Dave Ramsey: Get Rich and Stay Rich, Financial Decisions That Help You Build Wealth | Finance | E388

Despite having a finance degree and achieving early success, Dave Ramsey experienced bankruptcy. Forced to rebuild from zero, he turned to timeless financial principles that not only restored his wealth but also helped him build a business that serves millions on their journey to financial freedom. In this episode, Dave returns with some proven money management strategies to help high earners avoid costly financial mistakes, eliminate debt, and build lasting wealth. In this episode, Hala and Dave will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (02:40) From Bankruptcy to Personal Finance Principles (07:30) Credit Cards and Spending Psychology (15:56) Is There Anything Like Good Debt? (18:28) Debt Snowball vs. Avalanche Strategy (20:17) Financial Planning for High Earners (30:11) Money Mistakes Young People Make (39:19) Ramsey Solutions' Business and Revenue Model (44:16) Creator Entrepreneurship and Succession Strategy (49:21) Recurring Revenue Built on Trust Dave Ramsey is a personal finance expert, radio personality, bestselling author, and founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He is the host of The Ramsey Show with over 18 million listeners each week. Through decades of research on wealth-building and investing, Dave has helped millions achieve financial freedom using proven money management principles. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/profiting Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Spectrum Business - Keep your business connected seamlessly with fast, reliable Internet, Phone, TV, and Mobile services. Visit https://spectrum.com/Business to learn more. Northwest Registered Agent - Build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes at northwestregisteredagent.com/paidyap Framer - Publish beautiful and production-ready websites. Go to Framer.com/profiting and get 30% off their Framer Pro annual plan. Quo - Run your business communications the smart way. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/profiting Experian - Manage and cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reduce your bills. Get started now with the Experian App and let your Big Financial Friend do the work for you. See experian.com for details. Bitdefender - Start protecting your business today with Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security. Get 30% off your plan at bitdefender.com/profiting Intuit - Start paying bills the smart way, not the hard way. Learn more at QuickBooks.com/billpay Resources Mentioned: Dave’s Website: ramseysolutions.com Dave's App, EveryDollar: everydollar.com  Dave’s Book, Build a Business You Love: bit.ly/BuildaBusinessYouLove YAP E344 with Dave Ramsey: youngandprofiting.co/E344 Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Newsletter - youngandprofiting.co/newsletter LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Stock Market, Scalability, Investment, Risk Management, Business Coaching, Finance Podcast, Saving

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

• 0:00Hala Taha?

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• 0:40Hala Taha?

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• 1:08Speaker 01

  I think it's an excellent time to be in business. I am so excited for a 25-year-old entrepreneur right now. You're gonna make some mistakes, you're gonna stub your toe, you're still gonna get a bloody nose. Oh, well, have at it. Do it anyway, man. But this is the best time in human history.

• 1:23Speaker 02

  Personal finance expert, host of The Dave Ramsey Show.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  His name is Dave Ramsey.

• 1:29Speaker 02

  Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  I was gonna be the real estate guy. We had $4 million worth of real estate, and we lost it all. We lost everything. We were bankrupt. And we figured out that what we've been doing obviously didn't work, so we needed a new plan. I don't borrow money, period. 100% of the time, debt equals risk.

• 1:47Hala Taha?

  The argument is, especially for high earners, is that you can pay off your credit cards. A lot of people are really interested in points. Why is that still a hard line for you?

• 1:55Speaker 01

  There's tons of data, tons of pieces of research out there that show that a credit card versus cash is 12 to 21% more spending. And if you add to it, oh, I'm getting points, then I'll even increase my spending yet more. So you gave up a dollar to get a penny?

• 2:11Hala Taha?

  What do you feel is the biggest money mistake that younger people do right now?

• 2:15Speaker 01

  You grew up with this thing in your hand your entire life that's a magic wand. You could push a button and anything happens. What that gives you guys is you're abundance thinkers. You think anything's possible because anything has always been possible. And that's the good part. The bad part is.

• 2:33Hala Taha?

  Yap gang, more income doesn't automatically mean more wealth. In fact, some of the highest earners are also the most financially stressed. So what's really going on? Well, I got the opportunity to fly down to Nashville and ask Dave Ramsey in his home studio this very question. In this conversation today, Dave breaks down why making money and building wealth are two completely different skillsets. We unpack the behavioral traps that keep high earners stuck and the simple, time-tested principles that create lasting wealth. By the way, Dave first joined us on episode 344 last year where we talked all about how to build and scale a business that lasts. That was an incredible conversation. If you're an entrepreneur, you need to listen to that one.

• 3:15Hala Taha?

  And we are replaying that conversation this Friday, so make sure you check it out. And if you're new here, kindly take one second to follow us on YouTube and your favorite podcast app so you can keep listening, learning, and profiting. Dave, welcome back to Young and Profiting Podcast.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  I'm honored to be with you again.

• 3:32Hala Taha?

  I am so excited for this conversation. I'm so happy that we're getting to meet in person.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 3:38Hala Taha?

  You know, I got to spend an hour with you already. Our first interview was amazing. We're going to play it again on Friday so everybody gets your background story. So everybody hears about your latest book, Build a Business. But today I really want to focus on money problems for high earners because most of my listeners earn over $125,000. They're usually like between the ages of 35 and 45. And so I've got a lot of high achieving people tuning in. And a lot of these people like they know all the steps, they know your baby steps. They've listened to you for years and other financial advisors, but they still don't change. So why do you think people change even when they know the rules, they have the knowledge?

• 4:21Speaker 01

  I'm not sure. I mean, I don't know why I still eat too many doughnuts. It's kind of the same thing when I know it's not going to help my figure. But you know, I.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  People don't change because they don't have a real reason to change. They don't think it's worth the effort. It's worth the sacrifice. It's, you know, it's a pain gain thing. Is there enough gain for the pain? If I've got to engage in this? And so we tend to take the, uh, the easy button. We tend to go the easy route. And I think it's just human nature. I'm the same way. I do the same thing. If I don't make myself stop and as an intellectual act of the will say, wait a minute, I need to make better decisions on this particular subject. And so I get a better result. And I, people, you, you don't normally do that. You, it's, it's an act of the will.

• 5:12Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Now, I know that you're really known for hard lines, right? You, you take hard stances. You've got hard rules. Why do you think that you're so, um, you know, absolutist in this way? And you're thinking of having these hard lines? Is it because of the things that have happened to you personally? Or because of all the callers that you've heard over the years? Thousands of people and just knowing kind of what's best for people?

