[00:00] So as you know, most of you that listen regularly, we've been on the air now for over 25 years. Even before I was on the air, I was teaching people about money.
[00:14] When I first started this stuff, I'm a math nerd. I've got a degree in finance. I had all the letters and licenses after my name and all the different things, and I was real concerned about the math.
[00:28] I would sit down with people and show them how to get out of debt, and they would go home and promptly not do it. It was really frustrating. And I started figuring out that hope has more to do with you winning with money than math does.
[00:51] Because hope gives you, well, it's fuel on the fire. It gives you a reason to make changes. A reason to do something you've never done before. And really what we're saying here is that personal finance is about 80% behavior.
[01:09] It's only about 20% head knowledge and math. The problem with your money is not your math. The problem with your money is the person in your mirror. They're screwing up everything. If I can get the guy in my mirror to behave, he'd be skinny and rich, right?
[01:23] That's what I figured out. So I quit telling people to get out of debt, paying off the highest interest rate first. I started teaching people what we started calling, that we started calling, we started calling,
[01:39] the debt snowball. And it's a real tough metaphor to grasp. It's your debts smallest to largest. You pay minimum payments on everything but the little one.
[01:51] You attack the little one with a vengeance scorched earth lifestyle. Sell so much stuff the kids think they're next. Take 16 extra jobs.
[02:03] Name the dog eBay and put him there. Put the cat on Craig's list. We're getting out of debt. We're getting out of debt. Everything.
[02:15] You stop all investing temporarily and completely focus all your emotional, spiritual, financial, relational energy on that smallest debt. Everything goes on that. When that one's gone, you take the payment that used to be there.
[02:28] And any other money we can squeeze out of our budget and we throw it at number two. And when that one's gone, we take the payments from one and two. The snowball rolls over again. It picks up more snow and you attack number three. The average person for the past 25 years that has done that with great focused intensity,
[02:46] intentionality, gone crazy to the point they're broke friends and relatives. They need counseling. They shave their head. They drink the Kool-Aid. They get out of debt in about 18 to 24 months.
[03:00] Everything but their house. That's the average. Now some of you got a lot of debt. It takes you five years. I know you get out of debt in four months, but the average is between 18 and 24 months. It works.
[03:12] Millions, tens of millions of people have gotten out of debt. Debt-free screams alone on the air here last year were $49.8 million. That's like $50 million. And that was just the ones that screamed on the air.
[03:28] Other people just stood in their back yard and screamed. And that worked too. You don't have to come on the air for it to count. You're out of debt. Shut up. Dave Yada. Dave Ramsey, I was talking on Twitter.
[03:40] Dave Ramsey doesn't teach the most optimum way to get out of debt. The most optimum way to get out of debt is to list and pay it off highest interest rate first. Says the moron on Twitter. I used to be that moron.
[03:53] I tried that. The problem is it doesn't work. So let me explain to you what optimum means. Optimum is the one that works. Not the one that's mathematically correct.
[04:05] Honey, if we were doing math, we wouldn't have credit card debt to start with. This is not a math problem. This is a U problem. It's personal finance. It's more behavior. Your success with your finance has more to do with you getting along with your spouse
[04:23] and being on the same page than it does mathematics. You can be a freaking math genius. And you and your spouse are on the same page. And all of our data tells us you will not win with money.
[04:35] You will not bill wealth. You cannot bill wealth in spite of a princess. Or in spite of a prince who spends money like they're in Congress. You can't do it. You can't make enough money to outspend stupidity or out-earn stupidity.
[04:49] I tried it. Not my wife. I was the stupid one. I always thought if I just made a little more, it'd be okay. I had learned to control what I had. So we started teaching people a class called Financial Peace University.
[05:03] Class is about 25 years old. We started teaching it with an overhead projector and a bad suit. It was $569 to go through the class. Four people came in the first night. Three of them bought.
[05:16] $569. The class was 26 weeks long. Every, 13 lessons come every other week for six freaking months. Got stopped by here the other day that was in that very first class.
[05:32] Good to see him. I hadn't seen him in a long time. We got to be friends. He is a wife. He's a multi-millionaire now, by the way. Why? Because I gave him money.
[05:44] I didn't give him any money. I just showed him how to do it and he did it. He followed the steps that we teach in Financial Peace University. Not only the baby steps, not only the debt snowball,
[05:56] but also start investing in good mutual funds over a long period of time. That's 25 years he should be a multi-millionaire. You do this stuff, it works. That's what optimum is.
[06:09] Morons. You people that are calling me out. It's not optimum. Let me just tell you, optimum is what works. That's what's optimum. Not what's mathematically correct.
[06:21] I understand the debt snowball is not mathematically correct, and I don't really care. My math nerd down inside of me cringes, but I don't really care. What matters is what works, how it allows you to change your life.
[06:35] Financial Peace University now includes every dollar plus for a year where you connect to your bank. It now includes you get a one-year access to the online assets,
[06:47] meaning you can watch the videos and audios and everything else, all online for a year. And of course, now it includes free shipping. It's only $129 that includes the kit and you can join a class in your area.
[06:59] By the way, you're almost too late. Don't be too late, it's January. We have 1,600 classes starting this week, next week. So you need to get your kit like right now.
[07:12] There's over 5,000 starting in the month of January alone. But next week, there's 1,600 starting. So you need to jump in there and get your Financial Peace University kit get in your local class in the area.
[07:26] Use the online stuff, all the every dollar, which is the world's best budgeting app. It's all included. This is the best deal we've ever done on Financial Peace University. It does not get any better than this.
[07:39] And here's the trick. It's optimum. Because it works. Check it out, DaveRamsey.com. Back with your calls right here on the DaveRamsey show.