Common Sense Beats Clever Money Hacks

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This is the Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, George Campbell. Number one bestselling author, Ramsey personality, is my coach today. The phone number here is AAA, 8255225. The call is free, and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.

Michelle is with us in Austin, Texas. Hi, Michelle, how are you? >> I'm broke, how are you doing? >> [LAUGH] >> We appreciate the honesty.

>> There we go, straight to it by the way, here we go. Oh my gosh, I love it. How can we help? >> Okay, so single mom and I've been living paycheck to pay check my whole life. Started listening to your show and realized there is a solution.

I just have to figure out, you know, there is hope. So I say, I just have to figure out the solution. So my question is, should I go to some small school, like real estate school,

“or aesthetician school, to try to better my situation?”

>> What are you doing now? >> I'm in sales, I've been in sales my whole life. >> What are you selling? >> Well, I'm selling forklift, batteries, forklift, but I just started with the company. And it's going to take me about a year to ramp up and start making commission.

>> And when you ramp up and start making commissions, what are you projecting that you'll be making? >> Post around 85 to 100,000 a year. >> Okay, and what's wrong with that? >> Well, right now I'm making $65,000 a year and when I, I mean, my rent went through and I'm negative a couple of hundred dollars.

>> Okay, so you got a side hustle issue until you get your commission's going, not a career crisis. >> Okay. >> So, I mean, estheticians don't make 85,000 a year, most of them, so no, I wouldn't go that direction. Real estate agents can make, well, they excessive 85,000, most of them don't, but most

of them don't sell a lot of houses, see they're so, I mean, if you're going to get the real estate business, you're going to sell a lot of houses. >> And it could take a while before you see some meaningful income.

Now, again, you're starting again, it, it basically six months probably with nothing.

>> Right. >> So you got some kind of side hustle, or you start real estate part time while you're selling forecliffe batteries. I don't know, but which wouldn't be a bad idea, and you don't really have to go to real estate school to pass a real estate test in Texas unless they, well, they may require

a pre-licensing, they probably do a pre-licensing class, but it's just one class or something and then, there's six classes that I would need to take. I actually, in order to sit for the license, it's one test and yes, six courses, principles one two.

“>> But you have to, all that's a pre-requisite for taking the test.”

>> I believe so. >> Okay. >> I started, I've done principles one and two before I just, I'm going to have a kid and finish. And you, you know, let's take those classes while we're doing this and while we're working

on a side hustle to make sure the rent, let's first cover the rent and stay in the current

job and then once you've got that going, then if you want to go ahead and take the test, take the minimum number of classes, necessarily take the test, don't go, you know, getting a whole bunch of certifications in the real estate world until you've sold some real estate. So it's not necessary. If you find a broker that will help you get, that will sponsor you as your affiliate broker's

license, pass the prerequisite to classes, then take the test and start selling part time as your side hustle. Once you've got the, the battery business up to income, then that's probably a thing. And then if you can get the real estate business to take off and it passes the four-clift

“battery business, then you drop the four-clift battery business, right?”

Okay. But I don't, I don't, today's problem is rent and that's not solved by anything we're talking about except a side hustle. Yeah. There's a long tail on this. So how much debt do you have?

My car would be my only debt. Well, I do have about 1,500 in dental work that I just had done that I'm finding in things zero interest, and then my car I owe 19,000 on it.

Good for you. Enough it.

And what's your rent every month?

My rent's $1,500 a month. Okay.

“I'm going to look at your budget into a detailed, every dollar budget if I'm you and see”

what I can cut. And then, is there any chance there's anything at the four-clift business that you can do to create some extra income there while you're waiting on your commissions to come in without having to do some other side hustle? No.

There's nothing. Okay. It's just, yeah. I mean, I'm out there hunting my own my leads, so. Okay.

Just takes a bit. He's just knocking doors, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of rejection.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It takes a minute to get the book of business bill. Yeah. It takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill.

And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill.

And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill.

And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill. And it takes a minute to get the book of business bill.

What can it sell? Car. Oh, never thought about that.

They make money. Okay. You've used lots of quickest. Okay. And yeah, if you can find a dealer that'll let you work weekends and maybe some evenings

or something, depending on what the hours the dealerships are running, my take a minute to get that going, too. But you got walk ups there, some of the leads, sometimes it's fish and a barrel, right? Yes. So, um, I don't know, something like that, I'm just making this up.

I'm about to use your skills. But I think your, I think your skill of selling is more valuable. I don't want you doing Uber Eats. How, how do you know?

“Well, I, I, I want you doing, I mean, if you have to to make rent, do it, right?”

You've been, you've been doing what it took to make it for a long time. You're a single mom. But I, I want you to just, I don't want you to just fall into the normal default job. What is it you can use your skill set and your history and your experience? What were you selling before you were selling batteries, you know, that you could go back

to and work part-time and work their evening leads. Nobody else wants to work or whatever. I don't care what it is. I've, as long as it's moral and you believe in the product, um, you know, I, uh, I don't know.

So people can do a lot of different things because that's a skill of being able to interact with people and having high emotional intelligence and it just gives you the ability to do a lot of different things. And we actually have a great side hustle quiz Michelle. You can take that a whole guide you on this, Ramsey Solutions dot com slash side hustle.

And that'll help you at least get some ideas and get going on this. But I like the idea of, if you can make double or triple, you're hourly rate instead of Uber East, you're doing something you have skills in consulting sales, that's, uh, it's a way better trade for your time. 30 years ago, one of my best friends at the time was a career counselor.

And he always said, gather a bouquet of flowers from those that are within reach.

“Oh, so what is it you automatically can do that you can reach, right?”

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Grace is in it, Lanta, Hi Grace, welcome to the Ramsi show. Hi, thank you. How can we help? So trying to come up with some good checks and bounce questions to ask ourselves to ensure a potential decision-making is a good financial one, not just emotional one.

Good, I like that. The fact you're asking the question tells me, you're probably going to be okay. Yeah, you're probably okay, but let's play with the concept for a minute.

“Because I think it's awesome, George, what do you think?”

Yeah, I mean, I got a framework for spending. Is this about a big spending decision? A digital home purchase. Oh, okay. Well, the parameters we have will help you with this.

So walk us through what you're working with. So we are currently babysat seven. Yeah. With our home date off, this home, based on what we would be selling our home for ideally, we would after emptying a non-retirement brokerage account to help with the down payment.

We would only be caring about a $40,000 mortgage in theory. Mm-hmm. What you would pay all costs? Maybe. We were thinking less than two years.

What's your household income? My husband's income is 140 salary, and he usually gets between 20 and 40 in bonuses. So we are just said, any bonus that comes in while some payment. Mm-hmm. Okay.

How old are you? Uh, 32 and 34. What's the current home worth? 400. What's the new home worth?

The offer we would consider is 535. Okay. And what's in the brokerage? It would be just under 100. Yeah.

“We have between two different brokerage accounts.”

We'd be able to, and park from just general savings, not emergency funds. We'd be able to put together about 150. But we want to be able to give ourselves some cushion, again, just we'd have to put in a sense and have some expenses related to the new home.

So other big factor is I'm doing three weeks with our second child.

Oh. How long? Um. And that's where the motion starts playing in. Yeah, for real.

How long have you been dead free? Um, we paid off our home. I actually talked to you about it in 2024 a month before our first board was born. Okay. You have a reputation of buying houses when you're pregnant.

Okay. I feel like that's just how it goes. You did that, George. Yeah. And I counseled you against it, and you did it.

If it's like the worst possible time. But that's how it goes. What's driving the urgency for this? Well, why? Why now?

The, so we had always said we'd probably move within the next three years.

Uh-huh. Nothing. Super set on that. Um, and I know it's a good for George. I don't want to say it.

So one of the things that House popped up, I don't, I'm not going to say I had this amazing opportunity. But, oh, she knows my trigger words. We have an opportunity. Yeah.

Now, that's, I appreciate that. I listen to that. Um, our, the current owner of the other house had already moved out of state and is carrying two mortgages. And they're, the listing agent unpounded to told us he is very negotiable on the price.

And that's where we're thinking we can get that price down to the 535. Do you know what the two mortgages total? Yeah. Find out. That's your first offer.

Okay. Get him out. Hole. That's it. Okay.

I know he, when I look at the selling records, um, he bought the house for three twenty. I don't care what he bought it for. I care what he said it for. I want to sell it. I want to buy it.

“Have you had Combs run by a real estate agent to find out what this house actually worth?”

Yes. And he, he has it currently listed at 575. Okay. Yeah. Here's the thing.

I'm going to, I'm going to love all this guy. When the agent, when the agent unprompted says he's desperate, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to hit him at at his mortgage base and get him. Say, look, you're, I'm, I'm set you free, man. I'm set you free.

You got, you know, you got no walking money, but you're set free. And that's where we're going to start on this. Um, and I'm really good at buying real estate or the, I'll just tell you.

So anyway, that's, that's first thing.

Now, the answer to your original question is, what is the framework? You obviously have listened a lot to this show. And you know that we tell people not to take out more than a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. It's more than worth of your take on pay and have at least a good 20% down payment. If it all possible to avoid PMI, you've definitely destroyed all of that.

You're going to like 90%. You're like, you're completely way over the top on that. The, the, um, the only thing that gives me any pause at all is number one.

dead free.

They want's to go back into that.

I don't. I know, but you're about to. And that's weird. Okay. I'm going to say that out loud.

And the other thing is weird is you're doing all this while you're pregnant. And you're going to move while you're pregnant. You're just, you know, having, we are very maxed on space at our current home. And yeah, well, so what, you know, so, so all that moving truck, it'll be maxed on space. But this is going to be, you know, a little bit maxed on space and by house nine months after the child's born,

you probably got all the cash you need and you pay cash for the same house. Yeah. But if you said, hey, we're going to take on the 40 grand mortgage and pay it off in six months. We're not going to. That's different.

But if it's going to take you years to pay off that, that's the part that worries me.

“Well, he said, they, they said, they paid off in two years on average dependent on the bonuses, right?”

Ideally, quicker is just the bonuses. Yeah. Depend on the bonus. One or two years. None of that is dumb.

You're all way over in the smart column. You're all fine. I can't, I can't tell you that Sharon Ramsey would not move while she's pregnant. That would not be something she would do. Now Whitney did it.

But luckily, you're going to have to listen to finger and me. So you won't have to do anything moving. That's the good news. Yeah. Well, you know, that's part of the budget is.

You'll be yelling at everyone else. Yeah. I didn't. And if I can do the whole, do the same exact deal a year from now and pay cash. I'm a way to year.

