The Ramsey Show - Learn the Power of the Magical Word, “NO”

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan 📱Watch the full episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. Dave Ramsey & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: "My parents have no retirement savings and are expecting us to help," "How can I diversify my investment portfolio?" Should I freeze my credit? "My husband thinks we are too broke to have a baby?:" "Should I keep my Universal Life insurance policy?" Jimmy Darts on how fun it is to give money away (follow him at @jimmydarts) Support Our Sponsors: 🌱 Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp 🏥 Learn more about Christian Healthcare Ministries 🏡 Get started today with Churchill Mortgage 🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe 🏦 Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle! 🥗 Save 15% on your first Field of Greens order with code RAMSEY 💤 Visit Helix Sleep for special offers! 💻 Visit NetSuite today to learn more 🗂️ Use promo code RAMSEY for18% off at The Nokbox 🏛 Get started with YRefy or call 844-2-RAMSEY 🔐 Visit Zander Insurance for your free instant quote today! Next Steps 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET or click here! 🎄 You could win $5,000 in the Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway! Enter today. 🩺 Find the Right Health Coverage During Open Enrollment 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 🎁 50 days of Christmas deals are here! Get 30% off meaningful gifts. 🎟️ Get Tickets to the Money & Relationships Tour Listen to more from Ramsey Network 🎙️ The Ramsey Show   🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 💰 George Kamel 💼 The Ken Coleman Show 📈 EntreLeadership Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love love and create actual amazing relationships. Number one best-selling author and host of the George Campbell show a big hit on YouTube on the Ramsey Network Mr. George Campbell himself is my co-host today. Open phones here as we talk to you about your life and your money 888-825-5225 is the number. 888-825-5225. The call is free and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.

Megan's going to start us off. Megan is in New Orleans. Hi, Megan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up in your world?

Okay. So I have a question. And just to paint a small picture, my husband and I, we've been married for seven years. We have no debt other than the mortgage on our house, and so we're very thankful and have worked very hard for that. We've got two young kids, able to establish an emergency fund and retirement accounts and college savings for them. But with all of that said, uh, my parents are really not on a same financial path as we are. My dad is in his eighties now and still works full time.

My mom does not work and she hasn't worked before, but just recently they've been bringing up to us kind of my husband and I, that they don't know what they're going to do for retirement. They have no retirement savings, very little in a savings account. They're not even really in a place to afford the house that they own with the money that they're making. And we're starting to get this feeling that they're expecting us to take care of them at some point or to do something to help them. And without tapping into our own retirement or savings for our children's college and things like that, we're, we're just really not in that type of space. And so my question is,

is it too late for them to start putting together a retirement plan? Um, what are some options for them or how best really, what kind of boundaries do we need to set as a young family in helping out that other generation in retirement? Wow. I mean it sounds almost ludicrous to just say out loud. He's 80 and now he thought about retirement. Golly! Wow! Who's late to the party here? Like 20 years! Oh my gosh!

Oh man! So he's working every day and he's 80. Yes. Every single day. And he's one of these people he loves to work so I think he always will. And at one point in their life it's a right. But you can he always will. And at one point, it's a white, but you can't always, you don't always have that as an option.

I mean his health, his health may fail him. What does he make? So he's, I want to say he's making around right at about a hundred thousand dollars total cause he does have social security coming in as well. Um, but around a hundred thousand dollars total because he does have social security coming in as well. But around a hundred thousand dollars, but my mom has never worked. And so the question kind of is, if and when one of them passes before the other, what are they gonna do? And that's where they're turning to us, is this younger generation and asking us that question. And I don't really know what to say. You know, the Bible teaches us to honor our father and mother, but how does that translate into something like this?

Well, let me address that before I forget it. Honoring your parents means you honor the position of fatherhood. It's like honoring the president. I may or may not agree with the president, but I honor the position of president. Does that make sense? And I can still agree with the president, but I honor the position of president. Does that make sense? And I can still disagree with the president because he might be wrong, you know, that kind of stuff, right? So if mom's doing cocaine, we don't honor that, okay?

That's a misbehavior, but we honor her position as mother. Does that make sense? So we can honor them, and it doesn't require we give them money. That scripture has nothing to do with giving them money. So, anyway. There's no financial obligation. You can still respect and honor them. Yeah, not with that. No, I mean, just honor them, but it's just like, gosh. Okay, uh, whew. Well, I think, um, we gotta head this off with the past. And I think it's just time for a real clear

in-person talk the next time you're in town and the holidays are coming up so here we go. Right? So we're gonna sit down with them and leave your husband out of it and leave you know whoever else out of it and just sit down and go mom and dad couple things. One is I love you and I'm worried about you. Two is what's your plan? Three is I'm not your plan. Okay? And so since I'm not your plan, I will coach you, I will cheer for you, I will help you in any way I can, I don't have the financial mathematical bandwidth to be your plan.

So if you've got this in your head that somehow I'm going to pick this up when one of you can't, we need to talk about what happens dad if you can't work anymore because your health fails. We need to talk about what happens mom if dad dies and $100,000 a year is not coming in anymore. How are you going to stay in this house? We need to talk about because I want to love you all well and walk with you as you face what looks like some very difficult decisions to me

that you're going to be making. And I hurt for you and I want to help if I can in the coaching and sharing aspect but not in the financial aspect. And I think you say all that out loud. What you might discover is that, you know, that they maybe have done something you don't even know about. Maybe they're further ahead than you think. Maybe they're worse off than you think. But knowing, if they open up the, if they put their cards on the table face up, knowing what's going on is going to be a lot better for you than just guessing,

because guessing always makes us think it's worse than it is. And some tactical pieces you can do, Megan, is sit down with them and go, let's make a budget together. We're gonna sit down and use every dollar. Let me get you connected to a SmartVestor Pro. Let's get you investing some of this $100,000

while you still have it. Let's look at your total debt load. Do you need to downsize and home? What sacrifices must be made for you guys to retire with dignity? You can help them answer the questions, but I would not just start funding their misbehavior for the last 20 years. You do not have a moral, ethical, or moral or ethical or spiritual obligation to write

them checks. And that's what we've been worried about. You know, and we want to see them do well. And we've had some of these initial conversations saying, we don't have that bandwidth. Okay, what do they say? So, they, I think it may be just some of their own nervousness coming in. They kind of laugh it off a little bit. And kind of joke saying, and this has been said by my mom, like, well, I'll just, I'll just move in with you guys and help take

care of your children. And that's not really the plan that we want. Yeah. And just say, you know, mom, I love you, but I would kill you if you moved in here and you would kill me. And so we don't want any murders. So we need a different plan. She might stop laughing. Oh gosh, that was too real. But these are tough boundaries.

No, no, we're gonna sell your house and we're gonna buy you a condo that's one-tenth the size of this house. You're gonna pay cash for it and live on Social Security Mom. That's what you're gonna do and that's gonna be your best life now. And you know, you just gotta work, you gotta push them on through it and the problem is it's just very difficult. It's very difficult. But I don't want you to have, I don't want you to misinterpret that scripture and let that be turned into an enabling vibe. And that's what you're struggling with. You're like, I wanna be a good daughter, I wanna be a good spiritual person but I don't want to be an enabler and it feels like they've been not dealing with this and

now they're gonna want me to deal with it since they didn't deal with it and that's that's most of America right now by the way. Yeah this is an epidemic. They call them silver squatters Dave, relying on the kids. Silver squatters. Don't like it but that's what they called it. Got little silver hair going and they just squat it right there in the old living room and said, I'm gonna take care of your kids. I'm gonna take care of your kids.

