Dave Ramsey | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #498

that sell, man, I had uh, they were probably $300, $400, wow, but you could get that little. I'm not talking about the burner, what were you selling? CDs for, oh, CDs for probably 10, but I'd take eight and a volume discount too if you want 10 of them for Christmas gifts. I'll set you up, yeah, oh, I sold one to a lady one time,

this

was in Muke Indiana, she bought one and drove three hours. At home she said it wasn't working and came back the next day to come and change it. I thought it was only 8, yeah, she spent more on gas, but I guess that was just the point of making sure she got what she paid for, which I understand, but yeah, when I think about all the different things or losing certain things events in people's lives or something to function with, sometimes I wish I had had a little better balance, but I also liked working, you know, I think I really liked it, but yeah, I don't think it's as easy as making things evolve, although it's also something I'm thinking, say if you start. a pressure wash, right, you're going to start learning how to do business, that's something you don't realize, you're going to learn by starting a business, sometimes it's that you're going to learn how to do business and the next thing you know that you might have an employee and then you say oh wow, now I'm an employer.

I have never been an employer, how is that? and you just learn that you will do taxes and business that you will file for LLC. I'll do all these things and then you'll be accumulating knowledge and then I'll notice that part of you or me will start to blossom a little bit and say, "Okay, now, what else do I want to do?" one thing you tried and started, you've seen it work or not, you've even learned that hey, it didn't work, um, but yeah, the more steps you take to do business, the more you become someone who walks like a businessman in some ways. you change your identity you change who you are I mean, I'm not the little bickering redneck like when I was in high school.

I have a lot less hair for one thing, but I'm not that guy anymore, yes in that sense, I've been married 43 years, my wife is not married to the same man she married 43 years ago, thank God because she's not It was a lot, yeah, you know, yeah, what kind of hair. Do you have something good, not as good as yours? Yeah, I never bought it, but no, I had it, it had that thing from the 70s with the little feathers on the side, you remember those, you don't remember them, but you've seen pictures with oh. Yeah, the problem with the middle part is that the part gets W if you're not careful, so yeah, buddy, what would you say about liking someone who's going into business with a friend?

That's something I think about a lot. They are things like a partnership with a friend or starting a partnership with just a new business person. It could even be a spouse. What are you saying? What are the obstacles that people can pay attention to before that kind of thing? I mean the biggest thing that we run into, we train about 10,000 companies with the lead leadership brand, small businesses and they have anywhere from five to 200 team members, so what do I tell those guys and I'll talk to them, You know? We do an event with about 3,000 of them once a year.

I'll be talking to them over the next two weeks here and one of the things we tell them is you're really drinking, man, and you sit around talking about it. Opening a business is a bad idea, one of you needs to open it and the other needs to work there and you can pay him from the profits if you want, you can be generous but someone with two heads is a monster. and the only ship in sales is a partnership, so generally don't do a partnership now if you're going to have friends working on your team, I mean I have a bunch of them, a bunch of my team are friends and they became in friends while they were here or were friends and then came here.

I have family in the building uh my CH my kids work here and they're 30 years old and uh uh and so how do you navigate so well? We had to learn. from a family business perspective and it also works for friends to separate the hat that we wear mhm and then my hat that I wear with my friend, you know he's a friend and you know we're having a scar together or playing golf or we're doing what he says friend , right, fantasy football, yeah, yeah, whatever, but when we're at work, my hat says CEO, right, and his says you know tech or whatever, so you do your job, I'll do the job. mine. work and I am going to treat you as I would treat the other members of the team because I treat them all well and with dignity.

I don't yell or call people names, so I mean we treat them well and you're going to treat me with the same respect you would if you worked somewhere, you let the CEO in the room, it's not like you bow or anything. like that, but you don't, you don't roll your eyes and you don't. use a buddy talk with your CEO yeah and then you chose that you can't run up and tickle them or whatever well that's weird but yeah but the idea is like my kids you know my daughter Rachel Cross. big personality three four number one in sales and you know, she talks constantly all over the United States on network television and stuff, and we have eight of those people that are personalities that do different things and that's why she doesn't get paid like me daughter but according to about the work that she does there and then when I'm you know she has three of my grandchildren so when I put on the Papa Dave hat when I'm with the grandchildren at Thanksgiving dinner, but when we're here, I'm dealing with her um Everyone in the room knows she's my daughter, but I treat her the same way I would treat Dr.

John Deloney or Ken Coleman and the other personalities too, so you have to separate that and use different hats so when you wear your friend hat then act that way and you know when you're at work you wear

this

hat and you know you have to act I have to act and so the family doesn't get a pass and the friend doesn't get a come off as incompetence or do you just know I'm not going to come to work today no, that's not how we all come to work today yeah, yeah, if you're going to do business with a friend, what's something that people might like?

