5 Rules for Building Wealth
38 years ago my wife and i got married, we were stupid, we didn’t do any pre-marriage counseling. I was a hell raising beer drinking hillbilly, good salesman, though so i sold her and about the time i started buying and selling real estate.
I left that other thing and i grew up in real estate, business mom and dad they were in the real estate business. So i thought i was going to flip this house and that’s back before there was cable tv to tell you how, and so i started buying houses and flipping them and, and i got rich starting from nothing by the time i was 26 years old.
I had about four million dollars worth of real estate, a little over a million dollar net worth, and i was making about 250 000 cash taxable income a year. That’S 20, 000 a month. I don’t know what neighborhood you grew up in, but the neighborhood.
I grew up in. We called that rich. It was fun too y’all that car you always wanted. If you ever got some money, i want that car mine was a jaguar. I wanted to get me a jaguar because nobody in my own neighborhood could even spell jaguar.
It was exotic you know, so i got me a jaguar man within 90 days. Maybe i was a jaguar. I was having fun and sharon and i we had never traveled really much a little bit. I mean we went to florida on our honeymoon that was about it and and we started getting some money, we said what do rich people do and they found out.
They go to hawaii, so we went to hawaii rednecks in hawaii, y’all wow, that water is so blue. It was unbelievable, we loved it too man. It was a blast. We liked it so much. We got home and planned another trip.
Two months later we went back again, it was fun and we got sharing some, these sparkly things and they weren’t big enough. So we got her some more. It was fun y’all. Sometimes i hear these people say all those rich people are miserable.
Now i am not here to tell you money will make you happy, because money will not make you happy money, will make you more of what you already are if you’re unhappy and you get money, you will be unbelievably unhappy if you’re depressed and you get money.
Your depression will darken if you’re a jerk and you get money. You become a big jerk if you’re, sweet and you’re generous and you love giving and you get money, you become what we call a philanthropist and you change entire communities, entire people sectors.
You become more of what you already are when you get money, it doesn’t fix your marriage. If you have a bad marriage, it’ll make it worse and the crazy that’s in your family, so we’re cruising along everything’s, pretty good and only i had done some stupid stuff.
Nothing illegal. I didn’t cheat anybody i didn’t lie. I didn’t commit fraud. I didn’t do anything like that, but i was just stupid how many y’all ever done something dumb with money? How many of you didn’t raise your hand, have a problem with lying? I borrowed too much money and we were doing a lot of it on 90 day notes because we were flipping these houses and our bank, our largest bank, got sold to another bank out of state and a guy looks down and goes there’s a kid.
26 years old owes us a million two on 90 day notes. Let’S limit this relationship, which is banker, talk for ruin his life and we weren’t late on a single note, but they called all our notes because, under the paper i signed, they had the rights to do that if they just swirled and they squirreled.
I was the idiot that signed the paper that allowed that to happen, never dreaming that anybody would be that way. Our second largest lender heard we were in trouble and called another eight hundred thousand, so we got two million dollars due almost immediately and it’s all tied up in real estate.
We spent the next two and a half years of our life losing everything we owned. One year i made 250 thousand dollars the next year. My taxable income was six thousand dollars. I spent the whole year selling stuff trying to pay my bills because i was told you’re supposed to pay your bills.
If you say you’re going to two and a half years later, we were at the bottom. Our marriage is hanging on by a thread because the number one cause of divorce in north america today is money, fights and money problems.
We didn’t get a divorce. Sharon said i would have left, but i didn’t have a car with a brand new baby and a toddler and our marriage just barely hanging on and my hopes and dreams crushed. We were bankrupt.
I remember standing in the shower with it so hot. I could just barely stand there and i would just stand there with a shower in my face and cry, because i was so scared. It took a while instantaneously things, don’t heal do they.
It takes a little time. So we didn’t instantly bounce back when you fall. That hard it’s more of a splat, and so we start handling money. This way we started doing these five things that i’m going to teach you this morning.
If you do these five things, 100 of the time they work because they’re from god, i didn’t make them up, i stole them all from the bible and your grandmother, they’re called common sense. I just sold them better than anyone has ever sold them in america’s history.
That’S all number one get on a budget jesus said: don’t build a tower without first counting the costs, unless you get half way up and you’re. Unable to finish and all who see, you begin to mock you and say this man began to build and was unable to finish.
My friend john maxwell says a budget. Is people telling their money what to do instead of wondering where it went? My friend zig ziglar, used to say, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every single time it turns out winning at something is an intentional act.
No one accidentally wins. They never interview the football player after the super bowl’s over and goes. How did you do that? How did you just win the super bowl? I don’t know, i just got off the bus and it just winning is an intentional act.
If you’re gonna have a great marriage, you’re gonna work at it, if you’re going to have great kids you’re going to work at it, they’ve had your kids turn out the nurturing of their mother, the fear of their father.
We met. We had a plan. All the boys in the youth group are scared of you. Great awesome keeps away wusses and jerks. We don’t want those as sons-in-law our daughter’s in law, and it’s just a plan. You don’t win with money, accidentally you’re not going to win the lottery you’re.