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Go to Xander.com to learn more or call 800-356-4282. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Yahoo Finance, Generation X has gone by many names over the years. They started as the MTV Generation, became known as the Latchkey Kids, were labeled America's forgotten middle child, but as retirement looms closer for Gen X, a new term is popping up in conversations that captures the anxiety and uncertainty many are feeling. Silver squatters. There it is. There it is. It's a phrase that vividly paints a picture of a generation

grappling with a looming financial crisis as they edge into their mid-50s without the cushion needed for a secure retirement. The silver nods to the graying hair, squatter suggests where they might end up staying with their adult children. There it is. Median retirement for 55 year olds. Which we call these adult children the sandwich generation. They're sandwiched between their kids' college

and their parents' lack of retirement planning. And they're supposed to take care of people on both ends of the spectrum, and in the middle you get squashed. I feel like that would just create a cycle where they become the next silver squatters because they had to take care of the people on all sides and therefore couldn't invest in retirement because they were trying to fund mom and dad's

retirement. That's scary. I say you change your family tree and go we're not doing that. Well I think you have to institute, you have to bring out the secret weapon. What's that? The ancient word. Uh oh. The word that no one is allowed to speak anymore. You're not allowed to utter it in the American public. Has it been canceled? You can't say it in any place, particularly around government or around entitled people. You want to hear the word? I want to hear it. No. Dave, you can't say it on air. We're going to get taken off. I know. You press your tongue towards the roof of your mouth, make a't say it on air. We're gonna get taken off. I know. You press your tongue towards the roof of your mouth, make a kissing motion with your

lips. I know you've not used it in a while. No. No, we're not going on vacation. We can't afford it. No, we can't keep this house. We haven't saved anything for retirement. No, you can't lease that car, bozo. You're broke. No, you can't afford a boat. No, you can't even afford the fish the boat would catch. broke no you can't afford a boat no you can't even afford the fish the boat would catch no you can't afford to put gas in the boat that the fish won't catch but no no no no no no Dave you're no fun yes I am I'm a lot of fun no Dave loves saying no it's one of your it's a how you got here today it's a great it's a great boundary exercise no

mom you're not moving in with us. No, I just found out today you're called a silver squatter. Who knew? I want to know what they call you, Dave. It's kind of derogatory. I'm not sure that's honoring your parents. But yeah, no. No, no.

I have to feed my kids. No. You're 80 years old. You just now woke up and realized there's retirement. Where the heck was your brain 40 years ago? No. No. You're 80 years old. You just now woke up and realized there's retirement. Where the heck was your brain 40 years ago? No. No. No. No. No. You can't afford to go on vacation. No. You can't afford to eat out every night. No. You're gonna eat beans and rice. Rice and beans. No eating out. No. No. You're broke people.

Broke people don't do things like that. No, no, you can't have a cell phone. No, you're broke. No, no, no, no. It's the ancient word, it will set you free. I wanna make that a ringtone and sell it so badly. It's just Dave saying no, no, no. Well, it's not a killjoy thing, because you're saying no so that you can say yes to living.

It's live like no one else so that later you can live like no one else. It's no discipline, seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness. If I want my belly to be smaller, I have to look at a donut and say no, because my belly grows exponentially just by walking past donuts, much less eating them. No. I didn't know smelling calories still counts. No, fat boy. No more donuts. No. No. This could change America. I didn't know smelling calories still counts. No, fat boy, no more donuts.

No, no. This could change America. I'm telling you, it's an amazing thing. But no one says it to each other or to themselves. And when you learn this magical word, it will set you free. Because I wanna be a good daughter, a good friend, a good wife, so I'm just gonna say yes to it all. No, no, you're not an enabler. No, No, I love you too much to lie to you. No. Really, seriously,

it sets you free. I love it. So our Brack Friday sale is here and you don't have to say no to that because the deals are so good. Some things you should say. How do you segue out of that into a marketing piece? Good transition. No, you can't. Okay.

Well, if you've budgeted for Christmas budgeted for Christmas, what do I buy? Well, you can get hardcover books right now for just 12 bucks, audio books for only 8 bucks, Jade's new book, best seller, money's not a math problem, on sale right now. Get rid of the we ain't got no money mentality, total money makeover, we've sold a couple of those. Great gift right now for 12 bucks, to Ramsey solutions.com slash store check out the Christmas deals Don't miss it. And if you think you're gonna miss it, don't I said no, don't miss it. No, don't miss it All right. I did I think I see you see that was pretty smooth record count Alex is in Phoenix Alex. What's up? Hey, how you doing Dave better than I deserve how can we help?

Hey, how you doing Dave? Better than I deserve. How can we help? So I had a question. I recently just received, or I haven't gotten the check yet, but I'm receiving the second half of a settlement from a car accident I was in two years ago, which is for a million dollars. And I'm wondering if I should pay off my mortgage. Good Lord, hon.

What happened? a million dollars and I'm wondering if I should pay off my mortgage good lord on what happened so I was me and my buddy were on a trip to Vegas and gotten a head-on collision there were two fatalities and the rest of us were all airlifted to Thunderbird Hospital and fatalities in your car hun there was one in ours and then one in the other oh man I'm so sorry Wow how are you doing now I'm doing really good still have like some minor things that bothered me like my wrists I have like 90% mobility and it used to be a lot worse, but that and then my abs are still healing. I had two holes in my small intestine and a hole in my colon, so they had to get me

wide open. So that was quite the healing process. So you kind of crushed in the accident then. Wow. Yeah. Unbelievable. Wow, unbelievable. Okay, well first question is, if your income into the near future or the long term future is affected, we need to set the money aside to, some of the money aside or whatever amount to offset that.

Are you back to work? Are you moving again? I mean what's happening with your income? Yeah, so before the accident I was, you know, remember what I was doing. I don't think I was working a full-time job at the time. How old are you? I've got my I'm 23 years or 22 years old. Were you working on education? No, I got my EMT out of high school and then didn't like it and have done a bunch of

like construction jobs. So let me ask you this then okay, you're 23 You've got some aches and pains, but it sounds like you're largely healed. What's the 30-year-old Alex gonna be doing with his life career-wise? Probably real estate. I got my real estate license, and I also do real estate wholesaling, and I've done a couple

flips in the past with my family. I imagine I'll continue doing that. Okay. All right. And how much debt do you have? So the mortgage on our house is... Who's our house? Just under... me and my wife. Oh, you're married. Okay. All right. I miss that. What does she make? She makes roughly $3,500 a month. Okay. And how much have you been making in real estate? Honestly, I have been slacking and haven't pulled in much in the last three months. Why? I just I the only reason I got my license was so that I could get

clients that my parents own a probate company and they have clients. That's not what I'm asking hon, I'm asking I'm asking why you're not working you're 23 years old you're married is it medical condition or why are you not working I am like working I just haven't been working as hard as I could have and I haven't been making the calls I need to call I have but also just haven't nothing's been working out. Okay how much do you owe on your home? $290. Okay yeah I pay off my house I'd set aside if there's any taxes on any of this some of it will be taxable some of it won't be depending on how it's

structured and and I want you to sit down with somebody and address what it is it makes a sun come out again. It makes you get your, your ambition bone moving again. Cause it sounds like this wreck, uh, hurt you physically, but might've slowed you down emotionally as well. It would have me by the way. It sounds like a horrible accident. I'm so sorry.

