I was listening to the Dave Ramsey Show the other day. He took a few minutes to rant about the importance of a budget. I don’t want to say much else about it. He does it best:

I’ve had several calls this hour from people who just couldn’t seem to get things moving. You know, there just is – sometimes when you’re overwhelmed, whether it’s with money or life – you, you just get paralyzed, you get this deer in the headlights thing – even though there’s an 18-wheeler coming right straight at your face, you know, at 65 miles an hour, you’re getting ready to be a speedbump, you still freeze in the headlights. You freeze in inaction.

And I gotta tell ya, inaction is sometimes a purposeful decision. But most of the time, inaction – status quo- in whatever you’re facing, if you don’t like where you are, most of the time, inaction is not your answer. Most of the time, you gotta raise up and smack something! Just get something started!

I love that scene in “Braveheart” where William Wallace is walking out, “Where you going?” “I’m gonna pick a fight.” You know. The way this is going is not working. I’m gonna go pick a fight! You know, you gotta decide that.

Now I don’t know if your fight is with yourself in the mirror – and you go, “Hey Stupid, you need a budget. Hey Stupid, you can’t keep using these credit cards. Hey You, straighten up. Hey, You need to get outta the house! You’re sitting around knowing that this is not right in your brain. But something about, you know, we don’t like change, we’re like a toddler sitting in a poopy diaper. “Yeah, I know it smells bad, but it’s warm and it’s mine. I’m just gonna sit here.” Get up outta the mess!

Now I gotta tell ya, a whole lotta ya that call this show over and over and over for 14 something years now, we’ve been telling you to get a budget, get a budget, get a budget, get a budget. And you think when I say that, “Yeah that sounds like a good idea.” But you don’t go get a budget. And then you keep going and you have no win. You have problems. You can’t get outta debt – “Yeah I can’t get this debt paid off.” – but you still didn’t go get a budget.

People – you have to freakin’ write it down! You have to write it down, on paper on purpose. You cannot win the money game EVER without a written gameplan. Every month, on paper, on purpose – every dollar has a name. You have to take action!

You keep doing what you’ve been doing you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting. 12-steppers say continuing to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result IS the definition of insanity. And that’s if you’re sitting in there when your husband’s a crack cocaine addict, that’s if you’re sitting there and you have 80 million gajillion dollars in credit card debt, that’s if your’e sitting there and you have a back problem. That’s if you’re sitting there and you have too much car debt. That’s if you’re sitting there and your spouse won’t get on the page with you and work with you. If you keep doing the same thing you’re going to keep getting the same thing. You’re going to look up six months from now and go, “I’m still sitting in a poopy diaper.” Because you didin’t do something.

It’s about action! It’s a Nike™ thing. You gotta just do it! You gotta DO something. This is not theory. You see, that’s the difference in this show and 98 percent of your financial shows out there. Financial people talk about ideas, and concepts, and math, “Well here’s the, here’s the…” BULL. Let me tell you, it’s a behavior issue. 80 percent of personal finance is behavior. Only 20 percent is head knowledge. YOU already know what to do. And yet you call this show and you already know the answer. Now sometimes you don’t know the answer and I’m here to help you. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not going to fuss at you just for calling in with a question I’ve already answered. that’s not the point.

The point is to do a written plan, just start there. Because when you write down ninety-thousand dollar income, eighty-thousand dollar income, twenty-thousand dollar income, and you say, “Alright, what’s my take-home pay Friday? What’s my take home pay the next Thursday? What’s my take-home pay the rest of this month?” In writing on paper and now you start going: “Okay I take a house payment outta that, I take a car payment outta that, I take some credit card bills outta that, I take some medical bills outta that, I take some food outta that, I take some lights outta that. Wow, where’s the rest of this going?”

You’re WASTING it because you don’t have a plan! That’s where it’s going! You need to write it down! Because you’re wasting 25-30 percent of your income and you have NO clue where the money went. NO clue where the money went. If you worked for me I would FIRE your butt because you’re inept and you’re incomepetent! Write it down! Really, it’s that serious. You gotta write it down. You have to wirte it down.

I havent’ been broke in years. But I’ve had a written budget every single month. You come to my house right now I could pull it out and show you the written budget for this month – exactly where every dollar’s going to go. And my wife knows what the budget is. We’re on the same page, and we have been for years.

“We’ll you’re just lucky to be successful.” Luck had nothing to do with it. I’ve been kicking butt and taking names for a huge number of years – making every one of those dollars behave. Don’t talk to me about luck. It wasn’t luck. We busted it. We made every dollar SQUEAL! We lived like no one else – on paper on purpose. WE had a plan. That’s how you win!

Action!

Action!

Take Action!

Step into it!

This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Yes, that is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you Dave, for that call to action.