Financial Freedom Is Worth Fighting For

Dave Ramsey (0:03)

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Normal is broken, common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the FAIRWINDS Credit Union studio, this is The Ramsey Show. Dr. John Delony, host of the Dr. John Delony Show, and Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today. And ladies and gentlemen, drum roll please, it is book launch day. That's right, we have a brand new book by Dr. John Delony, Building the Marriage You Want. Check out The Scribbledy Heart, and that's the art design there. That's my definition of it.

John Delony (0:48)

The 18-year-old punk rocker still stuck in there is like, you put a heart on the cover of your book? But the answer is yes, we did.

Dave Ramsey (0:55)

Well, it's about marriage.

John Delony (0:56)

It was the right thing to do.

Dave Ramsey (0:57)

It's about marriage. It's about love.

John Delony (0:59)

That's right.

Dave Ramsey (1:00)

So, hey, this is a seriously wonderful book. And honestly, this thing has been cooking for several years in your brain since I've known you.

John Delony (1:12)

Yeah.

Dave Ramsey (1:13)

I mean, we've had this back and forth about some of these issues and how to handle certain marriage situations on the air here, but also off air, just talking about life.

And this is something I've got to address, Dave. Eventually, I'm going to get to this, Dave, and here it is. This thing's cooked up.

John Delony (1:30)

Yeah. And I'll tell you, the impetus for it was you and I were doing an event in Los Angeles, and a woman at a signing line leaned over and said, hey, real quick, and you know how that goes. Someone says like, hey, real quick, and they want to ask you a real deep question. She just said, is marriage still worth it? And without even looking up, I dumped into this spiel about me and my wife and how we scratched and clawed, and she interrupted me, rightfully so, and she said, I know, I know it worked out for you, but is it still worth it in the 21st century? And that broke, I made eye contact with her, I start laughing, and I said, I have a personal story, and I have a Sunday school answer, but I don't have a great answer for you. And that exchange haunted me, and I went down the rabbit hole, all the data, all the nerds, all the folks, all the conversations you and I have had behind closed doors, and so this is everything I know about marriage. This is it.

Dave Ramsey (2:23)

Well, and a ton, a ton of research.

John Delony (2:26)

Yeah, and I think it's probably the biggest book that's ever come out of Ramsey Solutions. It's a tome, it's a big book.

Dave Ramsey (2:33)

It's not that, I mean, it's not super thick, but it's readable.

John Delony (2:37)

I wrote it for people who read one or two books a year, that's it.

Dave Ramsey (2:41)

But the research in it might be more than anything we've ever done.

John Delony (2:44)

Yeah.

Dave Ramsey (2:45)

We put research into every project, but this one's got a lot of stuff to make.

SPEAKER_4 (2:48)

Yeah, we dug into it.

SPEAKER_5 (2:49)

Had to answer that question, is marriage still worth it?

Dave Ramsey (2:51)

Yeah, in order to have practical tools to reconnect and build a stronger marriage, which is the line, right? You've got to have some backup for it.

SPEAKER_5 (2:58)

That's right.

Dave Ramsey (2:58)

And the practical tools just can't come out of your ear. Right. And so this is absolutely amazing. So one of the biggest myths couple believe, if your marriage feels hard, it must be broken.

That's a myth, right?

John Delony (3:12)

Right. And the culture says, if it's hard, then that means it's run its course and you should move on.

And now, the more frightening cultural conversation that the data showed me was, parents are no longer recommending their kids do this thing. Parents are recommending, you need to go to school, you need to get a job, you need to get economically secure, you need to get a house. And then if you want to do this other thing, and it's just inverted our entire culture, and we're seeing it play out with the birth rates falling, we're seeing it play out with the rise in anxiety and depression, like all these different things, all these different social ill's, I think can be traced back to, do you have an anchored, connected, ride or die relationship that you build from, not add at the end of everything else?