Trying to balance what you need to spend versus what you want to spend is always a struggle – but Dave Ramsey has thoughts. The Ramsey Solutions CEO joined TheStreet to share some tips on how you can achieve your own financial balance.
Related: Dave Ramsey has bluntly honest words on his bankruptcy struggle
Transcript:
Conway Gittens: So what is your biggest piece of advice for people who are buying cars. I mean, you have to have a car. Some people really do have to have a car.
Dave Ramsey: I didn’t say you didn’t have to have a car. I said you don’t have to have a $30,000 car. A $5,000 car will get you to work. I mean, get you an old Camry and old Accord and pay cash for it stinking $700 a month. How quick can you save $5,000 doing that real quick. And a $5,000 car is not a bad car in today’s world. Now, I don’t want to drive that the rest of my life. I’m paying a price to win here. I want to drive like no one else. So later I can drive like no one else. I guarantee you I didn’t drive to work in a $5,000 car, but I did for a while back in the day when I was getting started, you know. So, yeah, you pay cash and you don’t go on vacation if you can’t afford to pay for it. Hello and, you know, quit spending money on Christmas that you don’t have. Yes, we need to have Christmas. I’m not the grinch, but – and the money people spend on their pets and then don’t have money for their Roth IRA or money for a down payment on a house. It’s unbelievable. Designer dogs. I mean, I love dogs. I’ve got a designer dog. But my gosh, you know, you go through our consumption patterns, then. Then you go, we got no room to whine about not having a down payment because you spent all the freaking money. It’s that simple.
Conway Gittens: So how do how do you how do you find balance? Because people love their pets. They love their nice cars. They like they like their nice vacations. And they might feel like you’re sucking the life out of them. So how do we find balance where they get to enjoy life, enjoy the money that they do make, but also be able to save and be able to eventually buy?
Conway Gittens: Well, what my wife, Sharon and I have done and what we’ve taught millions of other people to do is to live like no one else, pay a price. So that later. You can live and give no one else. I’m not saying this is a forever decision. I’m saying it’s a decision to where we get our act together financially so that we can save and invest. And guess what. You start saving and investing. Now you’re going to get a home. Now your rent cost goes down because the rent is going to go up every year, but your home price doesn’t or your home mortgage doesn’t go up every year if you take a fixed mortgage. And if you pay cash for your cars, then you got that car payment freed up to save up and pay cash for the next car. And if you pay cash for your vacation, then when you’re on vacation, you actually relax. It doesn’t follow you home, you know. And so then when you get back to work, you’re more productive and maybe your career will go. So I’m all about prosperity. I’m not a dream killer. I’m a nightmare killer. And this thing of acting like we’re rich when we’re not, that’s what’s killing folk.
So you want us to rethink or become reacquainted with the idea of delayed gratification?
There you go. It’s one definition of maturity. The ability to delay pleasure. That’s what a psychologist would tell you. That’s emotional maturity. Stay away from the donut if you’re overweight. That’s me talking to me, by the way.
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