The 5 Things That Will Make You Wealthy In 10 Years w/ Dave Ramsey EP 1415

https://lewishowes.com/mindset - Order a copy of my new book The Greatness Mindset today! Dave Ramsey is an eight-time national bestselling author, personal finance expert and host of The Ramsey Show, heard by 23 million listeners every week. He has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Today, Fox News, CNN, Fox Business and many more. Since 1992, Dave has helped people take control of their money, build wealth and enhance their lives. He also serves as CEO for the company Ramsey Solutions. In this episode you will learn:The value of being generous. The secret to building wealth overtime. The character qualities of successful people. The number one thing that hurts or hinders marriages. How to shift our thinking from short-term to long term. For more go to lewishowes.com/1415Everything You Need To Know About The Housing Market: EP 1301Take These Steps If You Want to Become Rich - EP 1301Money Habits To Prepare Against Inflation, Market Crashes & A Recession - EP 1283The Biggest Lies You've Been Told About Money, Debt & Building Wealth - EP 1257 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Lewis Howes?

  I firmly believe that taking charge of your mindset allows you to be in the driver's seat of your life and unlock your potential. And that's why I'm thrilled to share that my new book is out right now. It's called The Greatness Mindset. In it, you'll learn how to build a plan for greatness through powerful exercises and toolkits designed to propel your life forward. This is the book that I wish I had 20 years ago. It's everything I've learned in the last decade with the research and the science to help you unlock your mind. Make sure to go to lewishouse.com/2023mindset to pick up your copy of my book, The Greatness Mindset, today.

• 0:40Dave Ramsey?

  You need to be on a written plan. In anything you're doing, if you don't do it intentionally, it's not going to occur. No one wins anything accidentally. It's an intentional act. Winning always is at marriage, at taking care of your body, building a business, you know, money. No one accidentally gets wealth.

• 1:01Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 1:25Lewis Howes?

  You are an example of what you do consistently, every day, year after year, decade after decade, playing the long game of what you can create in the physical world. And I think that's a good representation of what I've learned from you about building wealth over time. It's not about doing it quickly. It's not about trying to find some scheme that you can get into and build this overnight. But it's about doing the consistent integrity things over time to build this type of wealth. So again, it's just inspiring to witness.

• 1:55Dave Ramsey?

  Thank you. Thank you. I'm the ugly tortoise. I don't want to be the hare.

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  But you're consistent. It's amazing. It's amazing. You just keep showing up and doing the wise, the wise decisions. And I think that's what a lot of people are missing out on today, especially millennials today. I feel like they're just making decisions to look good as opposed to... Feel good long term as opposed to have safety as opposed to having security and building wealth and a lot of people are just in debt. I'm curious, I love your, your seven steps. I love how often you guys just say it over and over again. Um, but somehow how people just seem to miss it and, and not do the steps and it hurts them. I'm curious, besides the steps, the seven baby steps, what are, what are a few things people

• 2:41Lewis Howes?

  can start doing to increase the odds of wealth over time? To increasing the odds, is it something mentally they can do, spiritually they can do? Is there something in their relationships they can do differently to increase the odds?

• 2:55Dave Ramsey?

  Well, I think the first thing is, um, you have to have, uh, I mean, we were sitting in one of our leadership team meetings yesterday, as a matter of fact, here in the, at Ramsey, and we were looking at a business unit and they kept going, well, we need to do this, we need to do this. And we did not have agreement on the, the baseline data of what was actually going on. One person thought one thing was going on, one thought another was going on. And we, I said, we gotta back up, we gotta put data in front of us. And once we all agree on exactly where we are, then we can discuss where we're going. And I, I think, um, you know, building wealth or having a, a high quality life in any area i- is a little bit like that. You need to back up and say, okay, what are the principles before I worry about the tactics?

• 3:38Dave Ramsey?

  And the principles should lead us to the tactics. And the, the five money principles, if we wanted to pull some out, there would be common sense biblical things that are kind of boring. But if you lay those principles in place, then they'll lead you to the tactics. I mean, here's one, live on less than you make.

• 3:56Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 3:57Dave Ramsey?

  Now, that sounds kind of almost glib, you know? But the, the Bible says the borrower is, I mean, it says, says a foolish man devours all he has, live on less than you make. Uh, you need to be on a written plan. In anything you're doing, if you don't do it intentionally, it's not going to occur. No one wins anything accidentally. Uh, it's an intentional act, winning always is at marriage, at taking care of your body, building a business, you know, money, no one accidentally gets wealthy. It just, oh, what happened? No one does that. So that's a written plan, that's called a budget. You know, and, and so we gotta have a budget, we gotta live on less than we make. If you get out of debt mathematically, what it does is you have money.

• 4:41Dave Ramsey?

  To invest because when you have a $750 payment on your Ford F-150, you got no money. And so that money's going to Ford instead of to you. It's not going in your 401k. And so that's what the borrower is slave to the lender means. But also what happens when you get out of debt is you have this sense of freedom. You have this sense of autonomy, the sense of agency. You're not being controlled by the man. Stinking Bank of America doesn't tell you what to do. Ford Motor Credit doesn't tell you what to do. So you don't have to keep a horrible job. You can move to a better job and take that risk. But if you gotta pay payments, you don't feel free. And so, you know, being out of debt, living on less than you make, having a written plan, obviously saving and investing.

• 5:27Dave Ramsey?

  Obviously, in the house of the wise or stores of choice food and oil, grandma said have money saved for a rainy day. We start with an emergency fund and then we long term invest. In the largest study a millionaire has ever done in North America, we did it here at Ramsey. We discovered that the typical way someone gets their first one to five million is they have a paid off house. And they have a really healthy 401k or Roth IRA combo in good mutual funds. And so they'll be sitting there with a million dollars in their retirement accounts. After 10, 12, 15 years of doing this, and they got a half million dollar or $700,000 paid for house. So they got a $1.7 million net worth. And so the save money, save money.

• 6:08Dave Ramsey?

  And the weird thing is that there's no, all the get rich quick stuff on Tik Tok and all that. It is all.

• 6:15Lewis Howes?

  Crypto and.

• 6:16Dave Ramsey?

  Everything, there's always some way. There's a new version of stupid every year, you know? And, but, but.

• 6:25Lewis Howes?

  Why is that so enticing? Why do so many people jump into that with all their money or all their savings or take out debt? Just to invest in the 17 new things a year that seem like one or two people actually made a few million dollars? But probably end up losing it a year later. Why is that such an enticing thing for people who work so hard at making their money?

• 6:47Dave Ramsey?

  Well, taking the long haul, being the tortoise versus the hare is not human nature. Our brains are wired by God for efficiency. You know, we want to burn the least calories possible to get the job done. Whatever it is, which in the financial world causes us to look at get rich quick. And, and we don't think of it as stupid. I didn't think of it as stupid when I did it in the eighties and but you know, I, I started with nothing, had four million dollars worth of real estate, lost everything because I, I borrowed too much money on the real estate and crashed my own life down on my head. I didn't think I was being foolish, foolhardy, impulsive. I thought I was burning the least calories to get to the goal.

• 7:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you're being smart.

• 7:31Dave Ramsey?

  I thought, I thought this is the way to go and people that are buying crypto, that's what they think. I mean, no one thinks they're gambling. They don't think, oh, this is, has worse odds than a roulette wheel, which it actually did mathematically, you know, but, but they didn't think that. They thought this is the least calories to burn to get to the goal. So that's just the human brain doing what it's supposed to do. We're just efficiency experts all the time and everything we do. What's the least effort to get to the goal?

