Don’t Be So Desperate That You Make a Stupid Decision

The phone number is 888-825-5225.

. Emily starts this hour in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hi, Emily, how are you?

Yes. So, have you looked into less brand name schools and see what they actually cost? And then, have you looked at, based on your above average performance on the MCAT, could you get a huge, huge chunk of that paid for? Have you looked into that?

I'm not trying to be depressing, but this is the decision.

That's exactly what happens. I'm not excusing you that, Emily, but I'm just saying. Because med school is so hard to get in, that when you do get accepted, it is such affirmation that you go, well, those people like me, so I should really give them all my life. My whole life for the next decade. Yeah.

Yeah. I just think it's very wise to rethink this. Where you go to law school, where you go to med school, changes the numbers dramatically. That's right. Dramatically.

And there are good doctors and good lawyers that come out of virtually any school that teaches law or medicine. Yeah. There are very few hack situations, like almost none. And so we used to have a thing here in Nashville that was called YMCA Nashville Law. And it was night school on Armory Drive.

to go be a lawyer. No way. And you could go be a lawyer not doing night school. And it was pretty much blue collar methodology, right? You just work all day and then you go down there to law school at night.

And it took two years longer, but you could pay for it as you went. That's right. And then I actually had a guy that graduated from that law school that represented me one time. And he absolutely mopped the floor with the other guy. I mean, he destroyed the other side.

But I guess something about that whole blue collar process set him up to be a fabulous litigator. But yeah, that's the thing. So, Emily, you just need to think through and not follow the path of affirmation and follow the path of least resistance, because it ends up being the path of greatest resistance, if you're not careful. That's what we're trying to point out to you. And so we want you to live your dream, hon.

We don't want you to live a nightmare. And we've talked to too many people on the other side of this coin.

. He got out.

And, folks, you just heard Emily walk through it. The false choice is, follow the emotion, as Dave said, of affirmation. And let's be honest, it's impressive to be a doctor. Doctors are still one of the most respected positions in society. We get it.

But we are told to follow the emotion of the accomplishment of the affirmation and not exercise logic. And I just walked her through, listen, I'm as dumb as a doorpost compared to med students. That's just basic logic. And we don't tell kids there are med schools that would die to have Emily join them this fall. She doesn't even look, because it's not even considered an option.

It's not her fault. It's what society has done here. So, anyway, food for thought.

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Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.. Isaac's in Sacramento, California. Hi, Isaac. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

So, my wife and I, we took out a home equity sharing agreement with one of these companies, and we had good intentions. We wanted to pay off some higher interest debt, and that all got paid off. But now I'm staring at this agreement, and now that it's been a little while, I'm looking at it, and it's just becoming more and more daunting. So, basically, they gave us an upfront cash investment of about $62,000,.

and any time between now and about 30 years from now, we can choose to square up with them. But they get the $62,000 plus 40% of the appreciation of my house from the time we signed. there was an appraisal to 40% of the equity between the time we signed and the time that we settled. And we have that time. So, I'm just wondering...

. Yeah, probably around $100,000..

Hmm.

I don't have an answer for you. I mean, obviously, the sooner you take care of this, the better.

The less it's going to cost you. I might call them and beg for mercy. Like, if I get you a check now for the $60,000, what is the minimum you would take on top of the $60,000?? I mean, double your money, that'd be a deal, right? For them and for you.

I mean, if it only costs you 100% interest and not 200% interest, that's a pretty good deal.

So, just by talking to them, compared to what you've got, right?

So, as far as I know, what you've done is perfectly legal in terms of, you know, is there some kind of a basis to go at them? No, I think you just signed up for a really ugly trip and are getting to take it.

So, the only thing I can think of is, you know, first off is try to talk them down and then go refinance and take care of it immediately. And then, second off, if you can't do that, you know, you've got to end the cost as quickly as possible. Because every day you screw around with this in California, in Sacramento, your house is going up in value, and every time it goes up in value, $1,000, they get $400..

I mean, you had to close.

. I looked at it. You had to willingly close your eyes to how bad this was for some reason. What do you think that was?

. Because I was working hard to pay off the debt, which is perfectly fine.

Right after I get desperate, I get stupid. And so that's kind of, you know... And I've done... I can look back and tell you about 10 different times where I get freaked out, I get put in a corner, I can't move. So I do something desperate and I get stupid, and it's just not a good plan.