Not it’s! Not a random lightning strike, it’s a series of i planted. Some corn and corn grew wow, as you sow. So shall you reap i plant? Nothing, nothing grows the same. Rain comes the same. Sun shines, but nothing grows.
If you manage money for a company called you incorporate and you manage money for you incorporate the way you manage money for you now. Would you fire you don’t answer that the second thing is get out of debt.
The borrower is slave to the lender. 100 of the mentions of debt in scripture are negative. There is no good debt in scripture. When you read about a hundred percent of the messages, are it’s a curse? You’Re, a fool you’re, a slave, a hundred percent of the messages in scripture, biblically speaking debt is stupid, and so what happens? Is we go to school and we get us a little student loan got, ta have old, sally may in our life, and then we get a master card borrowers slave to the lender, so we should get a master and then we go buy a car.
We can’t afford, we know, we can’t afford it, because we have payments on it and then we go buy a house. We can’t afford, and we look up seven years into our brand new marriage trying to live the same standard of living.
Our parents were living only took them 35 years to get there and we fast forward with debt into something we can’t afford. We can’t breathe, we’re stressed out, all the money comes in, all the money goes out, and now all we do is think about how we’re gonna make it to friday.
We make eighty-five thousand dollars a year. We don’t have money for food. This is normal in america. Today people come in our office. They look like this all the time they’re like dude. Can you get me out yeah i’ll, get you out it’s gonna hurt, though? What do you mean we’re gonna have to amputate the tahoe you’re gonna have to do things where you quit caring.
What other people think you’re gonna have quit spending money? You don’t have to buy stuff, you can’t afford. When money you don’t have to impress people, you don’t even really like you have to reset your value system, instagram breath watching other people’s highlight reel and thinking that should be your life.
Comparison will kill you. So we made the decision, we’re not borrowing money, anymore, you’re, weird you’re, right, normal’s broke, you know what you have. If you don’t have any payments money. Weird thing everything changes: you even make different decisions about your job.
Some people stay in toxic job situations because they have to pay their bills. You suddenly are free to go um. I think i’m going to open up a competitor to you, people, because you aren’t really good people and i don’t want to work here anymore.
So that’s fine, it’s a whole different thing. It’S a whole different mindset, so a guy called me from average car payment america by the way is right now 529, over 84 months, according to the national auto dealers association.
If you take 529 that you put into a good chevy truck – and you know it goes down in value like a rock – that’s where chevy got that, like a rock and if you take 529 from age 30 to age 65, put it in a decent growth stock.
Mutual fund in a roth ira you’ll have about 5.6 million dollars in there instead of having a car. I hope you, like your car, that’s what it’s costing you i’m not saying. Don’T have a nice car, i’m just saying: maybe your nice car shouldn’t have you.
Maybe we got to think different about this. A guy called me from over in west texas, like baby you’re gonna kill me i’m gonna kill you i’m in tennessee you’re in texas what’d, you do. He goes truck payment.
How much is your truck payment 769 dollars, dude? Really, it’s no fun. Is it you guys just killing me? I bet. I said how much is your house payment? He said we live in a double-wide 550 bucks, [ Applause, ], [, Music, ] dude.
If your truck payment’s bigger than your house payment, you might be a redneck, so we got out all the plastic and we lit some candles and we told the kids to gather around and we had plastic surgery. Citibank.
What’S in your wallet, money, you’re, weird dave! You don’t have any credit cards nope. This is my wallet. Green president’s faces four pieces of plastic, my debit card on my business, which you have to have money in there to use those okay, my debit card on my personal account, my driver’s license and my handgun carry permit the next one is interesting, foster high quality relationships.
Do you know you become who you hang around with be not deceived? Evil company corrupts good habits. If you hang around with people that go, the little man can’t get ahead, we’re just stuck, i sure, hope we can elect someone.
Who’Ll fix my lies: they’re spirit, animals eeyore. If you’re hanging around with that guy guess what you’re going to be that guy when they say take it easy, they mean. Take it easy. I mean hound dog in the sun on the porch.
You cannot motivate these people. You hang around people they’re, getting it done baby. Let’S get up, leave the cave, kill something and drag it home game on man. We got things to do. We got people to see you’re gonna read the same books.
Your friends, closest friends, read you’re gonna see the same movies. You’Re gonna watch the same netflix series you’re going to talk like they talk, you’re going to pray like they pray you’re going to be generous, like they’re generous.
But if you run around with people that don’t you won’t, i’m not talking about be snubby to other people, i’m nice to anybody, whether what religion you are even if you’re from new york, i mean i’m gonna, be nice to you.
Okay, i love you. You’Re, sweet we’re gonna be friends. I got all these friends are way different than me: either they don’t vote right, but i still love them and i’m nice to anybody. But i’m talking about who my closest crew is the six guys carrying my casket, who are these men, because those men are reforming me and i got ta, be real, careful because eagles, don’t flock, you got ta intentionally gather them together.