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, any hard line I take with anyone is, um, because I believe that's what's best for them. I'm not doing it just to make a stand. I'm saying this is a, you know, if you were my best friend, if you were my little brother, my little sister, this is what I would tell you to do. And so that, that's not ever changed from the day we got on the air. And, and there are some, some tactical things that we don't take hard lines on. Uh, but then there's some principles and some processes that are now proven. And so, you know, I, I, I've got eight grandkids. And, um, if one of them's standing on the edge of the roof, uh, I need to take a hard line because the law of gravity works every time.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  And it's going to cause harm to them if they don't get away from the edge of the roof. And I love them and I don't want them to get hurt. So that's a hard line, but, but the law of gravity is a principle. We can count on it. There's a principle that when you give all your money to Citibank, or you give all your money to Ford Motor Company, you don't have any money.

• 6:37Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  And that's what debt does. It steals your most powerful wealth building tool, which is your income. And so that's a principle and I don't really need to think about that anymore. And it was certainly influenced then initially when we started teaching this stuff almost 40 years ago when we went broke. Um, yeah, that influences it. But, uh, these days it's more influenced by tens of millions of people that have followed.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  What we asked them to do and it caused a positive result.

• 7:05Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 7:05Speaker 01

  They succeeded because of it.

• 7:07Hala Taha?

  Yeah. So I know that you were on the show before you talked a lot about your financial collapse. But for those who don't know about what happened to you personally, do you mind just going into it a little bit? And then telling us some of the, the big lessons that you learned from that period?

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Well, I've got a degree in finance and a specialization in real estate. I was going to be the real estate guy. And I started buying real estate and nothing down flipped this house before Chip and Joanna were born. And so we've been doing this a long time and I went broke because I was so highly leveraged. I borrowed so much money and the bank called our notes. Um, we had $4 million worth of real estate and we lost it all, uh, starting from nothing. And so I was 28 years old at the bottom and, um, brand new baby, a toddler and a marriage hanging on by a thread. And, uh, we lost everything. We were bankrupt and, uh, in the process I had met God on the way up. And I got to know God on the way down and someone said, Hey, here's what the Bible says about money.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  Now that was weird to me because I was a hell raising beer drinking hillbilly. And what the Bible got to do with money? And so I'm looking at these proverbs and they sounded like my grandmother, like live on less than you make, you know? And have a plan and you know, basic common sense, right? And so I started living our lives that way and, uh, just because we figured out that what we've been doing obviously didn't work. Right? So we needed a new plan and then we started sharing it with some people and you know, that was 30 years ago.

• 8:35Hala Taha?

  Yeah. And that's how it all started. So like I mentioned, you're really known for, for these hard lines. And I feel like because we've already, you know, talked before for an hour, then maybe I can like push you on these hard lines. But tell you what other people say, uh, against them and you tell me why you feel they're still a hard line. Or if over the years you've conceded on this hard line.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 8:57Hala Taha?

  Okay.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 8:58Hala Taha?

  So let's start with no credit cards ever. Now the argument is especially for high earners is that you can pay off your credit cards right away. Pay off the full balance and a lot of people are really interested in points, especially Gen Z millennials. We're all about our points, getting free travel, free hotel, free flights. Why is that still a hard line for you?

• 9:20Speaker 01

  Well, the only reason is just, um, The data doesn't say that it works. There's two major problems with that. Seventy-eight percent of the airline miles are never redeemed.

• 9:33Speaker 01

  Hello. Yep. And the data tells us, any of us that do any digital marketing, and I've got a large firm and we do a lot of digital marketing, we know that friction decreases spending. If it's harder to navigate the website to buy, you lose people. They abandon the cart, right? And so you abandon purchases where there are friction. The less friction there is, the more increase in spending there is. And there's tons of data, tons of pieces of research out there that show that a credit card versus cash, nobody carries cash. Yeah. But a credit card versus cash is 12 to 21% more spending.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  And if you add to it, oh, I'm getting points. Thank you, Samuel L. Jackson, right? And I'm getting points, what's in your wallet? Then I'll even increase my spending yet more. And so, you know, and there's even examples of that in the commercials. They're advertising, oh, I'll pay for this for you, so I get the points. Hmm. And, you know, so you gave up a dollar to get a penny? How's that increase wealth? And then the second piece of this is, so you do increase spending is the biggest problem because you're, it's less friction. And let's go all the way over to like Apple Pay. You don't even see an expenditure. It's just you wave a wand and stuff happens, right? And so that's the ultimate in psychological lack of friction. And so you're gonna spend more, you're gonna spend more, you're gonna spend more.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  It's easy, just wave a wand, wave a wand. Hmm. And I do too. I mean, you know, we were on a cruise the other day, Sharon and I, my wife, and, you know, your room key buys everything on the boat, right? Because they don't have any transactions, not even your credit card, not even your debit card, not anything, no cash. And so, you know, I'm just buying stuff and I'm like, I teach this. And look at what I'm doing, you know? It's crazy. So, anyway, that's thing one. Then thing two is,

• 11:27Speaker 01

  There's no, Pete, no credible data that says using points causes wealth.

• 11:34Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  As a matter of fact, we have studied, we did the largest study a millionaire's ever done at Ramsey Research, 10,167 of them, and the number of them that said, I became a millionaire because of my points is zero.

• 11:46Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 11:46Speaker 01

  None. And, and so it's a game and you're playing with a multi-billion dollar company who has more algorithms tracking your behavior patterns than you can even imagine. And believe me, they're not coming out on the short end of this.

• 12:03Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 12:04Speaker 01

  The consumer is.

• 12:05Hala Taha?

  Now, what about credit cards for, for a business, for companies? How do you feel about that?

• 12:10Speaker 01

  I use debit cards here. Uh, we've got about 85 people inside Ramsey that have a Ramsey debit card.

• 12:16Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 12:17Speaker 01

  Like a company card.

• 12:18Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 12:18Speaker 01

  And so they spend it and it comes out of the account. And so the debit card does every single thing the credit card will do. And some debit cards even have points with them now. Some of them even have airline miles and stuff. But, um, but I, I just, I'm not going to chase pennies with dollars. Uh, it doesn't, the logic of that, you know, I, I get, I get 2% back. So you spend a hundred thousand dollars and you got two grand?

• 12:42Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  How does that equate to wealth?

