THE DAVE RAMSEY SHOW HIGHLIGHT

Scripture of the Day 05.20.13

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:00:00-0500

James 1:17 — Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

The Money Tamer

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:48:00-0500

QUESTION: Patty in Cincinnati is having issues with budgeting. Her husband is in construction, so their income is varied. She doesn't know how to plan for this variable income. Dave explains how to handle an irregular income.

ANSWER: I suggest you make a list of what you would put into a budget, which you already have—you've got that list—and it's what we need to spend on food. It's what our lights and water are going to be this month. It's what our rent or house payment is this month. Make a list of everything you need to spend money on or want to spend money on with a dollar amount beside it. Then you look at that list with your husband and you say, "If you have a horrible month and we only make enough to do one thing, what would we do?" And you put a "1" beside that. I'll help you with that. That one's food. If you only make enough to do one more thing past food—we can't do anything on this list but two things—what's the second thing we're going to do? I'll help you with that. It's utilities—lights and water. You keep asking that question, and the next time you ask it, it'll be pay your rent or your house payment. We've got food, shelter, clothing, transportation. You take care of basic necessities first at a base level—nothing fancy. Then you keep going down the list from there and say, "Well, if we make enough to do one more thing, what would we do?" You keep putting a number beside it. Then you rewrite that list in order of number one through whatever—the most important thing to the least important thing. You could do the budget every week if you wanted to, but certainly at the first of the month, what you're going to do is make that list down the page. When the money comes in, you're going to go as far down the page as you can go. If you paid the house payment, you can just mark through that one and pick up next week where the other one left off. You might have to break your food budget into four different items on there or start every week with food before you do anything else or something like that, but the idea being that you have a prioritized spending plan, and as much money as you make, you go down the page as far as the money goes until it runs out. Sharon and I lived on that plan forever—for a decade—until we got our income stabilized to where we had enough income coming in every month no matter what to pay our bills. What happens is you could go down the page and the money runs out before the list runs out. It needs to run out. The list needs to be longer than the money. No matter what you make, every dollar has a name. It's fine that you haven't saved anything the last four months because his income's struggling right now. That's what that means. If you didn't save anything because you went on a cruise, then we've got a problem. You've got your priorities wrong. But if you didn't save anything because you kept food on the table and lights and water were paid and you kept the rent paid, then you shouldn't save anything. You should take care of necessities first. Then you'll get to the other things. I think what you need to do more than anything is be more organized and prioritized like I'm talking about, and you were attempting to do that with the Gazelle Budget. Congratulations for attempting, but I'm with you. That'll drive you nuts the way you were trying to do it. I agree with you. I'm going to send you a copy of the book The Total Money Makeover. Remember, it's got the budget forms in the back of the book, and one of the forms is the irregular income planning form. It'll walk you through again what we just talked about in case you forget what we just covered. It'll get you set up and get you going. You've got to do two things for this to work. He's got to be involved and agree with you on the spending and go along with it or have a vote in it—that kind of thing. The second thing is you've got to get a little bit more organized and very purposeful. No money is spent—period—except what's on that paper. If you left something off, you've got to rewrite the paper and prioritize it again. You have to start from scratch to do that. The irregular income planning sheet in the budget forms. For those of you that have been through Financial Peace University, you've got the sheets. Those of you that have a Total Money Makeover or Financial Peace book, you've got the budgeting forms. They're always in the back of those books, and you're set up to win with that. You're set up to be able to put together a game plan. Let me just tell you money will leave and go to other people if you don't manage it. Money leaves those who do not manage it, and it goes to someone else. You do not get to keep money if you don't manage it. It leaves. It moves away from people who don't manage it and toward people who do. The budget is the way you manage it. It's the whip and the chair. It's the money tamer. You're making the money behave. Hear the call!
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Louise and Ron Did It!

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:00-0500

Louise and Ron in Denver are debt-free! They paid off $170,000 in six years making $80,000 a year up to $100,000 a year. That includes their house! They're only 48 and 50 years old. Hear the call!
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Blake's Bumps for 05.15.13

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:00-0500

Artists in bold Chairlift I Belong In Your Arms

Delta Spirit Empty House

Atlas Genius If So

Coldplay Hardest Part

Dave Matthews Band Funny the Way It Is

Angels & Airwaves The Adventure

The Head & The Heart Lost In My Mind

Wilco I Might

The Wallflowers One Headlight Follow Blake's Bumps on Twitter or Tumblr.

