00:07 Welcome to Six-Figure Trucker, the podcast where we share advice on how to be successful in trucking and have fun while doing so. We’ll share stories, news, and advice on how to earn six figures in trucking, and we’ll speak to guys and gals that are already doing so. Next, it’s your host, Justin Scott. Let’s get to the show.

00:31 Guys, welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker. I’m Justin Scott and here with me I have Keith Holiday with Norton Transport. Keith, how you doing today, buddy?

00:39 I’m doing great, man. Doing really good.

00:41 Good to hear from you here. Glad you’re joining me today. How long have you been with Norton Transport now?

00:46 I started with Norton Transport November the 19th, 2018. So, that’s about a year and eight or nine months or so.

00:54 Oh, good deal. Good deal. So, you’ve built some good tenure with them. So, you know, let’s just dig deep, you know, let’s start from the beginning. Tell me a little bit about, you know, how did you get into trucking? You know, how long have you actually been on the road besides just with Norton?

01:10 Well, I actually got my CDL in I want to say 1989,990, somewhere around in there. And I was just happened to be with an organization at that time that just had an occasional run that they needed done over the road. And so I got my CDL to you just doing an occasional run with them. And since that time I’ve driven everything from straight trucks to limos to party buses to moving van, hauled cars for a while. And I’ve had my hands in a lot of other things as well. I really just dabbled into trucking over the years until I started with Norton.

01:50 Oh, okay.

01:50 A little over a year and a half ago. Yeah.

01:52 Well, you’ve got a robust history with driving, you know, not just necessarily over the road. And I understand that your family has a rich history in trucking. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Your dad and I know your brother too. What all have they done in trucking? Well, my dad of course he passed 10 years ago January at the age of 82. So he was born back in the depression and so his driving started way back many but probably in like the 40s or something like that. He actually started with a I think it was called a gasoline Mustang White and he bought it wrecked and rebuilt it in his mom’s backyard.

02:39 And then his next truck was what they called a GMC fourbanger. It was at the he was a fourbanger Detroit. So four-cylinder Detroit. And then he had a B61 Mack. And from there to an H model Mack. The first one that I remember as a kid was this red IRville International. And then he went on from there. Now, something very interesting. Actually, I was talking with my brother, just refreshing my mind on some of the history here. He was telling me about a story years ago that our dad told him when he was living in the Atlanta area and he was driving for the Big Apple grocery store and he’d run up to Omaha, Nebraska in the winter time to get hanging meat and haul it down here. And when he was up in Omaha, it would be so cold in the winter, they’d have to put cardboard around the engine and they would literally build a fire on the ground underneath the engine.

03:44 That cardboard would trap the heat in there to heat the engine up enough to where they could start it.

03:50 Wow. Now that is some hardnosed trucking. I mean, that’s old school. That is that’s incredible. So you your brother told you this story?

04:00 Oh yeah. Yeah. In fact, he said there was another fell he talked to some years back that was telling him the same he had done the same thing and he said guys that drive today they’re not real truck drivers. They’re just steering wheel holders.

04:14 Yeah. I tell you I haven’t heard anything like that. That is that’s incredible. You know so you know it sounds like you do have a rich history and it’s cool stories like that that that we love to hear here on the Six-Figure Trucker. And you know, one thing that we do, you know, like to dive into is, you know, with, you know, with being on the road and with talking about finances, you know, it gets tough out there and you know, I know a little bit about you, Keith, just from getting to know you over the past year and a half or so. And, you know, I know that that you’re you know, you’re really protective of your finances and you really try hard to do things a little bit differently over the road to help you be successful in trucking. And I also heard that you’re a big Dave Ramsey fan. So—

04:57 Oh, I’m a huge Dave Ramsey fan.

05:00 So So how has he helped you over the road? What are you know, what are some things that he’s told you about or what are some things that you do that’s not even about Dave Ramsey that helps you be successful over the road?