• 7:55Lewis Howes?

  How, how often does someone, when they know like, hey, this is a, a big risk investment? This, the chances are of you making, you know, 10x your, on your return in one year or six months is so slim. Or a hundred x returns in two years is so slim, but why do people sometimes go all in on the money they have or 90% of their money? On things that have a 1% chance of actually getting more than a double return within a year?

• 8:23Dave Ramsey?

  Well, there's two reasons. One is they don't believe there's only a 1% chance. They, they believe, again, it's the most efficient way to get there. I didn't think that there was a high probability I was going to fail doing nothing down real estate. I did not, it never occurred to me, number one. And then number two, pride comes right before the fall. There's an arrogance. I, I, I was smart. I understood that, that debt knocked over some people. I understood that sometimes people got in trouble, but I thought, oh, I can do this. I, I'm smart enough.

• 8:56Lewis Howes?

  26 years of your wisdom, you could do this.

• 8:58Dave Ramsey?

  That's right, man. After 24 and a half years and a, and a college degree in real estate, by God, I can do this, you know, and there was that in there, that arrogant little twerp, you know, he was there. And so there's a combination of this pride and that then leads you to, again, these principles that lead you to bad tactics or principles that lead you to good tactics.

• 9:17Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 9:17Dave Ramsey?

  And the principle was a bad principle that I was functioning in. And, you know, just put a little icing on the cake of a little pride, a little arrogance that says, oh, yeah, I know, I know that for that guy, but I'm really good at math. And I grew up in the real estate business and I know, I know things, just, just ask me, you know, and, and that you see this, you can actually see that dripping off of some of the stuff that's posted on the get rich quick stuff.

• 9:43Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 9:44Dave Ramsey?

  Stuff that criticizes you, stuff that criticizes me, stuff that criticizes our friend Craig Rochelle or whoever, I mean, you can see, anybody that's playing a long game, or you know, Simon Sinek's infinite game, right? Anybody's playing a long game, the short-term thinkers all have to pile on and there's always that dripping arrogance around it. I, I could recognize it because I was the same guy.

• 10:03Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 10:03Dave Ramsey?

  I did the same, I would have been the guy trashing that guy.

• 10:06Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 10:06Dave Ramsey?

  I would have been the guy trashing me when I was 26 because I would have been going, no, that doesn't apply to me. Yeah, I understand Ramsey, but that's for regular people.

• 10:14Lewis Howes?

  I'm smarter than that.

• 10:15Dave Ramsey?

  I'm not regular people, you know, so there's that in there. So we got, we got get out, get out of debt, we've got live on less than you make, we gotta have a budget, we gotta save, and, and the last one is you need to be outlandishly, outrageously generous.

• 10:27Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 10:28Dave Ramsey?

  And walk around with an open hand.

• 10:30Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. What does generous mean for people that feel like they're struggling to live their own lifestyle of going out with friends once a week or having a dinner every couple of weeks or just doing, you know, some basic activities to enjoy life beyond free activities? How, how does generosity look like for those individuals?

• 10:50Dave Ramsey?

  See generous is not an action, generous is a character quality. And like integrity, it's a character quality that you choose. You're not born with it.

• 10:59Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 11:00Dave Ramsey?

  It's not, it's not installed. You have to say, I am a generous person. As a friend, as our friend James Clear says, he says, our habits come from our identity, so change your identity and your habits will follow, right? Uh, the whole essence of atomic habits is his selling book and, and which is wonderful material.

• 11:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 11:16Dave Ramsey?

  And so the, uh, uh, but, but I am a generous person. Okay, now what does that mean? Yeah, there's obviously a money thing. That might mean I give 10% to my church, a tithe. That might mean I pick up the bill at dinner. Uh, it might mean I look across the room and someone's wearing military fatigues and I buy their lunch. Uh, it might, or a policeman, or a fireman, or a nurse, you know, I'm in scrubs. I might, uh, that might, it might mean something that simple tactically, but it could mean I just opened the door for something.

• 11:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, a generous heart.

• 11:48Dave Ramsey?

  It could mean, cause here's the thing, we all know the difference in a taker and a giver. We know the difference in selfless versus selfishish. When you hang out with selfishish people, you feel like you need to take a shower when you're done, you know? And when you hang out with selfless people, so I can just decide to do that. I don't have to have a lot of money. Because generous people are highly attractive.

• 12:09Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:10Dave Ramsey?

  Not because they give you stuff, but they're highly attractive because they're, that they, and they're very seldom depressed.

• 12:16Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 12:17Dave Ramsey?

  They're, they almost always have a, an, a positive outlook. They don't have a scarcity mentality. They have an abundance mentality. It, it, and all of this is just a decision. I, I just, I'm gonna, instead of being, but, but what happens is we become overwhelmed with the financial stress. And we turn it in and we became navel gazers, worried about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, cause I gotta take care of me, me, me, me, me. And if I don't take care of me, me, me, me, the lights get cut off.

• 12:43Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:44Dave Ramsey?

  And it doesn't take much margin to push all of that back as a decision and just say, no, I'm gonna leave a tip.

• 12:54Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 12:55Dave Ramsey?

  That's outlandish, you know? I watched a guy the other day park a Mercedes. He would pull it up in a car. I know the car cause I looked at it one time. It is a hundred and forty thousand dollar car. And he hands the valet five bucks. I'm like, dude, this is Ferris Bueller's Day Out. You just gave a guy five bucks to park a hundred and forty thou- you are out of your mind.

• 13:14Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:15Dave Ramsey?

  That's a la- that's a lack of generosity that could really cost you.

• 13:18Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 13:19Dave Ramsey?

  I want them taking care of Mr. Ramsey's car.

• 13:22Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:22Dave Ramsey?

  Like it's their daughter, you know? That's the tip I wanna leave.

• 13:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:27Dave Ramsey?

  For selfish reasons, hello, you know?

• 13:29Lewis Howes?

  Protect your car.

• 13:30Dave Ramsey?

  Exactly.

• 13:31Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious, what was the, what was the most generous year you've ever been financially? You don't have to say how much you gave or tithe that year, but what was the most you ever? Gave back in one year. Can you remember that year?

• 13:45Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah, yeah, it was year before last. Um, cause I had a goal. I, I, I met this, I've been hanging out with these generous guys, these guys that have a lot of money. And gals and trying to learn from them. And one of the things I learned is the intentionality behind their generosity. They're very careful. They, they do large gifts as if they're doing an investment.

• 14:03Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 14:04Dave Ramsey?

  They do due diligence.

• 14:05Lewis Howes?

  Can you explain?

• 14:05Dave Ramsey?

  Well, they do due diligence on the organization. You know, if they're wasteful, they're not handling money well. They don't treat their people well behind the scenes. Uh, eighty-nine percent is going to overhead and eleven percent's going to hungry children, then that, you know, this is a problem. That means, I mean, somebody got too nice a car in a pile, right? And so, uh, they're, they, they investigate and go into it. That's one thing they do on large gifts. And, and two, if you've got an organization that's weak and their, their, their money is struggling and you give them too much, you can destroy them.

• 14:34Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 14:35Dave Ramsey?

  Much like a lottery winner.

• 14:37Lewis Howes?

  Right. They're not, they're not ready for it mentally or emotionally.

• 14:39Dave Ramsey?

