Anyone Can Become a Millionaire in America Today

[0] 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.

[1] George Camel Ramsey Personality is my co -host today.

[2] He's also the co -host of Smart Money Happy Hour and the host of the George Camel show, very popular on YouTube, both Ramsey Network Productions, and we'll be taking your calls.

[3] The phone number is AAA 825 -5 -225.

[4] Brian starts this hour in St. Louis.

[5] Hey, Brian, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[6] Hey, thanks for the call.

[7] Sure.

[8] What's up?

[9] My wife and I are trying to build a house, and we're discussing how much we should have saved ahead of time.

[10] I would like to have 100 ,000 saved, and she wants to start now.

[11] We're at about 40 ,000 saved.

[12] Okay.

[13] And so she isn't as concerned about the down payment as you are?

[14] She's just excited to get going.

[15] More so than concerned about the down payment, which you are, yeah.

[16] So what is the payment process look like for this build?

[17] When is all the money due?

[18] Well, we haven't started anything yet.

[19] And so I would like to save 100, hopefully get 200 out of our house, and then maybe go 350 total, and then just have 50 left to finish up when we're all done.

[20] What do you make?

[21] Which we could.

[22] Which else sold in?

[23] About, about a $300.

[24] Okay.

[25] So you're talking about a $350 ,000 build.

[26] Okay.

[27] And you got 40.

[28] How long does it take you to get to 100 if we want your way?

[29] What with your goal?

[30] A little over a year.

[31] So we're not arguing about 60.

[32] We're arguing about a year.

[33] Right.

[34] She wants to go now.

[35] You want to go in a year.

[36] Correct.

[37] Okay.

[38] Okay.

[39] Which means that if we go her way, you end up with a $100 ,000 mortgage, not a $50 ,000 mortgage.

[40] Yes.

[41] Or $110 ,000 mortgage, to be precise, right?

[42] Am I doing all this correctly, Brian?

[43] Yes.

[44] Okay.

[45] How sure are you this home is going to cost $350?

[46] Not sure.

[47] That's just the goal that we'd like to keep it under.

[48] Do you have a blueprint?

[49] No, we haven't started anything.

[50] Do you have a builder?

[51] we have nothing just discussions do you own the land we have family land set aside okay uh side bar before we have a sidebar before we keep going family land set aside means means that there needs to be a plat that is deeded to you and you have the right to sell it someday if you all don't want to live there anymore otherwise don't do this deal right you don't build your house on daddy's land or your house on a lot that daddy gave you off his land and he says you can never sell it neither one of those those are both deal killers it would be purchased okay and you would own it oh wait a minute what does the land the land is part of the 350 yes okay and then you would have full rights emotionally relationally legally to sell it later if you want to.

[52] Yes.

[53] Okay.

[54] I've taken that call a lot in the last 30 years, someone that's stuck in a piece of property because everybody's going to be mad if they sell their own house.

[55] Right.

[56] Don't do that.

[57] All right.

[58] Now, all right, back to the deal.

[59] So the land is how much?

[60] 40 ,000.

[61] And that's included in the 350.

[62] Did you say or not?

[63] Included, yes.

[64] Okay.

[65] All right.

[66] We think, but we really have nothing to basis on except square foot, and you think you're going to build x square feet i i would tell you this i'm in the middle of building a house right now um it took us nine months from the time we decided we wanted to to get a blueprint a builder and a budget completed completed i mean from day one and i've done it before so i'm guessing uh that you can start on the process now and it's probably going to take you close to a year Then you'll have that 100.

[67] Yeah.

[68] Or not.

[69] I mean, you know, it may take you nine months and then you split the difference, right?

[70] But I think you can go ahead and get started because here's what's going to happen.

[71] When you start drawing this house and you actually start talking to builders and you actually start getting bids, you're going to find out your numbers are wrong.

[72] Right.

[73] Or they change.

[74] And I doubt they change down.

[75] Right.

[76] You've got to watch the scope creep thing here.

[77] Yeah, my fear is this thing is double what you thought it was going to be.

[78] and now we've got to re -look at is this the right next move or do we just buy a place yeah so i think we got a you got bigger issues than when to start okay you need to go you guys you can start today on the get looking at builders and looking at blueprints and getting it dialed in and once all of that's done if it's not been a year um and you've got everything dialed in and you really can still do the numbers that you come up with the real numbers not hopeful numbers.

[79] Then we can say, all right, I still don't want to start then, and what I would recommend back to your original argument is just split the difference.

[80] You know, instead of a year or starting now, let's say six months.

[81] And by the, but it, believe me, it's going to be six months at least.

[82] I don't think we're starting next week on this building anyways.

[83] So we got some time or not.

[84] Builders aren't working as much right now, so you probably can find one that'll give you some attention.

[85] Because of the rates?

[86] That's a good thing.

[87] Just slowed down a little bit.

[88] Very few specs going up.

[89] If builders that are working are doing customs.

[90] And so very few home starts on specs because the market's really slow with the high interest rates.

[91] Prices have held firm and have gone up in most cases, depending on the market.

[92] But the build rate new home starts are down, way down, way down.

[93] And specs have just about disappeared in most markets.

[94] Wow.

[95] Which is not a bad thing.

[96] It's okay.

[97] Except there's no freaking inventory.

[98] But for Brian, it's a good thing because he's probably going to get some good attention.

[99] Yeah, versus builder and subs are going to be available.

[100] Going a million miles an hour.

[101] You don't want someone rushing through that home build.

[102] Well, and you've got 73 other clients instead of just, you may be his prize client right now.

[103] You know, it's possible.

[104] Now, on the financing side, how would you suggest Brian goes through with this?

[105] Because there's different ways when you're working with a builder to finance it.

[106] Well, if it's 50 ,000, he probably can go over at the credit union, just get a loan.

[107] simple.

[108] If it's going to be 100, 110, 150, then he's probably looking at a formal construction loan and they'll have to get an appraisal on the plan.

[109] The builder, the general contractor, obviously license will have to be shown to get the appraisal and then they'll do that to get and you'll have to get your approved for your permanent mortgage and they give you a letter called a takeout letter, which it means that they will be there to take out the construction loan at completion, the permanent mortgage will.

[110] It'll convert over to a conventional loan.

[111] And you can do all of that with Churchill mortgage, every bit of that if you want to.

[112] But if you've got a little small loan, like a $50 ,000 out of $400 or $50 out of $350 ,000, you know, probably just your credit union.

[113] They'll just make you a loan, like a personal loan almost.

[114] They're not going to put a lot of regulation on that.

[115] I'm not going to require the takeout letter.

[116] Not going to require an appraisal.

[117] I'm not going to usually.

[118] But if you get up there over 100, then you're going to have a construction loan.

[119] I just rewatch the big short over the weekend.

[120] Well, this whole mortgage crisis, man, it puts things in perspective.

[121] Yeah.

[122] How wild things were back in those days.

[123] Yeah.

[124] Well, there was just so, the big short's all about all the fraud that happened.

[125] Yeah.

[126] Yeah, and it was just people making up appraisals.

[127] And we got a whole new list of appraisal regulations in as a result of what happened in that movie.

[128] Yeah.

[129] A whole different world.

[130] This is The Ramsey Show.

[131] I've been doing this show for over 30 years and some of the saddest calls I have taken.

[132] are from situations that are completely preventable.

[133] Yeah, and what's so hard is I feel like one of those, especially the ones that I'm like, oh, it's terrible.

[134] People that call in and their spouse has passed away suddenly, and they don't have life insurance.

[135] When you have to think through, how am I going to pay my bills?

[136] How am I going to eat next week?

[137] Yeah, in the middle of all that grief.

[138] Like, it's just, it is, it's terrible.

[139] So life insurance is the one thing, especially as a mom with three little kids that I'm, like, so big on for people to get because it's inexpensive.

[140] Zander is the place that Winston and I actually get all of our, life insurance.

[141] And it doesn't cost much because Xander shops among a gazillion different companies.

[142] It doesn't cost much.

[143] You just have to admit that someday you're not going to be here.

[144] You've got to say it out loud and you've got to say, I'm going to say, I love you to my family by taking care of them and taking the time to put this stuff in place.

[145] The cost of stinking pizza.

[146] To get a free quote, call 800 -356 -4282.

[147] That's 800 -356 -4282 or go to zander .com.

[148] George Camel Ramsey personality is our co -host today.

[149] Open phones at AAA 825 -5 -2 -2 -25.

[150] Thanks for being with us, America.

[151] We're here to serve you.

[152] Our joy comes when we can show you what to do and then you actually go do it and it causes you to win.

[153] Bing, Bing, that's how that works.

[154] That's what this has been about for 30 plus years now and it continues to be.

[155] Jody is with us in Springfield, Illinois.

[156] Hi, Jody.

[157] Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[158] Hi there.

[159] Hey, what's up?

[160] I'm kind of embarrassed to ask this question, but I am a 50 -year -old widow who has been widowed for 15 years.

[161] I have helped put my children through college, and I have no retirement.

[162] So I am ready to start retirement, and I don't even know where to begin and how much to put in.

[163] there's nothing embarrassing about any of that it sounds it sounds like you make me feel good sounds like you're a wonderful person we just need to get on the ball right yes yeah so what do you make I make about I was just sitting here figuring this out I bring home about 36 ,000 take home a year okay so your income somewhere around in the low 40s maybe 45 yeah all right what do you do i am a social worker okay all right and do you have any debt i do not your house is paid for yes well that's great news that means most of your income can go toward investing so you have zero saved right now right what do you have in the bank well here's what i have i have my emergency fund of $1 ,000, I have my three months, I have three months of my, for my, you know, in case something happened.

[164] But that's about all I have at this point.

[165] So I'm on the Dave Ramsey vote.

[166] I just, I'm scared.

[167] It's to a point to where sometimes I cry because I'm like, what am I going to do?

[168] You know, because I don't know, because when my husband passed away, you know, I use, like life insurance and all that kind of stuff to pay my house off.

[169] So, you know, we had a roof over our head and all that kind of stuff because my kids were seven and ten when all of this happened.

[170] Wow.

[171] Well, you've had a lot of life happen.

[172] It's been hard.

[173] I totally understand.

[174] We're not here to beat you up.

[175] We want to give you some good next steps to take.

[176] And if you're following the baby steps now, that puts you at baby step four because you have no debt, fully funded emergency fund and really it's step seven because you have a paid for house.

[177] And so now the kids are that are schools paid for.

[178] We got to put our own mask now, put our own mask on.

[179] And that looks like investing for retirement as aggressively as possible.

[180] Do you have a retirement plan through your employer?

[181] Here's what I have.

[182] And I, I didn't know what route to go, but there's a 403B.

[183] Okay.

[184] I don't know much about that.

[185] I've kind of looked, you know.

[186] Do they have a match?

[187] Okay.

[188] I would not do that then.

[189] I would first do, I mean, I may do some there, but we would first do a Roth IRA, okay?

[190] Just a plain Roth, not a traditional, a Roth.

[191] So what I want you to do is go to Ramsey Solutions .com and click on SmartVestor and get a SmartVestor Pro in your area to sit down with you and they can help you run some calculations.

[192] Okay.

[193] Now, let me give you an example.

[194] You bring home $3 ,000 a month.

[195] you do not have any bills except survival bills you have no debt no rent no nothing okay if you were to save invest $1 ,000 a month for 15 years at 65 you're going to have right around a half a million dollars right around $500 ,000 really yeah okay what this means is not that you're rich and it's really not enough but it's enough to make sure you're not cold and hungry.

[196] Right.

[197] Because it will produce then, let's just reverse engineer this, which is very interesting, okay?

[198] Let's pretend it produced 10 % a year on the mutual funds after that, and that you retired and had no retirement income.

[199] And I suspect you probably have a retirement with your government agency, don't you, that they furnish you?

[200] A pension?

[201] Yeah.

[202] Actually, my husband, I get a pension off of him, but that thing...

[203] Yeah, but do you get a pension from your work when you retire?

[204] No. Hmm.

[205] It's just so security I pay in June.

[206] Yeah, yeah, absolutely, which is horrible, but that's okay.

[207] All right, so if you had a half a million at 65 or 67 or whatever, and it was invested at 10%, 10 % of 500 ,000 is 50 ,000 a year.

[208] Right.

[209] Without touching the nest egg, without touching the goose, it will lay 50 ,000 golden eggs a year.

[210] Wow.

[211] And so you'd actually be making more at retirement than you are now.

[212] No kidding.

[213] So you're going to be okay.

[214] That's the point.

[215] You're not going to be rich, but even if my numbers are off a little bit and they might be one way or another, actually they probably are off in this case because you probably will not be making $36 ,000 for the rest of your life.

[216] you'll probably be making more.

[217] And so you could invest probably more later, agreed?

[218] Right.

[219] Yeah.

[220] So I did that based on $1 ,000 in your current income.

[221] So I want you to sit down with a smart vester pro, and we don't know how the scenarios will compare to actual life, but you can run some scenarios like I just did just to get the idea that I don't have to cry.

[222] Because if you'll start now, Jody and you'll start investing close to $1 ,000 or more than $1 ,000 a month.

[223] You get your budget tight and you do that.

[224] You're going to be okay.

[225] Thank you.

[226] Matter of fact, you're going to be better than okay.

[227] That makes me cry just being happy.

[228] Yeah.

[229] So I want you to sit down, but it also needs to make you get on the budget and do it.