• 12:44Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 12:44Speaker 01

  It doesn't. It's bad math.

• 12:48Hala Taha?

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• 13:29Hala Taha?

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• 14:39Hala Taha?

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• 15:06Hala Taha?

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• 16:03Hala Taha?

  I interviewed Michael McCallewitz recently, if you're familiar with him. And he taught me about something called the Parkinson's Law. Which basically, as high earners get more money, when they have more money in their bank account, they just end up spending more because visibly, they can see more money. Do you think it's the same thing with credit cards? Like if you know you've got a $20,000 limit, then suddenly...

• 16:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's out of sight, out of mind. And it's the same, Parkinson's Law applies to closet space too. If you, you know, in your home, if you have an empty closet, it's gonna fill up. There'll be some junk in there in about 10 months, you know. And so, your garage does the same thing, right? So, that applies to everything. And there's this sense of that. And the way we've seen it, like in the old days, when I first started doing this on talk radio back in the day, we would have someone call in and say, "Hey, I got a $300 a month raise. How'd you celebrate?" "I bought a $400 a month car payment." You know, that's Parkinson's Law too. It's the same thing. If it's there, I have to spend it, right? And so, yeah, I do agree with that. And I think you gotta watch that. And there's an interesting thing with the credit card too, that kinda goes with the same thing.

• 17:08Speaker 01

  And no, again, no one spends cash. I actually use cash sometimes. I'm a cash guy. I'm an old guy, so that's possible. I don't, I understand everybody's not gonna do that. What's interesting is, if I'm gonna buy something, I hand you money, you keep it, and I get the item.

• 17:28Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 17:28Speaker 01

  It's like when you're a little child, you're trading toys. It's interesting visual that when you hand someone a card, even if it's a debit card, they hand the card back, and you get the thing. Isn't that an interesting visual? There's no trade took place.

• 17:46Hala Taha?

  Yeah, that is really interesting. And it probably makes you feel like you're not really giving up anything to get it.

• 17:51Speaker 01

  Exactly. That's that frictionless problem we're talking about.

• 17:54Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Okay, so, another hard line, which is on the same line, so we don't have to spend too much time on it, but there's no such thing as good debt. So even like mortgages on a house, you believe there's no such thing as good debt.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  Eventually, I mean, we don't yell at people for taking out a mortgage on our programs and in Irish processes. I don't borrow money, period. I've never borrowed any money since I went broke. And I built everything with organic cash along the way. A hundred percent. It means I had to go slower than some people and not as big as some people, but I'm fine with that. I'm not gonna lose it either. So, the thing that we don't equate with debt, hardly anywhere in our society or in this discussion is, one hundred percent of the time, debt equals risk. Little debt, little risk. Small interest rate debt, small debt,

• 18:49Speaker 01

  little risk. Big debt, big risk. But people don't think about it. They only talk about debt as if there's one possible outcome and it's a positive outcome. And we always laugh and say, there's been, we've done detailed research and a hundred percent of the foreclosures occur on a home with a mortgage. So, if you want to destabilize your retirement, go into retirement with a mortgage. Think about it. Because, you know, you're eighty years old now and you got a house payment. You're seventy-eight years old, you got a house payment. It's not a plan. And again, referring back to that millionaire study, we found basically two things that caused people to get their first one to five million dollars in net worth. It was a well-funded retirement plan, taking advantage of good mutual funds and

• 19:32Speaker 01

  compound interest. And that'd be seven, eight hundred thousand bucks, maybe, after ten or twelve years of working on it hard. And a paid-off five, six, eight hundred, nine hundred thousand dollar house. Those two things combined, the number of them that had paid off houses as a big component of their first million dollars was huge. There's a correlation between it and wealth building.

• 19:52Hala Taha?

  That makes sense. And to that point, you don't believe that you should have any debt into retirement. Like, once you retire, you should be totally debt-free.

• 20:02Speaker 01

  It's the best way, obviously, to have a stable situation. And, because the number of times I talk to someone that, you know, they've got a mortgage, and then they've run through their nest egg. And now they got a mortgage. And they're trying to figure out how they're gonna support that. And so, it's devastating.

• 20:23Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Okay. Good advice. Okay. One more hard line. Debt snowball over avalanche. So the argument is that avalanche method could actually help you save more money. Whereas you prefer the snowball method, which pays off the smallest balances first.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  Right. The avalanche method pays off the highest interest rate to smallest interest rate, which is purported to be mathematically advantageous. Then the debt snowball pays off the smallest debt to the largest debt, which is a feedback loop because personal finances, 80% behavior, it's only 20% head knowledge. We started the discussion with, why don't people do this? Because they don't get positive feedback. If you go on, if you go to the gym for three months and you don't lose weight and your goal was to go to the gym to lose weight, you quit going to the gym.

• 21:11Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 21:11Speaker 01

  Because you've got no feedback loop. Okay. So the positive on the debt snowball is the feedback loop. I pay off the little one. It's like, whoa. And then I pay off another one like, whoa. And hope starts to kick in. And as you get more excited, you'll sacrifice even deeper and the math gets better and better and better. But here's the big problem with the avalanche and people saying it's mathematically advantageous. It's actually not because if you're going to do the real math on it below the surface, you have to say, what's the probability of completion? Probability of completion because of the feedback loop with a snowball is way higher than the probability of completion on the avalanche. Most people don't finish it.

• 21:50Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Because they don't get positive feedback.

• 21:52Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 21:52Speaker 01

  And so if you add in probability of completion and you got a high probability of completion versus a low one, you put that in the math, which is an actual proper sophisticated way of looking at the mathematics, then you would say, oh, the snowball is actually mathematically advantageous.

• 22:07Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Well, you must be on to something because you've helped millions of people at this point get debt free and become financially free. So I have a theme for this episode. I'm calling it Mo Money, Mo Problems. So back to the fact.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  I like it.

• 22:22Hala Taha?

  That my listeners are doing really well. They're high earners. A lot of them are entrepreneurs. They're earning, you know, well over six figures, some of them a million dollars a year or more. Um, and so I want to go through some financial scenarios that a lot of high earners might be facing, not just people or I don't think my listeners are in, you know, so much debt and things like that. I think they're just worried about the right moves to do now that they actually have money. Um, so the first scenario I have is a 35 year old, uh, person works in tech. They're making $300,000 a year. They've got a really high paying executive job. Their lifestyle is built around their high paycheck, uh, but they see layoffs happening.

