Where this was said
Should I Use Investments to Pay Off Debt? — Cameron in St. Louis
At 6:15 · chapter starts 4:45
Cameron in St. Louis has $30,000 in a non-retirement brokerage account and wants to know if it makes sense to pull it out to pay down student loans and a car loan totaling about $40,000. Dave welcomes him as a new listener, explains the Ramsey philosophy — that your income is your most powerful wealth-building tool, and debt payments rob you of it — and says yes, liquidate the non-retirement savings and attack the debt smallest to largest. When Cameron mentions he and his wife are both engineers earning $200,000, Dave reaches for one of his most quotable lines: 'You can't outearn stupidity.' He sends Cameron a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires, noting that engineers top the list of millionaire career tracks because they follow systems — and the Baby Steps is a system.
For someone with $35,000 in liquid assets and $40,000 in debt, Dave's answer is almost always: liquidate and attack. The goal is to free your income from payments so it can build wealth — and $200K a year can do that fast.
High income is irrelevant without financial discipline. Dave Ramsey told a couple of engineers earning $200,000 a year that they couldn't outearn stupidity and that principles, not paychecks, determine financial outcomes.
A caller earning $200,000 per year as a dual-engineer couple still carried $40,000 in debt, illustrating that high income doesn't automatically create wealth.
Dave Ramsey's study of millionaires found the number one career track for the typical American millionaire is engineer.