This is the Ramsey Show. This show is sponsored Ramsey Show. for a bunch of people all at the same time. We all know of somebody else we can be grateful for, but there's one person that we often don't take time to thank. Ourselves. We don't always acknowledge that we're surviving, that we're moving forward, and that we're working towards a better life and better relationships. And in a world where everything's gone bonkers, it's not always easy. So here's my reminder to thank the people that you love. Thank the people in your life and Thank you Sometimes we need some professional help to talk to somebody trained to help us discover true gratitude for ourselves and others

Especially in the holiday season. That's why I recommend better help better Help is a hundred percent online therapy and You can talk with your therapist at any time So it's convenient for your schedule. Just fill out a short online survey to get matched with a licensed therapist Plus you can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash deloney to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Deloney. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. If you're ever around the Nashville area, we're in Franklin, a beautiful little town

just south of Nashville. And you can come by and watch this show. We do it live on the air air on the glass from one to four meaning folks sit in our lobby anywhere from 50 to 200 of them watching the show and um and we charge like nothing it's worth every penny and there's free coffee to bribe you and even better than that free homemade cookies to bribe you so when you walk in here, it smells like mama's kitchen. In the middle of that lobby right here on the glass so we can look out the glass and see them. And I used to have a sign in here with me

that said don't feed the monkey but then I wasn't the only one on the air and other people took offense to that. It wasn't me. I know, I'm kidding. I thought it was hilarious. It was Ken. Any of us monkeys, but yeah, there you go.

So anyway, in the lobby is also the debt-free stage. Kyle and Samantha are with us. Hey guys, how are ya? Good, how are you Dave? Better than I deserve, it's good to have you. Where do you live? Manchester, New Hampshire. Wow, welcome to the South.

Thank you. Good to have ya. And how much debt have you two paid off? $130,000. Good for you, how long did that take? Four years. Four years, and your range How long did that take? Four years. Four years and your range of income during that time? It started out at $130,000 and ended at around $150,000.

Good for you. What do you all do for a living? I'm a dental hygienist and I'm a mechanical engineer. Excellent. Very good. So what kind of debt was $130,000? It was our house. You paid off your house? Yes. How old are you two? 36. And you have paid for a house? Yes.

What's this house worth? About $340,000 right now. Very cool. And how much have you guys got in your retirement nest egg so far? In total with the house it's over $500,000. Okay, you're on your way to millionaire already way to go And you're not even 40 years old way to go you two. Thank you. Look at a smart people right here I love it. You guys hit your early 30s. You're like 32 years old been married a little while at what point were you married?

We got married in 2012 right? Yeah, okay Deep into marriage and you guys woke up four years ago and said, let's just go ahead and knock out the house. What started that journey for you? We, one of my coworkers at my first job, he said the best $12 he ever spent was on the total money makeover. So I ended up buying it and it was the best $12 I spent.

Wow, thank you. I don't necessarily always agree on this journey. I wouldn't, would be lying if I said that you weren't a swear word at times in our house. It's a gift. It's a trigger when I hear the word spreadsheet. Trigger. I've been a trigger now. I've thought of myself as a trigger. I did think of myself as a swear word. Were you dragged and then as you made progress you went okay I get it. What happened here? Yeah I definitely. It took a while to winter over.

It's still a work in progress. So the engineer nerd is coming in nerding out your life and you're like I want to have one, a life that is, and you're trying to steal my life. I hate Dave Ramsey. That sounds good. I like that. Is that kind of how it went? Yes.

Yeah, that's what I would have gone with that. Did he walk in with the spreadsheet going babe we could save so much time and money if we just made it it went? Yes. Yeah, I swear. I would have gone with that. Did he walk in with the spreadsheet going, babe, we could save so much time and money if we just made it up early? That and the books, yes. Wow. 12 years you're married to an engineer, you didn't know that he thinks spreadsheets are sexy. Right, I know that now.

It's his love language. Wow. Was your goal four years or was it more aggressive? Did you do it slower, faster? Well, once we decided to pay off the house, it was around two, two and a half years, but we had two kids in that amount of time to add to our three kids we already had, so.

Party. Yeah, so it took a little bit longer. Wow, got the gang here. Look at that. And the dog. And the dog. And the dog. Yeah, wow, beautiful.

Well done, y'all. Well done. Life is good, huh? It is. We're very blessed. The number one career in the millionaire study that we did, Beautiful well done y'all well life is good. Oh, yes The number one career in the millionaire study that we did the one most likely to be a millionaire as an engineer So there you go, so that stuff all pays off after so stereotypical Just like guys are doing it. That's perfect. You guys well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

It's communication for sure you have to be on the same page and it's also important just to have a village around you that supports you and make sure and encourages you. What was your village? We have our parents for sure and then we got our friends over here that are with us too. Made the trip down for the debt-free screen? They did. All right, very good. Cool.

So, what was the thing that drove you? What's your why? Why do this? I was more worried when we started having kids and trying to pay for college and stuff. So I just wanted to get out of debt because I had student loans and I didn't want my kids to have student loans.

So that was a big motivator for me. Yeah. It's a change in the family tree. And you got a lot of kids. That's a lot of college to pay for. Yes. Yes. I know where that free debt mortgage payment's going. Straight to the 529 plans. Yeah. Wow. What's the first big thing you guys did or are going to do? Well, I tripped in Nashville. We're calling it our yes year now. So now we can say yes to things. Yep. As Dave said earlier, you got to say no a whole lot. We did. So still

can say yes. Yeah. You did it, you did it, you did it. So Samantha, what was it that actually did, all kidding aside, you actually did join the crusade here at some point. What caused the change that allowed you to do that? Just for me, my heart's always been forgiving and just one, making sure that our kids see how important that is and really just being able to be generous and

let our kids know the importance of that. Yeah, and you get yourself in a real strong financial position you can do giving at a different level. 100%. Yeah, and you're there now, way to go, and you're only 36. You're going to be so wealthy, so generous, so out of control. Well done y'all, Very, very well done. Very good stuff.

So now that you're there, when you flipped the switch and you paid off the mortgage, did you notice a change in the way just it felt? Yeah. Yeah, it does definitely feels different, especially every first of the month when that money doesn't come out of your account and you can see your account growing. Budgeting gets a lot more fun when you get to just delete the mortgage payment out. You got property, taxes, and insurance, but man, that principle and interest not being there, that frees you up emotionally, mentally, financially.

Yes. Yeah. It's huge. Way to go, you guys. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Who was cheering you on along the way? Your friends and your family and who else?

Co-workers. Yeah, my parents were. We were actually in a race to see who could pay off our house the first and we won. So it was a little competition. I love that. Were the kids aware of what was going on? The older ones, were they like,

okay we can see the sacrifice, we're feeling it too? We gotta beat grandma. I wouldn't say that. Cutting the snack budget. No, they weren't going along with it. Anything I take away his snack money. Oh. Well, there you go.

There you go. And now, if you snack like no one else later, you can snack like no one else. So there you go. Good stuff. Well done, you two. Proud of you. Excellent, excellent job.

All right, it's Kyle and Samantha, Manchester, New Hampshire. $130,000 paid off. That's house and everything! They're debt free, no mortgage America. You know what their interest rate problems are? None. They don't have one. That's right. They did this in four years making 130 to 150 and it's hard. But is it worth it? Yes. Definitely.

Count it down, Kyle and Samantha. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah. This is how it's done. I like the irony because New Hampshire's motto, live free or die. What better way to live free than knowing nobody. Is it really? That's it.

That's about as rock and roll as it gets. How did you know that? I'm from Massachusetts. I was always jealous we didn't have a cooler state motto. Yeah, wow. Okay. Apparently from, wow, okay. Apparently from, adopted by the state in 1945. It was from a letter from General John Stark in 1809,

the live free or die. Live free or die. There you go, there it is. Here's your history lesson. That's good, all right, I got, yeah, my trivia lesson. But yeah, I'll go with that though. I mean, here's the thing. All I can hear about when I'm doing media interviews

and you're doing media interviews is that there's a whole generation that feels stuck there's a whole generation that doesn't think they can get ahead there's a whole generation Gen Z that says and Gen X and Millennials and Gen Z that says they can't make it and then you meet Kyle and Samantha and we get to meet them every week you You know how stuck they are? Not stuck! No excuses. That's how stuck they are.

