Don't Leave Your Financial Future To Chance

>> Brought to you by the every dollar app.

Start budgeting for free today. [MUSIC]

“>> Normal is broken common sense is weird.”

So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. This is the Ramsey Show. George Camel, Ramsey personality number one bestselling author and co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour is my co-host today.

The phone number here is Triple 8, 825, and 5225. The call is free and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Josh is in Virginia Beach. Hey, Josh, what's up? >> What are you doing?

>> Better than I deserve, how can we help? >> I'm just trying to figure out what we need to do on getting myself out of the financial pit. >> What's going on, what happened? >> Okay, well, I close my business and move down the lead to us or move to Virginia.

Try to just go work somebody else, get rid of the hassle, go home on yard there. And even though I'm making good money, I still haven't got six bucks in my bank account. What about some of the other bills? >> How much debt do you have?

“>> I don't know, 100, can bottom all business around 100,000.”

>> Okay, and how much do you make now? >> I'm making right at 85,000 year at the new job I started. I was making about 80,000. >> Good for you. >> Josh, how long go to your closure business?

>> Um, literally actually my last day in my shop was the first of the year, and I've been

about eight months now. >> What kind of business was it? >> It was all the repair. How long did you have it? >> 15 years.

>> Wow. That's kind of heartbreaking, isn't it? >> It is. >> Yeah. >> There were a lot of bad decisions and choices there, kind of let me into a financial

debt. >> Yeah.

“>> So how much of the 100 pay is business debt and what kind of debt is it?”

>> Um, I got the taxes and they hit me a bunch of penalties and everything, so I got probably about 70,000 in the taxes with penalties and then there's the vendors and everything

and probably about another 15,000.

>> Okay. >> That's 85 and then the other 15 is. >> Yeah. >> Well, actually, then I got a vehicle payment, which is over vehicles, 22,000, so I won it. And credit cards, I'm right about 3,000 in credit card debt.

>> Okay. >> Okay. >> What's the vehicle? >> Uh, if they, uh, Jeep. >> Okay.

>> Brother. >> What's it worth? >> Probably 17. >> You single? >> Yeah.

>> Okay. All right. Um, I've been through closing a business and the heartbreak of that and the gut punch that that that was to my confidence and so sometimes in these situations it's more about confidence and believing than it is an actual math problem.

You've got a bit of a math problem, but it's not overwhelming, but it's also believing that Josh is a good guy. Josh can win. Josh knows how to do big things again. And Josh does.

He ran at that gem thing for 15 years, okay. You just made a few mistakes and got tripped up and so now we've got to work our way out of those things. But if you're single and making 85, we can address these things and push your way through it.

Um, so if I'm you, how do you 40 do? >> Okay. So if I'm you, I don't have anybody to tell what to do except the guy in my mirror. And so I'm going to set up camp in the cheapest possible safe and clean one bedroom apartment. And then I'm going to start working all the time spending nothing and cleaning up this

dead as aggressively as I can. You could think about selling the Jeep, but man, maybe not. It's not that big of a deal. It's not your biggest problem. Your biggest problem by far is taxes. Are you paying anything on those right now?

>> Not yet. I've been paying all the other debts and everything. I've been trying to pay all the illegal debts and the vendors that were your friends. >> Right. So I'm trying to put, you know, and that's where my whole paycheck's now is going from other

of my Jeep payments, which it got behind and I had double payments up on it. >> Yeah, you need to get it out of it. But what happened was as you were in a tail spin and your dizzy and the chaos came in. And so you were doing a bad job, a disorganized job, because of the failure in the loss of confidence, failure on the business.

And I don't blame you for that, but I just want to give your permission to be where you are. And now let's fight our way out of it.

So here's what I want you to do.

I want you to get above this problem and get away from all the emotion and just look at the facts. The facts are we got 85,000 coming in. These $15,000 worth of vendors will work with you. They'll probably settle for pennies on the dollar.

If you'll go to RamseySolutions.com and click on tax professional on the ELP side, they'll help you set up a payment plan on the tax and keep them from coming down in your head randomly because they will randomly come in and screw up your life. Get the credit card pad off and get the Jeep paid off, the vendors paid off, and then work on the taxes and so you know work these off small as to large.

The good news is you have a very, very marketable skill for a side hustle called fixing cars. Did you come out of this with a tool set? >> Yes. >> Okay.

>> Yeah. That's another issue I'm at right now, is I'm renting a one bedroom of apartment. >> Good. >> You've piled it everything is $800 a month which is $13. >> Right.

That's good. Excellent. But if I can find something that I have a little bit of space to work, I could do side work and make money on. >> Yep.

>> But that's also a gamble. It's kind of.

>> Well, I mean, here's the thing.

I want you to go get some side work and there are guys that roll up in the parking lot here at Ramsey and work on people's cars in the parking lot while they're at work. Mobile repair and they don't need a space because they did, there's a break job going on out in the parking lot right now probably. >> Yeah.

>> This half the time I'm out there. >> Now business is blowing up and you can start it with nothing. >> Yeah. Because you and all you need your tool set and you can do the basic stuff, some maintenance stuff.

Obviously you can't pull an engine in the parking lot of their office but you can do some of the other stuff and make some really good side money while you're doing this.

“And then George, I think we need to put him on every dollar budget and take the 85 plus”

any side hustle money we can scrape together and then start we're going to death snowball. >> Yeah. I mean, if you're saying your rent is pretty cheap, your expenses are pretty cheap. Sounds like most of his income is going out to those debt payments. >> Well, but if we can throw a couple grand at that that a month, we can clean this up in

a couple of years. >> And I want you to call those vendors. I know you, they're the ones that are tugging at your heart the most. But if you owe a guy $5,000 need him been paid nine months to say, "Hey man, I'm going where I'm living in a one-bedroom, I'm broke.

What will you take to settle this debt?" I want to stand up and pay you and what would you take to settle it? You're in $5,000. You'll probably say, "Hey, send me a couple grand, we'll call it a day. Get that in writing so it doesn't come back to haunt you and then send me a couple grand."

They'll settle with you though, vendors will. But the thing is when you're a small business guy like that, most of those vendors

“you're friends, and so you don't want to pay on your friends, right?”

But in this situation, I'm just going to ask for some mercy, you know, like when you're a kid, uncle, right? You got me down, uncle, right? >> And they'll be shocked to hear from you. Well, they'll be pleased that after nine months that they got anything, exactly.

They thought you were gone and that's the thing. So they'll settle with you. This is not like some stupid credit card company with some collector in a cubicle 500 miles away who can't keep a real job and is calling you 42 times, that's not who we're dealing with.

We're dealing with a guy you know down the street. , and let me tell you, that is not a quick fix. It takes hours on the phone, piles of paperwork, and a whole lot of stress trying to untangle the mess. And even after that, there's this nagging paranoia because your information is already

out there. With this, you can do all the right things and still become a victim. That's how common identity theft is.

“And that's why I'm glad I had zanders identity theft protection.”

When my identity was stolen, their team stepped in right away. They were monitoring my information and caught the issue, and their US-based recovery specialists help handle the calls, the paperwork, the clean up, so I didn't have to do it all on my own.

Zander also includes up to $2 million in stolen funds and expense reimbursement, and with

the family plan, your kids are covered for free. You work too hard to let identity theft steal your time, your money, and your piece of mind. So go to zander.com to enroll today, or call 800-356-4282.

family trees or on babysit form beyond, and they're celebrating with the ultimate debt-free

vacation.

“If you're on the cruise, or you get on the cruise before we sell it out, here's what's”

going to be waiting for you. Seven days, with me and all the Ramsey personalities in the Western Caribbean, new wealth-building teachings, the world's largest debt-free screen, live episodes from your favorite Ramsey shows, and a whole lot more! If you're a baby step four or up, click the link in the show notes and go to RamseySolutions.com/Avance

and book your cabin right now. George, I just heard my friend, and I just really love this woman, is going to be some of our musical guest, the one and only Natalie Grant, and she is a wonderful human being, but also had that world-class voice, and just so I'm really excited to have her with us on here, and we had Stephen Curtis Chapman with us last year, so, I mean, we got the line-up

of line-ups on here. You got all the entertainment you could ask for. Yeah, it's going to be something you're going to be entertained out. If you're bored, it's your fault. Exactly.

So again, go to RamseySolutions.com/Avance, or you can click the link in the show notes, and get registered for this cruise, it's next March, and it is not quite sold out, you can still get some of the cabins, and there's some specials running literally today. So check it out. And Julie's in Houston, Texas.

Hi, Julie. How are you? Hi, doing well. Thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up?

So I initially attempted to enter into an agreement with my father to purchase a house that he had inherited from my great aunt, and I sort of had to compromise on the purchase price by giving him an upfront $5,000 to remove the lien that was on the house. That lien was a Medicaid lien. He could not sell the house unless that lien was removed.

So I did that with the understanding that we were good with the agreement and the purchase going forward. But he ended up using that money to remove the lien, and then decided that he's going

“to sell the house for more money than our agreement, because that's what's best for him.”

You know, I told him that I expected to be paid back if that was his decision, but I feel like this is just another way that he has sort of been dishonest and hurtful. I think financially in our relationship, and it makes it complicated that he's also my dad. And I know that I'm called to honor this relationship, but I do feel like there is a financial issue between us that I'm having a difficult time navigating and just what likes

and advice on how to go forward.

So you said another, so this is not the first time he's done something underhanded or dishonest

to you. I feel like this is the worst where it's not the first time, it's a pattern, and you know that this guy is a crocodile. The pattern is we're very generous with him, and he loves our generosity. No, no, no, that is not true.

You're putting sugar on top of a crocodile. He loves that he can take advantage of you.

“You have felt taken advantage of as a pattern, and yet you gave him $5,000, which you should”

not have done, because by the way, you can have a lean removed from the house at the closing. You don't have to do it before the closing, so that you could have given the title company the purchase price, and they could have removed the lean, and then he had given him the net proceeds, which is the way a normal human does a transaction if you're not a crocodile. Okay?

So, here's the thing, you've got to separate your, the, you do not honor when the Bible says

to honor your parents, it does not say to honor your parents' misbehavior. It's honoring the office of Father, the office of Mother, and that's like, for instance, I agreed with almost nothing that Joe Biden did or said when he was the President of the United States. Some of you loved him, I didn't, okay?

But the Bible calls for me to honor those that are in power and pray for them. So I'm going to honor the presidency, but not the things that Joe did as President. So I can honor my Father, but I don't have to honor his cocaine use.

okay, that you're dad, you can honor the position of Father and say, I honor you as my dad, but I cannot do financial transactions with you anymore because I can't trust you. That's not dishonoring, it's just observation. I think I know how this is going to turn out. I don't know.

He's going to be pissed next time he can't take money from me. Well, I think he's going to sell this house and he's going to feel real rich for three years,

and he's basically selling the inheritance that could have gone to my grandkids.

That I was even willing to purchase and take on that responsibility to give something, you know, to the generation I'm sorry, but there was no generational relief for the crocodile. That was an illusion.