• 23:05Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 23:06Hala Taha?

  And they're worried that, you know, one day suddenly their high paying job will just go away. So what do you think their plan should be? How should they prepare knowing that job security today is an issue?

• 23:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, job security is always an issue and, um, you don't want to fall for what we call the myth of continuity. The myth of continuity is because it's been this way, it's always going to be this way. It's not. It's not always going to stick that it doesn't always sometimes it's going to get, it's going to change. It's going to be better or worse a hundred percent of the time. So, you know, I think you, you need to work a plan that works when times are good and when times are bad. And that's the advantage of the, um, Luddite Ramsey plan, you know, the Ramsey plan that's just so grandma basic. Live on lesson you make, have a written budget, always be generous, always have an emergency fund, get out of debt and stay out of debt. If you're doing that and you make 300K and you got an emergency fund, you don't have any payments, you're okay. You know, you're

• 24:04Speaker 01

  planning and you're investing for your future and you're generous, you know, that you're going to be okay and you have prepared properly. Oh, by the way, that works if you don't get laid off too.

• 24:14Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 24:15Speaker 01

  You'll still end up with a bunch of money. It works out great.

• 24:18Hala Taha?

  Yeah. How should you suggest that somebody who makes 300 grand a year budget? Like, like what should their step should be in terms of creating a sustainable budget?

• 24:27Speaker 01

  The only budgets that work is the married couple works together and they both have a vote and they both agree to it and stick to it. And you develop the plan before the month begins. And we call it a zero-based budget. And that's where you take your income before the month begins and you give every dollar an assignment. Every dollar a name down to zero. Now, we're not talking about your checking account balance, we're talking about your budget. So if you've got $25,000 coming in a month, $300,000 plus or minus taxes, right? But I mean, if you got that 20,000 coming in, then we're going to put 20 at the top of the page and we're going to give every dollar an assignment, every dollar a name. That's why we named our budgeting app Every Dollar. So you give it because and then we're in agreement and then we stick to that.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  And all you're doing there is being intentional. A budget, John Maxwell used to say, a budget is people telling their money what to do instead of wondering where it went.

• 25:19Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 25:19Speaker 01

  And so we run about a $300 million company here. Every profit center has a budget. Before the month begins, before the quarter begins, before the year begins, we lay out rolling 12, rolling 18, what we're projecting revenues to be and where they're going to go and what the resulting profits are. And then we manage to that budget. We manage to that. And that's what you do in a household. And so we always say, you know, if you work for a company called You Incorporated and you manage money for You Incorporated the way you manage money for you now, would you fire you? And I would fire somebody here if they have budget P and L responsibility and they don't do a budget.

• 25:59Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 25:59Speaker 01

  And they don't stick to it. They just willy-nilly go do whatever they want to do and impulse a Porsche. You know, I mean, you can't, you just can't operate that way and be successful. It's an intent, winning is an intentional act and budget is where we become intentional with our money.

• 26:13Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Now, I know a lot of earners, high earners, you know, as they start to break, you know, $500,000 a year, a million a year, they might lose sight of like needing a budget. They might feel like, well, I make so much money, I don't need a budget anymore. Uh, do you feel like there's any problems with that kind of a thinking?

• 26:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, because it's just chaotic and wasteful. This one ends up happening. You're not gonna go broke because of it. You know, you're making a million dollars a year and you're spending like a crazy person. That's fine. You're probably gonna be okay until you quit making a million. But the problem is you just didn't get the best squeeze for the juice, right? I mean, you didn't get the best, you know, I don't wanna have, I don't wanna make that kinda money and look up 10 years later and have nothing to show for it. That would be like having a hangover.

• 26:56Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  That'd be awful. And so I, I, I want you to win. I want you to get the most out of this as possible. All a budget is, again, is a spending plan. It's not that to be restrictive. It's just you're telling your money what to do and then you stick to what you want to do.

• 27:13Hala Taha?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  It's your deal. You decide. And the same thing's true in a company. And so, you know, if, if we were running instead of a 300 million dollar company, if we run a 3 billion dollar company, we wouldn't say, oh, we don't need to do budgets now.

• 27:26Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Okay, so let's take the scenario of somebody's been making a lot of money in their 30s. They haven't been saving that much. They haven't thought about retirement. They hit 40 and they realize they only have a couple hundred grand for retirement saved, even though they've been making a whole bunch of money in their 30s. What should they do next?

• 27:46Speaker 01

  Well, obviously you gotta play some catch up. And um, there's some urgency, but not panic. Um, I love urgency because it gets people moving. It gets me to change. I like urgency in my own life. I think it's a good thing. So um, you know, uh, let, let's just, again, I'm, I, the framework we always use, and you're aware of this, is the baby steps. And so we're gonna make sure you're out of debt, have an emergency fund. Once you've done all that, then let's start socking some money away. Let's start putting 15% of your income away. If you're 40 years old, you make an average income and you start putting 15% of your income away, plus or minus a match and a good Roth IRA and good mutual funds that give you market rates of return, you're gonna be a multimillionaire.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  Easily in 25 years and mathematically. And so, but you've gotta do it. You can't just talk about it. It's not theory. The number one problem with retirement planning and, and retirement investing is not what people put money in, it's that they don't put money in. You gotta put money in there, or there'd be some money in there. It's a pretty simple math thing. And so that's what you've got to gear up here is just get some urgency and start, we gotta start socking some money away. We gotta get this 401k jacked up and we gotta learn a little bit about this and have some motivation and quit, you know, quit spending like we're in Congress.

• 28:58Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Okay, last one is about taxes. So, somebody owns a business, they're making, you know, let's say $5 million a year, and they've become obsessed with saving on taxes. They're like me, they moved to Austin to try to save on taxes, and so much of their decision-making energy around their business is saving on taxes. What's your thoughts about that?

• 29:24Speaker 01

  You have to, in business, make first, good business and economic decisions. While you're doing that, if you can do that in such a way that it saves on taxes, fine. But if you do something to save on taxes, and when people get obsessed with this is what we do, I've done it too, in the past, not in a long, long time, but I used to do it. If you get obsessed with, I hate taxes so bad, that I'm gonna do this to save on taxes, but it's stupid. It's bad business. It's a bad financial decision. But, you know, and so I won here, but I lost 10 over here. And, and that's a bad idea. An example of that

• 30:09Speaker 01

  is the simple buying something that is not needed, because you can write it off.

• 30:15Hala Taha?