So anyway, aside from that, for you tactically,

it's very unpleasant, but you're in a very unpleasant scenario. So best case is you talk them down and you go get some money right now and pay them out. Talk them down to 100% return on their money in 8 months. That's a sweet deal for them. And compared to the terms you've currently got, it's a sweet deal for you, right?

You're going to wake up 10 years from now and your whole life is going to be screwed. So meanwhile, you could have been owning a house that you owned and so forth. So yeah, you need to clean this up in the next 6 months by talking them out of it, refinancing or selling. One of those three. And if you can come up with another idea, I'd be willing to listen.

I just don't know what it is. That's the first one that comes to me.

So, shared appreciation mortgages, SAMs, came out in the 80s. They showed up in the 80s to try to get a lower interest rate, because rates were so high in the 80s. We were in 12%, 14%, in the early 80s, 18% for a few minutes, real estate market. And in order to get a decent rate and come down to a 10 or a 9, instead of getting your money as the mortgage maker on the interest rate only, you could also participate in the mortgage. Shared appreciation mortgages.

And actually, FHA came out with a program that underwrote SAMs. Now they weren't as onerous as this guy's. Boy, that's a mess he got into.

again, the company did not mislead Isaac.

Yeah, it's definitely predatory. But so is payday lender at 800%. That's true. On a $200 cash advance to poor people. But it's legal in most states.

And it's absolute scum. It's a horrible product. And how do you sleep at night doing that to somebody? You know, no.

So, oh man, some of you people need to look up hands on gretel. You don't know who that is. It would be good for you to read a good fable.

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Kim is with us. Kim is in Chicago. Hey, Kim. How are you?

I mean, we followed the Baby Steps. We got really intentional and had three babies along the way, but we did it.

. I have a mortgage of $390,000, and I'm saving for kids, college and also our retirement. So I'm doing 15% on my 401k. Okay. And my question is, my husband's a police officer, and he's going to receive a pension, which is 75% of his income at retirement, and he does not have a 401k there.

So I'm trying to figure out. how do I fund his 15% for retirement?

And you have two Roth IRAs. you could do as well. So another $6,000 each there. And so if you maxed out your 401k and you maxed out $12,000 worth of two Roth IRAs, would that equal 15% of your household income?

And that's about as close as you can get, unless you've got some self-employed income anywhere, do you?

But the point is we're dealing with 210 times 0.

15, so $31,000.

. We're trying to get $31,000 into something. That's the point. So between those two, and it doesn't matter whose name it's in, because you have marital rights to your 401k of your spouse.

In other words, if there's a divorce, that's an asset that's laying there, that gets divided up. So if it's all in your name, it doesn't matter. Like the big 401k load up I'm talking about here. But the point is, just take your household income, 15%, going into something for retirement. And the best thing out there, folks, for those of you listening, is a match.

You want to do that first. The second best thing is Roth. The best thing of all is Roth with a match. But match, Roth, traditional. So match beats, Roth beats traditional.

It's rock, paper, scissors, except there's only one way to win. Okay? Match beats, Roth beats traditional. And if you just go down that path, then you can do it. And so the 403b and 457 would fall in the heading of traditional because they're tax deferred like a traditional IRA or traditional 401k.

Same mess there. Same pile of fishhooks.

Danan is with us in Morgantown, West Virginia. Is it Danan? Is that correct?

Okay. That makes more sense. then, because you're – and 100%. then I'm throwing it at the house. So you're in Baby Steps 4, what we call 4, 5, 6..

Do you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses?

at that point. Let's just get this house paid off. You only owe 60 grand. Way to go, man. You're killing it.

Good job. This is the Ramsey Show.

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Lauren is in New York City. Hi, Lauren. How are you?

It's just been a very harrowing experience that we are thankfully going to come to the end of hope soon, by the end of the year.

What's your income?

I am currently working at a nonprofit organization, and I can make more money. I have a doctorate in physical therapy, but I am tied to my job for the next two and a half years because I have extensive student loans totaling in the amount of $260,000.. And I'm in public service loan forgiveness, and I only pay $414 a month. So after that, my loans will be forgiven. Plus, they're very flexible.