“You need to let that go, that's gone, he's took he owns the house and he decided not to sell”

it to you, and for one, he sells me a lot of money. I know he's going to depend on me and not because I'm going to give him any more money. You can't depend on me if I say no. When he steps out of that door, there's going to be no dormant named Julie, waiting to fund his misbehavior again, so you get to set the boundary.

There's no depending on you. You're not going to enable him and his old age. No, no. Absolutely not. He's a grown adult.

He has nothing. He has nothing. He has no savings. Here's the hard part, Julie, nothing you could do could change that because you just showed him.

If you give him 10 grand, it's gone. It doesn't matter. It's an endless pit that this is, you do not owe him. You're a classic enabler. Okay.

I mean, you're just handing out money, thinking it's going to make everything okay.

It never makes everything okay.

It just makes it more of what it already is. You're not helping him when you're participate in his crocodile tears. You're harming him. So you just stand back and go, you know, I love you. You got issues and I hope it all works out for you and you know, if you need, if you're

out of food, you're hungry, I'll buy you a curver card, which does not allow alcohol or cigarettes on it. So it only allows food. So there you go.

“What's he going to do with the proceeds from the house?”

He's going to take him on you, some and blow up. That's what he's done his whole life. He's going to pay off his debt, he's going to pay off his debt, and then it's going to be gone. And my thought was, well, if you ever needed anything, at least we'd have an asset where

we could pull out an equity line of credit or something. You know, if there was ever an emergency, we would have, we would have a source of wealth to help him. On it. On it.

He's not the problem. He's not the problem. You are, because I can't get you in this conversation to recognize the crocodiles do one thing, and that's bite. And every time I talk about it, don't feed the crocodile, all you do is figure out a way

to get the food out. Well, I don't know how to navigate family holidays, like how do you even have a-- I don't give you money. If you would like to come over and eat, that's fine. But I don't give you money.

“If the only way you want to come to Christmas is for me to give you $5,000, I'll”

guess we're not going to see you at Christmas. And if he chooses not to come, that's on him. I think you're trying to save this relationship that is-- With money, with money, you're trying to grow this guy's character. I like it, my dear.

Julie, I can't help you. This is the 14th time you've argued with me, and you called Nascus what to do. What you have is a boundary problem. You are a classic enabler, go see a therapist. Somebody needs to walk you through how to say no.

You've gotten this so tangled up that somehow it's all going to be okay someday. It's not going to be okay. The guy's a freaking crook. I'm sorry he's your father, but he's a crook. He's a bad dude.

Don't participate with him in his delusional crap. You're not helping him. You're not helping your family. You're not helping you. Get some help, girl.

(upbeat music) Dayton Heights are supposed to be fun. But between what theater tickets cost now,

and what Hollywood keeps putting on screens, that's not always the case.

Angel can help with that.

And right now they have a deal worth knowing about.

Become a premium member of the Angel Guild today. And you'll get access to Angel's entire family friendly, streaming library, free tickets to every future Angel theatrical release. And two free tickets to their new film The Brink of War. It's about the 1986 summit in Iceland, where President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev

faced off. It's a great movie worth seeing on the big screen. And the best part is when you use promo code date night, you get four months free on an annual membership. That's a great deal.

And we'll mean some great date nights. Go to Angel.com/Ramsy, become a premium member of the Angel Guild. And use code date night, that's Angel.com/Ramsy, or click the link in the description. Limited time offer visit Angel.com/Ramsy for details. Stephanie is in Sacramento.

Hi, Stephanie. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Good. Well, I'm kind of in a dilemma.

I'm currently on baby step five, and I finally actually reached that 15% for my retirement.

Good. But I'm going to be needing a new car in the next year too. So I'm just wondering if you recommend backing off of investing to be able to save more in an anticipation of a new car or how should I navigate that? Typically in a budget, if you're put only putting 15% away and you have your emergency fund

“and you have zero other debt, you should have some margin to save for a car.”

Yeah. I do. I have about 13,000 saved up right now. Okay. And what's the car you're driving worth?

It's probably worth about $15,000, but it, you know, has 150,000 miles a day. So if you bought a car today, you could buy almost a $30,000 car. Great. Yeah. What's wrong with that?

Well, I worry because the last two cars I've had have essentially blown up, and I've been like four to go into debt, to be able to get a new vehicle. So I'm just, oh, it just kind of worries me a little bit. I worry that a $30,000 car is going to blow up. Well, no, not a $30,000.

All right. That's what we're talking about. What we're talking about, aren't we? I guess so. Yeah.

I think you have the trauma from the past vehicle stuck in your head, and a $30,000 car that you do a pre-purchase inspection on, and you buy a quality make model year, it's going to be just fine. So how much are you looking to spend? Well, I mean, the new ones I'm looking at with similar to my current vehicle are about

“that $40,000 range, so that's what my goal is.”

I'm trying to get to 40, and I'm just holding my breath. What is your vehicle? Well, it's there, is it $2,019 Jeep Grand Cherokee? Okay. And what do you want?

A brand new Jeep, or almost brand new Jeep? You want another Jeep? Probably. What would the ones that blew up on you? I don't know.

Should I give that information over the radio? And hiring minds wanted it to blow up or not. If they blew up, it's okay, just like it. I mean, my previous one before this was a different type of Jeep, and then before that was, oh, I can't even remember.

But he was like a small little girl. Okay. Are you single? I am a single mom. What is your household income?

I make about 6,000 a month. Okay. How long have you been listening to us? Well, I actually, when I finished my school, I kind of did a deep dive to be able to pay off my student loans and debt by using your method.

Okay. So what do we say about cars, the maximum car you want to purchase? Do you remember?

“Yeah, I think it's like, I can't remember the ratio, but it's like a percentage of your”

income. Half your annual income, right? Which would not be 40. Yeah. It's too much.

Okay. I wouldn't spend that much on a car in your situation. So I'd go get a 30, and so two things I want you to come away with, and George said it, and I don't want you to miss it. Get a pre-purchase inspection.

If you've got a Christian brothers automotive in your area, go buy and see them. They do a great job. If not, find a reputable, independent car mechanic, and ask them what they'll do, what they'll charge you for a pre-purchase inspection might be 100 bucks. Take it by there.

The second thing I'm going to tell you is to read about the particular type of car that

you're going that you're thinking of purchasing and what the reliability factor is.

And it may or may not be accurate, but at least you want to read about it and try to figure

it out. You might learn that specifically.

“You could also ask that guy that mechanic, you know, does this car have a good”

reputation? Okay. I'll give you an example. The car you're talking about does not have a good repair reputation. It's not got a good repair reputation.

So you may want to look elsewhere, but you can look around, make sure. They may have fixed them. They may be better in recent years, but five years ago, I would have told you just don't buy that. They still just what I've heard.

The one you're driving. Okay. And the last one you had blew up. So maybe it's time to switch, we switched things in models for the time. Yeah.

Just check it out. That's the point. You don't do it based on a couple of guys on a podcast, but I want you to check it out.

I want you to read if you can get a hold of something like consumer reports or anything

on Kelly blue book is fine, there's lots of departments. Edmund's car gods got really good articles on repair things and things are going on. There was a few years ago, oh gosh, it's a long time ago now. It's a decades ago. But I remember Cadillac came out with a front-wheel drive and they put an aluminum block

engine in the thing. And they were, you couldn't find any of them with an engine in them. They'd all blown. Oh, there's a piece of crap. And so anybody looked at that Cadillac, looked at it across that, knew anything about cars

and said, don't buy that car. That's 20-year-old information. Okay, it's not current information, but or older even, probably 30. But anyway, point being you can find out from a mechanic from people that no cars, that that model has issues, that type of car has issues, don't go that way.

And you can just research that and figure it out. And so I want you to do that and then I want you to have the car checked out. And I think 30 grams plenty of dispenser, you've almost got enough now. But please don't walk into the Jeep dealership, because they're going to steer you to the new cars and say, we can get your payment down, whatever you want it to be.

No, you've got to go to an independent dealership where you're not going to find the best price paying. No payments. No payments.

And if you're not a millionaire, always buy used.

Yeah, no payments. No car payments. Did I, did you hear me? No car payments, people. Car payments are the siren song of the middle class.

“If you want to be middle class or below the rest of your life, keep a stinking car payment.”

Well, I was forced to buy a car. Well, I had to buy a car. Well, I mean, I mean, I mean, I, that car is not safe. I need an airbag. And you're talking to a guy who, when I was growing up, the only airbag in the passenger seat

was your mother-in-law. Oh, okay. Sick burn. There was no airbags. So come on, guys.

We lived through all of that. So you can, you can get a car that's safe and reliable that you pay cash for and no car payments. That's the largest thing that people buy that go down and value and they all go down and value, like a rock. That's where Chevy got that.

All right, open phones at Triple 8-825-5225, Steve isn't Idaho, hi, Steve. What's up? Hey, how are you doing, Steve? Better than I deserve. How can we help?

So I have a house that I'm in the market to sell up. I'm up here in Bonner's very, and four about 550, and we're one of them move down the core lane, which is about an hour and a half south here, and I have a daughter and granddaughter that lived down there, and two of that we'd be closer to granddaughter and help out, she's a single mom, help out with stuff.

And we were putting up her south, I would just go down and buy something down there.

“And lately I've been thinking maybe I should just rent rather than buy.”

How old are you? What do you think you've had? I am 68. Okay. Are you in good health?

I am pretty good. Okay. So you probably make it to 88 or 90 something. Yeah. On average.

My dad made it to 98. Okay. Well, somewhere in the 90s. All right. So we've got 20, 25 years.

So the house that you're in, that's 550. Yeah. How long you had it? Ten years. Okay.

What'd you buy for? Uh, two. So I doubled in 10 years. 30. And guess what?

10 years before that it was a hundred. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. So you just lost 400,000 in this conversation while you were a renner.

Okay. Well, maybe. But. No, no, maybe. I mean from 68 to 98.

Okay. Okay. So you lost 400 grand or 500 grand if you don't go by a house. I don't have to move along. I don't pay.

Okay. You got to move along. Right now. You're paying property tax. No renter.

Well, for 400, 400,000 dollars. You can pay somebody. Move along. Yeah. Yeah.

I could do that. Um, so you don't think that's a good idea. I'm positive. It's not a good idea. Well, what a house over there costs.

Um, I could buy it.

See you downstairs and pay cash.

Yeah. If you pay cash for a house and you own it, your costs don't go up except the insurance and the taxes. If you're a renter, 100% of the rent goes up.

“Can you imagine how much your rent will go up in 25 years?”

You want to screw up your retirement budget? You want to mess up that golden rock and chair on the front porch? Yeah. Be a renter. Screw it up.

Don't do that, man. Hey, this is Dr. John Deloni. I take my sleep seriously because better sleep means better health. And if you've been losing sleep or waking up soar because you've got some old thin gross mattress that wasn't designed with you in mind, it's time to make a change.

I love Helix mattresses. They make mattresses for real individual people, whether you're a side sleeper, a back sleeper, whether you sleep hot or if you and your partner have completely different sleep styles, Helix has a mattress designed just for you.

“I want you to get online and take the Helix sleep quiz.”

It takes like two minutes and they're going to match you with a perfect mattress that fits how you actually sleep. Helix is not just a show sponsor for me. I sleep on a Helix mattress. Helix mattresses are the best.