05:12 Yeah. Well, first of all, I occasionally will have somebody challenge me on Dave Ramsey’s principles and you know, they don’t necessarily agree with him and some will disagree with him, but you know, some people use a kind of middle of the road kind of a thing and but you know, I finally decided that when I listen to Dave Ramsey, I win. When I don’t listen to Dave Ramsey, the banks win. And I’m tired of the banks winning. I’m ready to win. And so I just— He’s got a well, he’s got his radio broadcast. It’s 3 hours a day, Monday through Friday, and they put it and it cuts it down to about 40 41 minutes without the commercials. And so when I’m driving over the road, I’m either listening to music, talking on the phone, but most of the time I’m probably listening to Dave Ramsey. And it just gives a totally different mindset about money and how money works and you know what just some little things that that I’ve done is just getting me on the right road because I did stupid on steroids as Dave Ramsey would say many times over the years and finally just in the last well since I’ve been with Norton and I’m actually making some better money than I’ve ever made personally in I decided, you know what?

06:39 It’s time to make some changes because what a lot of people do when they go from say a 9-to-f5, not much over minimum wage kind of a thing to something like driving a truck over the road where they’re making some really good money. They go buy the new car get a new house, buy the boat, buy the four-wheeler, get, and then the next thing you know, they’re hawked over their eyeballs in debt. Now in instead of doing something they enjoy because they en it, they’re having to do it because if they don’t, they can’t afford the payments.

07:16 That’s a good point.

07:17 And you know what, dude? I just I got tired of payments and I finally decided, okay, it is time to make some changes. I was first introduced to Dave Ramsey in 1995 and I just over the last year and a half have just really kind of gotten with the program and I’ve incidentally in the last two months all of my credit card debt.

07:41 That’s incredible. So your credit card?

07:44 I have no credit card payments. I have no credit card payments.

07:48 Geez. I bet that’s a good thing.

07:50 My vehicle— Yeah, my vehicle is paid for. I drive an 08 Kia Sedona. My kids call it a soccer mom. You can call it anything you want to, baby. It’s paid for.

07:59 It’s paid for.

08:01 Well, let’s paid for.

08:03 Well, let’s talk about that a minute because I think, you know, with Norton and what you do, you know, I think it’s important for listeners and folks listening to us, what is it that you do? I know, you know, with driveaway and, you know, how is that different from the stuff that that normal, you know, freight haulers and other people think about when they think of trucking?

08:27 You know, I of course I’m transporting new vehicles all over the country. Just since I’ve been with Norton in just over a year and a half, I’ve driven 44 states plus Quebec, Ontario, and Saskatchewan, Canada. And so I’m not in my own truck, you know, pulling a trailer or driving a company truck like that. I’m just like I said, I’m transporting new trucks all over the country. I typically fly to my next load, which I enjoy. And I don’t have any maintenance that I have to worry about. If I have a problem with a truck, I have a breakdown line that I call, they send a service truck or a wrecker and they fix it or tow it and I have no worries what whatsoever with that.

09:15 So, I’m still 1099. So, I’m per se self-employed, which I’ve done most of my life, which I it works for me. And I’m just I’m making some really good jack, bro.

09:28 Oh, man.

09:30 And just and loving I love what I do. Well, you hit the nail on the head there. I think, you know, not having to worry about maintenance on a truck and getting to fly and see the world. I mean, those sounds like incredible things. And that probably means you got a few airline points built up, I would guess.

09:47 Oh, yes. Yeah. I can occasionally take a vacation and use points to fly and— Oh, yeah. And then of course with hotels, I’m I got points building up and with the hotels and whatnot and a lot of times that now back to the question that you had earlier about some things that I do on the road that helps me with managing my money. One thing is is typically I book my hotels on hotels.com.

10:16 Okay. And you book 10 rooms and then they take the average that you pay over those 10 nights and you get a free night towards your whenever you want to redeem that. So just little things like that that I do that that helps me to manage my money. Another thing is is I quit buying the little say liter bottles of water in the truck stop. I’ll go to a grocery store or Walmart or something like that. And I’m going to buy a gallon of water and I’ve got me a refillable bottle that I use to and that’s how I drink my water with coffee. I love going to a local coffee shop and get a good fresh cup of coffee. Okay, but you’re going to spend 250 354 bucks for a cup of coffee. Right now, while I’m, you know, following Dave Ramsey’s program and going towards my 100% debt freedom goal, I’ll do stuff like when I fuel at Love’s Truck Stop, I get a free cup of coffee.