Not stuck! Not stuck! Get a reasonable home, pay it off aggressively, live the rest of your life free. Got the same interest rate on their mortgage I got on mine. Zero! Don't have one!

Not stuck! Take that for the two percenters out there who go, I'll never pay my off. Here's to Dave Ramsey's shelf full of crap. Dave Ramsey's not stuck! Take that for the two percenters out there who go, I'll never pay my off, Dave. Dave Ramsey's not stuck! Zero mortgage, zero percent interest. You gotta love it! That's how much I'm worried about the Fed.

Not stuck! This is The Ramsey Show. Hey guys, George Camel here for Delete Me. I saw a headline the other day that made me squirm. One third of the US population's background info is now public. Hey guys, George Camel here for Delete Me. I saw a headline the other day that made me squirm. One third of the US population's background info is now public. We're talking 115 million Americans' personal info out there in cyberspace for data brokers to buy, sell, and trade like Pokemon cards. And data theft happens all the time. Data brokers get your info, like your name, address, phone number, even your kids names, and then boom, it's available to online bad guys.

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That's joindeleteeme.com. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author is my co-host today the Ramsey show question of the day is brought to you by why refi why refi refinances defaulted private student loans which are different than federal student loans why refi refinances your defaulted private student loans and builds a custom loan based on your ability to pay. So kick your private student loan debt out of your life by going to whyrefi.com slash

Ramsey. That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y, dot com slash Ramsey, might not be in all states. Today's question comes from Andrew in Switzerland. I'm an American, but I live in Europe where salaries are much lower. I'm a seasonal restaurant worker spending winters in Switzerland and summers in Australia. I also get free rent and food,

so I'm able to save 30 to $35,000 a year. I invest heavily in crypto, and I know it's not a safe method for long-term investing. What are some other investment options where I can diversify my investment portfolio? I know I need to diversify, but I'm an aggressive investor who thinks without risk, there is no way to win." This is a tortoise and hare situation here.

He's the hare. He's going, I got to have the risk of my life, Dave. And you're asking us to diversify because you know you should have less risk. You know that you could lose your butt if one thing happens in the crypto world. Yeah, statistically, Andrew, the fastest way to get rich quick is to get rich slow because people doing the crap you're doing end up losing everything and they get to start over several times. You know how I know that? I did it. I was doing flip this house before Chip and Joanna were born, okay? And I lost my butt because I never met a risk I didn't like. I believed in me and I knew I knew everything.

And I'm so smart I could outwork the real estate market and the banking market just like you're so smart you can invest in something that's not even real called crypto and you're gonna lose your butt and then you're gonna get the opportunity start over and then if you don't fix this broken thing in your brain that's causing you to look for a shortcut called pride which comes right before the fall quit looking for a shortcut there's no place worth going that there's a shortcut to so you're not going to do any of this because I went to her in Switzerland a nice summer in Australia oh brother seriously lean in and and get in a grind and grind your way into some wealth, honey.

That's where it comes from. There's no statistical evidence anywhere in any wealth building study that I've ever seen or ever done that indicates anything you're doing is going to work. None of it's going to work. So how's that for depressing? But yeah, I mean, we're here, we love you so much, we tell you the truth. To be unclear is to be unkind. We are anything but an enabler.

We want you to win. So I'm talking to you like you were my little brother, worse than that, one of my kids. And so, no. If you're gonna do this thing you're doing for your career, which also feels like some kind of a lot. It doesn't feel like a career. It feels like the whole thing to use a game. But hey dude, you do whatever you want to do. You're not an aggressive investor.

You serve tables. You're not an aggressive investor. It doesn't look as good in the Instagram bio. I know. You need to steadily invest, steady, steady, steady, in things that are boring. The antithesis of everything you're talking about is the best way to become wealthy. All the data, which are called facts, indicate that. That's not a difference in your opinion and Dave's opinion. No, your opinion's wrong and mine's based on facts, data. So please don't do this, honey.

So we'll answer your question. I mean, you wanna diversify, diversify across some different types of mutual funds. I would cancel all the crypto and I'd start investing in good growth stock mutual funds that have 50 and 100 year track records. And this means owning little shares of a whole lot of companies that represent the overall market. And you will end up with much more money at the end of the story because you won't get the opportunity to start over three times because you're going to lose your butt in crypto. One of the wealthiest

men in the world said if he could buy all the crypto for $5, he wouldn't do it. His name is Warren Buffett. If he said if he could buy the whole thing for $5, he wouldn't take it. Because it has no utility. What's he going to do with it? It's not even a commodity. It's a currency. You're investing in currency. You know, just go buy the Iraqi dinar. Oh my God, it's a currency that failed.

And that you know, that's what we're dealing with here. It might make it but it's not an appropriate investment for someone in your situation. It's an appropriate investment for someone worth two billion dollars to put in 50,000 and play with it. Like they were playing a roulette wheel or something, but this is Russianlette here this is dangerous please please please stop it Andrew this is just a mess everything in this is a mess Nick is in Green Bay Wisconsin hi Nick what's up hey guys how's it going better than I deserve how can I help um me and my wife just started the second baby step a couple months ago and I guess I'll just paint a picture of what I'm looking at. So after we started the second baby step, we started to kind of just put the ducks in a line and see what needs to be paid off first.

So we had a bunch of credit card debt and those credit cards were high in interest. So we pulled out a personal loan and combined those with a small, a lower interest. So we would have an extra hundred dollars going to the debt instead of interest so we're working on paying that off right now and then we have a bigger credit card that we're still paying normal minimum payments to how much is the personal it is just under four thousand and how much is the personal? It is just under four thousand. And how much is the bigger credit card, Nick?

Eleven thousand. Okay. And what's your household income, Nick? About seventy eight. Okay. And how much is your car payment? The card payment is 258. No, no, no. Car payment. Auto. Oh, car payment. 258. What do you owe on it? $11,000. Okay. What other debt have you got? Other than mortgage, we just have those three.

So about $26,000 total in debt, you make 78. We don't need to play shell games moving debt around anymore. We just need to aggressively attack it. Yeah. What's your question? $100 a month screw around with all this you could have found in a good budget by staying out of restaurants. Correct.

So the question was I was just kind of looking for a little more money to pay down that personal loan. Cut your lifestyle. To speed it up quicker with my lifestyle. Yeah, cut your lifestyle. That's where you're going to find it. Okay. You work in a 40-hour job?

I'm a truck driver. Okay. Are you working a 40-hour job? Are you gone all week or what? Yeah, it's a 70-hour. Okay, so you're gone all week? Yep. Okay, and what's your wife make? She's a stay at home. Okay, all right. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna George and I gonna put you into every dollar which is our budgeting app to show you how to make the money that you have behave because we can tell from these numbers that it's not behaving. You're looking for a math hack. There's not a math hack.

There's a spending hack and you make a good amount of money and don't your debt is not an overwhelming number this is a number you can pay off very very quickly probably in a year or just a little over a year but you're going to have no life rather your wife's going to have no life while you're on the road and you're going to

have no life on the road peanut butter and jelly beans and rice tuna. These are the things that are in your future while you get out of debt. Okay? We're not spending money in restaurants, we're not spending money on vacations, we're not spending any money anywhere because we're gonna clean this debt up really, really fast. So what I'm telling you is, is I want you to find around $2,000 a month in this budget to attack this with and I think you can do it. If you're bringing home six that shouldn't be hard if you cut your spending.

And you ought to be bringing home around six. It might be your withholding, it might be some other stuff. We'll help you with this. We'll even put you into Financial Peace University. You and your wife go through all of that. I'm gonna pay for it for you and help you get moving it's not a hack you're looking for it's a grind this is the ramsey show okay here's the hard truth your investment dollars could be winding up in the pockets of companies that hold positions you don't agree with people are unknowingly putting money into tech giants and household brands that don't match up with their core values. But here's good news. Timothy Plan is at the forefront of biblically responsible investing.

