This Is What It Sounds Like To Become a Millionaire in America

So come, hang out with us. We're here for you, baby. This is how it works. Chris is in Boston to start this hour. Hey, Chris.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

That's fair. And so it's hard to talk to your parents unless they invite you into the conversation.

And that would usually say something like, Hey, Dad and Mom, I've been doing this stuff and you talk about you a lot and you talk about some of the dumb things you've done and some of the dumb things you stopped doing and the good results that you had. And then Mom or Dad says something like, Wow, that'd be good. I wish I could do that. Can I show you, please? Can I show you?

Yeah. You invite them to ask you in by talking about you, but going over there and wagging your finger at them, it's probably not going to work with most moms and dads. Would you agree?

So that makes you what, 30 or 40?.

What are their careers? What are they doing?

Yeah. Get the house down where they can afford it and just get a rental property or whatever, and then let's see how fast we can stack some cash.

We live in a day and age where I think it would be pretty darn easy for your mom to get a job where she can do customer service. She does it from her own home. It does not require any physical effort at all. It's not going to require her to do anything she's not already doing in her normal life. Customer service role or some type of a phone role where she's working for a company.

She could probably make pretty good money per hour and really help the cash infusion. That's an idea that you got to bring to the table. This idea that she can't do anything is just completely false.

So all I want to do is get the income up, the outgo down, and that creates the space in between those two things called margin. We throw that margin towards investments and we try to start building a nest egg. You got 10 years to do it if their health holds out, if his health holds out. But he's not retiring in two years and they live on social insecurity with no money. You're going to buy that cookbook, 74 Ways to Prepare Alpo, that doesn't work.

The old dog food thing is gross.

It's a tough one, Chris, but if they follow everything you tell them, which is what you're going to be telling them, what we would tell them here on the air is get on a budget, get your lifestyle down, and stack cash with the money you create in the middle, get your income up. That's where it comes from. There's not a hack. There's not a short, you know, oh, let's go buy Bitcoin. No, that doesn't work.

That just loses what little money you have.

Don't get desperate, in other words, and fall. for some con. There's not a shortcut.

That's the hard part of this whole thing. Open phones here at 888-825-5225.. Ken, the book you did, Find the Work You're Wired to Do, it goes along with the assessment, the get clear assessment to get clear on what you can do and what you're good at. I think sometimes when we're pinched in a corner like that, we don't, there's something about the stress of being put in a corner that you don't see. all the, you don't do what Shuler used to call possibility, thinking.

That's right.

They get really, really clear, and what we teach is if you can get clear on what you do best, this is just raw talent or skill set that you've acquired, and if you can focus on that, you've got an opportunity, no matter what your financial situation is, to leverage that, to use that talent to actually go make money. That's just baseline, and getting clear on, like in his mom's situation, that question is the right question. What has she done in the past? Well, she was a manager of a restaurant. Let me tell you something.

She can take great care of somebody on the telephone, and once she's trained and she understands the process, and you know how many companies are looking for somebody that know how to talk to another human being? I mean, she's got a real talent that is transferable to start making money right away.

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Not your Uncle Henry, who got his license three weeks ago and demands that you list your largest asset with him. That's dumb. Don't do that. No, no. We're going to get like somebody that sells 30 to 300 houses a year.

That's somebody who actually stays in the business when things are good and when things are bad. They know the market. They know how to navigate weirdness and they can help you. We vet all of the agents that we put in the Ramsey Trusted Program. We coach them.

They're lined up with what we teach here. They understand what you're listening to this show that you're going to be calling with that mindset, and they really are high-octane, high-protein, get-her-done people with proven track records. To find a Ramsey Trusted Real Estate Agent for free, just go to ramseysolutions.com slash agent. Amit is with us in Greensboro, North Carolina. Hi, Amit.

How are you?

I'm married. I don't have any kids, but my wife makes exponentially more money than me, so financially, we're okay. We have no debt, nothing. Home is paid off. Cars are paid off, so we're good there, but I'm thinking now of transitioning into a different career.

I have no idea what to do. I've been so out of touch with what my degrees are in that I don't know if I could go back or if anybody would take it, bring me back there, if that makes sense.

I'm just interested. What's your favorite part of coaching?

We talk about leadership all the time. America needs leaders. I'm paying attention to this stuff every day, and companies need people who can lead, people, who know how to connect with, people, who know how to communicate with, people, who know how to instruct, people, who know how to encourage people. Amit, you've got an incredible resume, and an engineering degree. If I'm you, I'm going to start with, let me take that degree of engineering, and I'm going to look at the engineering field.

I'm not going to limit myself to engineering, but I'm going to start there because I've got the degree. Then I'm going to start working my connections. By the way, I'm going to give you my book, The Proximity Principle, which, for a guy like you, who's a learner, it's going to give you the absolute formula. The five people you need to be around. that will help you get where you want to go.

By the way, you have an unbelievable network. All those coaches who know business guys, your college connections, all these business guys who used to donate money big time, they were hanging around those D1 programs. Those are your connections, and you go, look, I've got an engineering degree. I can get in the engineering field and lead people. today.

I may not be the most talented engineer, which, by the way, Amit, tell me if I'm right or wrong. The guys and gals that are leading teams of engineers are rarely the most talented engineer, true or false?

I think he can go just about anywhere, because it's not about the trade, and it's not about the industry. It's about his ability to come in and bring a team together. That's my two cents on that one.

