we're trying to start Baby Step 1.

So the bank account that we have is my checking account is linked to my savings. Disconnected. Oh, I'm sorry is linked to my savings. Disconnect it. So anytime that we make – oh, I'm sorry. Can you hear me? Disconnect it. Disconnect it? Yes. Okay.

Okay. Because you're spending through your savings because you're sloppy. Okay. Aren't you? Sometimes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. aren't you? Sometimes, yes. Yeah, yeah. Listen, if you have to go pull money out of your savings account and put it into your checking account, either online or physically, in order to keep

checks from bouncing, you will quit bouncing checks. You'll start being responsible with your account. But as long as you've got this sloppy thing where you can fall back into it and it takes care of you you're always going to struggle to have that thousand dollars in there that thousand dollars should be completely separate from everything okay my husband said that that it was linked that way because there's a fee connected if we don't have it linked i don't care there's a fee connected by continuing to be broke yeah yeah you got to stop this yeah that's that's the thing so now i mean if you want to leave it connected that's fine

leave a dollar in there but set your thousand dollars somewhere else i don't care but if you put a thousand dollars in there to save two dollars with the banking fees then you know now you're playing the bank's game so you've got to get control of your behaviors and right now this account being connected is working against you and it works against most people that's how i jumped to that conclusion so quickly most people struggle with this as a matter of fact entire countries like israel for instance does not have a credit card debt problem they have an overdraft problem they They run their accounts in overdraft, which is their equivalent of credit card debt. Now, Americans do the same thing,

but not nearly like that. It's not the equivalent of credit card debt. So it's a way of not paying attention and getting away with it. It's a way of not balancing the budget and getting away with it. It's a way of not making your money behave and getting away with it, except you're not getting away with it. T.J. is with us in Florida. Hi, T.J., how are you? Hi, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. How can I help? So my wife fleeced a vehicle before we met, and I calculated her miles she did a 30 000 three year lease 30 000 mile three year lease i calculated her miles and she's going to be about 33 000 miles over by the end of her lease her in her lease ends in july good lord now i'll yeah uh now i looked up the Kelly Blue Book owner car, and she's going to be about $4,000 under the residual value.

Now, I'm just, you know, we're trying to figure out what to do with her car come July. Well, you just run the math out on it and say, you know, what's your per-mile overage cost? I think the contract says $0.25. On $33,000. Yes, sir, you're looking at about $8,200. Yep, or $4,000. Right. So I'll take the $4,000.

In other words, you buy the car, turn around and sell it at a loss for $4,000 rather than writing them a check for $8,200 for mileage overage. Right. Yeah, and that's what we were thinking. We just wanted to make sure that's what Dave would do. Dave doesn't keep the car. You didn't hear that. You buy the car.

Okay, so we are selling the car then. You buy the car and sell it at a $4,000 loss to keep from turning it in at an $8,200 mileage overage loss. Okay, okay, yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah. Okay. We're not keeping the car. All right, well.

It's just a matter of minimizing the damage because that's the way these leases are. They're going to get you coming or they're going to get you going. They're just going to get you. That's why we call them fleeces. They will eat you alive. It is the most expensive way to operate a vehicle, the car fleece. When you back it out with a financial calculator, your cost of capital is on average 14.22% rate of return, meaning you're paying a 14% interest rate effectively on your money. However, there is no interest rate stated in a car fleece because it's not technically a loan,

so Federal Trade Commission laws don't apply, so they don't hand you one of those pieces of paper showing your effective APR. There is no consumer protection in this crap, so they slit your throat and watch you bleed out. And that's what the car fleece is. Hope I wasn't unclear. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options?

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billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, one of our own here at Ramsey Solutions, Sam Nathan and his wife Cassie. Sam is one of our endorsed local provider coaches and has been for a couple of years. Welcome, guys. Thanks for having us.

You did it. We did it. We did it. I love it. How much did you pay off? $82,000. How long did this take? 19 months. 19 months. Sounds suspiciously like about

the time you came to work here, huh? Actually, I started working here 24 months ago. That was when we got married was 19 months ago. So that's starting our journey was our wedding day. I didn't realize you got married after you came here. Yes. All right. Very cool. So tell us the whole story. How do you end up working here? How do you end up doing all this stuff? Yeah. So all of this was student loans for us.