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distributed by Forsyth Fund Services LLC. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show where we help people build wealth, do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, number one bestselling author, host of the George Camel show on YouTube, is my co-host today, Ramsey personality, George Camel. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Haley in Savannah, Georgia. What's up? Hi guys, thank you so much for taking my call today My husband and I are both firefighter paramedics and we've been together four years now. We got married this past May

We both want kids both ready emotionally and me biologically to go ahead and start having children and I've heard what you said on the show before about you know not not waiting around to have kids. My husband and I kind of disagree about something he thinks that our current situation it would be irresponsible for us to have a child and I just I don't agree you're right he's wrong that's what I keep down you're right he's wrong let me ask you something though is he saying to you without saying to you when you quit being impulsive and overspend and make our finances all screwed

up then I'll be ready to have kids is he trying to rein you in are you out of control are you out of control I don't think I'm out of control and ask that i ask if you are out of control is that what i'm saying to you you want like i don't want to already have a kid i don't need more is that what he's saying you know are you sure and positive okay who's the nerve that who's the nerd who's the free spirit he is the nerd

now i'm going to turn around the three uh... Who's the nerd? Who's the free spirit? He is the nerd. He is the nerd and I'm the free spirit. So what evidence does he have that you guys are not in a place to have this kid financially? So we have a HELOC and it's around, it's got $44,000 left on it for us to pay off. What'd you buy on the HELOC? We were really stupid and had a big wedding Wow, so you own the home before you were married then took out a HELOC to pay for a big fancy wedding? So the HELOC was my father's and I'm on it with him. So we're obviously off what we put on it together

yes we're making a really big payments on it $3,000 a month payments combined he and I make hundred and thirty six thousand dollars a year our cars are paid off and the only thing we're paying on our living arrangements is property taxes okay so you're together on your plan and you're living sacrificially to hit your goals. Correct. So he wasn't calling you a princess then, was he? I was wrong. No, he's, I mean, I am his princess.

No, that wasn't what I meant. I'm talking about a negative princess. Not like you're my princess. I don't need that. That's not for the show. That's the L I meant. I'm talking about a negative princess. Not like you're my princess. I don't need that. That's not for the show. That's the Loney Show. No. But no, the, all right.

So is it because of the HELOC? He's saying, hey, we've got this big HELOC we're trying to pay off. Now is not the time to have a kid? No, he's just super conservative and he sees all kinds of pain every day. He's very conservative and he, and he just, uh, I think he would feel more comfortable knowing that we were completely debt free.

Well, he'd feel more comfortable if you had $2 million, but you don't wait on that to have kids. So, well, gosh, you win the whole argument today, girl. I don't, I don't even get to pick on you. I don't even get to pick on you. You, you fought your way through that way to go. And I don't know if to pick on you. I don't even get to pick on you. You fought your way through that. Way to go. And I don't know if he knows how kids works, but you have like a nine month lead up to get your act together and get this HELOC paid off.

So it's not like an instantaneous thing. You have $3,000 and you only owe $40. You're done in a year. I want to respect him and his feelings though about it. I don't, you know, I don't want to push him and I do feel like he is head of the household. Well here's the thing opposites attract assuming both of you are healthy and living sacrificial towards a plan opposites attract the spender always attracts the saver the free spirit

always attracts the nerd and you need both of you you need both sets of input because if one of if two people just alike get married both of you. You need both sets of input. Because if two people just alike get married, one of you is unnecessary. So you need each other, right? So he needs you, he needs to respect you too in this. So the year that Rachel Cruz was born was the year we filed bankruptcy. That's how irresponsible we were. And that didn't have anything to do with Sharon that had to do with me being an idiot She didn't Sharon didn't cause any of that So but I think you guys face a lot of trauma in other people's lives all day long and that can translate into

Being super conservative and trying to keep control on everything at home. Can't it? Yes, sir, and I think part of the issue or nervousness for him is I obviously my, my lifestyle is going to change. I can't work the physicality of the job while being pregnant or obviously things will be different afterwards. It's a very demanding job. Yes, it is. We're away from home at night.

So that makes him here. That makes them nervous Yeah, I think he's got reason to be nervous because he's a young dad to be and that's mandatory for all young dads to be To be nervous. It's like comes with the territory. But as the old guy here, I'm gonna tell you have babies Right now right now That's what I would do and really when you look at the actual cost of what it's going to take. Oh it's not cost. You know, like what's going to be in the budget. You can do all the math, but I don't think that's enough for him.

I think he truly is just, he feels like he's not ready. Well if she is responsible, and I was accusing her of maybe not being, and I was wrong, because I think she held up to that, that interrogation. That was pretty strong on her. Yeah she wasn't bowing down. She didn't back down. That's good, strong lady, yeah. I mean, because sometimes, for you ladies out there,

sometimes husbands speak is, they're saying one thing, but they really mean something else. Oh, wait a minute, wives do that too. Yeah, okay. It's human condition. Yeah, but yeah, so sometimes your husband's saying, we can't afford this. What he's saying is, because human condition. Yeah, but yeah, so sometimes you know your husband's saying we can't afford this what he's saying is because of you And I that's what I was going, but I was wrong I missed that one I missed that one

I don't miss him often, but I missed that one Rick Rick is up. He's in Albany, New York Rick. What's going on? Hey, thanks Dave and George for taking my call I'll be quick my wife and I just completed financial peace university and during lesson six, which is about understanding insurance, I brought up a question about a whole life insurance policy I have. It's well over a hundred thousand. It's got a fairly large cash value and I know I need to get rid of it and I want to sell it. And my question is, you hear about all these ads on TV like Coventry Direct and that they say before you let it lapse or you sell it, find out what it's worth in that you could probably get more for it. What are your

views about selling it to someone else? That's a viadical and I would stay completely away from that. There's no point in that because it's still in your name. It's still all screwed up. No, it's real simple Rick. You're right, it is a quick question. The things that you learned told you it was not a good product, and you decide to get out of it. You're just trying to figure out the best way to get out of it, and the best way to get out of it

is just cancel it. Surrender the policy. Surrender it. And get term life in place first. Before you do that, and then get your cash value back and use your cash value on your baby steps. And certainly that includes investing in anything is better than a universal policy. Putting it in a fruit jar you'll end up with more money. This is the Ramsey Show.

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Ramsey. Folks, the Ramsey Christmas cash giveaway is here and you could win big. We're giving away $500 prizes each week and one grand prize of $5,000. Enter daily for your chance to win at ramsysolutions.com slash giveaway. It's that easy. Plus our 50 days of Christmas deals is on right now. Get up to 30% off bestsellers and life changing gifts that won't break the holiday budget. Ramsesolutions.com slash store. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, George Campbell. Ramsey personality is my co-host in the studio. Well, we've got a celebrity with us today.

Jimmy darts. Jimmy is a media personality, tick-tock sensation known by his videos of him giving money and other random acts of kindness. Jimmy is an expert on generosity, man. I mean, you have done some of the best video work on randomly messing up people's lives in an awesome way with generosity. I'm so proud of you. Well done, sir. Thank you. Thank you. It's a blast. It's what we're all called to do. And when we do it, we feel like we're in our purpose and we're alive. So seeing someone else's day made because you gave a sacrifice, whether it's small or big, it's always worth it.