  Mm-hmm.

• 30:16Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, if you spend $100,000 on an item that is, that is expensable in that calendar year, depending on the category of the item, but let's call it expensable, and you're in a 25% tax bracket, you save $25,000 in taxes. You don't save $100,000.

• 30:32Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 30:33Speaker 01

  But you bought $100,000 worth of stuff you didn't need. So you gave up a hundred to save 25 because of your obsession with taxes. And then your accountant said something stupid like, you need a write-off. But you don't need a write-off that bad to trade a dollar for a quarter.

• 30:47Hala Taha?

  Yep.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  That's dumb. And that's a very simplistic way of that motivation of tax savings getting out of hand. And I've seen a lot of small business people do that. Oh, I bought this because of my accountant said I needed a write-off. And no, not if you don't need it. All expenses coming off the bottom line are coming out of the P and L of a business should be looked at through the lens of, I need a return on that investment. Oh, and I can write it off.

• 31:13Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  Not zero return on investment, but I get to write it off. That's a dollar for a quarter. Don't make that trade.

• 31:19Hala Taha?

  Yeah, I find myself, you know, thinking about taxes and making these decisions all the time.

• 31:25Speaker 01

  I hate them. I get really angry at that time of year. It's really hard for me. I hate it. But I still, I have never been able to wait, you know, this idea. It always makes me angry too when people say, oh, the rich pay no taxes. I don't, I'm pretty rich and I pay a lot of taxes. So I don't know who those people are. I haven't been able to get out of it. So, um, you know, we're very diligent and very careful. We try to learn any techniques we can. But it has to first be economically, give me a rate of return.

• 31:53Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 31:54Speaker 01

  On the investment from a business expense perspective. Then it's a good tax move. Not it's a good tax move and it sucks over here.

• 32:02Hala Taha?

  Yeah, makes sense. Uh, so I feel like that was super helpful for everybody who's a high earner or has a business. Now, I also have listeners who are, you know, wanting to be high earners. They're Gen Z, they might be taking their first job, they're in college. What do you feel is the biggest money mistake that younger people do right now?

• 32:20Speaker 01

  Well, the Gen Z and millennials, we've got a thousand folks on our team and probably 700 of them fall in that category. And so I have become a huge fan of those two generations. And part of it is, um, from a business perspective and from a career and earning perspective. So here's what you've got at your advantage. If you're a Gen Z or a millennial, you grew up with this thing in your hand. Your entire life, it's a magic wand. You could push a button and anything happens. Stuff shows up on your porch. You can access the world's knowledge. You can do anything with it. Find out what the weather is, dodge a tornado, you know, whatever it is, right? It's all right there in your hand.

• 33:03Speaker 01

  And, and so because of that, that's not native to my generation. That's native to your generation. And what that gives you guys is you're abundance thinkers. You think anything's possible.

• 33:15Hala Taha?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:15Speaker 01

  Because anything has always been possible. I just wave this wand and stuff happens. It's amazing. And you really, gosh, I, and, and that's the good part. The, the bad part is, um, sometimes what goes with that, and to answer your question in long form, is, uh, impatience.

• 33:31Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  I want it right now because I've always gotten it right now. And you don't get good barbecue out of the microwave. Good barbecue has to be cooked a long time.

• 33:43Hala Taha?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:43Speaker 01

  Like all weekend. I mean, you're in Austin, Texas, good barbecue, right? They, they don't, there's no such thing as microwave barbecue that's good. There's not, that's not a sentence anywhere. And, and so look at your career like barbecue. You gotta cook it. It's gonna take a while. It's not gonna be instant. It's gonna be sometimes frustratingly slow. And especially if you're used to not things being slow. Right? And so just guard against that. And, and that, that's normal immaturity, whether you're 55 or 25. Uh, the ability to delay pleasure for a greater good. But it's, it's amplified in this case, and it's not immaturity, but it's amplified by this

• 34:26Speaker 01

  fact that your reality has been, things are quick.

• 34:29Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 34:30Speaker 01

  And, and quote unquote, easy button. And, and, you know, building a good career, building a brand, a depth of knowledge. And you've been at this seven years.

• 34:40Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  And you're kicking it, girl. I mean, you, I'm so proud of you.

• 34:43Hala Taha?

  Oh, thank you.

• 34:43Speaker 01

  You've done such a great job. And everybody knows who you are. It's, you know, you're blowing up. But it's seven years, not seven minutes.

• 34:51Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  And you, and you show up all the time and you're sharp and you're on it day after day, time after time. And every time we turn it on, we get the same girl, right? Same lady. And so that, that's why you're winning. It's this persistence over time.

• 35:05Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Now, you, you mentioned that you have eight grandkids.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:10Hala Taha?

  Are you worried about AI and technology? And do you worry about their careers and their ability to get that experience? Given that AI might be taking a lot of these entry level jobs?

• 35:22Speaker 01

  No, I think AI is fabulous. AIs, I wasn't worried about the internet when it came on too. I started before the internet, right? So I wasn't worried about that. I wasn't worried about when cable TV came on. It didn't bother me. Every one of these things represent opportunity. They represent, there's gonna be more AI millionaires in Gen Z and more AI millionaires out of millennials than any group of millionaires we've ever seen. Because they're gonna take it as a tool and learn how to use it. It works for you. You don't work for it. Period. If you just look at it as a tool, you know, it's like, am I worried that then that Henry Ford started making cars? And so we don't have to ride in a horse and buggy? No, it means I can get to someplace faster. I can deliver my goods and services faster. It's called a business opportunity, man. Let's get with it.

• 36:04Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 36:05Speaker 01

  This is efficient delivery mechanisms, right? And efficient work mechanisms. Now, if you're doing something that AI does now, you may need to do something different and make it work for you instead of it replacing your job. But hey, welcome to the world. I mean, if you used to make whips for horses and bridles for horses, you had to get a new job because Henry Ford put you out of business, you know? And so, yeah, that's, that's cool. But yeah, AI is wonderful. The thing I do worry about with my grandkids is the access to evil. That the phone and that the AI, uh, it gives a gateway into children's lives that of evil that shouldn't be there.

• 36:49Hala Taha?

  Tell me more about that.

• 36:50Speaker 01

  Well, we end up with stuff like sex trafficking.