That's right. Leading and running a business is a different skill set than fixing your air conditioner, and leading and running a people is a different skill set than playing basketball or being an engineer. The leadership skill set you excel in, and so you do have a great resume in that sense. Now the trick is, where do you want to plug it in? What type of a business, what kind of dynamic environment do you want to be in where you're leading and then finding people through your connections with Proximity Principle to plug into one of those locations would just be amazing.

Yeah.

And when I'm in the right places, I meet more of the right people. And then they point me to the right places, and it is this knowledge and connection combination that just keeps moving, moving, moving, moving, moving. And if you stay with it long enough, opportunities show up on your doorstep. This idea of kicking the door down is Hollywood bravado. It makes for great fantasy.

But in the real world, connections come at the most unexpected times because we keep showing up in the right place, or we keep showing up around the right people. And all of a sudden, I'm top of mind, or I've got the experience, and I was showing up, and then boom, I'm ready to step into it. Speaking of basketball, John Wooden, arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time, certainly basketball. My favorite quote, Dave, he said, when opportunity comes, it's too late to prepare. And the proximity principle gets me in a place.

when the opportunity shows up, I'm ready to step right into it, because I kept putting myself around the right people and in the right places.

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In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, on the debt-free stage, Nathan and Brittany are with us. Hey guys, how are you? Doing? well. How are you doing?

Better than we deserve. Where do you guys live? Chattanooga. All right. Just down the road.

Well, welcome to Nashville. And how much debt have you two paid off? $73,545.. Excellent. And how long did that take?

About 14 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? $80,000 to about $100,000.. Cool.

What do you all do for a living? I'm a first grade teacher. And I'm a mental health therapist, and I direct a college counseling center for a local college. Oh, excellent. Very good.

So what kind of debt was the $74,000?? It was taxes. It was a car, credit cards. And I had student loans. Yeah.

Y'all were kind of normal. Yeah, very normal. Yeah, normal sucks. Yeah. And what happened 14 months ago?

What was your wake-up call? What was your? something's got to change moment? Yeah. Well, we went through Financial Peace University whenever we got married five years ago, and we were Ramsey-ish for about three and a half years and paid off only $30,000 of debt.

So you flunked? Yes. Okay. Very much so. Big F.

And then, 14 months ago, we owed in taxes for the first time and had to get new tires on our car within a couple days of each other. And we both felt like we got punched because we had a bunch of bills, we had student loans, credit cards, and now we had to get new tires and pay the IRS, which is a scary feeling. It's interesting that owing the IRS suddenly like that is like 100x more drama than owing the exact same amount to a credit card company. Yes. It was scary.

They're just like, yeah, and with good reason, because they're scary people. But wow, there is something that puts a lump in your throat and not in the stomach, and you got to, okay, this has got to stop. We got to get that old Financial Peace book back out and this time we're doing it. Exactly. Is that what it sounded like?

Yeah. I mean, I started working at my school. We have an opportunity to work the late-stay program. And so I started working from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

every day. He started door-dashing. He started teaching classes. Yep. Any extra that we could do, we were trying to do.

We cut up our credit cards. Yeah. The whole nine yards. Yep. It got very serious.

Yeah. Got on a budget. Yeah. Well, we were on a budget, but we started actually following the budget. Oh, yeah.

Exactly. Actually doing it. Yeah. Yes. Exactly.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. So what were, beyond working hard, what were some of the communication changes in order to actually finally go, we're doing this thing?

Yeah. Yeah. And we communicated about everything. Yeah. Like, people in our lives would be like, you're talking about buying gum?

But it'd be like, no, we're communicating about everything, saying this is where our budget's going. Is it okay that we put this in the miscellaneous category, because it came up unexpectedly? Yeah. We just communicated about every little thing. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Us too.

Yeah. So your core reason was to get away from that fear. That's what drove you. Yeah. That moment.

You know, I don't ever want to feel like this again. Yeah. Right. And to change our generation that comes after us. We want- That's the more noble step.

Once you get past the fear, you're like, okay, we're going to change the family tree. Yeah. Yeah. Right. We never want our kids to experience that.

Right. The fear motivated us, but then also, I mean, we're both Christians, and so, once we began getting on that path, like, it wasn't easy. It felt like spiritual warfare at times. Like, things kept on coming up, coming up, coming up, but we realized, like, you know, we also want to use our finances to honor God and steward what we've been given. well.

Yeah. Yeah. Good for you guys. Well done. Well done.

What do you tell people? the key to getting out of debt is? Well, other than getting to Brittany in their life, because, like, I, could take an hour and talk about how incredible that she is, but other than that, because I've got her and that's my step, but I would say, know your why, just, I mean, tying it back into that, and for ours was for giving praise to the Lord Jesus. Yeah. And intentionality, because, as we said, it took us three and a half years to pay off 30,000, and then we paid off 73,000 in 14 months, and it's just funny how we had so many people tell us while we were on this journey, oh, I just wish we could do that.

I wish we could do that. Yeah. And it's like, well, you can't. All you have to do is make the hard choices, because it is hard. It's not an easy thing.

It was the hardest season we've had so far, but the intentionality is what changed it, and if we can do it, anyone can. Yeah. Delaney says choose your hard. I mean, it's hard to owe the IRS money and not be able to put your tires on your car. That's hard, but there's also the hard of, I'm going to sacrifice, so I don't ever have to face that again.

