Transcription
How many of you grew up like I did? Not rich. Now, I'm not theologically or philosophically shallow enough to tell you money will make you happy. Money will not make you happy. You get more money, it will make you more of what you are right now. If you are miserable and you get money, you will be lots of miserable. If you're a jerk and you get money, big jerk. And it'll mess with your family too. So money is not going to solve your problems, it's going to make them bigger.
It's also going to make your opportunities bigger. If you're a generous person, your generosity will go into overdrive. You'll be outrageously generous. And you get a lot of money, we'll call you a philanthropist. Cool word. That means you give a lot of it away, and you have a blast doing it. You found the most fun you'll ever have with money when you find that.
So we live in a cause and effect world. What you plant, you will harvest. You will reap what you sow, right? So if you plant stupid, you will get a crop of desperate. I've done it. And you know, if you plant corn, don't be looking for beans to come up. Don't be shocked by it, because what you put into your life is what you're going to get out.
So we've found that there's five things that if you do these five things with money over a period of time, like 10 or 15 years, you will build a level of wealth 100% of the time. And now, I said a level of wealth. I don't know what level, because I can't predict car wrecks and cancer. I can't predict tragedy. And I don't know what your income will be. But if you're working and you do these five things, you will build a level of wealth 100% of the time.
And this is not some prosperity thing, and it's not mystical or magical. When I cover these five things, they're all common sense. But common sense is so rare now, it's like having a superpower. So let's look at the five.
The first one is get on a budget. A written plan. You have to do a budget on paper, on purpose, before the month begins, every month. 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? Don't answer that. We misbehave with money, and so we're disorganized. We don't have a plan. Nothing's written down. Decide. The interesting thing about each one of these principles is you can just decide today to do them.
I had a guy working for me, and he was not doing his process right. And I sat down, I said, "This is what you need to do." And he goes, "Well, that's not the way I do it." And I said, "Change." And he said, "Well, I'm not like you." And I said, "Change." You can decide today to be good at this, or leave. You can decide. You can decide to do a budget today. Get out of yellow pad, or go free budget online, everydollar.com. You can decide today, "I'm going to start managing money well today," because you're going to keep getting what you've been getting if you keep doing what you've been doing. You know this, right? Sewing and reaping.
And the second one is, you need to get out of debt. Now, we know this one. You knew Dave Ramsey was going to talk about getting out of debt, because you know the Bible says, "The borrower is slave to the lender." It's real. Now, here's the deal. Think about this. Your most powerful wealth-building tool is your income. Let me show you what slavery looks like.
This week, they came out with new data that shows that the average car payment in America today, according to the National Auto Dealers Association, is $499. That's dangerously close to $500. You take $500 bucks a month and invest it from age 30 to age 70 in a decent growth stock mutual fund, you'll have $5.6 million. That's what a car payment costs you. So who'd you make rich? General Motors, Ford, Lexus, I don't know, Toyota. Who was it? You made somebody rich. It wasn't you. And you're driving along and something you can't afford, scratching your head and wondering why your kid's college fund isn't funded, because we're giving it all to somebody else. And they have nicer furniture in their building. Have you noticed something's going on here, guys? You know, and some people in here got student loans, been around so long you think it's a pet. You got Mastercard in your life. I mean, it's hard to be a slave if you don't have a master. So you might as well. We've discovered bondage in American distress. It just keeps going and going. And I've done it too, y'all. I'm not picking on anybody. I'm just saying, here's the deal.
Think about this. What if you had no payments? Can't even get my head around that. Well, you're always going to have a car payment. You know, I hear people say that, "Little man can't get ahead." You're always gonna have a car payment. So drive something nice. YOLO, right? Which, by the way, is addressed in Proverbs. It says, "Fool," right after that. See, these are how we talk when we're losing. You know, you can get ahead. I sure hope we can elect the president, it will fix my life. Not gonna happen. Neither one of them got the goods. I'll just tell you, you're in charge of your life. It's the only one that's gonna work. And that's what changes.
So how do you get out of debt? Well, you have to decide to not borrow any more. That's the first step, isn't it? We had plastic surgery at our house. Had a plasectomy. Decided we're not borrowing money anymore. Mastercard, Capital One, what's in your wallet? Money. [Applause] You're weird, Dave. You're right. And I'm not broke anymore either. I decided I'm not living like this. I hadn't had a credit card in 30 years. You don't have a credit card? I don't have a credit card. That's my wallet. It's got green president's faces, and it's got four pieces of plastic in here. Two debit cards, one on my business, one on my personal account, which will do everything your stupid credit card will do. I travel more than any two of you put together. Shut up. It works. Okay. Dave, you're looking for airline miles? Yeah, I've met a lot of millionaires, and none of them said, "Dave, you know, I made it all on my airline miles." I hadn't heard that one. So, so I got my driver's license and my handgun carry permit.
The third thing, once you're out of debt, then you need to be careful to foster high-quality relationships. What's that got to do with money? Everything. There's a huge correlation for those that build wealth and who they hang around with, because you become who you hang around with. Have you noticed that? You don't let your kids hang around with little juvenile delinquents, right? If a little Johnny down the street's a weed head, you don't let your kid run with little Johnny, 'cause you know you're gonna have a weed head in your house, right? We know this. So they come home with that mouth on them, and you're going, "Where'd you learn that?" "I'll get you knocked in the next week in this house." "Where'd you think you could get away with that?" "I'll take you out and make another one looks just like you." You know what I mean? You know it's 'cause they're hanging out with little Johnny, right? You know what happens? We're the same way, y'all. We're the same way. You talk like the people you hang around with. You read the books they talk about. If you don't read, and all your friends watch "The Bachelor," well, here's a clue. Okay, here's what's going on. If this is all you know about is reality TV, that's not a reality. Probably we need to change our diet. You know, read a book.