11:20 I’m staying in hotels because I’m transporting new trucks. I have to stay in hotels. Most hotels either have coffee in the room or coffee in the lobby. I get my free coffee right there. So I can save two bucks, three bucks, four bucks a day just on coffee.

11:35 Man, that adds up. That’s got to add up.

11:37 Oh yes, it does. And then I can buy a gallon of water at a grocery store or something for usually less than a dollar. Sometimes you going to spend a buck, 50, two bucks just on a liter or even not even a liter size at a truck stop—

11:50 Easily. Easily.

11:52 Yeah. You know, fruit, snacks, all that kind of stuff. Buy it at the grocery store because you’re gonna pay two or three times at a truck stop than you would. And all those little things over time add up to a lot of money.

12:05 That is exceptional because I think you’re absolutely right. It’s the little things that you can do like that that’s going to help put more loot in your pocket. And it sounds like you’ve been able to do a lot of those things. And it sounds like you know it sounds great. You’re in hotels, you’re drinking their coffee, you know, you know what a cool way. You’re saving money with water. You know, you’re getting your hydration in. So it sounds like it’s a pretty cool job that you have there.

12:34 Oh, it’s really fantastic. And of course, you know, I’m getting to see the country and I mean, I take pictures typically of my loads. Photography has become kind of a side hobby for me that that I enjoy. And I see so much beautiful scenery out there. I mean I’ve been I remember one time I was driving up through Saskatchewan, Canada, and it’s pretty flat. A lot of farmland and you grain elevators here and there and it’s not really exciting other than these huge jack rabbits they got up there. You see one run across the road and that that could be a little exhilarating but other than that it was, you know, not that real exciting. But then all of a sudden I look up in the sky and the clouds are just absolutely beautiful.

13:22 So whether it’s countryside or cloud or something, there’s always something beautiful to see while you’re driving.

13:26 Well, what’s the Tell me what is the coolest thing that that you’ve ever driven while you’ve been not just with Norton, just ever just the coolest truck you think you’ve ever driven.

13:38 You know what? When you say that, one thing that comes to mind, I’ve got it’s not one that I drove, but one that I rode in. I remember one time I was in because you know new trucks on occasion do have issues and I was in I want to say North Carolina. I had a breakdown. I was in a single and I had a breakdown and this elderly man came out. He had to have been I would say well up in his 70s. And he drove this old oh I want to say it was a 73 model 359 Peterbilt with a 15speed transmission and the on the you know when you go from the highest gear is up to the right and I think if I remember correctly they would say that you know they’re pushing it up against the mahogany—

14:33 You know when they get—

14:36 Or up against the dash cuz it have a mahogany looking dash, you know, you know, they’re up against a dash now. They got that they’re in the 15th gear in the highest gear. And that and just to hear the history behind that that record and the story behind that and how long he’s been doing it and that thing ran like a charm. It pulled that truck like it was nothing.

14:59 Oh, wow.

15:00 Yeah, that was so I love older trucks and stuff like that. And of course, you know, with Norton, I’m transporting new trucks and occasionally a used trucks. I’m driving all kinds of trucks. But the coolest thing I’ve been in that that’s I’m going to put that right up there at the top.

15:14 Yeah, that sounds neat. I love hearing stories like that. And, you know, I think, you know, when you’re over the road and you’re getting to see all kinds of different trucks and, you know, you think about, you know, other folks that are in the business and driving around, you know, you’re driving, you know, sometimes the same lanes every day, the same truck every day. You know, with you, it sounds like you get to drive a lot of different things. You get to drive a lot of different places, a lot of new places. So, it sounds like you’re certainly seeing everything full circle and having fun while you’re doing it, it sounds like, too.

15:47 Oh, absolutely. You know, I got a friend of mine that that drives for what he calls a low rent company. He’s been with them for 28 years. I won’t say the company. Okay.

15:57 Sure. Yeah.

15:58 But he’s he been driving with them and he’s just regional. He has his one state for the most part that he drives all the time and he’s dropping hooking, dropping hooking, dropping hooking and fighting traffic all the time. I’m like, “Dude, I don’t know how in the world you do it cuz I for me I want to be over the road. Just put me over I want to be hashotr, buddy. Yes,”

16:24 I got to be over the road cuz I will on occasion I’ll well on a fairly regular basis I’ll drive some of the same highways but there’s always something going somewhere else—

16:35 Right?

