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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Rental Studios. It's the Dave Ramsey Show where debt is down. Cash is king in the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Chris Hogan Ramsey personality is my co-host. Today on the air, the open phones are for you. The call is free and some say the advice is worth what you pay for.

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The phone numbers eight eight two five five two two five.

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That's triple eight eight two five five two two five.

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Keila is with us. Keila is in Washington. Hi, Kayla. How are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Hi, Mr. Hogan, it's such an honor to speak with both of you. You, too. What's up? Well, I'm a stay at home mom. I've got two little boys and one on the way, and I also run my own business, but I want to expand it and I really want to grow eventually. I want to run my own company.

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So I guess I have a couple of two questions. One is how what are my next steps to expand my business and get it to this point where I it's just really, really successful. And then also I would like to invest in a mentorship that might help me grow. But personally, we're on baby step, too. And so I didn't know if it's OK to invest business money back into your business.

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If you're on baby step two, how much are you making on the business? Last year, I made about thirty three thousand profit. About like twenty nine thousand profit. OK, good. Very good. OK. So you're making a couple grand a month after it's all said and done, give or take and. We're investing a portion of the 2000 dollars a month or 2500 dollars a month, would you put back into the business? Well, that's the thing, it's it's it's a mentorship and I'm not sure how to gauge how much I'll get out of it, not what I ask.

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What you were going to spend out of the 2500, how much would you spend? Oh, 500 or 700, either once a month, less than a thousand a month, no, just one once. One time. OK.

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OK, well, out of 29000, what? I spend a thousand dollars on education or 700 dollars on education. Yeah. Once I've verified that the education has a value by studying and learning about it and don't look for magic beans.

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Hmm, there aren't any magic beans. No one has magic when we sell leadership training and Ontari Leadership Summit and those kinds of things. We don't have magic beans. You know what Jack found when he got to the top of the beanstalk giants? You don't want magic beans.

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Right. Right now, I want to put in the work and I know that it's going to take time and that's why. Yeah, but don't don't think that some certain mentor or some certain Ontari leadership event that we teach or something else is going to.

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Suddenly make business easy, hmm? Now. It's still going to be hard. Yeah, Kayla, what kind of business do you have? It's a photography business. OK. And so you are the business, correct? Yeah, I own my job, and that's where I like putting things, I own it and I want to get bigger. I want it to expand.

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Well, but you were also growing your family. So you've got two kids. You got one on the way right now. So right now, you're the one that is traveling or you go and doing weddings. Is that your primary source? Yep, weddings and portraits. OK, look, the weddings bring in the biggest. OK. And see you are that you are the bottleneck for that business as well. So, you know, you've got to look at it and give yourself ample timing.

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What can you devote? You've got this new baby that's coming. You've got to be very intentional with it. But you are right now the product and the service. And so how much more of your time can you give and are you charging enough for it? Is would be one of the first steps I'd walk you through if I were coaching you. Yeah. Let's do this.

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Let's put you in Cristie Rights Business Boutique Academy and do that for a few months.

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And that puts Christy right up in your face because she's all I've got her she's got her hands deep in that stuff and do that before you pay for this mentoring and I'll just pay for that for you will give it to you and see if you can get things moving with that.

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Because I think your bottleneck right now is that you've got a lot of different things on your plate. Mm hmm. And probably your biggest holdup is not some magic pill for your business. It's that you just have a limited amount of time because you're raising a baby. That's right.

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And that's OK. That's nothing wrong with that. And you got your priorities straight if you're putting them first. But but maybe there's some efficiencies you can gain. And let's see if you can do that for free before you spend on the mentoring. And I'll I'll put you in her business, Batiuk Academy, which probably cost so much about what you're going to spend on that anyway. If I didn't give it to you. So and it's not even open right now, you can't get in it.

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But I know the guy that owns it so I can get you. And so hold on.

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I'll have Kelly pick up and we'll get you signed up for that. He lives in. That's it. Close. We just spoke it. That's it. We said it. I said it on the air and that makes it happen to my folks. It's kind of like old man.

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That is like it is like somebody.