  They don't have the character to carry it. They don't have the processes and the systems in the organization and the, in, in the nonprofit of the ministry to carry it. And so you can actually, you know, you, you go into a church of thirty people and you tie the million dollars, you can ruin the place.

• 14:53Lewis Howes?

  So what questions should you ask an organization, a church, or a foundation that you want to give a big sum of money to, of money to? What questions should you ask the leaders? To know that they have a mindset capable of managing that much money? Because typically if you come from not having enough, and that's how you've always been, and then all of a sudden you get more, you may not be ready for it.

• 15:18Dave Ramsey?

  Right.

• 15:18Lewis Howes?

  So what questions should we ask before we make those investments? And, and give that generously to know that, okay, this person is actually at the right stage of their life to handle this big lump sum of money.

• 15:30Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah.

• 15:31Lewis Howes?

  And, and I'm, and all the donors that I'm gonna bring them.

• 15:34Dave Ramsey?

  The, um, my daughter Denise runs our family foundation and does all the Ramsey philanthropy. And the thing that she and I have agreed on in that is I want her to approach the ministry like we are venture capitalists. And we're gonna buy them.

• 15:51Lewis Howes?

  Like looking at their books?

• 15:52Dave Ramsey?

  I'm gonna buy them.

• 15:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:54Dave Ramsey?

  If I'm gonna buy them, I wanna know how they're running the place. I wanna know their HR issues.

• 15:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:59Dave Ramsey?

  I wanna know their, uh, systems and processes for growth. I wanna know how they manage things. How chaotic is it? How, is there accounting systems in place?

• 16:10Dave Ramsey?

  I want to know the delivery mechanism of the actual goal of the ministry. Again, feeding hungry kids, how are we feeding hungry kids? What's that look like? What's the cost per kid? How many kids do we feed? And what's our goals? And what's our vision for that? And just like you're buying it. And then you can come alongside them and partner with them. And we're not trying to take them over. We're not trying to run them. Don't want to do that. That's their pro- that's- God gave them that to do, not me, not Denise. But we're going to approach it that way as due diligence. And then that gives us a different set of eyes. And here's what's weird. Because we teach leadership and because we run a large business, we actually can help them sometimes. Yeah. By advising them and say, you know what?

• 16:52Dave Ramsey?

  If you would just change that a little bit, then we could change our giving like this. And we're not trying to tell you what to do. We're not trying to bribe you. But we're just trying to come alongside you and love you well. Help you, you know, increase your capacity, increase your efficiency for the goals that God's given you to do here. And it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. And so it changes our mindset of just instead of like, we're going to throw some money over the fence, hope it all works out. If we come alongside them as if we're buying them or as if we're a venture capitalist and we're going to partner with them or something like that, then we're going to bring our advice. So obviously then the Ramsey Family Foundation does not give to ministries that borrow money. Obviously. Right, right. That's a deal killer for us. Yeah. That doesn't have to be for everybody, but we teach people not to borrow money.

• 17:36Dave Ramsey?

  Why would we then give money to someone who's borrowing? That's kind of dumb. Right. So we wouldn't do that. So but back to the other thing. My goal was, I saw one guy, he gave away a million dollars in a year. I thought that would be very, very cool. Figure out a way that we- and many years ago, we were able to do that the first time. Yeah. Many years ago. And then I thought, well, what can we do next? I want to give away a million dollars in a day. Wow. And we pulled that off. Come on. We pulled that off. That's inspiring. It included the gifts to our team for Christmas. It included supporting several ministries simultaneously at Christmas. A children's home in the area. It included buying some stuff for this thing and that thing. We did it all, brought everybody under this roof here and did it all. This huge celebration one day, not to point at us. Sure.

• 18:20Dave Ramsey?

  But it was, I got to tell you, it was one of the most fun days I've ever had in my life. Because generosity is.

• 18:26Lewis Howes?

  Feels good, too.

• 18:27Dave Ramsey?

  It does. It's a blast. It's the most fun you'll ever have with money.

• 18:31Lewis Howes?

  Now, you said, I think you said the year before last was the most that you gave.

• 18:35Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah, that was that million dollar day.

• 18:37Lewis Howes?

  That was it. Okay, so it was essentially like a year and a month ago or something, right? Is that what it was like?

• 18:42Dave Ramsey?

  I guess.

• 18:43Lewis Howes?

  Year and a half ago or something like that. I'm curious.

• 18:47Lewis Howes?

  Every, every individual that I've interviewed or talked to, you know, ten plus years my senior.

• 18:57Lewis Howes?

  They all talk, who I really admire, they all talk about generosity and giving and making it something you do early on in your life in any way, capacity that you can, and giving more and more, the more you are able to give more. And they say, the thing that always happens is I always make more when I give. Even like a little bit uncomfortably when I give more than I think, ah, can I really do this? The next year always becomes bigger. I'm curious, was the last year one of your biggest years?

• 19:25Dave Ramsey?

  No.

• 19:26Lewis Howes?

  No?

• 19:26Dave Ramsey?

  No. But it will be, it will be over a decade.

• 19:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:29Dave Ramsey?

  I mean, because I, I mean, we're being impacted by outside variables like everyone. I mean, we got supply chain is affecting, the economics are affecting, energy costs are affecting, hiring, cost of labor is affecting us, everything's affecting us. So no, we're, we're actually not up immediately following that. But I am a hundred percent convinced that over a decade, we'll be way up.

• 19:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:50Dave Ramsey?

  Because I've done it before. I've stretched and done it before, done unusual thing, had the celebration with no thought of the return.

• 19:57Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 19:57Dave Ramsey?

  You don't, if you do it with a thought of a return, then that's you telling God what to do. That doesn't work. He thinks he's God, so that won't work.

• 20:03Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 20:03Dave Ramsey?

  Um, but the, uh, this idea that, that, um, it, again, generous people are just more fun to do stuff with.

• 20:12Lewis Howes?

  They're more attractive, they're more fun.

• 20:13Dave Ramsey?

  More attractive and, and you just end up having opportunities come. Let me think about it in a simplistic way. Let's say you were a, a leader in an organization and you had two people working for you vying for a promotion. And obviously, what are we gonna do here? One's the selfish, looked like he's weaned on a pickle. You know, and, and, and the other lady is, she's generous and she's kind. She's always doing, she's always stepping outside of her own job description and helping someone else get the project done and not taking credit for it. Who gets the promotion?

• 20:42Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 20:43Dave Ramsey?

  Of course. And it's not because, you know, it's not because you're somehow beholden to her for that. It's just, that's who I want to work with every day.

• 20:51Lewis Howes?

  People with good attitude, good energy.

• 20:53Dave Ramsey?

  That's who I want beside me. I don't want Mr. Weaned on a Pickle hanging out. I don't want to hang out with this guy.

• 20:57Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 20:57Dave Ramsey?

  You know, he's awful. It's awful, you know?

• 20:59Lewis Howes?

  What do you think happens to people that never give? That they just earn for themselves or they keep it in their business and they only put it back in their business, but they don't think about giving outside of the business?

• 21:10Dave Ramsey?

  I think their growth is stunted.

• 21:11Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 21:12Dave Ramsey?

  Uh, but you know, it, it, to me, again, it falls in the same category as integrity. What happens to someone who cuts corners? You can, you can win, you can prosper to a degree, but all the data tells us, and, and all the life experience tells us, that the people with fanatical levels of integrity are the ones that do the biggest stuff.