The best savings of the season are happening right now on Helix mattresses. Go to Helixleep.com/Ramsie and save up to 30% off mattresses with their Helix Labor Day offer. 30% off exclusively at Helixleep.com/Ramsie with Helix Better Sleep starts right now. The Ramsie show question of the day is sponsored by Why ReFi.

If you've gotten behind on your private student loans, every month can feel like you're standing still. Why ReFi helps borrowers explore refinancing options that can help you start making progress. Go to yrephide.com/Ramsie. That's the letter YREFY.com/Ramsie might not be in all states.

Today's question comes from Jill and Maryland. When you say invest in something you understand, do you mean the investment category, such as balance, growth, and aggressive growth, or are you referring to the mutual fund details

“themselves, such as admin fee, performance, what types of funds it contains, et cetera?”

I want to invest for retirement, but currently my money is just sitting in a savings account because I don't know what questions to ask. You say don't invest in anything you don't understand, so how do you understand it? I think part of that is knowing how the thing works. The mechanics of how a mutual fund works. A lot of us are putting money into this fund.

It's across 90 to 200 plus companies, we're rooting for the growth and revenue in this company, and therefore the shares we bought grow. Can you define a mutual fund? That's your start. Can you tell me how a mutual fund works in general?

And then if you're going to buy growth, stock mutual fund, as an example, can you tell me what that is, what the difference in that and a growth in income are, not a substantial difference, growth is buying stocks, it's a growth stock mutual funds, what's buying stocks that are growing. Because every mutual fund has an objective, and the objective is growth.

And it's usually in the name. So growth and income, a bond mutual fund. Yeah, growth and income will have bond and large company stocks, and it's the calmer of the two.

Okay, that's the first two things, so what is a mutual fund, how do they work, basics, primitive,

that like a seventh grader can understand it, okay, most seventh grader. And then secondly, the type of mutual fund you're looking at, and then thirdly understand the history of the particular fund and the market in general, okay. So for instance, a lot of the mutual funds have really good, I was looking at one the other day with American funds, okay, so I'm not endorsing, I'm just saying they got a great

brochure. So you can pull up the American funds brochure on ICA investment company of America, which is a growth and income, okay, that thing's like 80 something years old. It's ancient. It's been around forever.

It's got a good track record.

Multi-billion dollar fund, and they've got a great brochure, so you can like say, okay, what

does this fund do, it's a growth and what does this fund do when the market's up, what does

president decides to bomb my ran?

And you look back in history and it'll have different dates of things that happened and what that fund did and what the market did during those dates. The reason you want to get a little bit of a history lesson is that you're trying to be comfortable when things happen in the current, or right over the edge of the future, that you don't get nervous and jump out, okay, so if you've studied the roller coaster and

the roller coaster is safe, because what goes down, what goes up will come down, what goes down will go up, and we can ride the roller coaster with safety, then it's just the thrill of the ride, but if we think the thing might come and join it while we're on it and land on our head, then we're not going to feel good about that. But that's knowledge of that roller coaster, an example would be this, okay, if you drive

down the street and you're looking at homes and the vibe in the air, the way the homes

are kept up, the way cars are parked, the people walking around, you're looking at them, you don't feel comfortable, well, you're looking at what's going on in the neighborhood and you're making a decision, this isn't a neighborhood I should buy in. You're driving down a street, everything's very calm, we don't even see any cars. Well, we see there 25-year-old oak trees, you know, well, this is an older neighborhood,

it's very settled, feel comfortable with that and you can look at the track record of that neighborhood and say in the past 20 years, what is that done and this other neighborhood might be trending the wrong way and so same thing with mutual funds, you get comfortable with the track record, the history and you've heard the disclaimer, past performance is not indicative of future returns, that is disclaimer, bull crap, of course past performances

indicative of future returns. If you look at the past performance of Scotty Sheffler, who just want a golf tournament, it isn't indicative of whether he's going to win next week or not, you know, if you look

“at the past performance of Michael Jordan, you can tell he's going to win basketball, right?”

It isn't indicative, of course it's indicative and you know, you look at the past performance of this neighborhood, it's indicative that houses are going to continue to go down this places turn into a ghetto or the past, of course it is, so ignore that, look at the past performance, get comfortable, this fund has outperformed the S&P 500, 19 of the last 20 years,

okay, but you think it might do it again, this fund has never outperformed the S&P 500,

you think it ever will, you think it ever will, I mean, this is pretty basic common sense stuff, right? So, A, what is a mutual fund, B, what's the category of mutual fund mean, what am I buying and C, the track record of the fund and the market? If you understand those, you don't have to understand 12 B, one fees.

If you understand those, you don't have to look at expense ratios. That stuff doesn't kill you, what kills you is getting scared and jump on out. Or investing in the wrong thing, which is a lot of what that advice comes from, if you can't explain it to me and you've got all your money sitting in it, that's dangerous. Which is exactly why the crypto bros are all mad at me, because the crypto has only one

reputation, none. And they can't even agree on the definition of it and what it's doing, what it is or what it is. Well, it's blockchain, you just don't understand, yes, I do understand blockchain, I understand mining it, I understand the electrical costs, I understand all that, none of that matters

“what matters is, what's the track record of this sucker?”

What matters me to death? That's how I throw it up. Way up, way down, way up, I mean, what's the track record of gambling with a slot machine? Lose all your money until just before you leave and then you make your money back, so you stay another four hours and lose all your money again.

That's the track record of a slot machine. So understand what the track record of this stuff is, okay, and then decide whether this is a stupid idea or a good long-term investment, and that's the route I would go. But this lady, Jill, George, she's in here, and my category, when you ask questions like this, the mutual fund details such as admin fee performance, what types of funds it contains,

et cetera, it'll be stocks it contains. You're probably nerdin' out a little much there, I think she's probably has a natural tendency towards nerd, I don't want you to go so far into this that you get paralysis of the analysis and don't do anything. The number one key to investing is do some.

Standing on the sidelines looking at it, do some, I guy asked me the day you said you had

“eight best-selling books, how do you write and I said you start writing?”

No, one day you'll finish. How do you know if you're a writer, if you're writing, write, we don't talk about it.

I'm still not a good writer, I'm a good salesman. So none of these books are dad gum, literary, works of art, I can tell you that. But it makes it very readable for people like me. I know, stuff that fits great reading level.

“That's what I am, I'm the guy that puts the cookies on shelf for regular people, but”

we all reach them. But that's it, I'm happy with that, but what make sure a writer, write, what make you an investor, invest, well make sure it was investor, invest over time and make money. And you can be a super nerd to be broke, so all the time. That exists.

We need to know about all the nitty-gritty, now we do that, like our investing essentials event. We actually do walk through this. We have a chart and graph and here's how to pick the mutual funds, so we get a little bit nerdy.

If you're having trouble sleeping, we are doing an event you can watch and you'll go right to sleep. It's the super nerd event. It's called Investing Essentials, George loves it. I have a good time.

It wakes me up. It energizes me to choose mutual funds. It's the type of event that I said that I got in business to not do and now I'm doing it. I'm sorry. Well, the people demanded it.

They're like, no, no, no.

“It's a kind of overseas investing playbook.”

I'm going to show you what I do, how they're all the nerd analysis. I do real estate. I'm going to show you all of it and you're going to love it if you're nerd, but if you're not, you're going to be going, "I just cured mine so many." There's a few tickets left.

I think it's a virtual event. So of course, there's tickets left. There's room.

Always room in that room.

So. Yeah, come on out, guys. It's going to be what? September 1st and 2nd. Yes.

And again, it's virtual. So you can join us from anywhere. There's even a replay. You can't make it each night. Will is too much.

It's too much to make the root canal not her. Once you start going into formulas for internal rates of return, that's like some good with hunting stuff, Dave. I got to admit. As a dad of young kids, I'm starting to think a lot more about the world are growing

up in and how I'll help them make sense of it as they get older.

“And that's why I like World Watch, a video news service for pre-teens and teens.”

Because one thing I know for sure, if you don't teach your kids how to understand the world, somebody else will. And these days, that could be TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, influencers, or whoever happens to show up in their social media feed. World Watch is 10-minute videos, help young people understand what's happening in the world

through a Christian worldview without all the outrage, negativity, and noise that is everywhere these days. The reporting is factual, engaging, and designed specifically for pre-teens and teens. And World Watch creates opportunities for something every family needs more of, meaningful conversations.

Instead of just reacting to headlines, kids learn how to think about what's happening in the world, and parents get a chance to keep those conversations going at home. Because when my kids are old enough, I want them informed, not overwhelmed. And right now, you can get a 30-day free trial. Just go to worldwatch.News/Ramsy, or use promo code Ramsy to get started.

That's worldwatch.News/Ramsy.

Well, I appreciate all your advice for over 20 years since I read that first total money

makeover. Well, thank you, sir. I've got one-and-a-half questions. I can give you a logic behind them. I give you as much of my situation as you want, and if you agree with me, I may have some questions

you'll probably have to make. I'll start with the questions. Sure. I have had it. All right.

I should have set up a trust that would pay each of my three sons 25 percent of their individual incomes per year until their individual retirement age, and they will receive a final cash to support me. That's the first question. How old are your sons?

They are 37, 41, and 49. Okay. All right.

It's not the thing I like about the plan I've never heard this before, is the idea that

if they don't work, they don't get anything. It is. I want to encourage them to do it on my style instead of me buying them a list. Yeah. Instead of trying to make a trust fund more on, I mean, babies.

That's the plan. Exactly. I like that. What's your estate worth right now? Right now, it's about two million networks.

Okay. You've done a great job, David. Yeah. I love that plan, and I've never heard that I'll probably steal it. It's that good.

I like it a lot. I want it to be out everywhere. Yeah. And the thing I want to guard against with a few additional provisions in the trust

I'll give you a bizarre example, okay. And you may have heard me say this on the area, is just to wake people up. If one of them is doing heroin, I don't want to give them the money for an overdose. Cool. Okay.

And so, if one of them is doing X or Y, that you don't approve of or that you think is harmful to themselves, we don't want to fund that in any way. Okay. So if you're making $100,000 a year, no, I'm not going to give you $25,000 a year if you're doing heroin.

So somehow or another, if there's got to be some kind of a character or I would want it. There is in my trust or ethics type of a thing to protect them from themselves, not because I'm trying to control from the grave, okay, because people become more of what they are. So 25% of what they earn, and then they get a lump sum upon what retirement? Yeah, so we're coming here and saying whatever.

So 65 or whatever you want to call it. Okay. All right. And the money is invested until then. Correct.

Okay.

And you're going to splice this off as, like, you got $3 million, like a million million

and a million to pull this off.

“No, I want to do it differently, because I think you should, the money is unrecoverable”

if you didn't work. So it's one option that the trust would have all the money and each of them core individually is on the phone trust, yeah, that way the ones that are making more are going to drain it down more. Yeah, exactly.

And then we're all going to get the same amount at retirement. No, no, no. The oldest one will get a third of it when he gets to see the money. Okay, I see. The third of what's remaining at the time.

Correct. Okay. All right. It's not a bad formula, David. I kind of like it.