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You happen to know us. Hey, Noah, what's up? Hey, guys, how's it going? Great, how can we help? Hey, so I was just curious what my conversation with my financial adviser should sound like so I don't come off like, hey, I listen to this guy on a podcast and he told me to tell you this. Basically, I have a little over eight thousand in a Roth account and a little less a little more than that in a non retirement account than my dad had helped me set up with a friend of his from high school.

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He's a financial adviser. And at the time, I didn't know what was going on. And so I was just curious. I wonder I was thinking about taking out the about eighty six hundred and put to start paying off my student loans. And so I was wondering how I should approach that conversation, what exactly I should say and what I should know, what questions I should be prepared to answer.

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Right. Noah, how old are you. I'm 23, 23 years old. My goodness, this is fantastic, but here's what I would do as you talk to this financial adviser, you want to talk with him just like you were having a conversation with anyone else, talk with them, not at them. And what that means is you're also you're putting them through the paces. They need to prove to you that you want to hire them on your team.

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And so I would ask them questions. I would talk with them about your goals and your dreams. They should totally be asking you about that. But you want to find out, hey, what's their level of customer service? How often do they meet with clients? What's your access point to them if you have questions and just begin to kind of walk them through the process to find out, is this male or female someone that's going to help me reach my dreams?

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So, you know, maybe I misunderstood that. I understand that you've already have the financial adviser and you're going to take your money out of your Roth and you want to know how to ask them to do that. No, not the rock the in the non not retirement account that I have. OK. All right. Well. OK, here's the thing. The guy was the guy that you're currently with, your dad handed you to write. Right, yes.

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OK, so there may be a bit of a challenge in that, because he may if it's a go out, they may adopt a parental tone with you. And I would I would if I were you, I would gently not tolerate that. You don't have to be a jerk about it, but you can just say, no, you work for me and I need you to teach me things, not tell me things.

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And if he can't do that because you were handed from your dad, then you may need to get a guy that you hire rather than your dad hires that they can have the heart of a teacher and walk with you through that. That's good. So you're looking for someone and they'll adopt a parental tone with a 50 year old, too. That's just what they do in that business. So stay away from that.

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Of course, I'll Hogan, my co-host today here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Adam is next. Adam is in Birmingham. Hi, Adam. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show.

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Hey, thanks for taking my call. Sure. I wanted to reach out to you. We are currently using your foundation and person planning resource resources with our two children who are high school age. And today in the investment chapter, you were discussing having a robust defense in the roughly 25 percent of funding in a mutual fund in small me at large cap and international investments. And so I went back and pulled my contacts for one case for myself to see where I had my money and my options.

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And I'm noticing that I have the option to do small cap and large cap. I don't have a mid-cap option as defined, and the only thing that I have in the way of an international option is a world equity fund. So I wanted to get your input. And so you should I follow that same advice, writing 25 percent and what I'd be without a mid-cap option. You probably have an estimate.

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You probably of an index fund, S&P 500 fund, don't you? I do have that, yeah, that's that's midcap. OK. That's right in the middle. And it's, you know, that's that's just close to it's going to perform very similar to midcap.

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It might have a little better diversification than a typical mid-cap inside it, but it'll perform real close as far as the Worldfund.

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The only difference is it'll have some versus an international head of some U.S. in it and mixed in with other countries. And because of that, it will actually outperform a typical international a typical international fund, because the international of the four categories that we teach people to use, the international has lagged behind for about eight years.

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So that that that Worldfund is that fidelity by chance. This is actually our FBI team, that's OK.

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All right, well, I was looking I was looking at the Worldfund the other day that it just can't zoom zoom.

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So but the yeah, I yeah, I pick up the world in lieu of but it's slightly different.

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And then pick up your 500 in place of your midcap, although it's slightly different, but you still got good diversification across types of funds and that's assuming none of those four funds absolutely suck. I'd look at their long track records and see how they've done compared to other funds in that category compared to some of the trend lines in those categories. And if it's all right there, then you would be just fine doing that.

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Yeah. Adam, I'm curious. What is your net worth, Adam? I have no idea. I don't even know how to calculate that, to be honest, I just started following the information a couple of years ago.

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How much how much is in your 401k? Got a total of about one hundred and fifty in collectible LNKD between my wife and I. Good for you. Well done. So you got a really good start, but that's how I would do it. The large cap is sometimes called a growth in income or a blue chip. The mid-cap is a growth fund or an S&P 500. It falls within that category. In general, the small cap is an aggressive growth or an emerging markets fund was the way those will sound.