• 21:37Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 21:38Dave Ramsey?

  The crooks really don't get ahead at the end of the day. The people that are selfish, they can, they can get some stuff done, but the people that are selfless, they just have a tendency, because people trust them, uh, that trust factor comes in, things move at the speed of trust, as they say, and, uh, all those things come into play and, and you just don't become all you were designed to be. The other thing that happens with generosity is, uh, your creativity increases.

• 22:04Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh, yes.

• 22:05Dave Ramsey?

  Because you're, you're releasing chemicals that you don't release when you're selfish. Your productivity increases, uh, your, the quality of your relationships increase. I was speaking at a little Baptist church in Kentucky one time, beautiful little church, and the guy, many, many years ago. And the old pastor had been there for 40 years and I did a tithing lesson, hardcore, you know, Baptist tithing lesson, which I love. And, uh, the guy came up afterwards and he goes, well, you left one thing out. Sure Pastor, I mean, you've been doing this longer than me. What did I leave out? He goes, you know, I've been doing this 40 years. I've never had a tithing couple in my church get a divorce. And I went, why? Because the tithe is magical? Because some people think that in Christianity, you know, because I don't think that.

• 22:49Dave Ramsey?

  He said, no, because when you're unselfish with your money, you're unselfish with your wife.

• 22:56Dave Ramsey?

  And you're unselfish with your husband and you serve each other in the marriage if you're serving the community with your giving, it's the same same muscle. And he goes, you're just, you're just easier to stay married to.

• 23:08Lewis Howes?

  When you're, when you're tithing, when you're giving.

• 23:09Dave Ramsey?

  When you're giving, when you make giving a standard part of the rhythm of your life, you build that generosity muscle and it affects every relationship you're in.

• 23:18Lewis Howes?

  That's so true.

• 23:19Dave Ramsey?

  Particularly the key relationship in a marriage. It changes the way you parent.

• 23:23Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 23:24Dave Ramsey?

  You know?

• 23:25Lewis Howes?

  Cause if you don't give in one area, if you're saying, I'm gonna hold back my money and I'm gonna keep it here, you're probably not gonna give generously to your spouse or to your kids or to your friends or community, right?

• 23:34Dave Ramsey?

  Because it's a character quality.

• 23:35Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 23:36Dave Ramsey?

  You know, it's like the guy that says, ah, well, you know, I hate the IRS, I hate taxes, so I don't really put everything on my tax return.

• 23:43Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 23:44Dave Ramsey?

  Okay, so you're a liar.

• 23:45Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 23:46Dave Ramsey?

  You're a cheater. Where are you gonna cheat me?

• 23:49Lewis Howes?

  Uh.

• 23:50Dave Ramsey?

  You know what, that's what I start thinking. I don't, I'm not impressed. I pay, I hate taxes, but I pay every stinking penny, not because I believe in taxes and not because I'm scared of the IRS, cause neither one of those things are true, but it's because it, it says something about me.

• 24:08Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 24:09Dave Ramsey?

  I gotta look at me and that's, that's an integrity issue. It's a, every penny, every cash sale of a book on the back table goes into the accounting system and we pay freaking taxes on it. I got audited not long ago, I paid precisely zero.

• 24:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 24:27Dave Ramsey?

  In the audit. We were so stinking clean and, and it's not because I'm scared of those doopers, cause I'm really not, they're a pain in the butt, but I'm not scared of them. It, it's a matter of integrity is integrity is integrity is integrity. Generosity is generosity is generosity is generosity. These things, the stuff, these are character qualities of the successful people that I've met.

• 24:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's beautiful. Speaking of marriage, um. It seems like money affects marriages a lot. I'm curious what, or it could empower marriages, or could it hurt marriages if not handled properly? I'm curious. If you were to give advice on some, a couple dating for, you know, a few years, looking to get married, what are a few questions they must have and align to about money? That might be uncomfortable to have those questions, but will actually get you clear on, hey, are we the right match?

• 25:19Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah.

• 25:19Lewis Howes?

  In terms of our money mindset, in terms of what we're going to do with money for the next, and maybe you have this question in the first few months of dating, you don't wait two years. But what are those questions that people should be asking before they align with someone romantically long term?

• 25:34Dave Ramsey?

  Well, there's a couple of things to think, keep in mind, and I'm talking to a young couple about this, and I do often in a marriage seminar or something like that, is our pre-marriage counseling session or something like that. The number one cause of divorce is money fights and money problems out there. The stress of money and the arguments over money. Okay? And so if you said the number one cause of death is getting killed by a bear on the way to the mailbox, right? Then you would analyze how not to get killed by a bear on the way to the mailbox.

• 26:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:08Dave Ramsey?

  Right? And so if you're gonna get married, you should really look at the number one freaking thing. Hello?

• 26:13Lewis Howes?

  This is the number one thing that that either hurts or ends marriages, is what I'm hearing you say.

• 26:17Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah. And the odd thing is, is it's actually circular. It's an infinity loop because it feeds back on itself, meaning that it also, the quality of your marriage is a high data point indicator as to whether or not you build wealth.

• 26:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:31Dave Ramsey?

  And so very few people drag a spouse kicking and screaming into millionaire status. You know?

• 26:37Lewis Howes?

  Does, you mean it doesn't happen by accident?

• 26:38Dave Ramsey?

  It, you know, so I'm, I'm, I'm bringing the princess with me, right? Come on, baby. And put you on my back and we're gonna haul you over there. It doesn't usually work, okay? Or I'm bringing the guy who's, who's lazy and won't work, and I'm gonna outwork him and the lady says, and, and, and he's a little boy and I'm gonna be his mommy, and I'm gonna drag him all the way into millionaire status? Not working, baby.

• 26:56Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 26:57Dave Ramsey?

  So it, it goes both directions, but so that, that's thing one. If it's the number one cause, then yeah, it ought to be something really discussed. So preventative maintenance, right?

• 27:08Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 27:08Dave Ramsey?

  You know, it, it's a, um. You know, preventative health, if the number one cause of death is obesity, we probably ought to think about obesity, you know?

• 27:16Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious, Sam, what is, what is a, what's a question a woman at, should ask to her man? You know, within the first few months of dating about money? Where she could get a sense, if he's fully honest and integrity with what he's saying and not just saying something to make her, you know, feel happy? What is a question she can ask to feel like, okay, this man I'm, I'm dating and courting and we're getting into this life with? I feel like I can trust him with money for the future.

• 27:41Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah, well, money is a reflection of our values. How we handle money, and that's another reason that it's very important. Because if your values are not aligned, you're going to struggle in any relationship, but certainly in a marriage relationship. And, and so, um, you know, talk about the basics of money. Debt? I love debt. I'm gonna use it all the time. You know, I want zero down everything. I'm gonna buy a zero down truck, I'm gonna buy a zero down stereo, I'm gonna buy a zero down couch, I'm gonna put nothing down on the house. Um, and you hate debt? Okay, we got a problem, we're gonna have to work through this, or we're gonna have to, this is a deal killer. Okay, how about saving? I don't think I'll save money, you can always, you can always get you something. I always thought you could out-earn your stupidity, I tried that for years, didn't work, you know?

• 28:25Dave Ramsey?

  So, my wife, however, is a natural saver, right? So, uh, when I joined her club is when we started winning.

• 28:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 28:32Dave Ramsey?