What discussions? They need to tell you from the beginning, say that you are going to partner with a friend you know so that you don't have lawsuits in the future. Yeah, well, it's possible that nothing you do will stop you. I mean, people can file a lawsuit for anything. Even if it's not true, they can make something up, that's how it is and they do it, we've run into that, but what we tell people, if you're going to partner, make sure you have very good documentation and the best you can do. it's talking and having in the document uh all the bad things that can happen and a lot of them are divorce from D, drug use, disinterest, I don't want to work anymore, uh, disability, death, you know what It happens when these things happen, so because you can It would be great to work with your friend and he owns half of the company, but his wife is crazy and he dies now, now you're a partner in Cuco, yeah, you know it's a bad plan, so you have to have this established about what's going to happen in these situations um, I mean, you know, I've had a guy working here who was one of our top leaders many years ago, uh, he got Mrs. was driving home six miles home, got lost on the way home, brain injuries, so obviously disabled, so what's wrong with that guy?

He was one of my best guys. You know, he paid like he was a partner and just a wonderful man. He's passed away now and, uh, but you know, how do you deal with him? Do you treat his family at the worst and how are you going to take care of them? And since you want to take care of your friend, you want your friend's children to be homeless because something happened to him if he is your partner in this case. The guy was one of my right arms, you know? So you have to think about that carefully because it's going to happen, something is going to come your way and if you haven't anticipated it, because everyone goes into these things like, oh, it's all going to happen. work nothing works the way it's supposed to work it never works it's never as easy as it seems when you're sitting there and talking about it the first time yeah, yeah, did you find yourself with unrealistic expectations about going into commercial spaces, those are some things?

What I've struggled with in my life, especially recently, is just unrealistic expectations that things are going to work out or that they should be a certain way, like not leaving room for anything, really trying to have a lot of my own free will, I guess. . in some ways it is, but it's also that, looking at you from the outside, I think you probably suffer from this intense desire to be excellent, yes, and all of that means that you are excellent and therefore you demand that if you demand that of yourself same, it's okay to demand that from the project situation and even from the people, um, hard work and that's why I don't hesitate if someone doesn't go, hey, come on, pick it up, you know, it's not like I'm relaxing and Asking you to go, no, come on, I'm doing well, so keep it up, you know, and the same thing with a project that we have in these projects now, so I do it.

I still have unrealistic expectations. I have a perception of reality after 30. Damn years of doing stupid things. I mean, I'm convinced that we've survived about 90% of our ideas and that everything good that's ever happened happens to about 10% of them, but when you start it, I mean, you go for a walk in the morning and, you know, or you're sitting on the dock having a cup of coffee on the lake and you have this idea that everyone's okay, so you know, but when you're okay, half a million dollars in and you're like, oh, this sucks, This is horrible, and then you realize that even though we demanded excellence, even though we drove the lane and put the ball in the hoop, even though we didn't have a product-market fit, something is wrong. out of price. something is wrong and um, I mean, but if you are, if you're not trying things, you're not growing well, you have to try things, but you're going to screw up a lot of things even though I demand excellence, but I don't hesitate at all to expect excellence and, uh, waiting for it, you know why you would enter something that you didn't think was going to work, of course, we think it's going to work, yeah, you know, like a stupid reporter.

The other day, did you ever have any idea it would be so big? And I said, well, of course I do. I'm getting people out of debt. It's like everyone is my market. You know, of course I thought, but what I didn't do. What I know is how much work it was going to be. I had no idea I was going to have $100 million in payroll. You know, I had no idea that it would take that to do it, but I knew there was. very needy I knew it could be big but I didn't know it, I didn't know how bad it was going to be how difficult it was going to be yes, I think that's something you already know, it's funny when I hear you say that because yes, how I liked it , I started to be more busy with things that were business.

I just wanted to be a comedian, you know, and then I got into podcasting and then you have an employee, then you have employees and then P.E., they have feelings. and you have and they have feelings, yeah, and you have relationships with them, you know, and such and such, it's like all these things. Next thing you know, I spend a lot of my day, most of your time is gone because you There's another responsibility and then I'm like man. I never expected a lot more work to come out of this. I think just having some goals, you know, yeah, yeah, I thought it was going to be. on the radio and sell some books on how to get out of debt and I mean, who knew you needed 400 people in a technology department?

You know, it's the same thing. You're absolutely right, but the good news is that It's like you said before, it's an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to grow, that way you don't just stay in the pressure washing business and, um, I still enjoy the stage. I still enjoy being on the radio, on the podcast, on YouTube every day. We still do that show every day, three hours a day. I still enjoy all those things, but I also enjoy running this place and I'm running it with my son, he's the president now and he and I, that's awesome.

You know, we had this for breakfast. tomorrow and we're having a lot of fun working on problems and you know, looking at new opportunities and all that, so the business side is fun, yeah. Elevate yourself every morning in Tommy John Second Skin underwear ooo don Don't you want more skin when you feel great? What you put in your pants can make or break your day. We know you'll be elevated every morning in Tommy John Second Skin underwear. Stylish and soft, Tommy John Second Skin underwear has dozens of amenities. Innovations as a support. Contoured pouch and lightweight, breathable, moisture-wicking fabric with four times more stretch than competing brands, that's a lot, you know.