And so Charlie Tremendous Jones said, "Five years from today, you'll be the same person you are today, except for the books you read and the people you meet." Don't be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. And you know this. The studies have shown that over a 10-year period of time, that your income will approximate, will become within 10 to 20% of the average of your 10 closest friends' income, because you have the same habits they've got. You have the same diet into your self that they've got. You'll have it. You can't stop yourself from doing it. You will become who you hang around with. And all the studies show that we have a tendency now. That's not to say I'm some kind of snob and I don't have any friends that aren't rich friends. Not that at all. I have lots of friends. But my closest hangs are people I want to be like. That's my closest ones. Now, I'll talk to anybody. But like when our daughters were growing up, they're grown and married to wonderful men now, but, you know, they're in high school and they're wanting to go on a date. We didn't do missionary dating. You don't get to date little Johnny the weed head and lead him to Jesus. That's not gonna work, okay? We're not doing this. Little Johnny can go to camp and get saved again, you know, we'll work on this, right? And so, uh, no, you come up to our house to pick up one of our daughters, honk your horn. You better be delivering a pizza. All right? So coming in, talking to the old man. You know, I'll be cleaning my gun when you get home, you know the song, right? And so, uh, I mean, this, this kind of thing. And I'm teaching them, "Dad, all the boys in the youth group are scared of you." Good. Keeps away two things you don't want, baby doll. You don't want jerks, and you don't want wusses. And if I can keep both those away, and then I can teach you how to keep them away, you can pick good. And guess what? They both picked good. They both picked good. They married studs, man. I got some sons-in-law. Unbelievable, man. My sons-in-law are awesome. And it wasn't an accident. You see what I'm saying, y'all? You need to make these choices very, very carefully.
The fourth thing is, you need to save and invest. "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil." Wise people save money. That's what this means. And so it was used in the marketplace like we used green president's faces as a medium of exchange. If you had a carafe of oil, you were ready to do business. It was a sign of wealth. There were two classes of people: poor people and rich people. Most of the people were poor people. This is the Mediterranean, we're talking. They ate hummus and olives, no meat, a little bit of bread, maybe, maybe a fish. But that was it. Rich people ate what we eat every day. Spices, good meat, Charleston food scene, you know what I'm saying, right? Cooking it up, right? That's fine food. Stores of choice food and oil are symbols of wealth. So let's read that again: "In the house of the wise are stores of money." By the way, the rest of that one says, "and a foolish man devours all he has." If you spend everything you make, the Bible just called you a fool again. I've been a fool, call me a fool too, and I decided to change. Wise people save money. Why? Well, start with, we save for an emergency, right? Grandma said it. She said, "Save for a rainy day." It's gonna rain. You're gonna have a car wreck. You'll lose your job. Something's gonna happen. You're gonna need some money. "Dave, you need to be positive." I'm positive it's gonna rain. Something's gonna come up. This one I don't understand. "Unexpected pregnancy." Say what? Okay. But people come up with all kinds of things that are emergencies, right? Something's gonna happen. And then you need to save and invest so you retire with dignity. You know, I'm gonna spend everything I make and hope the government, which is well known for its ability to handle money, will take care of me. Dumb idea. I'm not even sure some of them have opposable thumbs up there, you know what I'm saying? It's just ridiculous. And we're counting on them in some wacked-out kind of way to come. They're not coming. There is no white horse. There is no cavalry. You're it. Okay? You are in charge of your destiny. And that's great news. And so all worried about the election. And I'm not worried about the election because I made money under both parties. Turns out it wasn't up to them in either case. I've lost money under both parties. None of them sent me a check. They all just want money. They're extracting like a tick, extracting blood all the time. That's all they do.
This is the deal. The last one is all about generosity. But this is all about cheerfulness. Generosity is not just a transfer of funds. Generosity is a spirit where you decide to be a generous person. Generous people are more attractive. They smile. They're not grouchy. It's not all about them. They're the ones that open the door. They're the ones when the grocery bag has the bottom drop out and your groceries are rolling all over the parking lot, they're the ones out there helping you pick it up. These are the people that when they go out to eat, they leave a tip. You cheap, ridiculous... well, us. I'm not one. I leave big tips because it's a form of generosity. "Well, they didn't give me good service." Oh, shut up. They're carrying a tray that weighs more than you figure it out. They parked your car in the rain and in the heat. Shut up. Give them some money. They park your $130,000 car and you give them three dollars? What are you, a nut? That's Ferris Bueller parking the car there. You take care of that, man. I give him a $20 bill. My car's still sitting there when I come out. It's amazing. Sounds like that guy's working his way through college or something right there. And if he says, "Better than I deserve," that's his code for, "I'm getting out of debt." If they say that, you got to give him a double tip. So I give him $40. My wife's like, "I'm gonna park your car." And no, you're not. You're not working your way out of college. You've already put up with me for 30 years. So it's all right.
Generosity is a spirit. It changes everything in your life. But it's awful tough to give if you're broke, and you're in debt, and you haven't saved any money, and you don't have a plan, and you're not hanging out with other people who are givers. And so, change. You get to decide today. It'll change your life. It'll change your family tree. You will change everyone with your last name that follows you if you do these things. It's that powerful. It's unbelievable. The sorrows are deeper, and the joys are higher. It changes everything. And when you move this money piece around, it gives you the tools to be that in the marketplace, and to be that for your family, and to get this monkey off your back, and to get that elephant out of the room, because he's got to go.