Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
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Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, number one bestselling author, Ramsey personality, co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour.
My daughter is my co-host today. Open phones here as we talk to you about your life and your money. The phone number is free at 888-825-5225. And some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. John is in Louisville, Kentucky. Hey, John, how are you? Doing good. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. What's up?
I guess we'll get to a little back story, I guess, first. I'm 26, and my fiancée, I should say, is 31. We don't live together. I have a home right across the state line. She lives with her parents. I have nine kids. She has three with three different fathers. And me and her are just trying to get on board with the Dave Ramsey plan, and I guess you could say struggling with that.
In what way, John? What does that mean?
Well, just I presented to her I was following that route when I met her right at two years ago. And we've tried to do that on baby step two for the both of us. And I guess you could say just a few problems, you know, not living together, different households, and overall just ain't on board with the plan completely, I guess you could say.
She's not.
Yes.
Okay. So what you're saying is that she's okay with her money problems and you're not?
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Chapter 2: How do financial habits impact relationships?
Well, and there's also, John, and this is not to be judgmental on her by any means. I don't know her story. You gave us no context except that she's had three kids with three different people. You're the fourth one that you're starting this life with. And so any level of pattern that you see in your life and hopefully for her to look back and just say, hey, what are patterns in my life?
that maybe are not the best things, not the best choices. And what that can indicate, those character qualities in general, feed into other areas of our lives. So the fact that she says one thing and then goes and – it's not like she ordered something on Amazon. She went and bought a new car. You know what I mean? Like it was a big purchase. That's huge.
It's very different than what was discussed. That's rebellious and defiant. Well, there's just – well, it's just a – Defiant. It's a lack of – It's a middle finger. No, no. That's very strong. Oh, it is. We're all going to get out of debt. I'm going to go buy a new car. That's what that is. Yeah. And it's just like, it's a lack of follow through of what you said. Right.
And I don't know why she got the new car. I don't know. There's probably probably more details. But that's what I'm saying, though, is the character quality. You have to be aware of things that have caused decisions in your life. And if those patterns can change. Then the spouse you're going to marry is going to probably be a healthier person too, right? What do we tell John to do?
It's an overall scope. I would continue to press him to have the conversation. And I would get pre-marriage counseling. Yeah, I would continue to push him. I'd sit down with a coach. And to know the why behind a lot of these decisions for her. What causes her to be okay with the subject? You could say debt as the subject. What is in that with her? And actually get to the bottom of it.
Because there could be a level of digging that you actually...
find and you know her more that's the thing with money you pull a string and it goes all the way down to people's heart and soul and that's in there for her so i would if i loved her right if as you do john like you would want to know those things about her and then you have to make a decision though for john and what's best and when you look out 10 15 years does this look like a life that you want to sign up for you know
But if my decision patterns cause me to have a new car in the driveway, I'm 31 and three kids and I live with my parents. I know. These aren't patterns. Not great ones. Yeah. Yeah. Problem. Problem.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What are the key elements of the Ramsey plan?
What's up?
So I've changed positions in the company that I've been working for for the last couple of years. And I'm making a significant amount of money over what I was making initially. And it's kind of just piling up in the bank. I haven't invested any of it aside from just the company 401k, which comes out automatically. And I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to these things.
So I've been back and forth reading different things online about what I should be doing with my money. Never really done anything with it thus far because I haven't had any professional advice, just what I've read online. So I'm hoping that you can maybe guide me in a direction of where I should be putting my money to work for me as opposed to earning less than 1% interest in a bank.
Good for you. Good for you. Well, the good news is it's not rocket science. It's not that hard. This is not like learning a foreign language. It's much easier, okay? And so it is a bit of a foreign language, but you just have to learn the vernacular, and then you'll know what to do. What do you do for a living? So I'm in sales. Good. What do you make? By myself or my wife as well.
Your household income. Why is this money piling up?
Probably... Just north of 200K gross between my wife and I. Good for you. Well done, sir.
How much money do you have saved? Shane, you said it's just sitting in the bank and piling up.
Yeah, so right now I have about $50,000 in the bank. I've only been in sales for the last six months, and I probably had $10,000 when I started. So I probably have saved $40,000 in the last six months.
Yeah, that's amazing. Good for you. Well done. you'll find your way through and do just fine. Actually, there's three, but I'll give you all three of them. Principle number one, don't ever put money in something you don't understand. Okay. You have not violated that. Congratulations. You've done very well.
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Chapter 4: How can I prepare for a successful financial future?
my own ignorance with finances.
With investing, you start investing in good mutual funds, and they're real easy to understand. It's 90 to 200 stocks. You look at the track record of the fund that was mutually funded by you, me, and a bunch of other people together. And you go, OK, that group of that pile of money has been growing at an average rate of 11 percent or 10 percent or 22 percent or whatever it is.
And you look at, oh, it's done that for 32 years. Oh, OK. I feel pretty good about that. That's like buying a house in a good neighborhood. Yeah, and Shane, when you get to that 15%, honestly, the investment advice, if you dig into more of what we talk about, it's not going to be a lot of flashy stuff.
I mean, honestly, the 15% into retirement, 401ks, Roth IRAs, the standard, and anything beyond that is just mutual funds, I mean, index funds. It's nothing... There's no day trading, no crypto. There's nothing big and flashy. Real estate, Airbnb, you know, Airbnb investing.
You'll find none of that because, again, it's quote-unquote not exciting investing advice, but the amount of baby steps millionaires that are out it have done this and have built wealth slowly over time because it is the most stable way to build wealth versus all the flashiness. So, again, it's not super exciting, but... It is. It is consistent and it works. The difference is it actually works.
It works, yep.
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Chapter 5: What challenges did the couple face after getting married?
So you come out of med school and he's printing T-shirts like a crazy man, like hand over fist. And you're going to work like all the time and you're going to clean this mess up. And you went on just plowed right on through the house and everything.
Yeah. Well, we only met like five years ago. So he kind of buried into the debt.
Yeah.
He says, yeah.
It was scary.
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Chapter 6: How did they approach paying off their debt?
Yeah. What happened?
Tell us the whole story.
So what happened four years ago?
Well, we got married and we start looking at this and it's like, babe, you can reform. You know, you can reform. We've got all this stuff. We've got to get rid of it. Yeah, it was real scary. It's just the daily compounding. I looked at those interest payments and I was like, we got to get rid of this.
Chapter 7: What does life look like after becoming debt-free?
I still had credit cards.
Yeah.
No debt, but credit cards. And I had some savings, but I wasn't making any loan payments because they were in deferment. And so we just got every dollar. We started and it just snowballed.
How did you find us? So I have been listening to you guys probably since 2012. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so.
Chapter 8: What advice do they give to others considering financial changes?
He's a disciple. Yeah, I'm a little bit of a disciple. I've always run my business that way, you know, debt-free. Yeah. And always tried to keep my expenses low.
Okay, so you knew the antidote, and you were a wee bit excited to attack this.
I was so ready.
I bet you were over the top, though. Yeah. Was he over the top?
He was him.
He was him.
Yeah.
We're going to just say 10% over the top. Not crazy. Not over crazy. It's a good over the top. That's why I like him. It's a good over the top. I mean, you came at her with like a fire hose though, right?
Yeah, she was drinking from it though. I had her drinking from it. She was going for it.
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