That's a better. hard to choose, but choose that one, and that's the one you chose the second time. Exactly. Good job, y'all. Yeah.

Well done. Very, very, very well done. So what was the hardest part? What was the biggest fight you had while you were doing this 14 months? The hardest part was just making sure that we were both serious at the same time, because it is hard, and it's really nice to do this with somebody to keep you accountable.

And so when I would say, I think we should use the budget for this, or he would say that we should use the budget for this. It was just hard sometimes getting on the same page, and it was really easy to have one person say, well, why not for this? Oh, also, no, spend months are hard. Those are really, really hard. And so just making sure we would get on the same page.

Yeah. And I'm, you know, Rachel Cruz talks about like, I'm a spontaneous giver. She says that in her book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. And for me, I had to be like, no, I can't give, right? I mean, we gave to our church, obviously, that was our plan to giving, but for me, I had to keep that like long distance goal of like, I want to be able to live and give like no one else.

Yeah. Yeah. So, right now, I'm going to not do the spontaneous. Yeah. Yeah.

Everything's got to be dialed into a plan. Right. For a period of time here with this intensity. Yeah. Right.

Well done, you guys. Proud of y'all. Thank you. Thank you. Who was cheering you on?

We had a lot of good cheerleaders in our life, but our main ones are here today. We have my parents, as I said, my dad, he had us do Financial Peace University whenever we first got married. And then my mom, she is an avid couponer. And so we haven't paid for toiletries or anything like that because of her. And then also, there were some times that we'd come home from work and our fridge would be full of groceries.

Because she was just being a great blessing. And then my best friend, Megan, is here and she has just been the ultimate cheerleader. Like every little thing, she'd be like, you paid off $50, yeah, that's awesome. Just cheering every little step along the way. So just truly a great cheerleader.

Very cool. Yeah. Good job, you guys. Surround yourself with people that love you and support you instead of a bunch of Debbie Downers around you. Very smart.

Very smart. Well done. Good stuff. Good stuff. Poor Debbie and poor Karen.

They've just gotten messed over, haven't they?

Nathan and Brittany from Chattanooga, $74,000 paid off in 14 months, making $80,000 to $100,000.. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free.

Ken, if we can ever solve the formula to get people to be intense automatically while they're in the class, sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. But if we can solve that formula and not have that three-and-a-half-year gap of ish before something has to come along and punch you in the gut to get you awake, we will have hit a milestone. That's so true. That will be huge. Yeah.

Because the number of people, the number of you listening out there right now, you listen to this stuff, but you don't do it.

And to your point, Dave, if you can figure out how good it's going to feel in that class, and you see what it feels like, that's the idea, is bottling that and going, why would I want to delay that? I want to get through this now and experience what's on the other side of it. Yeah. Fantastic.

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William is with us in Providence, Rhode Island. Hi, William. How are you?

So we're in the process of moving, and we're paying off my wife's student loan debt, about $28,000.. And we figured out we're going to be moving to Hawaii in March.

Looking at housing prices over there, it's going to be pretty insane, at least to do like first month's rent, security deposit, everything like that. So I'm looking at your advice on how to approach that, taking a pause at Baby Step 2, and how to move forward there.

And so what I would do is put a detailed number on the March move, stop everything, and pile up that number, because it's coming. It's not. if, it's just... There's no question about the probability of it. And then, when you've got that number, then push play, set that number to the side, push play, and then start working it again.

Okay. Yeah, that's exactly how you do it. So which branch are you in?

So, yeah. And I got a pretty good life, but yeah. So anyway, hang on. Christian's going to pick up. We'll get you signed up for Financial Peace University, because Hawaii is expensive.

Yeah, you need to...

I'll make this up for example purposes. I had to come up with $5,000 for something in March. I'm the kind of guy that's going to go crazy trying to make extra money and fund that $5,000 above and beyond what I'm doing out of my normal budget towards the baby steps. Does that bother you?

Pile it up that much faster.

Hi, Jack. How are you?

Two, we both do have credit cards. We both, as of last month, are debt free. But we're wondering, should we be keeping them? Should we get rid of them? We're worried about, you know, canceling them, impacting our credit scores as we look to buy a house.

So, hoping to get your advice on all of that.

And that's what that means. Until then, you've got all kinds of issues. when you combine things that can happen if something terrible happened before the wedding. You get yourself into a mess. So, we just wait until then.

As far as keeping your credit cards open,

the best thing I know to do is cut them up and close everything and have zero balances. And if you have no active accounts going, it takes about six months for your credit score to just disappear. What you don't want is a medium credit score. You either want a very high one or a no credit score. when you're going for a mortgage.

No credit score sets you up for manual underwriting with someone like Churchill Mortgage Hour, the team that we've endorsed for mortgages for almost 30 years now. And they can help you do a manual underwriting with zero credit score. But you don't want to be in no man's land in the middle. And that's what will happen if you keep a bunch of stuff open with zero balances. Because the FICO algorithm is built to where it wants you to be in debt.

To drive an 800 credit score, you have to get in debt and stay in debt and pay it regularly. I pay my credit cards off every month or I don't use them at all, and they're open will damage your credit score. So will closing them will damage your credit score. But closing them is the path to get to zero. And that's where I would recommend you go is to zero.

And it's okay to not buy a house immediately, by the way. It's going to take about six months for this to happen. So, six months from the time you're married, you both close all accounts, you have zero balances, zero activity of any kind on anything that's reporting to FICO, you will disappear. You'll fall off the grid, which is what you're trying to do here.