It was all student loans. Both of you? Yes. Yes. Between the two of us. And a year before we got married, I graduated from college. And I'd never heard of you. And I was freaking out because I had over $60,000 in student loans. I saw the minimum payment that was coming and I was like, what in the world am I going to do?

I was scared, to be honest with you, and not sure what I wanted to do yet. And that's when my dad actually was sitting right over here. They had moved from California to Franklin, which is where we're from, is from California. And he was like, hey, Sam, you should check out this Dave Ramsey guy. I know he had to take out, you know, some student loans. I really think not only would you, you know, really the baby steps and that plan would really help you guys out. But it would be an incredible place for you to work. They're growing like crazy over there. They actually live right across the highway, seeing the new building go up. And so I started listening to

the podcast that summer while we were still dating because she still had a year of school left. And I just got hooked. I got so on fire for what we were doing and was like, it's going to be okay. Like, we're young. This is going to be a mountain to climb. But when we talk about our mission at this place is to provide hope to everyone, I experienced that hope. Because I was, like, lost, didn't know where to go. You know, I had never taken anything on personal finance. So Cassie, your lost fiance joins a cult and, you know, he shaves his head, drinks the Kool-Aid, right? So what did you say to all of that?

Yes. So he told me about it and it was just really, really cool. I hadn't heard of you before either. And, you know, being a college student and graduating with student loans and, you know, having that honest discussion as a couple, you know, and thinking about getting married, it's really intimidating. But then I think just the hope that Sam is talking about this amazing opportunity that we can have to just focus in, be disciplined, still be content. I think that's one of the things that I learned a lot about is you can still be enjoying your life

while you're paying off debt in the sense of that contentment, that living like a college student and just focusing on that. So what do you do? Yes. So I'm actually on the marketing team at Marriage Helper, founded by your friend, Dr. Joe Beam. Yes. Absolutely. Very cool. And what are your all's degrees in? So I studied psychology and Christian ministry.

And I studied interpersonal communication. Okay. And both of you are using them. That's good. And where'd you graduate from? Wheaton College. Wheaton College. Wheaton, the Chicago area.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Okay. Cool. And so we got engaged just before, a month before I started working here. And so during that time, you know, from January of 2018 until we got married in June of 2018, we, basically I, you know, she was still in school and I was living at home, you know, making sure that we could pay cash for the wedding and the honeymoon so that we weren't going deeper into debt.

So that's kind of where our journey begins was getting married in June of 2018, 19 months ago. Got it. Very cool. So now you get to do this all the time because you're coaching ELPs, and you've got friends, and plus you work at Ramsey, so people always go, yeah, well, I agree with everything Dave says, but, and then they have to tell you about their butt.

But anyway, so what's the key to getting out of debt? For me, it was the community of this place. Like you just see the people here in the lobby. We were surrounded by just some amazing people to be so gazelle intense. It took a lot of sacrifice, a lot of saying no, a lot of taking my lunch leftovers to work every day and not eating in the amazing new Ramsey Cafe that we have. But it was little things like that. But just to be surrounded by people that actually care and that bought into this message made it, you know, a lot more doable. Yeah. Cassie, looking in from the outside, what do you tell people the way or the keys to getting out of debt are?

I would definitely say budgeting. I think for me, the every dollar budget, realizing that every dollar goes in a certain place. I think before that, I thought, oh, you know, it's good to have extra money every month to save. But I think this really helped me see how much money we were just putting towards debt every single month and just really focusing in on that and being intentional with that. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. Was it worth all the sacrifice? Absolutely. You bet. What was the hardest part? We were just talking about this, actually. When we paid off all of the loans except for our biggest loan, that was when it really hit like, this is what we really have to focus in on if we want to finish this out. It slows down. Yeah. Working the debt snowball, that last loan was like probably close to $20,000. And

so we're knocking out all20,000. And so we're knocking out all these smaller ones. And you're like, oh, like again and again, it's just these big payments that got to go out. Like every time the bank account goes up, it goes back down again. But you got to work it. But honestly, you know, at our age now being debt free, it's like, yeah, we're good. We're going to be totally fine. Yeah, you're gonna be in great shape. How old are the two of you? I'm 24 i'm 23 i love it well congratulations we're very proud of you you probably already have a copy of chris hogan's book but we'll give you another one everyday millionaires because you are on your way at 23 24 years old way to go dad nice

recommendation i love it very cool very cool stuff. And the team is here. Some of your team members are here to cheer you on as well. All right. It's Sam and Cassie from our team right here. $82,000 paid off in 19 months. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Woo! Woo! three two one we're dead free and the crowd goes wild baby wow how fun is that how fun is that well done you two we're very proud of you i know your parents are and and I know your teammates are. Very, very good stuff. Very cool. So you can start this. If you're 23, that's fine. You can start at 23. If you're 33, that's fine. You can start at 33. If you're 43, by the way, you can start it there. You can start at 53. You can even start at 63 or even 73. A cool debt-free scream is an 83-year-old. That'd be a cool debt-free scream. Hey, it's never too late. Is it too late to save money?