I have a daughter with special needs. So I'm really kind of stuck at that amount right now, making that $90,000.. So the way it stands right now, I'm basically barely making my bills at this point, and I do not receive any type of child support or anything like that. And I'm just making the bare minimum on the credit card payments. And so I'm trying to figure out when this is all said and done, and I can't touch anything right now.

So here's what's going to happen.

Something's going to explode.

Because you have painted a picture that says, I'm stuck in the corner and everything around me is wet paint and I can't move. And yet you're going to get your feet, you're going to get paint on your feet. Something's going to give. This is not sustainable. That's why you called us.

So I don't know what it is that's going to give, but something's going to happen here, and it's not going to be pretty. You're going to have another set of problems and anxiety-ridden mess following this anxiety-ridden mess of a divorce because you painted yourself into this corner of, I don't have any choices. I don't have any choices. You better make some, because what you're telling me isn't sustainable, and you know it's not sustainable. So you need to get your lawyer that's so dadgum, expensive to go before the court and get you out of Westchester County.

And you need to forget the stupid loan forgiveness, because you're probably not going to get it. And you need to go make about $200,000 a year and get your freaking life back or something. I don't know what it is, but something's got to change, because everything that we bring up, everything we talk to you and ask you about, is a trap. I'm trapped. I'm trapped.

I'm trapped. I'm trapped. That was the answer to every one of your questions. I don't have any choices. I don't have any choices.

And yet the math is not working. So math will not give you a pass. Math does not believe in grace. Math does not believe in mercy. It's going to come for you.

And it already is, and you're feeling it, and that's why you're calling. So I'm not trying to scare you, but your process, by all the stress you've been through and all the damage you've been through, it, has made you believe that you are trapped and don't have choices, and I'm challenging that. You do have choices. And you better make some. You better change something here because you're not going to get help from him.

I'm betting that the student loan forgiveness doesn't work because such a low percentage of those actually do go through, and you may have sacrificed a great income for a lousy income, and I don't think you're trapped there. I think if you go before the judge and go, Your Honor, I don't make enough money to live in Westchester. I can't live here. Help me out here. Where can I go?

What can you tell me what to do? And you go before the judge with that plea, and then you go, Okay, now, how am I going to work with a special needs child and give them proper care, and also be able to feed them and house them? And so you can't. The math that you've given me doesn't work, doesn't continue. Something's going to come up short, and it's going to choose you if you don't choose it.

That's what I'm saying. So you're not stuck, but you do have a very difficult situation, and part of it is you're my heart's breaking for you, honey, because I hear your language as if you have been abused in this relationship. So if you were in a domestic violence situation, one of the things the abuser convinces the person of is that they don't have any choices and that they're stuck. You can't leave. You can't afford to live without me, so you have to stay and be my punching bag.

And so that's one of the lies they tell, and then you start to believe that lie yourself. Now, you broke. free of this guy, but your language of I'm stuck, I'm stuck, I'm stuck, I'm stuck is breaking my heart because it still sounds like he still owns you, and I want you free from him and free from this trap and free from all this. I wish I had a magic wand. I could just say there's an instant thing here, but the one thing I will tell you is you've got to make some different choices.

This is not working for you, hon. I'm so sorry.

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual, amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, number one bestselling author, host of the Ken Coleman Podcast on the Ramsey Network. He's my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.. Jordan is in Columbia, Missouri.

Hi, Jordan. How are you?

It's not a long-term play. It is speculation. Flipping houses is speculation. And both are high risk, because, obviously, if you pay cash for them, it's not as much risk. But if you pay cash for a house, fix it up and flip it, if it doesn't flip, at least you're sitting there with a paid-for house, right?

You'll figure it out. You could rent it or do something else. But you need to separate the mentality of what is the lowest risk. The lowest risk is a buy-and-hold strategy, because real estate goes up over time. When you have to sell that spec house, or your money is sitting there burning taxes, property taxes, it's burning insurance, even if you don't have a note on it, it's sitting there burning money until you sell it, whether it's a flip or an actual build of a spec house.

But that's speculating is short-term. Investing is long-term. Now, when you go to investing, probably the entry point would be a good home, single-family home in a solid neighborhood, not super expensive, but also not trashy.