And that's the goal. And we recommend, in general, young couples getting married that they wait a year to buy a house. It takes about a year of marriage to know how close to your mother-in-law to buy.

You've got to get to know each other, okay? And, you know, you've been married 20 minutes. You're going to buy a different house then than you will when you've been married 20 months. It's a different property you're going to sign up for. And so, you know, just take your time.

You've got the rest of your life. You're going to be okay. I don't want you to take 10 years, but you can take a few months. And during that time, you have the opportunity for the credit score to go away.

But it was such a big deal for us to, in the first 12 months, just learn how each other handled money.

They have the patience of Joe.

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Hi, Rayshawn, how are you?

How? How?

So now I'm on my last year in my 20s. I turned 30 in November, and now just kind of reminiscing of what went wrong. and how many years and days, months, and seconds have I really wasted of just not figuring out life. I don't have a savings. I don't have, if it wasn't for my current employee, I wouldn't even have health insurance, no 401K, no big plans.

Most of my life has been basically paycheck to paycheck, just surviving.

So I'm just kind of just wondering, where should I start?

Did I hear that right? Right. Okay, if those are the four problems, what is causing that? Get down under. what's the cause of those things.

And I bet it's the same thing as causing all three of them. It could be simple immaturity. It could be, you know, you've got demons from your childhood chasing you, or something. I don't know. Not literal demons, but possibly.

But, I mean, okay, because, I mean, the obvious answer is, it's almost like a joke. Bob Newhart just passed away, but he had a famous routine that he did as a psychiatrist. He wasn't a psychiatrist. He played one on TV. But people would come in and tell him their problems, and he would just yell, Stop it!

You know? Just stop it! And then that'll be $5.. Stop it! That'll be $5..

And so it's kind of like where you are, right? I mean, it's like, okay, the gambling, the drinking, have you stopped it?

I haven't smoked in about a good, almost nearly a year. And my last drink was probably last weekend.

You have been trying to escape a life that you don't enjoy, and you need to start building today, a life that you don't need to escape from. Gambling is a rush. It is trying to discover what it feels like to be enthralled.

The reward is knowing that you are doing something that matters to you, because it matters to someone else. So, from a work standpoint, we're going to give you some tools, by the way, because there's a lot to cover here. But I want to give you the Get Clear assessment in the book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do, because it's going to really help you. And then we could also set up a call for you to come on my show, where we can go a little bit deeper here. But, my friend, what is ailing you is that, Dave's right.

There's something in your soul that is longing for meaning and purpose, or there's this vision you had of your life that maybe you don't think is possible. And a lot of fear and doubt. along this way, these 10 years in your 20s, you've gotten to a point where you didn't think it was possible. And so to medicate, you medicated through alcohol and you medicated through nicotine, and you've medicated through gambling. And I think Dave's right.

Stop it. You don't need to be sad. You need to be mad. And I think a good, healthy sense of self-anger to say, as Dave, you said it on the stage, I'll hand it to you. It's the most powerful thing I've ever heard you say.

And I've seen you say it. I feel like I've seen you say it a thousand times. But it's where you get to a point where you're sick and tired of being sick and tired. And he's at a great place.

You're actually going to show up and be a dad, not just father, children. There's a difference. That's right. You're entering into all of these things. And so what would you do?

What's the course on how to do life right that you'd sign up for? Well, I'd get plugged in with some men that are who I want to be when I grow up. Oh, that's true. And I would get a group of guys that I hang out with all the time, because you do become who you hang around with.

Okay. It's okay.

And so, in my case, what happened with me, Rayshon, was I got plugged into a good church because I met God. And I met other men that were trying to be men, be good dads, good husbands. And I started learning from them. So I was hanging out with people that had the same aspirational goals that I had from a spiritual, emotional, relational, financial, everything, instead of just hanging out with my drinking buddies. It's a different group of people, I can tell you that.

And so that's how I did it. And that's what we'll plug in to a bunch of Ken's materials, though. Hold on. Christian will pick up. We'll get you some of his stuff.

They get wired. They get clear assessment with the, find, the work you're wired to do, book, and the whole thing will help you. with all of it. You're a good man. You've got a good heart.

This is the Ramsey Show.

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Sorry, I can only laugh at that. Some politicians want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. What are the pros and cons of this? My thought is that it means products and services will go up in price and everyone will be right back to the same financial spot they were in before the increase. Okay, this is one of my favorite things to talk about.

This is Economics 101, and, Dave, I talk about this some on my show, and it's hysterical to see people just come at me with the vitriol and the hate over basic economics as though I came up with it. But it's very simple. When a minimum wage is raised, it puts financial pressure on the economy in a negative way. But the bleeding hearts and people who don't understand basic economics go, well, this is great.

No, you're not. Corporations don't pay taxes. They pass the cost of the tax through to the buyer of their goods and services. Their customers pay the taxes. They're built into your product.

So if you raise taxes on corporations, you raise prices on the people that are doing it. It's economics. It's not liberalism or conservatism. It's just freaking math. If you run a business, you have to charge more than it costs you.

Mm-hmm.

When you hear certain people on the left say, we're going to raise taxes on small business and we're going to raise taxes on the corporations, what you don't understand is the opposite of that policy. To cut taxes on small business, to cut taxes on big business means that the cost of everything in your life will go down, which means you keep more of your paycheck if you're disciplined. It's really important that people understand this stuff, because it gets politicized and you don't look at the math.