Just because I don't want to be in there. Even six months from now. Yeah. We said even six months. No.

Yeah. If it's house popped up. You just want to have a hesitation. Yeah. Just because I don't want to be in there.

It's that simple. And it's like, you know, $535,000 houses in Atlanta are everywhere. And so.

“But if you want to say, OK, Lord, if we can get it at this price, we'll lay a fleece out there.”

Then we're going to think that we're going to call that God's saying to do it. And we're going to put a lowball price on it. Find out what the guys two mortgages are. Maybe it's 500. And maybe you got no mortgage.

Just scrap it all together. Or you dip down a little deeper into the savings and you want to. And you wait on the fence a minute. I don't know. Whatever it is, right? You just kind of figure it out.

But at our house, we don't borrow money. So we would not have been able to do your deal. We would have had to figure out some other way. Either buy it at a deal or wait on another deal to pop up. An opportunity.

Yeah, all that. So yeah, the goal is just how quickly can we get back to baby steps seven. If we're going to do this move. Yeah. Yeah.

And there's nothing in nothing we're discussing with you. This dumb. OK, you're very smart. You've done a great job. You guys are amazing.

Congratulations. You're in the top 1% smart people out there. Excellent job.

I'm just thinking with you that the first thing I want to do is avoid that.

And if not, how quick can I get out of it? And what are some techniques to do that? A lower price point would help. Waiting would help. And that would probably involve a different house.

And so on. But I'm truthfully going to have my real estate agent pull the mortgage debt and figure out what the balances are on these things. Or call the agent who's been so forthcoming.

“And say, OK, what are the balances on those two mortgages?”

And then go, that's our offer. And let him write some checks to cover his fees and stuff. Come out of pocket a little bit and you get him out of dodge. He's in trouble. You got the upper hand.

I've heard you say this day. The person with the most information options and patients wins. Exactly. And you're in that spot. The more patient you can be, the more options you have, the more information you have.

But the mortgages and where they're at. That was an eight hour negotiation class. And two sentences right there. I try to do it again. Do it again.

Then person with the most options information and patients always wins.

Yeah. And that's you. And there's more than one house. Gather all the information about the deal you're doing. No more about it than they know about it.

And then be willing to walk away. How patient? Same goes for a car or literally anything else. Don't get married. But my last house Dave, I lowballed by 80 grand and they took it first try.

Because I ran the numbers. Which means you may shoot a gun lower. Exactly. My real estate agent said you're going to offend them. Apparently not.

Not enough. I should have offended them a little bit. But it's not a little more damage. [ Music ] Back to school time.

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10% off up to a $250 value. See store for details. [Music] Attention all nerds. I'm listening.

All nerds. I've been summoned. Nerd warning. George and I are going to do the nerd event. It's called Investing Essentials.

It's Dave Ramsey's playbook on investing. What I personally do, what I don't do and why. And details on real estate purchases. How I analyze all of that. How I select mutual funds.

And we're going to go into a bunch of legacy stuff. Like how to, you know, some basics in estate planning and how to hand wealth off without ruining your kids. And all of the relational pieces. If you're having trouble sleeping, sign up for this.

We will put you to sleep.

“Unless you're a nerd in which case you will be sitting on the edge of your seat.”

You'll be taking you will be run out of ink with your pen. You will just be taking notes everywhere. It's so dense. It's so full. It's so overwhelming.

It's so boiling over with nerd stuff. You are absolutely going to love it. I think I'm not, I think I don't think. You really sold it there. I don't think I sold a single ticket.

Well, it's September 1st and 2nd. Again, it's virtually you can join from anywhere. And it's about two plus hours both nights.

So you get in four plus hours of content of stuff we've never really talked about at length

with the formulas and super tactical pieces. Based on going over the notes the other day with you and the gang. I'm thinking if we get out into and a half hours each night. We're going to be doing good. So you guys, we just chalk this thing full.

It's everything. So you're going to love it. And you can watch it on dollar too. So you're going to love it. I need to watch this again.

I need to take notes. We're going to give you all that access to a replay. There's different tiers depending on how long you want to replay for. You'll even get it. Daves notes along with it.

With one tier deck. You get the slide deck as well. The slide deck alone will put you to sleep. Let's just put it on your TV and you'll just go. You'll just be gone.

Just like that. And the ticket started at 199 bucks. And if you aren't at least 200 bucks richer over the course of your life from watching the stuff, then that's on you. Yeah, that's all I'm going to say.

“Then you really aren't a nerd and you should not have been here.”

You should not have attended. It is. It's one of our favorite events we do. And the people love when Dave goes deep as much as Dave likes to joke. That nobody wants to hear the stuff.

But we've only done it. We've only done it a couple times, right?

This is like the third time.

We do like once a year. Yeah, but I mean, just a couple times. Yeah. And it's. So it.

And a lot of you come. There's a lot of nerds that people want to know. And even if you're not a nerd, but you aspire to be a. Inspiring nerds are well. Inspiring nerds are well.

We're going to answer your questions as well. You saw me ask. Are welcome. I'm going to use it for bedtime. For my toddler.

I promise. Kittlesleep all night. Absolutely. $109. Hey, it's a virtual event.

It's September one and two. You can click the link right now and go there in the show notes. Or you can go to Ramsey Solutions dot com slash events. All seriousness is that.

That's absolutely going to be incredible.

You will be blown away. I'm so excited to teach this stuff because I've had trouble sleeping. All right, Linda's in Boston. Hey, Linda. What's up?

Hi. I'm good. How are you guys? Better than we deserve. How can we help?

I was on late off. And I don't know how long it will keep me to find a job. So my question. When did you get late off? Two weeks ago.

Okay. How's the job? Coming. It's interesting. What were you making before?

I was making a little around 100,000. Doing what? I was in a sales business analyst. Were you a business analyst or were you selling? I was in sales operations.

I support sales organizations. Okay, my own. Why don't you get late off? Um, be your instructor. Um, okay.

Was there severals?

Oh, much. 90. Oh, awesome. Okay. Now, I'm sorry.

But that helps us to go.

“And the core of your question is what then?”

Um, so because I don't know how long it will take me to find a job.

I'm curious. It finds you just sell. I existing home in downsides. And use whatever profit from selling from the house. To buy something smaller task.

Absolutely not. Now. That's a drastic measure for a temporary problem. That's sort of a last worst worst case scenario. You are up against the wall.

But right now, you've got some cushion, right? My sevens. Yeah. How are you? Right.

And that's assuming you don't find anything. So you get a job at six months. You just put 45 grand in your pocket. If you get a job making the same thing. Yeah.

You got a signing bonus. They did you a huge favor. Yeah.

I didn't think of it that way.

I think I was looking at it more as some stability. And I don't know how long it will take me. Well, you got to hear. If you call me up and you got one month left on your severance, we'll have a different discussion.

Yeah. But I'm also going to ask you why you suck at job interviewing. If you've been looking for a year or two. No, no. I said, if you did do that, you didn't do that.

But I said, if you did, if you told me I've been looking for a job for a year. And I can't find a job. I'm like, you're not very good at sales. You know, I mean, this is. Yeah.

So you're, but you're going to be fine. Because you have the people skills, right? Yes, they go. Okay.

“And that's what's, that's what's missing out there in the marketplace.”

People with people skills. Most people have been raised sucking on an iPhone. And they don't know how to interface with human beings. Right? No.

No. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now these electronic pacifiers are killing us. So, but human beings like you and me that know how to, and George, know how to work

with human beings. I mean, there's a lot of stuff you can do. Which means you utilize your actual physical network of people that you know versus just applying on, you know, in the industry. Do not blindly apply for a job.

It's a complete waste of calories. So that was one of the other things. Like it's cold for the offer. So that way I have a job. No.

Eventually. But, and I want you to pick up something. If you want to. But, in the meantime, and I don't want you to take a job making less. I want you to take a job making more.

Yeah. That was my other dilemma. It's like, I don't, I mean, well, I have to get to take a price cut. But it's human nature when you've been devalued by a stinking corporation to think that you're not worth it. That's human nature.

But I've been talking to you for four minutes. And I know you're worth it. So you, girl, go get a hundred twenty thousand dollar jobs. 120. Say 120.

That's your number. Yeah. 120. That's your number. And what you call me back and tell me you got a hundred twenty thousand dollar

job within six months of getting laid off and put forty five thousand dollars in your pocket. Now, let's go back to the house for a minute. Do you like your house? It's kind of it. I'm single.

It's for bed of those. Do you like your house? Yes.

“I mean, if you still had your job, would you want to downsize anyways?”

Yes, I would. Okay. Then let's talk about downsizing. But I want to do it from a different narrative. It's from strength rather than weakness.

Right. You're not. There's no need to panic. You're going to get a hundred and twenty thousand dollar jobs within two months from today. And, you know, you can just say Dave Ramsey's a liar if it doesn't happen.

You're going to do it. I can just tell. All right. And then downsize your house just because you don't like the house. Got nothing to have been laid off by a sinking corporation.

Okay. That makes sense. Just disconnect those decisions and you'll have more clarity and more patience. Because you're not in a rush. You're not desperate.

Don't don't be a motivated seller. Sell your house for what? There's no reason. No reason to panic. And get a good agent.

You can get one of our Ramsey trusted agents. Ramsey's lesions.com/agent. And they'll actually help you price it strategically and get you out of this thing. And maybe it'll coincide. You'll be moving entering a new job.

It's a whole new chapter. That'd be okay, too. Hey, hang on. We're going to send you a copy of the proximity principle, which is a book that will show you by Ken Coleman.

How to work the people that you have in your network to help get you into. They know somebody that knows somebody. Sometimes it's just one degree or two degrees of separation. They get you in the door, not in a pile of applications. You don't want to just get in a pile of applications and call that job hunting.

That's useless. So don't do that.

And then the second thing we're going to send you is finding the work you're wired to do, which

has an assessment with it that I want you to take. Just to verify what I think I already know about you.

Which is you've got great people skills. You know how to deal with. You've got, you know, you've got good emotional IQ. And that puts you in a different position.

Your second one of those calls by lady we got today.

I need to remind America the highest aid profession is sales. Higher than doctors and lawyers and Indian chiefs. Higher than everything. The ceiling is there.

“If you want to free up margin in your budget.”

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$25 forever requires customers to remain active on boost mobile unlimited plan. [Music] Kirsten is in Fort Wayne, Indiana. How careston, how are you? Good, how are you?

Better than I deserve, what's up?

“I am my husband and I are in baby step five and six.”