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And then, of course, the international sometimes called a foreign fund and the kissing cousin is a world fund because it has some U.S. in it. Or sometimes oil funds from general funds called a global fund, if you just think, what does it mean? It means the whole world versus just the international. It means the whole globe versus just the international. And that's the nuanced difference between those. And again, because it's got some U.S. and it it will outperform the typical international.

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So that's cool, man.

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Good that you're looking into it, teaching your kid cause you to get your 401k to go pulled out and look at it.

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And I think that's really neat. And you should probably I would tell your kids you did that, that, hey, I went to go look. And you know what? I'm making sure that I've got things in order. I think that's a great way for these young people to not just hear about a day, but to learn it.

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Here's the other thing. Let's be real clear. He wasn't even sure. The kinds of mutual funds he had, right, or when he started looking at it, what the other cons were and he had how much in their 110 on 550 and didn't even know what he's doing.

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Right. So what that tells us is he was doing some things right, number one. Right.

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But what we keep telling people is, well, I don't know about Dave Ramsey, his rates of return, he quotes and Dave Ramsey doesn't help you get rich diagrams is only good for poor people.

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Well, you're stupid, but is what you are, because here's the thing. We know that the data tells us that 74 percent of the reason that people build wealth is they actually invest.

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That's right. And I get more people you get more people to invest. Yeah. Then all these people writing financial blogs in their mother's basement yelling at us about rates of return.

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Listen, if the aim now is right, a return had no idea it got 150 grand out of just bothering to invest.

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Right blindly.

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Somewhat not. I'm not picking on him. He's great.

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I love it. But it's not arguing about my PE ratio. I'm not worried about my expense ratio. I don't know if I agree with the Ramsey's analysis of the S&P. Well, kiss my bad guys got one hundred and fifty thousand bucks in there and you ain't got nothing. You live in your mother's basement. OK, that's the thing, man. I mean, seriously, is this not just ridiculous? It is. What we found is the National Association of Actuaries, which is the National Association NERD'S, did an in-depth research study that says that 74 percent of the reason for retirement bill building your retirement success in building your retirement is actually investing.

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I call it savings rate. Now, what do you call savings right now, baby? Step for 15 percent of your income.

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That's a rate of savings. Yes, this is highly correlated, more than rates of return, more than expense ratios to ending up with some dadgum money in your pocket.

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Yes. For your future. Bottom line is, you know, you can't get caught up in all the silliness. Brynn's follow the recipe, follow the recipe and stay focused. That's what we found. All this big study of the National Study of Millionaires studied over 10000 of them. The number one reason they said they invested in the used employer sponsored retirement plans and IRAs.

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And you know what? The key, some of them were so steady that they should have changed some of their funds. Yes.

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And didn't some of them were riding a lame horse all the way down to a million, six, you know, and but the thing limped. If it had been running a little bit, it had been two point two or two point three. That's right. But all they did that all these idiots that talk about things in theory don't know is they freaking did it. They did it.

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But they everybody sits around with paralysis of the analysis and says, ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, shoot something.

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Put some money in your mutual funds. My God, even if you're doing it wrong, you're doing it more than the stupid. But people are doing nothing that live in their mother's basement.

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No, you're right. And so for those of you that are out there, you may be saying, I don't know what I have. Guess what? Pull it out. Go sit down with the smart Vesterbro, find out if you've got something limping, if you can make a little tweak and make it run a little bit better, watch what will happen.

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Yeah, but here's the thing. There's no shame in your game because you're actually in the freakin game. That's right. You actually are doing something. Yeah.

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Which is 74 percent of the reason for success though. The other twenty five percent is the fine tuning. Right. And understand the investments and doing the stuff which is what he was asking about. Brilliant.

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But listen, you got you got The New York Times. I talked to a guy who's got 250000 dollars invested in his 401k and some bozo driving a used Toyota who ain't got two nickels to rub together. He's trying to tell him he didn't know what he was doing.

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And I'm like, hey, Bubba, check the fruit. You know, it's a Dr. Phil moment. How's this working for you? So don't be don't be shamed by some intellect within the financial community or some article on the Internet.