If gas is $5 a gallon instead of $2.50 a gallon, the truck delivering the stuff to the store has to pay twice as much in fuel cost, so they're going to charge more to deliver the stuff to the store, so the store is going to charge you more. when you buy that loaf of bread that came off the bread truck. It's a domino. There's dominoes going all the way down the line here. So you are paying for the truck driver's higher fuel bill when you buy stuff that that truck carries.

By definition, you don't have a choice. It's not a, you know, you can not like that or like that. Well, that's evil. It's capitalism. Well, try communism.

Have you visited those countries? They have a line to get the bread. The bread sucks. You can't get it. There's a shortage because they don't produce goods and services.

And so these are what, you know, people who love communism are people who have not traveled. Okay? Go to the country. I've traveled all over the world. About.

the only thing I'm sure of is I'm always happy when I get back to America. Okay? And you can dislike some of the stuff that goes on in America. We're not perfect. I don't have that.

But I gotta tell you, man, there's very few places in the world you can have this quality of life. And it is this freaking system that gave you this quality of life. So that's your minimum wage answer. Oh, by the way, 1% of Americans are on minimum wage. So if you raise the minimum wage, it does absolutely nothing.

So it's political bullcrap is what it is. Yeah. The only other people that are affected are some of the union contracts are indexed off of minimum wage. So whatever minimum wage does, the union contract gets the same bump. So it does affect actually more than the 1%, but it's still a minuscule thing.

It's absolute political bullcrap. What does drive the cost of entry-level work up is a supply-demand issue. That's what we ran into at COVID. There was a shortage of workers, and these stores were having to pay people more money to come to work. And so that's the only way they could get them was to pay them more.

That is a free-market pressure to drive wages up, not a regulated pressure. There's a difference. And so, in either case, though, the $20 person versus the $10 person putting something on the shelf is built into the cost of whatever they put in the shelf, whether it's driven by the rise of minimum wage, which probably doesn't affect that. Almost every grocery store is paying more than minimum wage. Almost every restaurant is paying more than minimum wage.

They can't attract workers right now unless they do. Targets, Walmarts, everybody.

everybody. None of these people are working for $7.25..

We're for the working man. We're trying to help the little man. Oh, bullcrap. You haven't tried to help the little man in decades, either. one of you.

If you did, you'd cut your own pay and balance your budget and quit spending. so, dadgum much. if you wanted to help the little man. You'd cut taxes on the little man if you actually cared about the little man. Both of you.

You R's and D's, sicken me. That's right. We're for small business. You haven't done anything for small business in decades except tax our assumptions off. I mean, it's absolutely crazy.

And I think it's the easiest thing. no one's talking about it. And we, the people, it's not going to. We just walk around going, well, they'll figure it out. No, they won't.

And so, you know, anyway, that's, they don't really care.

It's a bad plan, y'all. It's a bad plan because you can't have this good of life anywhere else, anywhere else in the world. The best shot at going from poverty to wealth in the history of the world, statistically, is to be born in America right now, in poverty, versus being born anywhere else in poverty. Communism does not lift people out of poverty. Socialism doesn't lift people out of poverty.

Margaret Thatcher said it best. So the problem with socialism is, eventually you run out of other people's money.

I've been doing this show for over 30 years, and some of the saddest calls I have taken are from situations that are completely preventable. Yeah, and what's so hard is I feel like one of those, especially the ones that I'm like, oh, it's terrible. People that call in and their spouse has passed away suddenly and they don't have life insurance. When you have to think through how am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to eat next week?

Yeah, in the middle of all that grief. It's terrible. So life insurance is the one thing, especially as a mom with three little kids, that I'm so big on for people to get because it's inexpensive. Zander is the place that Winston and I actually get all of our life insurance. And it doesn't cost much, because Zander shops among a gazillion different companies.

It doesn't cost much. You just have to admit that someday you're not going to be here. 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. It costs no stinking pizza. To get a free quote, call 800-356-4282..

That's 800-356-4282, or go to zander.com.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thanks for hanging out with us, America. Luke is in Maryland. Hi, Luke. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Even with me living off campus those last two years and paying for my own groceries and stuff, I'll still need about $48,000 to complete college and get my degree. As of now, the option in front of me is student debt, but I've been listening to you for a while and I'm very anxious to do that. I currently do not have any debt. I have a paid-off car, very reliable. I have no credit cards.

I have no other debt. However, I recently just got in contact with a recruiter through my school for the Army National Guard, and through the six-year contract, I would be able to have, once I'm completed basic training and schooling for the job, I would be able to leave college without any debt, and I would be able to have a nice little chunk of change around $17,000, maybe more, leaving college in my bank account so that I can just start my life.

And so I can't... Yes, absolutely. Hands down, go do that. So the last time I looked at it, we endorsed them for a while because they had like $10,000 cash, like a signing bonus, that went towards tuition immediately. Is that...

It must be more than that now, with what numbers you just gave me.

Everything else...

That's kind of my only holdup. I've been talking to my college counselor and as long as I take one online class, I can still be enrolled in my college, so that would not be an issue.

I understand how they're using it. But this is the no-brainer for you. to do the one class, stay eligible.

You're kind of worried, right?