16:35 And so I there’s still a lot of highways out there that I haven’t driven. Now my brother, you mentioned earlier you asking about my dad and my brother. My brother’s been driving since he was kneeh high to a grasshopper. And he’s got he’s like a walking, living, breathing human GPS.

16:55 He knows it all.

16:57 Listen, when my GPS gets confused, I just call my brother. Okay? So, I mean, he’s I’ll be out there. Oh, yeah. Well, that’s this highway and up here and this landmark and blah blah blah. I’m like, how do you remember all of this stuff? And he’s like, bro, I’ve been running those roads for almost 40 years.

17:15 Yeah, he knows.

17:16 And Oh, he does. But you know, for me as it’s if I do the same thing for a little bit, like on occasion we need to do what we call shuttling. So there we pick up loads in Laredo and we have a yard in Von Army and I’ll need to pick up a load in Laredo, take it to Von Army, drive ride in a van with some other drivers down to Laredo, pick up another bring it up there. That is boring as it can be to me. I’ll do it on occasion when I need to help the company, but for me, put me behind the wheel and let me roll.

17:48 Put you on the road.

17:49 Give me the longest run you can give me. I want to see and another thing I do not like driving at night because I like to enjoy the scenery.

17:57 Yeah, that’s great. You know, and I hear a lot of guys do drive at night for, you know, for traffic reasons, of course.

18:03 Of course. Yeah. And of course, you know, everybody’s got their own preference, but for me that works. So now I get to meet people all over the place and hear nice stories and just life is really good right now, man. Life is really good.

18:18 Well, you mentioned over the road and you know, we’ve talked about all the places you’ve been, but you know, what’s your life? What’s home? Do you know, how often do you go home or get to see home or what is that schedule like? You know, one cool thing about what I do is it’s no forced dispatch, which means when I want to run, I run. When I don’t want to run, I go home. Now, following Dave Ramsey’s principles and knowing that I do still have some debts that I’m knocking out. It’s beans and rice, rice and beans. You have every side hustle you can get until you get debt free and have your 3 to six month reserve or your emergency fund set up. And so I’m still in those baby steps right now. If you’ve ever listened to Dave Ramsey, you know what I’m talking about. If not, you should listen to Dave Ramsey if you have any debt. That being said, I can like for example, the last two months I just stayed on the road and finally after a while I was like I wonder how long I’ve been out.

19:25 So I took just a few days about four or five days off to go visit my mom who was having some health issues and my brother had asked me about how long I’d been on the road and I thought you know what don’t even know.

19:37 Oh wow.

19:37 I said let me look at my calendar. I had to go back and go and I had to keep going back. I found out I had been out for two months and in that two months my I live right now in Mississippi. Okay. In that two months I had been in my home in Mississippi 4 days. That is my choice. I chose to do that. And then of course this last week I called my dispatcher. I said, “Listen, I’ll be home on Tuesday night. I’m not going anywhere until Monday. I’m gonna sleep in my bed for a little bit.”

20:10 Well, that’s awesome. I mean, you know, talk about, you know, working when you want to, taking off when you want to. You know, what a flexible schedule. I mean, do you ever miss the 9-to-f5 day-to-day work lifestyle, although I think I know the answer to this.

20:25 Oh, absolutely not, man. I couldn’t handle nineto-5. And you know, this is like I mean, I again, I go on my own schedule and there’s such there’s a tremendous amount of responsibility in what I do. But, you know, as far as driving these big vehicles and there’s a lot of safety that that you have to be aware of when you’re driving and undecking and all this kind of stuff. But man, the freedom I have and what I do and now I don’t have credit card payments. I don’t have a car payment. I only pay half of my rent because I share my place with a friend of mine I’ve known for about 30 years. And so I’ve got financial freedom like I haven’t experienced it in really most of my adult life because of the money I’ve been to make here at Norton Transport.

21:20 So yeah, the freedom I have, man, is fantastic.