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Are some bozo writing a blog out of his mother's basement when you got more money than five of those people put together because you've actually even though you weren't doing it perfect, you're actually doing it. That's right. Nothing dies unless you pull the trigger, baby.

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Ready, aim. Aim at him and him.

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He got it killing me. We have tapped into a vein. Mr. Ramsey is awake and is ready to roll. Well, somebody on Twitter. I know. I know, Dave. They're out there and they're stupid.

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Now, it just here's what aggravates me. I don't give a crap whether they like me or not. Right. But they're misleading. That's right. These other people. And they're all sitting around joining the paralysis of the analysis club.

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Oh, you're right. And that's they analyze everything. That's the take away from a single mom. And I don't get me wrong, but sit around and, you know, sit and look at stuff and talk about theory and go do something.

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This is the Dave Ramsey Show. If you struggled during a normal year to pay for that time share, how big of a burden is it now? Get out of it. Call time-Share exit team.

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When the time share turned you down, time share exit team will go to bat for you and get this. When you hire time-Share exit team before the end of the month, they'll give you a huge savings for paying by cheque or auto draft. Call eight four four nine nine nine exit or time-Share exit team dotcom. Some exclusions apply see site for details. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, right on the debt free stage, Crystal is where the shock.

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First of all, how are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing great. How are you? Welcome. Welcome. Where do you live?

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I live in Boston, but I am a Southern girl and I have my parents here with me from Charlotte, North Carolina.

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All right. Very cool. Well, welcome to Nashville. I'm here to do your debt free scream.

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I am. And very excited to do so. How much have you paid off? 200000 dollars. So how long did that take? Three years and two months. All right.

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And your range of income during that three years and two months started at about 115 and then wrapped up at 193. What do you do?

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I am in H.R. I started in house, H.R. at a biotech company, and then I switched jobs this past December into H.R. consulting me.

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And it worked. It works.

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Ding, ding. You're killing it. You are knocking it down, girl. Well done. Thank you. So 200 K and that was for what?

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Student loans. Hello. Yes. Where did you go to school.

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So undergrad was at Georgetown University in D.C. and then I got my MBA at Duke.

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Oh, you don't choose cheap schools? No, although sometimes I rethink it, but it's not working itself out. Wow.

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That's very impressive pedigree there. Very well done. Good for you.

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Thank you.

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So your your MBA and your undergrad was in H.R., so my undergrad was actually finance and international business. OK, so did investment banking for a little bit then also did non-profit before making the switch into H.R. after getting my MBA.

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Why do I have the feeling she could do anything? Yeah, she is a very focused young lady. Crystal, what did you learn throughout this debt attack? Oh, you know, I learned a lot.

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I would say the biggest thing was real resilience and knowing my wife and keeping my focus there, there was so many times where it got really difficult having to say no to myself and to my friends and the budgeting process. That was not fun.

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So what started you on this journey?

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So if we flashback to May 2016, when I graduated, I had my job lined up to start off in August.

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And as you know, they give you that six month grace period, which I feel like is a sham, but got the six month grace period and decided to take it as such, which was not smart. I took the summer off to hang out vacation, just chill out a bit.

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And as I got closer to that six months, I realized that I need to figure out what I was dealing with because I knew I still had undergrad loans in addition to my grad school loans. So I go through my email and I total up all of the numbers and the balances across private and federal loans and see that it's 200000 dollars.

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You would never totaled it before. No freakout. Exactly. So complete freak out. And I'm thinking everything from, OK, how am I going to pay this off? When am I ever going to be able to buy a house?

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Who's going to date somebody who has two hundred thousand dollars in debt and of major concern? Yes. And at some point during that freak out actually called my dad and he said something to the effect of, you know, you are were you are all you can do now is make a plan and make it happen.

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So very practical. Didn't make me feel good, but it was practical.

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And thankfully, around that same time, my church had announced Financial Peace University. So I enrolled there and that's how it all got started.

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Oh, wow. OK, good timing then. Yes, very much. Well done. Yeah.

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So I met your dad and mom at the break a minute ago and they seemed like really reasonable people, like smart people and all. So I imagine when your dad heard 200000 dollars, he was staying calm for you, but he probably went, oh, my God.