And so with that, I actually work for a builder. And so one of the initiatives that they've talked about, but I'd really like to do, is maybe build a cheap speculation home to sell to a lower-income family, simply because I have the high confidence that it would sell quickly, just because there's nothing really in the market for it. What's your thoughts?

Gotcha. And that's not bad if you're paying cash for it. And if you've analyzed and said, okay, what are all the downsides? So what happens? And you've got to be able to answer this question and not throw up.

What happens if this house doesn't sell for a year after you finish it?

And most markets in America, if you build something less than the median house price in the area, you have a very marketable property because entry-level properties are just non-existent. They're very hard to find. And so just about whatever the median price is, and you said in your area it sounds like it's $2,250 then there. So if you build something in that $150 range, that's a nice little home, man, it'll probably go fast.

Down there, one of my lake houses, a guy building a house on the corner up there and I walked it one day and he was in there and I walked it with him. I was like, wow, this is a nice little, it's a 1,750 foot little three bedroom. Okay. Three bedroom, a bath and a half, a two car garage and not super fancy, but it was, it was well built. Nice little breakout and a little brick and a siding house.

Right. And it was 188 grand. It was unbelievable. I thought, wow, this is, this is like all these people are here. You're okay, I'll buy it.

Well, yeah, you can't, but I mean, it's out there, it's out in the country, you know, it's not, and where you are, you're probably in a similar field.

You know, in the Columbia, Columbia is not a huge town. Yeah. And you know, there's not a, there's a whole bunch of Columbia esque size towns around you, but you got to get all the way to St. Louis or Kansas city, or even Jeff city before you get to a major town. Right.

Right. And so you got a lot of rule rings around you, if you will, that could fall like that little house I'm talking about, but that was a sweet little house and I'm not a bad, I mean, I'm thinking a young couple coming in there or somebody wanting to downsize a brand new, everything, of course, dishwashers and all that stuff. And it's like, man, I could live there easy. when we first got married and called that a palace, you know? But again, it was, it's freaking hour and a half or more to Nashville.

So, and in this area, that's, that's considered a crazy commute. So, but my point is that if you get below that median house price and that house sold, I mean, before he broke ground on it, probably, I mean, he, he sold that thing so fast.

But that, that was a, it's a, that's a great place in the marketplace. So I think what you're talking about makes sense, is my point, but I, I'm not an expert on your particular market. But the, but, but that's a, that's a good place to be. If you told me you wanted to build million dollar houses in a two 50 market as spec, I tell you, don't do it because you're going to get, you're going to get into, get in with a million dollars sitting there, but that's not what you're talking about. So I,

Okay. The middle of your market, the median house price nationally right now, I think, is about, is it's bumping up close to 400.. Um, and so, uh, forever, it was a saying, says,

Yeah. Okay. So let's call it 400 now. Oh,

. Okay. I'm probably wrong.

May 21 and 22.

. I'm going to be doing a two night virtual event, meaning you have to be there both nights or you won't see everybody. And I'm going to unpack my personal playbook on buying real estate and on investing. And it's an advanced investing class. Dave Ramsey's investing essentials.

I've never taught this stuff before. it's stuff I do and have learned over the years, but it's not stuff I have taught. Uh, so, if you want to do an advanced investing class, it's 199 bucks. Um, we've got, I don't know, three or 4,000 already signed up for it. Thank you for coming.

We appreciate that. And, uh, if you're interested, uh, it's Ramsey solutions.com slash events. And that's Dave Ramsey's investing essentials. We'll be taking, questions live throughout this, uh, class as well. And George Campbell is going to help me with the whole process, uh, because he knows how to interrupt me.

And so, and answer a question and all that. So we're going to do that. It's going to be fun. We've already been talking about it and laughing out loud as to how much fun it's going to be. So I'm going to, but George is always fun.

I mean,

Um, it has about a hundred thousand miles and it is out of inspection. It has no air conditioning. Um, it needs about $4,000 worth of work. We do have two young children. Um, so, you know, we do rely on that vehicle as well for transportation.

Um, so my question basically is where, if you,

the first thing is, I'm just calling BS on the 4,000.

. I think you cooked that number cause you wanted to get rid of the car.