As it stands, are they people of character or working full-time, married, healthy, healthy? Well, okay. So this isn't coming from anywhere. Okay.

So this isn't coming from anywhere.

But I just don't want to drop no quality, you know, $1 million, $1 million on that one

car. Why?

“Well, are they all, do they all have homes right now?”

No, none of them. They're all looking. Okay. Because I'm just wondering, there's another sort of train of thought, which is help the kids when they need it most, which is in their 20s, 30s, 40s versus at 65 when they've

already built their own wealth. So there's another thing to think about. It's not a bad idea. You could put a thing in there that you'll do a 50% or 100% match for down payments. Well, what I thought to answer that question, that's the second half question.

Make sure I start giving them 10% of their incomes now, while I'm alive, just full birthday gift. When they're having hands that kind of lifestyle, you know, 10%. Well, I'm alive. But I'm not, I'm not going to bother them into a house they can't afford, you know, no.

I'm not saying to do that. But there is, you know, I'm 37. Some of the age of your youngest kid, and if I'm not a homeowner yet, and I want to be, and I'm working hard, but homes are expensive. Man, I'd love to give now versus 65 or 25% of my income, you know, staggered.

So there's just something to think about there now. You can play with the numbers both ways and see how it ends up. But yeah, you would need it. So the will will tell you who gets what the trust will then control the timing of all that.

So you would need something like a revocable living trust in order to set up something that that could be formed upon death. Yeah. I found my trust, but I could choose to do something with the housing now, while I'm alive. Exactly.

Exactly. Exactly. And I think I'd probably go pretty generous on that if you can figure out a way that you feel like you're not, quote, spoiling them, unquote. But if I can get them all in a paid for house, pretty quick,

if they're, if they're behaving and they're good, you know, reputable human beings, I'd want to try to do that more so than the other stream of income. But or as much as the other stream of income. So I might lean a little heavier over on that side while you're alive than the other. But it's a neat formula.

It's a, it's a, it's a got a good incentive plan. And I like the way it's thought out. And, you know, that it keeps somebody from, you know, sitting on the back of a yacht saying, "Peel me a grape."

“You know, because that's what you get into.”

And we don't want to create a reality show out of our children. And so that's.

The good news is, you know, it's not like you have 25 million.

We got two right now. So 250 grand probably won't destroy your child where they go. I'm getting retired today on a beach. Yeah. You get him in a paid for house by some formula, some methodology.

I don't care what it is. That it continues along the same idea of incentivizing and spiring.

That's what we want to avoid.

So very cool. Need I did, David? I just learned something. Now, Dave, I don't know how you set up in your family. And all you guys have an annual planning sort of conversation with the trust.

But what are some of the sort of mainstay things? Everyone needs to think about regardless of the size of their estate. Because I've heard you say it doesn't need to be equal. Like not, it's not like every kid has to get a third. No.

And they're not in his formula. They're getting based on, you know, they're improving themselves. So to speak. And I love that. I mean, not based on age or anything else.

So just on performance. So I think the biggest thing is this. And David is, um, he's passed this.

“But some of you were talking to, like you, you know, and what do you have little kids?”

The biggest part of a state planning is raising good kids. That money won't run.

That's 90% of the problem is if you raise torps and you get money, they're very wealthy torps.

I mean, it's all it is. And so, you know, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. It's all about parenting and raising kids. It's all about parenting and raising kids.

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. It's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.

“I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.”

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids.

I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. I mean, it's all about parenting and raising kids. You're not downloading some generic form from the internet and hoping it will work. You'll have guidance every step of the way.

So you can be confident you're doing it right. Plus, the whole process only takes about 20 minutes. And August is national, make a well month. Right now, you can go to MamaBearLegalForums.com and save 25% on your will with the promo code Ramsey.

It's their biggest discount of the year. But it ends August 31st. So don't wait, that's MamaBearLegalForums.com for 25% off with the promo code Ramsey. George, one of the most confusing things on the planet.

For folks dealing with help on their parents, for folks like me that are in their 60s, is this ridiculous program. I can't stand it, but it's just there. It's called Medicare.

Medicare when you look at up in the great means confusing. And people get more tripped up over this than anything else. So let's just start out some of the main questions we're getting on this. Our guys ask us to go into it and just cover the basics on this.

“First question is what is one important?”

What is Medicare? So this is a federal health insurance program. Primarily for people 65 and older. So you hear people sign on up. Hey, it's my 65th birthday.

Time to sign up for Medicare. Very exciting right of passage. And some Medicare coverage comes directly through the federal government. That's parts A and B. We'll talk about that.

And other coverage comes from private insurance companies that have to operate under federal guidelines. So I don't know. You'll often hear in the same sentence, Medicare and Medicaid.

Different Medicare and Medicaid. They have nothing to do with each other. Medicaid is welfare. Medicare is available regardless of your income. So I think if my new turn 65,

you can sign up for Medicare. Medicare is about age. Medicaid is about income and assets. That helps you are lack of income and assets. So let's go through just a four main parts.

Part A think admissions. So this is hospital coverage. So this is the part you've generally paid Medicare taxes toward while working.

It's covering this part.

Well, we used to call hospitalization.

Yes. And then you've got part B. So in my head, I think basics.

“So I think medical coverage doctors visits outpatient care.”

And these two parts together. This is called original Medicare. It's what it was originally set out today. And then we decided it's a federal program. So let's complicate it.

But of course, it doesn't cover everything. So now the supplemental plans came to be. So you get part C, which is Medicare Advantage. So it's thinks C for combo. So it's a private all-in-one alternative.

It combines parts A and B. And you can also add a few other things like dental and vision and all that. And these plans do typically have more restrictions on which doctors and providers you can use. Yeah. So but you're keeping my medic.

Part C is the one you pay for. Yes. Is that part A and B. You've already paid for with your taxes. You paid for all of it.

But you're paying for with your taxes. Okay. So A and B, the government furnishes. See you purchase. And it's your add-ons to A and B.

Yeah. It's the combo plus the add-ons. And you got part D. Easy to remember this one. Think drugs.

Prescription drug coverage is part D.

“And outside of those parts, there's something that you need to pay for that.”

Yes. You're going to pay for that as well with an premium. And medic gap or medicare supplement plans, think this is covering the gap. So private plans to have help cover some of the deductibles, co-pays, other costs that original medicare doesn't cover. All right.

Question two, which medicare plan should I get? It depends. Everyone's the least favorite answer. So there's hundreds of plans available. And it's good to get personalized help from a qualified medicare advisor.

But that would be automatically get A and B. And what type of C plan? What type of add-on plan? And what type of prescription drug or any other supplement, medicare plan? Those are the ones that get confusing and you're buying them.

Yeah. So you need to get someone to look at your situation. Give you a customized response to your particular situation of which of those you need. If any, you're not required to buy anything beyond.

With anything this big, there's always going to be some grifter scammers out there.

So the federal government is actually taking legal action involving major companies over allegations that there was financial incentives that influenced how medicare advantage plans were marketed or sold. And these plans can have more restrictions on which providers you can use. Doesn't mean they're a bad option. They can make sense for some people. But if you're getting pressured toward how you got to get this particular policy,

“it could be because that's what pays them the most.”

So you want to be aware of that? Probably is. If somebody's steering you in a certain way and they haven't done a full analysis and shown you why, this is the best for you. But instead just blindly do what I say.

This is the science. Yep. You know, give you a Fauci answer. Right. Then don't do that.

Right. Okay. Number three. When do you sign up? So there's two major timeframes to know.

The first is your initial enrollment period.

So this is a seven month window. The three months before you turn 65, the month you turn 65 and the three months after. So it's sort of bookended there. So I'm born and may.

So February through August would be my initial enrollment period. The year I turned 65 and this one's really important. If you miss the appropriate enrollment window, you can get some long-term penalties associated with that on certain parts of Medicare. And then the other one is annual enrollment period.

So this one's ongoing October 15th through December 7th each year. And you can make certain changes to your Medicare coverage. Yeah. So those are the two to note. The initial one and the annual one.

Let me stop you second. If you are in a situation like I am in where you don't need Medicare. I have a Ramsey plan. I'm over 65. I missed the enrollment window.

They're not going to send me a bill for penalties. I'll only send me a bill for penalties if I later on choose to sign up. But I have my health care taken care of without the government with health insurance plan here at Ramsey and with wealth. And so I am not in Medicare. And a lot of people are in that situation, especially people that listen to this show.

So don't be thinking you're going to get a penalty unless you join late later. And you do have annual enrollment period of October 15th through December 7th where you can make changes and everything else. So the last piece here is a lot of people think, okay great. I got Medicare. So my long-term care is covered.

No. No. What's the difference here? Medicare primarily covers health care expenses. Like doctors visit hospital stays prescription drugs.

Long-term care is very different. I talk a lot about the show. Long-term care insurance, which is that's her nursing home in home care expenses. And Medicare generally does not cover those ongoing custodial long-term care costs. Medicaid will pay for a welfare poor person's nursing home.

They will not pay for someone that is not poor for the nursing home. And so we have people doing stupid things like Medicaid fraud, welfare fraud, where they move a bunch of assets out of Mom and Dad's name to make Mom and Dad appear poor so they can put them in the welfare nursing home.

That's a criminal activity and you will run into serious problems doing that. Do not do that. And by the way, set yourself up so you don't need welfare. Hello. This is saving money for retirement becoming a millionaire.

That's what we're doing here.

So long-term care insurance, if you've got, if you've got assets under a million dollars,

and you're over 60, go by long-term care insurance has nothing to do with this discussion. That's right. And remember, the purpose of insurance is to transfer risk that you can't take on from you over to the insurance company.

“That's why you pay that premium and Medicare and long-term care coverage.”

They address different risks. So you've got to plan for both. And what's really cool, Dave, is we have a great partner called chapter that helps people navigate this crazy, messy water that is Medicare. And we have a whole guy that we created for Medicare that actually walks you through this and much more. It's a great asset to send to people that you love, that might be in this phase of life, or you might be in it.

So if you want to check that out, you want to learn how to choose a Medicare advisor you can trust.

Because scotoramsysolutions.com/medicareguide will also drop a link to that in the description. So here's the thing. A and B, which is hospitalization, doctor, the basic coverage outpatient that kind of stuff is furnished by the government. C is add-ons that you can do to soup that up. That's where people get tangled up. D is prescription drug coverage. That's also where people get and meta-gap.

These are the three things. So C, D and meta-gap are where people get tangled up. And that's where you need a pro that can help you untangle this and look and go in your situation. You don't need that. You just need this. I would self-insure through that over there. I wouldn't buy that. I would just buy a little bit here and a pro can look at that.

“Or it's a pro can look at it and go look, you're pretty vulnerable. You need to buy three things here.”

And they can help you customize it to your situation and that'll keep you from getting screwed. This whole space is scumming. It's full of people that are inept and competent at best crooks at worst. And so you need to get with someone like our guys at chapter that can sit down and walk you through this. And you understand what you're doing and where the advice is coming from.

Always, Ramsey people are always going to tell you, you need the heart of a teacher.

