Saved 1.7 million and afraid to spend it

kevin is with us in Atlanta Georgia hey Kevin how are you hi Dave up I appreciate you taking my call my question I think's a little more psychological than it is financial I just thought that maybe you could give me some wisdoms that nightstick helped me change my way of thinking but I've been a saver just just all my life I've never carried that other than a mortgage and a car and my wife retired last year and I'm about 14 months away I'll be 66 and 14 months and it's just that being a favor all my life I've worked construction so there's been times that that savings has come down back and forth up and down but the last 14 years has been been really good and we're in good shape and I'm not worried about running out of money or anything like that it's just there's something in my head about seeing those savings going the other direction I mean it's like I'm going to have to learn how to spend money and I just it seems like the closer I get to retirement the more it bothers me sorry and uh my wife and I are when I retired 66 we'll bring in about 96 thousand a year so I don't even know if we'll ever even touch our principal unless it becomes a medical there are medical issues with both of us so I don't think we're going to outlive our money by any means and it's uh we might like said other than maybe traveling the medical I don't know that we'll ever even have to touch that prayer the house and the car are paid for now no the house we just bought a house four years ago we owe about 230 how much do you have in your nest egg it's about 1.7 million good for you wait and go Kevin and congratulations well I appreciate that and you said you worked construction yes sir what'd you do in the construction business I'm electrical well okay so you're like Tyson your whole life yes sir okay where's your wife work outside the home or did she she did she did what achieve it she was in the insurance business and she's done really well I mean she's helped big-time she actually has more safe than I do she always maxed out her 4:01 ever since we first met she was actually putting a little less into that I kind of talked her into going full-bore so she's done it ever since and you guys when you got married you started with nothing yes sir how long have you been married 35 years okay there is you are the classic case study of America's millionaires well you don't feel like a millionaire do you oh no I don't know you're almost imagine me you know that guy that wrote that book like that there's a difference between having a million dollars and somebody that can live like a millionaire because you know we've spent our whole life accumulating it well I just I know way Frances the idea that a millionaire can buy anything they want anytime they want and the truth is mathematically they can't write and so living like when we say living like a millionaire when guys like you and me say that what we mean is super rich people but really two million dollars is rich but it's not super rich right but it feels good you've done a great job you're an inspiration to people listening right now you know that well it's but it's like I said it's like I'm gonna have to learn how to spend money up you are you are you've been there children especially in these six years building up one muscle you're saving muscle yes sir and and so I would recommend a couple of things one is is that you put your toe in the water and you make yourself by setting it a written goal you and your wife that we are going to spend X on fun and I don't care how much it is but let me just tell you this okay let me ask you this if you spent uh how much money would you spend on a cruise if you were going to take your wife on a nice cruise and it kind of made you feel uncomfortable because it was it felt it felt like it's too much almost oh well I don't know we've been on several cruises but we go cheap okay there's a lot in the last keep witnesses of the questions we were not talking about cheap I'm talking about you're doing a good one and you're going to do it right you're going to get a better and you're going to spend a little bit more money and it's going to kind of touch your emotions probably 4000 okay then I want you to plan to spend $8,000 on a cruise this year okay Wow you can't breathe now yeah I know that's a lot but you got one point seven million dollars dude yeah I didn't even take the sweat off your interest yeah that's what that's what I keep telling myself yeah matically amount of money it's just those how active man you're not only on other direction yeah mathematically I just pulled one pair of pliers out of your toolbox and you got 65 million pairs in there you know yes sir that's what we're doing and so I would never do something put you in jeopardy you've worked too hard but I want you to I I didn't ask you to spend eighty thousand did you hear that - yes sir and eighty thousand would have been okay you could probably still do that but but you know let's spend eight thousand and what I'm trying to do there is I'm trying to stretch your spending muscle a little bit yes sir to where you just enjoy it and so the next time you book a cruise I want you to better line don't go on that cheap line go on the more expensive one and I want you to book a better room I want you to stay two days longer to where you're spending eight thousand bucks yes and you need to start working on that that trip this afternoon when you get off phone with me okay okay all right because all I'm doing here is I'm saying all right you are very good at saving and I don't want you to get so good at spending that you're irresponsible that would never would never MZ tell you do that but you're calling me saying how can I learn to enjoy some of this yes sir and you have to practice yes sir and so what I'm doing is giving you an assignment to practice enjoying it okay and now that's that's what she liked to do now what is your thing what do you buy what do you are you a tool guy a car guy a tractor guy well I have a lot of - you know I mean what is it that what is it that when you are you know in your spare time you clock I'll give you an example I collect guns I've got a bunch of guns I'm a gun guy okay and so I have no reason to have as many guns as I have except I just like them there's no reason whatsoever and whatever your thing is that's in that category I want you to budget yourself some to enjoy that just a little bit it won't be much okay you've always wanted this tool you've always wanted this certain classic car you've always wanted that yeah there's actually a tool I'd kind of like to have it's sort of expensive and how much I need some how much is it me too like a self stop yeah and how much does it cost there about there a little over three thousand dollars yeah okay perfect perfect you didn't tell me three hundred thousand I would have smacked you silly okay no I would never do said three thousand dollars now understand that your income you already told me you're not even touch the principal and you got $100,000 your income not even touching the principal right yes sir okay so let's just set yourself a few small goals like that and force yourself to practice enjoying now let me give you one other assignment we're going to buy tool we're gonna go on a cruise here's another - here's another thing I want you to find somebody to give some money to somebody's hurting once you increase your generosity level I'm not saying you're not generous but generosity goes with spending they're kissing cousins generous people are generally spenders spenders are generally generous people this is the Dave Ramsey show you

Channel: The Dave Ramsey Show

Views: 1,023,470

Rating: 4.9032526 out of 5

Keywords: dave ramsey afraid to spend, dave ramsey 1.7 million, afraid to spend money, 1.7 million dave ramsey, dave ramsey 1.7, saved 1.7 million, dave ramsey afraid to spend money, dave ramsey afraid, scared to spend money, dave ramsey spend, dave ramsey spending, 1.7 million, dave ramsey million, dave ramsey 50 million, saving a million dollars, how to save a million dollars, dave ramsey saving money

Id: 5TNIgmVM6ZQ

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 11 2014