[230] It also means you to get on the phone and get on with those smart vest your pros and go sit down with them and learn.

[231] And let's get this stuff started.

[232] Not next week, not next year.

[233] Now.

[234] Now, okay.

[235] Right now.

[236] Because every day you put this off, it gets harder.

[237] If you put it off a year, it's going to take $1 ,200.

[238] Yeah.

[239] Don't put it off anymore.

[240] You put it off as long as you can.

[241] The fuse is burning.

[242] So I want you scared enough that I scare you into action, but I don't want you terrified anymore so you're paralyzed.

[243] I got it.

[244] I'm on it.

[245] I'm doing it today.

[246] I love you.

[247] You're awesome.

[248] Call us back and let us know how it's going, okay?

[249] Okay.

[250] Thank you guys so much.

[251] I appreciate it.

[252] Thank you.

[253] Sweet lady.

[254] Love that.

[255] She just needed a little motivation that she's not doing as bad as she thought she was and the time to start us today.

[256] What's interesting about what we do for living, when we're talking about getting out of debt or we talk about building wealth, numbers actually give you a result that gives you hope.

[257] When you run math, okay, you know, you got $100 ,000 in debt, I'm never going to get out.

[258] What's $33 ,000 a year for three years?

[259] I mean, it's $2 ,600 a month and you make $150 ,000, shut your winding up, you know?

[260] all of a sudden the numbers give you hope right the math gives you hope in her case it's thousand dollars a month and for the next 15 years and not missing a month and getting started immediately and getting good returns and good mutual funds which probably that 403B does not have that's why I directed her away from that you know let's go first to the Roth IRA with more control more options a lot better options a lot better mutual fund options out there now I can be off and if you all want to argue with my numbers that's fine argue with my numbers but here's the point get with it you know and you know i might be if i'm half wrong she's still going to have 25 26 thousand dollars a month coming in uh our 25 26 thousand dollars a year coming in uh versus nothing which your little plan you critique critic people out there creates nothing that's what critics create nothing well the new one david is well a million dollars isn't enough anymore dave that means a half million dollars is half of not enough but it's more than you got if you be broke and crying about it.

[261] Hello.

[262] Yeah, we'd love for you to have multiple millions, but, I mean, in this case, you could see, 500 ,000 would still change your life.

[263] The only way she's going to get to over a million is she's going to raise her income substantially so she could invest twice as much.

[264] Because $2 ,000 a month for 15 years, at 12%.

[265] My mutual funds have averaged 12 % for the last 30 years, my personal portfolio, and I'm not a genius.

[266] The market is average 11 .8 % in the S &P, so by God, shut up.

[267] and go do it.

[268] You know, so could you end up with a million dollars in 15 years?

[269] Yeah, it's two grand a month.

[270] That's it, roughly.

[271] I mean, there it is.

[272] Ding, ding.

[273] This is The Ramsey Show.

[274] Fake it till you make it.

[275] It's popular career advice, but it doesn't work for very long.

[276] If you don't love what you do, you can't fake the enthusiasm and energy you need to win at work.

[277] You also can't fake your physical health and energy.

[278] Everybody knows we should eat more fruits and veggies, but fruit chews and veggie tips don't count.

[279] If you aren't winning physically, I promise you're limiting your opportunities to win professionally.

[280] Folks, I know you're going hard right now to pay off debt and get ahead professionally.

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[285] That's balance of nature .com with the promo code Ramsey for 35 % off your first order.

[286] George Camel Ramsey personality is my co -host today.

[287] Open phones at AAA 8255 -225.

[288] So our team handed me this.

[289] This is cool, George.

[290] In March, Andrew came and did a debt -free scream with me and Dr. John Deloney was on the air, and we celebrated him paying off $303 ,000 in 49 months.

[291] Wow.

[292] His student loans, car debt, home improvement loan credit card, and a house paid off his home.

[293] And then we get an email from him that he had a chance to go back to his alma mater, his high school, to one of our foundations in personal finance classes, Warshall High School.

[294] And he put this quote on Facebook, 2009 WHS grad.

[295] Oh, that's what they put on there.

[296] Andrew returned to his alma mater today to chat with the senior financial planning class about his financial journey and becoming debt -free.

[297] He completed the Dave Ramsey class and paid off his debt.

[298] This class is also completing the high school version of Financial Peace University.

[299] Thanks for coming, Andrew, which is called Foundations in Personal Finance.

[300] Very cool.

[301] What a great poster child.

[302] These kids are going, oh, this, I got to watch another video.

[303] And then they're seeing this guy who was from their high school.

[304] who graduated from the same sat at the same desk they sat who has no payments in the world yeah at a very young age 100 % dead free wow ding ding ding ding ding house and everything and go in and tell the high school seniors it can be done that's how we do it some social proof yeah we've got the foundations and personal finance high school curriculum that now six million students have been through since we started it it's been in 48 % of the high schools it's currently in like 40 % of the high schools and more and more states are now making personal finance mandatory.

[305] I love it.

[306] And so we've been adopted by, for instance, the Texas, whatever, the Texas state school border, the adoption process to adopt the curriculum.

[307] And we were just adopted in Florida.

[308] Oh, that's right.

[309] A couple months ago.

[310] It's a big one.

[311] So Florida's got a big push, brand new push.

[312] Texas has had it for a while, and they've got their second push coming to get all the seniors before they graduate through our kids.

[313] kids before they graduated at some point as a senior or junior, whatever, through a personal finance curriculum, and we have the largest, most successful one, and Florida just adopted ours as well.

[314] Now, they've got other brands that they can do, but so now each of the school, local school boards are selecting whether they're going to use Ramsey or whether they're going to use something else, but really excited about it.

[315] And, um, happy to be in Florida.

[316] Thanks, Florida.

[317] We appreciate you.

[318] And actually, I got to meet, uh, the state senator, uh, when we were down there doing an event in Orlando.

[319] I remember that.

[320] You were in the green room.

[321] He was in the green room.

[322] It was incredible.

[323] And that sponsored the bill that got passed in Florida to make personal finance a mandatory, it's not elected, a mandatory class for graduation at a certain date in Florida high schools.

[324] And that precipitates then the high school curriculum or personal finance curriculum is getting adopted and were one of the high school approved adopted.

[325] curriculums in Florida.

[326] So excited about that.

[327] So if you're around one of the Florida school boards or your teacher or whatever, and you want to push for our curriculum being in your school, we would appreciate it.

[328] And way to go.

[329] Andrew, thanks for going back to your school.

[330] I don't know where Warshall High School is, but it's not on this, but it's pretty cool that a guy does that and goes back and speaks to the class.

[331] Well, everyone going, they don't teach the stuff in school.

[332] We do now.

[333] Yeah.

[334] It's in a bunch of the states now.

[335] And we're, That's obviously, I've been doing it a very, very long time, very successfully.

[336] We meet all the benchmarks.

[337] It's a, we've got a, Ramsey's Education Solutions Department here that we've been running for, I don't know, almost 20 years now.

[338] And the guys and gals in that department that put this curriculum together that we use in the high schools are from the education world.

[339] And so our stuff meets is the easiest for teachers to operate because the lesson plans are done.

[340] The testing is done right.

[341] It's all built out to where it's as low lift as possible.

[342] But it's former teachers going, I wish this is how it was created.

[343] I wish everything was created this way because our guys are putting it.

[344] And it meets all the educational benchmarks and legalities and so forth that we have to meet in order to be in a public school system.

[345] And so we do every bit of that.

[346] And man, we're just thrilled.

[347] So many people are getting able to do this.

[348] And this is cool that Andrew.

[349] Andrew did that.

[350] That's a lot of fun.

[351] Isaac is with us.

[352] Isaac is in Huntsville, Alabama.

[353] Hi, Isaac.

[354] Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[355] thanks for having me how are y 'all better than we deserve what's up so my wife and i are fixing to be going through our first divorce and um she's going to keep the house that we currently have and thanks to a wonderful support system i'm going to be able to move back in with my parents while i get back on my feet and at this point i'm just wondering you know kind of what's next How do I start over from here?

[356] What should be the correct step I take?

[357] I'm sorry.

[358] I am 32 years old.

[359] How long are you all married?

[360] About five years or so, maybe.

[361] You have children?

[362] A five -year -old son, yes.

[363] I'm sorry.

[364] What do you make?

[365] $33 an hour, about $4 ,000.

[366] take home a month.

[367] Okay.

[368] Well, to answer your question, you know, you're just going to start laying out a game plan to build enough financial life that you move into this next chapter, right?

[369] I mean, the first goal would be to get on your feet enough that you had a little bit of money saved and you go get an apartment, right?

[370] Right.

[371] I mean, obviously your parents are providing a safety net, not a hammock.

[372] And so you're just passing through and like you said, that's a wonderful thing and I'm not upset about that at all, but I would give myself a number of months like three or six months or something and say by then I'm going to have enough saved to have deposits and get an apartment, get my own place, get some furniture, you know, get restarted in terms of like almost as if you were moving out after high school or college, right?

[373] Right.

[374] And then you, you know, once you've kind of got a standard of living set, in a place to live, then you start doing the baby steps and you make sure you're, you get out of debt and you build an emergency fund and, you know, you start investing and, you know, you're going to figure out that there's another chapter to this life after 32 years old, right?

[375] Right.

[376] Yeah.

[377] So this setback is going to be a comma, not a coma.

[378] So keep that in your mind.

[379] This is temporary.

[380] You're going to have a whole other life on the other side of this thing.

[381] This isn't define you, but it will refine you.

[382] And so now is the time to make some choices that will set us up for the next 10 years.

[383] So do you know as the dust settles what the financial picture looks like as far as child support, alimony, the house, debt?

[384] So I will be taking the car that she's currently driving and she's going to take the car that I'm currently driving because it paid off.

[385] And the car that I will be getting is not I owe somewhere around $21 ,000 on it.

[386] The way we've worked everything out between us, you know, everything's very amicable.

[387] So it's going to be uncontested.

[388] So the way we have it worked out, no child support, no alimony or anything, it's all going to be, you know, we both put in everything we can for him.

[389] And she's keeping the house, and there's no, you're not getting any money out of this, out of the house deal?

[390] Correct.

[391] Okay.

[392] I'm not a lawyer, and I'm certainly not a lawyer in Huntsville, Alabama.

[393] I don't think a judge is going to approve a divorce decree.

[394] that does not include child support.

[395] Okay.

[396] You probably need some legal advice, not to create a stink, but I think you're going to be under the law in most states required to do something for the kid from a legal perspective.

[397] I know you're going to from a moral perspective, but I think, I don't know.

[398] I don't know what I'm talking about, so you need to check that out because I had fireworks go off in my head.

[399] But I can't just be a handshake agreements.

[400] I don't think it can be.

[401] You check me out.

[402] I could be wrong.

[403] So the house, what's the payment on the house?

[404] 550 a month.

[405] What does she make?

[406] Bring home is about $2 ,000 a month.

[407] She's going to struggle with that.

[408] And your name's still on the mortgage.

[409] And if you try to have a new life five years from now and she hasn't paid the bills on time, then your credit is going to have been damaged.

[410] I'm not sure this is a great plan, brother.

[411] I know it sounds like it's all nice.

[412] It's all nice until it's not.

[413] And then when she gets in trouble, lose her job, you end up paying a house payment for somebody you ain't married to anymore because you're still on the mortgage.

[414] This is the Ramsey show.

[415] Hey, when you go against what society thinks is, quote, normal, like avoiding debt, for example, it might seem weird at first, and that is totally okay.

[416] We want you to be weird if that means doing things intentionally, including how you spend your health care dollars.

[417] And one way to be intentional is with Christian health care ministries.

[418] CHM isn't health insurance.

[419] They're a health cost -sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of health care costs without sacrificing their freedom.

[420] Find out more and join at chmistries.

[421] dot org slash budget that's c h ministries dot org slash budget george camel ramsi personality is my co -host today open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five you jump in we'll talk about your life and your money johnny is with us in irvine california hi johnny welcome to the ramsie show hi there thank you for taking my call how are you guys better than we deserve what's up great well i'm calling this see what you guys would do if you were in my shoes.

[422] I'm 22 years old.

[423] I fully support myself.

[424] I take home about $5 ,000 per month.

[425] I have zero debt.

[426] I have $60 ,000 in savings, a $3 ,000 emergency fund.

[427] And I've been listening for the past year or so.

[428] And some of my friends and mentors are into long -term real estate investing.

[429] So I've been saving toward that for the past couple of years.

[430] Ideally, I'd like to start building some long -term wealth.

[431] And so I just wanted to see what you guys would do if you were in my shoes.

[432] Wow, you are beyond, beyond ahead of the game.

[433] Well done, very well done.

[434] Thank you.

[435] Well, I probably have a different view on real estate investing than your mentors.

[436] Sure.

[437] And I probably own more than they do, given that I own about 600 million worth, okay?

[438] But anyway, the, I do not believe in borrowing money.

[439] Johnny because you and you've heard that listening to the show and I don't for my real estate investing I pay cash for it and so the first real estate investing I did and I've always loved real estate that I did after going broke and starting completely over and with this new I don't borrow money thing as a part of the guidelines was I didn't do real estate investing at first I just started piling money in mutual funds and when I got enough and an index fund is what I use, an S &P 500 index fund.

[440] It took me about five years to buy my first income producing property.

[441] I paid cash for it.