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I know we're just going to find you another house, but let's learn about the ins and outs of foreclosure and see if we can stop it. We were actually able to figure out how to stop the foreclosure, but you know the reality was his whole life was coming to an end. on Friday and it's a house, there's one on every corner, just go look for another one, yes, you know, it's like that, but they just hit us, we had another one that was very sad, the lady was having a different one being seized and her husband . 36 years old he was a roofer he fell off the roof and they killed him and she had two little kids and workers comp didn't pay they waited like forever so the house is left behind and she's getting ready to get repossessed and we're like she owed 660,000 dollars on a $300,000 house like no, they're not going to foreclose on you, we're going to stop this, this isn't happening, you're a widow, come on, someone's going to take care of you and another roofer called our office at that time. we're up in the air and we got the house so I said we'll take care of it other people intervene you heard the story started taking care I said you're not going to get repossessed I'm 100% sure it's not going to happen we're not going to lose this house, a $300,000 house for 60 thousand, but she was completely overwhelmed, other people had taken her power, the situation, the variables had taken her power, she couldn't see, she was frozen and all we did was we were.

It wasn't there and that's why we weren't frozen. And we could see what everyone, everyone listening, everyone watching, could see the same thing, of course, we're not going to let that house give way, so that's it, you sell it for 200,000 before on Friday, you know you're not going to give it away for 60. so we're going to do something, but yeah, the fear of people being stuck, yeah, yeah, and that's all we do is unblock them, yeah, help unlock them, yeah, with facts with facts, um, for someone who's just starting out right now, they're just getting started. the world got their first jobs they just left university how much money do they need to save if they want to have some freedom in the future what do you say Dave well, the first thing we do is leave the world, get everything into debt except the house and then have a fund of emergency 3 to 6 months of expenses, we call it the small steps, there they are, um, and once you're on small step three and you have three to six months of expenses, no I don't have any payments except the payment of the home, so you save three to six months.

You have savings to pay for 3 to six months in case exactly something happens. It's an emergency fund. It's not a I want a bass boat. It's an emergency fund, it's not I need a new couch, it's an emergency fund that you don't touch. If you're going to buy something else, you save and pay for it, but to answer your question, the fourth step is to invest 15% of your income when you don't have any payments except the house payment, you can save 15% of your income. income and the average family income in the United States right now is 72,000 a year if you say 15% of 72,000 ages 30 to 65.

You're going to have about 5 million dollars in your mutual funds, so repeat that, so if I'm wrong 5 times, you're still a millionaire. Shut up, you know, so you can't really screw this up. It's like, but, you can screw it up. This is because you live in the United States and can get paid $1,200 for a damn car. You can't afford to impress people into stopping and they don't even care about you. Yeah, you know, and that's what we do instead, um or I need. another truck, you know or I need another one, whatever, I'm the same guy, but yeah, so we say for kids college, uh, six is ​​what your stepdad did.

We paid off the house early in 11 years, by the way, oddly enough, 11 years is. the average millionaire who paid off their houses in 11 years 11.2 years in the study we were talking about before, so that's one of the things that people did to become millionaires, they're right, we call them little millionaires, they went up here and they get their house paid off in an average of 11 years, some of them in seven years, some of them in 14, but an average of 11. Wow, and then when you don't have a house payment, dude, I mean, they're 2,3000 dollars a month, oh, you have the bank.

Be generous with the bank to invest and yes, you can take a dip in piling up cash. You can relax at home and go into the bathroom. Stack cash. That's it, that's God. That is what I want. I'll buy a damn birdbath and sit down. on that thing, if I'm out of debt, I sit in the front yard and use some soap, um Dave Ramsey, anything else you want to share with us that you think we've covered a lot of interesting things, I think. I feel like we've been down a lot of paths, it was an honor to be with you, yeah you too, I'm impressed with what you're doing, it's so good, thank you man for watching your career and watching you clean up and do it right and get things done.

I saw your content change. You are doing it very well. You are doing it very well. I'm proud to know you, thanks man, yeah, so crazy, yeah. I remember my stepdad saying that. and then like two years ago I'll be like, man, wouldn't it be crazy if we had Dave Ramsey, you know, and then here we get and then you can tell him you were disappointed so you go, but we didn't? We don't lose hope man anyway that's true we didn't lose hope that's true so yeah thank you so much for the guidance you guys can watch Ramsy's show and then there's so many YouTube clips like they would like, I mean.

There's probably a clip for almost everything nowadays, you know, everything you want to know about finances, how to take care of yourself, um, how to keep going, they can call the show every day, no, every day, they can call you, you can call him. show it every day if you have a question and there are some great videos of some of the best questions they've had online too, Dave Ramsey, thank you so much man, thanks bro, yeah, I appreciate it and good luck and I. I hope to see you in town sometime. Well wait. I'm floating in the breeze and I feel like I'm falling like these leaves.

I must be the cornerstone, oh, but when I reach that ground, I will share this tranquility. I found out I can feel it in my bones but it's going to take