Whoever we're sending you to needs to be at the heart of a teacher to help you walk through this. It's complicated, but it's not. It's not so complicated. You can't figure it out. It's really not rocket surgery. You can do it. But it's good to have somebody on your team don't teach you and walk you through at RamseySolutions.com/medicareguide. Check out the folks at chapter.

[Music] I'm all about practical ways to save time and mental energy, especially during the summer when life gets busy. Between vacations, camps, deliveries, travel plans, online shopping and trying to keep everyone organized. My mental load can get pretty full. That's one of the reasons why I love to leave me. Most people don't realize how many data broker sites have their information online.

Like older dresses, phone numbers, and even family connections. And that can put you at risk of being a target for spammers and scammers. But removing all of it yourself can turn into a giant project.

“That's why it's a lead me as amazing because the lead me handles it for you.”

Their privacy team of experts removes your personal information from hundreds of data broker sites and they keep monitoring it throughout the year. So far, the lead me has saved me about 90 hours. I would have spent myself removing my information. And honestly, it feels so good knowing that someone is in the background helping me.

And I don't even have to think about it. So this summer, give yourself a vacation with one less thing to manage. Get 20% off annual plans at joinsoleteme.com/ramsey. That's joinsoleteme.com/ramsey. [ Music ]

Hey guys, if you like this show, we could use some help. Please hit the subscribe button. Please hit the like button, all those things, and share the show. Send a link or share button whatever it is you got on your particular platform and let people know we're here.

We would appreciate that. James is in Memphis.

Hey Dave, just trying to work through one day here because I wanted to call in.

Certainly, how can we help? Well, trying to figure out if I can retire from a business early and my wife and I are kind of nervous about it and feed some advice. Okay, why do you want to retire early? Well, I'm a home builder and some of them mostly what I've done

for the past 15 years is stick home building and I'm not wanting to continue that route. Okay, all right. That's different than retiring. I mean, you can start building custom homes.

Well, I've done that also and there's quite a lot of competition in our area and just kind of lost some passion for the business. Okay, so what do you want to do with your life? Well, I'm on a vision quest to figure that out. I don't exactly know, but just something a little more fun and not as stressful.

Okay, all right. Don't mind you doing that. The idea of sometimes when people say retire, they mean sit down at 53 years old and do nothing for the next 40 years, which is not good for you. No.

And I'm not recommending that. So currently, you're retiring from something instead of two something. Yeah, and I would retire to something.

“So does your business have a value or will you just close it?”

I would just close it yet. It's home based. It's about you to really. Okay, but you might have good living and it's been been good to you. So we're going to find out what our next phase is.

So what's your net worth now? Three point two. Good for you. And how much of that is in retirement accounts? 400.

So most of it is not in retirement accounts. Correct. Okay. What's it invested in? I have to sell some stuff.

We have a very nice home with some additional acreage. And I have a lot of plans. What's the home worth? What's the acreage just at 1.5? Okay.

All right.

So you got a million and a half otherwise.

All right. A million seven otherwise. And how much the extra acres? The other acreage you're going to tell me about the plot lands worth what? I have a plot land that's worth just over a million, I think.

And I have some heavy equipment that I own. What you won't need. So we'll sell that. What's that worth? 400.

Roughly. Okay. So I mean, if you took the plot land and the heavy equipment and sold it, you'd have about two million dollars to invest, that should create $150,000 a year and income for you.

While you go on your next vision quest.

“If you want to keep the land and the house and only sell the equipment,”

you're going to be short of funds. So I mean, just do some rough numbers. If you want your head, just say, okay, whatever amount I'm going to put to work for me. If I put it to work at a good mutual fund, it's making $10 or $12.

If I pull 10 off, which I wouldn't want you to pull that much off, but just easy numbers, 10. So I got a million dollars, 10's a hundred thousand. I got two million dollars, 10's two hundred thousand, right? Me and five.

I've got 150,000 work with. That's the maximum you could pull. And I wouldn't want you to pull. I'd rather you'd be 8% or below on your drawdown. That way that lump sum will run in perpetuation.

Does that make sense? Yes, sir. And meanwhile, you go make a living doing the next fun thing, and don't even need this money. Right.

What were you making on average in the business? What were you bringing, how many? The good years will make $500,000. Last year, we lost money. This year will make a little bit.

It's just been a roller coaster.

I've always been doing this.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a scary business. So you got stuff under construction now? I have ones back home. And I've done a few customer pay jobs this past year

that have been pretty good. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, you really do need to figure out where your feed are going to land.

And then what we're going to put in a pile to create income. And it sounds like the land, the plot of land. I think you called it. And the heavy equipment would be a big enough pile to live off of.

“But then also, you need to figure out while all that's happening,”

how we're going to make a living. What we're going to eat with and so on. And I'm sure you've got some cash laying around. But. Yes.

I just a five year plan of generating zero income. Still trying to find yourself is not a good five year plan. Yeah. Do you know your early expenses? How much it takes to run your life?

Oh, for personal. Yeah. About 90,000.

And that pays for our groceries and everything.

Great. You guys have no debt? No debt? Well, I have some debt. You have business debt.

So I have to pay that off in the process. How much business? On that how? On one spec or otherwise? The one spec.

About 400,000. I have one bulldozer, but I owe 250,000. And then I have one of the land pieces of the land. I owe 200,000. Okay.

Yeah.

You've got to clear all of that while we're clearing this.

But you're going to sell off the back. And you're going to sell off the dozer and the piece of land. If it's in a plot that we were talking about selling, it's just going to reduce the size of the, of the golden egg. All right. Of the goose that's laying the golden eggs, right?

Correct. And so, yeah, you just, you're, you're soon. Okay. So you've got to ask your short. You're run way there, but.

Yeah. But I mean, I don't think you're going to be zero.

“You need to lay out a plan with your smart investor pro.”

Because I'm going to liquidate these things and put them in good income producing mutual funds to live off of.

And meanwhile, go find yourself and figure out what your next chapter is. And that's going to be fun. And let me, let me give you a hint. Okay. The interesting thing is this, James.

The, all of our data shows that people, especially in the situation like you're in, it's even more accentuated. The highest income, decade of, decade of your earning life is in your 50s. Okay. And the reason is, it takes about that long to quit doing all the stupid stuff. And, and to hone your craft and hone in on what you're good at and nail it.

And so my point being that if you choose this carefully, it might not just be fun. It might be more lucrative than anything you've ever done in your life. It would not be unusual for you to make triple the income you used to make by the time you're 58. In this scenario. So being more fun does not necessarily mean I don't make money.

Yeah. It could mean that you just hit the sweet spot, you know, and it just nail it and it, and the ball goes over the fence. You know, you swing the bat and it's that certain kind of sound when it makes contact. And it goes right over the fence. And that's, that's where you're setting.

You know, you've done stuff that what you call stress, other people would be completely debilitated by what you call fun. Other people would call stress. Because you've already learned how to run a business in juggle and handle subs and run. Run down timelines and deliver properties and keep the stinking bank off of you. I mean, doing what you've been doing, running, running.

You, you pretty massively successful to get where you are doing specs and not go broke.

“So tip of the hat to you, sir, I think you're in a really good position.”

And you get some homework here to sell off all the stuff, pay off the debts and kind of see where you land with that pile of money. Give yourself a little bit of runway, but let's aim at something. The number of times that we've talked to people on a wealth that in a situation where I'm dealing with wealthy people that they went bankrupt early. Had to find their way like I did. And then they sold out of something or did a major business model shift away from something they were working on.

But use the same sets of everything to go a different direction and an AI world. That's not a bad thing to do. And then they quadruple their income and they just are just printing money. It's like they got a printing person or basement. You know, it's just like they're bailing it.

Especially with entrepreneurs. They have a hard time not entrepreneuring. You're just going to find their way to the next problem to solve. That's what they do. It's hard to stay put. It could be something that's an invention that's been scratching at the back of his head. Hitching at the back of his head.

Yeah, what's the biggest problem you've experienced in 15 years that you think you could solve? Yeah, that's a fun for a home rate of decision. [ Music ] One of the biggest mistakes home buyers make is talking to a realtor and shopping for houses before understanding their real budget.

And that's how you end up falling in love with a house you can't afford and trapping yourself in a bigger payment than you can handle.

“That's why you should talk to Churchill mortgage first.”

Churchill shows you what you can actually afford not just what a bank will approve. And with their certified home buyer program, your financing is completely secured before you shop.

I've recommended Churchill for 30 years because they help you buy a home the Ramsey way.

So here's your plan. Contact Churchill. Know your numbers. And then when you find the perfect house, you're ready. Go to ChurchillMorgage.com/RamsieOffer for a special offer only for Ramsey fans. That's ChurchillMorgage.com/RamsieOffer or click the link in the description. [Music]

“Steven is in Buffalo, New York, K-Steven, how are you?”

Hey, good, how are you guys? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so my question today is to just kind of find out more about yours and trust in what to do moving forward. So I guess a little context on 20 years old. My life and I got married right out of college last May.

Fast forward a year to this May.

We welcome our first baby home.

Yeah. And while she was pregnant, we were doing the storm mode thing, just piling cash. So once all the hospital bills were paid, the August 1st, we became debt free. Look at you. Well done, sir. Thank you. I have a disability and term life insurance development.

And I've been working on getting her life insurance now. So I don't really know much about wills or trust or anything and how that expands with more kids. So I'm just calling them to get any advice or direction on that.

“It's you want them to share kind of what you guys do with your family.”

Such a great question. You're the most mature 22 year old I've ever met. I wish I was you. It's your age. Man, you're going to be so rich and your family's going to be so well taken care of.

Well played, sir. Well played. I'm proud of you. Good work. And a great question. So some basics on wills.

Number one, a will is state specific. So it has to be written for the laws of your state. And you're in New York and New York's one of the weird states. So you really have to make sure. California, New York, Texas, Louisiana for weird states on wills.

Okay. Because Louisiana is French-based law or everybody else is English-based law. California is Grenola, New York's close. And so that's what you're running. And Texas is not done in think it's a state.

It thinks it's a republic. So it's got all these weird laws. So all of that comes into the way they make laws and how they put them in place. And needs to be state specific. And one way to get that is the, the advertising we've had for years that helps you do a quick easy will,

which is exactly what you need from mamabearlegalforms.com. So just go to mamabearlegalforms.com and they'll help you print it all out.

The second thing is, I would recommend you look at what's just called a mirror image will.

And that means you're will and your wife's will look exactly like if you both die. And before you both die, it all goes to her if it's you, it all goes to you if it's her. Pretty simple. Okay. So the wills, if you lay them down beside each other, it looks like they came off a word processor.

And they were exactly the same except the names were changed to protect the innocent. Right. I mean, that's all it is. So that's the second thing. Just mirror image will.

You leave it all to her. She leaves it all to you. The insurance, the primary beneficiary on her insurance, life insurance is you. The 401k primary beneficiary is you. Your 401k primary beneficiary, your life insurance primary beneficiary is her.

Your secondary beneficiary is on everything. This is the last thing I'm going to teach you is to do a children's trust if both of you die. So how's this baby going to be taking care of both of you die? All the life insurance proceeds dump into the children's trust and the 401k dumps into the children's trust. And it's only formed if both of you die while the children are minors.

Okay.

“That's how mine was set up on my children were minors.”