[442] And then I took all of those rents, net of expenses, and any other money I could, and I threw it in an index fund until I had enough to buy another property.

[443] And then I took all the rents from the two properties and any money I could scrape together from anywhere else, book royalties or whatever else, and I bought another.

[444] property for cash.

[445] And every time I bought another property for cash, I had more cash flow to buy another property faster than I did the one before.

[446] Does that make any sense?

[447] Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

[448] That is a very long -term play versus what you have been considering until this phone call.

[449] Sure.

[450] Because you're thinking about getting up a down payment and going buying a nice little duplex in California.

[451] Exactly.

[452] Yeah.

[453] And I'm telling you to wait and pay cash for it, which your friends aren't going to like, and I don't really care.

[454] They're wrong.

[455] That's true.

[456] But you called knowing you were going to get a different take, which tells me you're actually interested in this take.

[457] I am, yeah.

[458] I've just been curious what to do because I feel like I've been saving decently, and I'd like to continue that.

[459] But, you know, once you get a certain amount of money, I feel like it burns a little bit of a hole in your pocket.

[460] You're ready to jump into it.

[461] Yeah, and you've done really well, Johnny.

[462] I mean, let's face it, you're 22 years old.

[463] You have $60 ,000 bucks in the bank and no debt at all, and you're making $5K a month.

[464] You're killing it.

[465] Dang, dang.

[466] Very impressive.

[467] And it doesn't sound like you lead a super luxurious lifestyle.

[468] You're a saver.

[469] I try to be for sure.

[470] There's a balance.

[471] So the key is to keep living on less than you make.

[472] What would be interesting if you want to be really nerdy.

[473] I don't know how nerdy you are.

[474] I'm real nerdy.

[475] And I've done this a couple of times.

[476] And it always works.

[477] That's why I'm putting you up to it, is if you say, all right, when I'm 42, would I rather own $10 million worth of real estate with $8 million worth of debt?

[478] Or would I rather own $3 million worth of paid for real estate?

[479] Yeah, I think the clear answer is the $3 million.

[480] Yeah.

[481] And then here's what's into.

[482] Here's the exercise.

[483] Run out the purchase snowball, which is not a debt snowball, but the, The way I talked about a while ago, rents buy more, buy more, by more, by more.

[484] Everything's folded back into the next deal.

[485] And the slower start ends up with a faster end.

[486] The faster start ends up with a slower end.

[487] My way is slower start, but has a big time payoff at the end because it hockey sticks from an exponential mathematical equation perspective.

[488] Does any of that makes sense?

[489] Yeah, definitely does.

[490] Because when you get all this property that's sitting there paid for, you are buying more property faster than you would have, if you had a whole bunch of property that's not even close to paid for, and it's not cash flowing nearly as generously.

[491] So the math says I can buy, I can buy more property faster now.

[492] It's ridiculous what my real estate fund now looks like from my real estate income.

[493] Now, because I'm at the back of the story, right?

[494] So, but I can't get people to think long term.

[495] And I might have just got one 22 -year -old to do it, though.

[496] I'm impressed.

[497] He sounded interested.

[498] Yeah, we might.

[499] If we could just get off TikTok, we'll get there.

[500] For real.

[501] Jake is in Des Moines, Iowa.

[502] Hi, Jake.

[503] How are you?

[504] Hey, guys.

[505] It's an honor to speak with you.

[506] Thanks for having me. Our pleasure.

[507] How can we help, sir?

[508] Yeah, so I'm 35 years old, I have no debt, and I'm about to step into baby step six.

[509] And my question is, you talk about baby step seven, living and giving like no one else.

[510] I have no problem with the giving aspect of things.

[511] The part that is a little tricky for me to wrap my mind around is the living like no one else because I am a pastor.

[512] And so to be stepping into baby step seven, hopefully here in the next five or six years, I'm trying to imagine life in my 40s living like no one else while being a pastor.

[513] and living in the community of people who pay for, who have paid for my financial success, you could say.

[514] I don't know how I'll see you would put it, but how should I think through that as I look forward to the next five or ten years?

[515] Yeah.

[516] Well, don't muzzle the ox as he treads out the grain.

[517] You probably read that scripture, right?

[518] Yeah.

[519] And a worker is worthy of his hire.

[520] You probably read that scripture, right?

[521] so are you a good pastor and you're worth what they pay you I sure hope so then if you use that money wisely in Christianity we would call that good stewardship wouldn't we yeah I think you're modeling for those people what good stewards what the results of good stewardship are that it ends up with wealth but we're taught by the by Carl Marx not by Jesus that wealth is evil wealth is not evil people are evil particularly some of them in your church I'm kidding no but uh not much but yeah anyway but yeah but so you're always going to have a hater whether you win or you lose if you do it at scale yeah if you lose you aren't a good steward and you're horrible and you work your whole life and you have nothing to show for it and we call that being a good steward that's not a good steward that means you did a bad job handling your money so you're supposed to model for your congregation how to how to be a good husband how to be a good dad right right how to be a great leader we're supposed to model in christianist called a witness and yet when it my friend craig rochelle says why is it that wealth is the only blessing from god we're supposed to apologize for and i've got several friends that are pastors that are a decade and a half ahead of you, and they're facing the exact same thing, because they have systematically carefully invested in their 401ks and in their Roth IRAs and in their retirement programs, and some of them have bought real estate carefully, and they don't have jet airplanes, they're not on TV, you know, it's none of that junk.

[522] They're just good guys as a pastor, and they've been careful with their income, and most of them are millionaires, because they did the stuff I teach.

[523] But now there's always some duber that says, well, a pastor.

[524] should never be a millionaire.

[525] Yeah, that's what I want.

[526] I want my pastor to be broke and stupid.

[527] No, I don't either.

[528] I want my pastor, I don't want, you know, pastor should never, listen, I want my pastor, I want his marriage to be something I can look up to.

[529] I want his kids to be something I can look up to.

[530] I want the way he handles money to be something I can look up to.

[531] Because obviously the book he is reading has having an effect on his life.

[532] And I want to know more about what that book called the Bible says then.

[533] But not if you're out, you know, so, but you're always going to criticized, Jake.

[534] Whether it's about your message or the car you drive, it's going to be someone out there.

[535] And, you know, you have to get, if you're a Christian, you have to drive and use a cord, because that's what Jesus said.

[536] They were all in one accord.

[537] Oh, that one still gets me. This is The Ramsey Show.

[538] 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.

[539] Open phones here at AAA 8255 -2 -2 -25.

[540] George Campbell, Ramsey Personality, is my co -host today.

[541] He is the host of the new extremely popular YouTube channel, the George Camel with a K YouTube channel.

[542] You've got to check it out.

[543] He's also the co -host of the very popular podcast and YouTube show Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruz.

[544] So both are happening right now and you can check them all out.

[545] Open phones here, AAA 8255.

[546] 25 -2 -2 -5.

[547] Michael's in Washington, D .C. Hey, Michael, how are you?

[548] Hey, Dave, doing great.

[549] Thanks for having me. Sure, man. What's up?

[550] So about a month ago, my son had an asthma attack and ended up getting airlifted out by helicopter, and we're trying to figure out if he's doing fine now, but we're trying to figure out if we stop paying on the car, we were going to have paid off in September, or put money into a savings account to kind of prepare for the bills that we know are coming.

[551] They're starting to trickle in, but we don't know the exact total yet.

[552] Life flight covered by your health insurance?

[553] It's still pending, but they think it's going to be, yeah.

[554] There's no reason it shouldn't be covered.

[555] Sometimes it doesn't.

[556] And when the bird flies, it's 10 grand minimum.

[557] Yeah, yeah.

[558] That's what we're kind of waiting on.

[559] We have an out -of -pocket maximum on the health plan at 8500.

[560] So I talked to the insurance company.

[561] They think it's going to be covered.

[562] but we don't know until we get the actual explanation of benefits in.

[563] So what's the worst case on this?

[564] Is your out -of -pocket max?

[565] It should be, yeah, it should be $8 ,500.

[566] And how much money do you guys have right now in savings?

[567] About 11.

[568] Okay, so this thing's covered completely either way, but you've got the car to pay off.

[569] What's left on the car?

[570] 15.

[571] And that's all of the debt?

[572] Yep.

[573] Okay.

[574] So we're going to throw the 11 at the car, or most of that at the car very soon, and that's what we're going to pay it off in September, but now with this.

[575] Yeah, I think you're going to cover the $8 ,500.

[576] I mean, you've got a bill you know's coming, and so we're just going to earmark your savings $8 ,500, and then we're just going to attack the car with cash flow.

[577] And as long as it doesn't come in over $8 ,500, then that'll be a perfect plan, right?

[578] Yeah, yeah, I would just delay the car a little bit, but that's, you know, it's unexpected.

[579] Yeah, if you had to make that choice, you'd make it, and you did, take care of your child, right?

[580] Yep, absolutely, yeah.

[581] And so was he out, was he remote or something and couldn't get his breath?

[582] What was the story?

[583] Yeah, we just kind of found out that he had some asthma issues recently within the last, like, probably four or five months, and then he got a cold, and it turned into a pretty severe asthma attack, and we took him to the local hospital, and they transferred into the children's hospital pretty quickly by a helicopter.

[584] So it all happened pretty quickly, yeah.

[585] Wow.

[586] Well, it's good that he's okay.

[587] how old is he he's five uh -huh that's super scary then it was very scary yeah very scary so well i'm glad he's okay i'm glad he's okay i'm glad it's only that you got good health insurance in place um and uh yeah this was not an er thing this was not where you were in a remote setting and they had to fly life flight to you this was hospital to hospital transfer so that may fall in the insurance differently in in a good way um so yeah uh because i'm I've run into over the years too many times that health insurance did not cover life flight flying to a rule situation to pick someone up and then flying them, you know, 50 miles out of town or something like that where you can't get an ambulance to them, right?

[588] That kind of thing is a different, different thing.

[589] But I'm so glad everything's okay.

[590] What's your household income?

[591] $130 ,000.

[592] Okay.

[593] All right.

[594] Yeah.

[595] So you just, it's just a, you know, it's just a, it's a speed bump, a bump in the road that delays everything.

[596] and it's one you didn't choose, but we're glad the baby's okay.

[597] And, yeah, you just play it through.

[598] Yeah, set $8 ,500 aside out of the savings and then attack the car as fast as you can after that and just be thankful that you're able to do all of it.

[599] Yeah, it'll be debt -free either way in a few months.

[600] So, yeah, there's nothing.

[601] It's one thing to get sick.

[602] It's another thing where your kid to be sick.

[603] You just, it, you feel so helpless.

[604] I'll tell you even worse.

[605] Grandkids sick.

[606] Because you're not even allowed to raise hell.

[607] I mean, you can't, you know, you have to have the parents raise hell.

[608] I mean, where's the nurse?

[609] You know, you can't do that, right?

[610] You just have to stand back and because they, dad, you know, you can't do that.

[611] You got to stay.

[612] Papa, Dave, be quiet.

[613] That's called boundaries, apparently.

[614] That might have happened, you know, it might have happened.

[615] Is that Rachel?

[616] I can't tell his voice that was.

[617] I'm not going to say.

[618] I'm not going to say, not going to, because they were right and I was wrong.

[619] So we're not going to throw anybody on the bus, but Dave.

[620] Smart man. Yeah, it's just this.

[621] But it's, man, it takes, it.

[622] Health stuff scary.

[623] I'm going to say it takes your breath away.

[624] You cannot say that it's a kid that asthma.

[625] So, but yeah, this is a, but yeah, it, you can't, man, it, it's, you're known for those over 30 years, Dave.

[626] Yes, I've done this repeatedly.

[627] Anthony is with us in New Jersey.

[628] Hey, Anthony, how are you?

[629] Hi, thank you for having me. Sure.

[630] How can we help?

[631] All right.

[632] So I had a situation with looking to get some advice.

[633] Basically, when I was 18 or 19 years old, I'm 22 right now.

[634] I had an online business, and I was able to accumulate a good amount of capital.

[635] And with the help of my parents, I invested in two real estate ventures.

[636] I got a little house that I rent out, and then I got a shopping strip.

[637] The house pays about $3 ,000 a month, and the shopping strip pays about $10 ,000 a month.

[638] So you're 22, you have a $13 ,000 a month rental income.

[639] Yeah Good God How much money did you make With your online business About I would say about Two to three million Wow So impressive And bizarre Yeah Wait say it again Sorry Impressive and bizarre and wonderful Thank you So my situation Comes where Next year The mortgage I got It was about You got $2 to $3 million And you took out a mortgage No, no, no. So right now, we paid about $8 .50 for it.

[640] I put $400 down, and then the rest we did a private mortgage.

[641] Where's the rest of your money?

[642] Hold on.

[643] I'm going to get to that.

[644] Okay.

[645] So, like I said, we paid $400 for it.

[646] Down?

[647] And then we put the, yeah, down.

[648] And then we put the reps in the mortgage, and the mortgage will be paid off next year.

[649] So after that, like I said, the $13 ,000 will be completely, you know, no payments, no debt, no nothing, because the house I mentioned, we paid full in cash.

[650] Okay.

[651] Now, when I was talking about the $2 to $3 million, I was just taking into account, like, all my assets, because from 2019, when we bought the property to now, it's gone up that much, just looking at...

[652] No, but your online business, how much did your online business make?

[653] Okay, online business, it was about like $800 ,000.

[654] to a million.

[655] Okay, and you use $400 for the down payment here, and you use some for the other.