  You know, so, bless her heart, she didn't know this going in, but, uh, made a hard, hard life for her the first seven years. But the, uh, uh, so saving and debt, how about generosity? I don't believe you ought to give. If you give, you end up with less. It's mathematically factual, which it is actually. But that's short-term thinking, that's a finite game instead of an infinite game, again, using Simon's

• 28:53Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 28:54Dave Ramsey?

  uh, premise on his book. Uh, a, a, and so generosity, the things we just talked about, now, how about, how about living on, are we gonna live in chaos?

• 29:01Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:02Dave Ramsey?

  Are we gonna live with a plan?

• 29:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, wanna live with peace or chaos?

• 29:05Dave Ramsey?

  Are we gonna live with future-minded or YOLO?

• 29:10Dave Ramsey?

  You know, you only live once. Thank God it's Friday. Living for the weekend. Our marriage theme song is Huey Lewis and the News, right? I mean, come on, is this us? And if it is, then, you know, because this, what's this tell you? Anyone that lives short-term thinking, we know they're emotionally immature.

• 29:25Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 29:26Dave Ramsey?

  Spiritually immature. And so you're marrying someone, or you're dating someone that's emotionally immature, and they're fun. They're always fun. But they're, but it's not fun in the long term, because it brings about stress. The fruit of this is nasty. And so, now, do we have to be perfectly aligned on all those things? No, we just need to understand where the other person stands, and are they so far over away from us that it's a deal killer?

• 29:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 29:51Dave Ramsey?

  Because my wife is more of a saver than I am by nature. I had, saving for me is an intellectual act, a spiritual act of my will. It is not a natural rhythm, okay? She naturally saves everything. The leftovers in our refrigerator are grotesque. I mean, it's just, I mean, you know, she saves everything. So, but, so, to the extent that I can stay close to her on that, then we've got harmony. We have both, obviously, with what we've been through, agreed, no doubt.

• 30:20Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 30:20Dave Ramsey?

  We are both have become planners over the 40 years of marriage. I've always been a detailed planner. I had to get her to join me more on that. So, you know, but it's better if you do it on the front end than the way we did it. It's a lot harder than the way we did it, but kill each other. So, you want to be in agreement on that. And all the data tells us on marriage and divorce statistics, and we've studied this for years, is number one cause of divorce, money. The other three, if you can be in agreement on them, religion,

• 30:47Dave Ramsey?

  kids, whether to have them and how to treat them, and how to deal with crazy people in your extended family, your mother-in-law, and your crazy brother, your lazy brother who does cocaine, and whatever it is, how you gonna deal with?

• 30:58Lewis Howes?

  How to manage it all, yeah.

• 30:59Dave Ramsey?

  How to manage boundaries with extended family. And, and, you know, if one of you thinks that children should just be let run wild, and the other one is an over-disciplinarian, we're gonna have a problem, or I want no children, and I want 17, that's gonna be an issue. Or, I don't believe there's a God, and I think anyone who believes there's a God's an idiot. Oh, by the way, I think there's a God, oh, see, this is a problem, because now I'm an idiot. So, there you go. And, and so, these are the things. But if you could, because all of these things are representative of your values. And what your beliefs are. So when you can agree on your money, what you've ended up agreeing on is your dreams, your fears, your visions, you're in agreement, you're in alignment on those, not only what they are, but how we're going to go after them then. And now you've got real harmony and you've got a high probability of building wealth.

• 31:44Dave Ramsey?

  That's the odd part of it. That's the infinity loop how it comes back in on itself.

• 31:48Lewis Howes?

  Do you think love is enough if you have religion, kids, family boundaries, kind of all in alignment in, in harmony? But money is completely apart, but you love each other. You've been building this life together for a year or two and you're like, should we get married or not? But we are so far apart. One's the fun and undisciplined person, one is the extreme saver and you know, detail oriented plan person is, is love enough to have a successful, long-term, healthy marriage if money is not there?

• 32:21Dave Ramsey?

  Uh, I, I think you've got to be close. You don't have to be exactly aligned. But you gotta be generally think, cause the problem is this resentment is going to set in and resentment will kill love. The eye roll. When you roll your eyes, that's the beginning of the end.

• 32:39Lewis Howes?

  Right. Is that called the four horsemen?

• 32:41Dave Ramsey?

  Exactly. The four horsemen of the apocalypse. Yeah. Let's, let's parrot teachers about that. And that's some standard John Gottman background stuff, but that's one of the four, and that's the big one, by the way, of the four. It is, um, yeah. And, and so, you know, if he won't work, he won't keep a job because he just doesn't think that that's that big a deal. It's not, not, not a problem. Eventually you lose respect and the eye rolls.

• 33:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:06Dave Ramsey?

  And that's the beginning of the end. That's one of the, the most, the largest of the four horsemen by far. So if you can't keep, um, now again, my, my wife and I joke about our differences on saving.

• 33:21Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right.

• 33:22Dave Ramsey?

  Uh, but they're not that far apart.

• 33:24Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 33:25Dave Ramsey?

  I mean, and I, we freely admit hers is a natural rhythm, mine's a built in, I had to decide to do it because I see the benefits of it. So I intellectually will it. Um, it's against my DNA.

• 33:35Lewis Howes?

  You don't like it.

• 33:36Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah, I, I really don't. I mean, the only reason I save money is so I can give more and have more.

• 33:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:40Dave Ramsey?

  The only reason, I don't do it because I get joy out of saving money. It's zero.

• 33:44Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 33:44Dave Ramsey?

  You know, but I can give more and I can buy more.

• 33:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:46Dave Ramsey?

  And those, and those two things bring me joy. So there you go. But uh, but that, but that again, that at least we though are in alignment that saving is important, even if it might be for two different reasons. If I absolutely believe that it was ridiculous to keep any money saved. And she's had to have some money saved to have peace. Because she's constantly in anxiety because there's no rainy day fund. Then that's gonna eventually tear up anything you do.

• 34:13Lewis Howes?

  Sure. What's the difference between saving and investing at your kind of scale? Or someone who's, you know, bringing in over a million dollars a year in their business and they've got some extra cash. What is the difference between saving and investing? Is there a difference at that level of like, okay, some money is just saved in a, you know, an account? And others are invested in different areas.

• 34:33Dave Ramsey?

  Savings is short term, investing is long term.

• 34:35Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 34:36Dave Ramsey?

  Pretty simple and you can define what that is, but I generally think three years and less, I'm just saving the money. I'm really not putting it in something that's gonna be going up and down.

• 34:44Lewis Howes?

  Got it.

• 34:44Dave Ramsey?

  Because I, I, I need the money there.

• 34:46Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 34:46Dave Ramsey?

  You know, uh, and so I've gotta have the access to it, so it needs to be, it's not gonna earn a lot, but it's stable.

• 34:53Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 34:53Dave Ramsey?

  Investing, I can ride a wave because I'm playing a long game.

• 34:56Lewis Howes?

  How, what's the percentages of saving, investing that people should be at?

• 35:01Dave Ramsey?

  Well, you should have an emergency fund personally of three to six months of expenses, the standard rainy day fund. Past that, you need to save up and pay cash for whatever you're purchasing. So if you've got a car purchase in your future, uh, Christmas this year's in December. If you didn't know, you gotta get ready for that and um, you know, that kind of stuff.

• 35:17Lewis Howes?

  I thought it was November this year.

• 35:18Dave Ramsey?

  They move it occasionally, but just in case, yeah.

• 35:21Dave Ramsey?