But that's why the secondary beneficiary, meaning both of you are the primary beneficiary's dead. So they go to the secondary beneficiary. Okay. So primary beneficiary is the opposite spouse. But the secondary beneficiary on everything for all of both of you is going to be the children's trust

because you're leaving your money to your kids. Now, that's a very simple way to do it and then you name who the trustee is. That's who's taking care of the money and you can state in the trust. What you want to invest it in, how it's paid out towards the kids while their minors, all of that.

Then the trustee. Well, okay. Because they're personally the money's different. The person taking care of the kid. You may have different people for that and it's wise. And so if the person taking care of the kid gets a monthly check from the investments and the children's trust and the event both of you die. Then they got child support on steroids. Because they're getting a nice check to take care of these kids to raise them.

And in addition to that, we had in there our child, if they had a major medical, they could do an additional drawdown on the trust.

And I put a burden on the family that's raising them first car purchase.

They could do a small drawdown on the trust and college. They could do a drawdown on the trust. So there's no dead involved and not a burden on the family that's raising them. Then when they're after they graduate from college or 22, the trust dissolves the money goes. Their portion of the trust dissolves the money goes to them. Or you can stagger that out and give them a little bit over the next few years until they're 30.

That's a fairly standard, fairly easy thing to think through. Mama bear will walk you through every bit of that.

“And that's exactly what I did when I was your age and that's what I would recommend.”

Yeah, I was just looking at mine on my mama bear because I can just sign in and look at the documents, which is awesome. So I was checking ours out and there's a few major decisions to even you need to make. That's the hardest part. It's not actually getting the well done. You can do that in 20 minutes.

The hardest part is who do we trust to take care of our children? That's the guardian.

Who's going to take care of the financial side, financial power attorney, and then you've got the healthcare power attorney? Who's going to make medical decisions if I can't? And so those are really the big things and then of course there's the who gets what, which is pretty simple in your case. Yeah, that I would recommend what we said on the who gets what. The healthcare stuff is just the unplug or not to unplug.

That is the question. That's the healthcare power attorney. So typically the spouse is the primary on that, but if there was a car wreck, one of you's in a coma, the other one died. Who's the secondary on the healthcare power attorney on whether to unplug this coma or not? Right, all that kind of stuff. That's the kind of junk you're looking at.

And it doesn't take long once you identify who those people are.

“Oh, and by the way, you should let them know.”

You should talk to them. I'm going to ask you to raise my child if I die and don't let that be a surprise.

You know, but and I'll ask you to be the trustee. Well, who's raising the child? So and so and so and so is the trustee. Tell him who the trustee is going to be, who's going to be handling the money and who's going to be handling the kid. Each one of them know in the event that something does happen. And the unlikely event, honestly, statistically very low chance that both of you are gone before these children or adults.

Very low chance. The trust is created technically upon death, but it's instructed and the will. The will says to create the will states to create this trust upon death of both people if the children are still minors. Okay, and I've been like backup guardians or trustees. I guess if you were all in the accident. Well, the guardian, if I guess if the whole family is on an airplane or something, I guess you could.

I didn't. I didn't go that far. Typically, there's standard terminology in this that a successor trustee or a successor guardian can be appointed. But again, statistically, this is such a low probability. I really wouldn't. I'm not worried about that.

“If you've done all the other, I think you've been diligent.”

All right. Thanks so much. Well, and go, man, man, you are home. And this is perfect. It's actually national make a whale month. I know you've been celebrating all month long. Yeah, I got candles on a cake. Not killing. It's make a whale. Well, I want to mention to him.

Well, we're not having a month for this. Well, I wanted to give him a whale for free on behalf of Mama Bear. Do that and for the rest of you, let him have the guy needs something for free. He's just crushing it. He's killing it. He deserves it. And for the rest of you, we actually have a cool thing running right now.

Ramsey Solutions dot com slash whales quiz helps you figure out if you need a whale. If it works for you, if it's simple online whale works. And there's a 20% 25% off promo code there. Yeah, it helps you figure out if Mama Bear will handle it. Or if it's super complicated, whether you need an attorney.

Everyone needs a whale. That's an adult period. 78% of Americans die without a whale. You know what's odd about that statistic? 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Oh, interesting.

You think it's the same crowd. You think people that don't pay attention don't pay attention. Who would have thought? You know, so if you're going to just be, you know, mediocre with your money and not not be proactive then it shows up in a lot of different areas.

And well, when I'm gone, I want people to think I didn't like the guy, but he handled his business. He had a whale.

He's a bit controlling, but he was good at it.

He was a super nerd.

“That's how you say I love you to your family.”

Hey, guys, George Campbell here. There are a lot of things you probably shouldn't ignore. You're check engine light that weird smell in your fridge, the smoke detector that's been beeping for six days, and maybe most importantly, your phone bill.

The things we ignore have a funny way of costing us the most. And your phone carrier is counting on you ignoring that over price bill month after month, so they can keep charging you more and more. But that's not the case with Boost Mobile. You don't need to keep overpaying when you can pay just 25 bucks a month

for Boost Mobile's unlimited plan. And the best part is you can bring your phone, keep your number and pay just 25 bucks a month, forever. That price will not go up.

It is inflation proof. There's no contracts. There's no hidden fees. There's no catch.

And since most smartphones have an e-sim these days,

you can switch from the comfort of your home just like I did. So it's okay to notice when you're paying more than you should, but you shouldn't keep doing that. Stop overpaying for your phone service. Go to BoostMobile.com/Ramsy

and make the switch today. That's BoostMobile.com/Ramsy. $25 for ever requires customers

“to remain active on BoostMobile and limited plan.”

Welcome back to the Ramsy Show. In the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. George Campbell Ramsy Personality is my co-host today. Mary is in Las Vegas. Not working hold on.

I try that again. All right. I'm going to try one more time. And then you guys are going to do something else. Oh.

All right.

Let's see if we can get Mary.

There she is. Mary, are you there? Yes, I am. Hello. Good.

I'm actually pushing the right button now. How can I help? Okay. Thanks for taking my call. Dave and George.

Okay. So my question is, well, I'm contributing to my Roth. PSP and Ever since I listened to your show. I started becoming more intentional about that. But I do have about $26,000 in my traditional.

PSP of like those contributions.

“And I'm wondering, is it worth converting that $26,000 to the Roth?”

PSP and the Payment Taxes now. And then additionally, I get a 5% match from the federal government. But that goes also into their to address traditional. So should I. That's the end of every year or.

Yeah. What should I put this money in the traditional? Yeah. Where are you in the baby steps? Um, I am, well, I don't have that.

I have an emergency fund and I'm investing 15% and I don't have a mortgage. I don't have kids. You don't have a house yet. You're renting. Correct.

Okay. Cool. What do you make? What do you make? Um, I met or I gross a hundred thousand five hundred and I met 97.

Good for you. Why do you go? I'm so good. Congratulations. How old are you?

I'm 36. Well done. Very well done. Okay. Um, yes, I would convert the 26,000 and yes,

I would convert the match at the end of each year and pay the taxes. And you're going to have to do that out of additional savings. And that has the effect of putting actually more money than 15% into your retirement. But not much. It's okay.

So you're probably going to have four five thousand dollars in taxes on the 26,000. And whatever the match is, you're going to have, you know, a little bit on that. And that's not, but I'm the same way I actually own Ramsey solutions. So I match myself. And I'm required to match it in traditional.

And so I roll it to Roth at the end of each year and pay the taxes. Oh, actually. I've done. Yeah, so yes, I would go ahead and do that now. As I've said to do that now, I want you to recognize that that.

$45,000 or whatever it is in taxes on the 26,000 is going to reduce your down payment savings. Your down payment amount that you have saved towards a house. Or it's going to slow down by five or six thousand dollars that. I still would do it because it's a small amount.

And it gets your stuff all cleaned up. And it gets it all in the Roth column. Okay. Cool. Okay.

But I want you recognize that's 5,000 that could have gone towards the house down payment fund. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I understand.

But if you had a mortgage. I would really tell you to put it towards the mortgage instead. But because it's a small amount, I'd be tempted to do it anyway. So if you're like, if you were like working for five, six, seven at the same time here, instead you're just doing four, don't have kids don't have mortgage.

And the last thing is what is your TSP invested in?

Um, so I have it in the CS and I funds. You have been listening to Ramsey? Yes, yes, a lot. Thank you. I'm very impressed.

You passed the test of flying colors. Very cool. Thank you. Absolutely.

“So that's the thrift savings plan ladies and gentlemen.”

The federal employee has or the military has. And it's their version of a 401k. Some branches actually also have a 401k. And they have three or four different things. You can put the money in.

The F is a fixed which sucks. The rate of returns horrible. The G is government bonds horrible. Rate of return. The C is very close to an S and P 500 index fund.

It's common stock is what stands for. The S stands for small company. So that's like an aggressive growth stock mutual fund. The I stands for International. Those two have not kept up with the C.

And so we have told people to put 80 or 90 percent into the C.

And split the difference left over between the S and the I, which is exactly what she does. They also have a really lame O plan that you can put the money in. And it's automatically moves around depending on your age, your risk tolerance. It's going to be way too conservative. And it's really soft.

You're terrible return. Really sucks. But I'm looking at the 12 month returns here just for the CS and I fund it. And they blow away G and F of course. Yeah.

So what are they? 16 percent over the last 12 months for the C fund. 14 to 15 percent for the S fund. And 35 percent for that I fund.

“Because as we've seen the volatility of international markets are doing what?”

International is boosted up with all the UNG is four. Four percent of the six. Yeah. So just like I told you, they suck. You don't want your investing at four when inflation rates for that.

You know, you're just tread and water. And if you've got it in traditional, you've got to pay taxes on it. So you've lost some money after inflation when your long-term investments are making four or five or six.

You're not even tread and water.

So you've got to be doing better than six on your long-term stuff to beat and take inflation in taxes. But the general parameter is don't do any conversions until you're in baby step seven because that money is better off used to knock down the mortgage versus. Yeah.

She had 260,000 in traditional. I'd tell her to just wait. Yeah. And you just check later. Save up and buy your house.

Get your house paid off. And when your house is paid off, like you said. Maybe step seven. Then I would work on converting that 260. But normally, if you're investing in the traditional side,

we tell you, hey, just pause that. And for the new contribution. That's what's going on the Roth side. And that's what she done. Mary has been listening, George.

I'm so impressed. She's doing the Ramsey plan. I mean, dialed in. She ever wants a non-government job. Apply here, Mary.

We could use you. We're in no government. But we do not have a TSP. By the way, if you've got a TSP, it's not horrible to do 100% C and forget it.

That's like investing in S and P and forgetting it. For those of you that are bugle heads, that like passive investing in the S and P index and all that crap, the equivalent would be just by C inside the TSP. And it's going to give you a great return.

You're just missing out on the small cap and mid cap. Which is like 16. And the other one of the C was what? C was 16, S was the 14, 15. There was 30.

They're fairly close. Yeah. Yeah. That's the last 12 months. That's the right picture.

I was spiked up.

“But honestly, the C is outperformed everything.”

It's a long term. If you look at it. Not in the last 30 year return, you would see that. Yeah. And so you're in good shape.

