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‘Son, roll up your sleeves’: Dave Ramsey lays into ‘entitled’ man for questioning why to even invest if he might not live to enjoy his riches — but Ramsey says his mindset is the real problem

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Sometimes you can get the best advice by poking the bear.

One write-in guest on The Ramsey Show found out the hard way after trying to “make sense” of Dave Ramsey’s investment advice.

“You keep saying to invest $100 a month beginning at age 30 and you’ll be worth $5 million at 70 years old,” wrote a man named Isaiah. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

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Isaiah pointed out that the life expectancy of a white American male is 72 years old, while for a Black male it’s 68, meaning “most people will never live to see $5 million.” He asked Ramsey to help him “make sense of this advice.”

Ramsey, who called Isaiah “entitled” and “belligerent,” said the real issue is the idea “you’re supposed to get rich in 10 minutes.”

Here’s why investing still makes sense — even if America’s lifespan stats suggest many men won’t live long enough to enjoy all their savings.

Crunching the numbers

Ramsey admitted that Isaiah isn’t completely wrong about life expectancy, but said he was putting words in his mouth.

Ramsey said that saving $100 a month was an example — the idea is to save something every month and start building a “money mindset.”

“We have never said $100 a month from [ages] 30 to 70 is $5 million — it’s not,” Ramsey said, in a recent episode. “It’s $1,176,000, and that would be true of … any 40-year period of time you wanted to pick.”

But getting started on that investment journey can be overwhelming, especially if $100 a month isn’t possible for you quite yet. The important thing is to start saving with Ramsey’s 40-year horizon in mind.

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Once you’ve established your investment base, that’s when you can start ramping up your contributions to move the needle to $100 a month or beyond.

Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan ‘works every single time’ to kill debt, get rich in America — and that ‘anyone’ can do it

What is a money mindset?

A money mindset is “your unique set of beliefs and your attitude about money,” explained co-host Rachel Cruze in a blog for Ramsey Solutions.

That mindset “drives the decisions you make about saving, spending and handling money” and “shapes the way you feel about debt.”

Cruze pointed to a Ramsey Solutions study of more than 10,000 millionaires, which found that 97% believed they could become millionaires in the first place.

“And having that mindset — not an inheritance, fancy education or wealthy parents — is exactly what caused them to succeed,” she wrote.

Some people have an “abundance mindset,” a belief that there are plenty of opportunities for everyone to grow wealth. Others have a “scarcity mindset,” the belief that resources are limited and wealth is hard to come by.

An abundance mindset focuses on possibilities and potential. A scarcity mindset focuses on limitations and fear, which can lead to unhealthy financial behaviors, such as overspending or hoarding.

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Shifting your money mindset

Changing your mindset is easier said than done. It often means identifying where your limiting beliefs come from — maybe your upbringing or past money mistakes. Then it takes time and self-reflection to overcome them.

An abundance mindset means looking at how to build wealth over time. It’s not just about saving $100 a month — it’s about how you use that money, whether through growing assets, investing or developing passive income streams.

“Millionaires focus on wealth creation, not just income generation,” wrote business strategist and CPA Melissa Houston in an article for Forbes. She added that they “don’t chase quick wins or get-rich-quick schemes.”

Instead, millionaires build sustainable wealth “through investments that appreciate over time” and make sure their money works for them through stocks, real estate and scalable business models.

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