[656] Where's the rest of that money?

[657] Taxes?

[658] I have, I have, I have $100 ,000 in cash.

[659] I have about, I have about $50 ,000 in stocks.

[660] And what's your question then?

[661] What are you wanting to do?

[662] So my question would be, since I'm very young, you know, I'm very grateful for the, you know, guaranteed monthly income.

[663] But I was wondering if it would be a good idea to maybe, you know, once the private mortgage is paid off to take out another mortgage on it now and try to do something else.

[664] No, no. You've got good money.

[665] You have a brain, an unusually good brain.

[666] Use it and keep your properties paid for and let that be your base of operation.

[667] Do not take out another debt.

[668] This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

[669] Hey good folks, the back -to -school madness is upon us.

[670] It's hitting us for right now.

[671] We got travel and work and all these forms.

[672] forms to fill out now and sports to travel to and on and on.

[673] My family's schedule is so packed and we haven't even begun talking about things like exercise and date nights and counseling and church and home projects.

[674] And those are the things that make our life even worth living.

[675] Here's what I've learned.

[676] When it comes to taking care of me, I have to put on my oxygen mask first.

[677] And that means that I have to do the things that keep me well and whole.

[678] And I know that you have to do those same things too.

[679] So don't skip the things that matter.

[680] So don't skip the things that to you, including regular exercise, hanging out with your friends and regular therapy appointments.

[681] And when it comes to therapy, contact my friends at BetterHelp.

[682] BetterHelp is 100 % online therapy staffed with licensed therapists.

[683] It's convenient, it's flexible, and it's suited to fit your schedule.

[684] And therapy can help you learn positive coping skills, how to set and practice boundaries, how to become the best version of yourself, and most importantly, how to find peace in all of this chaos.

[685] In this upcoming season, make sure you put on your oxygen mask first.

[686] Never skip therapy day.

[687] Call my friends at BetterHelp.

[688] Visit BetterHelp .com slash Deloney today for 10 % off your first month.

[689] That's BetterHelp, H -E -L -P .com slash Deloni.

[690] Thank you for joining us, America.

[691] We're so glad you are here.

[692] We're constantly asking you guys, and a bunch of you have.

[693] We appreciate you to leave a five -star review on the show.

[694] It helps with the algorithms.

[695] And also, of course, we invite you to share the show.

[696] Click the share button or share a link or tell people where you listen to it on the radio or whatever it is.

[697] And it's always a good idea, too, to follow the show.

[698] Click the follow or the subscribe on YouTube or on the podcast.

[699] All three of those help us a bunch.

[700] And we've got a five -star review in.

[701] We've gotten a bunch of them in.

[702] But this one caught our team's attention.

[703] I must admit, being left leaning from the West Coast my entire life, listening to the Ramsey show came as quite the culture shock.

[704] It was hard for me to not immediately associate the tone of the show with a laundry list of cultural values I've been conditioned to avoid.

[705] I kept listening anyway because I love Dave's straight talk.

[706] It was super refreshing, and after a while it was obvious, he's in fact, in fact, a really kind, brilliant person that just wants to instill some fiscal common sense back into our society.

[707] What I love most is how he talks about the importance of stewardship and how it's not just about the money.

[708] It's about how your money can help the world.

[709] Amazing stuff.

[710] Jumping past some of the personal story, then listening to these episodes makes me acknowledge that I just need to be accountable for my poor decisions and stop feeling helpless.

[711] I can get myself out of this situation, and it shouldn't even be that hard.

[712] I just have to make some common sense, tough choices, and go without for the next few years.

[713] Hi, my name is Eileen, and I am irresponsible with money.

[714] I'm ready to put the work in and be accountable for my own actions, and I will win at this game of life, passing these values down to my young kids.

[715] Thank you to the bottom of my heart for Dave and the entire team for achieving what my parents have failed to do my whole life, getting me to be fiscally responsible.

[716] Wow.

[717] That's very nice, Eileen.

[718] Thank you.

[719] Thank you.

[720] Yes.

[721] Very kind.

[722] I love that.

[723] We appreciate it.

[724] You're bringing both sides of the aisle together, Dave.

[725] That's me. I'm all about unity.

[726] that's me. That's amazing.

[727] I'm honored.

[728] I'm very honored.

[729] Very nice.

[730] I'm glad we are honored.

[731] It's the whole team here.

[732] It's a team effort.

[733] Open phones at AAA 825 -5 -225.

[734] DJ is with us in Baltimore.

[735] Hey, DJ.

[736] What's up?

[737] Hey, hey, guys.

[738] So I wanted to see if you had some suggestions on how to approach a situation that my husband and I are trying to tackle.

[739] So I'm about two years away from going to veterinary medical school, and I also was diagnosed with an illness last year.

[740] That kind of limits me quite a bit, and it also means that I have to renovate our home in order to make it work for my condition.

[741] So we're trying to figure out what's the best way to approach paying for those two very high -cost things without putting ourselves into a bind when we're not currently in one.

[742] So sorry.

[743] What's the nature of your illness?

[744] So I am highly susceptible to bacteria's and molds to the point where it causes my body to go into paralysis.

[745] Why does that sound extremely incongruent to vet scum?

[746] school to me because it can be so I there's one option or that school it's a brand new school being built in New Jersey that would be preferable for me to be in during I can't think of anything that has more bacteria and mold than animals animals actually they outside molds It's not the same as the type of molds that would grow like in your home due to water damage.

[747] So they're two different kinds.

[748] Okay.

[749] So it's basically issues with water damaged buildings.

[750] I got you.

[751] Okay.

[752] So you've got a mold problem in your current home?

[753] Yes.

[754] And we didn't know about that.

[755] We bought our home in 2020.

[756] And it was about...

[757] How expensive to eradicate it?

[758] it to be ready to sell?

[759] It would cost like about $500 ,000.

[760] No. $500 ,000 for mold remediation?

[761] No. Not to make you healthy to be ready to sell.

[762] To sell it?

[763] Yeah.

[764] I mean, you can't, as far as I understand it.

[765] It doesn't take $500 ,000 to remediate mold in anything, except an office tower.

[766] No, but I just did it.

[767] I just did it at my lakehouse.

[768] I spent three grand.

[769] Yeah, that's definitely not the bids that we were quoted for sure.

[770] I don't know.

[771] Is the whole house eaten up with mold?

[772] Yeah, so basically any of the water -sourced areas, so all of the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the basement.

[773] You need to get three more bids.

[774] Because let me just tell you, the mold world is full of drama queens, not you.

[775] I'm talking about the contractors that do eradication, and they'll come in and go, You're all going to die!

[776] They do this, and it's part of their sales pitch.

[777] You got it completely.

[778] You got to start from scratch.

[779] I got like five bids on the lakehouse, and they were everything from $1 ,000, which wasn't credible, up to $35 ,000.

[780] And in this case, it was only mold under the Carl space.

[781] Do what now?

[782] Yeah, so like the bids are upwards between 40 and 60 per area that we're looking at in our home to remediate and then to renovate them.

[783] Yeah.

[784] I wouldn't stay there if I had your condition.

[785] I love you and as your brother, I'm telling you to move.

[786] You shouldn't stay there if you have a condition that paralyzes you.

[787] This house has got real mold problems.

[788] And so I don't know if we're going to burn it down or if we're going to sell it, as is to some investor who remediates it or we find a better remediation thing.

[789] But I don't think this house is renovated for you.

[790] You need to move.

[791] Yeah, I don't know what I could move to.

[792] Can you guys go rent somewhere for now while you deal with the selling of the home?

[793] This creates paralysis for you, you said.

[794] Yeah.

[795] It scares me to death.

[796] I know.

[797] It's really frustrating because each, especially this region that I live in, like the Baltimore D .C. area, you know, it's quite wet, quite humid.

[798] So I really don't know where we would go.

[799] But you also, you're going to go to vet school in New Jersey.

[800] So it sounds like you need to move to New Jersey if you're going to do that?

[801] So it's a part of New Jersey that's closer to where we live.

[802] So it's commutable for me. So you've established there if you're going to go to this Vetsicle, you're going to stay in the area.

[803] Yeah.

[804] And every house in Baltimore does not have mold.

[805] You know that, right?

[806] I would hope not.

[807] Oh, come on, DJ.

[808] I would hope not.

[809] Come on.

[810] It's mainly, you know, we love our home.

[811] Yes, I understand.

[812] know what you're saying, but we do love our home.

[813] I wouldn't want to move if we didn't have to because we just...

[814] You have to move.

[815] You have to move.

[816] You are not going to spend a half million dollars to stay in this home.

[817] Your health is at stake.

[818] And this place is apparently rotting down with mold.

[819] I mean, you can't stay there.

[820] And there are other houses in the Baltimore area that don't have mold.

[821] We live in cold, we live in hot damp Tennessee, which is worse than cold damp Baltimore for mold.

[822] It's like mold is a way of life in our area.

[823] it's everywhere and and it's not everywhere it's not in every house my current home does not have mold my lake house got some underneath and it was three thousand bucks to eradicate it so i mean it's uh yeah you but you've got to get and i've got a bunch of rental houses and we've had a couple of those we had to do some work on but i've never had one that was completely rotted down with mold that is not so but and i have had some contractors and some tenants that thought that it was because the drama around this is never ending and I'm not suggesting you have the drama DJ if you've got an illness that is mold and you have an extreme mold situation in your house and that is in conflict with your health and in conflict with your ability to go to uh to vet school sell the house for what you can get for it and go rent something and go to vet school and have your health it's a real simple program I would not be in the mold renovation business if I had an extreme illness all related to mold.

[824] It's the last thing you want to do.

[825] Because the more they tear into it, the more it stirs it up.

[826] You can't live there while you're doing it anyway.

[827] If it's a massive thing, we fog it, you've got to leave, you got to do all this stuff.

[828] And so, yeah, you can't have too many things conflicting for one goal.

[829] We have three goals.

[830] Health, housing, and vet school.

[831] What takes priority?

[832] Health, what's next?

[833] Vet school.

[834] What's next?

[835] Stupid House.

[836] This is The Ramsey Show.

[837] George Campbell Ramsey Personality is my co -host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt -free stage.

[838] Sarah is with us.

[839] Hi, Sarah.

[840] Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[841] Hi, Dave.

[842] Good to have you.

[843] Where do you live?

[844] I live in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[845] Welcome to Nashville.

[846] And how much debt have you paid off?

[847] $26 ,750.

[848] Love it.

[849] How long did this take you?

[850] Eight and a half months.

[851] Good for you.

[852] And your range of income during that time?

[853] I started with 42, and then I ended with 50.

[854] Good for you.

[855] What do you do for a living?

[856] I was in investing communications, and now I'm in digital marketing.

[857] Good for you.

[858] Very good.

[859] What kind of debt was your 27 ,000?

[860] It was in a car.

[861] Bad decision.

[862] Yeah, it was a lot of money, and I totally regretted it when I got into that debt.

[863] So did you sell it, or did you pay it off?

[864] I ended up paying it off.

[865] Okay, and kept it.

[866] All right, good for you.

[867] Fun.

[868] What kind of car?

[869] It is a Toyota.

[870] a rap for 2015 of course it is okay good very good cool so how'd you get connected to all this ramsie stuff I actually am a Ramsey baby my mom and dad followed your plan I didn't take their advice at first I wish I did they failed his parents but they did get me on the right track no they didn't they told you knew what to do you knew they weren't going to like what you did oh yeah they were not too happy about it what was that conversation like Dad, I just took out a $27 ,000 car payment.

[871] Yeah, they told me I should get a beater until I can, you know, really pay cash for it.

[872] But, you know, I didn't listen.

[873] And, you know, they helped give me advice to dig me out of the hole I was in.

[874] Yeah, and no money.

[875] Just advice.

[876] They can give you any money.

[877] No money, no. Good for them.

[878] I like it.

[879] These are great parents.

[880] Yeah, they are.

[881] Very cool.

[882] How old are you?

[883] I'm turning 26 in June.

[884] Okay.

[885] Did you learn your lesson?

[886] I did.

[887] Never a car payment again.

[888] Never again.

[889] You're going to be a millionaire.

[890] Exactly.

[891] If you stay away from car payment, you'll be a millionaire.

[892] I will.

[893] What was your car payment?

[894] It started off around 600, and then, yeah.

[895] So then I ended up putting my savings down on it, kind of followed the plan on the book, and then I brought it down to 300, around 300.

[896] Okay.

[897] That's a significant portion of your take -home pay at that point.

[898] Yes, it was really bad.

[899] And that's when you went, this is, I did dumb.

[900] Let's undo this.

[901] Yeah.

[902] I did have a good bit saved up.

[903] because, you know, my parents really instilled in me that I need to save, save, save.

[904] I graduated college debt -free, thanks to them following your plan.

[905] And then so luckily I had some savings to put down on it to really drop the payments.

[906] How much did you have in savings?

[907] $23 ,000.

[908] Wow, okay.

[909] All right, very good.

[910] So eight and a half months later, we're done.

[911] Yeah.

[912] Yeah, that's very good.

[913] So you actually had enough cash to pay for a decent car.

[914] I did.

[915] You had the savings muscle there.

[916] I know.

[917] But you went, nah, I'm going to finance this.

[918] You just got the fever.

[919] I know.

[920] I talked to me friends and I was like, yeah, I got the fever.

[921] You kind of got a great car for 20 grand in cash.