And we're looking for advice on when to stop funding our children's 529 versus paying off our mortgage. Very cool. How old are the kiddos? I have a six year old, a three year old and a nine month old. Okay. Well, I mean there's a couple things you can look at on that that are okay with either way.

Obviously, on a very good job with your finances, congratulations. Very few people get to where you are. What's your household income? After take home after taxes and 401k, 10,427 a month. And you're how old again?

I am 33. Oh, wow. My husband is all 33. You're not so much money. Oh, my gosh.

How much is already in the 529s? So our six year old has 62,000. Our three year old has 32,000 and our nine month old has 8,000. Are you working with a smart Vester Pro? Not yet.

Okay. Who's doing the 529s? You all just DIY them? Yep. Okay. All right.

Because George may be able to do it fast enough. Do it as an example with the 62,000. Which one do you do?

Yeah, I can do the 62 because that's the one that's coming up first, right?

And he's 12 years from now? Yeah, he's six. Okay. That'll be 24,000. If you add nothing to it.

You just let it coast. If you get an average 10% return. If you're in some good mutual funds in there. 200 grand. So now you can kind of figure out, hey, let's say they go to an

In-state school factor in inflation over the next 12 years. 200 grand sounds good. Or you may decide, hey, let's put a little bit more in to get to 250. Because they're like, get scholarships as well. Well, the other thing is, I don't want to over fund a 529.

“Yeah, that's what we're worried about over funding.”

Personally, I want to pay for their scholarship. I'm not sure 204 will be enough to send them to school. Ruman Board included. Pretty sure it's not going to be enough 12 years from now. But it's going to be real close.

Okay. And he might decide to go into a trade or something and don't need anywhere near that. So another kid might go to a super expensive school. And now we can use those funds and change beneficiaries.

I'm probably not putting anymore in that one. Okay.

at a 10% rate or 12% rate or whatever number you want to use,

you can use the Ramsey calculator on our website and do that. That's what George was using. Okay. At RamseySolutions.com jump on there. It's free.

Okay. And we just future valued. What's 62,000 going to be worth in 12 years at 10%. That's all we put in. Okay.

And it came out 244.

“And then you have to ask yourself, is that enough?”

I don't think it's going to be enough. But it's going to be so stinking close with the kind of income you got. The other wealth you're going to have that I really wouldn't worry about it. I think I'd probably stop that one. That's a factor.

You guys are going to be so much wealthier. 12 years from now that you can likely cash flow any gap. And if you don't use it, you can roll over up to 35 grand over time with the new secure act 2.0 into a Roth IRA for that kid. I did see that which is exciting.

It's kind of a pain though.

I wouldn't do everything counting on that.

The only advantage of a 529 versus dumping money just into the kid's name is a gross tax free. That's the only advantage. It's not that it won't grow. So you could open just a mutual fund in the kid's name. And until it reaches the point that it actually pays taxes, which will be a while.

But if it did pay taxes on it, you're going to lose some of it to taxes. That's the only difference. And so I'm not putting anymore in that kid's 529. That one. Now do the other ones.

Yes. Here's your figure out where it is. You think you have 142 by the time they're headed to college. You may want to fund that one a little bit more. Yeah.

“What I might do is say, OK, if 204 is the baseline,”

I'm going to set the other two up to land at 204 based on their age. Yeah. Maybe with inflation. Yeah. Or maybe a little more because of that.

I wasn't that sophisticated. I'll tell you what I did, which is kind of fun. Just for the heck of it.

Because 529's weren't there when our kids were doing this.

You had education savings account to that point? No, they weren't even there. Wow. Now we just had a uniform transfer to miners act, which means I just opened a mutual fund in the kids' name. And all I did was the nieces, the oldest.

And I put her in the calmest type of mutual fund of growth in income. Rachel's the middle. So I put her in a growth. And Daniel was the baby. I put him in an aggressive growth.

And I didn't put as much in his because he was the baby. And it was going to grow faster, but it had more risk. And they all turned out about the same. I'm really, really close. It's a good experience.

Just generally dropping them in there. I didn't. Didn't touch them after that. I just dropped a chunk in there and went. And then what ended up happening, weirdly Christian,

Kirsten, is this. In that case, by the time the kids got to college in our case. And this is probably what you're going to run into. They went to the University of Tennessee State School. And I just wrote a check.

Cash flow. And when they got out and got married, I handed them that up. My account to start their lives with. Okay. Now you're going to have to use this 529 on education.

So you're not going to be able to do that plan. But if you do a side deal and you don't end up. Like beyond the oldest child that we're talking about 204 from 62. If you do a side deal and you just open a mutual fund in their name. A uniform transfer to miners at UTMA.

Then you can do that with your smart investor pro. They can help you figure all this out. Then what will happen is you can just hand it to them if they don't need it for college. And so it's perfect. It's perfect to do all that.

“And that's how it ended up working out in our house.”

But again, those tools were not all available. I had to pay some taxes on their account says they grew. There's more options now that ever excites nice. But also can be overwhelming. So we're actually walking through that in our investing essentials event.

It's all the ways you could invest for your kid. What's the best account for what reason is it education? Is it a wedding, a down payment? Whatever it is. There's the right kind of account to use.

Oh, we're going to cover that in the next event. That's right. At least I am. I don't know what you're going to do. I plan on it because I got young kids.

So I'm thinking about this all the time. Okay. All right. Well, I got grandkids. Your kids have launched.

They're okay. I got grandkids. But that means my kids have to think about it. That's their problem now. You did your part.

That's fun. Oh, man. I love it. Claudia's in Washington, D.C. Hi, Claudia.

What's up? Hi, Ramsey. So honored to be in the show. I have a big question for you. Should I change my car?

Should I repair it? What's your car worth today? If it was repair. The dealer says 12k. Corvina says 13k.

As is? Or if it was repaired? As is. Oh. What's wrong with it?

So I just pay about $1,000 in repairments. And I need to put three more according to the dealer, because I need to do some replacements. We're bearing an arm bush or something like that. That will be a total $3,000 that I'll have to pay.

So should I put that amount towards? I don't think it's going to make your car worth $3,000 more.

Yeah, you think it cars going to go from 13 to 16, but I put in wheel bearings.

No, no, no. I'll also don't know if you need wheel bearings or not. I want you to go get a regular mechanic, not a dealer. It's an independent mechanic. Deal like the lack of a Christian brothers and let them do it.

I've done analysis for you. Dealerships are not crooked. They're just super expensive. Right. The most expensive place to get a car fixed.

They can pretty much charge what they want of it. Sometimes double. So if they told you 3,000 Christian brothers might tell you 1,500, I don't know.

I don't know what your repairs are.

And I'm not turning rinsions these days. So I'm not positive, but you check on it and look at it. Okay. And the other thing you ask is what? What is a reasonable repair to a car of this age in this miles?

Because sometimes I run into somebody Claudia for instance that has a $3,000 car. That's $250,000.

“And they're saying you need to redo the whole suspension.”

Now you don't. It's a $3,000 car. Nobody redo the suspension on a $3,000 car. You drive them to the junkyard and you toss somebody the keys and you walk away. You don't put $3,000 in a $3,000 car.

And you don't redo the suspension on a $250,000 car unless you're rebuilding a classic car from the frame up. So some of these repairs that they suggest, yeah, you could do this. But no reasonable human would do that to a $13,000 car. And so a good mechanic or look at you and go, it's not common sense. Okay, don't do it.

And if it was my wife's car, I wouldn't do it. That's the kind of mechanic I want, right? You might take your three grand. You would have spent plus what the car is worth and go get you a different car altogether at that point. Might be a better plan.

Hey, George Campbell here. Listen, if you're behind on dead payments and drowning in debt, I already know what you're thinking. I can't afford a lawyer to help.

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The attorney advertising results may vary in no specific outcomes guaranteed. Welcome back to the Ramsy show when the fair wins credit union studio. Dante is with us in San Francisco. Hey Dante, what's up? Hey Dave, thanks so much for taking my call.

Sure. How can we help? Yeah, so I've been with my girlfriend for about three and a half years now. And I'm considering proposing. We're both fresh out of college just to live together for about a year now. And we're doing pretty well financially for age.

The issue is that we're both Chinese. Well, I guess that's not the issue. But her family follows some traditional Chinese marriage traditions that my family does not. In her family, the expected to give her parents about $30 to $40,000 as a dowry or bride price. And there's also significant pressure to have a large traditional Chinese wedding. And then my girlfriend and I are both not particularly interested in having been spending a lot on a wedding.

“I think her parents and extended family strongly expected.”

I like her a lot. I like her parents a lot. They're great, but my concern is just that even with our income right now. This would cause a preview, especially down the line for our savings. Like what is your income? So we are both making around 175k each gross each.

So if you were married, you'd be making a $350,000 household income. Yes. Okay. Now, so have you made the decision that you're going to honor both of these requests regardless? Or are you trying to work through?

Are you trying to work through if you're going to set a boundary here or not? I'll be honest, it's probably looking like I would say leaning towards the efforts for both. The bride price is something that is, I think, just very standard in her family.

or be, I'd be on very bad terms with them to be in the marriage, and I don't want to be like that.

So I'm lying we need towards doing both. Okay.

“And so it's 30,000, and then how much is the traditional wedding going to cost?”

I would say I don't actually know I'm not super close and how much normal wedding is even, but I would say we're looking at roughly $75,000 to $100,000. I would guess, that sounds right. Okay. So we need, let's call it 130 for the fun of it, and you make 350.

And I mean the first thing you've got to decide is that you're really going to do this, and both of you are going to do it in spite of whatever. Okay. That's hard because you sound, I don't know what to say this properly. I don't know what the proper politically correct thing. You sound very Americanized,

distanced from those traditions. Yes, I personally, my family is very American. Correct. That's, I don't, I hope that wasn't offensive or something, but I just, you sound like this doesn't,

like it, you know, it's not something you would do in a million years,

but it kind of goes with the package. Yes. Now is the expectation that you're going to personally fund all of this, or she involved with her income? Is she willing to say it would say the, the diary and the bride price,

this is something that I would personally fund. Technically her parents would actually give that amount back and more, but it would go into an account solely in her name. That personally, I don't have a huge problem with it. Oh, wait, miss.

So the wedding, you're not going to have to pay for all of it. No, the, well, the bride price would be $30,000 from me to her, basically. I got it. That goes into an account and her parents are going to give you more money

for this big, traditional wedding.

It's more, it's more likely not for the wedding specifically. It's more just for her to have, I guess, like a safety net. That's kind of how it works, sometimes. Yeah, but can you spend that all of that on the wedding? No, that would come from, I guess, our joint account.