So Jimmy, you DM me out of the blue and I was like, did Jimmy, did he get hacked on Instagram? And you were going, man, I'm a big Ramsey fan. And so we got connected and it's been a blast becoming friends with you. And I want everyone to know the story of how this got started because it's powerful and it started with your own life change Yeah, absolutely Yeah When I was a little kid the first time I really experienced what it's like to give something away and a bless someone my parents For Christmas gave us $200

They said a hundred for you to keep buy whatever you want a hundred you got to give away to someone else And so the very first time I gave was a guy on the street, he had a sign I gave him a hundred bucks and just as a kid seeing his face just melt, changed my life and marked me and then kind of lived for a knucklehead the rest of my high school years and did a lot of party videos. But then when I was 18 I just met the love of Jesus, got transformed and never thought I'd pick up my video gift again and I was out reading the Bible one day and I felt like the Lord said, Jimmy, it's time to go back and make videos, but this time do it for me.

And I said, all right, I mean, what do you want me to be, a preacher? What does that mean? He goes, no, I want you to ask people for help, and when they help you, change their life. So that's when I started doing these videos, asking someone to help me get a tank of gas in my car, or to, you know, buy me a gallon of milk. And when they did that, we gave them 500 bucks. And just to see their reactions was powerful.

And then the internet started donating, and that person's two dollars or five dollars they gave me turned into them getting back like 50,000 dollars. And so it was pretty powerful. Yeah, the videos are, I can watch them all day. I mean, it just makes you cry. Makes my eyes leak. I love it. And just watching these people's face change and, and, um, I mean, you're,

you're really, really good at your craft too. You've developed this. I mean, it's not manipulation at all, but, but I mean, uh, you're editing in the process. You, you build such a great story in such a short timeframe. Uh, the arc goes through that thing and it works so powerfully. I watched like 10 of them this weekend. You gotta get back to work. People need you out there. And like Dave talks about, you're not the hero in these videos, the person is.

And it's why we don't see a lot of Jimmy in the videos. You wanna make it about them, you're simply the guide. And we've got a clip, and this is one of your favorite moments with our friend Lulu. Can we watch it? Let's check it out. Over $42,000 was donated to help you out. No way.

24 hours earlier I met Lulu, a struggling mom who couldn't get a job because of her smile. Excuse me ma'am, sorry to bother you. I'm just trying to ask people for a dollar to get the bus out of here. I don't know if you have anything but it's not gonna hurt you. No it'll help you more than it'll hurt me. Thank you. What's your name? Lulu. I then surprised Lulu with a thousand dollars for her kindness and then she shared this with me. Thank you. Are you serious? Yes. I got five kids and they work for a lot. Not having a job. They act like they want to hire you but then when you got a mess that smile they think

about different things and they just they say that they don't hire you because of that but I feel like it is. The next day I met up with Lulu to give her the surprise of her life. Over $42,000 was donated to help you out. No way. Yes. No way. She's not going to be able to get new teeth.

Is this something you've been praying for? Definitely. Alright what actually happened? You walked up, asked her for a dollar to get on the bus. She gave it to you and then you did what? Yeah, she gave me a dollar to get on the bus and then I asked her her story and she started telling me that

she's been trying to get a job as a single mom but it's been really hard because her teeth were kind of messed up and people assumed she was on drugs and all this. So it was just the saddest story ever and I ended up giving her $500. She starts bawling her eyes out and I gave her a hug, got her number and I said I'm going to be praying for you knowing that she doesn't know but there's millions of people watching on the other side of that phone that are going to want to change her life and so we ended up raising over $50,000

for her and ended up flying her out to Nashville and she got brand new teeth. Jason Aldean and his wife, they're dentists, they helped make that happen. So she's got brand new teeth now. She went back to Vegas, got a job. She's given her life to Jesus, I've heard. And so her life's got back on track. And we got the photo here if you're watching

on YouTube or the app. Look at that smile. Before and after, yeah, that's awesome. And those are the temporaries. They'll even look better than that so yeah Yeah, that's incredible. That's so fun. Yeah, and I mean you say you your whole Approaches you walk up find someone and ask them for help and then they finally I bet you get turned down Yeah, yeah a few times I get turned down and when I do

I mean you know I'm just looking out there for for the people that do pass the test because we're really trying to find people that have lived a lifestyle of generosity and kindness their whole life and never got rewarded for it. But in that one moment, they become the hero. And if you read the comments in my videos, like 90% of them are about the person and not me, and that's why they want to help out. And so it's been really powerful and there's been a lot of amazing stories.

Yeah, my favorite one is probably Steve. He was a homeless vet. He was in Anaheim. He was just sleeping on the side of the road. Went up to him, saw he was struggling with addiction and I was like, man, I don't know if there's anything I can do to help this guy. So I almost kept walking. That's when I felt the Lord say, no, no, no, maybe not money this time, but ask him what's on his bucket list.

So I said, Steve, what's on your bucket list? And he just perked up and he goes, man, I want a skydive, hot air balloon and go deep sea fishing. It was like he was ready for me to ask the question. And I said, all right. And sure enough, a few hours later, I came back and my little Honda picked him up

and he was jumping out of an airplane and we were going over the sky. And he then got out of addiction, got moved into a housing, got his life turned around and all he needed was a spark to realize life can be fun again. Wow. That's powerful. And we talked about this, Jimmy,

but you've gotta have the margin to be generous. You've gotta have your eyes up looking for opportunity instead of looking inward, stressed about your own life. And that's part of why you follow the Ramsey Plan. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. You know, yeah, having your fist like this with money in it, you know, obviously, if God tries to give you something,

it'll just hit the ground. And so when you're generous and give to people, God can also bless you more. And so that's just how it works. And yeah, when you live within your means, you don't buy stupid stuff, you save your money, you can give to other people. And that's just something that will never get old. And yeah, whether you've got a million dollars in your bank account to bless someone and

get them a new car or just like the poor widow and the Bible and all you got is a coin, heaven is moved by generosity and it'll make your heart come alive when you do it. Wow. Wow. So Instagram and TikTok sensation, Jimmy Darts is with us. At jimmydarts is where you pick him up. You guys gotta watch these videos. They'll make you work your tail off to get your act together so you've got some money. You'll live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else. They're inspiring. It's really, really inspiring.

We talked about, you know, I love the Rachel Cruz quote, give a little until you can give a lot. like no one else. They're inspiring. It's really, really inspiring. We talked about, you know, I love the Rachel Cruz quote, give a little until you can give a lot. And so what Jimmy's doing with even the GoFundMe, I might only have a few bucks to give to this campaign, but what we're doing as a community to change someone's life is powerful and it makes you wanna give more.

It's a, generosity's addictive. Yeah, absolutely. Generosity's addictive. And yeah, I mean, if all you have is a couple dollars to give, what's worth a couple bucks? A coffee. If all you have in your budget is $10 a month to give away and you buy a stranger a cup of coffee every month, it might be outside of your comfort zone, but it's going to blow

them away. Because when's the last time someone bought you a coffee in line? I can't remember that happened to me. It was probably Dave Ramsey. It probably was in the lobby here. But yeah That's why we give away free coffee. Oh, and it's powerful and you've got a lot going on Jimmy You've got your kindness challenge cards people should check out and it's kind of a scratch-off You can do with your own family your own friends help strangers out So everyone needs to go check out Jimmy on Instagram tick-tock YouTube at Jimmy darts. You're an inspiration man

I'm honored to know you. Thank you. Couldn't have done it without you guys or I'd probably be in debt over my ears. So. I got a feeling you're going to be okay, brother. Yeah, thank you. I'm proud of you. It's good work you're doing.

Thanks for hanging out with us. We appreciate you. Thanks so much. This is the Ramsey Show. Mortgage rates have dropped. So if you're thinking about buying a home in the next year contact your local church hill mortgage team right now if you wait more people will be in the market competing for the same

homes and potentially driving up prices church hill will help you do the math to be sure your budget is correct making your home a blessing and helping you build lasting wealth. Learn more at ChurchillMortgage.com. ChurchillMortgage.com. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLS ConsumerAccess.org. Equal Housing Lender. 1749 Mallory Lane, Suite 100. Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Well, it's decision time again. Every year during open enrollment you have the chance to check in on your insurance and make sure it's right for you and your family.