  But just in case, a reminder. And so, uh, you know, you, you, you got, those are savings items. And then past that, everything else would go to investing. You know, because basically one saving is for protection, the emergency fund and the other's for purchases to avoid debt. Um, paying cash for my car, paying cash for my couch, paying cash for my trip. Um, then those are short term saving, Christmas, I'm saving, short term savings items. And then long term saving items, obviously retirement, kids, college, general wealth building. Uh, beyond that to do other things. And so then I get into at our level, now that we make a lot of money, we're, we're a little bit mixed up in that. We get so much over in the investing pile.

• 36:03Dave Ramsey?

  Then a lot of it is not for 30 years from now, a lot of it is for six years from now. And so I'll throw money over into a mutual fund until I use it to buy a piece of real estate.

• 36:11Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 36:12Dave Ramsey?

  Or something like that, but that's a little different.

• 36:14Lewis Howes?

  Are there different investments that entrepreneurs should be making?

• 36:19Lewis Howes?

  Outside of their own business versus maybe employees. Is there different types of investments that those individuals should be making? And how many different styles of investments should they make?

• 36:32Dave Ramsey?

  You know, I, number one, never invest in something you don't understand.

• 36:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:37Dave Ramsey?

  And that's a mistake people make all the time. Number two, you should always have an array of investments, a diversification.

• 36:47Dave Ramsey?

  The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, "Spread your portions to seven, yes, to eight, for disaster may come upon the land." So, don't have all your eggs in one basket, we say in the financial world, right? And so, the biggest thing when we're, in our entree leadership, where we're working with small businesses and we work with tens of thousands of them every year. The biggest thing, I got a guy at Heat and Air, he's got, Heat and Air Company's got 20 trucks, he's got 40 or 50 employees. And he's got no investments outside of his company.

• 37:14Lewis Howes?

  His own business.

• 37:15Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah, he's, everything goes back into the business. And that sets him up for two problems. One is he's not diversified, and if that goes south, he's completely baked. Two, he's got no exit strategy at retirement, because he's got no money. And so, it makes it very difficult, he has to sell that business, that's his only nest egg. And so, he or she that owns a small business is much better off to also have their own 401K. Their own Roth IRAs and good growth stock mutual funds. And build up some extra wealth in it, hey, go buy a piece of real estate that the business is not in. In addition to that.

• 37:49Lewis Howes?

  Outside of the business.

• 37:50Dave Ramsey?

  I mean, we've got about $450 million worth of real estate on this campus that's all paid for. But in addition to that, I've got a whole bunch of real estate that's not this place.

• 38:00Lewis Howes?

  You inspire me.

• 38:01Dave Ramsey?

  But I'm not bragging, but I mean, it's not this place.

• 38:03Lewis Howes?

  It's not this investment.

• 38:04Dave Ramsey?

  100% of our real estate is not Ramsey buildings, thank God. That would be unwise. Because then, as, because if, what if the tenant failed? Well, you lost your business and your tenant. And I got a big dad gum, empty building over here. This is some of a real estate investing standpoint, that's scary.

• 38:20Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious, you know, it seems like the wealthy, a lot of the wealthy get into real estate at some point.

• 38:28Lewis Howes?

  I, I have followed your advice, not all of your advice, I've made a lot of mistakes, but I followed a lot of your advice, bought my car with cash, you know? I didn't understand real estate, so I put it in a real estate fund.

• 38:39Dave Ramsey?

  That's okay.

• 38:39Lewis Howes?

  As opposed to buying it and managing it and figuring out how to

• 38:42Dave Ramsey?

  That's okay.

• 38:42Lewis Howes?

  fix things and deal with contractors and all these different things.

• 38:45Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah, the REITs are doing good.

• 38:46Lewis Howes?

  Right, so I put it in a fund.

• 38:49Lewis Howes?

  But I kinda wanna get into real estate and I don't know if that's if I should or not. I I want to cuz I feel like it's a great asset class for long term wealth.

• 38:58Dave Ramsey?

  It is.

• 38:59Lewis Howes?

  But I don't fully understand it cuz I've never bought investment properties, right?

• 39:05Dave Ramsey?

  Well, I've been buying properties since I was eighteen years old. Mom and daddy were in the real estate business when I was growing up. I got my real estate license three weeks after I turned eighteen. So I've been doing this for fifty years, almost. I mean, I've been around it for fifty years. I've been doing it for forty plus. And so the real estate is very romantic.

• 39:22Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 39:23Dave Ramsey?

  Especially on TikTok, you know? I mean, it's like it can, nothing can go wrong. It's all great.

• 39:30Lewis Howes?

  Thirty thousand a month in my Airbnb.

• 39:32Dave Ramsey?

  When in actual fact, it is exactly the opposite. Everything will go wrong.

• 39:36Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 39:37Dave Ramsey?

  Count on it. The roof is going to leak. I had a refrigerator ice maker bust the other day, flood the whole freaking house. I got mold and remediation. I got one little house over here. It's completely down for six months while we rebuild the whole stinking thing. There's nothing romantic or fun about this. The renters aren't paying for it. Crap, you know, cuz there's no renters. It's full of mold, okay? Hello. So this is life, okay? So real estate makes more money than other asset classes, but has tremendously more hassle.

• 40:07Lewis Howes?

  So I don't like the hassle, but how do you manage the hassle?

• 40:10Dave Ramsey?

  You you buy a REIT instead. Unless someone else do it cuz the REIT, some of the, some of the REITs are doing very well. Real estate investment trusts or buy into something like that where you're doing a limited partnership.

• 40:21Lewis Howes?

  Someone's managing.

• 40:22Dave Ramsey?

  You own one thirty, you know, one thirty third or something like that. And someone with a long track record is doing a good job. They're doing it with low, low or no debt and that kind of a thing. You go that direction. And and here's the thing, there's classes of real estate that are less hassle, okay? Warehouse, almost no hassle.

• 40:38Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:39Dave Ramsey?

  Because you can, you rent those out triple net and the, uh, the tenant takes care of everything. Taxes, insurance and repairs.

• 40:46Lewis Howes?

  I've been studying this. Do you feel like it's better for someone to get into triple net investing versus, you know, you know, single fam, family property?

• 40:54Dave Ramsey?

  Single family homes are the largest hassle factor.

• 40:56Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:57Dave Ramsey?

  Because there's, there, because there's drama.

• 40:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:00Dave Ramsey?

  There's more drama there than, than in commercial real estate, than office buildings. You get some drama in office buildings or in a retail center. I've got some of each, but very seldom. I mean, the workout class guy goes broke in your strip center and there's a little drama, but it's a lot different than.

• 41:15Lewis Howes?

  The tenants stay longer usually.

• 41:17Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah. And, and you know, they're, they're looking at it through business eyes rather than my wife's mad because the dishwasher's out. You know, and so there's a little less explosive diarrhea associated with it, right? So, I mean, it's just, you know, but, but.

• 41:31Lewis Howes?

  Less emotional.

• 41:31Dave Ramsey?

  But, uh, you know, so if you want to, if, you know, one way to get to residential would be doing a large number of apartments, like a 50 unit or 250 unit apartment. Uh, and then you've got onsite management handling all that. And again, you're stepping back and just watching the metrics and they are managing the drama.

• 41:47Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 41:47Dave Ramsey?

  Uh, that work for you. And so that's okay too. I don't have any apartments, but I'm not against them. But again, whatever you do with real estate is more hassle, even a warehouse is more hassle than a mutual fund. Mutual fund, you put it in there and then you, you open your email and there it is, you know? No hassle.

