I'm 22, How Do I Become Wealthy?

tony is going to start off this hour in new york city hi tony welcome to the dave ramsey show what's up dave what's up john how are you guys great man how can we help yeah so i'm a 22 year old college senior i got one year left um i have no debt my mom paid cash for the school so i'm good wow um i had a job back in march um but i lost it because it covered and uh so i just decided to sign up for unemployment because all of my friends were kind

of doing it and i ended up getting about 18 000 from unemployment i'm guessing that's free money i don't know if it's taxable actually they took out taxes um and so um i was wondering like what's like the best way for me to go so that i can basically like be financially free or like wealthy like how you call it because i just found you like a day yesterday actually oh my goodness well well done sir so what is your degree in going to be in so i'm setting up finance okay and the the the

job that you had lined up was for for after you completed your degree no it was just a job just for income for money oh actually okay and you graduate when now i graduate in two semesters so this time next year yeah about okay all right well i think you hold on to that money to ensure that you graduate and uh continue the debt-free journey that you're on which is absolutely awesome that's very very cool have you hugged your mom today tony if you told her that you loved her and she set you up to

win i probably should thought i'd just say that tony every day you wake up you go tell that lady thank you for setting me up for for a life yeah that is going to be debt-free it's it's yeah cause it's just wonderful very few people get the gift that you've gotten here so it's just not i'm very lucky for you i just wanted to know like what's like the best way for me like it's it's not the best question but it's very general but like what's the best way for me to to get wealthy like

like i don't want to say rich but like wealthy is like the best way yeah well either one's okay neither one are immoral it's not immoral to be rich it's not immoral you're not a bad person automatically if you're wealthy and so one thing you do want to do is break that out of your head uh and and so because if you're other centered you can do a lot of wonderful things with money like your mom did okay she used money to do this wonderful thing for you and you'll be able to do that uh

yourself many times over so yeah it's a big question it's probably too big for a radio answer i'll tell you the biggest thing a couple things number one is to be doing what you're doing now gather knowledge be very intentional with your money most people just kind of wander along and then wonder what happened and if you'll just be very intentional then that will lead you to doing a budget that will lead you to living on less than you make that will lead you to generosity that will lead you to avoiding debt that will lead

you to investing and those are the keys to building wealth but no one does that accidentally no one wins the super bowl on accident it's an intentional act and so just by asking the question you've started that process of being intentional so dave there's a lot of media sensations that that pop up with you know a couple of college friends come up with an idea and they they have an ipo and they turn into overnight this is and that's is it been your experience though that the the vast majority of people who build and i

love that he already knows the distinction here to build wealth it takes a long time doesn't it yeah get rich quick just does not work right statistically uh so it's so rare and the interesting thing is those that do it very seldom keep it and so because they didn't build the infrastructure in their character to carry it and it is well i like that it fritters away you build the muscles by increment by struggle after struggle after struggle because a muscle is a built by tearing muscle is built by destruction by by pain and it's

not built by comfort and so that that gradual over a 10 12 15 year period of uh uh of staying out of debt living on a lesson you make being intentional uh doing some things that your friends don't do not doing a bunch of things your friends do do you know and that kind of a thing you have a life but you're just very smart and wise about it over a period of time that is how wealth is built i talked to a young man this morning 35 years old came up to me and whispered

and said i'm an everyday millionaire wow and uh works on our team really yeah wow walked up to me after staff meeting and said i'm an everyday millionaire 30 i said how old are you 35. i mean he said i started working your plan 12 years ago just out of college he said i've all we've always lived exactly what we teach here to the dime to the penny you know intentional and um he makes good money but he doesn't you know yeah he he didn't get paid a million dollars a year i'll tell you that

millionaire money right now he doesn't make millionaire money but he is right because he just just that steady the tortoise wins the race not the hair every time yeah and that's the you know all the data we have on millionaires tells us that's how they do it and that same idea works for marriages for mental health for physical health for weight loss yeah you said that right when i came on i don't even know if you remember saying that to me but you said john i've read that book that tortoise in the hair a whole

bunch and the tortoise wins every single time beverly hills said there's no shortcut to any place worth going i love it it's just that's the process sorry tony good for you brother hang on tony we're gonna give you a copy of the book the total money makeover which has shown eight million people how to answer the question you're asking this is the dave ramsey show