Not if you're still breathing. If you're still sucking wind, you can still do this. So I don't care how old you are. Let's get with it. It's not a, I could do that if I was their age. Oh, shut up. Stop your whining. this is the time for you to change your life when you hear these couples no matter their age no matter their incomes

they are addressing a major cultural problem and a cultural pressure to do things the wrong way and they chose to go upstream against the culture and do it the right way. And that's not an age thing. That's a smart thing. And you're never too old, you're never too young to be smart. So just decide. You have the dignity to just decide. That's all that happened with him.

He didn't even know who we were. Didn't even know who we were. Didn't even know who we were. Now he works here. Just decide. Just decide. That's all you got to do. But, boy, you got to get with it then. Man, you got to go.

You can do it. I know you can. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. One of my favorite parts of this show is hearing your debt-free screams. You guys are our heroes. You've kicked debt to the curb and you've saved for the future. Now we want to celebrate with you. If you have lived like no one else and are currently in baby steps four through seven, well, it's time to enjoy some money. And the perfect place to do that is on board our first ever live like no one else cruise in March. That's right. just a couple of months away.

But get this, it's not too late to book your cabin, so don't miss your chance. This Caribbean cruise is going to be an incredible seven days at sea on a stunning new ship with amazing experiences. I'm talking all of our Ramsey personalities and other world-class entertainers. We're stopping in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and Turks and Caicos. It's going to be an amazing, debt-free celebration designed just for you. Don't miss the boat. Head over to RamseyCruise.com today to reserve your room. did you know that 85 percent of married couples started their marriage in death

and you know what the number one issue that couples fight about and divorce over? Money. Money fights money problems. But couples in healthy marriages are much more likely to talk about their money dreams and make long-term goals together. For 25 years, Financial Peace University has taught nearly 6 million people not only how to get out of debt not only how to save not only how to become wealthy but how to do it together we have heard for years this class saved my marriage now it's not a marriage class but it makes you talk about the most difficult thing in marriage which is money according to all the numbers anyway. Talking about finances doesn't have to be hard, and it doesn't have to always be an argument.

It doesn't have to always be stressful. You can learn how to do your money conversations right. It'll impact your marriage, and then your marriage will impact your wealth. We find in our data that almost no one builds wealth when their marriage is struggling. It's very, very hard to drag 200 pounds or 150 pounds along with you while you're trying to do something successfully. Walking along beside your spouse, however, running along beside your spouse, however, will cause you to win. DaveRamsey.com is where you can learn about Financial Peace University. It's a nine-week class built into a one-year membership.

We will walk with you for the entire year, and you start it out with a nine-week class. DaveRamsey.com, Financial Peace University, or call the Ramsey Concierge Team at 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223. Mike's in Arizona. Hi, Mike. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. How are you doing today?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, quick question for you here. We have been on your plan for several years now and are debt-free. Just took our 30-year loan into a 15-year loan and plan on having that paid off in 10. So it's time to ramp up and get serious about investing. We've been talking to a couple different ELPs for financial planning. And a question my wife asked last night was, should political affiliation with who we're going to invest in come into play when making a decision?

Hmm. That's an interesting question. Well, you mean SmartVestor Pros are who you're speaking with, right? Yes, sir. Okay. The primary thing I'm looking for is can I trust their advice and can I learn from them so that I can make my own decisions with their advice? And so I think it might be depending on how strongly you feel about political affiliation. if you are a staunch fill in the blank working with someone that is staunch opposite means they have a different value system than you probably it's not just a different it's not just a different

uh way of looking at life um i mean there it is a different way of looking at life it's a different value system and so that would it might concern me if I were, you know, like, I'm not like, well, I wouldn't get into it, but it doesn't matter. I'm generally going to land on the right on most things, and on some things way right. For instance, economic issues, I'm libertarian more than anything else i just leave me alone that's me okay on economic issues and so some guy who uh is a big bernie supporter might be a concern to me if it was me doing it or vice versa if you're if you're a big bernie guy and the guy you're working with is like just to the right of uh gingus khan you know you may you may want to rethink

that, right? That's fair. That's fair because they're handling your money. Now, you're not turning the caveat. The thing that makes it okay if you don't want to lean into that too hard is that you're not really turning it over them to make the decision. Right. But their worldview does affect the advice that they give you. So is that a question you think I should bring up? And, I mean, would they be offended by that? Or is that something that I should ask in the questions when interviewing?