That's one way that we show our patriotism here at Ramsey. So there's some jobs that go the other way, like they're really proud to have you on and proud that you're not here. I mean, some of our guys, one of my tech guys the other day stepped out. He was gone for a period of time with the Guard and then came back, and he and I were talking about it at lunch. But they came the other day and gave Ramsey an award for this, for the number of times that we've supported our Guard people when they go out.

But there are actual Americans that are proud to support you, that own businesses out here, like me. But, yeah, I don't think it's a holdup. I wouldn't hold that up a bit. As long as you get the idea that you're not... I hate the military, but I'm doing this for the money.

I wouldn't do that. But I'm not hearing that at all. with you. You want to serve your country. Your dad was in the forces.

And so, yeah, Luke, I think it's brilliant, brilliant. I'm totally signing on to this.

And I love this option. I wish more young people would do this to combat the rising tuition costs and not be stuck with generations of debt. This is such a viable option and good because you become a part of something far bigger than yourself. I love this program.

I could still pick up if I wanted to. It would be about $28,000 more a year.

You can do this. It's 40 hours.

You've already done this, so go, do it. Yes, go, take the money. Good job. Proud of you.

Listen, tickets for the Live Like No One Else cruise are selling fast. This is the ultimate debt-free vacation, and I can't wait to celebrate with all the folks who have worked their butts off and changed their family trees. We will be sailing through the blue waters of the Caribbean with the Ramsey personalities and other special guests. A bunch of cabin options are already sold out, so hurry and reserve yours with a $600 deposit today at RamseySolutions.com slash events.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. He and all the other Ramsey personalities along with me will be on a seven-day cruise, the Ramsey cruise, the Live Like No One Else cruise. For those of you that are Baby Step 4 and beyond and are ready to do vacations and strike some milestones, Live Like No One Else, so that later you can now go on the Live Like No One Else cruise, there you go. We're going to be doing this in March. That's March 22nd through the 29th, and it's all the Ramsey personalities on there all week long, along with my friend Stephen Curtis Chapman, Grammy Award winning, Dove Award winning, and Ken, I was with Stephen Monday night at my house at a thing, and he just got inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

Dina Carter, famous country artist as well. Tons of other entertainers, and all of us will be doing events and talks on the ship. There won't be any regular dancing poodle people on the ship. We'll be it.

You will find me when not speaking or saying hi to folks. I will be hosting, holding court, literally, Dave. We can teach it. We can compete. All levels, fun.

And I maybe get Dave out there. Will you commit to playing one game?

We're going to have a lot of fun. My wife, Sharon and I will be there the whole week. Ramseysolutions.com slash cruise. You can put down a $600 deposit. There is just a few cabins left.

It is almost gone. You're going to hear us quit talking about it, and then you're going to go, oh, I missed it. And then you're going to have FOMO, or whatever they call that, and you're going to wish you could have come. And then you're going, well, are you going to do another one, Dave? Probably not.

So don't miss this one, I'm telling you. This is great. It's Holland, America. It's a high-end ship. This is not one of those cheapos.

This is not Walmart on the seas. This is a great, great high-end thing. I don't do that stuff. I do nice stuff. So come hang out with us, guys.

It's going to be fun. All right. Latrice is with us in Detroit. Hi, Latrice. How are you?

So I'm still on a job hunt, and it's just causing me a great financial deficit.

But the fact that you're part-time, you're able to do something, that you're standing doing fulfillment, I would be looking at call service work. That's customer service stuff where you're answering the phone, following a script. Can you be a receptionist and just be smiling and say hi and sit down behind a desk and welcome people at a small business? I mean, Latrice, this is serious business, and I think you can do more than you're doing. And I'm not being unkind in any way, nor am I in any way overlooking the injury, but you can do more.

And at $20 an hour part-time, you've proven that you can do that.

You can hit a brick with a hammer, but it doesn't do anything. And so they can't get money that you don't have. And there's no debtor's prison. They're not going to put you in prison. There's no such thing.

So you have been very proactive and have engaged with them, and it might have given them false hope that you were actually going to come up with the whole thing. You're not. So offer them $2,000 and say, hey, I'm over here. I can do $2,000 if you want to call me back. Meantime, good luck collecting this, because I've got no money.

And the $2,000 is not even in my name. You can't even get it. So I'm going to go to work. I'm going to get my back fixed. I'm going to pile up some money.

I'll call you back when I got a little more money. We'll try to do this again. But in no case am I going to be paying you $7,000 or $6,000 or the whole thing. You can just bite my ankle. It's not happening.

Okay? And just walk away. There's nothing they can do. Just like a dog chasing a car, nothing they can do. And they catch it.

They don't know what to do with it. So it's the same thing. That's exactly where you are. So you're what we in the business call judgment-proof. They can't do anything with their judgment because you're broke.

There's nothing to get. Now, you go get a big-time, full-time job, they may figure out where that is. Don't tell them. Don't volunteer anything about your employment to them ever, until they're never. And never do they ever need to know where you work the rest of your life.

And you're not required to tell them. So I would just ignore their butts. And there's nothing they can do about it. Because, you know, what do we got? Somebody with a broken back who works part-time.

Good luck. So I just tell them to wait. And, you know, you can take the $2,000, or you can wait, and I'll try to get you some more, and we'll try to do it later. I'll call you back when I got three. And then I'll call you back when I got four.

But eventually you're going to have to say yes, because I'm not going to do anything else. And that will work out for you. That's what you got to do. I'm sorry you're facing all this. But, yeah, anything you can do to get your income up, anything you can do to get a long-term career path going here that works, that's a smart move.