[922] I know.

[923] Well, it was also when the cars were really overvalued too.

[924] So it was really a bad time for me. Worst time ever.

[925] Yeah.

[926] What were you driving at the time?

[927] A 2012 Chevy Cruz.

[928] Okay.

[929] Yeah.

[930] And it just blew up on me one day.

[931] Oh.

[932] And then you went to drama mode and said, I need a new car today.

[933] Yeah.

[934] I got to finance a $30 ,000 car.

[935] Yeah, I made some bad decisions.

[936] Hey, I'm proud of you.

[937] Thank you.

[938] We're giving you a hard time.

[939] But everybody.

[940] Everybody's done a whole lot dumber things than you've done.

[941] Yeah.

[942] The good news is you did it at a very young age, and you learn your lesson, you never go back, and you have parents who didn't bail you out.

[943] No helicopter blades in the background here.

[944] Right.

[945] No one, you know, you let you lay in your mess and clean it up, and you did.

[946] You became like a full -grown woman and did your stuff.

[947] Way to go.

[948] How old are you again?

[949] I'm 25, turning 26.

[950] You're smart.

[951] Way to go.

[952] I'm so proud of you.

[953] Thank you.

[954] Very well done.

[955] How's it feel to be free?

[956] It feels amazing.

[957] I actually had to get a new tire the other day, and I wasn't freaking out because I had money to pay for it.

[958] Yeah, like one car payment will buy tires.

[959] One of the old car payments anyway, yeah.

[960] Good for you.

[961] Very cool.

[962] Okay, now that you've gotten out of debt, you've got a 24 -year -old listening that all of these 23 -year -old listening, 24, that their stupid friends are telling them to go buy a car on car payments.

[963] when they got the money in savings to buy a $15 ,000 or $20 ,000 car, what would you tell that person that was you back then?

[964] I would say, do not go into debt over a depreciating asset.

[965] Why?

[966] Why?

[967] Because it's a waste of money.

[968] Okay.

[969] Yeah, it'll drain your bank account.

[970] And it stole your piece.

[971] Yeah.

[972] What little bit of fun it was was all taken away by the weight, wasn't it?

[973] It was, yeah.

[974] The weight, the heaviness, that weight, not.

[975] not having to wait patiently in line, but the heaviness of it.

[976] Way to go.

[977] Wow, very good.

[978] And the secret to getting out of debt is what?

[979] A lot of side jobs.

[980] I found a lot of side jobs doing like walking dogs, pet sitting, house sitting.

[981] I did some freelance work, an additional to my full -time, sticking to a budget and paying cash.

[982] Wow.

[983] Good for you.

[984] Well done, well done.

[985] Now Mom and Dad are smiling.

[986] Now they're smiling.

[987] Oh, yeah.

[988] Yeah.

[989] Now it's all going good now.

[990] Well, most people listen are going, gosh, I wish I figured this stuff out when I was 25.

[991] And you're feeling like, I wasted all this time.

[992] And there's no, you got so much time left to make good decisions that will far displace.

[993] There's a 37 -year -old listen that we've still not, listening that we've still not convinced.

[994] They're not convinced.

[995] They're about to go get a new car.

[996] They're going to be 42 before they catch on.

[997] Yeah.

[998] Way to go.

[999] Good job.

[1000] Very good job.

[1001] Very good job.

[1002] Hey, we've got a copy of the Baby Steps Millionaire's book for you because that's your future.

[1003] That's where you're headed.

[1004] I promise you, you are.

[1005] $600 a month, you know how fast you'll be a millionaire?

[1006] Real fast.

[1007] Just investing that.

[1008] It's serious money.

[1009] And a total money makeover book as well.

[1010] Hand that out to one of your friends and go, don't do it.

[1011] And the same stuff your parents did.

[1012] But yeah, that's okay.

[1013] So it's smart, very smart.

[1014] And a financial peace university membership.

[1015] Have you been through the class as an adult yet?

[1016] I have not.

[1017] Good.

[1018] Could take it and go through it.

[1019] Go through the nine lessons and because it'll help you accelerate your process into millionaire now.

[1020] Because you've got the basic debt stuff figured out and the budgeting and the hard work and the extra jobs part.

[1021] So now we just blow through and make sure you get the emergency fund in place and let's get that compound interest working for you.

[1022] At 25 years old, you could be worth 10 or 15 million dollars at retirement.

[1023] You really could.

[1024] It's very, very doable.

[1025] I mean, because you got the right start.

[1026] You got this in the financial peace baby.

[1027] You got everything going for it.

[1028] Forty years of investing in compound interest.

[1029] Yeah.

[1030] So the two books and the financial peace university membership is the live and give bundle.

[1031] That is people buy it all the time.

[1032] It's a box that comes, and you can take a book out for yourself, give a book to a friend, take financial peace or give it to a friend.

[1033] So it's live and give.

[1034] It's for both things.

[1035] And so we'll give it all to you.

[1036] Thanks for making the trip over from Raleigh.

[1037] You're inspiring.

[1038] You're a wonderful young woman.

[1039] Thank you for having me. Very well done.

[1040] And your mom and dad are over there grinning like they know you're not going to move in their basement.

[1041] Yeah, it's great.

[1042] It's amazing.

[1043] So very cool.

[1044] Very cool stuff.

[1045] Good stuff.

[1046] All right.

[1047] It's Sarah from Raleigh, North Carolina.

[1048] She paid off the car.

[1049] she shouldn't have bought and she learned a lesson in the process 27 ,000 paid off in eight and a half months including using some of her savings and walking dogs 42 to $50 ,000 income count it down let's hear a debt free scream three two one I'm debt free we love to see it I'm I think we need to do an informal survey on how many rev fours just something about a rev four Right.

[1050] That's come up a lot lately.

[1051] A lot of calls I've taken.

[1052] It's a very popular vehicle for young, broke people.

[1053] And it's one they go, well, it's worth it.

[1054] It's a safe, reliable, great car.

[1055] I'll have a long time.

[1056] I'll finance it.

[1057] You know.

[1058] That's the theory.

[1059] The center of gravity on that thing is really high.

[1060] I watched one do a flip.

[1061] Oh, really?

[1062] That's scary.

[1063] A forward flip.

[1064] Wow.

[1065] Yeah.

[1066] So, yeah, I mean, I'm not against rev force.

[1067] It's just, I just am seeing them.

[1068] Well, your truck will eat a Ravre for.

[1069] I know, but you like, you want to be in a monster truck.

[1070] But I don't, you know, but that's, that's not the point.

[1071] It's, um, it would also eat your Tesla, but it would spit it back out.

[1072] Ouch, it can't handle the battery, Dave, it can't eat that thing.

[1073] I'll gag right on the battery.

[1074] Battery will last forever in a landfill somewhere.

[1075] Get a little, you get a little, battery acid in your throat.

[1076] But it's true.

[1077] People, we justify car purchases all the time, especially the younger you are.

[1078] Oh, we all do.

[1079] We all do.

[1080] You go.

[1081] I deserve.

[1082] You know, I deserve.

[1083] It's safe.

[1084] It's reliable.

[1085] I work hard.

[1086] I don't want to drive the beater around.

[1087] But listen, freedom on the other side of that.

[1088] Let me just help you.

[1089] $15 ,000 is not a beater.

[1090] That's not $1 ,500 is a beater.

[1091] Yeah.

[1092] Okay.

[1093] So, wow.

[1094] But she's great.

[1095] She's amazing.

[1096] She's going to do so good.

[1097] Big things for sure.

[1098] I hope she inspired a lot of other people out there to go.

[1099] She inspired me. I'm going to be like her.

[1100] I don't want a car payment.

[1101] That's right.

[1102] I mean, people who will stand up and look in the mirror and go, done, that's inspiring.

[1103] That's inspiring.

[1104] This is The Ramsey Show.

[1105] George Camel Ramsey personality is my co -host.

[1106] Okay, let's clear something up.

[1107] If you listen to this show for 10 seconds, you know we hate debt.

[1108] And some people, for some reason, don't understand that.

[1109] I don't know why.

[1110] They think you need debt and credit cards to build your credit.

[1111] Yeah, well, you do.

[1112] Why would you want to build your credit so you can go into debt?

[1113] And why would you go into debt so you could build your credit?

[1114] And then why would you go into debt?

[1115] So you could build your credit.

[1116] Why would you build your credit so you could go into debt?

[1117] Because you need a good credit score to buy a house, right?

[1118] No, you do not.

[1119] The truth is, living.

[1120] a debt -free lifestyle eventually you won't have any credit score and you got to find a good lender like churchill mortgage it can do what's called manual underwriting george and whitney did that for their home and uh we survived zero credit score and you got a uh the same rate as someone with a good credit score when you did it so you don't have to pay more and you need to get a real estate agent who will actually help you find a house that you can afford on a 15 year fixed rate with a good strong down payment and a payment of no more than a fourth of your take -home pay.

[1121] All of that can happen at Ramsey trusted.

[1122] We'll get up with a good real estate agent that knows what they're doing, high octane, high protein that gets it done.

[1123] I meet them all over this nation when I'm traveling.

[1124] We were just in Salt Lake City.

[1125] We talked to a bunch of them.

[1126] Good quality people.

[1127] I'm always inspired by the fact that our team has done a good job to put the quality of person they put in our ELP program.

[1128] So you want to find out who's Ramsey trusted to help you with your real estate transaction, click on that at ramsysolutions .com slash agent.

[1129] Our question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services when you're trying to get things done around your house.

[1130] Sometimes you need to run into a problem or a project that's more than you can handle yourself.

[1131] Neighborly .com is your source for the best pros in your area to help with home improvement projects.

[1132] Great company, Neighborly.

[1133] Today's question comes from Zach in Alabama.

[1134] He asks, I'm reading more and more about de -dollarization.

[1135] and countries moving away from the U .S. dollar as their basis of international trade.

[1136] Will this affect the strength of the dollar, and should I be concerned about how I'm saving and investing as a result of this?

[1137] Number one, Zach, you're spending too much time on the internet, first and foremost, okay?

[1138] Because you've gotten into the conspiracy theory blanks here.

[1139] Now, what is really going on?

[1140] Okay, I'm concerned with how it's going.

[1141] Let me see.

[1142] Moving away from the U .S. dollar as their basis of international trade, let me just tell you, China and Brazil and Russia are the three main players in this.

[1143] They already don't use the U .S. dollar as their basis of international trade.

[1144] Russia has its own currency, so does China, and so does Brazil.

[1145] And there's a conversion rate between that currency and the U .S. dollar.

[1146] So many dollars equals so many yen.

[1147] Okay?

[1148] And, you know, when you go to Mexico, a whole bunch of pesos equals a dollar, right?

[1149] Like 20 of them.

[1150] So that's, you know, you've got a conversion rate from one currency to another.

[1151] What these particular, the three largest countries, and they're talking about bringing in some of the oil countries as well in the Middle East, are doing, is they're trying to come up with one currency that they all use.

[1152] and then that would be an international trade converted back and forth to dollars much like Europe did with the euro which by the way kind of didn't work when we had this exact same crap when Europe went when you know France did away with their own currency the Brexit was the big deal whether the UK was going to get involved or not and the euro was traded all over Europe and they did away with their basic currency and now the U .S. is just going to have, we're going to, it's a one world currency, it's the end times of revelation, and this is what comes up, right?

[1153] Okay.

[1154] But all it is, is these countries, if they did all agree to use one currency, it'd be much like when Europe went to the euro, and then that's going to exchange for the dollar back and forth.

[1155] Are those countries going to be able to devalue the dollar by doing that?

[1156] No. Because while they do take up a lot of land mass, they do not take up a lot of the gross domestic product, of the world.

[1157] The United States still is the vast majority of the gross domestic product of the world.

[1158] Still, China is big.

[1159] Russia is basically horrible.

[1160] And Brazil is in a failed economy like times ten, and it's tiny as far as economics go.

[1161] In other words, like, I suspect I haven't looked it up, but I suspect Texas has a higher GDP than Brazil.

[1162] as an example.

[1163] For real, I'm not kidding.

[1164] I haven't looked it up, but I bet you that's true.

[1165] Look it up.

[1166] I know it's got a higher GDP than Egypt, because I looked that up one time.

[1167] I know it's got a higher GDP than Sweden and about five of the other countries that were talking about natural gas crap a few years ago, because I looked that one up, and that was going to be the end of the world, and they were going to take over.

[1168] But they're tiny, but little countries.

[1169] And so when you put them all together, they don't have the muscle to take down the dollar.

[1170] They just don't.

[1171] mathematically it's arithmetic you know you can't they just don't have it now what they are going to do if they all do put it together it's not a de -dollarization it's not doing way with the dollar they've created their own currency they're still going to have to trade with the 800 pound gorilla which be us okay and you're going to have to trade with us in dollars so you're going to whatever little currency you create over there in your little fantasy world that you live in you're still going to have to trade it for dollars so it's not going to take down the dollar's not going to be worth and I don't know how to invest because it's going to collapse because freaking Brazil.

[1172] Brazil?

[1173] I mean, when you look at the math, it's humorous.

[1174] I mean, and Russia we always think of is like, you know, in the Rocky movies or something.

[1175] Like they're going to come bomb the United States or whatever and all this stuff.

[1176] But when you look at their, even though it's a huge landmass, their economic production is pitiful.

[1177] It's pitiful because communism.

[1178] sucks.