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So, yes, what's funny is I was if I'm being very honest, Dave, I was not only was I freaking out, but I was ashamed because I see myself as someone who typically has a handle on those type of things. And so I didn't tell him the number.

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Oh, I didn't tell either my parents the number until I was maybe, you know, maybe 40000 dollars out of completing it.

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So you were almost done before you met? Yeah, I didn't want to I didn't want to tell them. So I told them that it was a lot, but I didn't. But they didn't know how much it was.

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Yeah, a lot is a variable term. Yes. Oh, wow. Oh, look at you.

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Well, you know what that does in you know, to your credit sometimes when you look at that.

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And you go, I did not do that. That sense of shame does come, a sense of regret comes sometimes that paralyzes people. Yes, but to your credit, it caused you to bolt into action like. No, no, not this girl. That's what you said. And, you know, you got a freakin finance degree.

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So the MBA. Yeah. Well, the irony. Yeah, me too.

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I went and I went broke following that stuff. Yeah. So, yeah, that's. Oh, man, that's amazing. I love the motivation you had to total it up to to just stared in the face and I think I would love to hear your advice to people that are out there that are young or maybe not so young that are staring at that student loan debt. We've got 53 trillion dollars in student loan debt impact and 47 million Americans right now.

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I'm sorry. One point seventy one point seven trillion. I think it grew while you were talking to, what advice would you give to people out there that find themselves in that first step?

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It is definitely one step in front of the other. You can't elephants happen to be my favorite animal. You can't take a whole bite, but it's taking it one step at a time and just realizing, OK, it happened and how can you get organized and not just having a budget, but actually sticking to it. That was one of the most humbling aspects of it. There was one time where I recall I had figured out a way to get my grocery bill to only 100 dollars a month.

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Well, and a lot of rice and beans.

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And so I am in the line and I purposefully, when I went to the grocery store, would not bring my debit card, just it just to prevent myself from spending more. I love to eat and I love to cook.

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So I'm in line and I remember the cashier ringing up everything and I might have been, I don't know, seven or ten bucks off.

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And so there's a line behind me and I have to say I'm sorry, but can you take those items off?

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And so that was hard because I know in my bank account there's money. Yeah, but I was committed. And so to answer your question, Chris, I think it's, you know, one step in front of the other having a plan and actually sticking to it because it's so easy to make excuses or just quit midway through.

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Oh, that's one hundred dollars a month in groceries, girl. I hope it works. OK, tell me a meal. What were you eating. Oh, like yes.

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So there was actually a farmer's market that was not too far from where I stayed walking distance, so didn't have to pay, you know, a cab or train ride to get there and they would have a lot of produce.

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So I was a vegetarian a lot, a lot of potatoes. And so I could get like a bushel of stuff for like ten bucks. Yeah. And so I would just meal prep and that would be it for the for the week was really good for you too.

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Yeah. Wow. Look at you. Very, very well done. Thank you. Out of you.

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I know your mom and dad are proud of you. That was incredible. One incredible thing. Thank you. Thanks.

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I mean, the degrees you got from the places you got them are incredible. What's more incredible is this story. Thank you. The power of resilience, the power of self-discipline. You apply those things. You can as smart as you are, you'll be able to do anything you want to do. You are on fire and you are doing anything you want to do. I mean, you're making serious bank. Well done. Very, very well done.

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So who are your biggest cheerleaders?

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Oh, gosh, definitely not just my parents, but my family in general. We have a group, a family group. And so I would give them milestone updates. Sometimes that would be strategy solutions and all of that good stuff. And I would also say a couple of my really close girlfriends, too, who I traveled a lot with and ate out a lot with. So having to say no to them too. Sometimes it's hard when we wanted to hang out.

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So I would say those two groups were very helpful and were with me every step of the way.

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OK, so you said who's going to go out with somebody with two hundred thousand in debt? So now you're going out on a date and he sits down and he tells you he's got two hundred thousand in debt. David, he's gone. He's gone out of there now. Do you have a plan? That's the first question. Do you have a big income? That's right. I don't blame you.

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I love it. That's great. Well done, Crystal. Well done. Thank you. We've got a copy of Chris's book for you every day. Millionaires, no question that you will be one before we know it. Thank you. Have completely done everything. Perfectly well done.