So I think you can actually get that car fixed for probably half of that. If you start working on it a little bit, but you jacked it up cause you're sick of it and you're trying to figure out a way to justify getting a car. If you want to get a car, it's okay. Get a car. But, um, I don't think it takes $4,000 to get that car back up and get it running to where it should be to pass inspection.

I think you can get a different mechanic to look at it. Somebody, that's not, I don't know where you went. Some don't go the dealer to get a car like that worked on for sure. But, um, anyway, let's, um, figure out exactly what's wrong with it. Cause here's the problem.

If you don't get it where it's passes inspection, it's going to sell for $4,000 less.

You don't have the money for a new car and you certainly don't need a car payment and you need to get your car paid off as fast as you can. Yeah. You got to get out of the car payment business, kiddo. If you don't want to be broke your whole life, if you want to folks, if you want to be middle-class the rest of your whole life, keep a car payment.

Mathematically, it'll just hold your butt right there. It'll just keep you from succeeding. It'll keep you from prospering and just go, well, everybody's got a car payment. It's just the way it is. Car payments are just the way of life.

And that's exactly how people that are middle-class speak and talk and think. And it just keeps you right there. It just locks you in. You cannot get it. You can't break free from it.

And so you got to go, Nope, I've had it. Not paying payments on a stupid automobiles ever again. And these are the words of rich people. People that become wealthy are the ones that get rid of car payments. Since I could get rid of my car payment, if I was wealthy, no, you missed the point.

You could be wealthy. If you got rid of your car payment, you got that backwards.

So now, Diana, that's the cycle. I want to break in your whole discussion. I don't care if you fix this car up and sell it and move up into a little better car. It sounds like it's a piece of junk. I don't disagree with you on that, but then we need to get your car paid off as fast as we can.

And we need to get on a game plan here where we stop talking about cars as if they're a constant crisis and instead get around in front of it and start managing the vehicles in a way where, where we don't, where they don't own us, we own them. And that, that requires a different thought pattern than, Oh, Oh, well, we're screwed. We got to go get a car payment. And, um, we're stuck. Can't get an inspection.

Got to go get a car payment. And that's kind of how your question sounded. Maybe you didn't mean it sound that way, but that's kind of how it sounded. And you want to break that cycle.

But if I was worried, I wouldn't be worried about the air conditioning. I think kids these days need to stink and have the windows down and let it blow in their eyes and their hair. My goodness. I mean, I drove a car without air conditioning for a year and a half. When Stacey and I first got married, cause I, cause.

it was a cash car and I drove in the morning and I drove in the afternoon. It was like, come on. So some of these things are about saving up money, suffering a little bit, and how big of a deal is it to suffer and have your kids have the summer air blow through the car. You know, I wouldn't fix the AC on that car.

That's what she called it.

But yeah, check all that out. But yeah, but do the minimal and get the inspection, get the car run, keep your family going, get your car paid off, then save up and buy up in car, and save up and buy up in car, and save up and buy up in car. As you build wealth, move into better and better cars. Never, never again, a car payment and never again, a new car until you have at least a million dollar net worth. There's some good rules for you guys.

Okay. And for you, Diana as well. Thank you for calling. We appreciate you joining us. Open phones at triple, eight, eight, two, five, five, two, two, five.

Here's the numbers. A new car loses. according to Kelly blue book and according to Yahoo finance and about three other sources, a new car loses 60% of its value in the first five years.

So that means if you buy a $40,000 car, when you drive it off the lot and you hear that sound going over the curb, boom, boom. When you went into the street, that was a, that sound was $10,000.. That's the first drop. As soon as you get it, as soon as it's titled to an individual and it touches the street, it's going to drop 20, 25% that day. Okay.

Then from there, you're going to lose the rest of that 60%. So $40,000, that means you're going to lose $24,000.. That means your $40,000 car in five years is going to be $16,000 car. Okay. And that's a new car.

Now, if you lose $24,000 every five years, don't be scratching your head and wondering why you're not, don't have wealth. It's because you're driving it down the sewer. Okay. You're causing this. And so you can afford to take that hit.

If you've got a million dollars, you can't afford to take that hit. If you're broke, this is the Ramsey show.

Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my cohost. Thomas is in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Thomas. How are you?

We can't decide whether we want to close them or just hold on to them.

