Why Getting Rich Quick Is Always A Con

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So john in the um 70s there was a book that came out and I was a teenager my dad was in the real estate business he asked me to read it because he's always had me read these motivational books the 1870s right yeah yeah absolutely and uh there were dinosaurs in the backyard and um but the book was called con man or saint written by a guy who was in jail so apparently he was a con man but he was trying to make the case that he was a saint he had run a multi-level I mean a pyramid scheme not a multi-level scheme an actual pyramid scheme and illegal that's why he was in jail there's a difference between multi-level and pyramid people use them interchangeably but they're not the same and so um he ran an actual con like a Madoff type thing Bernie Madoff deal and went to jail um in the book about the only thing I remember out of it was this this bizarre case he was rationalizing all this that he'd stolen all this money from these people um but he'd made a few people fortunes in the process so that made it all okay in his mind and but the thing that stuck with me the reason I bring it all up is he said that you can con anyone if they are one of two things afraid or greedy that it doesn't matter how smart they are doesn't matter how dumb they are if they're one of those two things you can con them and the more of one of those two things there are the easier they are to con and um so when I go back and usually when I look at someone having a financial catastrophe including me losing everything in my 20s having an opportunity to start over in the real estate business um I had to go okay what was I why did I get because get rich quick is a con right get easy is a con it's a house of cards always so playing the roulette wheel sports gambling losing weight quick is however you're however you're going to do it quick it's a con it's a con if it's a life change a permanent process because all the data that we now have at Ramsey says that the people that build wealth do it gradually slowly and they're not doing it based on fear or greed and so when you're trying to get rich quick with nothing down real estate well you know some of these guys on tick tock or whatever um or you're trying and that's what I was doing um I got a bunch of real estate I had four million dollar net worth I was making two hundred thousand dollars a year but I was deeply in debt I had four million dollars worth of real estate million dollar net worth and I was 26 years old starting from nothing and but it was still a house of cards that I had built and I was trying to do it quick do it quick do it quick do it quick do it quick catch it while it's hot crypto there's another one people are chasing that I'm ashamed to say this but I had this this thought during this big IPO that just went out yeah I thought I wonder if I should I wonder if I'm gonna kick myself 20 years from now for not doing this yeah and I actually had the thought my son's out of town right now and I thought I might have to tell him I didn't I didn't put money in on this and I it could have hit and I thought and again I talked myself out of it I was like that's that's foolish right um but that even even somebody does this for a living I I had the thought of uh I'm I'm scared to miss out that's quick money it's fear I'm scared to miss out on this yeah it's a FOMO yeah you're missing out which is fear and greed and so if you catch yourself saying I've got this situation I have to get away from I'm desperate you're setting yourself up to be conned by one of these get rich quick things that's out there or I've got to get that I've got to get it you know in George's case he's like okay I don't my body is not going to last working on these cars and so I've got I've got this desperation in my soul to get away from the automotive thing and I've got to go so I went and day trade went and did this went and did that and he's just he's just guacamole everywhere with debt this pops up it pops it down this pops up he pops it down and that's exactly what I did and so he's I'm no better than him it's the same I'm the same guy as him summer gets busy fast between vacations camps and travel plans the last thing you need is another thing to manage that is why I love delete me delete me removes your personal information from hundreds of data broker sites that can leave you vulnerable to spammers and scammers and they keep monitoring it all year long and honestly it feels good knowing that someone is handling it for me and you can get 20 off an annual plan at join delete me.com slash ramsey that's join delete me.com slash ramsey and that's why I can you know I've got a PhD in DUMB I've got experience from my own stupidity so but the point is folks just the lesson that you take away from today's show we'll summarize it is okay if you feel yourself getting greedy and everyone does if you feel yourself getting fearful and everyone does you're getting ready to make a bad financial decision yeah and and slow your butt down and underneath all that one of the things we tell people hey don't ever borrow money I can guarantee you that that you know George that last caller didn't take out this huge business loan this huge personal loan with the intent of I'm gonna buy this over here I'm gonna do this oh we we need a new car over here if you go take out a HELOC I'll just get a little bit extra just in case and when you have it it's so impossible to not spend it and you end up making the problem so much bigger so if you say hey you know what I don't I don't I don't mess with I don't borrow money just as a rule um unless I'm buying a house right like it keeps you from it's like a it's a barrier it's a break it's a hurdle it keeps you from making even a bigger mess than the one you're already in but the reason people have lost so much money on crypto is FOMO and that's a form of greed a form of fear fear of missing out it's greed uh it's like oh they're going to get theirs and I'm not going to get mine right and instead of I instead I got really after I went broke I got really comfortable with being boring yeah slow and steady wins the race boring wins tortoise beats the hair every time every time I get desperate and fearful right after that I get stupid and I do something stupid every time I get greedy and I think oh this is gonna this is gonna be a hot knife through butter this is gonna go and it's just like and it's just a hundred percent of those things bite me in the butt and it's just like and the things that I that we have made everything that we've incremental little tiny little tiny little tiny little tiny little tiny and then when you add it all up it's a lot uh but none of it was sexy or impressive and everybody wants sexy impressive the greed side everybody wants the quick thing I've got to get out of this I'm desperate and so it that as soon as you say that you're set up so all of you out there that's the lesson you can take from Dave's stupidity in my story and even from some of the other stories that call in here is you have to be really really careful to avoid uh fear and greed or greed driving your decisions around money because it it very few times do you go slow in those situations both those things cause you to go too fast both of those things cause you to rationalize and look past all the warning signs bridge out bridge out bridge out bridge out not me I can bow duke jump that sucker right bow and luke here we go with the with the general jackson that's it but yeah you think you're the one and now you just end up in the edge of the bridging button stuck on there I like a fly on the wall I I'm sitting here thinking of the last 20 bad decisions I made every one of them came back to I talked myself into a fear of something yeah or all media today is selling you it's all coming down so you got to do this or you got to do that or you got to do this right and the more I consume of that the more I'm my eyes are open looking for things that are coming to get me which means I'm going to look for things to buy the all the signals the people involved are bad people but I'm going to keep going because it's probably going to be okay yeah yeah no they're not they're going to keep being bad people so why am I continuing proverbs 22 the wise see danger and hide the fool sees danger and moves forward and suffers for it and when I see those warning signs I'm half the only way I look past them is when I'm greedy I'm fearful and I overlook the warning signs I go well that guy he didn't mean that and yeah he did he's a freaking crook and you're gonna go in a deal with him anyway because you just have to know you don't can I tell you what helps me in these moments wise counsel yeah a good group of friends yeah that now I know I could pick up a phone and call and say hey I'm about to do this or I'm scared of this and they'll say that's dumb John don't do that that's called a good friend it's a good friend yeah that's dumb John friend yeah I've got many of those that's dumb Dave you have had some dumb ideas and this is at the top of the list yeah I get those two create your free every dollar budget today the simplest way to budget for your life