If it's concerning to you, I would ask it. And if they're offended by it, toughies. It's your money. Yep. It's your money. You're the one that needs to get comfortable here not them right so uh you know if they don't like that if again if you're if it's a big deal to you and like i've got a friend who just is raving about this stuff right so he would never want to he

would definitely that'd be something he'd want to talk about then i got other people who are just like turn the stupid tv off i got work to do you know they're not worried about it at all they're kind of you know they have a they have an opinion but they don't spend half their life talking about whether it's trump or obama they've actually got work to do you know and they're not there's not worried about it and so if you're in that camp then you don't maybe you don't worry about it right and and so i'm okay but yeah it the political thing is not because you can't trust someone of a different political opinion it's because their worldview is going to all of our worldview affects our the advice that we give affect our beliefs affect our advice of

beliefs aren't affect our decisions now again you're not going to invest money unless you understand what it's going into and why. But, you know, an example would be if you really hate Trump and you think that the Democrats actually have a case and that you think he's going to get impeached and you think that means the stock market's going to crash, then that's the way it affects your advice. You'd be screaming like Chicken Little, like, get out of the market, get out of the market, get out of the market, it's getting ready to go bad. But if, on the other hand, you think this is one big collective yawn, and, you know, it's just a sideshow, a political sideshow,

that actually is not ever going to amount to anything, which is what actually most people believe right now. But if that's the case, then you're not really worried about the stock market, which has continued to shoot up. So your beliefs do affect your decisions, and they affect your worldview, affect your advice. I've never had anybody ask that, but that's an interesting thing to think about. So, you know, the more concerned you are about it,

the more I would be tempted to ask about it. I have never asked about it because I'm not really that concerned about it. I'm going to make my decisions independent of these goobs anyway. They're giving me advice. They're going to teach me. I'm going to learn. But if they say something crazy like, you know, the market's getting ready to crash, I'm just like, eh, I probably need a different guy. Because I just don't think it's going to crash.

You know, I'm okay. And so, you know, that's, you know, you just decide that, right? But I got a friend that's a conspiracy theorist from now on. He believes every conspiracy theory there is. Everything about the world's coming to an end. The world's coming to an end. The world's coming to an end. The world's coming to an end.

And, of course, he's not investing anyway. But, see, it affects your, it affects your – that's interesting. It does affect your investment decisions. Never really thought about it that way. Vincent is in New York. Hi, Vincent. How are you? Hey, Mr. Ramsey.

It's a real honor to speak to you. You too. What's up? So we have been through a rough patch in the past few years. I started a small farm, and the first two years were really tough. But we're back on our feet. It's working. I'm making money. However, we got some debt, 30K in credit cards and private loan, and our mortgage is really heavy. It's $1,850 a month, but we have a lot of equity in our home. It's a $250,000 home and we only have $78,000 on the mortgage.

And you owe $1,850 a month on a $78,000 mortgage? That's right. So what do you got it on, a three-year payout or what? No, it's a 15-year term. We have nine years to go. Yeah, okay. So we're completely, so we're completely choked in our budget right now.

What's your household income? Between $5,000 and $6,000 a month. Oh. Is it going up? Yes. It is going up slowly as the business grows, but this is a small farm. I'm not going to be a millionaire with

a small farm. Well, you can to be a millionaire with a small farm. Well, you can be. It's just going to take some time. So, we're thinking of refinancing on a 30-year term to just lower the overhead and throw the credit card at it. I might go to a 15, but I wouldn't go to a 30. 15 will cut it down considerable. The difference in a 9 and a 15 is really a bunch. That'll probably cut 500 bucks off of it.

So, no, I wouldn't do a 30. But I might do a 15 to survive and turn the corner here. But then let's get back in gear and get the whole thing paid off so you can be clear of it. Because the sooner you're 100% debt-free, the sooner this gets to be fun. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration, subscribe today.