[1179] And so it just doesn't create a lot of gross domestic product.

[1180] You know, and so really when you get into it, that's what you're going to find.

[1181] So I'm, am I worried about this?

[1182] Absolutely not.

[1183] Absolutely zero.

[1184] Because Russia is pitiful.

[1185] China has no labor force.

[1186] Their labor force is aging out because they, they stopped having babies legally, you know?

[1187] And so they have no young labor force coming on.

[1188] So about several economists are predicting that their economy is really going to be deep do -do in 20 years because there's going to be nobody to work.

[1189] Nobody do the work.

[1190] And so all the stuff that China's creating right now, they're not going to have anybody to do it.

[1191] And so...

[1192] This is a lot of just fear -mongering.

[1193] It gets clicks and views.

[1194] And so the media loves to spend this in this.

[1195] But should you be concerned about how you're saving and investing?

[1196] No. No. I wouldn't change a thing.

[1197] Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wouldn't bet against America.

[1198] Long -term, it's a bad mood.

[1199] And it's not, it's not arrogance.

[1200] It's math.

[1201] It's not like I'm blinded by the flag or patriotism.

[1202] That's not it.

[1203] America does some stupid butt stuff sometimes.

[1204] But even when we do, we do it on scale.

[1205] I mean, it's like, you know, it's like, come on, man. So, no, no, no. Listen, I'm old and I'm getting tired because when I first started, there was like a conspiracy theory that the world was.

[1206] You've seen them all at this point.

[1207] You know, there's a guy, here's one.

[1208] I was telling a friend of mine, a friend of mine was asking me about this.

[1209] other day.

[1210] I said, my answer to him was, I read a book in 1982 called Bankruptcy, 1984.

[1211] It was predicting the end of the U .S. economy in 1984.

[1212] It was written by an economist that was brilliant named Peter Grace.

[1213] He was in charge of the Grace Commission in the Reagan administration, and they were studying the increasing national debt, and that the national debt was going to Cause the economy to collapse, which I think the national debt's stupid and out of control.

[1214] Okay, but this guy said it's going to hockey stick and the the monetary policy is going to turn upside down.

[1215] We've sucked all the cash out used it for government stuff and the economy's got no cash to operate on.

[1216] And so it's going to collapse in 1984.

[1217] Apparently wrong.

[1218] And then another friend of mine wrote a book called Coming Economic Earthquake.

[1219] Didn't happen.

[1220] And then another guy wrote a book.

[1221] Talk about the collapse of the economy.

[1222] And, and, and then another guy wrote a book, talk about the collapse of the economy.

[1223] And, and, and, And then another guy wrote a book.

[1224] Well, then we had Y2K.

[1225] There's a lot.

[1226] Oh, the Y2K was going to collapse the economy.

[1227] And then there was, then when the planes hit the towers, the economy was not going to recover because 3 ,000 people died and two towers fell in New York City.

[1228] So the entire U .S. economy was going to collapse as a result of that.

[1229] And that went around for a while.

[1230] And Silicon Valley Bank.

[1231] The economy is going to collapse.

[1232] That tiny little bank over in San Francisco that no one knew what it was except venture capitalist has the power to bring down the entire U .S. economy.

[1233] It's just asinine.

[1234] At some point, it's like.

[1235] Like, okay, George, if I ever write the book on the end of the economy, would you please smack me?

[1236] I'll do that.

[1237] Just make sure you plan it until long after your death, so we can't blame you for it in person and go, Nana -N -N -A -Boo.

[1238] No, you would, anyway.

[1239] You would.

[1240] There you go.

[1241] I know he's dead, but he was stupid.

[1242] No one's going to say that about you, Dan.

[1243] Yes, they will.

[1244] They say it while I'm alive, so probably long.

[1245] This is The Ramsey Show.

[1246] Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions.

[1247] It's the Ramsey Show, where we help.

[1248] people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships.

[1249] George Camel Ramsey Personality, host of the popular YouTube channel, George Camel, Camel with a K, check it out.

[1250] He is the king of snark.

[1251] You will love it.

[1252] And he and Rachel Cruz do a wonderful afternoon show called Smart Money Happy Hour.

[1253] Ding!

[1254] Yeah, they might have a drink on the show.

[1255] So you need to check them out, and they get rather funny after.

[1256] they drink so check them out Sharon Ramsey loves it and that's the only review you need America that's it that's all you need to know it tells you everything you need is Sharon listens to it and she doesn't listen to this show so wow you know that that's there's some hurt feelings to my left I think there's bitterness here but it could be now after 30 years she's not impressed anymore 30 years of being on the air and 40 years of marriage she's not impressed at all takes a lot to impress Sharon yeah we've managed to do it yeah there you go so check it out smart money happy hour.

[1257] Hey, this is a baby steps, millionaires, theme hour.

[1258] What is that?

[1259] That is where we talk to real millionaires.

[1260] If you're a real millionaire call in, let me help you with what a millionaire is, because some people don't know, including a congressman I heard speaking the other day who was an idiot.

[1261] So a millionaire is not someone that makes a million dollars a year, Mr. Congressman, Mrs. Congressman, you were wrong.

[1262] A millionaire is someone who has a million dollar net worth that is different than your income.

[1263] Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe.

[1264] Assets minus liabilities equals net worth.

[1265] When that is greater than one million dollars, what you own minus what you owe is greater than one million dollars.

[1266] You are officially by accounting definitions a millionaire.

[1267] Well, I don't feel like it's not a feeling.

[1268] No one should have that much.

[1269] It's not a moral construct.

[1270] It's not enough.

[1271] It's not a question of how much you need for retirement.

[1272] It's a math thing.

[1273] When you have a million dollar net worth, you're a millionaire.

[1274] all it is.

[1275] It's not, you know, we can answer and have those other discussions if you want to have them.

[1276] Moral construct, is it enough and all that kind of stuff?

[1277] But it is a million dollar net worth.

[1278] So if you actually have a $1 million or greater net worth, we want to talk to you and find out how you got it because there's a lot of mythology floating around about wealthy people in America today.

[1279] Let me say it another way.

[1280] There's a lot of stupid lies that are told about wealthy people in America that just by the uninformed, ignorant, and people with an agenda trying to get you to vote the wrong way and so there you go check us out if you're a millionaire george and i want to talk to you want to learn how you did it the phone number here is triple eight eight two five five two two five sarah is in cincinnati sarah what's your net worth good afternoon sir very much an honor to speak with you a long -time listener my net worth is 1 .9 million very cool good for you give me a little breakdown on that what is that and what's the categories that make up the 1 .9?

[1281] Okay, I have six buckets plus a retiree medical account.

[1282] My house fully paid for house, $425 ,000.

[1283] My bank checking and savings is currently at the $250 ,000.

[1284] I've got that amount in there.

[1285] I know I'm at the SDIIC limit.

[1286] I have a Roth IRA at 232, 371, taxable brokerage, 26826, an Oprah's 403B retirement at 501, and a deferred comp that's also with my public employment at 190 ,000, 862, and then my retiree medical count is at 85 ,000.

[1287] I just checked all my numbers Sunday, and that brings me to $1 ,945 ,000.

[1288] Check it again.

[1289] It's probably over two now.

[1290] Way to go!

[1291] How old are you?

[1292] I am 54 years old.

[1293] Cool.

[1294] And how much of this $1 .9 million did you inherit?

[1295] I actually inherited after I hit my million dollar mark in 2017.

[1296] After an uncle I was caring for, passed away, I inherited $213 ,000 a gift from him.

[1297] Awesome.

[1298] That's very nice.

[1299] But to be clear, you were already a millionaire.

[1300] Yes, sir.

[1301] So you did not become a millionaire with inherited money?

[1302] Correct, sir.

[1303] I just want to make sure everybody hears that loud and clear, because that's one of the numbers we hear about all the time.

[1304] Way to go!

[1305] All right, so what do you do for a living?

[1306] I am a registered nurse in public health.

[1307] I recently acquired my master's degree in May of 21.

[1308] Okay.

[1309] What was your GPA?

[1310] Probably about a 3 .4.

[1311] Good for you.

[1312] And your best working year, what did you make, and your worst working year since you've been working?

[1313] What's your lowest income and highest?

[1314] Yes.

[1315] Last year, because of mandated overtime, I was at $117 ,000.

[1316] When I first started working as a nurse in 1991, my pay was $13 .50 an hour.

[1317] Prior to that, I worked as an aide, a nurse aide at $5 .50 an hour.

[1318] Wow.

[1319] So $13 .50 an hour would be like $16 ,000 a year.

[1320] Correct.

[1321] And now I'm at $46 an hour.

[1322] Woo -wee.

[1323] And so most of this time you've not even made $100 ,000.

[1324] Correct.

[1325] Oh, definitely.

[1326] Definitely not.

[1327] But in 20, 20, 21, and 22, I just cleared 100 ,000 because of mandated over time.

[1328] But prior to that, I was around 90 ,000 a year.

[1329] But really, over the last 20 years, my average is probably about $60 ,000.

[1330] Because when I started in public health, I was only $22 an hour.

[1331] Wow.

[1332] You are like the poster child for our national millionaire study.

[1333] Thank you.

[1334] We found a lot of them, they didn't make six figures, and inheritance didn't cause them to become a millionaire.

[1335] and you just consistently invested over a long period of time?

[1336] Yes, yes, I started the Roth.

[1337] I wish I would have started in my 20s, but I started the Roth about 30, and then also put back in the taxable brokerage.

[1338] And then when I started with public employment, they match at 10%.

[1339] So they take 10 % of mine and match it at 10.

[1340] So three 26 -year -old nurses are standing around the coffee pot, and you walk up and they're saying, no way a nurse can ever be a millionaire.

[1341] What do you tell those three?

[1342] Oh, I encourage this all the time.

[1343] In fact, I refer them to your information, but I talk to them all the time about putting back at least in a Roth to start in a Roth, because I do know a lot of the health care systems don't have very good programs necessarily.

[1344] Public employment's a little different, but I encourage them to start a Roth IRA and max it out.

[1345] But basically you're telling them they can do it.

[1346] Oh, yes, yes.

[1347] Yes, I've even disclosed, you know, that I have built wealth that way, and they can do it, too, that my house is paid for.

[1348] They usually encourage to hear that.

[1349] Sarah, you're amazing.

[1350] You're amazing.

[1351] You're an absolute amazing lady.

[1352] Congratulations.

[1353] 54 years old, 1 .9 million.

[1354] Average income through a working life of 60 ,000.

[1355] Only in the last two years did she even break six figures.

[1356] Wow.

[1357] And she's got a $1 .9 million net worth.

[1358] Oh, to be fair, $200 ,000 of the $1 .9 was inherited after she was already a millionaire.

[1359] 79 % of America's millionaires by the largest study of millionaires ever done, and you can get that in the Millionaire's book.

[1360] The study is in the back of the book, the entire white paper on it.

[1361] You can unpack the details of for you nerds if you're having trouble sleeping.

[1362] Put me right to sleep.

[1363] I know that.

[1364] It's my study.

[1365] So 79 % inherited precisely zero.

[1366] 5 % inherited a small amount like $5 ,000, not enough to make them millionaires.

[1367] Another 5 % inherited money after substantial money like her, after they were already millionaires.

[1368] Five and five and seventy -nine would be called eighty -nine.

[1369] That's nine out of ten of America's millionaires are not millionaires, according to stone -cold data, because of inheritance.

[1370] So when someone tells you the only way you're going to be wealthy is have a rich uncle, they're full of crap.

[1371] It's simply not true.

[1372] Don't let the lefties tell you this stuff.

[1373] That's not true.

[1374] It's a Baby Steps Millionaire's theme hour.

[1375] George Camel Ramsey personality is my co -host today.

[1376] This is a Baby Steps Millionaires theme hour.

[1377] If you're a real millionaire with a net worth of greater than a million dollars, what you own minus what you owe, we want to talk to you.

[1378] I don't want your broke brother -in -law's opinion.

[1379] I want real millionaires as to how they really did it.

[1380] AAA 8255 -225.

[1381] Let's do a little mental exercise.

[1382] look ahead 90 days from now it's July you have a thousand dollars in the bank you paid off two of your credit cards and you check out at the grocery without having a panic attack you know how that would feel peaceful financially peaceful financial peace some of you have never had that in your entire life but today is the day that you can look take take back control of your money it starts in financial peace university it's our nine -week course that's helped millions of people beat debt build wealth and become outrageously generous.

[1383] We're going to teach you everything about how to handle money step by step, so you don't have to worry about it anymore.

[1384] The average student going through Financial Peace University has an $8 ,000 turnaround in 90 days.

[1385] $5 ,300 in debt reduction, $2 ,700 in savings.

[1386] That's the average total of $8 ,000.

[1387] Not a bad return on your time.

[1388] I could give you $8 ,000 in three months.

[1389] Would you talk about it?

[1390] We should talk about it.

[1391] That means before summer break is over, you're going to feel different.

[1392] Go to Financial Peace University today at Ramsey Solutions .com slash FPU and get signed up.

[1393] You'll be amazed at how inexpensive it is.

[1394] Get plugged into a group where people love you, encourage you, and hold you accountable, and that'll ensure that this works.

[1395] Financial Peace University, Ramsey Solutions .com slash FPU.

[1396] David is in Milwaukee.

[1397] Hi, David.

[1398] What is your net worth?

[1399] Hey, Dave, George.

[1400] Thanks for taking my call.