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Two hundred thousand paid off in three years and two months. Make it 115 to 193 counted down.

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Let's hear a debt free scream three to one. I am debt free. This is how it's done. Well, I'm telling you, this is not a generation of victims know they've been painted up that way by people that have agendas. This generation's on fire. That's exactly right. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Our Scripture of the day, Romans, 12 12, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor, William Arthur Ward said.

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The mediocre teacher tells the good teacher explains the superior teacher demonstrates the great teacher inspires. Wow, that was a good one.

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That is a good one. That's that's wall worthy right there. So good stuff. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. John is with us in Texas. Hi, John. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show.

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Thank you for taking the time. Having trouble hearing you, John. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. That's a little better. OK, well, thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help?

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So I am new to your show and a little bit about me. I'm 28 years old. My wife is two. We have a nine month old. I am a student working on my doctorate degree and I have a nine month old daughter. So I have about three hundred thousand in student loans, 40000 thousand personal loans, twenty six thousand in credit card debt. You're working on what kind of a degree? A doctorate degree in what?

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Organizational leadership with a focus and health care administration with a plan to do what, within five to ten years, hopefully being an executive leadership position, vice president, CEO or CEO. Why do you need to do that? It's a little bit more leaning into the health care administration side, so I can get a better perspective of that room. OK, I have about seventeen thousand remaining on my SUV and my wife and I together have about one hundred and sixteen thousand remaining on our mortgage right now.

[00:31:58]

We bring home a total of about 57000 together after taxes and. So last year, my parents advised me to go file for Chapter seven bankruptcy, so I went to an attorney. I've been retained with her since August of last year. However, she's requested that we kind of suspend or we kind of push back the bankruptcy until later this year, like December or early of next year, because she wants to see how the elections turn out and see if maybe with the new party coming in, if she can bankrupt or file Chapter seven on my student loans, I'm skeptical about that.

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But it's the only advice I've been given up to this point. So I guess my question to you guys are, what do you file bankruptcy on?

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Your student loans aren't bankrupt. All your mortgages in bankruptcy right now.

[00:32:53]

Keep the house away from bankruptcy or the the no, the 40000 and the personal loan and twenty six thousand credit card debt. So my question was, should I? Continue on this path to do this, should I do it sooner or should I even file Chapter seven and follow through with a different set of resources or steps to getting?

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When do you enjoy it?

[00:33:19]

In about two and a half years.

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And you're not you're not working, but your wife is. We both are working. I work full time as well as well as being a full time student. Oh, OK, but your household income is 57000. Yes, I bring home about 38 after taxes and she brings home 19 after taxes in your undergrad is and your undergrads.

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And one of my undergraduate is in chemistry. OK, chemistry and then respiratory care, so I'm a respiratory. How are you paying for this Ph.D. for the next two and a half years? So unfortunately, we had to take out student loan. On top of what I already know, so if you if you file bankruptcy, you're not doing that. How are you paying for the boat? How are you paying for your Ph.D.? I haven't filed yet.

[00:34:18]

I know I got that. But if you file bankruptcy, you're not getting a student loan.

[00:34:24]

I was not aware of that, you know, I mean, I'm so all right, I'm trying to figure out where to start. John, you right now, my friend, do you feel the weight of this right now? I do. Do you really? Because you said you just recently found us. And so what you're hearing is the wheels turning is reprocesses because you've been sold a fake dream. If you think bankruptcy is going to fix it, OK, because it costs money.

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And you've already had this attorney on retainer and they're telling you we're going to wait for the election to find out if. Listen to me, student loans are not bankrupt. OK, those aren't going anywhere. And so I want you to start to look at this and feel it and not look for the quick fix, but look for the fix.

[00:35:19]

Yes. And here's the problem and certainly why I am trying to find out the research, because that made me so skeptical when she said that, yeah, he was trying to put things on a his back. And so that's why I wanted to find other resources out there. And I found you guys.

[00:35:34]

That's more of a yeah. I appreciate this. So I've got to figure out a way to get you guys to get your income moving sooner than two and a half years from now.

[00:35:48]

And that's what that's what my hold up here is, because I'm not trying to. The thing is, the debt is always not the problem.