Okay, so it is a net loss of 130 or so. Okay. So let's say she covers 50, you cover 50 for the wedding, plus you're 30 or 40.

“Yeah, so you need to save up about $90,000 out of your income.”

Let's say over the next 12 months. Yeah, 18 months. Yeah, and I got my question with mostly just, this is something that I want to do. Is it something that I should kind of just say like screw it and let's do it now? Is it something that I should say?

I need to save up and hold on more of this. How should I budget for it accordingly? I guess it's my main question. Yeah. Well, I don't emotionally from the Hillbilly culture connect to this tradition.

So, because most of ours are like shotgun weddings, right? It's on the other end of the spectrum. So, you know, I can't give my head around, but what I do want to respect is that you're going to be married to her for a long time, and it's going to involve her parents.

And so I tell you what I probably would want to do. And as respectfully as I could, are they in China, her parents? No, her parents are in America. Okay, that's even better. I would want the two of you to sit down with her and her parents and say,

we'd want to honor you, but you also need to understand that we were raised here, and that if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't do any of this. The only reason we would do any of this is for you.

“Is there any amount of this that you would forgive and not force us to do?”

Yeah, I think she's actually had a conversation with that. It's just individually her with her parents. And this is probably like a few months back through your back, maybe. And they were saying, like, oh, yeah, like if you don't ever want to propose, these are the things you're going to have to do.

You're going to have to come up to us, like ask for our blessing. I'm now interested in that, what's 30 to 40. That's probably the request of the mountains, and then also provide it until it gets in stuff. And I think that's their expectation.

I would get real clear on the numbers and not let this become someone limited thing that you just keep funding, at least that'll give you clarity. So I know what the numbers are for everything, the wedding, the dowry, and then figure out, okay, who's covering what's my portion? And then you set up a sinking fund.

If you're going to go through this, I got to say four grand a month for the next 18 months to cover all of this. Are you going to spot financially? I did that. Man, this is hard for me because I'm having trouble, and you are, too.

That's why you call. I'm having a lot of trouble being required to ride 130,000 or check that I have absolutely no desire to ride. I'm having trouble with that. But I'm not very compliant.

I'm more defiant.

I think if I'm, I would probably sit down with her father one to one and say,

“okay, I heard what you told my potential fiance, your daughter,”

but I want you to hear from me. I don't want to do any of it. And so I want to figure out what I can do that is honoring because the only reason I'm doing anything is to honor you. And I don't have to do any of it.

She'll just go marry me. So we really need to talk about this. And so, you know, and just see if there's any bud here. I don't know. I mean, at the end of the day,

what I sacrifice relationships with the end laws for the rest of my life

for an X number of dollars when I make $350,000 a year.

No, I probably wouldn't. But, boy, do I hate blackmail? It does feel a little bit like that. You know, I just don't like that. I mean, it's just a ransom note.

Yeah. But, again, it's my, that, that, that,

“it's a cultural difference between being a hillbilly and being Chinese.”

And so, I, I have to admit that intellectually outside that this is my emotions talking. I would just be like, eh. But, I mean, what if he didn't make 175? What if he made 60?

It's an unreasonable request.

Yeah, what's unreasonable request anyway. But, it's traditional. And, you know, it's the 15-year-old birth day party if you're Hispanic, right? And we spend a little kids in here.

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Good day, how are you? Better than I deserve, what's up? Yeah, so I just had a question. I'm -- thanks for having me out by the way, too. I feel like, you know, time's catching up on me with retirement,

and just really looking for a clear path to get back on track. My question is, you know, really should I, you know, just put off contributing to retirement, my wife and I both were both 42 years old, and just concentrate on our debt, or, you know, continue contributing to retirement, and it's not a big deal for that.

We're currently living paycheck to paycheck right now, between the two of us. We've made $235,000 a year. It's kind of embarrassing.

“And really, I think that's stuck in these five now pay later,”

like deals, and how much debt and economic credit cards. And consumer debt with fuel loans and everything, 187,000, not counting our mortgage rate. How much do you owe in your course? One car is 31,000 left on it alone,

and the other is 17,000. Okay, so what's the other 130,000? Credit cards and some personal loans, and 30,000, and still long. So you just, you guys, you borrow, you spend money like you're in Congress.

I won't say the last six months on my, I had gotten any of where I got the $50,000. How long have you been making $235,000? Probably at least a year and a half. Okay, what were you making before that?

Right around probably like 180 between both of us. Okay. So it's fair to say there's absolutely no bridal on your spending. Until just recently. Yeah, and when I just have an epiphany,

actually I'll watch your TikToks that I stole up on TikToks, your videos, and I really saw it. I was using you on TikToks. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, "Oh, Dave's going to get me."

Oh, my god. Oh, my god. That's exactly it. I did a figure this out. No, you know, I appreciate that.

But the bottom line is the emotion is,

you looked in the mirror and said, "I'm a 42 year old man. I'm at $235,000 a year." And we can't control our spending. This is disgusting.

And it had nothing to do with my TikTok.

“You're just really just came to an epiphany, didn't you?”

Yeah, I mean, I'd do it. You know, and I'm just thinking about it like that. I feel like I can't even enjoy like foods by labor. Like getting where I am, you know, making decent money. Oh, you've already enjoyed the fruits of your labor,

you've spent every fruit of your labor, and then fruits of other people's labor. And that's $187,000 worth. Yeah. Well, a lot of it's on our kids, I would say.

Well, then your kids say that. Yeah. Then you learn a new word. You'll maybe teach it to you. I don't think the kids do that.

No. No. And kids don't have car loans. But they go, "You guys do anything you want to do whenever you want to do it without any thought of it."

And that's stop. You're going to grow up. All of you. All of them, the kids, and you. No, is the answer.

We're freaking broke. We're broke. We're broke. We're broke. We're broke.

People can't do that. We're not going out to eat. We're not going on vacation. We're cutting up all the credit cards tonight. We're going to sell the $31,000 car.

And we're going to live on beans and freaking rice. And all we do is work and pay off debt. And we're going to clean this mess up in about two years. But you're going to go to scorched freaking earth. You're going to go all the way to the other end of the spectrum with great intensity.

If you do that, you're going to retire with millions of dollars. If you don't do that, you're going to continue to be normal. And as you and I have both established in this calm, like normal sucks. It's not fun.

Your life is not fun. Yeah. It's stressful. Yeah.

Always worried if I lost my job or what happened.

You're going to be screwed and you're going to retire broke. So stop all your retirement. If you don't do this stuff, it's going to catch you. Because you guys, you're pretty extreme mess here. You're going to have to take some extreme measures to reset your all's brains on how money works.

So think about this. If you paused investing, could you then take home 10, 12, 15, and a month with your income, making 2,35?

“Yeah, I think I do about 600 into my retirement month.”

Okay. So we'll get that back on top of anything else that we can muster up sell the $31,000 car. That brings us to about 156 and consumer debt. Now you throw seven grand at that thing a month. You're done in less than two years.

By 45, you've a fully funded emergency fund. You're completely debt free and you're investing in retirement 15%, which is way more than 600 bucks a month. And if you invest 15% and of your income in the retirement, you can easily do it with no payments, right?

45 to 65. So you're going to spend the millions and millions of dollars at retirement. But the next two years are going to suck. Yeah, it's comfy off. Good eye.

Your kids are going to hate Dave Ramsey. They're going to have to join the Dave Ramsey Support Group on Facebook. Yeah, why I keep telling them they need to learn how to save now and not because I mean. Yeah, yeah. Because you know what they're going to do when they grow up, what you do.

More is cotton taught. How old are they here? 9 and 11. Oh, that's perfect. You got time to save them.

If they're teenagers, I don't know if you could turn it around or not. But you know, but right now they get to watch their parents sacrifice to win. And they're going to remember it the rest of their lives.

And when they inherit 10 million dollars at your death,

they're going to say, back in all 26, Daddy and Mama said they wasn't going to do this anymore in the whole life changed, right? Mm-hmm.

“Some day, that's what they're going to be sitting on.”

But you're going to be the old man that changed the whole thing some day.

Yeah. You ready to do it? Well, help you, okay? I think you can do it. Yeah.

“And actually, the reason I kept you on here so long is I think you're disgusted enough to actually do it.”

It requires a certain level of being pissed off to do it. Oh, yeah, I'm Superman. I can sense it, yeah. And it's not mad at somebody. It's mad at the situation.

And mad at the mess I made. And I'm not going to do this anymore. I've had it. When you have that moment and I can tell from talking to you, that's why I keep you on the line.

You've had that moment. If you were just blowing me off on all this stuff, I would already blown you off. So, but you do it. I'm proud of you.

I think you can do this. And I'm telling you, if you do it. So stop the 401k. Sell the 31,000 out of car. Get on the every dollar budget.

“We're going to give you the upgraded version for free.”

Get signed up on it. I'm going to send you a copy of the total money make over book. You and your wife read through it and go. We want a life making 235,000 with no payments, but a house payment.

And we're going to retire 20 years from today with tens of millions of dollars. And I think you will. The numbers say you will. I'm the retirement, though. Should I go all the way down to zero?

Zero. Zero. You've got to focus on the enemy right now. And the enemy is your overspending that is created dead. Yeah.

And you've got to focus on that with such intensity that people think you've joined a cult. Like your broke friends are making fun of you. Look at Mikey, he makes 200 grand and he can't go out to eat. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

You know, I'll kiss my butt. I'm not going to be broke anymore. I'm changing. You do whatever you want to. Broke person and you just move on.

You may need some different friends. So that this is the thing. You've got to reset your brain on how this stuff works. Do where you get above this problem and step on it instead of it. Step on you.

Because this money subject's been kicking your butt. Your whole wife.

You've never been able to tell it what to do.

It's always told you what to do. That changes this week, Mike. It has to. Because if you just make more, you're just going to spend more. Until you say, I've had enough.

We just found that out. When you've got to raise your 30, 35. Yeah. Third of people making six figures are paycheck to paycheck. And a lot of people think, well, if I just made more,

I'd get out of this. I'd draw doubt on my stupidity. I couldn't do it. Because I had a lot of stupidity. And more you make the bigger the zeros on the end of the stupidity.

It's exactly right. Big or mess, you get to clean up. So hang on, Mike. We're going to send you a total money makeover.

10 million people have used that to get out of that.

And become wealthy. I want you and your family to become wealthy. And be able to do anything you want to do. But it's going to cost you two years to clean up your last 10 years of stupidity. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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All right, Brian is with us. And Dallas, what's up, Brian? Hey Dave, how are you? Better than I deserve, how can I help? Hi, so I'm wondering since the rates are really high right now.