21:25 Well, that’s amazing. You know, and it’s I know it’s got to be tough because you talk about, you know, the responsibility piece of it, you know, and how important it is in terms of safety, you know, in terms of watching the road and just being alert and you know, being the type of responsible driver that that you need to be, but then you also think about the financial side of it. You know, you mentioned your 1099 you know, you definitely don’t miss the 9 to5 day-to-day work lifestyle, but you know, how often do you get paid? How does that work? Is that like you get a paycheck every two weeks or what is that like? How do you manage that side of it? When I deliver a load, in fact, I just delivered my lead truck this morning here in North Georgia and I turn my paperwork if I turn my paperwork in before noon that day, that settlement or the balance of what’s due to me on that load hits my card about 4:30, 5:00 that afternoon.

22:27 I get paid the day I deliver if I get my paperwork turned in before noon. If it’s afternoon, I get paid the very next day.

22:35 Wow.

22:36 So, I’m not waiting two weeks or a month or even till Friday. I mean, when I deliver load that day’s payday or the next.

22:44 Yeah, that’s incredible. Talk about a pay turnaround. My you know, my friend’s a teacher and he was talking to me the other day. He gets paid once a month and I just got to thinking, man, that’s you really got to manage that out. So, so that that goes back to you being flexible and you know take you mentioned you know you work when you want you stayed out cuz you wanted to you know that was your choice like you said but that that’s you knew the money was coming in so it’s almost hard to pass up when you think about it—

23:12 It’s really hard for me to pass up and you know I got a buddy of mine in fact the one I mentioned earlier that drives for the low rent company he’s like man how hard is it for you to say no I’m like dude that’s— Like one of the hardest things in life for me to do is to say no when somebody asks me, “Hey, can you do this or can you help me with this?” Very hard for me to say no. And then again to just knowing that money’s coming in, dude. I mean, by the time I deliver a load, I’m looking at the load board every chance I get to see what’s coming up. In fact, when I was off this last week, I mean, I’m I wasn’t even off yet and I’m already looking at the load board. I’m like, I’m supposed to be off for about 5 days. I could give this a break, but—

23:57 You know, just seeing that that potential there is just it’s and especially to have the goals that I have financially and seeing the results already, you know, with my track record on debt freedom now. It’s man, it’s easy to go to that Lord, see a load, request it, and hit the road. Jack—

24:16 Well, that sounds like a pretty easy process. So you look at the load board and you just hit request and then you know maybe you get it, maybe you don’t. Is that how it works?

24:27 Oh yeah, absolutely. I just go through the load board. If I see one I want, two I want, I’ll say, okay, I’ll request this one. This is a day I can pick up. This is a day I can drop off and if I know what my airfare is going to be approximately, I’ll throw that in there because that’s one of the expenses that the company covers is the airfare. So, and so I always shop for the best deals on the airfare because I know if I’m saving the company money with airfare and all these that’s going to increase my chances of getting that load. If I’m just out here, you know, jacking everything up, oh well, the company’s paying for it, the company’s paying for it, that over time that’s going to lessen my chances of getting a load.

25:07 Sure. Sure.

25:07 So, yeah. So, I’m always I’m going to shop for the deal. I go in, you put in the date you can pick up, the date you can drop off, and any notes that you need to put in there, you request it, and if you don’t get it, just go back and look at the load board, find another one, and but I’ve never really had any problems getting a load. If one doesn’t work out, there’s always something else.

25:29 Man, that’s great. You mean, you just keep talking about that flexibility. What that’s the probably the most flexibility of any job I’ve ever heard of. So, it sounds pretty cool. I mean, do you usually pick what do you pick by? Like what makes Keith choose? Like is there something that you look for that you like? Is there certain part of the country that you like visiting or is it just somewhere new that you’ve never been before you want to try out or what is it that you’re looking for?

25:55 Really kind of all of the above, but really miles is money. So I look at miles. I’m going to get the longest run I can possibly get. And of course, if there’s a load coming out of California, I’m requesting California. I love I absolutely love running out west because a it’s going to be a longer run typically and b you just don’t have the traffic and as wide open highways and man you can just find a gear and go and just on down the highway and not have to—

26:33 Fight all the craziness that you would say for example up on the east coast man just fight battling that traffic in the big cities and stuff is it can get hectic. Hell no. I don’t want anything to do with that. You got that right.

26:45 Occasionally you got to do it. You know, it all—

26:48 It balances out. You got to find balance, right?