This is the Ramsey Show.

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. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. This hour is a Baby Steps Millionaires theme hour. What does that mean? It means we're going to talk to actual millionaires, not your broke brother-in-law with an opinion.

We want to talk to people who actually have a net worth of $1 million or greater, learn a little bit about them, and then you can listen in and say, gosh, I could do that. I could be like that person. This is an hour about hope, because we have discovered that the typical millionaire in America started from nothing and became a millionaire. And we're going to walk you through that. We'll help you with this, because there's a lot of misinformation, lies out there about wealth, where it comes from.

It's all inherited. No, it's not. That's just not the facts. And I can prove it to you, and I'll walk you through it this hour. So if you have a millionaire net worth, a net worth of $1 million or greater, call us.

We want to talk to you and interview you and learn a little bit about you. Folks, let me help you with this. One of the things that gets confused out there is the definition of a millionaire. There's only one definition. This is an accounting definition.

There's only one. Net worth. millionaire is redundant because net worth is how you measure whether you're a millionaire. So there's not a different kind of millionaire and a net worth millionaire. There's only a millionaire whose net worth is greater than $1 million.

So by definition, they're the same thing. So there's no such thing as an income millionaire. You can make $1 million a year, but that doesn't make you a millionaire. What makes you a millionaire is if what you own minus what you owe, your assets minus your liabilities equals $1 million or more, you are, by definition, a millionaire. Well, people shouldn't have that much money.

It's not a moral construct. It's a math thing, darling. It's too difficult. A million dollars isn't enough in this inflationary market. It's not a question of that.

The question is do you have a million dollars? That's the only question we're talking about here. Do you have a million dollars worth of assets exceeding your liabilities? That is the definition. You can like it, not like it, agree with it, not agree with it.

This is not a feeling. It's a math thing. And then we want to learn how you got there, where'd the money come from, did you inherit it from your rich uncle, how'd you get your money. So that's what we're doing. The phone number here is 888-825-5225..

Our first millionaire is in Flint, Michigan. Dave, what is your net worth?

How much of this did you inherit?

I like this. Well done. Okay. Thank you. So what do you drive?

All right. I'm just making sure people are hearing this. This is what it sounds like to be a millionaire in America right now. This is exactly what it sounds like. Well done.

Do you think people can still do this, Dave, in America now?

I would go so far as to say the trades are in such desperate demand right now that if you go his route, you're probably more likely to get there than it was when he did it. There's no question.

You learn a skill. You get really good at it. You keep moving up the ladder, and then all of a sudden an opportunity pops up to where you can start your own business. And now you're like a Dave where your best year, you make $800,000, and you're also a small business employer.

Our research techniques were airtight because we knew the lefties would be pissed off, and we knew they would question the validity of the study. This study is so airtight that it's what's known as a fact. The conclusions of this study, if you disagree with them, you're what's known as wrong, in other words. So 79% of America's millionaires inherited precisely nothing like Dave, our last caller. Another 5% inherited money, but it was like $5,000 from grandmother.

It wasn't enough to mathematically make you a millionaire. Another 5% received a substantial inheritance, like $250,000 or something from grandma, after they were already millionaires. So let me help you with this. 79 plus 5 plus 5 is 89% of America's millionaires are not millionaires because of inherited money. They're millionaires because they lived on less than they made, they funded their 401k, they got their house paid off, and they used common sense over an extended period of time of their life.

The typical millionaire is 48 to 51 years old. Dave fits the profile perfectly, our last caller. We did not tell Dave what to say. He just happened to fit what we discovered very closely. We talked to some 25-year-old millionaires.

We talked to some 85-year-old millionaires. But the typical profile we talked to falls in that late 40s, early 50s range. And, by the way, if you're a millionaire by then, you're going to be worth $10 million when you die. So that's how that works, just to help you with the math. This is a Baby Steps Theme Hour.

Ramsey Solutions is hiring. If you're ready to join an amazing team. that's all about changing lives and spreading hope, we want to see your application. Right now, we're hiring for technology, sales, marketing, writing, copy editing, and creative roles. Check out all our job postings at RamseySolutions.com slash careers.

That's RamseySolutions.com slash careers.

for the kids' college. I've got about $1.3 million in different retirement funds. IRAs, 401ks. I have an ESOP. My wife has a pension as a teacher.

And then about $20,000 or so in health savings.

So at 16, I put my $500 into a Roth, not knowing what it was going to do, and as a matter of fact, I saved that statement as I moved houses here a few years ago, found it in a pile of papers, but I showed my son, right? That $500 is at 8% S&P. I mean, it was like $12,000, and I've done $500 into my Roth in my retirements five, six, 700 times over in the past 30 years or so, and it's just huge.

Well done. Thank you. What do you drive?

Yeah, that thing. That's awful. I'm kidding with you, but hey, dude, seriously. Most of the millionaires I meet with when they're your age and they hit this, the thing you guys are the worst at is upgrading your cars, and you really can't afford it. now.

I mean, it's, God Almighty, a Focus. Yeah, way to go, dude. I'm so proud of you. Thanks for letting me make fun of you. Open phones here at 888-825-5225..

If you have a million dollar or greater net worth, we want to talk to you. Amy is a millionaire in Dallas, Texas. Amy, what's your net worth?