• 36:52Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 36:53Speaker 01

  And we end up with people being groomed. And we end up with 12 year olds bullying each other. And the misuse of, uh, of these wonderful technologies, uh, the evil misuse. And, and some of it's just so horrendous. And so we have, have to teach our kids to not get addicted to screens and to not think that everything on there is what it says it is. Because most of it isn't. Most of it's a lie, including your Instagram reel. Because your life's not really that pretty. None of it is, right? You know? And so that's, uh, you know, see me in the morning, right? My hair doesn't look this good. And so, uh, you know, that whole thing, right? So we gotta teach the kids that, that, you know, what's real and what's, what's artificial intelligence?

• 37:38Speaker 01

  Artificial sweetener is different than sweetener. You know, what, you know, so we have to teach some good spiritual and philosophical foundations for those kids to not become victims

• 37:48Hala Taha?

  Yep.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  of this. And I do worry about that with the little ones in particular because there's some real nasty stuff out there.

• 37:53Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Well, hopefully it all works out and, you know, kids get educated on how to tell what's AI versus what I'm, I'm sure that will be like part of school moving forward because it's going to be such a big part of our lives.

• 38:04Speaker 01

  I think you guys will catch on faster. It's my generation. I had a thing pop up on AI on me the other day and then it's a fraudulent thing of me saying something I don't say, you know.

• 38:15Hala Taha?

  Oh, of you actually, like a video of you?

• 38:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a video of me and it's, it's not even really good. It looks like a Kung Fu movie. Like it doesn't match, right? The words don't match, but it went everywhere. And like my 65 year old friends are emailing my wife going, what did Dave say that on Facebook for? And I, Dave didn't say that.

• 38:30Hala Taha?

  Oh, no.

• 38:31Speaker 01

  They're more susceptible and naive.

• 38:33Hala Taha?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  I think in your generation, your generation is naturally cynical for good reason about, you're like, is that real? Immediately. First thing goes into your mind, which is awesome. So I think you're protected that way.

• 38:44Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 38:48Hala Taha?

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• 40:56Hala Taha?

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• 41:41Hala Taha?

  Go to getmarksbook.com/yap, buy one copy for $32 and get a second copy free. So you can keep one for yourself and give the second to a friend, future co-founder, or someone who needs a little push. Would you give us the lay of the land of Ramsey Solutions? Like, what are the different revenue generators? Where are you guys making the most money right now with all your products and offers?

• 42:03Speaker 01

  Consumer-facing, the fastest-growing thing is the EveryDollar app. It's exploding. And it's, we've spent an amazing amount of money, time, effort, intellectual calories on it, iterating it and building it and iterating, and we do every day. We're going to every day making it better. And it's, it's going nuts. The, the broadcast properties is what we call them, but they're not really broadcast is, we still have a talk radio show that is also on YouTube and also on podcasts, the mothership, so to speak, the Ramsey Show.

• 42:43Speaker 01

  And those things through, you know, all the different platforms, we're able to monetize with ad revenues. It's pretty substantial. And that revenue has moved, we still have a lot of talk radio revenue. There's still people listening to talk radio. I don't know where they are, but they're out there. And, and so that, that revenue is still very real. And we've still got one of the largest talk radio networks. So that's, that stream is still there. I don't know how long it's going to be there. I don't think in 10 years I'll be, look the same. But, you know, the Spotify's and YouTube's of the world have had a huge impact. And so we're on everything and we're monetizing it with ads and with product delivery

• 43:28Speaker 01

  mentions, integrated into show notes and integrated into the show bodies and so forth. We have a high school curriculum that has been taught now in 48% of the high schools, 7 million students have been through it.

• 43:43Hala Taha?

  Oh, wow.

• 43:44Speaker 01

  And it's continuing to grow. There's a real move in that world to adopt, the, the adoption process to adopt curriculum in high schools has been mandated by the states in 38 states to teach personal finance.

• 43:58Hala Taha?

  Oh, wow.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  And we're the premier curriculum in that, the best by far. And so that's continuing to grow, thank goodness. And that's because that's a great thing if you can get this stuff in high school. Obviously, we've got the publishing arm. We're still putting out number one bestselling books every year and have for decades. It's not a huge percentage of our revenue.

• 44:23Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 44:23Speaker 01

  But it's still a great brand mix and a great tip of the spear, so to speak, as we go forward. We've got a

• 44:31Speaker 01

  Thing called Smart Dollar that is our corporate HR benefit to teach our lessons. It's like the old Financial Peace University, but taught in corporate America. And so like U-Haul has done it, Costco is doing it, companies like that, and a lot of small and medium sized companies are buying that. And that's a massive thing. It's real quiet, but it's because it's B to B. So the consumer doesn't really see it that much. But it's really massive and really moving. And then our Entrez Leadership brand has exploded. It's gone crazy. Where we coach, we coach about 10,000 small businesses.

• 45:07Hala Taha?

  Oh, really?

• 45:08Speaker 01

  On how to run a business. And it came out of the old book I did about 15 years ago called Entrez Leadership. It was how we ran our business and we started teaching other people how to do it. And so that's, I love entrepreneurs and I love small business people because I've been one my whole life.

• 45:25Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Now, I learned, I was listening to some of your interviews that you've done recently and I heard you say that the radio show lost money for like 10 years or something like that. Like it was like not making money for many years. So how do you think of certain aspects of your business that actually don't make money? And can you talk about some of the biggest lead generators that might not really make money, but are still important to your business?

• 45:51Speaker 01

  Well, that's exactly what was a lead generator. And so we didn't look at it as a, we did look at it as a P and L that was losing money because I wanted to fight through and actually get some ads sold so to cover the cost of running this stinking thing. But it took forever. But the reason we kept doing it and didn't close it, if we had another business unit that was doing that, we might close it, but it was generating all the leads. You know, we were getting, we were generating bestselling books because of the show. We were generating arenas full of people because of the show. We were generating all these other things because of the show. Because talk radio in those days was in its zenith. It was like a, like a podcast today, like one of the top podcasts. We were one of the top talk radio shows. So.

• 46:38Speaker 01

  That's why we kept it going. Now, we've had other areas where we lost money, but it wasn't generating any, wasn't causing any, you know, and so we just closed those. That's a failed experiment. Welcome to business.

• 46:51Hala Taha?