Scripture of the Day 05.15.13

Wed, 15 May 2013 07:31:00-0500

Psalm 90:14 — Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Impulsive May Mean Homeless

Wed, 15 May 2013 07:20:00-0500

QUESTION: Montgomery in New Orleans moved to New Orleans four years ago to work for a professional sports team. He was let go and got another job quickly but is now ready for a change of pace. He's thinking about moving cold turkey to another city. How much savings should he have in place for that?

ANSWER: What is wrong with taking every waking hour that you're not on the job and finding a job in the other location before you go? The good news is Austin, Texas, isn't that far from New Orleans. I would just assume before you left the dock with your feet that the boat had pulled up. I'm kind of thinking you find a job over there. Why don't you take two weeks and go to Austin and find a job before you quit? You just want me to tell you to be impulsive, and I think you're going to end up freaking homeless. I'm not going to tell you to be impulsive. You have a job. You've got money to eat with. You have a thing to do. I think you ought to leave and go to Austin, Texas. I agree with your plan. I'm just adding one step to it called wisdom, and let's have a place to freaking land when you get over there. That's all I'm doing, dude. I'm telling you exactly what I would tell my own son if he called me with this. I think you ought to go. I think you're done with New Orleans. Austin's a great city. It's booming. I was just down there the other day. They're wonderful people. I'm not against New Orleans either, by the way, but I think you're done with it and you're done with this government job. You want to get out there in the private sector and make something move around. I'm with you on all that. I want you to do all that, but just move over there and hope this works out? Add one step to it, and you don't have to have all this stress. If you want to go over there and burn through your savings, you can. I'd spend two weeks at least trying to land something to where I can feed myself when I get over there even if it's an interim-type thing. Even if you found two really good part-time jobs, at least you knew that you weren't going to burn up your cash when you made the move. That's how I would do it. When I was 20-something years old, I might not have done it that way because I didn't always do things that were wise. But that's how I would do it today, and that's how I would recommend you do it. If you want to go over there and just burn through your money while you hope you find a job, you could do that. I think that's a waste when you have this perfectly good two weeks of vacation laying here. Use it to go look for a job. You've done nothing morally wrong with your current employer. Set up some interviews before you go. Work for a few weeks to do that. Then take your two weeks and plan it in the middle of summer. Again, I think Austin's a great town. I think the economy's moving. I think you'll be able to find something. But go over there and land on something. That's how I would do it. Hear the call!
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Blake's Bumps for 05.14.13

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:00:00-0500

Artists in bold Tonic You Wanted More

Toto Africa

Death Cab for Cutie Soul Meets Body

Incubus Wish You Were Here

U2 Ultra Violet (Light My Way)

Don Henley Boys of Summer

Dawes From a Window Seat

Foster the People Houdini

Blink 182 I Miss You Follow Blake's Bumps on Twitter or Tumblr.

Scripture of the Day 05.14.13

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:30:00-0500

Proverbs 16:28 — A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends.

Blake's Bumps for 05.13.13

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:00:00-0500

Artists in bold Red Hot Chili Peppers Snow (Hey Oh)

Silversun Pickups Well Thought Out Twinkles

My Morning Jacket Off the Record

Fitz and The Tantrums Out of My League

Foals My Number

American Authors Best Day of My Life

Telekinesis Wires

Downhere Larger than Life Follow Blake's Bumps on Twitter or Tumblr.

Fair Isn't Equal

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:05:00-0500

QUESTION: Eric on Twitter asks if it's okay to pay two employees who do the same job different salaries. Dave says fair isn't equal.

ANSWER: Yeah. Fair is not equal. Equal is not fair. Michael Jordan plays better basketball than I do. That's not fair. But we're not equal. He's not going to get paid the same. There are no two people who do the exact same job the exact same way. Let me give you an example. Let's say I had two personal assistants inside of our organization. Both of them were personal assistants to VPs, but one of them is a personal assistant to a VP who is extremely profitable and running a very large department where the other one is a personal assistant to a VP who's running a department that's brand-new and not yet profitable. And one of them is a personal assistant who's been in her seat as a personal assistant to a VP for 10 years, and the other one's been there 10 months. There's an example where it's very easy in my mind for the one who's been there longer and in a more profitable department would be making more. That would make more sense to me. That's kind of how we get at it. Hear the call!
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Scripture of the Day 05.13.13

Mon, 13 May 2013 07:29:00-0500

Romans 12:6 — We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

Scripture of the Day 05.10.13

Fri, 10 May 2013 07:25:00-0500

Proverbs 10:9 — Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.