Whether you have health coverage through your job, a private company, or a government program like Medicare, you don't have to figure this out alone. reliable folks we trust to help you get the right coverage for whatever stage you're in. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash health dash coverage. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Jill is with us. Hi Jill how are you? I'm good Dave how are you? Better than I deserve. Where do you live? Atlanta Georgia. All right welcome to Nashville. How much debt have you paid off? $102,000. Good for you how long did that take? About 27 months. Good for you and your range of income during that time? Started at around 60,000 ended up at 124,000. Cool, good for you, well done.

What kind of debt was the 102? Let's see, about 11,000 in credit cards, about 9,000 in medical bills and some IRS debt, and then 82,000 in student loan. Wow, you were kinda normal. Yes. Not fun. No, it was not.

Wow, okay, so what happened two years and some change ago that was your wake-up call and you said we're going to get out of this and do this Ramsey stuff. How'd that all happen? Tell us your story. Yeah, so actually my story starts back in 2018. I was working full-time and decided I don't want to go to graduate school. But even then I told myself I'm'm not gonna take any more student loan. If I'm gonna go to school, I have to pay for this in cash. And then that fall, my church was hosting FPU. And I said, yes, this is my chance

to make sure I'm doing this right and not have to take out any loan and just make this whole process a little bit easier. So I did that and I can tell you, Dave, I completely, 100% cash flowed my master's program. Wow. Yeah, okay, step one. Yes, got that done. Good, what's your master's in?

Nutrition and dietetics. Good for you, okay, good. Yes, so then later, the end of 2019, due to some contract changes, all the dieticians, myself, we were all let go from our hospital. And so starting 2020, I had started a new job, and then we all know what happened in 2020. COVID happened, and so I just kind of went in survival mode.

I had finished paying that last semester of grad school, and so I just wanted to save, because I had just lost my job recently, you know, didn't know what was gonna happen with COVID. So I just kind of, so I just started saving, and just, you know, continued to work some side hustles and some side gigs just to see, you know, kind of what happened.

So once I got settled in my job and, you know, kind of built up some savings, all right, let's get this started again. So I tackled the medical bills and the credit card debt on about 10 months. Wow. Yeah. And then, so I was like, okay, I can breathe a second.

I've paid off some of these big ones. All I have left is the student loan. So at that time, I decided to move to Atlanta for a new job opportunity, pay raise, all that kind of stuff. And then I was like, okay, we're settled, let's do this. But the thing, Dave, is my student loans were private. So while everyone else's

student loans were on pause, the interest payments, all that, this whole time might have been going. And so I could have paused my loans, but I was like, the interest is still gonna go. I just can't take this anymore. It is keeping me from having time to do what I want. I'm working all these jobs. I can't save for a house. I can't have a car emergency, nothing. And so I was like, okay, we're doing this. This is the Goliath I'm looking at, let's go, let's do it. So January of 23, I put my foot on the gas pedal and had a full-time job, two part-time jobs, two other side hustles. I was doing 60, 70, sometimes

80 hours a week trying to pay this off. And then my church in Atlanta did FPU again. And so I was like, okay, this is step, Baby Step 3 is actually in sight. Like I'm getting so close. I'm in like the last six miles of this marathon. Like I can do this. So I had a great support system through that. And then in May of this year,

I made my final student loan payment. Wow way to go. That's definitely putting a short on the gas. Spread to the finish through the tape she wins. I like it. Doubled your income. I did. You went all right I'm gonna sacrifice for a short time so that I can be done with this faster and it worked. It did. It did. So that was that was hard. It was. Was it worth it? Oh, 100%, 100%. You're free now. I am, I am.

I finally have time to do the things I wanna do, get more involved in my church, investing in people and just being able to live. It's very freeing. Yeah, I guess. Congratulations. Thank you. So proud of you.

Who was cheering you on? Oh man, my parents first. First of all, when I made that last student loan payment, I had them on FaceTime. And they were with me when I hit send or hit pay and we all just cried. I love it. It was great. My aunts and uncles, my coworkers are amazing. When I paid off my debt, they had a little party for me, had a little banner made that said Jill is debt free, friends, family, it's been amazing. And being somebody who's single, it was important to me

to kind of have that support and accountability. I couldn't have done it without them. Yeah, you brought a crowd with you just to support you. You got your own posse over here, which is awesome. And that is huge for folks that are single out there because it's so much harder when you don't have that built-in accountability of a spouse. Correct.

So I'm proud of you. Thanks. Did people think you were crazy? Oh yes, people were like, why are you paying this off? Like you need to be investing. And I said, well these student loans, this is keeping me from investing in my future and this is keeping me from living.

And I'm doing it this way and here I am on the day Ramsey Joe. I love it you did it very very cool good stuff so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is you are very successful at it. Yeah so first and foremost my faith in Jesus Christ is what helped me get through it and having that great support system to help keep me accountable. And then when I got to the student loan part, I was at $82,000 and I was like, OK, so I made some payments, got into the 70s.

And I was like, OK, how fast can I get to the 60s? And then I just kept going. So I made it a game. And I took the power back that debt had over me and made it how fast can I do this and that really changed my mindset. So changing that mindset and having that support system is huge. Taking the power back.

It really does come down to hope. It does. You know, when you take the power back that means that you now see that this is possible. Ding ding. Hope kicks in. Belief kicks in. And then you don't even feel the sacrifice then, because like you said, it's a game.

I'm sprinting to the finish line. I see the tape, yes I'm in pain, but I can see the tape, where this is not forever. It's not. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness. Well done, young lady, well done, very well done. Now you're free.

How's it feel? Well Dave, you well done. Now you're free. How's it feel? Well Dave, you know how you tell people when they pay their house off, the grass feels different? Dave, buying groceries feels different now. Uh, being able to say yes to trips or friends or going to this restaurant, this new place opening in Atlanta, let's all go.

Like being able to say yes to that, just being able to change like my priorities and my time, it's just it's been amazing. Deleting the student loan app off my phone was huge. Oh yes. Yes, that was a moment. You are now dust. Done. I like it. Never again when I go back. Worst app ever. Do not recommend. Zero stars. Wow, zero stars. Oh, that is incredible. So what's next for you? Obviously coming to Nashville.

My family were all going to Texas next month to celebrate another family member's birthday. So I got to do that and I was recently promoted. I'm a registered dietitian and I was promoted to clinical nutrition manager. So now I'm- Congrats, somehow I'm not shocked. Yeah, in I was promoted to clinical nutrition manager. Congrats. Somehow I'm not shocked. Yeah, in the midst of working your tail off, they go, hey, she's a hard worker.

Let's give her the job. Yes, yes. God was just blessing. That student loan balance coming down, the job opportunity came in. I finally got to get rid of some of these side hustles and it's just, I'm just excited what God has in the future. Yeah, it's gonna be big. It's gonna be amazing. We want to bless you. We've got two

every dollar yearly subscriptions for you. You can use them, pass them on to someone to kickstart their journey as well. Way to go. Thank you. How old are you? 36. Yeah, there's no stopping you. There's no stopping you. You're wide open. I bet you were wide open when you were a little kid Mom yeah, mom shaking her head. Yeah Yeah, it's kind of a Rachel Cruz thing right there. Yeah, Rachel was wide open when she was a little kid I mean we talked I told sure I said we're going to point this one at something She's gonna go off. You've got to use these powers for good. Yeah, that's it. You're something else. You're amazing I'm so proud of you. Thanks very very well done. I made you proud

Alright, Jill is in Atlanta, Georgia. She paid off a hundred and two thousand dollars 82 of which was those dastardly student loons 27 months she did it making 60 to 124 lots of work count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream three two one 3, 2, 1, I'm dead free! Yeah! Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop! Yeah, baby!