  Yeah. And so I know that you have a podcast network. You've got the Ramsey Network. I'm not sure if you know this about me. I have a podcast network as well. I have the Yap Media Network, has 45 shows. So I represent people like Jenna Kutcher and Russell Brunson and Trent Shelton. And I've had Amy Porterfield and Lori Harder and all these really big business self improvement podcasters in my network. I grow and monetize them. So Ramsey Network is an amazing network and you've got awesome personalities. I've interviewed a lot of people that have, you know, shows under your network. How do you think about talent? How did you start deciding that you wanted to have a network? In my mind, having a network is sort of the pinnacle of creator

• 47:36Hala Taha?

  entrepreneurship. Like you're not just a creator entrepreneur now. You monetize other creators. It's kind of the top of, you know, the mountain, so to speak. So, so why did you decide to start a network and how did you first start picking your talent?

• 47:51Speaker 01

  Really good way of saying that. I hadn't actually looked at it that way. That's, that's really smart. The reason we did it was because we started studying 18 years ago. Yeah, I'm 65. So 18 years ago, we started studying succession planning and on family businesses. And so we figured out, okay, you got to train the next generation, Gen 2 of owners. You've got to have a stable full of excellent leaders to be able to, when I'm not here to run the business and to run and so forth. The thing we couldn't figure out, and we couldn't find any best practices on,

• 48:32Speaker 01

  was how to have this place survive when I die, if I'm the only talent. And if I'm the only on air persona, right? And because Paul Harvey Jr.

• 48:43Speaker 01

  Usually doesn't make it and good guy, but he didn't make it. He wasn't his dad, you know? And sometimes that happens with a pastor when they pass away. Uh, if their son or daughter tries to take the church, it doesn't work. Or sometimes it happens with a small business. So we started studying and we figured out Rachel, my daughter is a huge, uh, got a huge social footprint. Does extremely well, uh, was really blowing up at that time starting. And we said, well, I hate to put the whole place on her shoulders. Um, it's not very well diversified. It's also emotionally crushing to carry the whole weight of everything your dad built. And then if you, if you stumble, oh, it's, it's double hard, right? So I wouldn't do that to my own daughter.

• 49:26Speaker 01

  And so we started coming up with this idea of one to many rather than one to one handoff. And so it was a succession plan to, to brand handoff. And so, but we started studying, okay, what percentage of a revenue comes from me running my mouth? And in those days it was 98%, right? And, um, we said, well, what happens if I die? That means this whole place folds up. Bad idea for all the people that work here, you know? And bad idea for have worked 25 years to build something and it just dies when you do.

• 49:58Hala Taha?

  Um, so we said, all right, let's, let's start building that today.

• 50:04Speaker 01

  We've actually transitioned finally to where it's about 96% of the revenue would survive if I'm not here.

• 50:11Hala Taha?

  Oh, wow.

• 50:12Speaker 01

  And so, um, hopefully people would be sad, but revenue wise, they're okay.

• 50:16Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Do you suggest, um, that every business have some sort of show or, or way to get, get an audience in that? And in the way that you guys do at Ramsey?

• 50:31Speaker 01

  No, um, you know, you need to think about how you can interact with the public, but not, you know, like.

• 50:41Speaker 01

  For instance, in Entree Leadership, we've got a bazillion heating and air companies.

• 50:45Hala Taha?

  Yeah, what are they gonna talk about?

• 50:46Speaker 01

  The guy running the heat and air company doesn't need a show.

• 50:48Hala Taha?

  That's true.

• 50:48Speaker 01

  Probably. He might, but he might not, or she might not, okay? Every dentist doesn't need a show. But, but do they need some kind of interface with technology and with these platforms? Yeah, yeah, some Instagram, and, you know, whatever the platform is appropriate to where their audience is, to where their customer base is, they need to be there. And so, but when Twitter got hot a thousand years ago, when it was a big deal, when it first started, there was a whole period of time people ran around saying, "Everyone needs a Twitter account." And everybody doesn't need a Twitter account.

• 51:22Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 51:23Speaker 01

  They don't. And for sure today, they don't. But everybody doesn't need an Instagram account. Everybody doesn't need a podcast. But, you know, you need to think about, is there a place for this? And do I have something to say that somebody actually wants to hear? Can I provide a service? Can I give information that's helpful?

• 51:44Speaker 01

  But Instagram Reels will do that. You don't have to go all the way into the podcast world to do it.

• 51:49Hala Taha?

  Yeah, and sometimes it could be real life, having billboards or something like that.

• 51:52Speaker 01

  Exactly. You can go back to old school analog stuff, yeah.

• 51:55Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 51:57Hala Taha?

  Okay, so you mentioned that you were really excited about this app. It's called the, is it called the Everyday App?

• 52:02Speaker 01

  Every Dollar.

• 52:02Hala Taha?

  Every Dollar.

• 52:03Speaker 01

  Every Dollar has a name, yeah.

• 52:05Hala Taha?

  And is it a subscription model?

• 52:06Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 52:07Hala Taha?

  Talk to us about why that excites you so much and why you focus so much on that in your business?

• 52:13Speaker 01

  Well, in this case, from a revenue perspective, it's wonderful because the subscription model is obviously a recurring revenue. I don't have to go leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home every morning. It's already coming in. It's what we used to call in the old days, mailbox money, right? And so, it's the beautiful thing about having some bestselling books. I still get royalty checks, literally in the mailbox, and from books I did 20 years ago, because they're still out there selling at some level. So that's mailbox money in that sense. And so, subscription is recurring revenue. That's a wonderful thing. The thing, though, in the digital setting, like an app or something like that, that's subscription, is it forces me, as the owner and my team, to be of service.

• 53:05Speaker 01

  Every stinking day.

• 53:06Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 53:07Speaker 01

  Otherwise, you get the churn dragon. And they leave. And they don't stay because they didn't get helped. And so if I can be of service to you every day. And be a little bit better tomorrow than I was today. And a whole lot better this time next year than I was today. Then you're going to stick with it. And so it challenges me to love my customer better.

• 53:31Hala Taha?

  Mm hmm.

• 53:32Speaker 01

  And to add value to their life better. Because the net business result is they stick around.

• 53:37Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 53:38Speaker 01

  And one of the sayings we have around here is if you help enough people, you don't have to worry about money.

• 53:42Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  And so if you keep your app iterating, you keep your digital offering growing and getting better and changing with the market. Because a hundred percent of the time tomorrow's different than today.

• 53:54Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 53:55Speaker 01

  Always getting better, always getting better, always serving more, always help being more helpful than you were. People will stay with you. And then you have this wonderful thing called recurring revenue. If you don't meet that challenge, your subscription model will fold up like Walmart tent.