My timeline is about 16 months or so to look into buying the house. Should I look into getting an assumption though? There's no such thing. There's not. No.

“The only loans that can be assumed have to be reset and you have to qualify for them,”

and they'll raise the rate. Oh, right, but you wouldn't go into their rate? No, I can't. Oh. Where'd you hear this?

Okay. Uh. Yeah, I'll talk. Take talk. Yeah, take talk.

Yeah, take talk. It gets a lot of clicks and views on take talk, but they're so rare because of how

many stipulations have to take place that they pretty much never happened.

Yeah. So in the 1970s, loans that were FHA loans, HUD loans were fully assumable without qualification and the interest rate did not move. They did away with that in the early 80s. And that's the last time there have been fully assumable loans.

All other loans have, for instance, in a fanny may, a conventional date of trust. Paragraph 17, if you actually want to look it up. In paragraph 17, it's called a due on sale clause, meaning that the entire mortgage is due upon the sale of the property. And they will call the entire loan.

Okay. Now, if that entity, let's say that's with a bank, and they're using that, and they have that paragraph 17 in their deed address. If they want to allow you to assume it, they're going to qualify you, and they're going to reset the rate to current rates.

Otherwise, they would rather just get paid off, because they'd rather get that 2% loan off the books and re loan the money at 6% current rates. So they don't want that loan out there at the current rates. Now, let's fast forward one more time, Brian, since you called and we're in the teaching business here, the TikTok idiots, what they are suggesting is going to get you fried, because

there is a thing in the Get Rich Quick Real Estate world, where you just go in and you don't register the deed, and you keep the property in the other guy's name, and you agree to pay him by contract or contract for deed, or whatever phrase they want to use for it. But once the mortgage company discovers that in effect the title has been transferred, even though it wasn't recorded, they're going to call the loan and foreclose on the property.

So if you follow these TikTok morons on a sum alone without the bank's knowledge, hiding it from them, that's a fraudulent transaction, you're going to get foreclosed on and lose

“all your money. And you should, because you're a freaking liar, you lied.”

Okay, and that's what these guys are teaching you to do. It's a fraudulent technique. It's a lying technique by which you lie, and it's called contract for deed. You can do it that way, and it's a wrap around mortgage. These are all phrases we used in the 70s and 80s when we could actually utilize those old FHA loans, legally, and without being fraudulent, and we could wrap around them, we could do all kinds of stuff, but you cannot

do that with modern mortgage documentation. They have the ability to call the loan and they will. As soon as they discover, you're screwing with them, and they should. And you need to cover the cash gaps. Whatever the home was worth, whatever the loan is, you've got to cover the difference in cash. Well, it must be the best thing you don't have to flip this house. Take talker wants to say, okay, you owe 140. We're going to sell you the house for 200.

We owe 140 on it, and the last lady we bought it from, we never paid off her mortgage.

It's still sitting there because we wrapped it, and now we're going to let you wrap it up to 200. And they're going to let you pay the whole loan to them, and they're supposed to pay the underlying, and never transfer the title. The title's not in your name. It's a mess. And so, you're what's known as screwed. The first time something happens. I mean, the house burns down.

There's no insurance on the stupid house, because you can't put the insurance in your name,

because the mortgage company knows who the name of the insurance company is in, because they got a copy of it, because their name is on it, too, as a payable, as a payee in the event of a fire. And so, good, Lord. It's just, it's just so crooked.

“So if the interest rates that are deciding factor just means you need to wait until you can afford that thing with current rates.”

Yeah. And by the way, 6% is what we're sitting at today, 5.9 on a 15-year fixed. By definition, that is not high. By definition, that is low. In compared to historical data, it's dramatically low. 6% should cause a real estate boom. The interest rates are not what's holding people back. Okay.

It's fact you got all these other loans. You got no control of your money, and you don't have the money to put, you know, having to say to the money and you're trying to buy a house you can't afford in a city you can't afford to live in. This is, these are the problems you get into.

So, yeah, please Brian, don't listen to people doing real estate deals on TikTok.

Good Lord. That's the worst possible. That's as bad as Reddit. These are the two sources of sewage. It's just, it's just raw sewage. You will die from salt raw sewage. It'll kill you. Jacob is in Oklahoma. Hi, Jacob. What's up? Well, sir, I am currently in the Air Force, and they are sending me from Oklahoma to Alaska.

I currently only have a motorcycle, and I'm trying to determine if it is a good idea to finance a more reliable car, or purchase a cheaper, possibly, issue written car to save my cash reserves. So, your only options are go deeply into debt, or buy a car that's going to explode on the interstate. That's what you just said, exactly. Okay, I just want to make sure we are clear here.

What's the motorcycle worth? I'd probably worth around six grand.

Okay, why don't you buy a six grand car?

Uh, I just, I don't know if six grand is going to, I do reliable enough. Oh, absolutely well. It won't be pretty, and it won't attract chicks. You got a girlfriend? But, uh, not right now.

He's going to Alaska. We'll find one over there. But here's the truth. There are $6,000 cars that will run just fine. Get a pre-purchase inspection.

It'll cost you 150 bucks. You'll know if there's issues ahead of time. And you're probably better off just buying Alaska. It's a little more expensive, but shipping one to Alaska is not cheap either.

“So how long are you going to be stationed there, Jacob?”

The Air Force will cover the shipping of one vehicle. Oh, Oklahoma to Alaska and, uh, I'll be in Alaska for four years. Okay, yeah, then get you a great $6,000 car and cover the shipping. You don't have any other money I take it other than the motorcycle. I have about 15 cane cash.

Oh, great. So how expensive do you want a car do you want? You don't want 21. What do you make? Yeah.

I make about $2,500 a month. So $30,000 a year or anything like that. So you've got 21,000 if you sell the motorcycle. How much do you want to spend on a car? I was probably looking to spend around 10 to 12k.

Or just ride a check. You think that's a good idea as opposed to trying to save some of that money. A thousand percent do not buy a car with a car payment, ever. The rest of your whole life. Taking on a car payment is a terrible way to save money.

It's a guaranteed way to stay in the middle class the rest of your life. It's the most expensive thing we buy that goes down in value. I'd ride that motorcycle in the coal, baby, and Alaska before I go into debt. But you don't need to sell the motorcycle. You got 21,000, you pay $12,000 for a car, ship it up there.

And you got a little money in the back and you're, you know, not a lot to do up there anyway, so just stack your money. Hey guys, it's Rachel Cruz. When it comes to life insurance, most people fall into one of two camps. The ones who make a plan to protect their family,

and the ones who hope everything will just work out. But hope isn't a financial plan. When you get married or have kids, your money decisions aren't just about you anymore. Your income helps keep the lights on, pay the mortgage, and put food on the table.

“And if something happens to you, will your family have protection or uncertainty?”

Well, at Ramsey, we recommend term life insurance that 10 to 12 times your income with a 15 to 20 year term for the years that your kids are at home and your mortgage is still being paid off.

They're an independent broker who works for you,

shopping all the top companies to find the most competitive prices on coverage you need. Get instant quotes online in just minutes at Xander.com or call 800-356-4282 to get your family protected with term life insurance. That Xander.com or 800-356-4282. (Music)

So when our grandkids turn 10, Sharon and I take them on trips somewhere, and Rachel's oldest daughter, Amelia, and the niece's oldest daughter, Lydia, we're ready for their 10 year old trips, so we took them to Washington, D.C. And we tour around to all the monuments and all the monuments and all the stuff. And traveling with pop-a-davis cool because pop-a-davis don't do anything except luxury.

Travel anymore. That's right. You got it made. We get a VIP tour guide so we like going the back door,

“not because it's Dave Ramsey just because I wrote a check for the guide, right?”

You pay for the premium exit. Going the back door and you get in five minutes before everybody else into the, you know, archived, national archives to see the declaration of independence. And you know, 35 minutes later there's 2,000 people standing there. But yeah, you don't want to be in there in the middle of that.

But, I mean, it's wonderful to see this. So we went all around Washington, D.C. with walking around with the grandkids and the tour guide and Mount Vernon, and the capital and got to tour the White House. They were in a Malania staff.

First lady's staff was very nice to allow us to do that.

Said it all up. It was very cool. But the fun thing was, everywhere we went, we would run into somebody who recognized me. Rachel was with us to recognize me.

Rachel said, "Hey, thanks for what you do. You change our life and can we get a picture or whatever?" And all this stuff. And we're walking along the sidewalk. And this guy is sitting on the sidewalk with a cooler beside him.

Y'all and, you know, co-water, gatorade, co-water, gatorade, just a street vendor, right? And I walked by and he goes, "Shut up, Dave Ramsey." And I said, "Absolutely, dude, who are you?"

“And I stood there and talked to him for a minute.”

He goes, "Hey, man, this is my side hustle. I'm making really good money, so I'm bottle water to the tour." For getting out of debt, this is my side hustle. How cool was that? That was incredible.

That was fun. And we got this one in too. So we run into a lot of different people. I got to hear a lot of wonderful stories. Hey, crew.

I saw Dave Ramsey and his daughter and grandkids at the capital building about two weeks ago. I was walking through the capital with my five boys. I saw them. I wanted to shake his hand and thank him for saving me from my life

of debt and endless years in the workforce. I've raised my five boys. My husband's single military income. All because I was introduced to Dave Ramsey and the Ramsey team around the age of 16.

I followed the program ever since. At 36, I'm pursuing a flight career. Dead-free. My husbands were tiring for the military. About five years to start his own business.

We're so grateful.

“This particular trip sent me over my budget.”

And I was just mulling that over in my head when the budgeting master appeared. Don't run that. How great is that? Yoda, right?

The guilt of my overstretched budget. And what I would equate to financial idol of mine appearing before my eyes wrecked my whole day. And she didn't even say hi. She walked away.

Oh, that's fun. And if you could invest my endless appreciation to him. Well, we appreciate your endless appreciation. Sometimes she said I didn't want to disturb him or his family on their vacation.

You're not ever disturbing us.

We're always honored to meet anybody.

I disturbed Dave more than anyone. Well, that. I don't care. Vacation or not? Maybe.

But see. Yeah. I mean, we, we, it's often times somebody will say something nice to us. And Rachel told me one of the, the security guys at the White House. You know, full camo huge gun.

He leaned over and said, I make all the cocktails for smart money. Happy hour. I don't miss an episode. Yeah. Wow.

A bunch of these guys were checking into the Senate building. And one of those guys leaned over and said, yeah. Smart money happy. A different guy, too. Yeah.

