trade school instead of a bachelor's degree

[sanantone]

I hope I'm not off topic, but I've been listening to Dave Ramsey a lot lately and listening to his calls and I think trades in the US make DAMN good money. I've heard one guy on the show said he makes like US 100k a year working as an electrician on a railroad and was living in his truck, which he traded for a lawn mower and a case of beer lol. He could pay off his house in 2 years if he keeps it up.

Trades pay good, I think it's just that people are really poor at managing money and love credits cards, car debt and buying stuff they dont need to impress people they don't care about. Drive a US 8000 car cash, forget the beer and get rid of the car payments.

Listening to his program and hearing people from all over the US calling in for advice, it seems people are just as he says "dumb with money", based on his program is sounds to me like the average American lives above their means and debt cripples them.

I wish I was in the US getting US 50K a year. If a man is a plumber or electrician getting 50k and has a wife getting 40k they can be millionaires. Heck if I had the opportunity to go to the US making 50k a year I  can be a millionaire. It isnt as hard as you think, deliver pizzas, do youtube, sell socks America is the land of opportunity. Deliver pizzas at nights after work can earn you US $2000 a month, heck I wish I had the opportunity you guys have, just cant be lazy. If a guy is a plumber and delivers pizzas, walks dogs, cuts grass etc or something on the side, he can easily net 80k a year.

With a combined income of 100k you can buy a house cash, people have called his show and did it. Couples like 24 paying houses in cash by living below their means. If you make 100k a year and live off 50k in 4 years you can have a 200k house, cash.

Live frugal and invest, doesn't matter the job, as long as you manage your money properly you can get the wealth you want.

"Live like no one else, beans and rice, rice and beans so the later you can live and give like no one else" - Dave Ramsey

Just my $0.02. I'm applying his principles to my life right now and its working. Just imagine if you are in the big US of A.

People calling into a radio show wouldn't make a good sample. That's self-selection bias. When I listen to his show, a lot of people calling in have incomes that are higher than the U.S. median. There's a certain type of person who listens to the Dave Ramsey show. I know a lot of lower middle class and working class blue collar folks who would never listen to Dave Ramsey. 

I did read several articles on people who have become millionaires. You have your CEOs, entrepreneurs, and people who got lucky investing in a new company. The other group that became millionaires consisted of extreme savers. Some of them had side hobbies, but they didn't work themselves to death working multiple jobs. Most of their income came from their full-time jobs, and they made moderate incomes. They mainly saved up a 1+ million by being frugal for decades and conservatively investing. So, these people were millionaires when they were not too far away from retirement. Obviously, most of their money would be spent supporting themselves in retirement. A couple of million is no longer worth that much in the U.S. these days, especially once you cease working full-time. These saver millionaires just have the peace of mind knowing that they won't run out of money if they live to 100. But, I can say that, if these people had worked themselves to death, they would have died too early to enjoy their money. 

One thing people don't talk about is how loaded government employees can be in retirement, especially law enforcement retirement. At many agencies, you can retire after working 20 to 25 years. They'll pay 80% to 90% of your average salary for the last three years. A lot of people will work a bunch of overtime in their last years to boost their average. So, you're retired by your mid-50s and collecting a pension. You're young enough to start working a second job for 10 to 15 years. Of course, if you work in law enforcement past the age of 55, there's a very high chance that you will die before the age of 65. 

There are so many other things people don't take advantage of or don't know about. A former boss of mine had a doctorate in psychology. I'm sure she had a lot of debt because she didn't attend a school that waived tuition. Somehow, we got on the topic of debt, and I told her about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. She had never heard of it. All you have to do is work for a government or non-profit organization while making 120 payments under an income-based repayment program. After that, your loans are forgiven tax-free. She also didn't know that Texas would pay for up to $80k of her student loan debt after five years of working as a mental health provider.