That's how it works around these parts. This is the Ramsey Show. Listen up, trying to reach your money goals without a rock solid budget is like trying to climb Mount Everest in ice skates. It isn't gonna work. That's why we built the Every Dollar app to help you win with money. It's the simplest, most straightforward way to track your spending and give every dollar a job. That way, you can stop letting your money push you around and start reaching those money goals. Download every dollar for free on the App Store or Google Play. Well we just launched a brand new tour.

Me and Dr. John Deloney are hitting the road and coming to a city near you on the Money and Relationships Tour. We're putting a whole new twist on these live events. You, the audience that have bought tickets, are going to shape the conversation that we have each night. At each stop on the tour you get to select the topics that matter most to you in the pre-show and then we're gonna design the show right before we walk out. Whether it's budgeting or relationship dynamics

or achieving your financial goals whatever the question is you get to choose the topic and that's what we're going to do we're going to be in Louisville April 21st in Durham April 23rd Atlanta April 25th Phoenix May 5th Fort Worth May 7th and Kansas City May 9th. Dave Ramsey, Dr. John Deloney live in person in those cities on that date. You're going to laugh, you're going to cry, you're going to learn and we're going to do some Q&A. We're going to have, it's going to be very, very interactive, a way different kind of live event for the Ramsey Bunch. If you're tuning in on YouTube or podcast, you can click the link in the show notes or you can go to ramsysolutions.com slash tour and get

your tickets right now. Cindy is with us. Cindy is in Orlando. Hi Cindy how are you? Hi thank you for taking my call. Sure what's up? So we my husband and I are on baby step three but six months ago he lost his job and we're trying to figure out, do we get rid of the life insurance, the umbrella to help with everything or do we want to keep those things on our budget? Why isn't he working? He was laid off, he's in sales and he's been trying and praise God he's been humbled so he's been trying everything and now he's even taking classes and we only have the one car because we like is well-intended so the car that we have for like lifts I think it's too old, the year of it.

What was he doing when he got laid off? Sales. Sales selling what? Software, software sales. Why did he get laid off? Um, I think like production based, like if you don't hit a quota So he wasn't making sales Okay, what did he what what kind of income was he making?

50,000 Okay, and so what's he want to do with his life now He for the unemployment he's doing the cyber security. He's taking the classes for that. He's taking classes for what? Cyber security. Cyber security. What do you make? 73. Okay, so you've been living off of your 73, but you're also trying to build up this

emergency fund. And he's not doing, he's not creating any income at all. Unfortunately, no. Okay. What did he make his last year in sales? What did he make in sales? You said 50k? Yeah, he made 50. Altogether we did 130 in our taxes last year, so he made like 30,000 in sales. How many kids do you have? Two. How old is he? And one's in daycare. How old is he? He's 41. All right, well there's, there's the thing, when you are, when you have zero income coming in and you go for a job interview, you walk differently and your voice tone is different than if you have income coming in right and so the fact that he's doing nothing is not helping him land a position so I would prefer that he cut grass and drive uber 80 hours a

week clean toilets whatever he has to do to get some income coming in and actually put his hand to something other than YouTube or whatever he's spending his days on these days. He really needs to get to work for his own sake and that's going to make him more employable at one of these other jobs. It's not that he's lacking a class. If he wants to take a cyber security class at night while he's working full time during the day, that's fine. But sitting on his butt taking one class or two classes is not cool. Y'all are broke.

So you said he was humbled, but I think he needs more. We got more to go. We need to swallow our pride and go do something. I don't really care if he's humble. What I want him to do is go to work. Understand. Yeah my grandmother used to say there's a great place to go when you're broke to work. So yeah I mean and here's the thing he's got I don't know what I don't I don't care if he takes a career job until he gets a career job okay but I want him to do anything he can do to go make some money and what that does is it gives him dignity and it gives him purpose and career job, okay? But I want him to do anything he can do to go make some money. And what that does is it gives him dignity and it gives him purpose and believe it or not it gives

you energy when you're working hard. And then when you walk in to a job interview, you got a little swagger instead of your head hung down and your lips stuck out. They can smell desperation. Every human can smell it. We see the body language, we see the pacing in your voice, the tone, the energy level, the eyes are lit up or they're glazed over, which is it? And all of these things happen and so, and the guy you're describing to me right now is not going to survive a good interview. Understood. If he got one, how many interviews has he actually been on? Two.

In six months? Yes. Okay. So sometimes what happens when we get fired, which is what really happened because he didn't make his sales, then it takes some of your dignity and some of your self-confidence, some of your mojo. So I think you encouraging him to go be somebody is going to be really good for him. It's not nagging him, it's lifting him up. So I'm going to be his coach at halftime and go, we're behind and you've got the stuff. I want you to get up in the morning and

shave and put on nice clothes like you're going to work oh and by the way go ahead and go to work while you're doing that and I don't care if you're serving at a restaurant I don't care if you're delivering pizza I don't care if your uber eats I don't care if you're cutting grass I don't care if you're working cleaning toilets you can get a job and then it by the end of the week doing one of those things or all of those things and believe me Orlando needs to help there's people in Orlando need help get you a leaf blower from Home Depot rich people are afraid of leaves and so you know that kind of

stuff right so I mean go go do something because what that does is it gets you up off the the the pity party that we all I went through that when I went broke it took my confidence Like when you get fired took my confidence and it took me a while to get and and I was But I had two little babies and I don't have a choice I had to go make something because we were starving to death and so I went out there and did Anything I could do for a period of time until I could get the income moving again. And then with that came my confidence. It came back. And slowly the more I did it and so you know I hope that's all it is with him. I hope he's not lazy.

But most people aren't lazy. Most people struggle he's probably not he's probably not a lazy guy but he probably doesn't feel great about him you're over there making money he he got fired and so I want to get back out there and and get back on the marketplace get back at the get back up at the plate start swinging the bat again and I'm gonna send you Ken Coleman's two books proximity principle and paycheck to purpose and time to get on Ken Coleman's two books, Proximity Principle and Paycheck to Purpose, and tell him to get on kencolman.com

and start using that proximity principle to get some positions and get some things moving. He's got to get an income moving. That'll help your household and help the mathematics, but more importantly, it'll help his mental state. That's right, and to answer your question, do not cut your life insurance and umbrella, like you gotta keep the defense there

while you're playing offense. So you need to find spending cuts somewhere else. Don't you know spending cut increase your income he needs to go make some money he could make three or four thousand dollars a month falling off a log man I mean he can almost get his own old income back you know really I mean the number of people we talked to that make fifteen hundred bucks a week delivering pizzas right now. There's no excuse. I mean, you can do, there's people, there's a shortage. You can do anything to go make money.

So, and there's a shortage of everything out there right now. People that will work show up that have bathed and smile. It's amazing. It's amazing. They'll pay you. You can get a job. And so I want him to go do something for him.

Cause I want to, I kind of smell that old, I remember how that felt and wasn't a good feeling and I want better for him And with that goes better for you, hon. This is the Ramsey show Hey, you're still here What are you doing? You do know that the rest of today's show is playing right now over on the Ramsey Network app, right? All you got to do to finish the episode is search Ramsey Network in the App Store, Google Play Store, or just click the link in the show notes to download the app for free. Yep, you heard me right, for free. Then right there on the home screen, you can watch the rest of today's show. Badabing,

badaboom. Alright, I'm getting out of here. Enjoy. We'll see you on the app.