Cool. So your degrees are obviously in engineering, electrical engineering. to be specific. What was your GPA?

Yeah. Number two was accountant. Number three was teacher. Number four was lawyer. I'm sorry, business executive.

Number five was lawyer. Medical doctor didn't even make the top five. Teacher beat them. And engineer is the top of the heap. You're right there.

And you doubled up on the engineer thing here. Yes, sir. Yeah. And so at 35 years old, you're worth $3.1 million. That's amazing.

What would you tell somebody that's in school studying engineering? Is it still possible in America? Or is the dream dead?

it's still possible. But I think I might be repeating you, Mr. Ramsey, but no, discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields the harvest of righteousness.

And you used a system.

So, let's do this one. Here's a fun one. What's the most expensive pair of jeans you've ever bought?

Go Amy. Wow, you're an incredible hero. I love you. I'm proud of you. Good work.

Very well done. This is a Baby Steps Millionaires theme hour.

Winning is not an accidental event. It's a series of good choices following a proven process, a game plan. When you do that with your money each month, it's called a budget. Tell your money what to do instead of wondering where it went. My friend Zig Ziglar used to say, if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.

And so you need to write it down. You need to have a game plan for your money. And the world's best budgeting app is called EveryDollar. It is free to download at the App Store or Google Play, or you can go to EveryDollar.com. You can spend a little bit with it and we'll put you through the Baby Steps, a paycheck planning thing, and hook you up to your bank.

And it starts to do all kinds of fancy dancy things. Millions and millions and millions of people are using this. EveryDollar. Check it out in the App Store. Damon is with us.

Damon is in Oklahoma City. Damon, what's your net worth?

How old are you?

But yeah, or more studious or something. Yeah, way to go, man. Congratulations. Okay. So you're 45 years old.

You have a $1.6 million net worth. Can this still be done if you're talking to a 25-year-old, 20 years younger than you?

He's got $50,000 saved right now. Wow. His plan is to stay at home while he goes to trade school for two years. And he wants to save about 40% or 50% to put a down payment on a duplex.

What do you drive?

I've got two drivers, and they drive. We bought a 98 Oldsmobile, and they call that Gam-Gam because it's a little old grandma car.

He did. He drove a white truck. I forgot that.

I like that. Way to go, dude. I'm proud of you. Good work. Bill is in St.

Louis. Bill, your net worth?

Cash, $145,000.. And the house, $323,000..

Can they still do this? Can they still be worth $1 million, $2 million, $3 million when they're 58?.

Our scripture of the day, Psalm 1832, it is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. Jerry Seinfeld said, Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled. for a reason. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. This is a Baby Steps Millionaire's Theme Hour.

One of the mythology things out there is that you have to have a 4.0.. You have to be a genius to build wealth. The truth is, the average millionaire has around a 3.0 GPA.

Mine was 2.97.. I'm still pissed about that. three one-hundredths of a point. Missed it by three one-hundredths. I think beer was involved.

Yeah,

because I was smart enough to do it, for sure. But, anyway, there you go. The typical millionaire— We don't find people with a 1.2 GPA. You've got to have some gray matter going on upstairs, right? Dumb people really can't do it.

But you don't have to be the valedictorian or the salutatorian. As a matter of fact, there's some really sad research that just came out on those two, how they underperform in the marketplace.

Sorry if you're the valedictorian or the salutatorian. But, anyway, not always, but it's not an indicator. It's not an indicator. So, there you go. So, A, they're not geniuses.

B, they're not people that didn't have a life. They have a life. They're not entertainers, these millionaires. They're not professional sports figures or Hollywood actors. Less than 1% of America's millionaires are celebrity types that you know who they are.

Hardly any of them. Okay? And so, this should give you great hope. It should tell you that it can be done. Because this is who does it.

And we talk to them every time we do this theme hour. Nathan's in Salt Lake City. Nathan, what is your net worth?

$50,000 in cash. $40,000 in 529.. And about $20,000 in cars.

Typically, people do better at grad school than they did in undergrad. That's why I ask. Somehow, when you get to grad school, it's usually a little more serious, but you just, you evened it out, though. Okay. Good for you.

Good for you. So, you know, a 20-year younger than you, 21 years old, getting ready to come out of school, can they still do this? Or is the hope of wealth building in evil America gone?

Congratulations. Brent is in Salem, Oregon. Brent, what's your net worth?

$467,000 in retirement accounts.

They're Baby Steps, millionaires. That should give you guys hope out there. That's what we're doing. And 2 million, 2.3, 2.1, 3.1, 1.6, 1.8, 1 million, and 1.58.. This was a fairly young crew today.

A 35, 36-year-old and a 41.. That's, you know, we didn't have a single one over 60.. Now, that's a fairly young bunch today. So, very interesting. And, you know, again, engineers, criminal justice, logistics, masters in business, business,

trades, construction.

This is real. We were talking to real people here. We didn't script any of this. And we've been doing this for years. I've talked to thousands of these people.

You can do this, guys. You can do it. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.

Hey,

folks, Dave Ramsey, here. You know, budgeting doesn't have to be boring. You just need a budgeting app that's made with you in mind, and that's EveryDollar. The EveryDollar app has helped millions of people work the baby steps and take the stress out of planning and managing their money. Start budgeting with EveryDollar for free right now.

Just go to RamseySolutions.com slash EveryDollar and download the app today. That's RamseySolutions.com slash EveryDollar.