[00:35:55]

It's always the symptom of what's going on. And one, including when I lost everything, went bankrupt 30 years ago. So I know how scared you guys are. And this is a huge pile up on you guys.

[00:36:06]

And so you have bet the you bet the farm on this dfd turning into serious income.

[00:36:15]

Yes, I mean, with 300000 dollars plus continuing to prop it up, so I'm probably going to start talking to health care companies now about working there and letting them finish pay to help you finish the as their continuing aid program pay to help you finish your Ph.D. and you go ahead and get your career track started. Now, instead of a thirty eight thousand dollar job, you've got a chemistry degree. You've got the intellect to step into this. You've got a lot of the training to step into this.

[00:36:44]

And let's accelerate the PhD completion and let someone else pay for that, get that off of you and then get your income up to begin to address the 300. While you're doing that, you can address the other stuff. You can file seven if you want to and clean it up, clean up some of that stuff. But but you've got to in good conscience. You can't continue borrowing if you're not going to pay all the people you owe me from a moral standpoint.

[00:37:12]

And you've got to stop and address that as well in this. So I can't I can't recommend you that you not pay someone in bankruptcy.

[00:37:22]

And then while you're, on the other hand, borrowing money on the other out of the other side of your mouth. Right. And so that's just inconsistent from an integrity standpoint for me. So I got to put a stop to the bleeding, meaning we got to have a way to complete this deal without any more debt. And that that keeps us away from having any more debt. And then, B, it gives us the leeway to say, OK, can we fight through these other types of debt or are they do they need to go into bankruptcy?

[00:37:53]

You guys are just under an amazing amount of stress.

[00:37:55]

And I tell you what, Dave, what I'd like to do, Kelly, get his information. I want him get get him connected with one of our financial coaches. Yeah. You guys are going to have somebody sit down and unpack and we'll just we'll pay for it. Yeah. And more the first session instead of you filing bankruptcy, let's let them sit down. Well, that's a good idea. Absolutely. Because we got to find out, Dave, what this doctorate program.

[00:38:15]

This could be the kind that you got to go to school for three years and then spend two years right. In your doctoral dissertation.

[00:38:20]

He said he never completed it. Well, but the thing is. You're so far into this, I can't pull you back, but the bet that you've made is untenable. A 300 thousand 300000 bet on the FD causing you to have a degree in executive health care is that's an untenable bet. Is it a reasonable thing to get a Ph.D.? Sure, sure. You've done it in such an unreasonable way. It's put you under all the stress. I'm so sorry.

[00:38:50]

I know you're scared. So what we can do is walk with you and we'll just pay for it. Don't file bankruptcy. Let's see if we can help you get this turn.

[00:38:58]

But you're going to have to you're going have to attack this from multiple fronts, not merely getting rid of the credit card debt and the personal loan, just getting rid of that, that you've still got all the other mess. Yeah. And it's still getting worse if you don't make that better. And that's just that's what's scaring me here for you, brother. You hang on, Kaleo, pick up and we'll pay for your counseling. We'll help you get some help.

[00:39:19]

We'll get you some help. Chris, good job. Thank you, sir. That was a good, good, pretty good suggestion that puts us out of the day.

[00:39:26]

Ramsey show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial fees, and that's to walk daily with the prince of peace.

[00:39:34]

Christ, Jesus.

[00:39:35]

Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and finance screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt free scream live on the show, make sure you visit Dave Ramsey dotcom slash show and. Right. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. Money isn't the only thing we talk about around here, get life changing advice on your career from my good friend and career expert Ken Coleman on the Ken Coleman show.

[00:40:05]

According to a recent Gallup poll, nearly 70 percent of Americans are disengaged at work. If you dread going into work every Monday morning and you're just trying to make it to the weekend, the Ken Coleman show is for you. Everyone has a sweet spot. Your sweet spot is at the intersection of your greatest talent and greatest passion. We will help you discover what it is you were born to do, and then we'll help you create a plan to make your dream job a reality.

[00:40:32]

You matter and you have what it takes. Join the conversation on the Ken Coleman show. Hear more from the Ramsey network, including the Ken Coleman Show, wherever you listen to podcast.

[00:40:44]

Hey, it's James, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services you've heard about during this episode. Thanks for listening.