Turkeys flock be intentional about who you’re hanging out with because your income over a 10-year period of time will be within 10 percent, of the average of your 10 closest friend’s income. Some of you are like.
I need some new friends yeah. Well, you might you, don’t have to be mean to the old ones, but you know if you’re gonna quit drinking, you probably shouldn’t run around a bunch of drunks. You know if you want to get in shape, maybe you ought to run around with people that eat stuff that keep you in shape, i’m not hanging with that crew, but you know y’all, but so you know what i’m talking about right.
We know the formula we don’t let our kids run around with juvenile delinquents, because we know that you know little johnny’s a weed head. Your kid runs around little johnny. Your kid will be a wheathead.
You know this. The next one is save money. The bible says in the house of the wise or stores of choice, food and oil and the rest of that says, but a foolish man devours all he has. If you spend all you make you’re a fool when you save money, grandma said save for uh.
You know why grandma said that cause it’s gonna rain life is coming and when you got a pile of money it helps you got 30 dollars in the bank and no debt and they lay you off you’re gonna be okay. You got thirty thousand dollars in debt and no money, they lay you off you’re like what are we gonna? Do wise people save money? Now, here’s what’s interesting! If you do this stuff, it works.
So if you get on a plan, no one plans on purpose to lose. No one goes: let’s have a plan where we spend everything and retire broke. No one says that right. So when you actually do a plan, you will get out of debt because you figure out when you don’t have any payments, it’s easier to save and easier to give right, and so you live like no one else.
So later you can live like no one else. So when you get on a plan, you will start getting out of debt and when you got that because you’re hanging out with people that are thinking different right, we’re going to foster high quality relationships, then you’ll be saving money.
And so all these things work together and the natural byproduct is the last one. You will automatically do it. God says be outrageously generous. He loves a cheerful giver. You can’t give when you’re broke.
I never noticed poor people feeding, hungry, kids or you’re poor, shaming. No, you know me money, not i’m mad at you. If you’re poor i’ve been poor, i’ve been broke. I know what it looks like. I know what it feels like, i’m not mad at you if you’re there, but you know change time to do some different stuff.
Man quit listening to those same people that got you there have a different way of looking at things. Look at the bible. What’S the bible tell me about handling money and change? It puts you in a position to be outrageously, generous.
Being generous is not an act being generous is a character quality. It’S who you become generous people smile more. They can even have a conversation where they listen. Some they’ve been around people who are just takers.
Generous people are the givers. They open the door for you. They can’t help but notice needs because they no longer have their eyes on themselves because they got self under control. Take care of your own household.
First then, put you in position to be outrageously, generous, so try this one out because they told me to be done in 40 minutes. That’S when the holy spirit leaves and um so thanksgiving’s coming. Here’S what i want you to do leave early when you go to grandma’s house for the feast put the kids in the car, we’re only 30 minutes early, and i want you to drive and park right in front of the waffle house on the way to grandma’s House i want you to leave the kids in the car.
Leave your spouse in the car. Leave the car running, it might be cold. I don’t know just come sit there, kids put screens down watch, i want you to go in there. I want you to sit at the counter. I want you to have a cup of coffee and she’ll come up and she’ll pour your cup of coffee.
When she does. I want you to look into her eyes. They’Ll tell a story. The bible says the eyes. Are the windows to the soul and she pours that coffee happy thanksgiving, pull out three of these 100 bills? I want you to leave them under the saucer slip out, go sit down with kids, hey kids watch, god show off.
Let me tell you what she’ll do she’ll pick him up. You know who’s working waffle house. Somebody needs a job. You know who’s working waffle house on thanksgiving day. Somebody needs a chop dad. This right here is life-changing baby she’ll pick this up and she’ll go [.
Music ] just bless her heart, it’s been so long. Since anything good has happened. She thinks it’s a trick. I want you to take 300 and i want you to take your spouse on an unbelievably nice dinner and i want you to enjoy some money, but i dare you to have more fun with 300 bucks than that, that’s as fun as it gets right there.
Ladies and gentlemen, you have the opportunity to just impact stuff when you’re not broke anymore, because you decided you were going to follow the spiritual transformation of not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Dave Ramsey shares a story from his life about how he went completely broke after becoming a self-made millionaire by the time he was 26 years old. He emphasizes the importance of the 5 rules for building wealth and living a happy life.
Share this video with a friend if you found it useful! Consider subscribing to the channel for videos about investing, business, stock market, managing money, building wealth, passive income, and other finance-related content!
————————————————–
► Special thanks to:
Dave Ramsey
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheRamseyShow
Celebration Church – Texas | Italy | Mozambique
https://www.youtube.com/c/CelebrationChurchTX
? We own commercial licenses for all the content used in this video except parts about the topic that have been used under fair use and it was fully edited by us. For any concerns, business inquiries, etc. please contact us via email in the “About” section of the channel.
Dave Ramsey’s Life Advice Will Leave You SPEECHLESS (MUST WATCH)