26:51 Yeah. My brother said to me one time ago, now he has more of the Georgia Southern accent than I do. He said, “Bro, sometimes you just got to throw it in the pot and mix it up and it all works out after a while.”

27:04 That’s right. That’s right. I’ve got a saying. I’ve heard several said sometimes you just got to throw it on the wall and see if it sticks.

27:11 That’s it. That’s it. And of course, you know, another thing I do is like I mentioned earlier, my mom was having some health issues and whatnot. So, right now, I look for loads is going to get me close to Georgia. And then I can in fact, this load that I did now, I did it because it was coming to Georgia. And again, we’re going to take off here as quick as we’re done. We’re going to start the engine up and we’re going to continue our little trek across the countryside here and go visit mom for a little bit on the afternoon. So, sometimes it’s because there’s a certain destination that I want to get. Sometimes I’m going to take a load because I haven’t been to that part of the country and I want to see it.

27:47 Oh, yeah. No, I that’s great. I mean, you know, different things fuel the reason that you request a load. So definitely understand family is a big perk of that. And being able to know that wherever you’re delivering on your destination, if you’ve got family nearby, you can stop in and see them. And I know that’s certainly sometimes hard to do when you have something that that never gets you that way or you know being on the road for two months. You know what does that look like? And in the family you know family balance life cycle there. Speaking of seeing people, you know, I just from different travels that I’ve done with different things that I’ve done in life, I literally know people all over the country. So, this year especially, I’ve put forth the effort to reach out to people, contacts that I’ve had, acquaintances, friends, and whatnot over the years. I have had some of the coolest conversations and just times just reconnecting with people that I’ve known from over the years literally all over the country. And I if I hadn’t had something like this that I was doing, I may have never seen them before.

28:52 So this thing is not only do I have the freedom of my schedule and the freedom financially now that I’m experiencing because of the income, but I’ve got the freedom to say, “Hey, I’ve got a friend over here. Let me see if there’s a load going there.” And eventually I’ll see a load going there. I’ll request it and typically get it. And there I get to go see another friend. And so, you know, like I said before, life is really good, buddy.

29:13 You’re free, man. You’re free.

29:15 I’m free, man. Freedom.

29:17 If that’s not freedom, I don’t know what is right there. You—

29:20 That’s amazing.

29:21 Oh, that’s great. Oh, well, you know what? I one thing I have to ask and I ask I probably ask pretty much everybody this because I’m a foodie. I like to travel. I like to eat. Tell me, you got to have one place that’s been your favorite place to eat while you’ve been on the road. I want to hear about it.

29:42 Oh my you know what? I’m going to have to I’m going to have to tell this right here. When I read it, I just happened to be here in Georgia. In fact, I was with my mom and my brother and I let them I said, “Come over here. You can watch this right here.” And they watch them while I clicked in. I went on the app and I paid off my last credit card. About two days after that, we went to Fox Brothers Barbecue down in Atlanta. And of course, I paid for the meal.

30:15 No.

30:16 And it was not with a credit card. Let me tell you something, buddy. That was absolutely fantastic. So, I love me some good barbecue or occasionally I run into a good Indian restaurant. There was a good Indian I just stumbled onto this place. It was a 7 acres truck stop I think it was called. Coming across the 401, I believe it was in Ontario about a month and a half ago. Just stumbled on to it. Didn’t even know it was there. I stopped in to get some fuel and found out they had an Indian restaurant because I’ve been to India three times over the years. I love me some good Indian food. Oh yeah.

30:56 Yeah. So, Fox Brothers Barbecue in Atlanta. Man, you’ll hurt yourself there.

30:59 Fox Brothers Barbecue and in Ontario, what was the name of the place?

31:04 It’s 7 acres.

31:05 Seven acres.

31:07 Seven Acres Trucks. And I forget I don’t even remember the town it’s in, but I could look at the GPS and find it real quick. And then the restaurant. I don’t remember what the restaurant was called, but it was Seven Acres Truck Stop. And if you like good Indian food, it was a coconut curry chicken. It was my favorite.

31:25 Love it.

31:26 Oh man, it was really good.