She's done everything so smart. By the book, a lot of smart people on today's show. I'm very inspired. Oh, no. The kids are going to be all right, Dave.

So George Recap. Match Beach Roth Beach Traditional. Yes. That's the investing strategy that we recommend. Because the match from your employer is going to give you an instant return on your money.

So we have a match here at Ramsey. I put a hundred bucks in. Dave's give me another hundred bucks. That's incredible. So we start there.

I got a chill. Then we thanks Dave. Appreciate that. Then we go to Roth. Which means you're using after tax dollars.

You're not going to get the deduction. But that money now is going to grow tax free. And the government's not going to get their grubby hands on it ever again. That's incredible. And then we move to traditional.

If we run out of Roth options. And that 15% threshold, the only way. If you're company offers a 401k Roth and you have personal Roths. And you do backdoor Roth if you've got higher income. The only way you would run out of Roth.

And have to go to some kind of traditional is if your company didn't offer Roth. Yep. I'll be the only thing the only way. And there's even like we have a mega backdoor 401k. Yeah. And you can do it last night.

You can do it all Roth. Pretty incredible. If the company offers Roth. So you got all kinds of ways you can do this stuff.

And I love summer.

There is more fun on the calendar more time with your people.

And way more chances to make memories. But you know what else? There's more of spending. Oh, between the extra groceries and gas and camp fees and family trips. It all starts to add up so fast.

And before you know it, money stress starts to steal the fun out of everything. And that is why I love the every dollar budget app. Because it helps you plan your money, track your spending, and find more margin in your budget. So that you can put extra cash towards the goals that matter most. Enjoy your summer without the money stress.

Download the every dollar app in the App Store or Google Play and start for free today. [ Music ]

Well, if you feel like a rat in the wheel and you're sick and tired of run, run, run, run, run, get nowhere.

“The only way you get out of something like that is you have to plan your way out.”

You get above the problem and lay out a game plan. In the money world, that's called a budget. A budget is you telling your money what to do instead of wondering where it went. When you're spending your wheels, it's not because you're doing it on purpose, it's because you're not doing it on purpose. Pretty simple.

And if you want to follow the Ramsey Plan, the details, the baby steps, the right things like Mary calling a little while ago. And she had everything nailed down exactly. We can show you exactly what to do when and where by following the every dollar budget app. It will lead you not only through building a budget, that's the basics. But also if you help you find thousands of dollars and hit margin and then what to do with it,

to find the fastest path from where you are to out of debt to out of what to end a wealth. So every dollar free you can start it for free in the App Store or Google Play. Don't be normal. Normal sucks. Sam is in New York.

Hi, Sam, how are you? Hello, I'm doing well, how are you? Better than I deserve, what's up? So I was wondering, so I guess I'll start with on 26. I have two roommates right now and I've been living with roommates for the past three years now.

I'm hoping to get my next place by myself, without any roommates, but the cost of rather is significantly more than to continue living with people.

“Sure. And so I guess my question is, how do I know how much I should be saving?”

Because I've been watching so many of your videos about especially Georgia's out on the street. And if you start investing now, how much you'll have when you retire. So I guess how much can I, how much should I feel comfortable to spend now versus during even more into saving and investing in retirement? Good for you. Good question. Well, keep in mind that George, when he's on the street generally, is making fun of people.

I do the gym helper look to the camera. Like, you guys see in this? I actually just did one on the cost of living in New York. While we were over there, I said, what's your rent payment for New York residents? And so that was really interesting to find out how much people are paying. And how much are you paying and rent currently between, you know, you're one of three roommates?

I am. So right now I'm paying 1,300 a month. Woo. So party 900 is the rent? Is this plenty? It's 3800. I think it's a slightly larger room for an extra 100. She's an extra four square feet, so she pays a little bit more.

“So you want to have your own place. That's the goal. What would that cost a reasonable place?”

Not a swanky, you know, penthouse, but what's the place you're looking at? I think like reasonably the least I could get something for is around 2600, 2700. Okay. It's about double. Yes.

What's your after tax monthly income? I take a lot out of right off the top between ESPP and do Ropsboro, okay. So without the investing, if you just said, hey, here's the state and federal taxes.

Here's what I'm really making.

Or I would say probably I'm taking home about 120,000 a year. Okay, so let's call it 10 grand a month. So it's about 27%. Yeah. So a rule of thumb we use is when you're buying a home, don't let your payment be more than

a fourth of your take home pay, not counting for a 1k and ESPP. Okay. So that's about where you would be with this rental number. And that shouldn't choke you to death. But keep in mind, when you're renting 100% of the time,

And so we're buying patients.

We're not buying a house buying somebody else's house for them. But we're not buying a house. And so you're buying time, you're buying patients. You don't want that to be your long-term goal. With that in mind, I'm trying to save towards a purchase someday.

How old are you? I am 26. And you don't want to be 36 and still sitting there paying rent. I definitely don't want to, and my partner has been with him for almost six years now. So I'm hoping that I get to be a part of a dual income rather than rather student.

And so you can combine. And I don't really want to work on his. How aggressive he is six years. Yeah.

Yeah, a painter get off the ladder, dude.

What are you guys waiting for? I could not tell you. I'm not waiting on anything. Okay. That's a discussion for nothing more.

But today's point. What you're dealing with here's opportunity costs. What you're giving up by getting your own place is about $16,800 a year. That you could have been saving towards your down payment. Yeah.

So if you're okay with that and slowing that goal down because you want your own place, that's fine. As far as the perimeter goes, you're pretty much right there. If your life goal, the way you see your life unfolding to getting a home is to having a dual income.

And that's not an unreasonable goal.

We should put a timeline on that. Yeah. In other words, he needs to put a ring on it. I think it was us. Yeah.

And that's the old grandpa talking. But if you find one like Sam, don't let her get away. And so because it sounds like this.

“If I think this is five years and for quality of life,”

I'm willing to give up $16,000 or $18,000 a year to live by myself. And that's all you're buying because you're not buying a house. And you're taking that out of your down payment fund. But if we're doing that for two years and then we're going to be married, that's one thing.

Or we're going to put $40,000 or $25,000 a way, $30,000 a way. And stay with the room mates so that when we do get married, we've got more money to put down and buy a house faster. So if I knew, if I was in your shoes, okay, I'm not telling you what to do exactly. But if I were in your shoes and I knew I was going to be married within 18 months to two years,

which is very reasonable if you've been together six years. If I knew that was going to happen, then I would say with the room mates, because I'd be planning towards my married self rather than my today's self. But if I don't know, if I don't know, and I may have to kick above off the ladder, because he's not going to come to the table, we don't know what's going to happen there.

If I don't know, and I want to have this quality of life, I might go over and do the thing for $2700 and kick the can down the road a little bit on buying. I guess the other question similar to that is, I've got it between, I wouldn't touch anything in retirement, but just in brokerage and other things I've got.

“I think my net worth right now is around $370,000.”

Why to go? There's things because I can't count on them, but at least right now. But would it be worth it if you can consider just buying a place for $200 and depleting some of what I have invested? You're saying you could buy an apartment or condo for $200. No, I'd be $200 down.

Maybe not in New York. Maybe somewhere outside. We're going to be in New York for $200. Yeah. Not in Manhattan.

But again, if you can do that with the parameters and go, all right, it's going to be about a quarter of my after tax monthly income after the down payment. You could consider it, but I would still wait to see what the future is. I'm not going to wait, I'm going to present this in a conversation. Hey, if you're not going to come to the table, I'm going to go buy a house.

Yeah. Because I'm going to go, I'm going to make a plan for my life to be whole without you, because it appears you're not going to be around. You're either here or you're not, and this sort of thing ain't working. I mean, you're not going to be as blunt or crazy as I am, because I'm already married,

but you see what I'm saying. It's like, if you're going to come to the table, we'll wait and buy a house together.

“But if you're not, I think I'm going to go buy a house.”

Because I'm going to start planning my life and make it whole as if you're not here, because I don't know if you're going to be here or not. And you can freeze that, however you want to freeze it. But that's really, I would tell him what's up instead of going, Hey, I'm going to go buy a house for us.

No, no, no, no, no, no. No us here, buddy.

Me. Yeah. No me.

“By the house for me. That's what we're doing.”

You have done so well, Sam, and let me tell you the better.

You have your financial foundation laid like this. The more confident you are making relationship decisions that are good long-term decisions. You don't feel trapped. That's a really good smart place to be young lady and proud of you. [Music]

[Music] Hey, guys, George Campbell here. Do you ever feel like insurance companies only care about your money and not what you actually need? Well, there's a better way. When you go to Ramsey's insurance resource hub, you'll start feeling confident that you're getting the right coverage that's truly best for you. You'll find helpful info on everything from life insurance, health insurance, identity theft protection, and more. And when you're ready to get the coverage you need, you can connect with a Ramsey trusted insurance pro who will only get you what you need at the best price.

Go to Ramsey's solutions.com/insurance, Ramsey's solutions.com/insurance. [Music]

Never been a better time than right now to find a job doing what you love.

At Ramsey, we're on a mission to provide hope to everyone in every welcome life. And we need more talented team members to join the mission we are growing. Especially for roles in paid media marketing, email marketing, analytics engineers, and you can come do work that actually matters. And Ramsey, check out RamseySolutions.com/careers and click the link in the show notes.

“Benjamin and Laura are with us on the debt free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, today. Welcome, where do you all live?”

Baltimore, Maryland. Fine, fine, well, welcome to Nashville. And how much debt have you two paid off? $282,000. Way to go. And how long did that take? About seven years. All right. And your range of income during that time? $151 to $210. Good. What do you guys do for a living? So I'm an application systems analyst technical lead for an investment advisory firm.

Okay. And I work for a ministry that helps people living through addiction. Oh, good for you. Wow, good jobs. Well done. Very cool. All right. And your shirt says mortgage free. So I'm guessing you paid off house and everything. House and everything. Why are you looking at where people?

“And you guys aren't that old. How old are you all? I'm 39. And I'm 47. Excellent. And what's this house worth?”

48. 48. Why do you go? And how much in your nest egg in your retirement and so forth? So in IRA and 401ks, we have 430. And in addition to that, we have another 230 in the emergency fund. HSA, 529 company stock, and now that the house is paid off, ETFs in a brokerage account. Wow. So you're running what?

Million and a half? Not worth? 1.1 million. 1.1 million. Okay.

All right. Well, very good. Way to go. Baby steps, millionaires. Yeah. Look at you. And seven years. That's amazing. Well done. I'm so proud of y'all. Congratulations. How's your field and not even have a freaking house payment? Oh, I'm free. Free. Yeah. That's exactly how it feels. Was the whole thing the mortgage? No. Well, what else was in there? I came into our marriage with 12,000 in IRS debt.

I had a thousand in debt to Maryland and a thousand dollar dental bill that was around so long. It was like a pet. And then you met Laura, who analyzes everything very carefully. I can already tell. And she said, we're not doing this. Am I right? Yeah. Absolutely. So you guys have been married seven years? Yes. This is tracking now. So you get back from the honeymoon. And she says, all right, down to business. Oh, no. Before there was a honeymoon, she already said there's down to business.