• 42:04Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 42:04Dave Ramsey?

  No decisions. You don't get to make any decisions. No one asks your opinion. You just get an email. You know, so it, but you're going to make a 10 or a 12% rate of return and most of my real estate has an internal rate of return of 17 to 20. Including, including tax write offs, growth and rent cash flow.

• 42:20Lewis Howes?

  Right. With all those benefits. Are you more into the commercial real estate then or residential?

• 42:25Dave Ramsey?

  We've got a bunch of each, but we're probably going to move from the single families over towards more commercial.

• 42:30Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 42:30Dave Ramsey?

  As, as our, my, my son-in-law runs all of our real estate and he's sick of it. The single families, they just drive you nuts. I mean comparatively to the other stuff and you know, would you rather have 10 million dollars in one strip center? Or, uh, you know, or, or I don't know, 20 houses that are half a million dollars. Oh my gosh.

• 42:50Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 42:51Dave Ramsey?

  And yeah, it's, it's different.

• 42:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:55Dave Ramsey?

  But there's, hey, houses are a great place to start if you wanted to do one.

• 42:58Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 42:59Dave Ramsey?

  And if you can manage a tenant with a, you know, in a house, you can definitely manage a business tenant.

• 43:04Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm. A few final questions for you, Dave. I wish I could talk to you for hours and hopefully I can come back and do more of these in the future.

• 43:10Dave Ramsey?

  Anytime.

• 43:11Lewis Howes?

  Um, but I want to ask you about how someone who has been, you know, maybe grew up in a family where their parents didn't have the best money values or the best, let's call it money principles and maybe just weren't able to save that well, you know, were in debt. And the, the kids kind of picked up the same patterns, the same habits and the same models.

• 43:33Lewis Howes?

  How does someone go from maybe more of a debt mindset or a, a poorer mindset into an abundance? And a richer or wealthier mindset if they've been modeling from their parents? If they, you know, they were used to debt, they got into debt early on, they got credit cards early on, like, how does someone switch the mindset first before acting with these steps? And actually believing something completely differently?

• 44:00Dave Ramsey?

  Inputs.

• 44:02Dave Ramsey?

  You become who you hang around with and what you read. The old Charlie Tremendous Jones quote, "Five years from today, you'll be the same person you are today, except for the people you hang with and the books you read."

• 44:09Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 44:09Dave Ramsey?

  So, um, you know, inputs, what, who are you reading? What podcasts are you listening to? I mean, are, here, here's the thing. If you, if you want to stay poor and you want to stay in a scarcity mindset, watch Tiger King.

• 44:25Dave Ramsey?

  If, if you want to win at life, listen to Lewis on his podcast. Cause it's about greatness.

• 44:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:32Dave Ramsey?

  You know, and Tiger King's quite the opposite.

• 44:33Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 44:34Dave Ramsey?

  So what are you consuming? You know, are you spending all your time on, uh, uh, the cable news network?

• 44:40Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 44:40Dave Ramsey?

  Because I gotta tell you, they're not selling anything but fear. And then if you turn the channel one over, you get the weather channel and the tornado is going to kill you. Did you know that? Get a helmet on, quick. And so, oh my God, you know, what are your inputs? And I became hyper aware of that during this last season we've all gone through with pandemic and all these other things. The stress level for all of us that were carrying responsibility during those days and the fear of people out there. I started going, okay, you guys need to change your inputs because your brain is about to explode with fear. And because everybody's just watching the count all day long, you know, it's like, oh my gosh. And so I had to really be very conscious to pull back and say, I'm not even going to turn on the computer.

• 45:25Dave Ramsey?

  I'm just going to open up a book, my Bible. I'm going to go for a walk with nothing in my ears and just hear birds sing. You know, oh my gosh, you got to watch your inputs. Okay. And that's how you change it because a buddy of mine, he came out of the hood. He said, getting out of the hood is easier than getting the hood out of you.

• 45:44Dave Ramsey?

  And, you know, because, you know, I remember people I grew up with, little man can't get ahead, you're always going to have a car payment. You know, the corporations, I was with a relative the other day, he goes, corporations, corporations, corporations. I'm like, who are you talking about? It's like this evil boogeyman that was floating in the air somewhere were corporations. And he owns a business. I said, are you incorporated? And he said, yeah. And I said, you're a corporation. You know, it's just, what is this? But it's, you know, but it's this little man can't get ahead thing. If you hang out with those people, then you believe it. If you hang out with people say, take it easy and they mean it, then you're going to take it easy. And you're going to be mediocre and you're not going to leave the cave, kill something and drag it home. But, but, you know, what are your inputs? Who are you hanging with?

• 46:26Dave Ramsey?

  Your income is going to approximate the income of your 10 closest friends. You need to pick your friends real careful. Amen to that. And, you know, your mouth is going to sound like theirs. Do you want to have a trash mouth? Run around with these people with trash mouth. You'll suddenly be saying stuff like that. I've caught myself doing it. I'm like an eight year old little boy. I mimic the people I run with.

• 46:46Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious, you've spoken about the Bible a few times.

• 46:51Lewis Howes?

  If you could only share one quote from the Bible that you love the most. What would that quote be? What would that line be or that sentence be? From the Bible that really speaks to you the most. If you had to repeat this over and over, and this is the only quote that you could think about or repeat over and over or read, what would that be?

• 47:09Dave Ramsey?

  Well, that's like asking you what which kid's your favorite or something, but you know, I would have to go all Christian on you and go back to something about, you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, because it all starts and ends there. But out of that, then there are life lessons. All through Proverbs, the book of wisdom, there's, you know, the one I put in Total Money Makeover, our bestselling book to date is Romans 12, 2. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. What we were just talking about, you know, you know, don't, don't be normal. Look around, you don't be normal. Normal's out of control with your food, out of control with your money, out of control with your relationships, out of control with your mouth.

• 47:53Dave Ramsey?

  Don't be normal, be transformed. And how you do that? Your inputs, the renewing of your mind.

• 48:01Lewis Howes?

  I love that a lot. I've been here for, I don't know, 10 hours in Nashville. I landed late last night. And I've spoken to a few people just getting from the airport to here, getting to the hotel and everyone's like, hey, what are you doing in Nashville for? I would say, I'm coming to see Dave Ramsey. And every person I've talked to is like, he is so well respected in this community. And he does so much good and everyone knows who Dave is in Nashville, right? And and they also say, they also know him around the world, but they know him here in Nashville in a big way because of his heart. I'm curious with, it sounds like 40 years, I don't want to date you here, but it sounds like 40 years in business.

• 48:39Lewis Howes?

  That you've been doing business. Decades of wisdom, lots of mistakes early on, and I'm sure you constantly are overcoming challenges.

• 48:48Lewis Howes?

  What is the, the thing that you feel like you need to transform in your life or business? Or internally? To get to the next level of leadership for yourself? To make an even greater impact or? To renew your own mind in a, in a way of transforming something? That could support you at the next level?

• 49:08Dave Ramsey?

  Wow, I mean, like, there's a laundry list that's so long, it's ridiculous. I mean, there's so much work they've still gotta do.

• 49:15Dave Ramsey?

  One thing I was working on this morning? Because it's just happens to be top of mind is? Don't sweat the small stuff.

• 49:23Dave Ramsey?