The smart money happy. I was right popular, George. There's a few people out there in Washington. Do you see watching your drama? They need to decompress after all the drama over there.

So that's all we're here for. Exactly right. Well, thanks to all of you. We appreciate all of you that listen and all of you that say nice things. We really do.

Thank you very much. Jordan is in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, Jordan. How are you? I'm good.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you so much for taking my call. And I want to say on behalf of my family.

Thank you. My parents took SPU when I was a kid and they changed our family tree, which has set my sister and I up for success. Wow. Congratulations to my question.

Very cool. At 30 years old, my husband and I are sitting at 140,000 in retirement.

it gives me 4.6 million without me contributing anymore.

“Is there ever a point in time that you can consider baby steps for dying or completed?”

No, I always invest.

I didn't stop investing when I had a first million dollars.

I kept investing because the money then gives me options for a couple things that are very important, spiritually and emotionally to me. It gives us three things. One is it gives me additional security, which is not a big deal. Once you get past $10 million dollars, you're not worried about that.

And the second thing it gives me is the ability to completely, as you said about your parents, change my family tree, and you know, $10 million does a lot more than one million. And the third thing, it does is it increases my ability for generosity. And so, I mean, if you had $10 million dollars, you're making $1 million a year and growth. You can give away $1 million dollars a year and still have $10 million dollars for the rest of your life.

That's kind of fun, by the way. I highly suggest it. So, no, I don't stop building wealth. I always enjoy some.

I always have a generosity factor that's substantial and more substantial.

The percentages don't change a lot, but the numbers change. And I always have investing. My whole life, I have, and I teach everybody that, and I've always done it. I wouldn't tell you to stop enjoying it. Except for a short period of time while you're in baby step two, right?

And no, I get what you're saying, but I don't know what you're going to do with all the money you're wasting in the meantime. So, you can do all of that and still have a great life. If you can keep investing 15% of your income, the rest of your life, and still have a wonderful life. Money is a tool. And so, you have more money.

We have more options for what you can do with those options. That's what it is. And so, I like having options. And we don't know that, I mean, to factor in 35 years. We just don't know what your future holds and what, you know, life events are going to happen.

I'd rather be investing for the future and have more than I need than not enough. And, you know, if you don't need it and you don't want to give it to your family and give it away. Help somebody with it. You've got the gift of getting an early start to gift of getting an early education. And you've done very well so far, but you do only have 140,000 dollars.

That's not much really in the scope of life. So, let's go get some more and that's not greed. It's just saying, this gives me options. It gives me security. It gives me the ability to be generous and it gives me the ability to change my family tree.

And make sure that this is the last ugly Ramsey and this branch to be dead in debt and bankrupt. You know, it can stop here. If I teach them and I leave them zeros, lots of zeros.

“You have to teach them, you have to leave lots of zeros.”

And, you know, I can be the last one. I mean, somebody's got to be home in Vanderbilt, right? Somebody's got to be old lady, Rockefeller. Somebody's got to break the chain in this family and change it. Break the curse of poverty, the curse of being in debt.

The curse of mediocre mindset and stupid socialism ideas. Somebody's got to break those curses off of my family and it might as well be me. And it might as well be you. And so that's the way I look at it. I don't want to get stuck with any of that anymore.

And the math is incredible. And you look at the ROI of a dollar when you're 30. I mean, if she puts in a thousand bucks a month, let's say, for the next 35 years, instead of that four point, something million, she'll have 8.3 million. And that's only, she's put in an extra 400 grand to get an extra 4 million out.

That's a pretty sweet vending machine right there. So as far as, you know, your money goes. Better in truckie cheats. Pretty good bang for your buck right there. And again, it changes the life you can't have and the options you have.

And your family trick.

So the answer is no, I wouldn't. I would have a steady stream of generosity, a steady stream of enjoyment,

and a steady stream of investing the rest of your life.

“And that's how what I've done also, I'm asking you something I didn't do.”

And it's made me a really good life. I wouldn't be able to want to be me. All right, Sofia is in Salt Lake. Hey, Sofia, what's up? Oh, no, you're not. No, you're not worth the end of the hour.

We're going to come back to you, Sofia. There's another hour and you're going to be just fine, don't worry about it. And you take people that don't know how to get that other hour. Well, you're going to teach about YouTube and podcasting, I guess. We'll get you there, I promise.

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio.

Susan is with us in Orlando. Hi, Susan, how are you? Good, thank you. My husband and I would love to know if we're being too generous, too soon. We opened up a non-profit cat cafe over two years ago for our son, who's 24 years old, who has

down syndrome. And we adopt out cats, we partner with Easterseal, so that other people with disabilities have more experiences and we also use it as a ministry by playing Christian music, giving away Bibles and Christian literature. But.

Okay, I'm helping with this, because I need to understand what a cat cafe does. It's made up from summer. It's like a living room environment for the cats to roam around while people come in and visit and socialize with them and then have the ability to adopt them out.

“Okay, so your question is how are you being too generous?”

So you set up and operate this whole thing. Yes. Out of your pocket. Yes. Has a gift.

Yes. Okay.

All right, and of course, you did not expect it to be a business.

You expected for this to lose money, correct? We were hoping to break even. How would you do that? Do people pay fees to adopt the cats? They do.

Correct. Okay. And, but they're not doing that often enough? Or are you not charging? We don't have enough.

We did increase just recently the cost, but we're not getting enough customers or community involvement. So it might be just because we've only been around for a couple years and the word isn't out yet. How much are you losing every month doing this?

We're losing 4,000 a month. And what is your net worth? 1.7 million. Okay. So 50,000.

How old are you?

I'm 48 and my husband is 60.

I earn 1.87 a year. In addition to what your investments do. Correct. And I'm still we're investing 18.5 per month or total.

“But do you can handle with the numbers you're giving me?”

A 50,000 dollar year donation to the world of cats or whatever. We want to call it, right? This is an idea. Have you formed it as a non-profit? It is, it's a 5013 fee.

So we do get tax benefits. Okay. But you do not solicit outside donations only fee for the cats. We have a little bit, but self-reportedly we have not done well with asking for money. Yeah, that's not shocking.

Okay. And how many cats did you adopt out, say, in the last 12 months as an example? Well, it's 232 and the last two years. So about 15. Okay.

All right. So 10 a month. Okay. And they chart and you charge what? Um, well, about 150 per count.

But we give most of that back to the rescue so they can continue their effort. They microchips, they vaccinate. Um, they stayed in under the cats. Before they send them here. Yeah.

Correct. So these are all rescued animals. They are.

“So how much are you actually bringing them to them?”

That's included though. Oh, but so it's just your operation. So yeah. So you break even. You're not collecting any fees towards your operation.

So your operation is just all out of pocket. Yeah. For grand a month. Yeah. Are you leasing a building for this?

Is that what's going on? We do, we do lease a space. And then we also employ a couple of part-time employees. And then, um, you know, cat food and litter. Mm-hmm.

Also, it's a gift shop. So a little bit of merchandise as well. Okay. Um, I did look back in the last six years. Our net worth did still increase by 700,000.

So it's definitely. I don't think it's killing you. I think it's just emotionally bothering you. Yeah. I'm anxious about the losing money.

Yeah. It's just like the business model of the nonprofit is not what you thought it was going to be. Right.

I think we definitely need to be better about asking for help. Um, we're both nurses.

“So we're usually the helpers, not people asking.”

Yeah. Can you give volunteers? We can. Mm-hmm. Okay.

So here's what I would do in this situation.

I would treat it. Mm-hmm. Emotionally like it's a small business losing money. Mm-hmm. And in that case, what I want to do is I want to say what must be true for me to be happy that we're doing this.

And that's a number. Okay. I'm not happy. You've established that at 48,000 a year. Right.

Not because it's hurting your net worth or not because you can't afford it. But because that number bothers you. It's that simple. Right. Okay.

The Jew sitting worth the squeeze.

Right. The benefit of helping is not worth 50K to you. It doesn't seem to balance the scales. So how much would you be willing? You don't answer me, but you got to answer you.

How much am I willing to feed this thing? No pun intended. Right. Uh, and still be okay with that. Okay.

It might be that you could do something else. That was, you know, $5,000 a year that gave you the same sense that you were after with this. And I don't know what it is. But it might be that we, you know, we, okay, this, this methodology that we were using here

to be a blessing to the animals and our special needs child is not paying off. So we've got to find another way to be blessing to the animals and blessing the special needs child. And it could be that you just take the existing shelter and you make a donation. And your child volunteers there. And, you know, and you set up a room at that shelter in your name that you give them

a one-time gift that keeps it going or gets it going. And then they keep it going or whatever. I mean, could you just find out a different method to, you know, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, try to do some of the same original motivations. Or we change this model.

I'm afraid just on the outside looking in, if you charge more, you're probably going to have no adoptions. Because there's only certain amount people are going to pay. They'll go elsewhere to adopt it, right? If it's half price. So that's not a lever we can tweak.

It must be significantly. Yeah. And if you don't make the donation back to the animal center, they'll continue to send you animals anyway.

“Because you're a methodology to help the animals find a home, right?”

Correct. Yeah, so you don't have to make that donation back. And so at a hundred bucks, you know, that that's thousand dollars a month. Fifteen hundred bucks a month, right? Right.

Right. Now, so I don't know. But you got to decide what must be true here for me to be okay because I'm not okay today. And maybe you look at, you know, local businesses that will sponsor you for a couple hundred bucks a month. You'll advertise for them on the shop and I'm going to get good for it.

Yeah. You're at the fundraising business. I'm going to, you know, or I don't want to do that. And so I'm not going to do it anymore. You know, you could close it.

That's an option. You know, just, but I'm going to sit around and creatively think, okay, if I wasn't doing this at all. What would I do today? That would be the number that I'm okay with. Two thousand dollars a month.

I'm okay with that. Whatever. What would I do today to do that? And what I make a $50,000 or your donation to, you know, cats are us or something. I don't know.

And this is the part where we say there's more way more than one way that's going to cat. No, you don't say that. I was waiting for it. I can't say it here. I can't say it on this call.

Okay. Hey, guys, George Campbell here.

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RamseySolutions.com/insurance. [Music]

34 years on the air, first cat cafe call.

May there be many more. They're again popular.

“Well, I mean, there's dog bars too, by the way.”

You know you're a dog guy.

And you're all about horses. I love a horse cafe, but I think the smell would turn people away from drinking their coffee. I'm not even gonna, yeah. Hey, if you're private student loans are into fall, when you fall and so far behind that the loan is underpaid, consider it unpaid. Why refined may be able to help? Why refined helps borrowers in tough situations, explore low, fixed rate, refinancing options that fit your budget.