There's the prerequisites. We paid off the IRS and the dental and the Maryland state, the day we got back from the honeymoon. Yes. And that set us back to baby stuff three for a couple weeks. And then we had to very quickly adjust because. Because my, our, our older son, my son Jacob, he was in, he went to college right after we got married.

Yeah. Wow. Oh, why do you call, guys? Well, very cool though. Very good. I mean, all the goals are hit. And you knocked it out.

“And then you start on the mortgage. Yep. That's it. And seven years later, your millionaires. Yeah.”

Wow. So when you're in your 30s and you had IRS debt or you're in your 20, your 30 mid 30s, you had your IRS debt and all that. You're thinking to be a millionaire by now.

I never thought of it now. I didn't think that it was possible at that point in time. And one of the, one of the big things that that held us back.

My old me back was was debt. And we, we learned a lot through financial peace university. I just got real gazelle intense about it. Yeah. So originally, I took FPU in the fall of 2013, somebody at my church paid for 11 scholarships. Why? I have no idea who paid for it and completely changed my life because Liam at that point was only six years old. And I was a single mom. Making 55 and I paid off 75,000 in three years. And then three months later, I met Benjamin.

And I told him that I was three months into an 18 month plan where I was going to save up a $60,000 in by a house in our way. And that didn't scare him. No one impressed him. I said you can't stop a train once it's on the track. That's it. I heard the, I heard the locomotive going. Yeah. Here we go. Yep. And so five months after we met, he asked me out. And I had a 48 item RFP.

And he met almost all of the requirements in my RFP except number 12 was he needed to do it. Wait, wait, I know what it is. But tell the public what you gave your date. I asked for a partner. I asked for a partner. And there was 48 items he had to check. Yes. And he checked every single one except for one. Except for two. So one, when he asked me out, he said, I know we have to make compromises because you prefer the mountains and I prefer the beach.

“And I said, where are we going to live? Are we going to live at the Shader Jamalta? I don't want to live at the Shader Bralta? What about Ireland?”

Ireland, it rains too much in Ireland. I don't want to live in Ireland. And he said, I was thinking that we would live in the mountains. And we would have a mural of the beach. And so the second item that he didn't check off yet was Dave Ramsey follower on same pace, financial, financially. So I agreed to go out with them under the condition that he complete FPU before he proposed. Wow. That is well for one day. And this didn't scare you at all. Those of us in the business world is a request for proposal. In this case, it's request for partnership.

Oh my gosh. Wow. That's impressive. I'm surprised he checked off 46 of the first day.

I mean, you picked well. I mean, the chances of that was a lot more pretty low. That's this is amazing.

Wow. Very cool. The cool thing to the Benjamin too, like you said, you got gazelle intense. I wasn't just because of that because of her demands. I'm guessing it what you do for a living. You observe people who change behaviors permanently. And they usually do so fairly radically. It has to be radical for it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's all or nothing. And so you applied that. I'm guessing whether you consciously or unconsciously applied that knowledge to this subject. Absolutely.

Yeah. It was learning how the debt percentages work against you when you owe money and work for you when you invest the money. It made a night and day difference in how to see that. Yeah. And so then it wasn't like, oh, I'm having to do this to get this girl.

It's more like this works and I'm freaking doing it all in. Yeah. She's just incredible whether it's either way, either way. Yeah, I got you. Well done, y'all. That's very cool.

“Very cool. What was the church you went to financial patient?”

Lighthouse and Glen Burnie. Okay. Very nice. Very nice. Well, thank you guys so much. We're so proud of you. What do you tell people? You both been through financial patient been married seven years and you went from in debt

and to paying off mortgage and everything. And now a net worth of over a million dollars in the seven years.

What do you tell people the secret is?

So I tell them three things. One is the budget is foundational. If you don't get the budget, nothing else is going to work. Two, marriage is a partnership, not a roommate agreement. Make sure you're on the same page financially. And three, we started coordinating FPU in the fall of 2021.

And I would tell my class to set three types of goals. You set realistic goals, ridiculous goals, and mathematically impossible goals. And you tell people what your mathematically impossible goals. So I was telling my class that my mathematically impossible goal was

And I have achieved every one of my mathematically impossible goals.

When it was just me, I would barely make it. We actually did it eight months early. Wow. That's amazing. Well, yeah, we call on God wild goals. Well, if God shows up, we can do this, but otherwise, we can't do it by ourselves.

The math says we can't mathematically impossible goals. And then that's how, that's great.

“And that your class is man, can you imagine being in her class?”

I feel like someone should go through a class. We needed to put this at scale. Yeah, this is great. Yeah, coordinators when they, financial piece coordinators when they're like this. The people to go through their class, their lives are all changed.

They don't have a choice. No choice. You can't be in the class. You've got to do an RFP, you know? Let's get to it. So you guys are amazing.

All right, and you brought Liam with you.

Does he want to come up for the debt free screen? Yep. All right. How old is Liam? He's 19. He's been following this journey since he was six. I love it.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt free screen. Three, two, one. Where's that free? Yeah.

How's it, everything, baby? Woo-hoo! [Music] Hey, guys. Dave Ramsey here. 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. [Music]

Our scripture of the day first Peter 1, 6.

So be truly glad.

“There is wonderful joy ahead even though you have to under many trials for a little while.”

Winston Churchill said the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. Braden is with us. Braden is in Atlanta. Hi. Braden, how are you? Good. How are you? Thank you for going.

Thank you for taking the golf. Sure. What's up? I have a question. Me and my fiance are looking to get married and move out. And our options right now are either moved out into an apartment or my parents gave me the option of paying to finish the basement and then living down there for a couple of years while we can.

We saved up to put it down pregnant on a house. That's going to know what the smart move would be there. I currently have an income. She does not. And we are both in college still. When were you both graduate?

Next year. Like May of 27? Should be you, sir. Okay. And what will her degree be in? She will work in physical therapy.

Okay. Is she finishing the master's in PT or undergrad? If it will be.

“It will be more like a associate's degree to working physical therapy assistants.”

Okay. So she's not going to be a PT. Okay. All right. That's okay. And what will your degree be in?

I will be graduating with an accounting degree. Okay. All right. And sitting forward and passing the CPA I assume your masters in accounting. All right.

No, I will be going a different route. I will be going into like corporate finance route. Okay. Cool. No problem.

Good. All right. And when are you getting married? September 27. After graduation.

Yes, sir. It's about a year from now. Okay. Yes, sir. Okay.

All right. Do you have student loan debt or other debts? I do not. She does. It's about 10,000.

Okay. All right. So you probably can save up enough to pay off the student loan debt when you come home from the honeymoon. In September of 27.

Correct. I plan on having that paid off. Okay. All right. So you probably can save up enough to pay off the student loan debt when you come home from the honeymoon.

I plan on having that paid off by the end of this year. I don't pay off her debt until you're married to her.

That's not a smart idea. No. It's not a smart idea. Okay.

You don't pay people's debt that you're not married to.

But I would have the money saved up to do that and I'll return from the honeymoon. I'd write a check and pay it off. Yes. I would do that. I'd be ready to do that.

Okay. Yes, sir.

“And she's not taking out any more student loan debt, right?”

Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. The way we answer questions on the show and the way I've talked to George and all the others to do the same thing is what would I do if I were in your shoes? Okay.

Your parents offer as a kind offer. But there is a huge advantage to a young couple to be separated and have their own

entity, their own physical entity in terms of the first year of marriage relationally plugging in with each other, not having the in-laws above your head.

Yes, sir. The relational advantage of that is very, very real. And it actually, the weird thing is it'll actually parlay over into your finances. In other words, the more adult the two of you are because you're a separate entity and not plugged still into mommy and daddy in any way. The better your first few raises are going to be your first few job decisions are going to be in all that kind of thing.

It all kind of goes with the same territory and there's, you know, we've seen those data points for years doing what we do. So for the sake of your marriage and even indirectly, the byproduct of your finances, I would just rent the cheapest one bedroom I could. Okay, I guess to add to that is if we lived with them or, you know, other costs like utilities and groceries. I most likely wouldn't have to pay car insurance. So there would be quite a few other costs that would not be there if we didn't live with them.

“I think I think it's a net positive still.”

But you guys will be grown adults probably making a 150 k household income starting out with no debt.

So you're going to be able to afford rent and save up for a down payment with no issue.

So when my daughters were four to seven years old, they had in the play room to pretend dresses that they wore all the time. One of them was a wedding dress and one of them was a princess dress. When your fiance was wearing her pretend wedding dress at seven years old, she was not visualizing living in your mother's basement. And walking upstairs to breakfast to see your mother-in-law as much as you might love each other. You'll love each other more if you live in different spaces.

It's again, it's a kind offer but the unintended consequences offset the advantages as far as I'm concerned. And I wouldn't do it. And so I have to tell you what I would do, Georgia. I'm in the same boat. I mean, I moved out when I was 20. And so I wasn't like a living at home kind of guy. And there's times where we'd say, okay, it makes sense to live at home for this season until this thing.

But I don't like the idea of just, well, cheaper than we can save money to save up the down payment. You guys are going to be in great shape starting off since we're household income. For those of you out there that are in these situations, this would not be hard, but it's not really really hard to live in. But it's not really hard to live in.

But it's not really hard to live in. But it's not really hard to live in. It's not really hard to live in. It's not really hard to live in. It's not really hard to live in.

It's not really hard to live in. It's not really hard to live in. It's not really hard to live in. It's not really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in.

It's really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in.

It's really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in. It's really hard to live in.

It's really hard to live in. It's hard to live in. It's hard to live in.

“better be saddling up. Jordan is an Albany. Hey, Jordan. What's up? Hi, Dave. How are you?”

Better than I deserve. How can I help? Good. Thank you so much for taking my call. So I bought a car about a month ago and I am wondering if I should sell it because I'm having a bunch of regret about it. It's a newer car and I think it's going to be more of a curse than a blessing.

Okay. What's owed on the loan? 25,000. How do you pay 25? What's the loan amount?

“No, so I put down 2500 and then it was 25,000 in total. Does that make sense?”

Yeah. So 22,500 is what's owed today? Yes. Okay. And what is your household income?

So I'm single. I live with my parents. So I bring it out 2600 a month. I just picked up some tutoring.

And I've been doing that this summer. So that's up to my income about 1,000. So 3600. And I'm planning on doing that throughout this school year as well. It is too expensive of a car for your situation. We tell folks not to buy a car that's more than half their annual income and you did. Yeah. And I would sell it. Yeah.

I would buy something about $12,000 in your situation. Okay. Okay. I also have a bunch of student loan debt. And I thank you for all your advice and stuff.

“I've been putting a lot of money towards those as well. What do you come?”

It's a hefty amount. Yeah. And now you've just added another chunk to it. You know, yeah, there's a couple of the 22,000 bucks on top of that before you get out of debt. So now I even take back my 12,000. I would go cheaper than that. I buy something super cheap. Get to work. Clean up a student loan debt. And then and only then move up in car. One day, you'll have a $20,000 car. But not today. I wouldn't. I'm with you, Jordan.

“Thank you. I think your brain is telling you the right thing. That puts us out of the ramps.”

You 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 peace.

And that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.