[1401] My net worth, as of last night, it is one.

[1402] million sixty five thousand dollars look at you i like it very good and i give me a little breakdown by category how's that made up uh so cash is around 90 000 uh retirement accounts with 401k and and roth IRAs around 190 uh brokerage accounts uh with 50 thousand and real estate's the big one here at 735 000 very cool good for you how old are you I'm 32, and my wife is 30.

[1403] Good for you.

[1404] And how much of this $1 .1 million did you inherit?

[1405] Zero.

[1406] All right, zero precisely.

[1407] Okay, so you've been working 10 years or so.

[1408] What was your best working year, household income, and worst year?

[1409] When my wife and I were both working together, we were probably in the 220 range, I would say, at her best year.

[1410] Since then, she's become a stay -at -home mom.

[1411] She's been working at home, and we're probably really.

[1412] on the 200 mark now, I would say.

[1413] That's your worst year ever is 200?

[1414] uh, me, no, sorry, sorry, sorry, uh, about 120, 120 on the low end.

[1415] Okay, cool.

[1416] What do you all do for a living?

[1417] What do you do?

[1418] Um, an electrical engineer.

[1419] Okay, very good.

[1420] All right.

[1421] And, what was your GPA?

[1422] Uh, Bachelor's was, they turned on a 3 .8, 3 .9.

[1423] Masters like 3 .5 -ish, I want to say.

[1424] Okay.

[1425] Good for you.

[1426] Well done.

[1427] Well done.

[1428] So you think this can be done today?

[1429] If you've got somebody out there listening that's an engineer just coming out of school at 22, 23 years old, can they still become a millionaire in 10 years?

[1430] Oh, 100%.

[1431] 100%.

[1432] I think as long as you have a vision of what you're trying to accomplish and you can lay a goal in front of yourself and, you know, put together some simple steps and then just have discipline on, you know, repeating those steps month after month, year after year.

[1433] I think it's an inevitable fact, honestly.

[1434] So I'm curious, David, because you're so young, and people like to, you know, poo -poo on folks that are young who have built wealth because they just don't think it's possible for them.

[1435] So what would you tell that person?

[1436] Was it the paid -for house?

[1437] How intentional were you over these 10 years to do this?

[1438] Or did you just look up one day and go, oh, my gosh, here we are?

[1439] No, we were extremely intentional.

[1440] And this started off in 2015 when I got out of school.

[1441] I mean, in 2050, and I had a net worth of negative $50 ,000.

[1442] And the first thing was jumping into the FPU.

[1443] Jumped into FPU, paid off those student loans in the first 12 months of my career.

[1444] And we started saving for our first house and paid cash for our first house right out of the gate.

[1445] It was a duplex.

[1446] Two years later, we paid cash for another rental property.

[1447] And now we've moved into a third place as well.

[1448] So we've been really just slow and steady.

[1449] Like Dave always says, you know, the slow and steady wins the race.

[1450] Wow.

[1451] That old get rich slow plan works.

[1452] And here you are at 32.

[1453] It didn't take you 30 years.

[1454] Well, sometimes I hear all rich people are crooks.

[1455] How much of this did you steal?

[1456] As far as I know, zero.

[1457] Unless my CPA messed up or something, but zero as far as I know.

[1458] Well, I just had to ask.

[1459] I want to make sure we get all the facts out here.

[1460] Hey, man, I'm proud of you.

[1461] to go.

[1462] Congratulations.

[1463] Very, very well done.

[1464] Jason and Lexington, what is your net worth?

[1465] Hey, Dave.

[1466] It is $1 .3 million.

[1467] Good for you.

[1468] Give me a little breakdown by category.

[1469] Yeah, it's about a third of it is in our personal property.

[1470] A third of it is in retirement accounts 401k's IRAs, and a third of it is an investment property.

[1471] Okay, so real estate, all right, and so good.

[1472] Very good.

[1473] How old are you?

[1474] I'm 49 years old and my wife is 47.

[1475] Excellent.

[1476] How much of this did you inherit?

[1477] Not a darn penny, unfortunately.

[1478] What do you do for a living?

[1479] I am in technology sales, so I actually worked for one of those big, large tech companies that had all the layoffs.

[1480] And coincidentally enough, my commission check hit, I'm in sales, while I was laid off.

[1481] So technically, we became millionaires while I was unemployed.

[1482] That's impressive.

[1483] I'll take it.

[1484] I'll take it every time.

[1485] What's your degree in?

[1486] It is in computer science.

[1487] I was a developer for many years, started listening to you back in 2007, started looking for an opportunity to, you know, get a bigger shovel, so I moved over into sales.

[1488] Ah, that's interesting.

[1489] And what was your GPA in computer science?

[1490] Oh, it was about a 3 .2.

[1491] Okay.

[1492] And what was your all's best working year since you've been working, household income and worst working year, a range?

[1493] So this year will be our best year.

[1494] It'll be somewhere around 700 ,000.

[1495] It's a bit of an outlet.

[1496] liar you know how sales go worst year i'd have to go all the way back to when i was in the army to have my absolute worst year but let's just go in the last 10 years about 180000 okay all right so 700 ,000 and you got laid off exactly the best year i've ever had like laid me off every year wow that's so interesting i wonder what the correlation to that is we don't want to pay this guy 700 ,000 we're going to lay him off hmm Okay, but they had to pay.

[1497] They had to pay the commission that was on the books, right?

[1498] They did pay what was on the books, so I guess if there's an ethical way to fire people, they did it.

[1499] Wow.

[1500] Call it a severance check.

[1501] And next year, they just won't have all those sales.

[1502] Exactly.

[1503] But I've already landed a new place.

[1504] It's a better place, you know.

[1505] And the nice thing is when I got the email, and yes, I was fired over an email.

[1506] I just looked at my wife that morning.

[1507] I was like, well, I guess I'm taking some vacation.

[1508] That's what you can do when you've got financial peace.

[1509] Amen.

[1510] When you're 49 years old and you're worth one.

[1511] $1 .3 million, and you don't know what I mean, debt.

[1512] Way to go, man. Way to go.

[1513] So tell the young techies out there, can this still be done, or is all the opportunity in America gone?

[1514] It absolutely can be done.

[1515] And, you know, doing it the right way, doing it slow growth is always less painful, is always better.

[1516] You know, in the last 16 years, we've had lots of different economies.

[1517] We've had certainly different types of president, and it's never affected me one bit, keeping my head down, concentrating on what my wife and I can control within our sphere of influence, and what we can affect has always been the right approach.

[1518] In the last 25 years, Richard, puts you down to 25 years old, what's the dumbest thing you did with money?

[1519] Oh, you know, when we were really young, when I was stationed in Germany, we bought a brand new car, a 1994 Dodge Avenger.

[1520] We put $300 down on it, went home, and freaked out, went back the next day and canceled that we did not get our $300 back.

[1521] So out of all the things you can do stupid with money, $300 we'll take it.

[1522] It was a well lesson learned.

[1523] Yeah.

[1524] Didn't have to, and just took the car.

[1525] That's amazing, yeah.

[1526] Sweet car.

[1527] I'm glad you didn't get it.

[1528] Very cool.

[1529] Very cool.

[1530] Are you a reader or a TV person?

[1531] Oh, I read.

[1532] I try to read two books a month.

[1533] Ah, okay.

[1534] High correlation between people who build wealth.

[1535] They read books.

[1536] Instead of watching.

[1537] What you're saying, love is blind season four will not help me build wealth?

[1538] And I'm pretty sure neither will Tiger King.

[1539] Dang it.

[1540] But I could be wrong.

[1541] I'm just helping you people out here with your inputs.

[1542] Inputs matter.

[1543] Wow.

[1544] Way to go, man. Good job, Jason.

[1545] This is a Baby Steps Millionaire theme hour.

[1546] George Camel Ramsey Personality is my co -host today.

[1547] This is a Baby Steps Millionaires theme hour where we're talking to real millionaires about how they really got there, not your broke brother -in -law's opinion, not somebody trolling on the internet.

[1548] These are actual humans that have actually done it, which is really probably a pretty good source of information.

[1549] James is with us in Miami.

[1550] Hi, James.

[1551] How much is your net worth?

[1552] I'm sitting just shy of 1 .1.

[1553] I'm 1 ,075 ,000.

[1554] Perfect.

[1555] Give me a little breakdown by category.

[1556] All right.

[1557] Well, about 450 ,000 is home equity.

[1558] $255 ,000 is in my TSP.

[1559] I've got $250 ,000 throughout Roth IRA mutual funds, a couple single stocks in HSA, about $80 ,000 in cash, and $40 ,000 in paid off vehicles.

[1560] Good for you.

[1561] Cool.

[1562] How old are you?

[1563] I am 28.

[1564] 28 -year -old millionaire.

[1565] Look at you, man. Way to go.

[1566] How much of this did you inherit?

[1567] Zero.

[1568] Zero.

[1569] And what's your best working?

[1570] and your worst working year, income -wise?

[1571] The worst working year was back in 2015 when I started entering the workforce.

[1572] I made about $50 ,000 that year.

[1573] Okay.

[1574] And my best working year was last year made about $250 ,000.

[1575] Cool.

[1576] What do you do for a living?

[1577] I'm an air traffic controller.

[1578] Ah, okay.

[1579] So was that a lot of overtime or what?

[1580] Yeah, it was mostly overtime.

[1581] The whole pandemic, we just started going crazy with the overtime.

[1582] I jumped up my salary by about $30 ,000 one year in 2021 by just taking a bunch of O -T.

[1583] And then in 2022, same thing, just a lot of overtime.

[1584] Very cool.

[1585] Very cool.

[1586] What's your degree in?

[1587] I actually don't have a degree.

[1588] Okay, cool.

[1589] Vautek or anything?

[1590] I went to college for about two and a half years.

[1591] It was a four -year program and about a year and a half into it.

[1592] The government changed their minds, which they all.

[1593] always do about how to hire people so you don't need a degree for that field anymore.

[1594] Wow.

[1595] Okay.

[1596] And your GPA in high school then was what?

[1597] High school, I was a pretty good student, probably about a three, five, and about the same in college for those two and a half years.

[1598] Good for you.

[1599] So what do you attribute the fact that you're a millionaire at 28 years old?

[1600] How did that happen?

[1601] What do you call that?

[1602] I think a lot of it is, I want to throw it back to my parents how I was raised through that and how they instilled that work ethic in me. They both put in, you know, 60 plus hours a week, and my mom was a small business owner and just seeing her hustle and grind was really a big driving force towards it.

[1603] But that didn't give you any money.

[1604] They just gave you an example.

[1605] Correct.

[1606] And also, I got to work in the business growing up, so I got to start earning my own money from a young age.

[1607] So what were the specific steps you took?

[1608] over the last seven, eight years?

[1609] Were you doing 15 % retirement?

[1610] Did you wait and get a bigger down payment?

[1611] What were the tactical pieces of this?

[1612] Oh, I kind of messed up probably about two years into the job.

[1613] I got a big pay raise when I started getting checked out and certified on positions.

[1614] I took that pay raise and I got a brand new car.

[1615] Ah.

[1616] So that was one mistake there.

[1617] But after that, I learned and I started investing all the other writ pay raises after that.

[1618] So you just lived on less than you made after that and went, I'm going to sock this money away in retirement and pay down the house and I'll get to millionaire status.

[1619] Was it intentional to get there?

[1620] Yes, it was very intentional.

[1621] I always had the goal.

[1622] I wanted to be a millionaire by age 30.

[1623] And you did it.

[1624] And suddenly a couple of years ago, I saw the end in sight and was able to see a million dollar coming up on it.

[1625] Yeah.

[1626] Wow.

[1627] Way to go, Rob.

[1628] Excellent, excellent work.

[1629] I'm sorry, James.

[1630] Excellent work.

[1631] Very well done.

[1632] Good, good, good job.

[1633] Rob is in Atlanta.

[1634] Rob, what's your net worth?

[1635] Hi, my net worth is right about 4 .2, 4 .3 million.

[1636] Very cool.

[1637] Give me a little breakdown by category.

[1638] Yeah, I've got $2 million in 401k, 1 .3 about in just mutual funds and things like that.

[1639] About $800 ,000 in the house and the rest and just cash and a few other things.

[1640] Good, good.

[1641] Very cool.

[1642] How old are you?

[1643] I just turned 58 good for you and how much of this 4 .2 million did you inherit basically zero we just got a my mother -in -law passed away this last year so we got 90 ,000 just in the last year but you were already multimillionaires exactly yeah so what's your best working your income and your worst working your income uh probably my worst was in graduate school probably $8 ,000 a year, and my best will probably be this year.

[1644] I think my wife and I will probably make about $300 ,000 together.

[1645] Good for you.

[1646] What do you all do for a living?

[1647] I work in research and development in a big consumer products company.

[1648] Okay.

[1649] Cool.

[1650] What's your degree in?

[1651] I have a master's in chemical engineering.

[1652] Okay.

[1653] Something you're using in R &D every day.

[1654] Yeah, good for you.

[1655] Kind of, yeah.

[1656] I'm in management now.

[1657] Yeah.

[1658] But, I mean, you know, though.

[1659] You know the formulas.

[1660] What's your GPA?

[1661] 3 .2 undergrad and 3 .9 graduate.

[1662] Yeah.

[1663] Way to go.

[1664] Cool.

[1665] So I think this is an underhand pitch since you're a master's degree to chemical engineer, but are you a book reader or TV watcher?