A Lot of Work Ahead

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:11:00-0500

QUESTION: Laura in Denver just found out her husband had an affair and is addicted to pornography. The money that was supposed to be going toward their financial plan has been going somewhere else. Laura doesn't know where to start. They have two homes and owe $408,000. Dave says they're going to have to do a lot of work to get past this.

ANSWER: An accountability partner won't touch this. This is in-depth, detailed marriage counseling and counseling for an addiction. You guys have a lot of marriage counseling to do. For a marriage to survive a porn addiction is a huge undertaking. For a marriage to survive a porn addiction combined with an affair is a super huge undertaking. Can it be done? Yeah, it can be done. But it requires both of you doing some unbelievable work. This is not just, "He needs an accountability partner." This is way past that. You guys need to get a marriage counselor. Commit to a plan there. He needs to be in counseling. He needs to be in a 12-step plan for an addiction. You've got to have all kinds of steps that he's willing to take. There's no middle ground on this for you guys to survive as a couple. I'm not a marriage counselor. I just end up in the middle of these things because the number-one addiction that is breaking up marriages right now is gambling, and a close second is porn. We're running into it a lot. We're having to deal with it a lot, and the only people we see that are succeeding are those who are treating it as if it was cocaine. Your family is in danger because of it. That's the people you're messing around with when you mess with those sites. It's organized crime. It's ridiculous. It's dangerous. It's not just dirty pictures. It's filth at an unbelievable level. It's not just me being a prude. I'm talking from a counseling coaching perspective. In order for you to have a quality marriage ever again, there is a ton of trust that has to be rebuilt on two different fronts—on the marriage and the fidelity side and then on the addictive behavior side. He has an amount of work to do to regain your trust and an amount of cleanliness to walk in to regain your trust. If I'm in your shoes, that has to be extreme measures. Otherwise, you're just kidding yourself. I don't want you to do that. I want you to heal. I want the marriage to heal, but don't kid yourself. You can't just say, "Oh, my buddy's going to walk with me through this." His buddy's an idiot. That's not even close to what he needs. Let me give you some numbers on this stuff. It's why we endorse SafeEyes—the computer filtering software. You should never have a computer in your home without it—especially for your children because they'll get drawn into this stuff in a heartbeat. The online porn industry makes more revenue than all sporting events in North America combined. NFL, NASCAR, NBA, NHL—name it. Major league baseball. Add them all together. You know how big professional sports are. Porn makes more. This is not a game. This is evil running rampant into your homes. It's not a cute little picture. This is not a 13-year-old with a Playboy under his bed. This stuff is filth. It's unbelievable, and it's coming into your home on HBO and Showtime and everything else too. There's a wickedness to this—an evil to this—and this is not me being a prude. I'm watching lives being destroyed by this stuff. Men who are otherwise intelligent, well-trained academically, positive career situations, and they completely end up in the seediest end of town with prostitutes before the story is over. Men that you would have never thought—not in a million years—this stuff is out of control. To think that it's going to be okay on any level and not treat it with an extreme antidote when you find it . . . I'll just tell you we find it in some of the men in the office here, and the answers are extreme. The reaction is extreme. Hear the call!
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Blake's Bumps for 05.01.13

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:00:00-0500

Artists in bold Grizzly Bear Yet Again The Temper Trap Trembling Hands Young the Giant Cough Syrup Metric Youth Without Youth Crosby, Stills and Nash Teach Your Children Lynyrd Skynyrd T For Texas (Blue Yodel No.1) Tears for Fears Break It Down Again The Psychedelic Furs Heartbreak Beat DC Talk Between You And Me Follow Blake's Bumps on Twitter or Tumblr.

An Emotional Exercise

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:01:00-0500

Dave rants about the need to change behavior before real change in your life can happen. He says this is not an intellectual exercise but an emotional one. Hear the call!
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