Go to yrephide.com/RAMsey. That's the letter y r e f y. .com/RAMsey might not be in all states. Today's question comes from Tim in New Hampshire. I'm planning to retire the end of the year, and I'm wondering if I should take an $80,000 lump sum from my employer or take a monthly payout from my retirement benefit.

I'm dead free and on baby step 7. What would you advise? It's a fun math equation. Now, I don't know the monthly payout. That would have been nice to know as a part of this.

But generally, if you can take the lump sum and you don't necessarily need it, you can invest it. It might be better off, depending on what that payout is. It almost always is. Okay.

“So there's two things going on with a pension, and that's what we're talking about most likely.”

The pension regulations require that the money is invested in such a way that your typical return on a pension is around 6 or 7%. Versus a good growth stock mutual fund, which would have averaged between 11 and 12%. Okay. So number one, when you're getting that monthly payment, it's based on a lower rate of return. It's not good.

Number two, when you die, if you take 80,000 dollars and put it in a mutual fund, someone gets the 80,000 dollars. Or whatever it is, grown two. If you die with a pension, nothing, zip-o, nada. Oh, you could have survivor benefits, and then when you're spoused by, dyes, nothing, zip-o, nada. Okay.

So now, we always take the lump sum because it's a lot more when you die in a little more while your life.

And typically, here's the thing. In other words, if you take the 80,000 and invest it, it typically will create more monthly income than the pension. Because it's invested better. That's what it amounts to. So yeah, almost always when we run the calculation, we tell you to take the lump sum. It's a lot better when you die, and a little bit better while you live.

And it's in your control. That's the most-- There you go. There's that too. So yeah, is in Salt Lake City.

Hi, Sophie. How are you? Great. How can we help? Yeah, I would just try to question. So mine has been an eye on a house. We have one car payment and a little girl. My husband doesn't like our house. He wants to move into an apartment so that we can save money for a better house.

“Is it better to move into an apartment or stay into our house and build equity?”

Okay. Why does he not like your house?

I think he just doesn't like it because we feel like we're spending more money like watering the lawn or like, if this is kind of smaller, it only has two bedrooms. We can't really grow our family into it. And there's some things that need to be done with it. And I think that's just spending more money.

So he just doesn't like the idea of home ownership at this point. I think so. I don't know. I think he really does love. He wants to get a house. And I think this one just doesn't still like the right ones for him. Okay. And be of one child and two bedrooms.

So right now works for your family. He just doesn't like watering the lawn. That's what I'm hearing. Money spent. Yes. Yeah.

So how much is this mortgage compared to your income? Because you said it's also a financial burden. Yeah. So our mortgage right now is 2,900. Our income is 6,200. Hmm.

So that's eating your lunch right there. It's almost half your take home pay. Yeah. Yeah. So you would just bought too much house to begin with.

And so now he's seeing all of this. You spent too much. I don't know if you want too much house. That's something very expensive to bedroom house. Yeah. And it has a basement. They call it the basement downstairs room, but it really isn't.

I don't have a car. Well the house itself. I'm sorry. Foning a friend, I think. I think she's asking him right now.

Yeah. I don't know exactly. I know that we. Yeah. So what I would do is find out.

Figure out what it would sell for. It just seems like it's very expensive. $3,000 a month for a two bedroom in Salt Lake City. It sounds out of whack. Like you bought in a neighborhood.

I don't know.

I don't know what you're doing.

“What's problem is if you go buy a three bedroom, it's probably going to be more expensive.”

So it doesn't matter if you stay in that same neighborhood. But it may be even need to be in a different area. So no, I would not long term be a renter. No, I would not buy a home that is 40% of your take home pay. Unless your income is going up dramatically over the next two years.

You're going to be pinched. Because that's, you're, you're what we call house poor. Because by the time you pay all your bills and pay your house payment, you're getting money. You're broke. And so you bought a house you can't afford in terms of the payment.

And so yes, I would, if you, if your income's not going to go up and you don't like the house, then it is time to get out of this house.

And if you rent for a short period of time, one year or something while you reassess and re-evaluate

where you're going to live and get a payment that you can actually afford on a 15 year fixed rate, then I would change and go that way. And so, you know, those are all decisions you guys can make.

“But the answer is yes, we would sell this house unless your income is going up because your payment is too much”

as a percentage of your income for you to have a quality life. The payment's going to eat you. And get rid of that car debt as well. So if you reset, go rent, pay off the car loan, save up an emergency fund, stack up a bigger down payment. You'll be in good shape.

Dalton is in Memphis. Hey, Dalton, what's up? Hey, George, good talk to you. You too, how can we help? Take a look at my call.

Sure.

Yes or so, the question is, I can give you the question, give you a little back story.

So we had last year in our house flooded, thankfully we didn't have flood insurance. So we were able to rent it through a little while and through some other problems that we had, which is not to move back. And so the renovations took about a year and we bought another house. That house is now on the market and it is completely paid for.

So we have only one mortgage. And my question is, it's been on there for about come up close to 70 days.

“Do we just wait it out and keep lowering the price or at some point think about maybe running it out?”

Are there other houses on the street that have sold or for sale that are in the flood zone? One directly did but I guess she's technically not in it, but she did have some water damage because it was more of an astronomical flood been in the plane says it is. And you've had no showing how no offers in 70 days. Lots of lots of showing.

A couple of very interested parties. The flood insurance is what's back in the people out of the deal. Well, they can buy flood insurance while when they don't do the deal. They just don't want to be a flood. They don't want to that and the price of what it's going to cost to have the flood insurance.

The additional cost is the flood insurance. How much is the flood insurance? The one I just the policy I just bought was about 2500 per a year. And what's the house price to? 299.

Okay, that's one percent. That's not killing the steel. It's an extra 200 bucks a month. You could give it 10 years of flood insurance to still make a deal. I would just haven't had any offers.

It seems like the area here is very stagnant. My realtor is pushing this every day. And every property that they have at their firm is just sitting. Okay, so it's not a flood zone issue then. It's not helping.

It's not helping. Yes, it's not helping. I don't think it's killing your deal. Well, if you're sitting in a market where nothing selling, lowering the price doesn't matter.

That won't cause a sell until you get down to a giveaway price. I might look at change in realtor. So if you're not using a Ramsey trusted real estate agent, you may want to take a change in realtor. Sometimes that'll move to the property.

(upbeat music) Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade Warshot. Listen, summer spending adds up so fast between vacations and road trips and camp fees and events.

And all the extra gas and grocery runs money can get tight before you know it to really get your money under control and keep it that way. You're going to need a plan. And that's what you'll get with the every dollar budget app.

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(upbeat music) Lee is with us in New York. Hey, how are you? Better than I deserve, how can we help? I hear you, I'm trying to get where you're at.

Oh my god, I'm so happy to be here. Ah, real quick. I'm 54 years old. I've been on baby step two for 18 months. I paid off $38,000.

You go girl. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. I appreciate it.

And that's why I'm here. I have gone against everybody that I know. I've been hearing about how I need to take a break. I'm too old to work too jobs. You need credit.

You're crazy. It's I've been all surrounded by naysayers a lot of lasers around me. Oh my god. Yes, I even was like, you know what I made a payment today and somebody I'd never say to me. Look at you, bragging. Good man. You need some new friends. Exactly. I haven't had a pedicure since 2024. I've been living off a boiled eggs and quaker instant oatmeal.

You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. I'm a new bed. I've been seephing on a full time after this. Are you done? Are you finished?

Yes. Today is the day that I make my final that payment. Oh, what are you paying off today? Oh, today is a credit card. I had three credit cards. Who is it? We're credit card. City bank. Oh, I hate them. I'm so glad it's not in your wallet. No, it's not. I just today. I just wanted to do it just surrounded by people who actually understand what I've been going through. Oh, so you're going to make your payment live on the air right now. Right now. The final payment. Yeah. Mark the moment. I love this.

It's so fun. I'm so proud of you. Thank you, Dave. I've been watching you for years. What do you want to make a year? I started 81,000 and I went up to 93. I work in a restaurant. I have two restaurants on jobs. So if you, if you look back, you're 54. When was the last time you were 100% dead free? Oh, God. I was 30 something. Wow. So 20, so 20, 25 years.

Yeah. Yeah. Went through a divorce. My dog died. Like, it's been a whole thing. This 18 months has been crazy.

“And I just, I just been hearing about how I'm doing the wrong thing. You've been doing the right thing. The only thing you're doing wrong is you're hanging out with, but”

Yeah, hang out with anybody. Yeah. Well, whoever it is, it's you happen at you. You need to get them some duct tape. Yeah. But the, uh, you're just so cool. I love you. You're awesome. Thank you. Well, the guy, you're such a winner. I'll change my life. You'll change my life. You changed your life. We just got to a serving. Yeah. Thank you. Your inspiration. Now, let me ask you. Okay. Everybody's telling you you're crazy. And you haven't had a pedicure. And life's been tough for two, 18 months. Was it all worth it?

Yes. Yes. Because you know why listening to everything, listening to your show, I got a financial advisor through Ramsey. I have an IRA. I have a 401k. I was minus 40,000 net worth. And now I'm almost 200,000 net worth because of you. I don't do it. You did it. Quarter $1,000. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. And I'm like, I just want to do this last one. I want somebody to understand and celebrate with me. Well, what you got to write people, we all want to celebrate with you.

And you're fine. I'm so, I'm so happy to be here. This is awesome. Very cool. So what are you going to, you're going to like hit submit on the payment button or something and say, by by city of course, it's not working. I'm trying to get my face ID to work. Oh, gosh. Well, it doesn't recognize you because you didn't have to pay a cure. I've had it open all this time and now it won't. Of course, it's my life. That's the devil in that technology trying to block a blessing. Seriously, I've had it open all day.

Let's left on the on the balance. So you're about to pay off $1,99 and 53 sets.

“All right. Amazing. Very cool. Well, I think we can count it. I know you're going to be able to pull it off once you get off the pressure being on the air and trying to do the face,”

all that stuff. But, you know, all right. So here's what I want you to do.

It feels great. I can't because I've had this open all day waiting to do this and now it's not going to let me.

I'm so sad. It's okay. We're going to count it. It's the same thing. It happens 30 seconds from now. It'll still, it'll still be magical. I'm so sad. You're working out. You're working out. I'll tell you what we're going to do. You're going to count down and scream, I'm dead free.

“We're going to put you on hold. Christian's going to check back with you in a few minutes and if you get the thing working, we'll bring you back on the air, okay?”