[1666] I'm a, I say I'm an information gather.

[1667] I don't read a ton of books, to be honest, but I gather information from all over the place.

[1668] I read.

[1669] Yeah, your field is somewhat like the medical field, so you're reading articles all the time.

[1670] All the time.

[1671] And just personal stuff, you know, car repair.

[1672] I enjoy doing that kind of stuff.

[1673] Anything where I can use my hands and learn how to do something I enjoy.

[1674] Yeah.

[1675] But didn't see every particular episode of Downton Abbey.

[1676] No. No. I don't think he's nice to that.

[1677] Well, now he's got time to watch it.

[1678] He's got millions.

[1679] Now you can catch up.

[1680] That's what we aspire to, right?

[1681] I love it.

[1682] brother well done so your advice to the uh 28 year old version of you yeah well i i think like everybody else it's you know spend spend less than you make um it makes things a lot more comfortable another one that i haven't heard too much is i i really don't like to pay somebody else to do something i could do so i'm willing to work pretty hard to you know do things that um other people might just pay somebody to do and i really don't do much of that you know something i get People sometimes criticize me on not asking, and I think it's a valid criticism.

[1683] Do you or your wife smoke?

[1684] No, no, no. You know, we start asking that because I think there's a high probability they don't.

[1685] Because, A, it's obviously a medical issue.

[1686] B, it costs a lot.

[1687] And I'll bet you we find a correlation.

[1688] I've never asked it before.

[1689] Yeah, it's an expensive habit.

[1690] You know, because it just costs a lot.

[1691] And you go through a couple packs a day, it's a big deal.

[1692] And, yeah, so interesting.

[1693] Very interesting.

[1694] Hey, man. Very cool.

[1695] I'm proud of you.

[1696] Thanks for the call.

[1697] We appreciate you calling in.

[1698] It's a baby steps millionaire's theme hour.

[1699] Now, the mythology, if you listen to the internet trolls, the Reddit fools, the TikTok people, whatever they are, or your broke brother -in -law who votes the wrong way, they're going to tell you that wealthy people all inherited their wealth.

[1700] We've already told you, 89 % did not become millionaires, stone -cold research because of inherited wealth.

[1701] We can prove it to you.

[1702] You can prove it to you.

[1703] disagree with that you're what's known as wrong this is data okay the law of gravity is data it works every time it's called facts the uh the vast majority of wealthy people are crooks george have you heard that i've heard that one we got to be evil to make money dave which is very interesting because if you own a uh restaurant and you rip people off people don't come back and they tell people to stay away if you own a car repair place and you rip people off they don't come back and they tell people to stay away.

[1704] I'm confused how the crooks prosper over the long haul.

[1705] Now, they might prosper that week, but it's very difficult to become wealthy.

[1706] It's easier to become wealthy with actual high integrity because they, as your customers will come back, you know, whether you're, yeah, because you can't keep your job if you lie and steal and it's all that.

[1707] And they're all famous entertainers.

[1708] They're NFL athletes.

[1709] They're, you know, they're country music stars.

[1710] They're rock stars.

[1711] I didn't get a single call from them today.

[1712] Yeah.

[1713] Yeah.

[1714] They're just engineers.

[1715] I haven't talked to one of those.

[1716] Salespeople.

[1717] The truth is, the data tells us that it's less than 2 % of millionaires are celebrity types.

[1718] Almost none of them are celebrity types.

[1719] And celebrity types have a horrible reputation of handling money well, by the way, as a general rule.

[1720] Some do a good job, but the reputation is bad, to say the least.

[1721] This is a baby steps millionaire's theme hour.

[1722] Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 4, 25, and 26, let your eyes look straight.

[1723] straight ahead.

[1724] Fix your gaze directly before you.

[1725] Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.

[1726] George Lucas says you simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going.

[1727] Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

[1728] This is a Baby Steps Millionaires theme hour.

[1729] We're talking to real millionaires.

[1730] If you want to know more on this subject, the book number one bestseller.

[1731] This is my eighth number one bestseller is called Baby Steps Millionaires and came out about 14 months ago.

[1732] And it's stories of real millionaires that really did this stuff.

[1733] And it's data from the actual millionaire study.

[1734] The study is published as an appendix in the back.

[1735] And we go through exactly how people walk this process out and exactly how over 30 years I've observed them doing it.

[1736] And we defeat all of the lives.

[1737] that the hope stealers put out and the hope stealers are out there they were trained by carl marks in the college classroom and um it's just not true that you're stuck or that America is so broken that you can't win yes there's lots of problems yes there's lots of obstacles if being successful was easy no one would care about being successful everyone would get a participation trophy and we'd call it a day, and we'd call it communism.

[1738] But there's a real way that real people get up, leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home, and they become real millionaires.

[1739] And no, they did not inherit their money, and no, they're not crooks, and no, they're not rich people.

[1740] And, oh, by the way, if you're so stupid that you think a house, Georgia's telling me this at the break, that a paid -for house does not count in your net worth, then you don't understand basic accounting, okay?

[1741] And they don't teach that on TikTok, all right?

[1742] Basic accounting, if you take accounting 101, they're going to teach you what a net worth is, a balance sheet, and a balance sheet net worth is your assets minus your liabilities.

[1743] It's very simple and very clean, and your assets are anything.

[1744] Cars count.

[1745] You have $100 ,000 in cars.

[1746] that counts towards your net worth.

[1747] Now, I hope to God, it's not much of your net worth, but it counts as part of your net worth.

[1748] You know, if you own whatever, it just, you know, if you want to say someone's a cash millionaire or a liquid millionaire, that's a different definition.

[1749] That would be a million dollars of cash or liquid assets, mutual funds that you could get out, not in a retirement account, but your retirement accounts, your hard assets, even valuable personal items.

[1750] Okay, if you had a bunch of collectible art, that counts in your net worth.

[1751] I don't recommend it, but in terms of a high percentage of your net worth, but it counts.

[1752] And if you don't think so, you're what's known as wrong.

[1753] So really, you have to start dealing with facts here.

[1754] But it doesn't count.

[1755] Why do you want it?

[1756] Why do you want it to be impossible?

[1757] Well, you whiners.

[1758] Why do they want it to be impossible?

[1759] Someone hurt them and they just can't get over it.

[1760] Maybe it was a breakup.

[1761] Maybe it was some childhood trauma.

[1762] I don't know.

[1763] But they're in the YouTube comments, Dave, and I got to deal with them.

[1764] Someone's got to set them straight.

[1765] Because you actually look at the YouTube comments.

[1766] That's the difference.

[1767] Well, I just, I can't help see idiots just get to be free.

[1768] Oh, you have to deal with them.

[1769] The problem is, I think it was a Mark Twain quote.

[1770] If you start a fight with an idiot, they'll drag you down and onlookers can't tell the difference.

[1771] Don't argue with a pig.

[1772] Don't get in the mud with a pig because nobody can tell you.

[1773] tell which is which.

[1774] You know, that's the thing.

[1775] Yeah.

[1776] So, hey, well, you know, but we just, our goal here, we want to prove to you that you can win.

[1777] It's that simple.

[1778] And it's not, it's not Pollyanna, it's not fake.

[1779] And, you know, if it goes against your little victim mentality, well, good.

[1780] That's what we're trying to do is break your little victim mentality.

[1781] Amy's in Dallas.

[1782] What's your net worth, Amy?

[1783] $2 .2 million.

[1784] $2 .2 million.

[1785] Way to go.

[1786] Give me a little breakdown on this.

[1787] that you're breaking up on us you're breaking up we need a new phone oh i'm sorry i'm sorry there we go maybe i'll send some of it on that you got a deal on the phone one million in retirement which is 401k in raw batteries 400 k i'm guessing on the house 700k in a brokerage accounts and company stock and then 100k in cash and i do apologize dave i did not incorporate the things with wheels and motors that's okay because they go down in value that's okay um i also don't it's not the other word i'm not yelling at you for that i'm yelling at people who say that george's house and a million dollar net worth doesn't count because he got about a seven hundred thousand dollar paid for house and he's 32 years old so of course it counts right yeah that's just dumb so anyway so how old are you i'm 34 and my husband will be 33 this year excellent excellent how much of this did you inherit um i think about 50k my husband did when his grandfather passed away but that was well after we were already millionaires.

[1788] Okay.

[1789] We rest our case.

[1790] All right, cool.

[1791] And what do you guys do for a living?

[1792] We met in college and we were both studying electrical engineering.

[1793] He won the lottery.

[1794] I was the only female in class.

[1795] Yeah, we double -dipped on the electrical engineering.

[1796] What was your GPA?

[1797] Mine was 3 .3.

[1798] His was 3 .1.

[1799] Very cool.

[1800] What do you tell people if they want to be a millionaire by 34 years old?

[1801] Honestly, God's, money that you are entrusted to manage, and the biggest thing in your Bible verse today was perfect.

[1802] Be okay with the late gratification.

[1803] Understand the path, and it's okay that you're not going to have the flashy cars right now because you're going to have it later.

[1804] Live like no one else, so later you can live and give like no one else.

[1805] Yes, sir.

[1806] Yeah, in the Bible verse, another one is no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields the harvest of righteousness.

[1807] Amy, you're amazing.

[1808] Congratulations.

[1809] So George, We had a 1 .9, a 1 .1, a 1 .3, a 1 .1, a 4 .2, and a 2 .2 million dollar net worth today.

[1810] 54 years old, 32, 49, 28, 54, or 58 and 34 years old.

[1811] It's all over 60 and 1 under 30.

[1812] And two in their 30s is a young crowd today.

[1813] Average GPA 3 .4, 3 .8, 3 .2, 3 .5, 3 .2, 3 .3 .3 .3 .3 .3.

[1814] So they always think the other, one of the other mythologies is you have to be unusually brilliant to be wealthy.

[1815] And you can't be unusually dumb that the 1 .6 doesn't show up, okay?

[1816] If you played beer pong in college, you're probably not going to show up here if that was your graduate degree, is in beer pong.

[1817] But most of the time, the average millionaire's net worth is a little over three.

[1818] Mine was a little under three.

[1819] Two point nine seven to be precise.

[1820] And I'm very bitter about that three one hundred.

[1821] You couldn't just bump it, round it up?

[1822] Three one hundredths of a point, and I missed it.

[1823] Yeah, there you go.

[1824] But, uh, so I graduated.

[1825] Thank you, Lodi.

[1826] You know, that's what that means.

[1827] So there you go.

[1828] But anyway, but yeah, that's the average millionaires right around that three mark.

[1829] Uh, very few of them are certified geniuses, but very few of them are dumb.

[1830] They, they have, and a lot of them are engineers.

[1831] Number one, number one category of careers, by the way, as engineers.

[1832] Number two is accountant.

[1833] Number three's teacher.

[1834] Number four is business.

[1835] Number five is a turn.

[1836] Attorney number six is medical.

[1837] So medical didn't even make, doctors didn't even make the top five.

[1838] Wow.

[1839] So, and we had them all here today.

[1840] We had engineers, tech sales, air traffic controller, R &D, nurse.

[1841] See, there you see.

[1842] Yeah, it's represented.

[1843] Lots of engineers, chemical engineer, electrical engineer, electrical engineer.

[1844] The first call, 54 -year -old nurse, single, had been in public nursing her whole life.

[1845] Never made over $100 ,000 until last year, year before last year.

[1846] So, one -third of millionaires never make over 100 ,000 in their life.

[1847] One -third of them in a study.

[1848] So why do we do all this?

[1849] Because we want to tell you, you can do it.

[1850] It's possible.

[1851] And the mix is interesting, too.

[1852] There's nothing real sexy in this mix.

[1853] It's just I paid down my house, got it paid for.

[1854] I put money in my 401K.

[1855] I've got a brokerage account with some mutual funds in it, and I've got cash.

[1856] It was not an Elon Musk or Bill Gates on the list.

[1857] I was waiting for something crazy, but there wasn't money.

[1858] It's kind of boring, but it just works.

[1859] What's not boring is having financial peace and retiring when you want to.

[1860] Amen.

[1861] Amen.

[1862] There we go.

[1863] So, hey, this is how this stuff works, boys and girls.

[1864] It's slow and steady wins the race, and we invite you to join the race.

[1865] Congratulations, America.

[1866] Check out Baby Steps Millionaires.

[1867] Check out Financial Peace University.

[1868] We'll get you going.

[1869] It's what we do here.

[1870] Good show, George.

[1871] Well done.

[1872] Well done.

[1873] That puts this hour in the books.

[1874] We'll be back with you before you know it.

[1875] In the meantime, remember, there is ultimately only one.

[1876] way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace.

[1877] Christ Jesus.

[1878] Hey, George Camel here.

[1879] If you love the show and you want a deeper dive on your money journey, we've got a weekly newsletter that gives you helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey Way.

[1880] Just go to ramsysolutions .com today to sign up for the newsletter.

[1881] Again, that's ramsysolutions .com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

[1882] If you're a leader, your personal growth matters for your organization.

[1883] Because whatever you lead can only grow as much as you do.

[1884] I know from experience.

[1885] I've been CEO of Ramsey Solutions for over 30 years, and now I'm sharing that leadership and business coaching experience with you on the Entree Leadership podcast.

[1886] I'm taking your calls and helping you figure out how to overcome challenges within your organization.

[1887] One episode could change your business.

[1888] Check it out on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or on the Ramsey Network app.