31:27 Oh man, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, I’ve got one more thing and we’ll wind down. I know I’m taking up your family time here, but I do have one thing that I want to ask. Go. Is there any advice that you would give yourself looking back, not necessarily when you first started with Norton, but maybe when you first started on the road or when you first chose to be a truck driver and join that community of heroes, what is some type of advice that you would look back and give yourself?

31:57 You know, if I could go back to my younger self, let’s go back say early 20s. I would say remember these three things right here. Give, save, and invest. Those are three big things that that Dave Ramsey is going to hammer away at that just as he has been for 30 years. Give, save, and invest. And you know what? When it comes to investing, it doesn’t take a whole lot when you’re smart with it. For example, I had a friend tell me when I was 20 years old, he said, “Keith, when you turn 21 for that next five years, if you’ll set aside $2,000, which is not much if you really put your mind to it and invest that at 10%.”

32:44 So from 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 until you turn 26. That’s five years, $2,000. When you get ready to retire, you’ll be a millionaire. You think I did it?

32:56 No.

32:59 That’s great advice, though.

33:01 Oh, it’s phenomenal advice. And you know what? I got to say, my kids are doing so well with their finances, man. They’re saving money. I talked to my daughter two days ago. Dad, I’ve just been I’ve been she’s a she waits tables at a restaurant. I just take my ones and fives and just put them away when I get home and I’ve got x amount of dollars. I’m like, holy smokes, girl.

33:23 I know. And she’s 20 years old.

33:25 Oh, that’s great. I love that advice you, you know, you know, when you talk about saving, you know, you talk about looking back and, you know, how it adds up and investing and, you know, it’s something that I think all of us could look back and wish we would have started younger, but it’s never too late. And, you know, I think for most of us now, you know, the right advice that you’re given is just, you know, put back what you can when you can and pay yourself first, right? Take care of you, you know, take care of you.

33:51 Yeah. Yeah. And if I can mention this one other thing, one another thing that Dave Ramsey says is cash is king. I had a guy tell me I was probably mid20s by this time I met this one fell up in Mountain View, Arkansas. And he owned this little general store and he had this old it was what was this? A model a Ford pickup truck or something like that. It was some old antique and that’s what he used to deliver goods in from his little general store. Okay. He said to me one time, he says, he says, Keith, I said to my wife Susie years ago, if we don’t have cash, we don’t need it. And I have to throw that out there because, you know, like I said earlier, a lot of guys are and ladies, they all of a sudden they’re making good money and they think, “Oh, I can afford this payment. Oh, I can afford that payment. Oh, I can afford this payment over here.” And next thing you know, you’re hawkked over your eyeballs in debt. You can’t even see straight and you’re drowning in debt. But if you just discipline yourself and just start putting a little bit aside here, a little bit aside there, and pay cash for everything, and there’s no need to buy a new vehicle.

34:56 Buy at least something one or two years old and let somebody else take the hit on that thing. And those things pay off very quickly over time.

35:05 Know the difference in a want versus a need. That’s— Oh, yes.

35:09 That’s what I got. It sounds like, you know, that’s exactly where it is. Is you know everybody you know you want but let’s focus on the need and you know that want may not be as important as you think it is right—

35:23 Absolutely—

35:24 That is and that that’s one thing that Dave Ramsey has and as I’ve been listening to his podcast he’s helped me in thinking about things because there’s things that I probably over the last three or four months I would have purchased but once I really got to thinking about it I’m like okay you know what I don’t really need that I’ve walked into stores before and I’ve looked around and I’m like, there’s nothing in here I need, but I know if I stay in here, I’m going to be tempted. I turn around and get the hell out of there.

35:52 That’s discipline. That’s discipline. I try. I don’t always win that battle, but— Oh, man. Well, well, Keith, man, it’s been wonderful. I’m glad you were able to join us. We’ll be more than glad to welcome you again if you’re ever willing. Again, this is Justin Scott with the Six-Figure Trucker. Keith, I hope you enjoy your family time, buddy.

36:17 Oh, yeah. We’re going to have a great time. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity and I hope somebody gets something out of this that is helpful and I’d be happy to do it again anytime. Just let me know.

36:27 Awesome, man. Well, good to hear from you. Thank you so much, buddy.

36:31 It’s a pleasure. Thank you.

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