And it's for the purpose of getting in debt. And the way you get a good score is get in debt. So that later you can get into more debt, so that you run your score up. So you can get into more debt, so that you run your score up, so you can get into more debt. And that's, that's the essence of the FICO score.

It's the, we worship at the altar of the great FICO. We bring him offerings of interest and say, Oh, great FICO. Thank you for being my provider and letting me buy crap. I can't afford with money. I don't have to impress people.

I don't really like. And that's the whole purpose of FICO.

And then, once you decide that it's an easy fix, you just close the accounts and chop up the stupid cards, have a plastic surgery.

Because they brainwash you,

you know, but because you, you know, what you have to actually do is intellectually decide, is this a measure of success?

And my contention is, it is not a measure of success that net worth and income are measures of financial success, not a score that says I've borrowed money a lot.

. No, you won't. I might retire a million dollars.

But if you, if that's how you're going to live, you are going to be a millionaire, because that's the secret. I mean, it's not, it's not a secret. It's that you keep your money and invest it instead of giving it to Ford motor company and master card and Amazon freaking prime. And everybody else is profiting off your butt. All you do is work for other people and give your money to them all your life.

And that is the essence of debt. And so when you quit doing that, it's magical how much money you have.

and Forrest Whitaker says, son, do what you have to do. Then you get to do what you want to do. And that's the essence of the matrix that everybody's in. Because the credit cards say, do what you want to do, but wealthy people, they've already figured it out and they go, I'm going to do what I have to do so that later I can do what I want to do. And this applies to money.

And so if I have to wait to save up, to buy something, if I have to wait to do the vacation, I want to, if I have to wait to pay off my debt, my student loan, you know, the idea here is, is that there is a difference. There's two very clear paths. One is the path to average. And the other is the path to excellence. And really wealthy people, it's a much smaller path and they figure that self delayed.

They can delay gratification. They can figure out discipline because they got their eye on the prize. They're thinking 30 years from now, that's what they're thinking. And you got to pull yourself out of the matrix.

What does your life look like to be different than average? Cause average is broke with a car payment and a student loan. That's been around so long. You think it's a pet averages, credit cards are necessary. I'm going to get rich on airline miles.

The dumbest butt statement I've ever heard in my life.

I'm going to, I'm going to make my money on discover points. Let's do the calculation on that one. Okay. Shall we? You run a hundred thousand dollars on your discover card.

They give you 1% back. That's a thousand dollars. in what school of thought does? turning a hundred thousand dollars into $1,000 calls you to be wealthy?

What, what logic is in, I mean, how much drugs did your parents have to do for you to believe that turning a hundred thousand into 1000 is a path to wealth? I mean, the seventies were good to your folks. I'm just saying, Oh my God. Wow. I mean, that's about as dumb as a rock right there, but people, they look at me straight in the face with this sincere thing, that this is a methodology for building wealth.

I'm going to take a hundred grand turned into one grand, and that's wealthy.

tock on you, then, man, and just turn you into a meme. I'm just saying, I know a guy that happens.

. So what is that? That's, uh,

And then there's the rest of you.

$1,200 car lease. Dumber than a rock. This is a Ramsey show.

Hey, small business owner. Does it feel like there's never enough time in the week? If you're sick and tired of barely keeping your head above water or never having enough time to work on the important stuff, then you need the entre leadership system, the blueprint for building a self-sufficient business. So you can spend less time running your business and more time growing it. Go to Ramsey solutions.com slash more time and download our free getting started guide today.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality is my cohost. Perfect question of the day for you with your frustrated sports announcer voice.

Do you believe this is a positive development for college athletics, providing athletes and with more opportunities, or do you have concerns about potential implications for the integrity of collegiate sports? Well, let me address that first. The irony is that NIL is actually probably brought more integrity to collegiate sports because now it's removed all of the edges and all the cheating that's involved with recruiting, which would have been always cash to families or cash to athletes. And since the adoption of NIL, where college athletes can be paid for their name, image, and likeness.

I'm not, I'm not a fan of it. I certainly understood that there was a case to be made that colleges and their athletic departments were profiting mightily from these athletes. But what has happened is, I think it's swung too far the other way. And that, with the transfer rules, has now made it free agency. And so college sports mirrors professional sports.

And, but in fact, it's even crazier. It's the wild, wild West. There are no contracts in MBA or an NFL. free agent is under contract for X amount of time. The team and the athlete and the agent all know that the contract is coming up in college sports.