  I get so passionate about everything. And sometimes the wrong things. And if you travel around Nashville a little bit more, you'll find people that don't like that. I'll just tell you. They don't agree with me on that and they don't like Dave and there's plenty of haters out there, believe me. And, and some of them are well-earned.

• 49:43Dave Ramsey?

  Just like some of the respect is well-earned and some of it's not, right?

• 49:48Lewis Howes?

  But don't sweat the small stuff?

• 49:49Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah, really. I mean, cause I do, I, you know? I, cause everything, I, I die on the wrong hill too often.

• 49:55Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 49:55Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah.

• 49:55Lewis Howes?

  Can you give an example of what that might look like? It's like the little detail that doesn't go the way you want it, then you get, you know, passionate about it or?

• 50:01Dave Ramsey?

  You know, if it, I was in a church board meeting many, many years ago and one of the old guys in there, he's like eighty years old. We're in there arguing about something, uh, about around the church and, and he gets up and starts walking out. We're like, where are you going? He goes, y'all aren't arguing about anything that matters in five years.

• 50:15Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 50:17Dave Ramsey?

  And I do that. I argue about stuff that matters by the end of the day. Cause I, I, A, I like to argue. I'm a hillbilly, right? But B, uh, I, I just, I, I'm so wired up and, and over-caffeinated and passionate and everything else that? Personality style and I just have to, it's a maturity thing I have to work on at sixty-two freaking years old. You know, I mean, come on.

• 50:38Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What do you think is the quality that? You appreciate about yourself the most?

• 50:43Dave Ramsey?

  Oh, Lord. Would it be humility?

• 50:50Dave Ramsey?

  How do you answer that question? Come on.

• 50:52Lewis Howes?

  What do you, I mean, what do you think is the thing, though, that, that you are proud that you have inside of you? Or the thing that you do consistently? That has made a big, big impact for your life and the people around you?

• 51:04Dave Ramsey?

  I hope.

• 51:07Dave Ramsey?

  Somewhere around my tombstone, it says he left it all on the field. I hope somewhere around my tombstone, it says he loved people.

• 51:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 51:14Dave Ramsey?

  Because those are the two things that I believe about myself. The, again, haters don't believe those about me, but um, I, you'd have to ask somebody else to be sure about that.

• 51:23Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. I love that. Was there anything that you um, struggled with overcoming? Where you doubted yourself? That took you a long time to overcome that doubt and start to believe in yourself?

• 51:35Dave Ramsey?

  Yeah, I think anytime we, and, and I'm no exception of this either. Uh, anytime we.

• 51:43Dave Ramsey?

  Make a grave error. That does have large impact. It takes some of your confidence.

• 51:53Dave Ramsey?

  And it takes you a while to trust yourself again in that.

• 51:59Dave Ramsey?

  So, like when I went broke. It not only, I not only lost everything, it broke me. I was broken. I lost, I went from the arrogance to the other end of the spectrum. Where I really didn't trust my own judgment. Because I had destroyed everything. It was a nuclear landscape, you know, after that. And so it took me a while to trust myself again in money. I had to, I had to earn my own trust back. As well as earn my wife's trust back.

• 52:32Lewis Howes?

  And earn your money back.

• 52:33Dave Ramsey?

  And earn the money back in the process. But I had to put a pattern in my life that was trustworthy. That I began to trust. First, I trusted the pattern and the truth of the principles. And later I began to trust myself to apply them. But that's a wound from trauma.

• 52:49Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 52:49Dave Ramsey?

  Is what it is. And so it's much like, I've got a friend who went through a divorce and he doesn't trust himself to pick a wife.

• 52:57Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 52:58Dave Ramsey?

  You know, it hurt, he, he, he thought he was a good judge of character. And the lady he married was not a good person and, you know, was a mess. And so she, she messed him over big time. And so he doesn't trust, he wounded, doesn't trust himself again. And I think that's the, one of the hardest things. And in business, it's the same thing. I trust the wrong people inside the building. And then, um, and then I have to clean up the dad gum mess for the next 18 months, you know? And, and that's my fault. And so I gotta trust myself on my judgment of the person's character again. That's very hard.

• 53:36Lewis Howes?

  I'm so grateful for your time today.

• 53:37Dave Ramsey?

  You too.

• 53:39Lewis Howes?

  RamseySolutions.com, you've got some amazing books, The Ramsey Show, The Ramsey Network, like everything you guys do. I love watching the content. I love consuming the content. I love learning. I love the jokes you make on your social media. I just think it's hilarious. Uh, and your sound advice that you give people and coaching you give people live. So I, I really want everyone to follow you. You guys have an amazing YouTube channel, podcasts, everything. Um, do you have a new book coming out soon? Do you have anything?

• 54:07Dave Ramsey?

  No, no, I did millionaire, baby, baby steps millionaires last year.

• 54:11Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 54:11Dave Ramsey?

  It was a number one. That'll, I hope that's my last one for a while. Now we've got a lot of Ramsey personalities books coming out.

• 54:16Lewis Howes?

  I just read, uh, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. I just read that.

• 54:20Dave Ramsey?

  Dr. John Deloney, yes.

• 54:21Lewis Howes?

  Incredible.

• 54:22Dave Ramsey?

  Yes.

• 54:22Lewis Howes?

  I was like.

• 54:23Dave Ramsey?

  He's got a new one coming out June 6th that I was reading the manuscript this weekend. I cried three times reading the manuscript. It is unbelievably good.

• 54:29Lewis Howes?

  He's a great writer.

• 54:31Dave Ramsey?

  Oh, and he's, he's brilliant.

• 54:32Lewis Howes?

  He is really smart guy.

• 54:33Dave Ramsey?

  His wallet's smarter than me.

• 54:35Lewis Howes?

  I, I recommend that book for sure. I read that one as well. So I want people to get the books. I want people to, uh, subscribe to you everywhere on social media. We'll have everything linked up. Is there anything we can do to be of service to you today?

• 54:46Dave Ramsey?

  Oh, you have, just by being here and being our friend and we admire you, what you're doing. You're just doing so good, man. You're kicking it. You are doing it. I love watching somebody go win.

• 54:55Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Um, I asked you these two final questions and I'm gonna wrap it up here in 60 seconds. I asked you these two final questions before, but I'm curious if the answers are different today. Um, this one is called the three truths. Hypothetical scenario and question. Uh, imagine you get to live as long as you want to live, but it's your last day. And for whatever reason in this world, you have to take all of your content and wisdom with you. Everything you've ever created, the books, the content, it goes to another place. But we don't have access anymore to your wisdom. But you get to share behind a message of your three final truths. The lessons that you would share, if you could only share three of them to the world. And I know it's kind of off the cuff real quick, but what would those three truths be for you?

• 55:40Dave Ramsey?

  People matter, stuff doesn't.

• 55:44Dave Ramsey?

  Never saw a rider truck following a hearse. God is real.

• 55:50Dave Ramsey?

  It'll change your life.

• 55:53Dave Ramsey?

  And I'll go with my own, don't sweat the small stuff.

• 55:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's good. That's great. Final question, Dave. What's your definition of greatness?

• 56:04Dave Ramsey?

  Service.

• 56:06Lewis Howes?

  I acknowledge you for being of service. Thanks so much for your time. I appreciate it. And thanks for being an inspiration to him.

• 56:11Dave Ramsey?

  Thank you, brother. Love you, man.

• 56:13Lewis Howes?

  Thank you. Love you, brother. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple Podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life,

• 56:55Lewis Howes?

  then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com/newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.