And if you don't, we'll just know that you did it at home, okay? Yes. Count it down. 3, 2, 1. I'm dead free. Scream it. 3, 2, 1.

I'm dead free. Yes, you are. We got the music and everything. That's the whole backdrop, the whole bed. The confetti fell in the studio.

No, it's not getting a dead free scream right there. Wow, pretty cool. All right. Check back where there are a few minutes and make, if she can get up, we'll push the submit button on the screen. Let's count on her.

First time we've done that, what I think, way to go. Very cool.

Jeff is in Tyler, Texas. Jeff, what's up? How's it going, Dave? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we know? I know you're going to say that.

“So, me and my life have been extremely blessed. We are 45 and 46 years of age, got four children.”

We have met make it about 330 a year. Wow. Have been for a little while now. We are out of debt, except for our house finally, which is fantastic. My biggest question is we've got about 650,000 in a 401k.

And when I young, Dave Ramsey investment calculator, it's by the time we retire. It's a pretty dead gum big number. And I'm really, really worried about our investment strategy. If we continue maxing out our 401k like we have been doing with my company match. And when it comes to required minimum distribution.

There's company done. Have a wrath for a 401k? Well, so they have a Roth IRA. I'm not 100% sure about a Roth 401k. If we do, I'm not aware of it.

But that's something that I could look at. Eight percent of the companies that have a 401k have a Roth option. Okay. I'm sure that they probably do that. Then start the contributions from the day forward being Roth.

That's the first step. Okay. Yeah, because there's no RMDs on Roth. Great. Okay. No requirement of distribution is 73.

Then the second thing is let's get the house paid off.

I'm going to start moving all of it at once or at some point or move chunks of it. Whatever. However, we need to do it. Whatever your bracket creep is on your income. Whatever you're looking at.

“I think you're probably creeped out on the actual brackets.”

But anyway, I'm going to move chunks of it to Roth and pay the taxes as a part of my investment strategy. So that all of the growth from this point forward is tax-free. And so that I avoid RMDs. And you got time to do this. So get the house paid off and then cash flow the taxes that are created without having to touch the Roth without having to touch the amount.

So let's say you're 600,000 in there. You move 200,000 over. It creates 40,000 dollars in taxes. You got the extra 40,000 because you don't have a house payment anymore. And you just pay that 40,000 in taxes and you move the whole 200,000 over.

And you do that in like three chunks or four chunks or whatever. And you get it all moved over there. And then by the time it gets there, it's going to be millions and millions of dollars as long as you are. Yes, sir. And so yeah, you've anticipated a problem way in advance.

Congratulations. That's called Wisdom. Fantastic. Yeah. And then there's an added benefit that you haven't even got to yet.

I didn't even think about this stuff in the old days. I did all Roths and converted everything to Roth as fast as I could. As long as I can look back and I had no, I wasn't even thinking about our MDs at the time. And I wasn't thinking about a state planning either. But here's the thing.

You can name a beneficiary on this Roth. No taxes. No income taxes to your ares. They're going to love you even more. Yeah.

And if it's a stupid traditional, they got 10 years under the Biden Act. The Biden secure act 3.0. They make the air and the hairstyler and make you cash it out. It's a sort of RMD on an narrative. Required minimum distributions to get.

You got to get all out there in 10 years. And none of that applies. So all minds are awesome. My kids have no problem with any of this. All goes to them.

No taxes except a state plan taxes. But that's a different issue.

Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems.

And figure out what to do next.

“Now, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey.”

Ask your money question and get answers. Built on Ramsey principles. We use on the show whether you're making a decision or just want something explained. Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use.

Go to RamseySolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's RamseySolutions.com. Our scripture of the day is a 4031. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like Eagles.

They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. And Ram said money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish. But it will not replace you as the driver.

Well, I got to tell you every dollar. Our best app ever in the financial world. It walks you through the Ramsey process and builds a budget for you.

“It gives every dollar a name, every dollar an assignment is absolutely exploding.”

The number of people that are signing up for this is going crazy. It's awesome. You can start it for free in the App Store or Google Play. And it will walk you through the whole Ramsey process.

And in the first 15 minutes when you're just filling out the stuff,

it's going to help you find margin from day one. And then going to show you how to apply that margin to the fastest, quickest way to build wealth. It's free in the App Store or Google Play every dollar. So Lee in New York was able to push the button and she made it. And we're not going to put her back on after all.

But she got to do her debt free screen and we have confirmed it. And we have confirmed that the city bank is no longer in her life, which is awesomeness, awesomeness, awesomeness. Mark is in New York as well. Hey, Mark, what's up?

Oh, thanks for having me on. Sure. How can we help? Yes.

“So I'm getting married to this common summer.”

My fiance and I are working through a bit of a concern.

She is in her fourth year of college going to graduate this spring. The way she signed through college was her parents had told her that they were taking care of it. And there was going to be a small loan in her name for the small loan in her name right now. And now they're saying that they have a very, very large parent. Plus loan that they're just telling her about now that they set her to pay back.

Well, and she graduates were looking to figure out and navigate that. I'm sad for you, man. You're marrying into a weird family. Yes. This is going to be a long grown out bunch of drama.

You're getting married a year from now? Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, the answer to your question is simple, but the results are not going to be. The simple answer is your relationship.

The fiance is not liable for a parent plus loan legally. And if she did not tell them about the loan, if she did not say, "Mom and dad, you all sign up for this and I'll pay it." Then she's not morally obligated either. From the story you're telling, she didn't even know about it.

Much less agreed to pay it is that correct. Correct. Okay. How much is the loan? I'll hurt that roll one.

I believe it is 35,000. That's the small one. That's the smaller one in the lower. The parent plus one. The parent plus one is 100,000.

Good. And she's going into her senior year. All right. So she's got a year to go. And they're going to pay for that with loans as well. I have used the total for all four years.

We know the total numbers that we have. So she's covered until graduation at this point. Through the students. Okay. Now they already paid her tuition for the entire year.

They had put up the parent plus loan for it. So in theory, yes. Well, I mean, if they paid the tuition, they can't unpay the tuition. Yeah. Okay.

Because when she tells them, "No, I'm not going to pay this. I didn't agree to." They're going to be pissed. Yeah. They don't have a right to be.

They're jerks. But they're going to be pissed.

23.

“And what will you two be doing for a living?”

I'm going to be working in the medical field.

And she's going to be a teacher. What does medical field mean? It's like ducking. Okay. And do you have a four-year degree?

Yes. And do you have student loans? I do not. Okay. Well, this is just a old guy talking now.

When you marry a young lady who is getting ready to fracture the relationship with her parents, it's going to be very, very hard for her. She's going to be in a lot of pain. And so your marriage is going to be impacted by that pain. Right.

The wedding might be a little awkward. What we're trying to say? Well, life is going to be awkward. There's some dysfunction here.

Because these people are jerks.

You don't spring $100,000 alone on somebody that didn't agree to pay it out of the blue. After they get engaged, going into their senior year. And we don't call you a jerk. You're a jerk if you do that. This is your kid that you promised to take care of the education.

And then you changed your mind. Okay.

“Now, if that's what really happened, then these people are jerks.”

Now, if there's another part of the story, we're not getting, then there's a different thing. But when your wife says to her parents, I'm not paying this. It's not going to go well, Mark. And I don't think she should pay it. But it's not going to go well.

She's going to have a negative experience here. Count on it. Yeah. And then growing that they did a good thing back at her. But I don't know. How did she think this was all being paid for?

If they just sprung this $100,000 alone, it said, oh, by the way, we took this out. You better pay it. They were taking care of it. And she was going to have a small loan. So she was going off it was on her credit report for the federal loan.

They were taking care of it. But they she didn't have any idea that they didn't have any money. No. If Dave says, hey, I'm taking care of dinner. I assume that means Dave is paying and has no expectation of me to pay him back.

So the communication here is terrible. Wait a minute, George. I'm going to get in this. I'm just saying I'd like a free dinner. I thought I could squeeze that in.

Oh, no. Yeah. Mark, Mark, this is a problem.

“Relationally, it's not a problem legally.”

And it's not a problem morally.

So the answer is, I would don't you get involved.

But I would tell her to tell her parents that mom and dad, I did not agree to pay this and you can't spring it on me in the 11th hour. And it turned me into a pumpkin. It's not going to work. I'm not going to do pumpkin.

You get the pumpkin. You signed up for it. And I'm not paying it. I'm so sorry. I hope you understand that you didn't tell me about this.

I didn't sign up for it all along. If I have integrity and if you told me about it upfront, I would have could have made the decision to whether or not to take this on. But you can't just come along and drop this like a freaking Adam bomb into my life. And I'm not going to pay it.

I'm sorry. I love you. But no. And then they're going to go. And then you're going to have to listen to your wife talk your fiancé talk about her parents.

And they're going to be the therapist for a while. No, for the next 30 years. Because after it's not this thing, it's going to be something else with these people. These people are screwed in the head. I wouldn't expect the nice wedding gift from them.

I wouldn't expect anything that isn't caught drama associated with it for the next 30 years. I really wouldn't. I mean, these, you know, integrity is integrity and this is just going to bleed over into everything else that goes on here. Now, I am questioning whether this is really what's happening or not.

It's bothering me. But I'm going off of Mark's word that this is what his fiancé said. And he's got it very dialed in in his mind. But I'm wondering if there's other conversations that the fiancé forgot or something like that. So, but if it went down exactly the way he laid out, then we're just going to blame it all on the parents.

Being dysfunctional screwed in the head and whatever. I'm a parent plus. I don't want to be worse. Not just financially. This is the reason.

This comes up all the time. We hear this call all the time. Parents do parent plus loans. And then they've meant to do it. Then they get a divorce.

And I can't afford it. So you've got to help me because I'm stuck because your daddy left me after 23 years. Yeah, even if they say we're going to pay it. This is what happens. This is what happens when you do these stupid butt student loans.

And let me help you guys. 35,000 is not a little student loan mark. It's a big butt student loan. It's only for $100,000. It's three times a big butt.

Okay. That's a lot. It's three big butts. That's so many big butts. This is ridiculous, y'all.

I mean, we've got now gotten dumb down to where we think 35,000 is a small one.

That's ridiculous, you guys.

No, no, no, no, no, no. None of this is okay.

And you parents stop doing this crap.

“Don't put your kid in a school unless you can pay for it.”

They can pay for it.

Both of you together pay for it.

This is stupid. Have some integrity. It's in a case. It's a family's generationally.

“This is what the Congress is doing to you.”

That puts us out of the Ramsay show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it.

“And the meantime remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial piece.”

And that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace. Christ Jesus. [MUSIC]