Now kids can just simply declare via the transfer portal.

I think it has, it's just made the sport a little bit wackier. And I think it's made prima donnas at high school kids who, by the way, are showing up at signings for their college and Lamborghinis university of Alabama. That happened this year. Kids showed up at his high school, Dave, to declare he was going to Alabama and he was driving a brand new Lamborghini.

So that can't be good.

It's it's chaos. And the problem is several fold. Then we've got, I don't mind, keep some, anybody profiting off of their, their efforts. Okay. Regardless, I think that's called a meritocracy and I'm a big fan of meritocracies.

I believe if you work hard, you should get something for that. And if you have talent, you should get something for that. I'm fine with all of that. The, the problem is with it can being completely out of control. Like I've had athletic departments call me and say, Hey, would you come speak to the team?

And I'm like, sure. What about, well, we've got a quarterback that makes two million a year and the guy blocking for him makes nothing. How do we build teamwork in that? And I'm like, I can't help you with that one. That's like known as can't be done.

And so, you know, you need to restructure the whole thing, but they don't have that option because the court took it away from him. You can't structure it. You'd have to, you know, you'd get sued again. If you said, okay, I've got, we've got to put some of this money in a pool and the whole team benefit. So we can build a team character.

And then you add to it, the portal, which every time you piss somebody off, they just hit the road. And if you want to piss somebody off, piss off a highly aggressive 18 year old, who you are training to run over other people and then piss them off. Yeah. And be surprised that they're pissed off, because what you do all day long is teach them how to run over other people. And then guess what?

As soon as you hurt their little feelings, they're gone. And so it's very difficult to build a, a college team. Now in this environment, it's very difficult for, uh, because the kids, there's this disparity of income. And then the last problem is the same problem we've been facing when you and I've been working with the NFL and our team has been working with the NFL for years, going to these rookie camps. And we tell these young guys, you know, you just got a $10 million signing bonus.

And I understand. Uh, but you know, 10 million is not enough to buy everyone in your, in your, you know, in your entire family, a $2 million house. That's not 10 million. Okay. That's a hundred million.

And you did not get a hundred million. Besides that, you're in the NFL, which stands for not for long.

3.

2 years is the average career.

88% leave the league permanently, physically disabled. in some manner, the divorce rate 10 X the public.

Okay. This does not spell out well for wealth building. Okay. It doesn't. So let me tell you what happens to your 10 million.

It's gone. in that situation. That's what happens to. it is gone. You don't have it.

And so, but, but you, but you know, you got bling and you got a lot of friends right now that aren't really friends and you're taking them to the Bahamas and go swimming. Well, good for you. That's dumber than crap. And, you know, and so this is me talking to NFL people. and guess what, guess how far popular that is.

It's not popular. So, but it, you know, and now it's worse, because now you're dealing with a 16 year old. Does the NILS drop down into high school now?

It's not good for him, but so.

So I apologize. All you roll tide.

Okay.

No,

And he goes, it's not unusual at all for me to be that guy. And guess what? He's not anymore. He doesn't have that. He doesn't have that capability to love those kids.

Well, because they make more than he makes. Yeah. And they will leave as soon as he challenges some of their mythology that they're living their life based on and are their behaviors or whatever. Tries to make them sit on the bench. And you don't have to sit on the bench.

It's our signature event here at Ramsey Solutions. Part of Entree Leadership. We've had on the stage arguably two of the top five coaches of all time in any sport. Nick Saban in football. And Coach K just this last couple weeks.

And both of them left. And they've told Dave and I. We were both around them. NIL was one of the reasons that drove them out of it. It's just changed the landscape.

That's the summation of it. And yet, I would never deny someone the right to earn money. There's nothing wrong with that at all. So you've just got to figure out some way that it's done in a wise way. that's a blessing to everybody involved.

This is the Ramsey Show.

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. It's the Ramsey Show. Where we help people build wealth. Do work that they love. And create actual, amazing relationships.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality. Number one, best-selling author. He's my co-host. The phone number is 888-825-5225.. Denise is in Syracuse.

Hi, Denise. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

They've all got.

. One's married. Gave them $10,000 for a wedding. The other one got engaged. Bought a house.