• 54:10Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 54:11Speaker 01

  You'll crash. Because you're you'll become so stinking irrelevant in 20 seconds. Uh, and the other good news is that you can fix it quickly.

• 54:21Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 54:21Speaker 01

  You can change it quick, easy. I print a book. It's analog, it's I can't fix it. There's a mistype in the thing, I can't fix it, I find it four years later, I can't fix it, I can't, what am I recall the books because of one misspelled word, no. But I can jump on this stinking app or a website or whatever, a digital product and we can iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate and get better.

• 54:40Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  And test and test and test and test and work and help you and let you yell at us and let you smile at us and man, we have all this wonderful interaction with our customer.

• 54:51Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Um, trust is so important, especially with a subscription model. A lot of the people tuning in here are creator entrepreneurs and their whole business is basically trust and people buying their courses or their mastermind subscriptions. What are your thoughts about building trust with your audience? Like, what are the key things that we need to do?

• 55:12Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, I think of it as just a relationship. And how do you build trust in a relationship? What does it mean to be trustworthy? As a dad, or a husband, or a mom, what does it mean to be worthy of trust? Well, one thing comes to mind immediately is obviously telling the truth.

• 55:34Hala Taha?

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:34Speaker 01

  Uh, being authentic is another thing. That's a form of truth. Um, another thing is incredible consistency. You know, earlier you were challenging me on, uh, some of the things that are said about me, negative, all over the place about, "He's a hard line on this. He never changes. He never changes." And for that reason, I'm very trustworthy.

• 55:55Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 55:56Speaker 01

  You may or may not agree with Ramsey, but you 100% know, "We're gonna say it again." Exactly the way we said it before. Because we really do believe it, and we really do believe it's best. And so it's a trustworthy source, because it's, you can count on it. It's solid. We know what's gonna happen. It's repeatable. Um, and, and so if you think about someone you hire that's on your team, and you can trust them, well, they're, they've proven their competence, they've proven their integrity, and it's all repeatable.

• 56:29Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Um, okay. So I end my show with two questions that I ask all of my, uh, guests.

• 56:37Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 56:38Hala Taha?

  The first one is, what is one actionable thing our young improfitters can do today to become more profitable tomorrow?

• 56:45Speaker 01

  Hmm. Quit trying to figure out, um, how to make money before you figure out how to help someone. Figure out how to help them first, then figure out how to make money on it.

• 57:03Hala Taha?

  Hmm. And what would you say your secret to profiting in life is? This can go beyond finance.

• 57:10Speaker 01

  Uh, open hand, generosity. Um, i- i- again, if you can take other, put other people's best interest ahead of your own, God'll take care of you. It works out, and it has for 40 years. I, I prospered beyond my wildest imagination. When I quit trying to take care of Dave first, instead I said, "I'm gonna love that person well. I'm gonna love that person well. Somebody's not gonna like it. Somebody's not gonna understand it. But I don't care. I'm gonna do what I think I would do for my little sister, my little brother, my, my mother, my dad. I'm gonna treat them like I would treat family, and I'm gonna do the right thing..." And then I'm going to try to figure out how to be wise about it where I can actually stay open.

• 57:55Speaker 01

  And that's worked out really well.

• 57:56Hala Taha?

  Yeah. Any other last words for the entrepreneurs tuning in right now?

• 58:02Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah, I think it's an excellent time to be in business. Probably the best time in human history right now. I think if, if I am so excited for a 25-year-old entrepreneur right now, you're going to make some mistakes, you're going to stub your toe, you're still going to get a bloody nose. Oh, well, have at it, do it anyway, man. But this is the best time in human history. You can get a product, design, idea to market so fast right now. You can serve people so quickly and so easily right now. If you ever were going to be an entrepreneur, any time since the sun came up the first time, this is the time, right now.

• 58:39Hala Taha?

  Where can everybody learn more about you and everything that you do?

• 58:42Speaker 01

  RamseySolutions.com, yeah, it's all there.

• 58:44Hala Taha?

  Amazing. Well, for all those links in the show notes, Dave, it is always such a pleasure to talk to you. I had so much fun today. Thank you so much.

• 58:51Speaker 01

  Thank you. Thanks for having me.

• 58:53Hala Taha?

  Yeah, fam, I have to say, it was super inspiring to sit down with Dave Ramsey face to face. Now, Dave is somebody who's in my world. So, he owns a media company, he's got over a thousand employees, and he's got a huge office and studios in Nashville. And this was one of the most inspiring moments for me as a podcaster, just flying out to Nashville, interviewing Dave Ramsey in the flesh, going to see his amazing studios and offices and everything that he's built. His company makes $300 million a year, and it's just so inspiring. And so, I want to go over some of the top things that I learned with him on that day. And here are the three things that I want you to remember from this conversation.

• 59:38Hala Taha?

  Number one is adding friction to your spending. Dave broke down how easy swipe spending fuels lifestyle creep, especially for high earners, and why chasing points can distract you from the real goal. Make spending harder on purpose. That means removing saved cards, stopping the mindless swipes, and forcing every purchase to be more intentional. Second, treat debt like risk, not like a math game. Dave's message was simple. Debt always increases your exposure. Bigger payments mean less breathing room, less peace, and fewer options when life hits. Entrepreneurs need optionality, and optionality comes from fewer obligations. Third, build a plan that you will finish. Dave explained why the method that gets completed beats the optimal method that gets abandoned.

• 1:00:22Hala Taha?

  That means a clear budget, quick wins, and automatic habits like consistently investing and staying focused on progress over perfection. So my challenge to you is to make a move today. Add friction, cut a payment, assign every dollar a job. Small disciplines, choices, compound into freedom. All right, Yap Gang, if you enjoyed this episode as much as I did, share it with a friend who needs a money reset. Now, Yapim, if you prefer to watch your podcasts on videos, I'm doing a lot more in-person content this year, so this episode with Dave is uploaded to our YouTube channel. I highly recommend if you want to level up your finances to re-watch this and actually watch the video, because I think there's something special about watching a real-life conversation. So if you like to watch your videos, check out YouTube.

• 1:01:06Hala Taha?

  You can also find me on LinkedIn. Just search for my name, it's Hala Taha, or Instagram, at Yap with Hala. And I love interacting with you all, so make sure you DM me, let me know what you think about the show. Let me know any feedback that you have. Until next time, this is your host, Hala Taha, AKA The Podcast Princess, signing off.